We have Freefall, which starts with a wrecked spaceship, duct tape, and a robot. I think. Hey, cut me some slack - I’ve just started reading it! And I’m liking the humour.

Then there’s Skin Horse, which starts here. Genetically augmented lions, a sniper, and some kind of talking dog. The lion talks as well, of course. I mean, where would we be without a genetically mutated talking lion?

Gunnerkrig Court reminds me, initially, of the Adams Family. Except Gunnerkrig Court is a school and Antimony, who somehow acquired a second shadow, is our main character. Complete with schoolgirl uniform. And the shadow wants Antimony’s help to escape. And it goes on from there with a minotaur named Basil…

And then there’s Dicebox. Starts here. With a spacesport and spaceships, Jaffa freighters (how did the Jaffa get in here?), and two down-in-their-luck people.

Do you read speculative fiction comics? Other kinds of comics? Which are your favourites and why?

Now, I knew that cork came from trees, that it was grown. I remember that much from studying the cellular structure under a microscope in some science or other way back in the stone ages. But I didn’t know that cork was the outer bark of a tree, and that it could be periodically peeled off, and it would then re-grow.

More than that, there’s a micro-environment happening there in the cork forests, complete with a type of mushroom that grows on the roots of these trees, and there are animals, birds, and insects that are unique to the area where the cork is grown.

Read the article to learn more - it’s interesting and well worth the read.

And, since I am nothing if not a science fiction/fanasy writer, I wonder how something like this cork forest and all that it entails can be worked into a story. What can you do with it?

Then the husband recently got himself a new mobile phone - an Omnia - so naturally, I inherit his old one. My old one was already dead, as was the prior old one. Yeah, I’ve got a mobile phone graveyard happening. And an iron graveyard, too, but that’s another story.

The phone I inherited is an HP pocket PC that he got in Dubai a couple of years ago. Initially, I thought the screen would be too small and there would be too much glare, but then I plowed through ten ebooks (fantasy, of course) in about a week and a half…

Sure, an ebook reader would probably be nice, but they cost money, and besides, going by the way I’m going through ebooks, this is working just fine.

Happiness reigns!

You know, this is a fairly standard thing with us. I have ideas, I bounce them off him. He has ideas, he bounces them off me, then gives them to me. So, really, it should come as no surprise that he gave me another idea. An intriguing one, too.

Not that it’s entirely his, despite his illusions…

Without going into what the story is about - it’s still in development phase, plus I don’t want to reveal too much at this point other than it’s science fiction set in the current time- I will say that one point has me somewhat frustrated.

I was looking for short story ideas.

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at short stories. I’d love to work on developing some of my story-telling skills, honing them, analyzing them, improving them, working on them, in short story mode. Character development, dialogue, description. Things that are universal to all stories, regardless of length.

But this is another one that’s turned into a novel. There’s too much stuff there to be a short story, and honestly, I don’t - any longer - see a way to make it a short story. It’s just no longer possible from the way I’m looking at it.

If you write short stories and novels both, how do you do it? How do you get just enough meat for a short story before it turns into something much longer?

Naturally, that led me to think about the humorous science fiction I’ve read. Well, really, it leads me to think of humorous fiction authors in general. P G Wodehouse, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Simon Haynes, Jasper Fforde… Well, that’s about all that I’m coming up with at the moment. You know, goldfish memory and all.

Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy of five, Salmon of Doubt, The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul, and Dirk Gently’s Private Detective Agency, is one of my all-time favourites. Bizarre at times, nonsensical at others, and definitely amusing. Improbability drives, a restaurant at the end of the universe (not the end of space, but rather, the end of time…), a robot that "lives" for millions of years in perpetual whine, an intergalactic freeway system causing Earth’s destruction… What’s not to love?

Better still, there’s the amusement value from having serious discussions of his works with others in the know, nodding all the while, while confusing the heck out of the unenlightened. Oh, yes.

He also provides one of my favourite quotes. "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."

Simon Haynes is a relative newcomer on the block with his Hal Spacejock novels. Hal, the underachiever, and his robot Clunk. Amusing, entertaining, and just a bunch of good yarns. But not that ugly puce green colour. Oh, no.

Definitely worth getting your hands on a copy and reading.

And Terry Pratchett, author of mostly fantasy books taking place on his DiscWorld, but he has others as well, including some science fiction. True, though, his DiscWorld books are my favourites. Social commentary, as my husband says. Me, I’m really in it for the story. He’s got good stories. Entertaining? Yes. Interesting characters with actual character development? Definitely. Worldbuilding? Excellent.

Terry Pratchett, in fact, has the whole package. Well-crafted stories that entertain. While also being humorous.

I’d love it if I could write as well as PTerry, but alas, my style is completely different. But that’s another post for another day…

Meanwhile, Razib Ahmend over at SouthAsiaFair follows me. I wonder how he’ll tie this in to the focus of his blog? Follow the link and find out…

If I were an agent, I’d still wear my elephant writing hat. Maybe not all the time, but certainly if I had public appearances. I wouldn’t wear high heels or a feather boa, I wouldn’t drink martinis at lunch (or ever), and I wouldn’t have a yappy dog.

In fact, I doubt I would at all resemble anything even remotely approaching stylish. A style distinctly my own, yes, but stylish? Meh.

But the outer trappings are unimportant, in my mind.

Because I’m looking for substance. I’d be looking for excellent science fiction and fantasy. Compelling, catchy, entertaining science fiction and fantasy. Like the stuff I already enjoy by the likes of Lois McMaster Bujold, Anne McCaffrey, Orson Scott Card, David Brin, and Robert Silverberg.

I would like to respond with personalized rejections, but I know that, in reality, it’s not realistic. I can either give those submissions a quick response or a detailed response, but not both. I also know that some people will take personal rejections the wrong way, misunderstand the motives of the agent or publisher, and misunderstand the message.

But then, I also know that, from working as an assistant editor on C3 magazine, that many many writers could benefit hugely from reading Making Light’s Slushkiller post.

In the end, the business of being an agent and publishing books is just that - a business. An agent doesn’t owe the writer any more than an acceptance or a rejection, and certainly not any kind of lengthy critique.

Growing up, we had a lot of books in the house, probably in the neighborhood of several thousand. Among those books were some written by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, including The Cancer Ward, August 1914, and The Gulag Archipelago (three volumes), all of which I read as a child (it’s true, I read complicated books at a young age). While I can’t say I enjoyed them in the sense of them being a fun read, they certainly left a lasting impression.

There was a lot about Solzhenitsyn’s life that I didn’t know that I find interesting. I knew that The Gulag Archipelago was inspired by his time spent in the Gulag - eight years. But I didn’t know that, in 1974, he was stripped of his Soviet citizenship and deported for treason. What I don’t understand is why he was deported for treason instead of the traditional execution. Not that I’m complaining, mind you - just curiosity. Then in 1990, his citizenship was restored and he returned to Russia. I also didn’t know that he received the Novel Prize for Literature in 1970, although he couldn’t collect the prize until after being deported from the USSR in 1974.

I would definitely urge any of you who haven’t read his books, specifically August 1914 or The Gulag Archipelago, to read them. They provide a fascinating, if depressing, insight into the Russian and Soviet culture and history, and they are definitely worth reading.

But back to the AdPulp blog entry and its comments. I think those comments demonstrate, quite well, the lack of reading comprehension that can sometimes permeate the Internet.

David Burn at AdPulp wrote a blog post about the amount of money that some popular blog sites are making. He made the mistake of originally calling the blog post "Typing for Dollars". Imagine his surprise when he starts getting a wackload of commenters demanding their money back from Typing for Dollars, a company who, they say, scammed them. Then of course the usual sockpuppets showed up to claim it’s not a scam… Really, the comments are a bit, well, entertaining. And entirely off-topic for the majority of its 101 comments which, it appears, spilled over to other blog entries…

But what did any of it have to do with David Burn’s blog entry? Why, absolutely nothing! Nothing at all! He just made the unfortunate choice to give that blog entry the title of an alleged scam operation.

Now the next question is… Will I get overrun with commenters for mentioning Typing for Dollars?

And then there’s this entry at Ok/Cancel. I’m not entirely sure what it was originally about, other than PhD programs in Human Computer Interactions or some such thing. The blog author changed it to explain or reflect the content of his comments which are, well, nonsensical from the point of view of just about anyone who knows anything about computers. Apparently, a huge number of people want to cancel Google. Or remove it from their machines. Or think that Google is blocking them from playing games. Or… Uh, seriously, if you don’t know how to use a computer, then don’t use it. Alternately, don’t be surprised when some of us mock you.

Oh, my favourite? "I do not understand about google at this time." Of course it goes downhill from there, if by downhill we really mean, well, mocking and funny. Seriously, check it out. It’s good for a few laughs.

There are short stories available to read, free, right on the site itself. By John Scalzi and Charles Stross at the moment.

There are blogs, currently including entries written by Patrick Nielsen Hayden of Making Light, Jim Henley, John Scalzi, Irene Gallo, John Klima, and a whole bunch more. Blog posts thus far are interesting and well worth reading.

There’s the gallery, featuring some absolutely brilliant artwork by professional illustrators like Scott Altmann, Daren Bader, Christian Alzmann, and Patrick Arrasmith.

And between now and July 27th, Tor is giving away all sorts of stories and wallpaper. Seriously cool stuff, and we’re not talking one or two, we’re talking a couple of dozen stories and a similar amount of wallpaper. Seriously seriously cool, so check it out.

You can connect to other users (I’m LMAshton over there, by the way.) You can post in a user’s shoutbox.

The site still has bugs, which they’re aware of and working on, so it’s considered in public beta for now. But still, go, check it out, and see what you think.