Stardust

If you haven't bothered to watch it yet, then go. Watch the trailer. Then look at the calendar, see how very far away August 10 is, and wail.

Hugo Award Nominations

A full list is now available.

The novel category has me stumped. I've honestly read only the Novik book(s) from that list, with the Stross being in the TBR pile. Looks like I'll have to add a few more to the stack.

I'm thrilled to see Steve Stiles in the Fan Artist category. Frank Wu has been nagging at me for going on three years now that Steve should be nominated, and there he is. Congrats!

The Pro Artist category is stuffed full of awesome. Good luck choosing a winner there.

And look at that! Monkey Brain Books and John Picacio get a nod for Best Related Work for Cover Story: The Art of John Picacio. That's a big bundle of awesome.

I'm glad to see that an episode of BSG was nominated in the Short Form category, as well as 200, the two hundredth episode of Stargate SG-1. I saw Girl in the Fireplace, liked it, and am glad to see it on the list as well.

As I'm not paying for an attending membership to this year's Worldcon, I won't actually be voting for the Hugo Awards this year. It just doesn't feel right, but can't be helped. If you are voting, good luck choosing. There are some great works nominated this year.

Read it

Thanks to the gang at Night Shade Books, I received an advance copy this week of Grey by Jon Armstrong. I loved it.

Reason the first: There are funny bits. Poor people live in the "slurbs" (slums + suburbs). The protagonist is a teenager who takes himself very seriously. That never stops being funny - once one is no longer a teenager, of course.

Reason the second: It's a sort of futuristic Romeo and Juliet where the leaders of the families are complete idiots (see above). There are guns! Cars! Paparazzi!

Reason the third: Celebrity worship, reality television, high fashion and corporate sociopathy all take a hit. I love a good tear-down of pop culture.

You can find release information and blurbs at the website.

Happy news!

Thanks to Matt Cheney for pointing out that the Fabulous Ann VanderMeer has been appointed the new fiction editor at Weird Tales Magazine.

At least somebody is having a good Valentine's Day.

2007 Locus Poll

It's that time of year - take the 2007 Locus Poll and Survey. Go. Be useful.

Art!

Thanks to Lou Anders for pointing out the fact that Bob Eggleton (he of Dueling Artists and Hair Wars vs. Frank Wu fame) has a new blog. New art every day - how cool is that?

The One Where I Realize I Haven't Been Here in a While

The holiday season always rushes in at me and sucks away my time. I haven't read as much as I'd like, nor seen any movies. I'm fighting a cold and can't concentrate on either books or movies long enough to get anything out of them.

In short, I've been watching television and surfin' da intarwebs.

I did manage to finish A Princess of Roumania last weekend and begin Mr. Lake's Trial of Flowers this week. I enjoyed Princess and am so far fascinated by Trial - more when I finish.

Except for this bit:
I've stopped fighting it. When I know the author, I tend to "hear" the author reading the book along with me. So Jay reads me a bedtime story every night. Isn't that nice of him?