It Is a Good Day To Flog: A Promotion Thread

Posted on February 22, 2011    Posted by      135 Comments

So, I have some things I want to draw attention to at the moment, promotion-wise, and as long as I’m doing that I’m going to go ahead and open up a promotion thread for everyone else, too, in which you can talk about cool things you or others are doing. But me first. Here’s what I’ve got:

1. Some of you might remember that about a year ago I was profiled for a Geek a Week card, by artist Len Peralta. Some of you wondered if the cards would ever be available in real life. The answer is yes! Think Geek has compiled the first eight cards into an actual, real world trading card pack, with cards you can touch, smell, fling across the room like ninja stars and even put into the spokes of your Huffy, if you want.

In addition for this cool thing for yourself, Len and Think Geek have also put together a very cool set of eBay charity auctions featuring stuff from folks profiled in Geek a Week cards. The proceeds from these auctions will be split between the Child’s Play, which gives toys and games to children in hospitals, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The auctions are here, and include the first Geek a Week packs with each card signed by its subject, including me.

2. Speaking of charitable auctions, my friend Kate Nepveu reminds me that the Con or Bust auctions are now up and running, with cool auctions by science fiction and fantasy authors and fans to support Con or Bust, which helps folks of color get to science fiction and fantasy conventions and build diversity in our little community. Check out the auctions and make a bid if there’s something you like in there. Also, here’s more information if there’s something you would like to offer for auction.

3. My friend and former editor Joe Rybicki has an alternate identity as Johnny High Ground, who is a purveyor of fine musical products. And he’s got another fine musical product for you, specifically a 3-track EP named lorem ipsum (you can tell he was an editor now, can’t you), each track featuring acoustic guitar and some very fine lyrics. Check him out on Bandcamp and iTunes, and if you like what you hear, make that download for under $3.

There, I’m done for now. Now it’s your turn — in the comment thread below, tell folks about something you want to promote. It can be something you’re doing, something someone you know is doing, or even just something you know about that you think is cool. Note that if you do more than a couple of links in a comment, you might get the message punted into the moderation queue. I’ll be checking that queue from time to time today to release those messages, so don’t panic if it doesn’t immediately post. I recommend one link per comment, and making more than one comment if you have more than one thing to promote.

So: What cool thing do you want to share with the rest of the class?

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135 Comments on “It Is a Good Day To Flog: A Promotion Thread”

  1. First of all, this may be one of those cultural things everyone else gets but me, but why are you green? Second of all, your rifle magazine and the shoulder strap are all kinds of messed up.

  2. I’m going to flog something that John Scalzi used to be heavily involved in.

    Ficly.com, the successor to Ficlets, is alive and well, 22,000 ficlets in and still going. Thanks to the Creative Commons license on the original content, Ficlets’s creator Kevin Lawver was able to archive everything when AOL killed the old site, and started a new site based on the same principles with a few improvements.

    Here’s the article I wrote about it.

    John, we’d love to see you come back by and drop a ficlet or two! :)

  3. Ooooh, actual physical Geek A Week cards! I’m sorely tempted.

    Flog: I have a silly little webcomic. “Sure,” you say, “so does every third geekling on the Internet.” But how many of them are photographic rather than drawn or CG, and how many star a bevy of rubber ducks (instead of Lego minifigs)? Hah! Quacked Panes: http://quackedpanes.net/

    Thank you, sir, for the opportunity to flog.

  4. Flog, you say? Damn it, I left the riding quirt and my dominatrix costume in storage … oh, the other kind of flog.
    Well, then – I have my own next book coming out in April – Daughter of Texas, which has as its heroine a woman who comes to Texas with her family and younger brothers in the 1820s. Her family winds up being caught in the whole Texas War for Independence, and she meets up with many of the notable and fascinating but otherwise little known figures of the time. Just think of it as an account of all the other stuff that went on besides the siege of the Alamo. The release date is calculated to coincide with the 175th anniversary of Sam Houston’s victory at San Jacinto – which was won in 18 minutes flat. (True story, that.) Teensy local-interest press in San Antonio is publishing it, and the sequel, Deep In The Heart, which will be out in December, 2011. No, as a matter of fact, I don’t have a problem with writers’ block.

  6. First off, these are Very Cool Things. I love the Geek-a-Week cards. Can’t afford them in material form, but they are groovy. I hope the auctions raise lots of money for their good causes. Kids need fun and we need a free Internet (which is also fun!)

    My promotion is for my column at SFSignal, The Bellowing Ogre: http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/cat_columns/the_bellowing_ogre.html . I write about current trends, kerfuffles, and feats of legerdemain in fantastika/speculative fiction/SF/[fill in your own category of fantastic literature here]. Currently I am talking about dystopia in the 21st century, but future columns will cover the satirical uses of Cthulhu in geek culture, how mythmaking continues to amaze and elude us, and the mimetic resonance of Jonathan Coulton’s “half-monkey,half-pony” monster as a postmodern configuration of the grotesque.

    Ok, maybe not the last one. But you get the idea. . . .

  7. OK, I’ll bite.

    Hellebore and Rue: Tales of Queer Women and Magic is a fabulous anthology (in which I just so happen to have a story), just out from Drollerie Press a week or so ago. This was my first fiction sale, so I’m perhaps understandably just a little chuffed about it. So if you like queer women, or magic, check it out!

  9. My husband’s new card game is almost completely funded for its first printing, he just needs a few more pre-orders on Kickstarter. It’s kinda like Uno meets Killer Bunnies. It’s fun.

  13. My new picture book ARGUS releases today, and I’m having a party tonight at WORD bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Everyone is invited! It’s also my birthday, and there will be celebratory cupcakes in addition to books and other good things.
    Details:
    Birthday/Book Launch Party for Michelle Knudsen and Argus!
    Tonight, February 22, 2011, from 6:30-8:30pm
    WORD in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
    126 Franklin Street
    http://www.wordbrooklyn.com/event/birthdaylaunch-party-michelle-knudsen

  14. I have a website I’m building up – Write-Strong.com. In it, I’m compiling a wide range of resources and tools for writers of all genres and career paths (though my main focus is fiction, admittedly). There’s a Fiction Writer’s Virtual Toolbox on there with 150+ links to help writers research nearly every main topic in both the craft and business side of writing (from agents and publishers to plot and characters to self-employed taxes for freelancers). It’s a work-in-progress, with helpful software, a list of excellent books on writing, and much more. New stuff being added weekly, with more in-depth coverage and thoughts on the attached blog. I welcome suggestions on resources and tools to add, or topics to ponder.

  15. I’m promoting my music! It’s indie-ish folk rock influenced my such artists as Pink Floyd, Simon and Garfunkel, and The Eels. I’ve been writing and recording original music for more than 20 years, and I play 5 instruments. I have no industry support whatsoever, and I’m entirely unsigned. Stop by my channel and give my music a listen! I’d appreciate the views and any comments you have! Thanks, guys!
    http://www.youtube.com/user/thirtysilver

  16. I’m writing a novel-length work online, one piece per day as a kind of flash-fiction venture. So far I’m 53 pieces into it. Each piece is a single moment from a different person’s life, and the collected moments tell a much larger story. I’ve tried to set it up where you don’t need to read the moments in any particular order and that no piece, on its own, is absolutely critical to getting the gist.

    The project is called This One Time. Each moment is nearly genre-less, but the overall theme is largely supernatural with some SF elements. The index is here: http://l.xal.li/g3KyTM

    Go have a look. Thanks!

  17. Ok, I’ll bite. Or flog. If you have heard of me at all (and you probably haven’t), it’s through my non-fiction writing at places like HowStuffWorks.com and io9.com. But I just had my first fiction pub, a short story in UK horror magazine Black Static: http://ttapress.com/1018/black-static-21-out-now/

    The issue (21) is just now arriving on doorsteps in the UK, and should show up on American newsstands in a few weeks. Barnes & Noble carries it.

    Thanks!

  18. Dude, because Geek-a-Week wasn’t fantastic enough already, they’re also going to raise a ton of money for Child’s Play. Way to make the rest of us look bad!

    Also, Greg and John: does this mean John isn’t a green mutant in real life? All of my dreams are shattered!!

    It’s not particularly nerdy, and hopefully not at all science fictiony, so it may not be of much interest to the folks here, but I’ve just set up a blog to help address some of the ridiculous inaccuracies about Islam that get circulated online. If anyone has a question about Islam or Islamic history, feel free to swing by and ask it: http://askanislamicist.wordpress.com/

  19. Flog: I’m attempting to write 1,000,000 words this year, and am already at about the 150k mark thus far. One novel down, the second about to be finished, and still going strong. I’d love for people to come by and take a look at First Million Words or say hello at my blog, TransientMe. Thanks!

  21. Let’s see… I’ll flog an anthology I’m in: “Chinese Whisperings: the Yang Book” http://chinesewhisperings.com/book-shop/yin-yang-books/

    And, as a bonus, my blog post for today, in which I discuss twitter, fame, identify spoofing, the responsibilities of authors to their readers, and in which I cite Neil Gaiman and John Scalzi. “Die, FAKE Tony Noland, Die! (or, Thoughts On the Responsibilities of Fame)” http://www.tonynoland.com/2011/02/die-fake-tony-noland-die-or-thoughts-on.html

  22. Rob Wells and two other authors have a really great podcast at appendixpodcast.com about writing. It’s a little less than 30mins per episode, and they engage in fun writing games. Worth a listen.

  23. At some point, I’ll write a blog post about the importance of reading the submission guidelines, especially the part that says “one link per post”. Doh!

  28. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to work in an all-night Jazz radio station in NYC after the Zombie Apocalypse – wonder no more!

    WZMB Jazz at Three, Session 1
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZQlp7ZwrVk

    This is great fun (we’ve made 20+ episodes, to start going live in March). This is a teaser. My writers group friends are the creators and stars, I do a little voice acting, and my husband writes the music, creates sound effects and is our brave recording engineer. Hope you enjoy!

  31. I was left my grandfather’s old carving tools after he died and I finally received them last year even though he died in 2002. I’ve been teaching myself from his old books and practicing on old wine and champagne corks. I’ve been making stamps and Japanese Kokeshi dolls out of them so far and selling them on Etsy. I’m slowly working on wood but haven’t made anything good enough to sell yet.

    http://www.etsy.com/shop/5sizes2small

  32. Well, this is about two weeks too early for me… But I’ll chime in anyway. ;) My new novel, By Darkness Revealed will be launching the beginning of March. It’s a contemporary fantasy novel with no vampires, no werewolves, and no zombies. Something a little different! A short novel, it’ll also be the first time I’ve had something published to ebook-only, and will be available soonish at all major ebook retailers. No sales linky yet, unfortunately – but it’s right around the corner. I’ve already finished a good chunk of the first sequel, so if you read and enjoy the first, there’s more to come.

  33. I just recently joined Twitter for the first time and started posting with hopes of having people follow me for an occasional laugh or bit on nonsense, but in over a week I’ve enticed only 3 people to join and I have no way of knowing if any of them have even laughed…

    @DankFrankerson is a place to laugh, at least in theory.

  34. The Mississippi Children’s Museum in Jackson, Mississippi is now open and is AWESOME! If I do say so myself as the architect. haha. Plan a trip south with your family to visit our great children’s and science museums!!

  35. Thank you for the opportunity, John! And may I say, those Think Geek cards look pretty spiffing and green really is your colour.

    I have a new webseries, “Mind My Brains, Darling!” in production at the moment and it’s scheduled for release Summer 2011. It’s a Rom-Zom-Britcom set in England in 1979, five years after the zombie apocalypse. It’s filmed using a new technique we’ve developed called BodyLine, where the actor’s faces are never seen.

    There are some teasers up on the site along with lots of background information about the show http://mindmybrains.com and production news and more on the HigletFilms site http://higletfilms.com

    Thank you again for doing this.

  36. Trying to think of some really cool things that I’ve got going on, but I was drawing a blank until I thought about work things (If that’s okay, John? This is personal, as much as it is for work).

    I work for Norwich University’s School of Graduate and Continuing Study’s Military History program, and one thing that we’re working on is a pair of staff rides surveying the Overland Campaign and the Battle of Gettysburg.

    A Staff Ride (for those who aren’t aware) is a field trip, of sorts, on a battlefield. Very immersive, lots of study, and our program is running these this year, (Overland in May – I think – and Gettysburg in August) The trip is bundled together with an 11 week online course taught by a couple of our very outstanding instructors. If you’re a Civil War buff, these are the absolute best ways to look at these events and understand the history behind them.

    These are in the $1,200+ range, FYI, but you can get some graduate credit for them. If anyone’s interested, I can provide more details at liptakaa@norwich.edu.

  37. Flog flog flog (thanks for the opportunity, John).

    First – I’ve been geeking out over those cards since I first heard about them (I’ve a friend who works at Think Geek, and she often tortures me with hints of what might be coming soon – not enough detail to get in trouble, but just enough to hurt my heart).

    Second – my flog: I’m the creator of a Parsec Award-winning online TV show called GOLD, a comic soap opera about professional tabletop RPGers. Watch it at goldtheseries.com. Our newest GOLD miniseries, Night of the Zombie King, was just released. It’s a “The Big Chill” story for gamers, and you can watch it at notzk.com. I hope y’all like it.

    Thanks again. Now, time to go peek at all the flogs above!

    -David Nett
    Creator, GOLD
    this is life. roll for damage.

  39. Not much, really. Just a plain ol’, mostly nerd-interest blog.

    But if you like that sort of thing, the TAO OF SCOOT welcomes you! Come with me and ten fellow Geeks as we present pics, vids, articles, reviews, and anecdotes of the highest nerd caliber. (or just ogle the girls on the sidebars–I’m cool either way!XD) http://scooteratreides.blogspot.com/

    Trying to build up enough interest to somehow make this a paid gig–if anyon has any info of advice concerning how best to accomplish that, I’d be very appreciative! ^_^b

    For a look at what I write when folks actually pay me, head to Topless Robot, find the Daily List archive on the sidebar, and look for the name “James P. Daniels” in the byline..

    Thank you all for your consideration! :D

  41. Publishing my first kindle novel in less than a month. It’s called ‘The Old Man and the Wasteland’. It’s Hemingway meets a Post Nuclear Armageddon wasteland. In the meantime check out my blog for some free short stories and if you leave a message and desire a free copy of the novel I’ll trade you for a review. Thank you for letting me plug!
    http://nickcoleblog.blogspot.com/

  42. Rather than pushing my books as usual, I’d like to toot my horn about my music podcasts Podrunner and Groovelectric.

    Podrunner is a series of fixed-BPM electronic dance music mixes for workouts in a range from 130 to 180 BPM that has been on iTunes Top 10 podcasts (and a Best Podcast winner) for five years in a row. It’s probably the most popular workout music in the world.

    Groovelectric is a series of DJ mixes of (m ostly) what I call New Old Funk, which is modern electronic dance music with an old-funk sound. It’s been a Top 100 music podcast for five years in a row and is one of the world’s most popular DJ-mix series.

    I’m so used to hawking my books that it feels funny to put on my DJ hat here. Not a lot of overlap,usually. (You con organizers who want an epic dance night dunno what yer missing.)

  44. Here I am, promoting my music!

    I have a soundcloud page at http://soundcloud.com/wayfu and I’d love to get some listens from you guys! Be warned though: spontaneous eruptions of strobe lights and/or drug problems in listeners have been reported.

    Sounds dangerous? Oh yeaaah.

  46. I do a lot of things, but the one most in need of increased attention is Burning Ambulance, a quarterly print-on-demand arts-and-culture magazine. Jazz, metal, punk rock movies, J-pop…we cover anything that interests us, and we do so at length (features tend to run 3-10,000 words). It’s published through Lulu.com – $10 for a hard copy or $5 for a PDF, with no ads and all revenues split between the contributors. There’s also a blog/website at http://burningambulance.com which has other content: CD reviews, interviews with musicians, essays on this and that. Stop by, won’t you?

  47. I’m a library student at the University of Michigan, and next week instead of going to a sunny locale I’m spending my spring break in New York City volunteering with the New York Public Library. I’ll be helping them organize and promote a film festival they’re putting on called “Hidden Ireland.” The project is very near and dear to my heart, both because libraries are often in a perilous state of funding today and because I lived in Ireland over the summer. Each year we send around 100 people out to NYC, Washington DC, Chicago, and Detroit to do volunteer work, and we’ve set up a project on Crowdrise.com to let people know what we’re doing.

    My page is here.

  48. I’m working with a company called Stranger Comics doing original fantasy stories set in an intricately created world and featuring a diverse cast of characters.

    For example, I’m writing stories based on a character called Fichiki Siri, a dark elf on a murderous quest to eliminate any sign of who he was from the world in his quest for power. The latest chapter is online at Stranger Comics Grimoire subsite …

    http://bit.ly/hCDpXs

    … and there’s so much more going on. The company’s lead property, The Untamed, is a comic book that hasn’t hit shelves but has been optioned by Watchmen’s Lloyd Levin and Shopgirl’s Andrew Sugerman and will be directed by Eureka creator Andrew Cosby. It’s a richly complicated tapestry with something for almost any fantasy fan.

    Thank you for the opportunity to discuss it.

  49. I’m really tempted to buy those trading cards, and I’m normally pretty good at resisting buying funny things off the Internet.

    Also, thanks for the opportunity to flog! I recently started a book review blog with an emphasis on what makes for good commute reading: http://busreaderbooks.blogspot.com/

    Please come take a look!

  50. So, I’m part of this little social journaling site called Dreamwidth (which inherited LiveJournal’s open source side of the code and kept building from there). It’s a great format for long form discussions, with spacious entry lengths and threaded commenting; for journaling in relative privacy, with access filters and private entries; and for running communities where people can discuss things together.

    And while usually you need an invite code to create an account (helps keep down spam!), this week is a free for all registration period:

    https://www.dreamwidth.org/create

    And you can ask questions about any problems you run into at Support or at this community:

    http://getting-started.dreamwidth.org/

    Nearly all of the code is open source, too, so if you want to use the source for your own journaling site, we’d be happy to help!

  52. This is so completely awesome! I know it’s been said up and down the thread, but thanks for doing this.

    1) I just started a Tumblr devoted entirely to my favorite paragraphs. No rhyme, no reason, just good old-fashioned paragraph love. Enjoy! Play along!

    http://readdelicious.tumblr.com/

    2) In terms of promoting others, may I suggest:

    http://www.buyolympia.com/q/

    I’m not from Olympia (I’ve never even been there), but since I stumbled onto this site years ago, I’ve found more cool stuff there than you can shake a stick at, local artists all. And the staff is made up of the nicest people on the planet.

    Also, I have already checked out several things on this list and found things that are making me drool. (So, you know, thanks for that.) Rock on!

  53. Thanks, John, for the opportunity to flog our creations!

    Late last year, I wrote a Lovecraftian poem that turned out to be better than I expected, and I’d love feedback on it or any of the other poetry/short stories that I’ve published on my site.

    Oh, and also, for those that are geeky in the fountain pen and paper kind of way, I write lots of paper and ink reviews, which you can find on the site linked above.

  55. Capclave, the DC area SF convention put on by the Washington Science fiction Association will be held October 14-16, 2011 at the Gaithersburg Hilton. Our guests of honor are Carrie Vaughn and Catherynne Valente.

    We have the usual panel programming plus a full track of workshops, readings, open filking in the evening, a mass autographing session and party, plus the awarding of the WFSA Small Press Award Saturday night. We also have a dealers room and consuite with gaming. Memberships are currently $45 with a special rate for students and active military of $25 for the weekend, $20 for Saturday only.

    The hotel offers free wifi in the rooms as well as the lobby, is pet friendly and fully ADA compliant including using a paratransit service for those who need it when being picked up a dropped off at the metro.

    For more information see out website: http://www.capclave.org

    We’ll have fan tables at Stellarcon, Lunacon, Ravencon, Balticon and Worldcon at which you can drop by, get more information and buy a membership.

  56. OK, I’m not good at this shameless-self-promotion thing, but with two books coming out this year, I better get used to it, right?

    SO: Read my blog:

    Animals Behaving Badly

    so you can say you were one of the cool kids who knew about it before I sold out, which will happen when the book is published this fall by Perigee, a division of a publisher named after an animal (Penguin).

    And if I screwed up that link, I did that thing where my name up there should link to it also. I hope.

  57. My barn: In (very) late December I finished up the first year of Bull Spec, the quarterly magazine of speculative fiction I started publishing in November 2009. Taken together, the four issues of 2010 comprise 268 pages of speculative fiction, poetry, art, interviews, reviews, essays, etc.: http://www.bullspec.com/

    Somebody else’s barn: Jay Requard’s first novel, The Night, combines fantasy, adventure, vampires, etc. Ho hum, we’ve seen that, right? But the author is playing with some tropes here, with themes of racism, globalization, and multiculturalism. The protagonist’s character arc is modeled after Nelson Mandela: violence, prison, nonviolence. It’s to be published in mid-April by a very small new press, Peak City Publishing. The author’s blog is: http://www.bookoftarinthol.blogspot.com/

    There’s also this very cool-looking book coming out soon, Fuzzy Nation. (You may have heard of it.) And an anthology of original SF stories on climate change, edited by F&SF editor/publisher Gordon Van Gelder, called THE GREENHOUSE. It’s the first SF publication from new independent press OR Books: http://www.orbooks.com/our-books/greenhouse/

    Lastly, Mary Robinette Kowal is letting us have an inside peek on her draft of her novel in progress, The Transfigured Lady. (Also alternate history fantasy, but a diff. universe from Shades of Milk and Honey: http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/the-transfigured-lady-draft/ — very fun.

  58. And furthermore:

    My other book is coming out in April. It’s The Sloth’s Eye, a mystery set at a zoo, where some animals behave badly but mostly the people do. You can preorder it at Amazon but they don’t have the cover art up yet, so better to go there via the link on my website where you can see the nice sloth picture.

    OK, now I gotta go lie down.

  59. Hey, John, thanks for this. A lot of great stuff in the comments; I’m checking out several of them.

    For my own part, I invite your readers to check out my own novel, the first 10 chapters of which are available for free at http://www.charlesmryan.com. In it, a guy from our time finds himself in the 12th century–you know, as it sometimes happens. The kids seem to like the story, so maybe your readers will too!

  61. Wow, great idea here!! I’m a staff writer for Lake Effect Living — check out our historical articles on lost ships, lighthouses and what’s happening on the west coast of Michigan. http://www.lakeeffectliving.com

    If you like lighthouses and cozy historical mystery, subscribe to my blog at http://lighthousemysteries.wordpress.com.

    My latest lighthouse keeper article will also be published in The Chronicle, the member magazine for the Historical Society of Michigan in the Spring issue.

    Thanks again!

    Meg

  62. John Scalzi, you are my hero. Thanks for the plug.

    And here’s another: If your musical tastes run more toward excellent jazz and less toward socio-political-personal-pop-folk, please to check out my brother’s amazing debut album, Driven. Here’s the link at CDBaby, for digital and physical copies: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/matthewrybicki

    It’s also up on iTunes, so if that’s your ecosystem just search for Matthew Rybicki.

  64. For the editors and graphic designers out there

    http://kottke.org/10/04/lorem-ipad

    “Lorem iPad dolor sit amet, consectetur Apple adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua Shenzhen. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud no multi-tasking ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip iPad ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor iPad in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse CEO Steve Jobs dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Windows 7 ha ha ha. Excepteur sint occaecat battery life non proident, iPad in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

    “Morbi erat justo, magical in semper posuere Jony Ive, molestie eget ipsum. Praesent eget erat no camera. Apple a erat sit amet ante pretium just a big iPod touch bibendum a at magna. Suspendisse Flash, sem sed tempor gravida, dolor mi auctor HTML5, vel feugiat justo metus nec diam. Maecenas quis iPad volutpat augue.”

  66. I’m back, because that made me so uneasy, I have to promote something of someone else’s too, for karma or something.

    The Surfing Pizza is a blog about weird candy and food, toys from the past, and nostalgic stories, usually of his childhood. And sometimes he puts it all together and can even make you sad about buying a space blanket:

    I Wish I Didn’t Open My Space Blanket.

  67. http://tinyurl.com/4jo64zp
    We’ll see if this takes this time. I’ve edited and am publishing a short story anthology titled DEADLY BY THE DOZEN. It should be available as an e-book around the beginning of March on several different platforms and about a month later as a trade paperback. Authors include Erica Orloff, Jude Hardin, Me (Mark Terry), Natasha Fondren, Simon Wood, Keith Snyder and many others.

  70. Hi, I’m illustrator Jeff Zugale! You may know me from a couple of things you’ve seen on Whatever, like the Fuzzy Nation first pass cover art and the infamous Unicorn Pegasus Kitten Wheaton ScalzOrc painting. Like others here, I’m not just a visual artist, I’m also a musician!

    Did you rock out to Whitesnake, Dokken, Ratt, Ozzy and other massively-maned bands back in the ’80s? I used to be one of those long-haired rockers back then, when my stage name was “Jeff Steele.” We released a CD on a Japanese label in the ’90s, which did well in Japan but was not distributed anywhere else.

    Good news! I’ve signed a new deal with England’s Z Records to re-release the disc worldwide on May 3, 2011! It’s been retitled ‘Steele’: Tricks Up My Sleeve and you can see the new cover art (also by me) here.

    If you liked bands like those above, you’ll probably like this disc! You can hear a few tracks including the title track “Tricks Up My Sleeve” on MySpace Music; there’s also an official Facebook page for my headbangin’ alter ego.

    I hope you’ll take a moment to give a listen! Thanks.

    Oh, and of course I’m still doing artwork. If you need illustration or concept design for your media project, please email me at jeff@jeffzugale.com

    Thanks again John for the virtual soapbox!

  72. I’m trying to build a meal recommendation system that can answer questions like “I’ve got six potatoes, three onions, a few spices and $30 to spend on meals for the next week. What can I make that is healthy and palatable?” I need recipes to test my recommendation algorithms on, though!

    Bendakai

    I’ve tried to making contributing recipes as easy as possible. I’ve got a bunch of plaintext recipes that people can paste into forms that make things calculable. I also have forms where you can add your own recipes.

  73. Just because I think it’s cool: James Stoddard (author of The High House and The False House) has completed his rewritten version of William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land and has it up in the Kindle store:

    http://www.amazon.com/Night-Land-Story-Retold-ebook/dp/B004GKNM3W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298403884&sr=8-1

    Hodgson’s book combines unimaginable vistas of time and space and horrible lurking menace with an almost unreadable narrative style. Stoddard, I hope, keeps the former while ditching the latter. And it’s only $2.99.

    Oh, and speaking of the Night Land, Andy Robertson has edited two anthologies of other people’s stories using Hodgson’s setting — Eternal Love and Nightmares of the Fall, both also on Amazon amongst other places.

  76. If you’re not already a Zombie, the odds are good (I’m pretty sure) that you will be one day. To celebrate that fact, I’m writing a Zombie novel set in Winslow, AZ and posting one chapter every weekend of 2011. If you head on over to

    http://arizonaafterwards.com

    for a read, I’ll think of you as a friend and not a food source once the inevitable occurs. Just do the same for me, okay? And thanks, John, for the chance to plug our projects to the world!

  77. I’m probably better off using the soap than the soapbox, but I’ve been writing a series of posts on my blog on the subject of making arguments using fiction. Here’s the first post (out of five so far). I’m not an expert on the subject by any means, so I wouldn’t at all mind hearing from people with more knowledge of the subject than I have!

  79. Ah, something else to put on my list of writelry goals — my own trading card! :D

    Here’s a fun thing: my friend Sharon (with me helping sometimes!) makes crocheted rugs using scraps from a woolen mill. They’d otherwise be garbage, and instead, they’re fun, fluffy rugs. My dogs love ’em.

    RugEmpire on Etsy

  82. Calling all Firefly and Serenity fans! Come to this year’s Browncoat Ball, being held October 21-23 in Providence, RI. The weekend features parties and tours, capped off with a fancy dance ball inspired by the episode “Shindig”. Visit http://www.browncoatball.com for details.

  84. I’m going to brag a little bit here. A group of knitters I work with knitted a Doctor Who Fourth Doctor scarf that was auctioned for charity Sunday at Gallifrey One in L.A. The scarf this year fetched $450, more than the $250 paid for a piece of the original TARDIS that was also auctioned Sunday. The promotion comes here: We are knitting another scarf for next year’s auction at Gallifrey, so if you love the Doctor and want a scarf but don’t knit, come to Gallifrey next year in February and bid on the new scarf, which we are already working on.

  85. Twelfth Planet Press (Australian indie press) is about to publish its twelfth book, which is reason enough to celebrate. But the book in question, Nightsiders by Sue Isle, is part of an exciting new project: over the next two years, TPP is publishing the Twelve Planets, 12 x 4 SF/fantasy story collections by a wide range of Australian women writers including veterans like Margo Lanagan and Lucy Sussex and a whole bunch of others.

    The second in the series, Love and Romanpunk, is by me, and I’m very excited about it, but for the purposes of this post I particularly want to draw attention to Nightsiders by Sue Isle, which follows a transgender teen in a futuristic Perth (Western Australia) which has become almost uninhabitable due to climate change. It’s exactly the kind of book that tends to disappear between the cracks, and the author isn’t very well known outside Australia, so I want to tell everyone how good it is before it’s released in March!

    The webstore is here: http://www.twelfthplanetpress.com/web-store – you can buy the Twelve Planet books individually, subscribe for the first season (three books), or subscribe to the whole series and have them delivered to your door as they are published over the next two years!

  88. I am working on a post about having sex (more often) for my personal improvement blog (www.equallyhappy.com), writing about the 4 hour body diet for my fitness blog (www.60in3.com) and last but not least, planning my honeymoon! mm… perhaps I should have mentioned that last one first but hey, it’s more long term :)

    If anyone has any information about travel to south India, south east Asia or Croatia (or any good websites that discuss these areas) let me know. Not sure if I’m allowed to post my email here but it’s available on my fitness blog. Mr. Scalzi, if posting email addresses is allowed, please feel free to add the one I used for this comment to my comment.

  90. My good friend Aaron Dietz wrote a delightful book called SUPER, about superheroes as government employees. It’s novel-as-job-application.

    You can buy the book from the usual places, of course, or you can read it as a he posts one page a day online here:

    http://www.aarondietz.us/

    I’m biased, of course, but I think this is one of the most original takes on the superhero genre I’ve read. Delightful!

  91. I’m quite proud to be a co-inventor of

    http://www.Lozzal.com

    Are you Bored? Hungry perhaps? Maybe you just need some romantic date ideas to finish getting out of the doghouse from Valentines day.

    Lozzal can help.

    It’ll give you suggestions for things to see and do Right Now ™ wherever you are in the USA or Canada.

    We’re proud geeks and we’d love any feedback you have on it. Good or bad. We want to make it perfect.

  94. Awesome! The opportunity to post on a pimp thread on Whatever for my love story about adolescent nerds!

    Okay, I am full of yay. Briefly, I’m a student filmmaker getting my MFA in Film and Electronic Media at American University. My semi-autobiographical thesis is about almost-13-year-old Margaret, obsessed with the Princess Bride, who likes her best friend, Terry; her best friend likes the Ideal Object, and her other best friend, Alvin, likes her. Set in Cleveland, there’s also uncontrollable swearing, sword-fighting, romance novels, and Star Trek. Winning DC Shorts 2009 and American University’s Visions Festival Outstanding Short Script 2009, I’m now trying to make this script–a love song to teetering on the brink of adolescence in Cleveland–a reality.

    Why this movie, among all the things that demand your time and attention? Because it’s funny. And sweet. I aim to make you sniffle and go aww and remember being so close to 13 that you can touch it. I want this short movie to be something that you watch on a rainy day when you’re sick in bed and you need to feel better—the kind of movie that you only let yourself watch a couple of times a year, because you know it so well. But first I have to make it. And to do that, I need to raise between $8,000 to $10,000 on Kickstarter. If you like the story and the idea, please kick in a few bucks at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/prettyallthetimefilm/.

    Thanks so much!

  95. My new book Hounds of Heaven will be coming out in a few books and will be available for purchase through Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. I’ll also be doing a local book tour in NC if your interested where I’ll be just email me!

    Check all the details out on my author blog.

    http://www.coledrewes.com

    Thank You

  97. My book, “Investing in Kids: Early Childhood Programs and Local Economic Development”, was published in January 2011, and is available at Amazon. The book argues that a state or local area’s investment in high-quality early childhood programs, such as preschool or the Nurse Family Partnership, will pay off for a state’s economy in higher per capita earnings. The book also compares the rates of return of high-quality early childhood programs with business tax incentives. The book has received a number of favorable reviews, including one by Nobel prize-winning economist James Heckman.

    I am promoting the book with a blog, at http://investinginkids.net/ , The blog presents some of the book’s arguments, and comments on current developments at the state and federal level with early childhood programs and business incentives.Some chapters of the book are also available at the Upjohn Institute’s website.

    Tim Bartik, Senior Economist, Upjohn Institute for Employment Research

  99. Well, since early January, I’ve been posting new fiction daily at my Hyperpulp 5000 blog. It’s mix of short stories and a novel, posted in whatever sized chunks seem appropriate.

    The stuff that’s already finished:

    Puncher – Zombies! And sports! Who doesn’t love zombie sports? Nobody, that’s who.

    The Bean King – A man makes a bargain to get everything he wants. It doesn’t end well.

    Kill Phil – Tired of winter? Time to kill the groundhog.

    Sweetmeats – You really should get to know your in laws.

    Stuff that’s running now:

    Until Dawn – The novel. A small town cut off from the world is ravaged by supernatural horror.

    Messengers – Messages about the past present and future, alledgedly from angels, begin appearing in every form of communication except verbal.

    The Tragic Deaths of Young Celebrities – Exactly what it says on the tin, for a given values of tragic and celebrity

    Ticker – An old thug decides to kick some ass before he dies.

    http://hyperpulp5000.blogspot.com/

  102. I’m one of the interior artist for a new high-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game that a publisher called Wicked North Games are trying to produce. It’s called Azamar, and it uses a variant of the now-open sourced D6 rules which was developed by West End Games. Feel free to check out the development blog for the game and if you’re interested, here’s the Kickstarter page for it. This here is my DeviantArt subgallery for my Azamar work.

    Wicked North Games is looking for a release in the second quarter of 2011.

    Thanks for the chance to use the soapbox. :-)

  103. It IS a good day to flog! And thanks for the opportunity.

    Today is release day for my newest urban fantasy from Pocket Books, ROGUE ORACLE.

    THE MORE YOU KNOW ABOUT THE FUTURE,
    THE MORE THERE MAY BE TO FEAR.

    Tara Sheridan is the best criminal profiler around–and the most unconventional. Trained as a forensic psychologist, Tara also specializes in Tarot card reading. But she doesn’t need her divination skills to realize that the new assignment from her friend and sometime lover, Agent Harry Li, is a dangerous proposition in every way.

    Former Cold War operatives, all linked to a top-secret operation tracking the disposal of nuclear weapons in Russia, are disappearing. There are no bodies, and no clues to their whereabouts. Harry suspects a conspiracy to sell arms to the highest bidder. The cards–and Tara’s increasingly ominous dreams–suggest something darker. Even as Tara sorts through her feelings for Harry and her fractured relationship with the mysterious order known as Delphi’s Daughters, a killer is growing more ruthless by the day. And a nightmare that began decades ago in Chernobyl will reach a terrifying endgame that not even Tara could have foreseen….

    More info is here: http://www.salamanderstales.com

    Thanks for the opportunity to flog!

  104. Some of the gals from io9.com got together to make a brand new blog aimed at the girly side of science fiction and fantasy.

    http://stellarfour.blogspot.com/

    We talk about everything from urban fantasy to wonder woman makeup to cosplay to games, all from a female perspective. Come check us out.

  105. Oooh, a post in which to flog things! For this I will delurk! I’m afraid it’s not particularly geeky or science-fictional, but the site I write for, http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca, just launched its latest version last month. For all your information needs about child health and development, in English, French, and Chinese (simplified character set), plus core information in Arabic, Chinese (traditional character set), Spanish, Tamil, Urdu, and Portuguese. Punjabi coming soon.

    Downside: if you are using an iPad, the site will be significantly less cool because all our medical illustration and kids’ content is in Flash. The medical illustration really is worth checking out — How the Body Works in particular.

  106. Thanks for the promotion opportunity! Nice cards, btw :)

    If you’re a writer with an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, you might be interested in my submission tracking app, Story Tracker. It’s a universal app, so it’ll work with any of the above. The new update just came out today, with a bunch of new features. There’s even a free version you can test drive. More info at my website: http://andrewnicolle.com

    I also have another app on the App Store: Artwork Tracker. If you’re an artist, art dealer, gallery owner, or art collector, you’ll want to check that one out. There’s a free version available, too. More details on my website.

  107. Wow! This is a great way to overload your comments section! Thanks for the great opportunity, I’d like to plug my e-book “Writing a play for Community Theatre” which you can download at http://www.tlc-creative.co.uk/writing_a_play.htm

    I feel like I came late to the party. If you ever wish to reach dozens of people, you can leave as many links as you like on my blog. Cheers!

  108. Thanks for the opportunity, John!

    This is cool – my friend Justin Moran has decided to try and create a Spider-Man musical on a budget of zero dollars in 31 days, to open March 14th – the day before the $65 million version opens. Start to finish, everything gets done in 31 days. Here’s a link to the NY Times Arts Beat write-up:

    http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/a-second-spider-man-musical-swings-into-town/

    As Justin says in his first YouTube video about the project: “Who knows? Maybe we can prove that you don’t need sixty-five million dollars to make a good musical.”

  110. Crap, it looks like I screwed up the second link in my previous post…sorry!

    Here it is–a fantasy story, available for whatever price you might want to pay (including nothing…): Dueling Ground

  111. John, thanks for allowing us to unlimber the horns and toot them. Much appreciated.

    I have a novel coming out from Night Shade Books called SOUTHERN GODS. It’s about a phantom radio station, blues music, WWII, Arkansas, biscuits and gravity, and old gods warring to reclaim the earth. And humanity. It’ll be out August 2011.

    You can check it out at the publishers website here.

    I recently finished OLD MAN’S WAR – yeah, I know, what the hell took me so long? – and I have to say, it was incredible. One of those books you just don’t want to end. So thanks for that. Been a long time since I’ve had a reading experience that enjoyable.

  112. For fans of Science Fiction Grand Master Philip José Farmer, we have a special offer running right now at Meteor House. Purchase a copy of The Worlds of Philip José Farmer 1: Protean Dimensions (a limited edition, numbered, trade paperback) for only $20 and you can purchase back issues of Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer, for 50% off: only $5 each. (Note issues 12, 13 and 14 are already sold out).

    The Worlds of Philip José Farmer 1: Protean Dimensions contains stories and essays by David Bischoff, Win Scott Eckert, Randall Garrett, James Gunn, Rhys Hughes, Paul Malmont, Chris Roberson, and others. Farmerphile contains material by way too many people to list here, so we’ll just drop a few names: Joe Haldeman, Joe R. Lansdale, Spider Robinson, Howard Waldrop, Charles R. Saunders, Allen Steele…the list goes on and on. Click on the link above and check it out for yourself.

  113. I am late to the party on this, but I run a small independent bookstore on the Oregon Coast. We are promoting our new online store, where you can choose from over 1.5 million titles that represent all the best in books, audiobooks, DVDs and CDs. You can find it at http://www.ekahnibooks.com

    Winters can be rough for us because we live in a town that is primarily tourist (summer) oriented, so not a lot of money comes in for about 6 months out of the year. So, if you were thinking of ordering books online from some giant like Amazon, please consider ordering them from us instead. We have access to four warehouses spread out all over the country so that your orders will get to you quickly, no matter where you are in the USA. And if you order $25.00 or more, you get free shipping.

    You would be helping to support not only an independent bookstore in a time when many of them are being destroyed by giant corporations, but also a small family of sci-fi and fantasy geeks.

    Thanks to Scalzi for providing the forum. This is a great idea and I hope it helps the lot of us. :)

  114. Scalzi friends/ fantastic people:
    If everyone could watch our show Bob’s Burgers, along with the rest of our excellent Sunday night animation, that would be really, really great both for me, and for you because it’s a charming show.

    Also: Futurama on comedy central (when it comes back) is going to be super good.
    Thanks!
    -mike

  115. Lyda Morehouse has a new book coming out! She’s also posting little vignettes from the AngeLinkVerse in her livejournal.

    I really love Lyda’s AngeLink series. And the prequel is about my favorite character in the series, which is so unbelievably awesome!

    You don’t need to have read the original series, because she always does a great job of making each book so you can just pick it up and start there.

  119. Let’s do someone else work this time. How about a webcomic good enough for the majors but which doesn’t quite have the audience size it deserves yet?

    Darwin Charmichael is Going to Hell by Sohpie Goldstein and Jenn Jorden. Darwin Charmichael is a nice guy who earned enough bad Karma off of one event that he’ll be luckily to break even in this lifetime. Maybe his ward (a 2000-year-old tween Manticore) and his best friend (Ella Fitzgerald, who has good Karma to burn) will be able to help him with that.

  120. OASIS 24 is a traditional SF convention produced by the Orlando Area Science Fiction Society,.

    Our guests of honor for 2011 are David Drake (writer), Tommy Castillo (artist), and Carla Ulbrich.

    The convention will be held May 27-29, 2011 at the Orlando Downtown Sheraton, 400 W. Livingston Street, Orlando, FL. Memberships are currently $35.

    For more information, go to http://www.oasfis.org/oasis

  121. I am currently very privileged to be working on a new Sci-fi themed Action-RPG game for the PC called Darkspore. The game is incredibly fun to play solo, with friends co-operatively, or competitively in player-v’s-player mode. With ground-breaking character customization, it releases at the end of March across the world

    You can find out about the game (and get your free beta pass!) at http://www.darkspore.com/newsletter_home.php

    John, a big thanks to you for giving me the forum to mention the game. I really am very proud to be associated with it.

  123. I’m not personally involved in this, but I figure I’d spread the joy:

    For anyone who’s read the Acts of Caine by Matthew Woodring Stover (Heroes Die, Blade of Tyshalle, and Caine Black Knife) or who likes a good read that merges sober social commentary with realistic and excellent (and aptly violent) action, here’s a link to the OverWorld.tv Project, a fan-funded comic focusing on the early career of Caine, written by Matt Stover and drawn by a team of professional artists who are also fans of the original novels (which means awesomeness tripled, as far as I’m concerned). The first issue is still in the works, but they can use all the support they get, even this early in the game!

  124. Okay, flogging…

    http://trarr.net

    It’s my own project, a science fiction webcomic.

    Siendes is human soldier who managed to escape the enemy to warn Earth from the impending invasion, but on her way home she crashes on a tiny, remote planet with kinda odd natives. Unfortionally for Siendes she screwed up the first contact…

    The comic is still pretty young, around 23 pages, published in English and German and the first chapter is drawing to a close. An ideal time to start reading.

    It does lack a cover with lasershooting starships, though.

  125. I do so love pimpage threads….

    I will once again toss my podcast – The Labyrinth Library – into the fray. I do a weekly book review podcast, usually about 10-15 minutes long, about some book that I thought was interesting or fun to talk about. I often do a series review on the last episode of the month. Right now I’m on The Dark Tower by Stephen King, and the episode that goes up tomorrow is Wolves of the Calla, the last solid book before things go kinda pear-shaped.

    Since the last pimp-thread I’ve made a few changes. I moved the whole works over here to WordPress, bought meself a domain name, and started making things look nicer than they could look over at Blogspot. I also started doing a once-a-month adjunct podcast called “Lost in the Stacks” wherein I talk about reading and books in general. Last month I talked about Reading Evangelism (or, how to get people to read without coming off as a snob), and the episode going up this weekend will be about whether it’s worthwhile for adults to read young adult literature.

    I do love doing my podcast, and I think you’ll love it too.

  126. Good day fellow floggers. Please direct your eyeballs to this dark fantasy based around academia by Year’s Best Fantasy anthology author Patricia S. Bowne.

    Advice From Pigeons follows the story of HIram Rho who is a bit of an anit-social wretch, and a new adjunct faculty member in the Demonlogy Department at the Royal Academy of the Arcane Arts and Sciences at Osyth

    Bowne’s Osyth is a masterfully conceived modern otherworld where magic is the replacement for science and the Royal Academy is home to the most talented Demonology department in all the world. Magic in general is dangerous and Demonology in particular is a messy field of research that can get even a talented practitioner quickly eviscerated. When Rho joins the faculty he’s prepared to be shunned by his fellow colleagues because his peculiarities, but he isn’t prepared to handle the twisted affections of a demon who singles him out as a vessel for its grand ambitions.

    If you like what you see check out Patricia’s website http://raosyth.com/ This is the first in a three book series.

    The book is available from venerable e-book publisher Double Dragon Publishing in just about every digital format you can imagine. Use the link above to pop on over and check it out.

  127. Crossed Genres, the magazine of science fiction and fantasy with a twist, just released its first Quarterly issue! Edited by Jaym Gates and Natania Barron, this volume contains over 75,000 words, including Issue 25 – Celebration, 26 – Opposites, and 27 – Tragedy.

    Quarterly #1 is available now through Amazon.com or Createspace.

  129. My latest novel THE LAST GIANT is available in POD and ebooks.
    http://tinyurl.com/4rwqyuc

    Here’s the blurb:

    “In morning light, my heart’s delight, is slinking in and inking skin.” Firefly, one of the river people, lives by this ancient song. She yearns to be an inker and tattoo giants, just like her mother. But one morning a rogue giant kidnaps her mother and takes her up to the plateau, a dangerous place for all river people. Firefly attempts to rescue her mother, putting her own life in peril. To add to her problems, the dam that keeps her world safe begins to crumble and the giants must scramble to repair it, putting Firefly in even greater peril. Then she learns her mother harbors a secret that calls into question everything Firefly ever believed about her people, her family, and herself. From stampeding giants to flooding waters and burning mountains, Firefly copes with adventure and danger as her home and everything she knows and loves collapses. She must find the courage to survive in a new world built on the destruction of the old.

  130. I’m a member of http://www.turtleduckpress.com — an alliance of writers committed to bringing quality but less-commercial works to the public. So far we have a gay SF romance novel, a fantasy novella, and a poetry chapbook for sale (excerpts available on the site), as well as free short stories and a regular blog. We’d love it if you’d come check us out!

  133. Hooray, promotion!

    The last arc of my comics series 28 Days Later is about to start in a few weeks. I also have a pretty hefty back catalog, including personal favorites like Dingo and Hexed. If you’re curious to see what I do, you can see a complete list over at the .

  135. Great remarkable issues here. I am very happy to peer your post. Thank you a lot and i am taking a look forward to contact you. Will you please drop me a mail?

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Athena Scalzi, contributor – AMS
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