lethargic1) The Interstitial Arts Foundation is holding an online salon discussion that makes for very cool reading.
2) Green Man Review offers the All-Froud issue. Woo!
3) Ginger tea is good for questionable tummies.
4) Dust got a very nice review in Locus this month, which I have been remiss in mentioning.
5) If you have been waiting to catch up/start reading Shadow Unit until the season is over, may I respectfully suggest that it is now approximately one week until the first season finale extravaganza begins. And, um. It's the sort of thing that is going to be much more wonderful chaotic fun to participate in real-time than to read about later.
Trust me on this.
Shadow Unit, for those of you joining us in progress, is a web serial/hyperfiction written by Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Amanda Downum, Sarah Monette, and, er, me. It's modeled on a television show format, complete with episodic and season-long plotlines, burgeoning mysteries, and an ensemble cast of unrealistically sexy smart people attempting to save the world from the worst monsters imaginable... unless they die trying. It's sort of what would happen if Millennium, The X-Files, and Criminal Minds had a love child, though I have to admit we have yet to have an episode with an industrial microwave. But surely, it's only a matter of time.
Current site content comprises seven novelettes or novellas, a whole bunch of vignettes, artwork, a message board with thriving discussion threads and an awesome community (and a fine obsession with food!), a plethora of fairly lightly concealed Easter Eggs, and interactive character blogs.
Additional toys will be provided over the hiatus, and the current plan is to offer first-season community members a particularly nice toy in the fairly near future.
All content is free, unless you are moved to donate (We are currently using the Public Radio Guiltware model), and while we are exploring traditional publication options, there is no way on Earth that all the web content is going to make it into dead tree form. There's just too much of it. So, you know. Here's your chance to get in on the ground floor.
(For those of you already among the Shadow Unit cool kids, please feel free to pimp the heck out of it this week. We're reasonably certain you won't be disappointed.)
NB: Prizes in the poetry contest will be mailed today. Winners, watch your mailboxes!