Happy 127th Birthday!

Today we celebrate the 127th anniversary of the birth of our favorite philologist and author J.R.R. Tolkien. Join me this evening at nine o’clock (in your local time zone) to raise a glass in his honor.

“All you need to do is stand, raise a glass of your choice of drink (not necessarily alcoholic), and say the words “The Professor” before taking a sip (or swig, if that’s more appropriate for your drink). Sit and enjoy the rest of your drink.”

For more information about this annual tradition, please visit the Tolkien Society‘s “Raise a glass to the Professor in honour of his 127th birthday” press release post.

How an independent bookstore took on anti-feminist trolls and won | Books | The Guardian

https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/27/how-an-independent-bookstore-took-on-anti-feminist-trolls-and-won

Great article to read first thing in the morning.  Solidarity in the feminist trenches with wit and humor. 

 It this statement by the author under attack which rang especially true for me:

Speaking of the difficulties feminists face when trying to get their message across, Ford said: “It’s tedious and exhausting to deal with a daily onslaught of abuse and paranoia from angry men and their terrified cohorts. It’s impossible to have logical conversations with them because they don’t care about facts, only about how they feel about those facts.”

Podcast Pickup

The stars have aligned recently in my personal universe allowing me to enjoy audio podcasts once again.  Years ago, I used to listen to them via my laptop, a web site or perhaps my Palm Pilot (yeah, remember those)?  I never owned an iPod but my children had a couple.  I liked the concept, but for the most part I preferred listening to audiobooks (and still do for the most part).

I’m a Patreon supporter of an author (Kameron Hurley), who recently started producing podcasts on a monthly basis.  Rather than download yet another application to my smartphone, I decided to use an existing installed app to listen to her podcasts.  I downloaded the audio file and placed it in my audiobooks folder so that my Smart Audiobook Player app would pick it up automatically.  It found the new file and I was able to listen to it through my Bluetooth headset and through my new car’s stereo system while commuting. I’ve listened to both episodes and enjoyed them both (although I do warn you that profanity is prolific).  I even submitted a question for a future podcast to her.  Kameron has made the podcasts available to everyone via her website at this URL:  http://www.kameronhurley.com/podcast/

This listening experience reminded me that there are other podcasts to be discovered.  I did some searches for best podcasts of the last couple of years for science fiction and fantasy.  I found two that seemed to fit my bill:  Sword and Laser and Wired’s Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (GGG).  I subscribed to both of them and downloaded the most recent episodes to my Google Music app.

Continue reading “Podcast Pickup”

Shared from WordPress

Grist for the Mill: What America’s Next Top Model Can Teach You About Publishing – http://www.kameronhurley.com/grist-for-the-mill-what-americas-next-top-model-can-teach-you-about-your-publishing-career/

Words of wisdom for young and old, models, actors and writers.

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

Big Read Wrap-Up

The Lansing Community Library completed a successful Big Read of O’Brien’s The Things They Carried with a writing memoir workshop led by the same professor who moderated the panel discussion back in December.  I took copious notes, but sadly no group photos.  The workshop was well attended and I recorded the audio portion (as I can’t always take notes fast enough) and include it here for your enjoyment.  In fact, I’m not sure where I put my notes.

Raw Recording of Memoir Writing Workshop

And, just for completeness’ sake, I’ll include the raw recording of the second group discussion led by a local English professor from the University of St. Mary:

Raw Recording of Second Big Read Book Discussion

I attended all the events and enjoyed all of them. I’m looking forward to the next adult reading program the library cooks up.

The Current Economics of E-Books « L.E. Modesitt, Jr. – The Official Website

http://www.lemodesittjr.com/2015/01/16/the-current-economics-of-e-books/

For my aspiring and published author friends: observations on the ebook market by Modesitt

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

Happy Birthday Aunt Jan and C.S. Lewis!

“Happy Birthday” to my Aunt Jan in Ohio.  She’s shown between her two older brothers in the photo below taken a couple of years ago at my dad’s 70th birthday bash:

Dan, Jan and Ron (Nov 2012)
Dan, Jan and Ron (Nov 2012)

Incidentally, all of the above are born in the same month — November — as is my husband and my daughter-in-law.  I’ve blogged about this before.  Here’s a photo from their early days (circa 1953):

Dan, Jan and Ron (circa 1953)
Dan, Jan and Ron (circa 1953)

I have many fond memories of my Aunt Jan.  I remembering spending a summer or part of a summer with my grandparents (her mother and father) in St. Paul, Minnesota, when I was about six (circa 1970) and Jan was still in college (she was probably about 20). 
Continue reading “Happy Birthday Aunt Jan and C.S. Lewis!”

The Eccentric Polish Count Who Influenced Classic SF’s Greatest Writers

http://io9.com/the-eccentric-polish-count-who-influenced-classic-sfs-g-1631001935?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_facebook&utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Korzybski coined the well-known slogan, “The map is not the territory,” to sum up this idea.

An essay on the most famous SF author you’ve never read or heard of.  Golden Age of SF era. Think Heinlein and Campbell.

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

Review: ‘Women Destroy Science Fiction!’ : NPR

http://www.npr.org/2014/06/28/322544552/women-are-destroying-science-fiction-thats-ok-they-created-it?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20140629

Time to buy my first issue of Lightspeed mm agazine.

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon