I'm super-behind on reviews, so let's start the New Year afresh. The usual information plus comments if I scribbled or remember any.

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* Via Dave Wolverton's email list, how to sketch a novel in an hour (a free writing exercise). I'm going to try this tonight, hopefully--the Snowflake Method is a bit too overwhelming when I've only got a tiny inkling of what's going on.

* yhlee and rachelmanija have launched springfluff, "a no-stress, no-deadline fandom gift exchange"!

* Why skilled immigrants are leaving ( Read more... )

* A NYT article on what carriers aren't eager to tell you about texting.

* JournalSpace loses everything in a malicious database wipe--this is why mirroring is not a backup solution, folks.

* Terry Pratchett is knighted for services to literature!

* Another NYT article, this one relevant to ableism, which I don't know enough about. Assistance ( Read more... )

* Strange Horizons has a wonderful column on genre boundaries.

* varkat on 10 epic fantasy themes we don't see enough [of].

* A cool cheatsheet on the major publishing imprints.

* SF Signal presents various contributors' favorite F/SF subgenres.

* I'm finally reading xkcd, and the fiction rule of thumb is beautiful.

* A moving article on ( Read more... )

Night Watch
by Terry Pratchett
338 pages (hardcover)
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy/Humor

I'm apparently on a Pratchett binge; only The Light Fantastic is left at the local branch though, and hopefully I will resist requesting until I work through some of my personal TBR backlog. Annoyingly common typos in this volume as well; which speaks to sloppy ( Read more... )

Thud!
by Terry Pratchett
373 pages (hardcover)
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy/Humor

Damn title made me commit a sin of punctuation, up in the subject. Sigh.

I'm on a Pratchett binge, which will have to stop soon because my local library branch only has one more unread Pratchett on the shelf (Night Watch). Anyway, Thud! is about a historic troll-dwarf ( Read more... )

Monstrous Regiment
by Terry Pratchett
353 pages (hardcover)
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy/Humor

A lovely, quick read that I needed; a refreshing break from Jon Krakuer's Into Thin Air and Valente (which I finally started reading). Polly Perks decides one day to enlist in the army, to find her brother Paul. Her country Borogravia, which is ruled by a dead ( Read more... )

End of my booklog-spam; let all rejoice!

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
412 pages (paperback)
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy

This has been on my to-read list, but it probably would have languished there for a while longer if I hadn't happened to spot it on A.'s bookshelf (due also to, I'll ( Read more... )

Making Money
by Terry Pratchett
394 pages (hardcover)
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy/Humor

Slowly, ever so slowly, I am making my way through Terry Pratchett. The plot in this newest tale is highly tangential, but Pratchett's characteristic style kept me sufficiently amused throughout. My favorite parts were the Cabinet of Curiosities, the golems, and Vetinari ( Read more... )

Genre: Fiction/YA/Fantasy/Humor
323 pages

Pratchett writes mostly adult satiritical fantasy, but he also dabbles in YA. Wintersmith is sequel to A Hat Full of Sky, which in turn was sequel to The Wee Free Men. Each book can stand alone, ut it's better to read them in order if you have a choice. I did, for once, and it creates a wonderful feeling of ( Read more... )