Mark’s Comments (group member since Apr 13, 2012)

Mark’s comments from the The Sword and Laser group.

Dara wrote: "SFWA Announces Newest Damon Knight Grand Master – William Gibson

"The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA, Inc.) is pleased to announce that William Gibson has been named the 35t..."

Thanks for the heads up. The S&L Grand Masters page has been updated.

https://swordandlaser.wikia.com/wiki/...

John (Nevets) wrote: "Man do I miss not having new Darwyn Cooke storytelling in my life. He was such a good artist at conveying so much with so little. And top that off with being a decent writer as well,..."

John, I read all the Parker novels years ago. After reading Cooke's adaptation, I'll definitely by reading the rest of his Parker adaptations and probably rereading some of the novels this year.

I'm ok with keeping it in genre. I read Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter over the weekend and added it to my comics shelf, but I just removed it.

I've been trying to keep it simple and just add books to my genre shelves instead of creating shelves specifically for the challenges.

The short story challenge is interesting. I typically read a couple of dozen shorts each year, but not from anthologies. The Goodreads rules have plenty of wiggle room for adding short stories and nearly every short I've read over the past couple of years has a Goodreads entry.

English-speaking accents in the news

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-3...

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/2018...

https://thenextweb.com/syndication/20...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toront...

Veronica: How come Dara is Dare-uh/Dar-uh, but Dar is just Dar and not Dare/Dar?

I support three authors on Patreon. All three use Patreon for the same purpose, building a monthly income stream, but with very different approaches.

Kameron Hurley writes a short story each month and usually meets her goal. She does much more at higher tiers of support, like podcasts, videos and chapbooks.

https://www.patreon.com/kameronhurley/

Nancy Collins posts chapters from a new Sonja Blue novel in the works, and messages about her work, life, and family.

https://www.patreon.com/nancyacollins/

Harry Connolly posts occasional messages about his work and observations about the creative process.

https://www.patreon.com/HarryConnolly/

I also support Sword & Laser, Tom's Daily Tech News Show and Cordkillers podcasts, and Geek History Lesson podcasts. I've pledged support simply because I like their work and can afford modest monthly payments. One reason why it's affordable is that I cut the cord a few years ago, getting rid of my Dish TV subscription.

I only learned today that Barnes & Noble is publishing short fiction on the B&N SF&F Blog

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/s...

I just read If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again by Zen Cho, a nice short to ring in the new year.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/s...

The B&N shorts can also be downloaded for your ereader.

Tassie Dave wrote: "80% in I still haven't got a grasp of the "magic" system. I've decided to just go with it and assume it just works."

This strategy works for all three books because the characters are the story.

I think Tom said, in a recent podcast, that he had caught up with reading alt-pick Soulless. So, perhaps it's sort of an official unofficial alt-pick.

Interesting list. These are the titles on my radar:

Galactic Sibyl Sue Blue by Rosel George Brown (1968)
The Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter (1996)
Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard (2010)
Blood Price by Tanya Huff (1991)
Tea with the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy (1983)
China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh (1992)
The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monáe (2010)
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson (2012)

I gave Lovecraft Country five stars. I also enjoyed Jade City and We Are Legion - We Are Bob.

Weird quiz. Kel.

Tis the season for short stories from favorite authors...

http://jim-butcher.com/christmas-eve

Futures & Fantasies, short fiction from Lightspeed digital magazine is free on Kindle. Edited by John Joseph Adams.

https://www.amazon.com/Futures-Fantas...

Trike wrote: "Awesome finds, Mark."

Thanks. Browsing Santa fan art is a trip! The dude underfoot must be all of us Lasers who couldn't keep up with the Swords.

A fine effort Rob. Thank you. I think this will be useful for many folks.

A Lem listicle!

10 Riveting Facts About Stanislaw Lem

https://theportalist.com/stanislaw-lem

There is some fan art at DeviantArt

https://www.deviantart.com/sfolse/art...
https://www.deviantart.com/tag/ninefo...

and Yoon Ha Lee likes to draw and has an account at DeviantArt

https://www.deviantart.com/maratai