So I'm supposed to be at the new place this morning so the gas can get turned on. And of course, we are having a slight snowpocalypse. And I seem to have caught a cold, not too shockingly. 

So I guess I will call and reschedule for Wednesday, when netcurmudgeon and I are setting up the wireless, and pack up my kitchen today instead. Takeout for dinner sometime soon!

Eeee!

By the way, book sale participants, just so you know--any books not paid for by tomorrow will be being mailed out *after* the move, because, well, soon I'm going to have to pack them. *g*

NPR's All Songs Considered has selections from ESLC's epic 3-hour Feb 19th concert from New York City's Beacon Theater available as a free podcast.

eeeeeeeeee! eeeeeeeeeeeee!
It's Evil Sexy Leonard Cohen! And he brought the doo-wop girls!

Also, for those of you who missed it, because who reads Livejournal on a Sunday except sad, lifeless persons like me--

Shadow Unit season 2 is go: the first episode "aired" yesterday. You can read it here.



For those of you who are joining us in progress, and don't yet know what Shadow Unit is--well, it's a collaborative hyperfiction narrative. A web serial, formatted much like a "Virtual Season" of a TV show--except it's an entire virtual series. It's free, with an option for micropayments, so I guess technically it's guiltware.

It's written by me, Sarah Monette, Holly Black, Will Shetterly, Amanda Downum, Leah Bobet, and Emma Bull.

It concerns the exploits of a fictional FBI task force whose job is stopping human monsters who have been granted paranormal abilities by a poorly-understood force known as the Anomaly... and maybe figuring out what the Anomaly is and how to defeat it, into the bargain.

Of course, some of the agents have been touched by the Anomaly, as well--

In addition to the episodes, there are DVD extras including vignettes and artwork, and there's certain interactive capabilities: several of the characters maintain blogs, and some events of the narrative take place in real time.

There's also a Wiki (full of spoilers! srsly!) and there are Easter Eggs and toys hidden in most of the episodes and sometimes, um, some of the DVD extras. (There's a complete list of easter eggs in the wiki, if you don't like scavenger hunts.)

Also, there's a message board and a thriving fan community. Um. We play games.

Older episodes can be found here.

It if were a real TV series, it would belong to the same subgenre as, say, The X-Files and Millennium. With an outcross to Criminal Minds or The Wire, as it features an ensemble cast.

Seriously. It's good stuff. You'll like it.

And now I have to go back to picking the 27,000 tiny refrigerator poetry magnets off my fridge. Oh Noes!

Seven for a Secret (out officially the end of the month, though I would guess unofficially it might be any day now) garnered two absolutely lovely reviews in Locus this month.

Rich Horton listed is as a "recommended story," saying among other things: Elizabeth Bear's new book, Seven for a Secret, is a very satisfying latter-day sequel to her mosaic novel New Amsterdam.

And an excerpt from the Faren Miller review says: The situation seems less grim than exciting to a pair of girls who barely manage to hide their lesbianism, their anti-government sentiments, and certain uncanny capabilities (for whatever the leaders wish to think, whatever the laws decree, magic does exist here). When the lives of these girls intersect with that of the wampyr who goes by many names, and the dying old woman he both tends and loves, it leads to moments of blood, sweat, and gloriously foolhardy danger, yet Bear never lets us forget the longer view.

Good night, Internets. Good work. I'll most likely kill you sneeze on you in the morning.