New in the Queue – December 31

Books received this Christmas:

• Smithsonian Atlas of World Aviation, by Dana Bell. The type of book I would have pored over as a kid – exactly the type of book I still pore over today. Lots of fascinating maps, photos, and factoids about things that go. For instance: I learned about the flight of the Vin Fiz, Cal Roger’s arduous airborne 1911 journey across the U.S. – the first transcontinental flight. It took him 49 days (82 hours in the air, with 16 crashes along the way). Of particular local interest, his circuitous rail-route took him through NEPA and Binghamton.
• Birds, an educational picture book by Miranda Krestovnikoff with beautiful relief cut illustrations by Angela Harding.
• A boxed set of Six Novels in Woodcuts by Lynd Ward. These visual sagas are: God’s Man, Madman’s Drum, Wild Pilgrimage, Prelude to a Million Years, Song Without Words, and Vertigo. Lots of inspiration I look forward to looking at in detail.
• Best American SF&F 2015, edited by Joe Hill & John Joseph Adams. I enjoy this series of anthologies; I drew a portrait series based on authors from a later edition.
• Afterglow, a Grist collection of climate fiction. I dig the cover illustration’s color palette.

Lots of art & imagery mixed in with this batch of text!

Posted on Sunday, December 31st, 2023.

Word Haul

It’s a New Word Alert roundup!

• Theodicy, the defense of God in spite of the existence of evil, from a reference to C. S. Lewis in Louis Evan’s thread on war.
• Tumulus, a burial mound, from The Curse of the Horsetail Banner by Dariel R. A. Quiogue in New Edge Sword & Sorcery #0.
• Doyen, a senior member of a group, from Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki’s essay on dystopia in Uncanny Magazine #48.
• Crepitate, to make a crackling noise, and plangent, wistfully or perhaps even sorrowfully nostalgic, both from True Songs of the Pennyrile by Mark Rigney in LCRW #46.
• Omphaloskepsis: navel-gazing. I wrote this one down but I don’t remember where I encountered it.

Posted on Saturday, March 4th, 2023.

Sci-Fi Mini Crossword

Crosshare is a nifty site for hosting (and playing) user-constructed crosswords. You can embed puzzles on other sites, like this mini crossword I made for PORTRAITS #2. (Be forewarned: it contains some very esoteric science fiction clues.)

Posted on Tuesday, February 28th, 2023.

PORTRAITS #2

The February 2023 issue of my illustrated haiku review fanzine PORTRAITS is out (in the mail and online for patrons; the posts go public for everyone next week). This issue has two more haiku than the first issue. The print edition is now double-sided, so the portraits are printed at a slightly larger scale. Last but not least, it includes a crossword!

Here’s a video sneak preview:

Posted on Tuesday, February 28th, 2023.

Tiger Print

My patron print for this February is this tiger:

Here it is a quick video clip:

Posted on Friday, February 24th, 2023.

New in the Queue – February 17

Continuing my random inventory of to-be-read (or in-progress) books, which aren’t necessarily new acquisitions:

• Maus, by Art Spiegelman. Heard a lot about it, but haven’t yet read it. Kelly found it on the military-history table at library sale.
• On Cats, by Charles Bukowski. A collection of poems, stories, and gonzo essays, all of which happen to make some sort of cat reference. Thanks again to Kelly.
• The Afterlife Diet, by Daniel Pinkwater. Don’t know what it’s about, but I know anything by Pinkwater will be a riot. Found at the BCPL’s new little Friends shop.
• The Sketch Book, by Washington Irving. Found at the Housing Works bookstore during a trip to NYC last fall. A collection containing American fables such as Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, as well as various essays. I’m particularly amused by this opening sentence to On the Art of Bookmaking:
  

  “I have often wondered at the extreme fecundity of the press, and how it comes to pass that so many heads on which nature seemed to have inflicted the curse of barrenness should teem with voluminous productions.”

  Funny how gripes about publishing from two hundred years ago would fit right in with Twitter and the like today.

Posted on Friday, February 17th, 2023.

Coffee and Books

Kelly gave me a pin that’s right on the money!

Posted on Tuesday, February 14th, 2023.

New in the Queue – February 10

My to-be-read pile has grown to fill a whole bookshelf. I’m okay with this! I like discovering interesting things that’ve been steeping in the stacks. But sometimes I do forget what’s in the queue. To keep these unread books on my radar, I’m going to write a few “previews” noting why or how I picked them up.

I’ll start with the most recent additions and work back from there until I don’t.

• The latest issue of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, #46. I bought a random back issue a few months ago out of curiosity, having been intrigued by the name after seeing it pop up in various reviews or originally-appeared-in bibliographies. It was a delight (especially the story Duck Circles), so I’m looking forward to digging in to this one.
• The latest issue of The New York Review of Books, handed down from my dad. Notable as a main competitor in the book-reviews-illustrated-with-author-portraits space.
• Two books my parents picked up at a library sale. Exploring the 46 Adirondack High Peaks by James R. Burnside is interesting since I’ve climbed about 14 of them myself. Those hikes have been some of the best memories of recent years, so I’m eager to do more – as well as to compare notes with the author and learn about the remainder. Also, H. G. Wells’ In the Days of the Comet; I’ve read and enjoyed some of Wells famed genre-defining stories, but I see there are many others I’ve never heard of, including this one.

Posted on Friday, February 10th, 2023.

Science Fiction Reference Sites

• ISFDB: The Internet Speculative Fiction Database • It’s like IMDB, but for written works of genre fiction instead of movies. Mainly metadata. Look up who wrote what and where it was published. Handy for figuring out if I’ve already got a copy of a story somewhere.
• SFE: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction • An extensive collection of essays on authors, themes, concepts, and issues in the field, itself a substantial work of nonfiction criticism.
• HDSF: The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction • A dictionary of genre jargon with concise definitions. Most interestingly, tagged with dates of first [known] use, allowing a chronological look at how the conversation’s vocabulary has evolved.
• eFanzines • A slice of old-fashioned web page pie that’s still updated today. It’s an index and in many cases an archive of fanzines.

Posted on Thursday, February 9th, 2023.

PORTRAITS #1

I’m making a monthly little visual fanzine called PORTRAITS. It contains short commentary on things I’ve recently read, coupled with original art associated with each story. Bringing back an old anoved.net tradition, the commentary may be in haiku form. The illustrations are typically author portraits.

Patrons get the print zine, early access, and original art from each issue. Subsequently, the content is free to see online at Patreon.

Issue #1 went out in January 2023. Find it here!

Posted on Saturday, February 4th, 2023.