It's News To Me #21 - Empire State and CassaFire

Hope you had a great weekend. I was in LA on Friday taking a test (MPRE) so that next year I can actually take the bar. At least we had some fun afterward going to Hollywood, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum and then Saturday, the beach. Definitely made up for the horrible morning on Friday. I'll get some pics up of the wax museum. It's pretty uncanny.


Adam Christopher, Blogger and Published Writer: Many have gotten to know Adam through social media, but, after being picked up by Angry Robot, he's gettin' published and already has a cover. (click the link for Amanda's Interview)


CassaFire gets a Cover: I'm really looking forward to the sequel to last year's CassaStar, especially getting back to the world of Byron and the far reaches of space. Set for release February 28, 2012.


SFFMania - New Community for all things SFF: ...and I like it.


And that's the news...at least to me.

It's News To Me #20

I had to post this bit of news immediately as Sub Press is giving Deadhouse Gates a new cover already. Plus, I started a new update feature if you're interested.

New cover art for Sub Press Deadhouse Gates: It's perty. Better than the last even.


Game of Thrones Pedicab: Now that's riding in style, Seven Kingdoms style.

Review - Ponies by Kij Johnson

This will just be a short review. If I write too much, I run the risk of a review that's longer than the story itself.

Ponies (Entire Story Here) is the short story that has been nominated for plenty of awards and even won the 2010 Nebula award for short story.

Totaling all of about 3 pages, Johnson's unassuming tale about popularity and ponies draws the reader in despite the use of generic titles (like TopGirl and FirstGirl), but which establish the story extremely quickly.

How could I ever enjoy such a story? Guys, don't think you're too manly to read this. There may be ponies, but there's also blood and guts (minus guts).

My initial thoughts directly after reading (which were posted to Goodreads):

This may be relatively spoilerific, but the story IS only a couple pages long anyway (so go read the story right now and meet back here in 5...4...3...):

Wow, what an incredible story. My wife has been reading a book about communism in China and that's exactly what this story reminds me of. Instead of building people up, it's all about tearing people down.

Also reminds me of the short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron, where after the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the constitution, all Americans are forced to be equal. If you're better than someone else you're forced to wear certain things (like weights if you're stronger) to keep you at everyone's level.

Wow, powerful stuff.


I'll leave it at that. Seriously, go read this and be humbled.

SFF Fail...Terrible Book Titles

An internet rant is a beautiful thing, I mean, why even be online, with all the anonymity that brings, and not make fun. It's why we have comments on everything from blogs to Youtube to news stories. People need to complain! We have things on our chest and we've got to get them off...and our significant others are just plain tired of hearing the same thing over and over again.

In light of this, I decided to institute a new feature on the blog where I can bring up whatever's on my mind, be it terrible book covers, titles, ideas, bloggers (okay, probably just Pat), you name it and have some fun with it.

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This week, I wanted to bring up something that's been bugging me for a while. I know it's rarely the author's fault, but there are some really terrible book titles out there. Ones that not only make me cringe, but that will prevent me from picking up an otherwise good book.

The one that's recently caught my attention is one of of Katherine Kerr's latest, which came out last year, called License to Ensorcell. I've never read Kerr, but I know plenty that adore her. I'm sure I'll end up reading her Deverry series at some point...but I'm not quite sure about this new one.

Really, License to Ensorcell? Might as well call it: James Bond Girl Does Magic. It's bulky, it doesn't roll off the tongue, and it really just doesn't work for me. I know we're trying to show it's about spies and magic, but this is not the way to do it.


License to Ensorcell is an SFF Fail.

The only redemption is that the next book, Water to Burn, isn't too bad of a title actually.

Any other terrible titles you can think of? This may not be the last SFF Fail highlighting Book Titles.