The Whole World and You by Tally Hall, directed by Frankie Cordero

Ken is one of my dearest friends and he’s also one of my favorite authors, which is a handy combination.  If you’re in the Seattle area, you can head over the the U-bookstore for his signing.   But if that’s too far away and you want a sampling of Scholes, Tor.com has one of his short stories up.

A Weeping Czar Beholds the Fallen Moon by Ken Scholes.

Frederico leaned close to smell the poison on his thirteenth wife’s cold, dead lips. It tickled his nose and he resisted the strong desire to kiss her that suddenly overcame him.

That you might lose yourself from sadness by my lips, my husband and Czar, her open, glassy eyes promised him. He looked away, uncomfortable with her empty, inviting stare.

Behind him, the Minister of the Interior cleared his voice and spoke. “The cabinet feels it would be more stabilizing to consider this an assassination. Jazrel was a most popular wife.”

As a bonus, they have an audio version available as well, read by me.

I am a total sucker for Christmas. Complete. To my very core, sucker for Christmas. Every year, my extended family descends on the house my grandfather built for a Norman Rockwell affair: We’ve got third-cousins twice-removed, there’s caroling, dinner for thirty-four people and a talent show. So it should come as no surprise that I have a soft spot for Christmas movies, so many of which by their very nature fall into the fantasy category. Christmas is, after all, a time for magic, so here are my favorite Christmas movies that celebrate the season with a healthy dose of magic and wonder.

Swing by and tell me what your favorite Christmas movies are.

Q: What were the best genre-related books, movies and/or shows you consumed in 2008?
[We also added this note: They don't have to have been released in 2008. Feel free to choose just some of the genres (sf/f/h) or a subset of the media (books/movies/shows) as you wish.]

I also hit a couple of short stories because, you know, I like those. Apparently the response was so overwhelming that they had to split it into two parts so make sure you check back tomorrow for Part II.

You know what? I would too.

So let me introduce you to Lassie. That’s the extremely tattered stuffed animal in the corner there. She’s a lamb, and yes, everywhere that I went, the lamb was sure to go. One of my parents’ friends made her out of a hand towel as a gift at a baby shower before I was born. The crazy quilt that she is now, is not her original fabric. Out of all the toys, presented to me, this was the one I latched on to. I carried her by a death grip around the throat everywhere.

Oddly, one of my clear early memories is naming her. Herschel asked me what her name was. We were standing on the sidewalk outside some store and it was sunny, so I think it must have been while we were down at Easter. Until he asked, it hadn’t occurred to me that she didn’t have a name, or even for that matter that she should. But as soon as the question was posed, I realized that she should, of course, have one so I gave the only name that I knew for a pet. “Lassie.” I think I’d recently seen it on television, because I did know that I was naming her after a collie.

She sits on my desk now, in a little cubbie-hole. This bit here is the only original fabric left. Grandma taught me to embroider by stitching a new eye for her when the fabric on the side of Lassie’s head wore out. She’s stuffed with panty-hose.

When I was in kindergarten, we accidentally left her on top of the car when leaving school. I was deeply traumatized and Mom drove all over the place looking for her. She even took out an ad in the paper. Miraculously, someone found Lassie and answered the ad. I still have the ad, although it’s in a storage locker. I wouldn’t leave Lassie there though. Not after all this time.

So, how about you? Did you save a favorite childhood toy?