- To kick it off, some members of WA fandom are putting to together a fanzine, Hope, to raise funds for the Bushfire victims in Victoria. A bunch of talented folks have already volunteered work, so much so that there will now be more than one issue. Worth keeping an eye on, all up.
- With all the doom and gloom surrounding small press publishing, there is at least a glimmer of hope that the recently deceased Realms of Fantasy may come back courtesy of a buy-out of the magazine/brand. Until then, a farewell by the RoF Sushmaster that includes a list of the accepted stories we won’t get a chance to see (With commiserations to my friend Ben Francisco, who unfortunately has a very fine story caught on that list).
- Something Positive on the tendency among American reviewers to associate the stop-motion film Coraline with Tim Burton.
- Speaking of webcomics, XKCD addresses an issue that does actually bother me.
- My old friend Villainous_mog, now lost to the wilds of London forever, posts about the subject lines of Lost Property e-mails at his workplace. (Yes, random, but I find it interesting and I keep misreading the 5th one as “a frothing, whizzing gadget found on the kitchen floor” and thinking it sounds like the start to a story)
- Speaking of Laura Goodin (We weren’t, you say? Ah well, we should be), here’s some fun stuff snurched from her blog this week: Shakespeare doing the facebook 25 things meme & steampunk cake!
- The Australian Horror Writers Mentorship program is open for applications. As mentorship programs go, this is one of those insane-good-value deals if you’re an aspiring writer looking to make the next step.
- Chris Lynch’s Clarion South 2007 Bibliography, now updated, charting the various achievements of my Clarion peeps over the last two years.
- Chris Lynch is also over on the Battersblog, talking about the week 4 experience at Clarion South 2007.
- Jay Lake on a subject near and dear to my heart after the trauma of losing everything a few years back – backing up your fiction like a pro.
- 10 Privacy settings every facebook user should know – because facebook is actually evil.
006: Sometimes The Right Call Is Stepping Back
I’ve ended up taking a short, unscheduled break from writing newsletters over the last fourteen days. Regular GenrePunk Ninja transmissions will resume