Long long weekend

RIP Robert Aspirin. He was at my first convention at Dragon Con 89. I went to a reading of his on the last day. I think it might have been from one of the Phule books, but not sure. I wasn't aware of his reputation at that point.

From rolanni, because I needed the laugh: Graph Jam Lolcats are nice, but sometimes you just need your humor quantified.

Reading stuff

Tor Books has started an interesting newsletter. With each issue, you receive a link to a free ebook in several formats (PDF/Html/Mobi) and two wallpapers. So far they've sent out kateelliott's "Spirit Gate", Peter Watts' "Starfish" and C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp's "Touch of Evil".

In my book browsing the other day, I came across an encouraging discovery, a steampunk fantasy novel "The Clockwork Heart" by Dru Pagliassotti published by Juno Books. Why encouraging? Because it was originally written as a Nano novel. Now granted Pagliassotti has been editing the Harrow for awhile, so isn't quite the same as lowly Nano wannabe, but it has started me thinking about the first completed Nano again. It's original fantasy, but is the female protagonist "strong" enough? Something to think about...