Just caught this on Scalzi's blog - Random House has a bunch of Fantasy/SF titles up for free - http://www.suvudu.com/freelibrary/

Gobs of great authors here! Looks like a small selection for starters, but more on the way soon.

Great way to pass a lunch break when you accidentally leave your book at home. Not that I've ever done that...

I just caught a link to this and thought the SF/Fantasy fans might appreciate it. Author Patrick Rothfuss is soliciting donations to Heifer International - a group that provides livestock, bees, and instruction to poor communities - and he's matching all contributions made on or before December 11th (his current goal is $40,000!). Not only that, but he's got an incredible amount of goodies to give away. Every $10 donated gets you an entry into a raffle for the goodies. Right now, there's books and prints from Peter S. Beagle, manuscripts, books and galley prints of Rothfuss's stuff, a few other assorted writerly items, and as of this morning, 120 books (most signed) donated by Subterranean Press. Sub Press prints absolutely gorgeous hardcovers - high quality paper, incredible artwork, etc etc. Heifer Int'l is a fabulous place to spend some holiday money, and the prize haul is truly staggering. Read here for all the details: http://www.patrickrothfuss.com/blog/2008/11/heifer-international-details.html

Act II is up!!



Act III comes out Saturday, and then all the freebie eps dissapear for good. Get 'em while they're hot :)

The bill granting retroactive immunity to phone companies for their post-9/11 spying has passed the Senate. It's going through the House now. If you are concerned about your privacy and civil liberties, please, PLEASE look into this legislation, form an opinion, and contact your elected officials to let them know where you stand.

If you're strongly against this immunity proposal, as I am, this site will let you craft and send an email (or make a phone call) to your rep(s) in just about a minute. You can either write your own message or use their (a bit too alarmist) pre-written message.
https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?alertId=365&pg=makeACall

If you're in support of it, well, write your rep(s) with that, too. Getting involved never hurts!

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/24/journalist-tries-out.html

Anyone else see this and think "gom jabbar"?

I caught a link to this via lifehacker - PERFECT for folks (like me) who tend to get distracted by all the shiny, well, distractions, on their computers - http://writer.bighugelabs.com/

It's essentially a black screen w/ green text, for writing.  It's browser-based, so if you maximize your browser, almost all your desktop distractions will dissapear.  I particularly like the retro feel - this is almost identical to the look/feel of the old TeleVideo clunkers I spent so much time on in college.  Long nights in the bat cave made for some very productive writing.  Well, when i wasn't wasting time on isca w/ jediwonderboy   *heh*

If you do try it, let me know what you think.  I'm curious how it'll work for others.  Me?  I'm looking forward to the reduced eyestrain.  I do my best writing in the dark or with low light, and the standard white background of most word processors is death on my retinas.  Yes, I realize you can change settings to reduce eyestrain, but I've never found settings that quite work for me.

Anyhoo...this lookms promising.  Especially when it comes to sketching out an idea that occured to me in a dream at 3am  :)

nabbed from laurahcory



Create your own visitor map!

This came in my Threadless newsletter today: http://www.threadless.com/product/157/Afternoon_Delight

Also, Peter S Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn, apparently got horked over by the company that did the animated film, and was never adequately compensated for his work.  The movie is about to come out on DVD, all spiffed up for the new millenium, and there's one specific outlet you can purchase it from which is making sure the profits go to Mr. Beagle directly.  Not only that, but copies purchased here will be autographed by the author.  Woo!  
Details here - http://www.conlanpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

First, a bit of background...
In the late '90s (around '97, I believe), this innovative little music magazine came out. It was called "Launch" and was distributed on CD-ROM. It featured all sorts of video band/artist news, interviews, song clips, and such. Far ahead of its time, Launch met an early demise, but kept up a strong, loyal fanbase. A few years later, Yahoo, now a web superpower, purchased Launch and melded the brand into the fledgling Yahoo Music site. Around 2002, Yahoo started a customizable internet radio service called LAUNCHcast. They had a mix of pre-programmed stations plus user stations that could be customized via a ratings system. I recognized the Launch brand and dove on this service as soon as it, um, launched. In 2004, they released a full-fledged music service - purchasable songs similar to iTunes, plus an unlimited service where you could pay a flat monthly fee for access to everything in their ginormous catalogue. At the time, it was about 1 million albums. Now it's well over 2 million. Plus videos. Plus rarities. It's pretty epic in scope.
Anyhoo...I've been a nut for Launch stuff ever since it hit the market, and was a really early adopter of the Yahoo services. I've traded emails and IMs with some of the staff, and have been infrequently active on various user groups. So, last monday night, I received an IM from one of the folks I spoke w/ a few years ago - he asked if I was interested in coming to a special user's day event @ Yahoo Music headquarters in Santa Monica, CA. ( the rest of the trip here... )

Anyhoo, here's the station I've been tweaking for over 4 years. Give it a listen and tell me what you think :) I'm a little behind the curve on current releases, but they're slowing working back into the mix.
http://music.yahoo.com/launchcast/station.asp?u=1211377738 It's free (w/ occasional audio ads, I think).
(Sadly, it's only accessible through Internet Explorer, but Firefox compatibility is in the cards)