A few announcements.
1. A new program - <b>AMAZON SHORTS</b> (www.amazon.com/shorts) -
will be offering a number of my new <b>essays, articles and short
stories</b> for handy download, just like iPod music files. This
starts <i>now</i> in the <b>nonfiction category,</b> with my essay on
"<i>The Power of Proxy Activism." </i> Soon to follow: an article
about the Mississippi River's struggles to free itself from human
control, then another about a looming power struggle between citizens
and the skilled professionals who are paid to protect us. I also
hope to serialize a short novel!
Yes, some of these were tested-critiqued here on this blog. (Don't
tell anybody! ;-) Anyway, I could use numbers, in order to impress
Amazon, so spread the word. Do jot on your calendar to drop by Amazon
Shorts every month or two and see what's up. Give this convenient new
medium a try.
<i>(I'm donating my own proceeds from several of these articles to
worthy causes like Project Witness and the Electronic Frontier
Foundation.)</i>
2. Long time editor, publisher and sci fi impresario Jim Baen has
decided to try the experiment of launching a major <i>online science
fiction magazine,</i> to see if that might provide an avenue to
circumvent the factors that have been pretty much crushing the life
out of short fiction in SF for several decades now. The title of the
magazine will be <b>Baen's Astounding Stories. </b> He asked Eric
Flint to be the editor of the magazine, along with David Drake and
Sarah Hoyt. A goal is to recreate the kind of magazines that
/Astounding/Analog /and
/Galaxy /were in the 40s, 50s and 60s.
<I>Watch for it to come out with a splash <b>in June!</b> Do help
spread the word.</I> (I am personally hopeful that it will help
dispel the mood of stylish hopelessness and anti-progress despair
that some - especially Gardner Dozois - relentlessly injected into
our field across the last 20 years.)
3. <b>Announcing the latest book from David Brin.</b>
Quick! Run for your lives and buy. <b>King Kong Is Back! : An
Unauthorized Look at One Humongous Ape! edited by David Brin.</b>
Just see what one perceptive reviewer says
Review by Lee Gilliland
Benbella Books Paperback: ISBN 1932100644 (Smart Pop series)
Date: 28 November, 2005 List Price $17.95
<I>King Kong has been a part of the collective unconscious since the
first film. In remake after remake the audience returns. King Kong Is
Back! by David Brin takes a look at what makes the big ape so
appealing. Our reviewer Lee Gililand takes a look at the book.
One of the delightful things about the upcoming King Kong remake is
we get a treat such as David Brin has worked up in King Kong is
Back!. More than just a collection of short stories, we have
reminiscences by James Gunn in "King Kong and 1930s Science Fiction",
a very funny essay by Bruce Bethke on why KK must always be a period
piece, an extremely informative piece by Bob Eggleton on how the film
was animated, an absolutely HYSTERICAL send-up on all those silly
behind-the-scenes-in-Hollywood PR fluff pieces by David Gerrold
entitled "King Kong, Behind the Scenes"...and I could go on like this
the entire review.
Brin has carefully crafted the book so that you have a nice rhythm
going, well-paced in its continuity and imaginative in its order, so
that the book can readily be absorbed in its entirety in one sitting,
or you can just nibble on it one piece at a time. I found this
collection an absolute delight and recommend it highly to any and all
who love Kong in all his permutations.</I>
See? Some reviewers have class. Get this book and be glad you did! ;-)
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