“Ninety-Nine Weeks, A Fairy Tale”
At the excellent Bookview Cafe, Ursula K. LeGuin writes a fairytale of unemployment. My favorite line? “The Works Fairies are not functioning at present.”
Anne McCaffrey
R.I.P, Anne McCaffrey (lots of great tributes online today: at Whatever, Io9, and Tor among them). Update: everyone seems to be using those fantastic Michael Whelan covers, but McCaffrey had her share of not-so-wonderful covers.
Friends of the Merrill Short Story Contest!
Enter you speculative fiction in the inaugural Friends of the Merrill Collection Short Story contest! The Merrill Collection is the Toronto Public Library’s excellent collection of science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction. The 3 winners will receive cash prizes. Find out more, and enter, here.
An Accidental Masterpiece
Take heart writers and procrastinators, Norton Juster wrote his masterpiece, The Phantom Tollbooth (illustrated by Jules Feiffer), when he should’ve been writing something else. Juster tells the story here.
Mourir Auprès de Toi (To Die by Your Side)
Lovely felt animation of skeleton love at the Shakespeare and Co. bookstore by Olympia Le-Tan, Spike Jonze and Simon Cahn. Scroll down from the video to read an interview with Spike Jonze about the project. Thanks, Denis!
It’s the Hummingbird-Whale that puts it over the top…
More “classic” cover art at Good Show Sir: “OK, I want a triad of spiritual guru, alien Venus, and bull-man, linked by a strip of computer punch tape (futuristic!). Also, it must have a hummingbird-whale. I insist.”
The Cultural Gutter 