for a nice change of pace, my favourite place to read on-line fiction

From the perpetually inspiring Karen Meisner, continual keeper of all that is holy and powerfully good:

Hey everyone — Strange Horizons is having its annual fund drive right now!

Strange Horizons is an important market for speculative fiction, publishing work by exciting new writers as well as the names you’ve come to know and love, plus reviews and poetry and all kinds of stuff that lets readers across the planet discover great writing. Strange Horizons has given a wide variety of writers a place to shine, especially those whose voices aren’t always heard as loudly in this field: women, writers of color, and anyone else writing non-traditional sf, as well as fresh takes on classic forms of science fiction and fantasy. We pay professional rates, we offer our content 100% free, and we do it all as a nonprofit labor of love. (Which means donations are tax-deductable, in case your boss likes to fund arts organizations too!) For nine years and counting, the sf community has helped keep our little magazine going strong. If you’ve ever found something on our site that you were glad to find, I hope you’ll chip in whatever you can. Thank you!

…Look, I’m no good at hyping things I’m involved in. But if you know the magazine, you’re probably aware of how vital it’s been, and continues to be, in helping so many terrific writers break into the field and launch their careers. If you believe in the value of Strange Horizons, please do what you can to help out: donate whatever you’re willing to pay for these stories; spread the word far and wide about the fund drive; get your friends to spread the word too. Let’s make it happen.

Thanks again, guys. We are entirely a community-supported magazine, and also a community-supportive one. We love our readers and writers, and we love doing what we do.

Oh and PS — You can donate anytime, of course, but if you do it now during the fund drive, you’re eligible to receive prizes!

We’ve been making our own all week

Miss Cellania found a Washington Post feature called Merge-Matic Books, where two-best-sellers are mixed into one. Here’s some examples, click the link to see them all:

“Machiavelli’s The Little Prince” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s classic children’s tale as presented by Machiavelli. The whimsy of human nature is embodied in many delightful and intriguing characters, all of whom are executed.

“Lorna Dune” – An English farmer, Paul Atreides, falls for the daughter of a notorious rival clan, the Harkonnens, and pursues a career as a giant worm jockey in order to impress her.

“Fahrenheit 451 of the Vanities” – An ’80s yuppie is denied books. He does not object, or even notice.

“Planet of the Grapes of Wrath” – Astronaut lands on mysterious planet, only to discover that it is his very own home planet of Earth, which has been taken over by the Joads, a race of dirt-poor corn farmers who miraculously developed rudimentary technology and evolved the ability to speak after exposure to nuclear radiation.

don’t be shy because you think what he does is -poetry-


rabbit
Originally uploaded by hakkenkrakish.

Come see Shane Koyczan perform work from his new book. You miss this and you miss a tiny piece of literary history. I can’t think of an international poetry championship he hasn’t won. He’s opened for Ani DiFranco, Spearhead & Saul Williams, and got back from sharing a stage at the 2005 Edinburgh Book Festival with Margaret Atwood, John Saul, and Salman Rushdie in time for a Vancouver dinner with Neil Gaimen.

VISITING HOURS

Thursday, November 10, 2005 @ The Anza Club 3 West 8th Avenue (at Quebec) 8:00 pm.

Admission Free

Some things to know about Shane that you may or may not know:

He’ll be opening for legendary Canadian rock band The Rheostatics on their West Coast Tour in November 2005

He’s performed with Utah Phillips, Maya Angelou & Quincy Troupe

He cuddles like his poems promise.

He will be performing solo and with T.O.F.U. There’ll be a DJ and drinks and poetry and it will be a damned better sight than you’d ever found on a Thursday before.

Check www.motherpressmedia.com for more details