When we had the Codex Writers’ Retreat we had a cookout one night and on another night we went out to barbecue. I had to explain to some of the guests that the two words were not synonymous. The following song will explain better than I could.

Spotted at Matthew Jarpe, who clearly understands barbecue.

Sure, we’ve all written in the dust on the back of a car, but Scott Wade takes that to a whole new level. Check out his gallery and be amazed.

We’re so used to American style hand and rod video puppetry, like the Muppets, that it’s easy to forget that there are whole other traditions out there. Check this out and brace yourself for awesome.

Kevin Kao pointed this out. He’s got a nice breakdown on his blog about what must have gone into making a video like this.

Just in case I didn’t say this clearly enough before: This is a wonderful production and if you are in NYC you must go see it.

Sinking Ship Productions delivers ingenious new stage adaptations of three science fiction tales, using elements of story theatre, puppetry, and video. Director Jon Levin takes 3 stories and turns them into wonderfully theatrical fare:
“How The World Was Saved”, adapted from the story by Stanislaw Lem
“On the Nature of Time”, based on the story by Bill Pronzini & Barry N. Malzberg
“There Will Come Soft Rains”, based on the short story by Ray Bradbury

This production received excellent reviews and sold out in its original run. The performance has been extended through September, so don’t delay in ordering tickets!

WHERE: THE BARROW STREET THEATRE
27 Barrow St.
New York, NY 10014
http://www.barrowstreettheatre.com/index.asp
WHEN: Thu 9/4 @ 7pm, Sat 9/6 @ 2pm & 7pm, Sun 9/7 @ 2pm, Wed 9/10 @ 8pm
TICKETS: $18

I haven’t made a lot of noise about this but one of the things that’s been hard for us over the past year has been the bizarrely difficult time Rob has had finding a job. Some of this is circumstantial; we arrived right before the writers’ strike started and Rob works in film and television.

He’s had some gigs through the year, but nothing that lasted more than a couple of weeks. The perils of freelancing, you know?

Last week, he started working as the assistant winemaker at City Winery. Remember that film and television thing? Yeah, well, he has a completely separate career as a wine maker. We both find it ironic that he left his wine-making job in Oregon to come to New York and will be doing the same job here as there.

We are much relieved. In particular because I’ve had to take every job that came my way. This means I can turn things down occasionally.

It also means that I lose my house-husband and, after a year, I’m a little spoiled.

Heh. I’d totally forgotten that I’d done this. In my new short at Apex all of the names,¹ except Cody,² have something in common.

First person to correctly identify the commonality gets an unpublished short story direct to their inbox.

Edited to add: Through a joint effort, Mike F and Nathaniel Payne correctly identified the names as coming from subway stops. I often write on the train. I’ve sent them both a copy of “Home Safety” which is a spin on Hansel and Gretel.

1. Just to clarify Martian soil and Zeta Epsilon longgrass are not names. [↩]
2. Cody is named after a real dog. I did try to use the same naming convention with her, but Cody was a better name [↩]

Just a reminder, or a head’s up for those who don’t know, the official Campbell site will begin displaying the 2009 eligible authors in September. If your first pro-sale has appeared in print this year, make sure you contact them to get included on that list.

Here’s a bit of wine-maker jargon for you. Our friend Wayne is in town for a couple of days. He and Rob have been talking wine and wine making like they’ve both been starving. I’ve been listening and mostly staying out of their way. But this, this I had to share.

We were at dinner and they were talking about this new winery that Rob has started working at¹ and he said something about how all the grapes were going to be delivered in FYBs.

I said, “What’s an FYB?”

Wayne looked at the table next to us and then said, “Well. F stands for something that’s not polite to say at a restaurant.”

I stare at him for a second before I get it. “Really?”

“Yes. With an -ing. Then the other two are Yellow Bin.”

Rob confirmed. Apparently the F***ing Yellow Bins are so universally reviled for being hard to work with that this is an industry standard term. Everyone calls them FYBs.

1. Did I forget to mention that? [↩]

Apex has my short story Scenting the Dark up in their new online issue. For those who aren’t familiar with Apex, they do SF Horror.

Here’s the teaser on mine.

Lifting the stopper from the vial to his nose, Penn inhaled slowly. Against the neutral backdrop of his ship’s cleanroom, he picked out aromas of quince, elderberry, and bright Martian soil that hinted of blood, with undercurrents of cinnamon and Zeta Epsilon’s fragrantly sweet longgrass. He sighed, blowing the scents out again. The perfume was still out of balance.

We just got a mailing that offers “Win A Pre-Paid Cremation.”

Is it just me, or is something off about that?

I’m hoping that one of you might have run across something like this in your internet journeys.

For a story I’m working on, I need an online generator that will allow me to check off mental illness symptoms and return potential diagnosis. Like a choose-your-own disorder. Has anyone seen anything like that?

It’s almost like hanging out with George Orwell.

The Orwell Prize, Britain’s pre-eminent prize for political writing, is publishing George Orwell’s diaries as a blog. From 9th August 2008, Orwell’s domestic and political diaries (from 9th August 1938 until October 1942) will be posted in real-time, exactly 70 years after the entries were written.

Edited to add: Dan Goodman pointed out that there’s a LiveJournal feed: orwelldiaries

Thanks momk for the link.

Transparent New York is a fun application that shows how NYC has grown over the years.

I was having a conversation with someone about why there aren’t more SF plays. And lo! One appears. there will come soft rains contains adaptations of three short stories by Ray Bradbury, Stanislaw Lem, Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg. Using puppetry, minimal staging, dance and actors this created some of the most compelling theater I’ve seen in a long time.

What’s really exciting to me about the show is that the staging itself pushes the boundaries the way that the best SF does. I’ve often said that the thing that attracts me to both puppetry and speculative fiction is that they are both places where anything is possible. There Will Come Soft Rains took full advantage of that juxtaposition.

There Will Come Soft Rains is the sort of thing I want to see on the nominations list for Dramatic Short Form, but never do.

Seriously. Go see it. There’s only one show left. Saturday at 7:30.