Hey! Have an Open Promotional Thread!

Posted on September 24, 2013    Posted by      236 Comments

I’m writing things not on the Internet today, so while I’m doing that, I’m opening up this comment thread for you to tell everyone about what you think is cool and worth checking out, online or off. Could be a Web site, could be new music, could be a book or story or some crafty type of thing. Could be yours, could be a friend’s, could be someone you don’t know but think are doing awesome stuff. Whatever it is, share it with the crowd.

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 (even from the air — you can do that now) 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 suggest.

So: what do you want to tell people about today? Share it in the comment thread!

Category: Uncategorized    

236 Comments on “Hey! Have an Open Promotional Thread!”

  10. Cool! Jaym Gates and I are putting together a Military SF anthology called War Stories. We’re aiming to put together something modern and relevant, and so far, it’s coming along nicely. We’re backed by Apex Publications, and we’ll be using Kickstarter for part of it.

    We’re at http://www.warstoriesanthology.com (where we’re promoting it, have a list of confirmed contributors, as well as generally discussing Military SF stuff), and you can find us on Twitter as well: @warstoriesantho. We’ve also got a facebook page: facebook dot com/warstoriesanthology.

  11. One of my favorite artists is Lisa Snellings, who does sculptural work and some painting and print-making. She’s worked with and her work as been an inspiration for Neil Gaiman, Peter Beagle and Gene Wolfe, among others. She’s got an Etsy shop that’s well worth checking out: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Strangestudios

  14. Cool. I just started doing a feminist/progressivist re-watch of Supernatural; the first post is here. I haven’t put up an index yet, because the first four episodes I did some time ago, before I started the blog, but should have one up in a day or two. Runs Tuesdays and Fridays, and we’ve just had S1E3, Wendigo.

    And i’m CaitieCat, though i can’t seem to figure out how to get my WordPress log-in to let me be CaitieCat and fullmetal at the same time.

  18. I think it would be wrong of me to promote my own book here, because this is about AWESOME STUFF, so I won’t. I will say, though–hey! You guys! Listen up!–the powers-that-be in the music industry finally released their gnarly fingers from around the neck of Patty Griffin’s third album, “Silver Bell,” and it’s coming out next month and you should totally buy it.

    http://www.amazon.com/Silver-Bell-Patty-Griffin/dp/B00E0P8VQQ

    (Oh, hell, why not. My book is RAIN ON YOUR WEDDING DAY, http://www.amazon.com/Rain-Your-Wedding-Day-ebook/dp/B00BJ7CCKY/ – it’s funny, because the first four letters of the ASIN spell BOOB. Ha ha ha.)

  19. I’ll chime in with a kickstarter that I’d very much like to see succeed.
    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kerberosproductions/ground-pounders
    It’s a hex-grid turn based sci-fi strategy wargame set in the Sword of the Stars universe. It’ll be playable on PC and Android (with Mac, Linux and iOS as part of their future plans) and allow asynchronous cross-platform multiplayer.

    And for those looking for a story, check out The Deacon’s Tale by Arinn Dembo. It’s a novella in the SOTSverse, and available in the usual locations where fine ebooks may be purchased. It’s a great introduction to the ‘verse.

  20. Hey there. I’m a cartographer, SF reader and aspiring science fiction writer. I’d like to connect more with the science fiction community, so this seems like a good opportunity.

    My blog is Terra Cognition (http://terracognition.wordpress.com), where I write about science, science fiction, anxiety/depression and other life stuff. I’ll be joining a group of other bloggers in November for Sci-Fi Month (http://www.rinnreads.co.uk/search/label/sci-fi%20month), a science fiction blogging event.

    Looking forward to seeing other links and connecting with people!

  26. I’ll do one thing I love: Shropshire folk band Whalebone’s new album Runes (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Runes/dp/B00EA5KAOW/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_1), which is brilliant, with original music, traditional folk songs and a couple of rock covers.

    And one thing that’s mine: my blog Ally’s Desk at http://aliceleiper.com/, on topics of writing and fantasy.

    Thanks for putting this up, John, and I will definitely be browsing the other replies for great new cmusic, books and more.

  29. Friends of mine were wary of the various vanity presses when it came to publishing their original fics. So they did the obvious thing: they started their own publishing house.

    http://www.storyspringpublishing.com/

    I’ve been reading their stuff for years under other names. I’ll be following them into that new venture.

  33. Yesterday (in a kind of pixel double orgasm), I completed the 20th and 21st of a double sequence of novellas, one sequence Lovecraftian Science Fantsy, the other Hard SF. All are workshopped face-to-face, and/or beta-tested as serializations on Facebook. If you are one of my 5,000 Facebook friends, come take a look. I am also serializing on my FB Timeline the 2nd of my “what if Jack Reacher was a woman” novellas, “Rack in Roswell.” I’ve only sold some poems, and 3 short stories, so far in 2013 while being in a novella focus (my 900 words short story “The Frog Prince”, #1 of Tales from the Ultraviolet Fairy Book, was accepted for publication in Daily Science Fiction (a SFWA Major Market); “Garrett Lisi’s Exceptionally Simple Theory of E8 Stardrive”, of 31 Mar 2010, 33 pages, approx, 7,100 words, sold to: Misque Press, for their September or October 2013 anthology “Space Jockeys.”; 1,800 words short story ‘The Dog and the Sparrow’, #14 in my Tales From the Ultraviolet Fairy, has been accepted for Issue 1 of Black Wire Literary Magazine). And, of course, I don’t get paid for my scientific publications, even when my co-authors are well known in Science Fiction, such as “‘Starflight without Warp Drive’ reappraised after 18 years” , by
    Jonathan Vos Post, Geoffrey A. Landis, David Brin, and Dr. Robert L. Forward
    1st Interplanetary Small Satellite Conference
    California Institute of Technology
    20-21 June, 2013

    Grand Total (not counting the 4,000 page Alzheimer’s War):
    304,100 words, THE 10 LOVECRAFTIAN NOVELLAS ( 982 pages)
    323,850 words, THE 12 DECADAL HARD SCIENCE FICTION NOVELLAS ( 1,054 pages)
    ====================================
    627,950 words (mean = 29,902) of 21 completed novellas total in the two sequences (2036 pages)

  34. Thanks so much for the chance to do this! I JUST SO HAPPEN to have a fantasy novel that got a release a week or so ago. The title is CROWFLIGHT. It is about crows and people and people who turn into crows and there’s also a goddess of death and magic and evil people doing secret bad things somewhere in there.

    Here’s a place where you can buy it if you want to put it on your glowing screen: http://www.amazon.com/Crowflight-Casting-the-Bones-ebook/dp/B00F8JCU38/ref=sr_1_1 It’s also over at B&N and Weightless Books.

    I’ll be giving away a copy on my website (http://sunnymoraine.com/) at some point in the next few days. You can also read the first chapter for free over there. Yay.

  36. I usually write mystery novels designed to make readers laugh, but my latest is a laugh and cry book. It’s gotten good reviews, but I could use a larger readership. And I’d also like to know if the laughing and crying thing is working for people. Would you rather just laugh?

    http://www.amazon.com/Crazy-Little-Thing-Called-Dead/dp/1480133299/

    Also available for e-readers and in audible. The audible book is my favorite – Sara Mackie does the narration and she’s FAB!

  37. Thanks, John.

    A podcast of my story “As Far As You Can Go” appeared fairly recently on PodCastle. It was originally published in Tim Pratt’s and Heather Shaw’s magazine, Flytrap, and was reprinted in Gardner Dozois’ Year’s Best Science Fiction 24.

    It’s about a boy and a broken robot who journey across a strange and threatening urban landscape, populated by witches and a dragon and other odd things, in search of the sea.

    It’s kinda, sorta, just a tiny little bit related to my middle-grade novel, The Boy at the End of the World. The novel is age-appropriate for 10 and up, while “As Far As You Can Go” would get a solid R.

    http://podcastle.org/2013/08/20/podcastle-274-far-as-you-can-go/

  39. If you live in the area, Ottawa, Canada is holding it’s premiere Speculative Fiction convention on October 4-6, 2013. And this year they are hosting the Canadian Aurora Awards! I’m so excited!

    For more info like guests, panels, location etc, please visit can-con.org.

    Thanks for giving us this space John!

  40. Well, since you ask… My book HARVESTMAN is out on kindle, ebook, and paperback. Here’s the blurb:

    “A simple mission, they said,” muttered Leonardo.
    “We shouldn’t have crashed,“ said Baz.
    “Crashed? We should not be alive.“

    His military career ruined after the Newhope disaster, Capt. Leonardo Valencia has one last run before he can retire, grab his pension and drink the days away.

    Then Resurgam crashes returning from a routine archeological mission. Valencia awakens to find all but three of the crew dead from strange circumstances on a planet that shouldn’t be there. Mysteries pile up as the crew discovers one passenger, a reclusive archeologist, survived only to flee into the planet’s snowy wastes with illegal alien artifacts. Valencia and his remaining crew find themselves facing many questions and short on time. Is this archeologist in fact Harvestman, architect of the Newhope disaster and leader of the separatists Free Mars Republic? What’s going on in the strange tunnel he fled to at the planet’s southern reaches? Capt. Valencia and his crew are stranded with only days to figure out how to thwart the plans of this madman.

    But if they fail, the FMR will destroy all life on Earth and replace it with something horrific, fulfilling an ancient vendetta.

    I think fan’s of Scalzi will definitely dig it!

  42. This is one of my blogs detailing some of the driving incidents that I encounter in the Denver metro area. I recently had some “encounter” in my car that got me to thinking that I need to protect myself against some truly awful drivers here in Denver. I have captured some amazing things, like an RTD bus just this morning. http://learn2drivedenver.blogspot.com/

  43. John, thanks for opening the thread to us :)

    Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to present our ongoing cyberpunk story and app, The Agiliste. New content is posted every few days and we have been running the website for two years now, so there’s a lot of backstory for you to binge on :)

    http://www.theagiliste.com

    An excerpt:

    “He promised you, all that time ago, that he would never ask you to do this again. He PROMISED. He couldn’t keep it. No matter how nice a guy Mike seemed to be on the outside, on the inside he might as well have been all wires and circuits. The reputation of his beloved Corporation was at stake and reputation must be upheld at all costs. You know that. You hate it. But you know Mike is right.

    So you flip the switch, and the bubbly but wickedly efficient Claire the executive staff knows so well is gone. The last flicker of her prays fervently it’s not forever, but there are no guarantees. The tears barely have the chance to dampen your eyes before the transition from Personal Assistant to Personal Assassin is complete.

    You have skills, skills those idiots in pinstriped suits never even guessed at. Through the elite technology of the Cortical Overlay they bolted to the inside of your skull, you can pull new talents, you can go from expert marksman to billy-club wielding thug in an eyeblink. You can walk as silently as a cat, make a marathoner look like he’s taking a walk in the park, hack computers and access information at the speed of thought. But for all of that, there are bigger, badder things out there. They hide in the lucycrete and frosted glass mazes of corporate empires where it is almost impossible to pry them out of their holes and bring them into the light. That’s okay. Your job is to find them. Mike’s is to crush them underfoot. Predatory corporate justice.”

  45. I was camera op for a webseries called The Scarlet Line, about a group of women bodyguards/vigilantes (sorta) that traces its roots to the jiu jitsu suffragettes of pre-Great War England. The fourth episode was just released and the entire production has been a labor of love by a group of Chicago theatre folk, led by Kathrynne Wolf, who wrote, directed, and stars in the series.

  46. I’m working with a group of people to launch a new track of programming at Dragoncon next year, one devoted to fan-created media and transformative works. We’re putting together a proposal that we’re really hoping the con will like and approve, and towards that end we’re trying to rally support. You can see what we’re planning at this tumblr, and there’s also a link to a poll we’re using to get a headcount of interested people. If you attend Dragoncon and think the con could use more fanwork programming, we’d love to have your support!

  47. What interesting things people are doing! Thanks for doing this! My speculative fiction novel, A Highly Unlikely Scenario, or a Neetsa Pizza Employee’s Guide to Saving the World, is coming out in January from Melville House. It’s about Leonard, complaints guy for a national Pythagorean pizza chain. Thrown into history by thirteenth-century mystic Isaac the Blind, Leonard saves the world, not once but three times, with the help of Marco Polo, a warrior-librarian named Sally, Leonard’s cartoon-drawing nephew Felix, and a magical aleph. You can preorder from Melville House now and get the book early, and at a lovely discount: http://www.mhpbooks.com/books/a-highly-unlikely-scenario/.

  49. Thanks (again) for open promotional threads, John!

    Amazing Stories. http://www.amazingstoriesmag.com I’m now publishing articles from 117+ contributors, many of them familiar names in the field. We’re all working together to bring Amazing Stories back as a fiction market. Members eyeballs help us achieve that goal and everything is free.
    Plus, we’ve got some killer content, unless you’re just not into science fiction, fantasy, horror, comics, film, anime, fandom, the pulps, fantastic space art, excerpts from forthcomig works and all that other geeky stuff.

  51. My shameless plug too. My hobby website http://loschaos.com/

    The site is a tumblog format featuring Science Fiction related stuff. I have been working on it for seven years now! I don’t believe I have had 30 million visitors yet like some people I know. :o) In 2012, the site had 25 thousand visitors, and in 2013 so far I have had 94 thousand (Google Analytics – Visits). I guess that is not a lot as web sites go, but I am pretty darn excited about it! It has been a lot of fun working on the site. The site has been everything from a 1 page HTML site to a PHPnuke site and now on WordPress. WordPress has been great. Every time they came out with a PHPnuke upgrade it would wipe out the site and cause untold grief. LOL All my WordPress upgrades have been smooth as butter.

    I keep the site going due to my devotion to the Science Fiction genre. Hope you like it.

    Cheers!

  53. Good Evening, or perhaps it is Good Morning in the Colonies?
    Anyhow, if I could a have second of your attention; It so happens that I have written a short-story that isn’t wholly unappealing. I don’t like high-end concepts, but if I had to employ one, I would call it the Green Mile meets Dexter. If it sounds interesting, maybe download a sample? That is all. Thanks for your attention. Have nice morning/noon/evening!

    http://www.amazon.com/Judas-John-ebook/dp/B00EK3N5O6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376568463&sr=8-1&keywords=sebastian+lindblad

  54. I’m not sure if I posted this or not since Chrome is annoying about WordPress and I think it ate my comment. (Apologies if I am repeating myself.)
    I’m just going to promote my eclectic art, ADD, poetry, photo, babbling blog
    http://2bdancing.wordpress.com/
    Lately I’ve been talking about my Esty Shop where I sell the arts and crafts that I make, so you can click through to that if you like.

  56. Magic the Gathering’s Head of Creative ha some cool answers on his Magic related tumblr:
    dougbeyermtg.tumblr.com

  58. Thanks John!
    I just released my novel on Kindle and it’s supposed to be on Nook, but still waiting…

    Journey back to the beginning of the last ice advance, 80,000 years ago, a time of cataclysmic weather and drastic landscape changes in North America. This is the time of pleists, the first people, who mount monstrous animals like mammoths, cave bears, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths and wooly rhinoceroses to battle for control of the promised land in the War for Beringia.

    http://www.amazon.com/The-War-for-Beringia-ebook/dp/B00F4KC0D6/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380043296&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=The+war+for+Berngia

    Any reviewers who want a copy contact me on Facebook.

  60. The Incrementalists, a new book from Steven Brust and Skyler White came out today, and it looks amazing!
    http://www.amazon.com/The-Incrementalists-Steven-Brust/dp/0765334224

    I also just read Tough Sh*t, by Kevin Smith (of Clerks fame), and it was an incredible experience. Hilarious, inspirational, sad, and so much more. Highly recommended for both fans of Kevin Smith and those unfamiliar with him.
    http://www.amazon.com/Tough-Sh-Life-Advice-ebook/dp/B005ERIRYK/

    Lastly, I recently started a blog, featuring short stories (and sometimes reviews) every Monday and Friday. I mostly write horror shorts, although I am experimenting with other genres. http://www.chriseld.com/

  61. I do a lot of craft-type stuff, mainly crochet and plastic canvas. This link shows a crocheted afghan, a couple of crocheted sweaters, some tissue box covers and one framed picture. These pictures aren’t the be-all and end-all of my work, I have many other patterns and projects to choose from. I’d be happy to discuss projects/pricing with anyone who’s interested:

    https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.r.ewing/media_set?set=a.106518882742463.10183.100001530564071&type=3

    You can reach me directly through FB, but if you don’t have a FB acct (perish the thought!) you can also reach me at jrewing123@clear.net.

    Hope to hear from you soon! Have a great day! :-)

  62. Shameless self-promotion time!

    I’ve written an urban fantasy novel I’m self-publishing next month called “One Death at a Time”, the first in the Twelve Stakes series:

    “Twelve Stakes is a supernatural/noir/mystery/thriller/fantasy about secret vampire societies, outlaw biker werewolves, drug dealing Fae, magic-addicted witches, and the dark world lurking just around the corner from our own.”

    In this world, Alcoholics Anonymous was started as a way to help Vampires survive, and the public face is just a front. The first book is about Jack Strayhorn, ex-LAPD detective and one hundred year-old Vamp from the days of the Black Dahlia murders, who is back in Los Angeles to solve the murder of a local politician who turns out to be a Fae. A mysterious new drug has hit the street that reeks of Faerie magic, and Jack’s case will lead him right to the secret source.

    http://www.twelvestakes.com

  64. I look after the website for the Topic Folk Club in Bradford (West Yorkshire, not Ohio), the self-described longest-established weekly pub-based folk club in the world; established 57 years ago this very month and still going strong. http://www.topic-folk-club.org.uk/

    OK, it may not be of much use to many here, but who knows, we recently upgraded our History pages and you might be interested to see what it was like for a Young Communist to start up a folk club in a British northern industrial town in the late-50s (Alex Eaton’s essay in 1990 on the very early days). Or you may like to frolic through the Gigs List 1957-on, with every club night we can identify from a variety of records, and see which of the 733 professional acts listed you have ever heard of, from Dr John Hasted, atomic physicist & singer from University College London back in 1957 via Martin Carthy and Peggy Seeger to Dana and Susan Robinson from North Carolina coming along this November 2013 for a repeat visit.

    And who knows, some reader here might be near Bradford (the other one).

  65. I have a blog called, Nicole’s Adventures in Science and Science Fiction where I write book reviews and general audience science articles. http://nicolepoweleit.wordpress.com/

    I’m currently reading my way through the NPR top 100 science fiction and fantasy book list, but I try and sprinkle in reviews of indie authors as well.

  68. I must begin by scolding you for being so uncooperative as to make this offer today, rather than in a few weeks when my next book, Division (which I’ll be desperate to talk about by then), comes out. How inconsiderate of you!

    To show that I don’t hold a grudge, I’ll post about one of my SF novels that’s already out there. . . .

    Twin-Bred asks: can interspecies diplomacy begin in the womb?

    Humans have lived on Tofarn, planet of creeks and rivers, for seventy years, but they still don’t understand the Tofa. The Tofa are an enigma, from their featureless faces to the four arms that sometimes seem to be five. They take arbitrary umbrage at the simplest human activities, while annoying their human neighbors in seemingly pointless ways. The next infuriating, inexplicable incident may explode into war.

    Scientist Mara Cadell’s radical proposal: that host mothers carry fraternal twins, human and Tofa, in the hope that the bond between twins can bridge the gap between species. Mara knows about the bond between twins: her own twin, Levi, died in utero, but she has secretly kept him alive in her mind as companion and collaborator.

    Perhaps Mara should have expected the enigmatic Tofa to have their own reasons to support her project. Perhaps the ever-cynical Levi should have warned her that members of the human government might use her twins as weapons against the Tofa. Will the Twin-Bred bring peace, war, or something else entirely?

    . . . aaaand here’s the link: http://amzn.to/u2OtVP

    (Really: thanks for being so generous as to invite upstarts like me to post!)

  70. If the phrase “gritty steampunk Inspector Gadget” does anything for you, then you need to get Ken Krekeler’s amazing comic series Westward: http://www.kinetic-press.com/Westward/westward.html (First volume has been collected in trade paperback, for those of you who like to wait for that sort of thing.)

    I’d also like to to join the chorus of Hell Yeah The Incrementalists Is Out. :)

  71. The largest indoor bluegrass festival in the US is coming up in February. So if you’re into guitars, fiddles, things with strings, staying up all night drinking and jamming, and other assorted civilized forms of debauchery, you should go.

    This will be my 10th year as a volunteer, and I’d quit my job and be homeless before I miss it.

    http://www.acousticsound.org/

  72. I have a friend(Kaffe) over at The Trek BBS Voyager Section that just made a bad ass parody/Mash video that is filled with awesome sauce. If any one is/has been watching “Orange is the New Black” and has watched Voyager, you will laugh your butt off. Now you need to know they made Janeway(Mulgrew) as the main character…Piper. Hence, the “coffee” and “chicken” reference. ▶ Chicken is the New Coffee But for real….. Kate Mulgrew=Red is IN OitNB. See here…Janeway is Head of the Kitchen in Prison and part of the Russian mob. ▶ RED – YouTube Enjoy!

  73. Thanks for this John. You have a very generous nature.

    My wife is doing some social media work to promote a friend of hers, Pamela Paterson. Essentially, Pam has come up with some practical tips and suggestions to help make resumes more easily read by online search tools used by most HR groups. Pam’s stuff is explained in more detail on her website, http://www.beatresumesystems.com. She also has a book available through Amazon. If you think Skynet is responsible for your resume not getting any responses, Pam has the tools to defeat it.

    And, in addition to John’s wonderful stories, and those of all the authors that he opens up this site to in his idea series, I want to plug another writer, Robert J Sawyer.

  76. Allow me to recommend Glitter & Mayhem, the most glamorous party in the multiverse! It’s a collection of short stories in which you can “dance through nightclubs, roller derby with cryptids and aliens, be seduced by otherworldly creatures, and ingest cocktails that will alter your existence forever.”

    Edited by my Verity! Podcast cohost Lynne M. Thomas, as well as her lovely husband Michael Damian Thomas, and the wonderful John Klima.

    http://www.apexbookcompany.com/collections/all-books/products/glitter-mayhem/

  79. Yessssss, Westward! Smart interesting writing and gorgeous artwork. I think Nightvale listeners will enjoy Westward. Read it in your local dog park. http://www.kinetic-press.com/Westward/westward.html

    I’m yet another person who is pleased that The Incrementalists is out today, but that’s largely because I cannot handle anymore countdown excitement.

    Oooh, and also Vicious is out today, and yeah, it is damned excellent: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13638125-vicious

  80. Fifteen of us got together on kickstarter to write a collection of science fiction short stories set in the universe of the game Elite:Dangerous. Our book is one of several due out next March when the game is released

    Our website is at elite-anthology.co.uk where you will find author bios, story teasers and the twitter feed.

    Thank you, John. You are the best.

  82. Back in the spring I published the 8th issue of Bull Spec magazine:

    http://bullspec.com/issues/bull-spec-8/

    Wonderful cover art by Cynthia Sheppard, design by Gabriel Dunston, original fiction by Brenda Cannon Kalt, Rich Matrunick, Elizabeth Creith, Gwendolyn Clare, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and more; an excerpt of John W. Campbell Award winning Mur Lafferty’s novel The Shambling Guide to New York City; wonderful speculative poetry edited by Dan Campbell; interviews of Kim Stanley Robinson and Toni Weisskopf; essays on Murakami and the late Ray Bradbury; reviews; illustrations; …

    Available in full-size glossy print and (via Weightless Books and Wizard’s Tower Books) DRM-free PDF. There’s a 52-page free preview as well.

    Thanks John for the thread.

  88. I write tweet-sized* science fiction and fantasy stories. Also mirrored on Tumblr, in case you prefer to get your updates there.

    https://twitter.com/MicroSFF

    * I did celebrate reaching a milliwheaton with writing an epic fantasy trilogy in three tweets, but apart from that it’s all simple fantastic (in some meaning of the word) stories in 140 characters or less.

  90. I’ve become a fan of the game Kerbal Space Program.

    https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/

    The game is under development. What is currently available is a sandbox in which you can design and fly spacecraft for a species of little green men, called Kerbals, who have no fear of climbing into whatever bit of space hardware you design, no matter how dubious . Kerbals have remarkably good cheer, even if your lander tips over, leaving them stranded on the surface of one of the moons or planets of the Kerbin system.

    The game physics are fairly realistic, though there are many details swept under the rug.

    There is a free demo.

  91. Hey thanks! I have edited a new anthology, DOORWAYS TO EXTRA TIME, on the theme: “What if you really *could* get more hours in the day?” My coeditor is Trisha Wooldridge, the book is published by Spencer Hill Press, and it’s available on Amazon:

    http://amzn.com/1937053725

    In our busy world of meetings and microwaves, car radios and cellphones, people always wish they could get an extra hour in the day. But what if they could? Doorways to Extra Time is an anthology that explores ways to get extra time (be it an hour, a day, or a decade) and the impact it would have–whether upon a single life, a family or an entire world.

    Featuring stories by: Erica Cameron, Martin Feekins, Anthony Francis, L.M. Graham, R.E. Gofstein, Melina Gunnett, Walter H. Hunt, Betsy Miller, Susan Mittmann, Brenda Moguez, Jenny Moore, Ira Nayman, Errick A. Nunnally, Jody Lynn Nye, Kate Saturday, Gayle Schultz, Rich Storrs, Keshia Swaim, Aimee Weinstein and Trisha J. Wooldridge.

    And thanks again for the promo thread!

  92. What is life to Lovecraft but a meaningless speck of dust in an uncaring cosmos? Well, when confronted with such horror, of course one should create a webcomic about it! Here are the best Lovecraftian webcomics going currently (and no, I have nothing to do with any of them).

    http://lovecraftismissing.com/

    http://www.misk-u.com/‎

    http://younglovecraft.blogspot.com/

    http://weirdtalesmagazine.com/2012/08/21/comic-call-of-cthulhu-the-musical-lovecraft-hendrickson/

    http://www.noodlyappendage.com

    http://www.goominet.com/unspeakable-vault/

  95. Best I can do is a cd I just got home with. Dream Theater, just released a new self titled album. Through track 5, its really good. Past track 5, see the “just got home with” at the start of this.

  97. One of my favorite bands, Gaelic Storm, recently self-released an album titled “The Boathouse.” It’s available for $9.99 exclusively through their website: http://www.gaelicstorm.com/store/index.php?cPath=139 and if you like traditional Irish music and/or sea shanties and water-themed songs, I highly recommend checking it out.

    On a side note, @Meredith, your astronomy blog is rad! I added it to my RSS feed.

  99. Thank you. On my Public/semi-professional* blog where I usually write about house hunting, we have been give them go-ahead to write about just about anything that strikes our fancy

    like this for my friends who are training for the Chicago Marathon

    http://www.chicagonow.com/adventures-house-hunting/2013/09/chicago-marathon-20-miler/

    and if John or anyone here wants to see a picture of Mr Scalzi and I, here it is on my personal blog

    http://www.mysteries-of-life.com/2013/07/free-sunday-stuff.html

    * can it really be a professional blog if one doesn’t get paid? I suppose it’s like being a stay-at-home parent — the pay isn’t great but the benefits are unmeasurable.

  100. Always on the look-out for a new audience, and a way to generate some cash for my writing projects, I’ve thought of a ‘dial-up-a-sf/fantasy/horror story’ venture. It’s only really feasible to ring from a UK BT landline as that’s 10ppm (unless you are extremely rich and are fanatical about my stuff) as mobiles and other landline providers will charge more. Further details are on my website. Thanks for the opportunity to promote this John. BTW there’s a FREE e-book link there too :)

  101. This thread makes me wish I had a blog, story, or craft to advertise. Alas, I have none of those.

    I’ll check out everyone’s links when I get home. Lots of creative folks here.

  102. Why gawd bless ya, Mr Scalzi!

    I’m a narrator for StarShipSofa, a Hugo Award winning weekly SF short story (and other assorted goodies) podcast, and as happenstance has it, tomorrow’s episode see’s me reading two stories, both kinda roboty themed.

    I feel especially honoured to be doing these stories, as I think they are blooming remarkable. They’re written by two relatively unknown (in the US) Limey authors, Guy Haley and Philip Suggars, but they both blew my tiny mind away. I’ve narrated for Peter Watts, Ted Kosmatka, Pete Hamilton and others, and I believe these two shorts are up there with them. Honestly.

    Anyhoo, I do hope some of you will have a listen, and maybe even post something on the forum (that would be lovely). Thanks so much.

    Oh, and it’s free!

    And here’s the Sofa’s general link. Click on Wednesday 25th, and the following 7 days, for robot goodness. And some sadness!

    http://www.starshipsofa.com/

  104. Thanks! For those into epic fantasy, the first book in my Twinborn Trilogy, Firehurler, has been taking Amazon by storm this month. One of the coolest things a reviewer said about it is “It is quite astonishing that author J.S. Morin can craft not only one breathtakingly vivid fantasy world, but two.”

    http://www.amazon.com/Firehurler-Twinborn-Trilogy-1-ebook/dp/B00BA5VEXG/

    If you’re more into the general ramblings of an aspiring writer, I talk about writing fantasy and self-publishing on my blog at http://www.jsmorin.com/.

  107. Two years ago, over a period of three months I wrote and podcasted a vignette a day set in the fictional city of Lepari, its streets awash with revolutionary fervour and warring bands of chefs. Today I launched the PDF ebook edition of Postcards From Lepari, containing the text and audio of all 81 of the original stories, plus brand new illustrations, on sale now:

    http://gum.co/postcardsfromlepari

  111. I just realized I didn’t actually mention that beyond the Supernatural rewatch, i also write about living at the junction of chronic pain and depression, and about anime, and feminism and atheism and whatever else bumps into me as I swim through life’s obscuring fog.

    For something for someone else, I’ll just mention the amazing Adam WarRock, a hip-hop artist from Pittsburgh who drops fabulous lyrics about all kinds of geeky awesome, with mini-albums/mixtapes of stuff about Slytherin, and Firefly, and BSG, and LOTR, and Batman, and ATLA & Korra, and so many others. He’s smart, creative, progressive, funny, and fun to listen to, and I’m not even usually a hiphop fan. Adam has made me into one.

  115. Aww, how cool! The most exciting thing to happen to me recently is Amanda Palmer reading a blog post I wrote about my experience of homelessness and poverty, inspired by her post about asking for things as an artist. She tweeted me to ask for permission to quote it! Wow! I use my blog to share art, poetry, and information about mental health, particularly dissociation, multiplicity, psychosis, and recovering from trauma.

    So, very excited, thought I’d share it here too, since you so kindly invited :-)
    https://skreece.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/homelessness-poverty/

  116. Thanks John!

    My novella, The Lives of Perfect Creatures is about a young librarian named Sophie Andalou who finds an umbrella accidentally left behind by a mysterious Man With The Mustache. But this is no ordinary umbrella–it’s a lightning rod for danger! Sophie quickly finds herself on the run from Chinese spies, mixed up with a secret society of mustached men, and pursued by a Pink Elephant, all because of a message that just might come from outer space.

    It’s just $1.99 as an ebook and $7.99 in print (plus if you buy the print ed, you get the kindle ed for free!)

  117. I’m going to post here to advocate for Brandon Sanderson, who is not only a truly unique and incredible author, but also the bearer of the Great Pen Scalzibane.

    Also, I highly recommend the webcomic “Darths&Droids”, which is quite possibly the most enjoyable Star Wars spinoff, parody, or fan work ever created (and I’m counting the Three Unpleasantnesses as spinoffs here).

    FInally, Schlock Mercenary . You MUST read it. Howard Taylor is a riot (especially this strip: http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-02-13 and its follow-up, http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-02-24, and the final chapter, http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2012-01-01). Obviously, Sergeant Schlock is the best part.

  118. Anyone want a free science fiction novel? If you’re reading Mr. Scalzi’s blog, I figure it’s a good bet you do. The Sixth Discipline is set in the far future, on a colony world, where the colonists had very different reasons for leaving earth. The ebook is free in the Kindle store (US, UK, Canada, Spain, Italy, India, & Brazil), and on Nook, iBooks, Sony and a few other places. Details at the link above.

    Thanks for the opportunity, Mr. Scalzi!

  120. If you’re jonesing for smart comedy goodness because Community’s not back yet, you should check out WRNG In Studio City,an online series I co-created and co-wrote: http://www.wrnginstudiocity.com/season-11.html

    A group of reporters has their entire year’s budget embezzled by the CFO and spent on hookers & cocaine, so they’re forced to make up fake news stories and pass them off as true. As they mess with reality, reality messes back, and they find the very genre of the world shifting–from a Sopranos parody in Episode 6 to a live-studio audience telenovela in Episode 7.5.

    The episodes come in nice 6-minute bite-size chunks; you can binge-watch all of season 1 in 75 minutes. Full s1 playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWSZDLDLTBc&list=PL0rNGKnVELWvb9DDV8BrRUzoqy31ZS_18&index=1

    Thanks, John!

  121. My current favorite non-Scalzi book is “Ready Player One”. If you have any nostalgia for the 80s (movies, TV shows, video games) this will hit home. All takes place in a virtual immersive world called OASIS where the creator left an Easter Egg before he died – whoever finds it gets his fortune including control of OASIS. Evil nasty corporation wants it all, so our heroic gunters (egg hunters) are trying to beat them to it.

    If you use iPhones/iPods/etc., the iTunes audiobook store has it on sale this month for $5.95. That’s better than the price I bought it from Audible with. Audiobooks still have DRM, so you won’t be able to play it on Android devices or non-Apple media players. Oh, and Wil Wheaton narrates and does his normal fantastic job.

  124. Thanks for the opportunity, John! My Military SF/Vampire/Revenge saga MONSTER is available for Kindle for only 2.99! Jonathan Maberry, author of PATIENT ZERO, called it a”wild, weird and insanely enjoyable kick-ass action yarn.” Stephen Blackmoore, author of CITY OF THE LOST, called it “the best kind of genre mash-up: weird, violent and fun.”

    Check it out, and I may do another one….

    http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Nightriders-Vengeance-ebook/dp/B007Z8M6PM

  125. The Artisan’s Asylum! A 40,000 square foot maker space, with woodshop, welding shop, machine shop, plasma cutters, 3d printer, and more! And the classes to teach you (YES YOU!) how to use them all!

    We’re in Somerville, MA, within easy reach of the greater Boston area.

    http://artisansasylum.com

  126. I’m an on again/off again player in a Full Contact Medieval Combat Recreation Game (or LARP if you are familiar with the term) called Dagorhir. Anyone who is interested in cosplay or sword fighting should check it, and similar games, out.

    http://www.dagorhir.com/

    See also: Belegarth, Amtgard(sp), SCA

  127. Haffner Press. I’ve got nearly everything they’e published, and if you have a liking for classic early science fiction — Edmond Hamilton, Leigh Brackett, Henry Kuttner, those kind of folks — then these wonderful, solid, last-your-lifetime hardcovers are worth your time and your money and, more important, your shelf space.
    http://www.haffnerpress.com/

  128. Just finished Anne Bishop’s Written in Red. It was amazing! For people who love strait fantasy and urban fantasy it’s a great blend.

  133. Jill Paton Walsh has written a fourth book in her series of Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane mysteries. _The Late Scholar_ will be published 17 June 2014.

  135. Music: Check out Anamanaguchi or I Fight Dragons. They’re like two sides of the same coin. Both bands use both real instruments and Nintendos to make their music. Anamanaguchi puts the chip tunes (as they’re called) to the forefront with the real instruments playing backup and usually don’t have many lyrics. I Fight Dragons sounds like a regular rock band if that band consisted of guitar, bass guitar, drums, and Nintendo. The chiptunes are more subtle, but I really enjoy it (and the lyrics)

    Website: Since John’s giving us this opportunity, I’d like to pimp my personal blog. I write about stuff that would probably be a nice overlap with the readership of this site including photography and technology. http://server.ericsbinaryworld.com/blog

  136. OH… and if you happen to be in Houston, and you want cool makeup for Halloween — you need to check out Arianna Leigh, a Makeup Artist in Houston, TX. You can find her under Elegant Psychosis Designs on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/elegant.psychosis) !!! (Make sure you schedule early–Halloween is her busiest time of year!!!)

  137. I’ve recently launched into this whole asking people for cashy monies for things that I have written thing and, while terrifying, it’s not bad so far! I write urban fantasy and fantasy right now, and my first anthology is scheduled to drop Oct 1. Ulp. (This is me: http://kittyspace.org/ )

    I also write at Unspooling Fiction, where I blog about Grimm, Haven, and Person of Interest in near-collegiate detail. I think that’s the right word. Collegiate. Thousands of words in essay form. http://murderboarding.blogspot.com/

  138. I’m sure that this is far too buried for anyone to actually see, but my labor of love is my book review blog. I just hit 200 reviews last week (although I’d love to disown some of those early ones…bad, bad writing), and would love for anyone to take a look.

    http://GeekLitEtc.com

    :-D

  142. I listen to the BBC Drama of the Week on podcast. This week’s offering, “The Exuberant” by Jeff Young, was especially enjoyable. A pair of rival meteorite-hunters, semi-deranged by their mutual obsession, search across England to find the woman who reportedly was struck by a meteorite. Damn funny.

    The DotW is only made available for a one-week period. The download from the BBC site is only available for a few more hours as I write this, but the podcast is still available here for a few more days.

  146. October 11-13 in Gaithersburg, MD, the Washington Science Fiction Association will be putting on Capclave, their annual convention. Our GOHs this year are author George RR Martin, editor Sharyn November, artist Steve Stiles and special guest author Howard Waldrop. You can still get a membership for $60 through the end of the month. It’s $70 at the door, unless you are active military or a student, in which case it’s $30.

    http://www.capclave.org

  148. I’m greatly vexed by Goodreads’ sudden changes to their review policy – particularly the hamfisted muddle they’ve made of introducing the changes, the way their enforcement so far seems entirely arbitrary, and the absolute lack of response since. Needless to say, the announcement thread is all a-fury, but it remains to be seen how this is going to pan out.

    I’ve outlined the situation as I see it, and some simple, crucial steps Goodreads can take for damage control, and for explaining what the new guidleines actually are: http://www.goodreads.com/comment/show/83579281 . It’s a mess of a thread, but I’d be grateful for support, and most particularly for signal-boosting my post. I love Goodreads, and I want to see it doing better than it has been.

    Thankee kindly :)

  149. There’s loads of awesome stuff up there, I think I just filled my kindle!

    Thanks for letting people do this, we all love your stuff, so it is good to see whatever followers also love too. Lots of good creativity going on.

    Can I join in plugging my own stuff. Some pay what you want (and I won’t accept anything for the first one) novellas. It is not too distant future with genetically engineered people and a little surface to orbit travel. The main character of the story is a GM young woman, one of a group illegally created by a company long since closed down. Her attempts to escape with a group of slightly older GM folk are the subject of the story, and set against a wider backdrop of world turning away from science.

    You can take a look here – https://www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/1445 or on my blog http://www.themself.org/

    Three novellas published so far (in the 12-15k words range each) and one and a half more written. I need to finish them off in the next few weeks so that I can focus on my creative writing course with the Open University, who knows what will come next!

  151. Right now, the only thing I have to promote is my blog, “I Was Just Thinking”. It’s at http://littlemissattitude.blogspot.com/. If this link doesn’t work (I’ve never really gotten the hang of inserting links in comments), you can get there by clicking on my name next to this comment.

    At any rate, I write about a little of this, a little of that. Sometimes I’m political. Sometimes my posts are personal. I do Music Sunday and Movie Monday every week. I confess to being a geek regularly there. The blog is where I get my writing seen while I’m working on a book project.

  154. I discovered Akimbo Comics the other day and I think this link points at a pretty good example. http://www.akimbocomics.com/?p=693
    HOWEVER. several strips on the site are decidedly NSFW. And there’s quite a bit of language (the title of the most oft updated comic is “Eat #### and Die”). However, creator B. Patrick has a distinct talent for the comic format and new ways of approaching important issues. I literally (literally, not figuratively) jumped in shock on viewing the final panel of one strip even though I was expecting the exact outcome. It’s raw, rarely beautiful on the surface, but almost always thoughtful and poignant.

  155. I’m a professional quilter of the modern persuasion: I make custom quilts, design and publish patterns (mostly more “modern” in style), and I love sneaking in references to other things, like archaeology and the ancient world. I’ve got a book in the works for making modern quilts, and will soon have some online classes to offer. I just finished a “tree of life” queen-sized quilt for a friend who is celebrating her ten year anniversary with her best beloved. You can find me, my writing, and pictures at http://mandalei.com Thank you for this. I’ve been lurking here and at the Nielsen Hayden’s for years.

  158. Shameful self promotion: http://www.alyxjatho.com
    I am awesome, really. If I ever get around to telling myself that it might turn into a decent blog. As it is, it’s mostly me ranting about not writing for various reasons. But I would love to make friends… anyone… please…

  159. Ever wanted to see Machu Picchu from the other side? All the pictures you usually see are of that one peak (actually Wayna Picchu). What’s the view like from Wayna Picchu? Now you see for yourself.

    Below is a link to a 1.5 Gigapixel panorama of Machu Picchu which I created back in 2007 from about 300 8 Megapixel photos. You can zoom in and out with the “+” and “-” keys and move the viewpoint around.

    http://www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=1647

    Can you find the llamas?

    There are many more fantastic panoramas on the Gigapan site, but I’m touting this one because it’s mine.

  160. Oh what beautiful timing! Thank you Mr. Scalzi for the opportunity to pimp my photography. I just set up shop on society6. Prints (framed and unframed), greeting cards and phone skins now available. The link to my personal website is http://www.lunisea.com, that has a link to my shop as well as a sign up form for the lunisea.photography email list.

  166. Good stuff all over the place! I have a whole boatload of links to check out! Sadly I have nothing to self-promote but many things I’d like to see get more popular!

    For instance, Viharts channel on YouTube is an interesting and fun visual/musical mathematical experience. My favorite video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4niz8TfY794

    Also my favorite podcast, Writing Excuses, is here: http://www.writingexcuses.com/
    It’s all about writing!

    Finally, I think maps are just awesome. We should make more of them!

  167. Wow, I love reading everyone’s posts so here is my shameless self promotion.
    You can read and learn about being a SILVERSMITH.

    FYI, a traditional silversmith is one who makes hollow forms (bowls, dishes, cups, boxes, etc..) and utensils. If you make jewelry out of silver, you are a not really a silversmith but a “GOLD” smith or Jeweler (more modern term).

    I am a codesmith by day (I beat on writing code) and silversmith on weekend. I hope to do this full time in about 3 years.

    http://www.TheAdventurousSilversmith.com

    PS – you can also find me on Facebook but I won’t post another link for that; I think you are all smart enough to figure it out.

  168. Do you like zombies? How about the end of the world? Can you ignore some grammatical errors from an author with ADD who can’t afford a copyeditor?

    It’s all fun and games until a world wide plague kills about 90% of the population and some of those dead have come back.
    This is my novel End of the Line. http://www.amazon.com/End-of-the-Line-ebook/dp/B009UL84PI/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=

    Soon to be followed up on October 19 by the sequel Stuck in the Middle.

    If you have a book review site and want to review for free. I got plenty of pdf copies fraterkitty at yahoo dot com.

  169. I have a website which covers concepts in Astrodynamics using whiteboard video sessions (http://orbitnerd.com/). Not sure if anyone here would be interested, but any kind of pimping is better than no pimping at all…wait, that didn’t come out right.

  172. Thanks for the thread, John! My browser is now about to explode with open tabs of awesomeness.

    Awesome things I’d like to promote:

    **My webcomic, Barely Representational. I draw stick figures and there are jokes that are very funny (to me). Updated weekly. http://barelyrepresentational.blogspot.com/

    **My first (self-published) novel, Emotimancers and the Impending Feline Overmind. Magical cats are trying to take over the world and a few intrepid humans want to stop them. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E4XWOSK

    **Kater Cheek is serializing her novel Alternate Susan, (book 1 of the Desert Mages series) on her blog. Susan is sucked into an alternate reality where magic is real and she’s stuck living the life of her doppelganger, Susie. It’s set in a magical alternate reality version of Tempe, Arizona, and gets the feel of the desert exactly right. http://katercheek.com/2013/07/03/alternate-susan-chapter-one/

  174. Hi John,
    Long time blog reader and lurker here, congratulations on the Hugo for “Red Shirts”; I just finished “Human Division” and enjoyed it a lot.
    Anyway, my wife Anne H Wood and her friend Brian Keesling have just had their book “Beauty’s Son” come out; it is a contemporary retelling of “Black Beauty”, aimed at the YA market. (Perhaps Athena would like it, if she enjoyed her riding this summer!) You can read more about it at http://www.beautysson.com, with excerpts, links to Amazon (print and ebook), Barnes and Noble etc. The illustrations are very cute too!

  177. Wow . . . have been going through the links. This could take a number of weeks . . . AND . . . Catherine Asaro posted. She reads this blog?

    . . . man, maybe I should take back the links I posted. Or, better yet, go re-read some of her books.

    And if I had known about the Baltimore event earlier, I might have made plans to attend. Next year.

  178. This is awesome! I have a relatively new blog, http://www.geekgirlinlove.com. Blog consists of book reviews (mostly science fiction), an on-going book club (wrapping up Edgar Allan Poe, starting on Dracula for Halloween fun), and the occasional leftist political rant. Thank you for the opportunity to post – and to read all these great comments!

  180. http://librivox.org/ is an organisation where volunteers record public domain books and release those recordings into the public domain. We have a catalogue of over 7,000 books – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays. Most of the recordings are in English, but around 1,000 of the works are in other languages.

    Anyone can volunteer, you just need a microphone and some enthusiasm. I promise we’re all very friendly, and happy to give you any advice you need to get started.

    And if you just like listening we have recently got a new catalogue system which is much easier to search (It doesn’t work properly with Internet Explorer yet, sadly, teething troubles, but Firefox, Chrome, etc all seem to be fine) and as long as you like books there should be something for you. All of our recordings are completely free to listen and download, and you can do anything you like with them – Burn them onto CD, send them to your friends, remix them into music, create a youtube video using the book’s illustrations….

    Got a book you’ve always been meaning to read, but never seem to find the time, and it’s a complete doorstopper to boot? Audiobooks are a great way of getting through it while getting other work done at the same time. They can make the washing-up go much faster, and leave you spending extra time on your daily exercise routines so that you can find out what happens next.

    All of the books are read by volunteers, so the quality is understandably variable, but all of the readers are doing this because they love it, so the average recording is much better than most people originally expect. And many of our more prolific readers have gone on to narrate professional audiobooks.

    Some books are read by groups, a different person reading each chapter. This isn’t for everyone, but I love hearing the different accents and voices, feeling a fleeting connection with people from all over the world. Other books are solos, with a single reader going through the entire thing. If you find a reader you like, you may find yourself going through their entire output. Finally most plays and a few books are ‘dramatically read,’ with a different reader taking each character and all the voices edited together to produce something really special. We also allow people to read whatever they want to read, even if it’s been read before, which gives our listeners choice of voice. There are 6 versions of Pride and Prejudice in the catalogue currently, and I’m sure we’ll gain even more as time goes by.

    LibriVox does not allow negative criticism of any volunteers, but we encourage listeners to send in their thanks if a particular reading really moved them. So to get you started, here are the 10 recordings that have received a lot praise over the years:

    Moby Dick by Herman Melville, read by Stewart Wills http://librivox.org/moby-dick-by-herman-melville/
    Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, read by Elizabeth Klett http://librivox.org/jane-eyre-version-3-by-charlotte-bronte/
    Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens, read by Mil Nicholson http://librivox.org/dombey-and-son-by-charles-dickens/
    Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, read by Ruth Golding http://librivox.org/wuthering-heights-by-emily-bronte-2/
    Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse, read by Mark Nelson http://librivox.org/right-ho-jeeves-by-p-g-wodehouse/
    Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, read by Karen Savage http://librivox.org/pride-and-prejudice-by-jane-austen-2/
    Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, read by John Greenman http://librivox.org/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn-by-mark-twain/
    The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, read by Kara Shallenberg http://librivox.org/the-secret-garden-by-frances-hodgson-burnett/
    Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, read by Mark F. Smith http://librivox.org/great-expectations-by-charles-dickens/
    The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan, read by Adrian Praetzellis http://librivox.org/the-thirty-nine-steps-by-john-buchan/

    Enjoy!

  181. You folks up there? I’d just like to interject that you’re all wonderful! I’m checking out steampunk webcomics and listening to some great homebrew tunes and opening up the pursestrings over at Amazon. You’re all doing terrific work and I find every single one of you inspirational. So thanks to our host for doing this and thanks to all of you for your creations, your art.

  184. There’s a group of us scientists who are putting together a hands-on DIY Science Zone at GeekGirlCon in Seattle. We’re a diverse group in age, race, and types of science, and we’re wanting to get science in front of an often under-served part of the population: women and girls. We’re fund-raising to make the science zone happen. As we reach funding milestones, we’re doing various acts of whimsy to entertain everyone. I’m already on the hook to fix the science and logic in the movie Prometheus, and re-enact it with sock puppets, but you can force our fearless leader, Dr. Rubidium, to listen to Nickelback. Come help us!

    http://granades.com/2013/09/08/help-us-hold-a-diy-science-zone-at-geekgirlcon-and-make-me-fix-prometheus/

  190. My very smart, widely-traveled friend Karin Welss writes well-researched and wonderful historical fantasy (got a Nebula Nomination for “Glass Souls”) and romance (got an All About Books Desert Island Keeper rating for “Sweeter Than Wine”) under her own name and as Michaela August. Check out http://www.michaela-august.com for her books. Also she puts up photo tours of far-flung places she’s been. AND she’s got an application up for Jaunteroo’s Best job in the world. Sign in at http://www.bestjobaroundtheworld.com/submissions/view/13934 and like her for me! ; )

    Thanks!

    Ps: Dear Mr. Scalzi, Thank you!!!

  191. Detcon1 will be the 2014 North American Science Fiction Convention (held when the Worldcon travels outside North America). July 17-20, 2014, at the Detroit Renaissance Center Marriott. We’re all hard at work making this a truly fantastic NASFiC – the only thing we’re missing is all of you! Learn more at detcon1.org

  194. I really like Prequel, which is a sort of sad adorable webcomic about a character trying to fix her life and frequently failing. It is set in one of the Elder Scrolls video game worlds, I think, but you really don’t need to know anything about that. The comic layout is amazing; it’s possibly the best use of the possibilities of the web for the format that I’ve ever seen.

    Also Strong Female Protagonist, a much more standardly-formatted comic about a super-strong, invulnerable, flying young woman who’s coping with the fact that all that doesn’t actually do a lot to help you help people.

    (Also-also, I have really liked Cat Rambo’s writing classes.)

  195. Like many of the other commenters, I have a self-published novel I’d like to flog — it’s a post-post-apocalyptic science fantasy called THE DANDELION KNIGHT. If you’ve ever asked yourself “What would it be like if I joined the secret police of the last city in the world?” you should probably stop reading novels and seek help — but if that question is new and interesting to you, perhaps I can shed some light on the matter. http://www.amazon.com/The-Dandelion-Knight-ebook/dp/B00ECMRVYU

    And since many of the commenters here seem to be self-published authors, I’ll commend them to the Self-Publishing Podcast, which is both hilarious and informative, though rarely both at once. The recent episode with Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch is particularly good.

  197. Hi, all. I wish I’d had the chance to see this earlier so I wouldn’t be coming in at comment #196 or so, but after you’ve checked out the 195 awesome things above, I invite you to check out my blog http://improbableauthor.com where we are maintaining a vigil for the pending “will they or won’t they” decision from Baen Books on the publication of my military SF novel “A Sword Into Darkness” about the creation of Earth’s first space navy. Right now it’s in the third good-enough-for-a-closer-look pile and one desk away from the publisher’s in-box. If they do buy it, I look forward to it showing up in John’s weekly book piles. If it doesn’t get bought-en, I’ll be launching it myself through a small thriller indie imprint Stealth Books. Either way, visit the blog, follow it, and check out the art I’ve developed. Join the ASID agenda!

  199. I want to encourage everyone to go watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as many times as you can in various venues so that it immediately gets picked up for a second season so I don’t get another show I want to watch cancelled. *whimpers* I had to find all the cords to reanimate my television for this, and I don’t want that effort to go to waste. I’ll invoke the power of Firefly if I must!

  200. In July my very small press Ansible Editions completed the release of all Algis Budrys’s fabled “Books” columns from F&SF — never before collected — as a three-volume set of trade paperbacks. (With the permission of his widow, who gets royalties.) Read all about it here — http://ae.ansible.co.uk/ — and thank you, John Scalzi!

  202. Once I Was Blind is a survival indie horror game with a radically experimental approach to how a game can deliver visuals.

    The game follows a test subject in a clandestine experiment which aims to transform incoming sound into visual stimuli, essentially sight via sound. Initially this seems successful, but the experiment appears to tap some unknown sense allowing the subject to witness phenomena perhaps best left undisturbed.

    The game is built using the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), but looks unlike any other game you have seen on the engine before by embracing creative destruction and aspects of glitch art.

    https://www.facebook.com/onceiwasblind

    (full disclosure, this is a friend’s game)

  203. If you’re a Babylon 5 fan and feeling deprived of new material, I take this opportunity to promote my Fleet Book: Babylon 5 book. It’s a free download from:

    http://members.ozemail.com.au/~laranzu/fullthrust/B5/index.html

    It’s written for a tabletop space combat game, but non-gamers can still appreciate the cover art, my “What is Babylon 5?” introduction in the opening chapter, and maybe the illustration on page 29 which solves one of the greatest mysteries of Babylon 5. And did I mention it’s free and not excessively large to download?

  206. I already posted the Mashup above with Captain Janeway as Piper from “Orange is the New Black”. My friend(Kaffe) has, since then, made 2 more YouTube Mashup Videos you might enjoy if you are into Star Trek:Voyager or OitNB.

    The 2nd one is Janeway as Red talking about “The Chicken”.

    Chicken is the New Coffee Part 2 – YouTube

    The 3rd Mashup has Janeway as Red telling her Joke

    “He’s not an eggplant” – à la Janeway – YouTube

    Since I don’t have anything to hawk..might as well help out a friend

    Thanks for the opportunity, John.

  207. I want to plug two things, so I’ll make two comments and save our gracious host some moderation time.

    First, I want to link to my good friend Harry Connolly’s Kickstarter:

    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1179145430/the-great-way-an-epic-fantasy-trilogy-by-harry-con

    He wrote a fantasy trilogy that he couldn’t find a publisher for (he says why in the Kickstarter video) and he decided to Kickstart it instead… and he made 100% in eight hours. He went 200% backed in 48 hours. At this point, he’s at 270% and still rising, and it hasn’t even been a full week.

    If you’re into fantasy, I suspect you’ll dig what he has to offer. Check it out.

  208. Second, I wanted to plug my vampire trilogy, which was rereleased by Red Iris Books over the course of this year and last year.

    http://smarturl.it/bloodcalling

    The good news for readers is that if you’re a Kindle user, you can read two out of four books for free as I type this.

    The first book currently has 30 five star reviews, was a Kindle bestseller and… you know what? If you’re into YA vampire stuff, you’ve already clicked. So I’ll stop there.

  209. I have a new superhero book out which will appeal to comic book fans and word nerds alike: “Verbosity’s Vengeance: A Grammarian Adventure Novel”. The Grammarian’s powers all derive from clever use of grammar and punctuation. He’s a tragicomic hero trying to stop Professor Verbosity’s mysterious new plan to threaten Lexicon City.

    It’s a fun, exciting read, available from Amazon for Kindle, or as an EPUB for Nook and other readers by contacting me directly.

  210. I have been waiting for this so long…that now it has arrived I am unprepared…
    Excuse the hasty page…it will improve I promise!
    I am about to complete my debut novel, a space opera with no FTL, that features deep mysteries, the Fermi Paradox and mass destruction (I did say it was space opera…).
    https://www.facebook.com/thebrokenstates

  211. Free Zombie Roguelike Game: http://en.cataclysmdda.com/

    — 100% free
    — code is open source (you can download the code )
    — over 100 people have contributed code. Anyone who wants to help is welcome. See mod forum.
    — most ideas come from the community. So all suggestions are welcome
    — successful kickstarter lead to hiring a fulltime developer for a few months (he is working for less than entry level developer wages. he is a fan)
    — working on making the game enhancable for non-programmers. go to the forum and do a search for ‘json’.
    — full time dev is working on a ‘mod engine’ so people can pick and choose more features.
    — writers welcome. there is a guy writing stuff for the game. Note this just for fun.
    — feel free to ask lots of questions. very active community
    — experimental updates added a few days a week (will have bugs, so start with the ‘stable’ download
    — this game will run on just about anything. Doesn’t use alot of PC resources.

    Features:
    — set in New England
    — random world each time. So every game is different
    — virtually every item is craftable and deconstructable.
    — can build own shelter and vehicles
    — lots of guns, explosives and cool ways to blow stuff up.
    — more than just zombies. lots of sci-fi type mobs
    — unique location based damage and encumbrance system. So no ‘hit points’
    — unique experience based system. No levels. just skills (skills rust if not used). earn more experience if your happy. less if pissed off.
    — ability to make the game harder by jacking up the zombies to 50x normal (dont do this at first or you will die in 5 minutes)
    — sandbox game with many things to do. no real ‘victory’ conditions other than ‘don’t die’
    — many unique locations: Science Labs, FEMA Camps, Last Man on Earth Shelters, Schools with zombie kids, prisons, gun stores, liquor stores, apartments, and many more.

    Game has minimal graphics. We just added tiles. There a number of people working on their own tilesets. There should be a mod engine in the near future so you can pick and choose what you want the game to look like. Can’t really make graphics part time.

    The game mechanics are key board only. If you have never played a roguelike its going to be frustrating. See the wiki for commands and ask questions. Its confusing at first.

    Your gonna die alot. You get 1 life. So my best advice is run away. You can ‘cheat’ by backing up your save game file. Probably a good idea while learning the game.

  214. Thought I would share the first chapter from my new historical fiction book-in-development “Thieves Castle”, which continues the saga of Christopher ‘Kit” Tyburn, set during in 1576 in Elizabethan London.

    I hope you find it enjoyable and intriguing.
    http://tyburntree.blogspot.ca/2013/09/first-look-thieves-castle.html

    As an added bonus I have three chapters from my first book “The Jesuit Letter”, which I am currently flogging to various agents up at http://www.tyburntree.blogspot.ca/p/excerpt-jesuit-letter-prologue.html.

    Please feel free to take a read and let me know what you think.

  215. Sigh. Every time I try to post a comment, WordPress eats it. One more try today….

    Thank you, John. An open promotional thread is always appreciated–both as a writer, and as a reader!

    For those who have been waiting for the return of Alfreda Sorensson, intrepid young “practitioner” (IE fledgling wizard/midwife/herbalist and mountain trapper!) she’s back, after my Life, Interrupted took her away from NYC publishing and her fans. Locus called the first book “Little House on the Prairie with werewolves and vampires” and Night Calls is back in ebook, and soon in print. This link takes you to multiple distributors.

    http://bit.ly/NightCalls

    “When you have the Gift, your life is not your own.”

    I was born to a family that harnessed the winds and could read futures in fire and water. Yet my mother kept her secrets.

    Then the werewolf came, sharing his madness.

    Now it’s my turn to keep secrets….

    Descended from powerful magic-users, but ignorant of her heritage, young Alfreda Sorensson learns magic and wisdom from her extended family in an alternate early 1800s Michigan Territory.

  216. I’m running a vocally pro-Choice, pro-Equality campaign for office against an incumbent who voted for the mandatory trans-vaginal ultrasound bill, for fetal personhood, and for the TRAP laws that have already closed two clinics in my state.
    The exciting part is that polls show us in a dead heat. If I can just reach enough voters, we can win!!! http://www.ElizabethMillerForDelegate.com

  217. Like SF&F and are near the Dallas-Fort Worth area? Next weekend (Oct 4-6), FenCon X will be at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Addison, TX (next to Dallas). We have an astounding list of guests, including: Cory Doctorow, Charles Vess, Heather Dale, Amber Benson, Tom Smith, Geoffrey Landis, John Ringo, Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden, and Sandy Peterson (plus over 100 regional guests). Check us out here: http://fencon.org/

    p.s. Thanks John!

  219. I want to mention the webcomic Erfworld, written by Rob Balder. It’s about a gamer named Parson Gotti who gets summoned into a world full of tiny cute people who are basically living and fighting in a turn-based wargame.

    It sounds a bit shallow, but it’s really really not. I love it and I’m obsessed with it.

    Erfworld has been going on for a few years now, so there’s quite a bit of material for a new reader to read. Here is a link to the first page of the first book:

    http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=%2F001.jpg

    Hope you enjoy.

  220. Show of hands now; who likes grilled cheese sandwiches?

    Oh, that many of you? Well, I would like to recommend the following site:

    http://www.grilledcheesesocial.com/

    She comes up with recipes for grilled cheese sandwiches using combinations of ingredients that I never would have considered.

  222. I just finished Redshirts! Surprised and delighted as every twist, turn and coda. And you made me cry, you bastard, after I’d put on makeup. Arg. Seriously, thank you for writing such a wonderful story. I loved it.

    My personal plug is a bit of flash fiction: a love letter from inside the big house… (is that still slang for jail?) because stalkers are sooo romantic. http://mindofamouse.com/2013/09/25/dear-mary/

  224. Hopefully I’m not to late adding something worth checking out!
    My fiance is an artist – a painter, specifically. This is his site – http://nateseubert.com/

    Obviously I’m biased but he is an amazing artist! Big oil paintings are out of most peoples price ranges (there’s all the space they take up on the wall to consider too) so he also does prints, they are in the ‘store’ section.

    It is damn hard to make a living as an artist so I always try to spread the word when given a chance. Thanks!

  228. Well, I write about SF/F/horror and video games at my blog:

    http://www.wondrouswindows.wordpress.com

    I actively try to do a few specific things: deal with the function of fiction set in worlds other than our own, and take things seriously while throwing jokes around as well — serious as in, serious criticism, not SRSBSNS.

  229. Thank you for the opportunity. Check out my blog at althaven.com.

    I blog about thoughts and opinions I have about various subjects as well as reviews of app and products I use.

  232. Not sure if folks are still checking this thread after several days, but here’s the stuff I have coming out soon:

    1) Issue #1 of my new literary journal, LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction (Math Paper Press, out now!)

    2) A new hybrid-essay chapbook, Embracing the Strange: The Transformative Impact of Speculative Fiction (Math Paper Press, September)

    3) The first volume of my biennial anthology series, The Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singaporean Short Stories (Epigram Books, October)

    4) A new 60,000-word kitchen-sink short story collection, Strange Mammals (Infinity Plus Books, October)

    5) In addition, Infinity Plus will be releasing print editions of two ebooks released last year: The Alchemy of Happiness, and the expanded second edition of Red Dot Irreal (October)

    Information on all of these projects can be found at http://jasonlundberg.wordpress.com

  233. I’m finishing up a Kickstarter today that funds my Furlough Tour. I’m being furloughed from my job as a newspaper reporter for a week, and so I’m spending that week on the road to promote my books in hopes of making up my lost salary. One of my fantasy novels is being re-released in a reimagined edition next week, and I’m offering a novella to the backers of the project; hopefully that tides folks over until the new novel comes out next year.

    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elizabethdonald/elizabeth-donalds-furlough-tour

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Athena Scalzi, contributor – AMS
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