Author Archive
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.
New Word Alert: Endling
This one’s sad. An endling is the last known living individual of a now-extinct species.
Arrived at this word by way of reading about the Thylacine. Very much worth a watch is this short film about a performance adaptation of a picture book titled The Dream of the Thylacine.
Posted on Friday, February 3rd, 2023.
New Word Alert!
Deaccession, to sell or otherwise let go from a collection.
Sort of the opposite of acquire. Weird that we don’t say dequire instead.
Posted on Wednesday, February 1st, 2023.
New Bookmarks
In addition to dusting off this blog, here are two other new links:
- jimdevona.art: the main place to find my art-related links. Previously hosted here, masking this blog for a while, but now set up as a separate account.
- mastodonbooks.net/@anoved: Nothing to see here yet, but just created as a hedge against Twitter’s unraveling, and for commentary more focused on art and books. (Mastodon is sort of like an open-source version of Twitter. I did find it confusing to sign up, as there are multiple servers; they’re all interoperable, but each has a different account creation policy, and some are open only by invite.)
Posted on Monday, January 30th, 2023.
Blog Spring
It seems the spring season of renewal for reviving blogs is now. My dad’s: dddevona.blogspot.com
Posted on Sunday, January 29th, 2023.
Time for a New Front Wheel
Twelve years and some 16,000+ miles later, my new bike is still going strong – but it is finally time for a new front wheel. Lots of riding means lots of stopping, and all that brake wear was beginning to erode holes in the rim.
Ordered a new wheel through a local bike shop today. I am absolutely satisfied with the original Bike Wheel Warehouse Pure Tour rims – they’ve taken a lot of abuse and carried all kinds of loads.
Posted on Saturday, January 21st, 2023.
New Word Alert!
I like meeting new words. Today’s: coulee: a ravine, gully, or other erosion-related landscape feature that may or may not still contain water. Learned from Stephen Graham Jones’ Backbone of the World.
Posted on Friday, January 20th, 2023.
October 2020 Author Sketches
I recently read a 1954 anthology titled “50 Great Short Stories” edited by Milton Crane. The book was mistitled; “50 Texts Exalting Ennui and Miserable Marriages” would have been more accurate. That said, a few of the stories were memorable! Here are sketches of the authors of half of them.
Clockwise, from top left: Katherine Mansfield, V. S. Pritchett, Ring Lardner, Irwin Shaw, and J. D. Salinger.
I’m drawing authors for Patreon this month. Sign up to claim one (perhaps accompanied by a story synopsis). I’ll probably do a few more from this book, then I look forward to reading something fresh!
Posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2020.