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Posted on 09.01.08 by Widge @ 11:28 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  Those of you who were at the Film Fest and on the Apocalypse Rising track at DragonCon might have seen our announcement about There's a Zombie In My Treehouse!, written by Ken Plume (yes, the Ken Plume) and myself with art by the kickass Len Peralta. It's a book for slightly disturbed children. Coming to a place that sells things near you...later this very year. You can sign up for updates on the official site. And you can check out Len's poster art here. Categorized as: Books
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Posted on 08.06.08 by Widge @ 3:33 am
Comments on this: 2 so far. Add your own.  Neal Stephenson is the author of the mad sci-fi epic Snow Crash and the even madder WTF epic The Diamond Age, among other books. What he shares in a 2003 keynote speech is an excellent key to getting writing done. For his first book, he had only ten days with which to write the thing, since his book proposal had been accepted. What happened next? Soon a problem appeared: the typewriter had a modern plastic ribbon. The plastic mellowed and became sticky: it was July in Iowa City, and the apartment was hot. The only way to prevent the ribbon from getting stuck is to keep the ribbon moving. And the only way to keep the ribbon moving is to keep pressing the keys. That discovery did wonders for his productivity. He didn't have time to think: he had to keep pressing the keys and write the first thing that came into his mind.
Categorized as: Books
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Posted on 08.05.08 by Widge @ 6:51 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  Well, I've got another reason to visit Philadelphia: I want to meet Grip, Charles Dickens' raven that wound up inspiring Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. No, he's not still kicking--he's rather stuffed. And Curious Expeditions sought him out at the Rare Book Department: This was not the first raven Dickens had owned as a pet, but it was his most beloved and when it died he had it professionally taxidermied and mounted (having one's pet stuffed having became all the rage in England after George IV had his pet giraffe stuffed).
Which is all well and good (and really, really cool), but my easily distracted brain asked the next question: What happened to George IV's stuffed giraffe? From what I can tell, it was donated to the Zoological Society. But is it still around? Is it on display? I've sent off some inquiries to assuage my curiosity, but if anybody knows, let me know. And if you want to get inspired, check out Vincent Price working his magic on Poe. Categorized as: Books
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Posted on 07.31.08 by Widge @ 1:26 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  Okay, so talk about Stuff You Need to Know. You might remember how at the end of last year, there were handcrafted editions of The Tales of Beedle the Bard from J.K. Rowling, one of which Amazon sold at auction for an assload of money, all for charity. Now there's going to be editions that you and I can afford and--in case you were wondering--it's all going to charity still. The Children's High Level Group will be the beneficiaries of this. So you can drop some coin and drop a little extra coin and not feel too terribly bad about it. Why would you want to drop extra coin? Because the Collector's Edition (pictured) is $100. And it's a replica of the handcrafted versions, apparently. Check this out: Tucked in its own case disguised as a wizarding textbook found in the Hogwarts library, the Collector's Edition includes an exclusive reproduction of J.K. Rowling's handwritten introduction, as well as 10 additional illustrations not found in the Standard Edition or the original. Opening the case reveals a velvet bag embroidered with J.K. Rowling's signature, in which sits the piece de resistance: your very own copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, complete with metal skull, corners, and clasp; replica gemstones; and emerald ribbon. Criminy. I mean, don't get me wrong, you can get the same text in the Standard Edition for less than $8 pre-ordered. But...that Collector's Edition is calling my name, I don't know about you. Anyway, even if you don't grab it, click through to the Collector's Edition to check out all the pics of it. As a work of bookery, it still should be looked over. Both editions are out December 4th. Categorized as: Books
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Posted on 07.28.08 by Widge @ 3:18 am
Comments on this: just one. Add your own.  Okay, so the most expensive book in the world is priced at 153 million euros. It's called "the task" and is by author Tomas Alexander Hartmann. And I'm going to go ahead and assume that this guy is serious, although I admit freely this sounds like some sort of mildly amusing SNL skit. But I have known people who would be considered this pretentious. Anyway, the book is priced such because the contents of the book are just That Damn Good. It better be, because there's only thirteen pages in it. The author claims to have answered the three final important questions of humankind in less than three hundred sentences: Where do we come from? Where are we going? And: What is the real task we still have to take on? Categorized as: Books
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