Sorry, I know I’ve been posting more videos than ever recently. My right wrist has gone fucky yet again, fuckier than normal, even. So I’m in a brace and working and writing less, damn it all. And this too shall pass and things will be back to normal. But for now it is simply harder to stop and write out an entry.

Not that I have much to say, anyway. Found one of my old friends (Vlad) the other night and grabbed a drink with him. That was insanely cool. Turns out he lives only a short hop away from me, so we’re planning dinner. So I can meet his daughters. Yikes!

Ticketmaster cracked me up this morning by sending me an auto-reminder. “Oh hai! You have Tom Waits tickets for this weekend.” I know they are auto-generated but part of me was wondering if there was any chance in hell of “Oh SNAP! I got Waits tickets? I totally forgot!”

Yeah, no.

I’m reading, for the record, The Books of the South: Tales of the Black Company right now (and it isn’t as good as Chronicles of the Black Company but that still puts it above a lot of things.) followed, probably by British Summertime by Paul Cornell (the one what wrote some Dr. Who, as well), which is described thusly: “The lives of five people collide: a woman who can read anything, from body language to the shape of a city; a pilot from the future; a spy; a killer; and a head without a body. The end of the world is coming, and only they can stop it. Their journey reaches back to the days of the New Testament, and forward to the end of time.”

Plus a bunch of review books I need to get back to.

Anyway. Enough for now. More later.

Spaced: The Complete Series is now up for pre-order at Amazon.com for 42 bucks, down from the list price of $60 which is pretty cool. It’ll be released on July 22nd. Spaced! Region 1! At last!

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I also got, from Dom, a wonderful gift recently. The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories. It’s a two volume set and the annotations are wonderful. They keep up the gentle fiction that Holmes and Watson are real and keep the tone of them light and tongue-in-cheek while still delivering good information and pointing out inconsistencies (and amusing with the reasons they suggest for them). If you like Holmes at all these are a must have (there is a third volume with the novels) and if you don’t know Holmes these are a good way to read them. I have book love.

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NASA makes video using sound waves and animation to show magnetic fields. Sound controlled CGI and 3D composing? Yeah, NASA had some fun with this.

I bring you word of a book in pre-order now. BRINE by Adrienne Jones is now up for pre-order and the book is fantastic. I can say that. I get to say that. I have read it, you see. And now I speak out to you folks in order to hopefully share the fun I had with it with you guys.

For a book desc: Meet Elliot, respected Cape Cod painter. Unbeknownst to his admirers, Elliot’s got some demons in his past. When he tries to paint them out of his system, his plan backfires. Now Elliot’s got some demons in his present and future as well.

The people in Elliot’s life called him ‘closed off.’ So he looked inside himself. Deep inside. What he found, he brought to the surface. Now its violent manifestations are holding him hostage at his beachside cabin. Worst of all, they know how to sing and dance.

Here’s the truth: the book is good. It is full of honest human emotions, a lot of humor and some wonderfully creepy moments. All of the characters are well drawn and lush, the plot is fun and the writing is just plain swell.

It’s a book well worth reading.

You can pre-order it from the publisher and get free shipping. Also note that at this link, which is the same as the one right before it you can listen to the first third of the book in audio book format for free. The book is available in trade paper and hardcover (limited to 100 hardcovers). If you order a hardcover you will be entered to win one of these prizes.

So, seriously, consider BRINE. It’s a good book. And yes, the cover was done by Travis. How much extra does that rock?

While I settle back into life, here are some books I have read and am looking forward to:

Against a Dark Background by Ian Banks. Not perfect but one hell of a nice dense British space opera-type story. Dark as hell, lush and wonderfully done, this is one of those books you just sit and smile at a lot. It’s out of print but that link will take you to some good used copies. It was yummy. And eventually I will have a full review of it up at SFReader.

Tigerheart by Peter David is what I am finishing up right now. It’s cute. It has some flaws but it is a well done children’s book that deals with Peter Pan. Except it changes all the names, I would assume due to copyright issues. So there ya go. But it is some good writing and storytelling. And eventually I will have a full review of it up at SFReader.

Postage Stamp Funnies by Shannon Wheeler. Shannon is the only cartoonist I own an original strip from. This man is the real deal and here is a pre-order that will work. 10 bucks. A nice little box with three books of his postage stamp cartoons. They’ve been in the Onion as well as other places. Certified funny, in a really attractive collection!

Shannon himself is a great guy. Well, he’s a good guy. I don’t know if I can legally say he’s great, the restraining order may kick in. I’ve worked for him, I’ve seen his cartoons since way before that, I have simply always been a fan. And I love the postage stamp ones. They’re little doses of humor and insight and sarcasm. Like an after dinner mint of cartooning. You need these. I pre-ordered mine the day pre-ordering opened. Now it is your turn.

And there ya go. I have a lot to do this morning, so you go order some books and I’ll be back with real content in a while!

Here is a site that is simply a collection of bad Spock drawings.
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Toilets of the World is a book by Morna E. Gregory and Sian James. It’s a travel guide and, I suppose resource for people who want to know what toilets in other places are like.
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Here is a video compilation of 231 fatalities from various Mortal Kombat games. Why? Because it’s kinda funny.

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Best item on Think Geek yet? It’s an Invincible Star from Mario. Touch it and it plays the invincible music for 17 seconds. After which you are once again only mortal. I… I need one.
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I leave you with one of the best ideas I’ve seen in a while. I need to do this. So do you:

Last night I headed downtown to meet Mr. Wendel for dinner. While we were eating, a guy in the back of the place started shouting. I mean shouting. He was all “Fuck you! No fuck you!” at the damned top of his lungs. He stood and continued to scream at the woman he was with.

“Fuck you, I’m a grown man!” he shouted. Really? Had all us fooled. The staff looked concerned and were edging towards kicking him out or calling the cops or something when he said “No, I am going to leave!” and stormed out.

So everyone tried to look at the woman without looking at her. She was laughing. She explained everything to a bunch of the employees, paid, apologized and left. Laughing.

“Well it’s more stuff for stories,” Wendel said to me.

“No, fiction has to make sense and be believable. It’s why I don’t write about my life, I write fiction.”

“Just say it’s fiction.”

“Who says I haven’t?”

Then we headed off to Virgin to stare at DVDs. I grabbed the 20th anniversary edition of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen because I simply adore the film, and the 30th anniversary edition of Jaws. Oddly I didn’t own a copy of Jaws.

I tried to tempt Wendel into buying things. All sorts of things. Krull, Night of the Comet, shit I don’t remember what else. I think I actually told him not to buy Night of the Comet mostly because I didn’t want to be responsible for his reaction.

Also, in book news:

Space Vulture, which is co-written by the guy who wrote “Who Censored Roger Rabbit?” (which was eventually turned into that movie) and is amazingly fun pulp. According to people I know and trust. So, come on! Space Vulture!

Also Anathem, the new Neal Stephenson is coming out in September.

Caine Black Knife is out in October, as well. Yes it is the newest book in the progression of Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle. I am very excited. Heroes Die is one of those books that I recommend every chance I get.

Blindsight is out in paperback. So what? Peter Watts hit an amazing high note with this book. If you saw Sunshine and liked it but felt it could’ve made more sense? You will love Peter Watts. Dark, moody, precise and hard edged science all meet to show you what happens when things just go wrong. It is also interesting, quirky and fantastic.

And that’s all I got right now.

First of all, over at Meghan’s journal I wrotean essay about the kinds of questions writer’s get: You can read that one here. It’s, uhm, about as serious as you think it is. Which is to say - not very.

Secondly, for your reading pleasure, I give you my review of Moon Age Daydream by Shaun von Dragen. The book only got one star, folks. So if you wanna see what happens when I don’t find a book well done, at all? Well click that link.

More stuff later…

I read a lot for review, but I also do get to read books for myself sometimes. So let’s start there, with some books I have read and would recommend:

On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers. I am generally not a fan of Powers but if you enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, you will probably enjoy this. It is, of course, a reissue of an old book. So call me late to the party. But hey, it was fun.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. Simply one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. I got to review this one for SFReader.com, actually. It’s a YA novel that, like the best YA novels, is far from only for kids. This will be my xmas present for friends with teenaged kids. Seriously - it is that good.

Tim, Defender of the Earth! by Sam Enthoven. One last one I did a review for SFReader.com on. Though that review hasn’t even been sent off to them yet. Still, it’s a fun book! Also YA by type, it is a hell of a lot of basic fun. Giant monster (think Godzilla) who is also a teenager in mind, and temperament, who is the new defender of the Earth. It has nanobots! Teenagers! London! Massive amounts of fun property damage! The Kraken! Tons of exciting fun and joy.

Crazy Little Things by me! Yeah well, I read it and I still like it. So there. Also it’s like 20% off right now, so you can go order it and enjoy it. If you like what I do here, you will probably like what I do in the 12 short stories in the book. And if you have read it, go to Amazon and review it for me, would you?

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky. If you are on the internet and you are curious to exactly how it has changed and is changing the world in ways both big and small, deep societal ways - this is your book. Fascinating stuff. I lost a lot of sleep to read this one and regret none of that time.

But enough about books! Movies and TV? You want movies and TV?

Michael Clayton. Clooney. Tilda Swinton. A modern sleek legal drama/thriller that has all of the grime and tone of a fantastic 70s crime thriller/drama. Just rough and fantastic the entire movie sings. The ending might also be one of the best bits of acting that I’ve seen from Swinton or Clooney. Powerful stuff.

30 Rock - Season 1. On deep deep sale right now, and one of the funniest shows around. Yeah right this second it is 60% off. So the time is right, my friends.

Beverly Hills, 90210 - The Complete First Season. I just had to toss this on here. I know none of you are going to buy it. Or, better yet, buy it for me. But still. I needed to show it some love.

Wonderfalls - The Complete Series. Someone suggested this to me and I feel in love with it. Just quirky, and not in that generic way all TV shows call themselves quirky, and fun.

All right, music?

Float from Flogging Molly is everything you want from a Flogging Molly CD, but it also manages to sound different and new. Score!

Kiss Me Kate (1953 Film Soundtrack). The remastered release of the movie soundtrack with Howard Keel. You simply can not go wrong here. At all.

Stuff I haven’t heard yet but am interested in: The Breeder’s Mountain Battles, Funplex from the B-52s! New B-52s?! Woot. Nick Cave has a new CD out, too: Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! Wow it’s a big month, huh?

Coming soon: Anywhere I Lay My Head from Scarlett Johanssen. A CD of her doing Tom Waits covers. I will have to give in. Bring Ya to the Brink is a new Cyndi Lauper release. I dunno, I mean it is her first new studio material since ‘96. Worth some sort of look. Snacks is a Barenaked Ladies release of new children’s songs. It has a track called “Ninja”. How could this be bad?

Anyway… Yeah, I’m a media whore.

All right! Over at the footnote (more about tfn in a sec) there I interviewed Cory Doctorow. Over at SFReader I reviewed his upcoming book. They link to each other so choose which you want to start with: The Cory Doctorow interview or the review of Little Brother, and then swap and read the other half!

Yes, I am paving the roads of the future, getting SFReader and thefootnote to link back and forth and love each other in the way that people can get arrested for.

Today is also a full update of the footnote. So along with that you can also read:

Leigh discussing cars, Laszlo talking about evolution, of a sort, D.J. making you read about reading, John pondering money, me being honest about being a writer, Krystal telling us how to achieve greatness, Ryan opining about lint, D.J. talks to the Bastard Winos and then you can vote on this month’s You decide! It’s a chock full of fun update!

This journal will be prank free this year. I swear. Unless I am linking to someone else’s prank and get caught by it in which case I will mistakenly spread stuff around. But I’m not planning on that.

Alien Quadrilogy for only $25.99 today only. That’s all four movies across nine discs. Sure 3 and 4 are weaker, but the extras alone make this worth it.Also each movie now comes with the original and the special editions. Just an amazing set to own.

While you’re there check out these deals too: 150 DVDs for $6.49 or less, 50% off a bunch of SF TV and 50% off a lot of sports movies. Oh yes.

ALSO - this just in: Right now Amazon is offering Crazy Little Things for only $10.52 instead of the normal $12.99, so you know, go buy my book cheap. Also if you have bought it and read it would you do me the favor of reviewing it on Amazon? Honestly, not just blowing praise at me. Thanks!