Stuffs

Things fell into neglect here. Various reasons for that, most having to do with busy-ness, though the silence of the last few days has been caused as much by heat as anything else -- my study here is not air conditioned, and we're having a heat wave, which has made the keys to my laptop actually hot to the touch, so I've been keeping away from the computer. Things are a little bit cooler tonight, though, and so here are a few stray bits of something or other...

First, don't miss the Strange Horizons fund drive. Lots of fun prizes available, and your money supports a worthy cause -- a weekly online magazine that actually pays its writers (though not the staff) and is officially a nonprofit organization. (Don't punish them for publishing me; everybody has their faults.)

Some Strange Horizons readers may remember the Speculative Poetry Symposium I put together a few years back. One of the members of that symposium, Theodora Goss, has just published an interesting book with the ever-interesting Aqueduct Press, Voices from Fairyland: The Fantastical Poems of Mary Coleridge, Charlotte Mew, and Sylvia Townsend Warner. I just got a copy, and though the poetry is generally not to my taste (most 19th century poetry in English isn't), I found the book an interesting read nonetheless, because Dora does a fine job of contextualizing the writers' works. The book ends with a collection of Dora's own poems, and this addition broadens the book's argument -- it's not only an anthology, but a study of influence and inspiration.

And here's another worthy project: Guys Lit Wire--

Guys Lit Wire exists solely to bring literary news and reviews to the attention of teenage boys and the people who care about them. We are more than happy to welcome female readers - but our main goal is to bring the attention of good books to guys who might have missed them. The titles will be new or old and on every subject imaginable. We guarantee new posts every Monday through Friday and have a list of twenty-three individual scheduled contributors plus several additional occasional posters all of whom have different literary likes and dislikes. We hope to provide something for everyone and will strive to accomplish that goal.

This is going to be a hugely valuable tool for not only teenagers, but parents and educators as well.

Meanwhile, yes, we're still working on Best American Fantasy 2. We should have some exciting news about the contents ... soon...