You'll Probably Guess

Hey, guess who loves graffiti, feminism, and democratic uprising?

That's right, it's me!

And apparently these very cool ladies in Egypt!

Podgasm

Here are some new podcasts I love and recommend:

Starship Sofa. Yes. I know. I'm stupidly late to the party on this one. It's won a hugo, there's like a bazillion back episodes. I know. But it's awesome, even from day one. The production values are high and beautiful, the stories, while often older, have been really top notch so far, and the host seems like a sweet, charming guy. So, yeah, very recommended.

Speculate! The formula for Speculate! is as follows: the hosts will talk about a set of speculative stories, discussing what they think was good about them and why they think the stories work; then they interview the author and have them talk about why they made specific choices. I love not only the picking apart of stories (though I found myself really wanting to argue back with the podcast on the discussion of "Spar"), but also the director's commentary style stuff with the authors. It's super fun, and both the hosts are charming, well-spoken gentlemen.

Roundtable Podcast. Another sort of behind the scenes podcast, Roundtable brings on a different professional writer or editor each week as a guest host, then has amateur writers approach the roundtable with their book ideas. The round table will then ask pointed questions and probe the story for ways to make it stronger.

K.M. Weiland's Word Play Podcast. These are super short and very focused. About eight minutes each. Weiland is a historical fictioneer, but the advice is very generalized.

Nightmare Magazine. It was kind of a given, wasn't it? I love Lightspeed, and this is the same editor and sound company but with horror.

Odyssey Writing Workshop- like it sounds, it's excepts from the lectures given at the Odyssey writing camp. They're all good, but the Bruce Holland Rogers one is my favorite so far.

Outer Alliance. An extension of the Outer Alliance group for Queer Undetermined Intersexed Lesbian Transgender Bisexual Asexual Gay science fiction writers and fans, this podcast can get a little bit self-congratulatory, but it's got some great interviews with writers, some really fun discussions, an awful lot of Australian science fiction, and some liberal use of my new favorite acronym for this sort of thing: QUILTBAG. Very much worth a listen if you're even marginally interested in the subject.

Small Beer Press Podcast. Fantastic mix of stories, theory, interviews, and homebrewing, from the company that puts out Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, among other things.

SFSqueecast- Catherynne Valente, Elizabeth Bear, Lynne Thomas, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, and a guest all bring to the table something speculative that made them go "squee". Great for recommendations, and because of this podcast, I was finally able to find the book Seaward by Susan Cooper, which I'd read in my middle school library, loved, and then forgotten the name of. I could recognize the picture on the front, but I didn't remember the name of the author or the book. So, yeah, that's awesome.

Stuff You Missed In History Class- From the same folks that brought you Stuff You Should Know. These are bite sized chunks of themed history that include stuff like The Most Horrific Storms In History, or The Most Extravagant Historical Weddings, or Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean. Sometimes they'll just profile one neglected historical figure. They're just fantastic for tidbits, trivia, and stealables for fiction.

Also, it hasn't started yet, but Strange Horizons, which is a fantastic magazine, is also going to be doing a podcast, so of course I look forward to that.

And per the usual, here are the previous list of podcasts I love:



Fiction
Escape Pod - science fiction
Pseudopod - horror
Podcastle- fantasy
Drabblecast- weird short fiction
Clarkesworld- science fiction/fantasy
Beneath Ceaseless Skies- fantasy adventure
Tor.com- fantasy, seems defunct now
The New Yorker- literary fiction with commentary
Bound Off- literary
Cast Macabre- dark, on hiatus
Lightspeed Magazine- science fiction and fantasy (now incorporates what was Fantasy Magazine)
Dark Fiction Magazine- dark, british
Cast of Wonders- young adult, fantasy
Hooting Yard on The Air-  All Frank Key all the Time.
Toasted Cake- weird, flash
Flash Fiction Online- general, flash
Dread Central Station Dreadtime Stories- horror, camp


Writing/Craft:
 Writing Excuses- fifteen minute topic specific advice
I Should Be Writing- inspiration, interviews, feedback, market analysis. The Good Cop/Bad Cop is a personal favorite.
Locus Roundtable- roundtable discussions

General:
Stuff You Should Know- trivia, various topics

Spider People

Some very cool art using x-rays and a warped imagination.

Short Story Greats

A list I'm on took some time recently to organize a list of great science fiction and fantasy stories throughout the medium. Here are the ones they came up with, with links to free versions online if they were available, and amazon if they were not. You can thank me later.

The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford

26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss by Kij Johnson

The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Story of your Life by Ted Chiang

Bloodchild by Octavia Butler

All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury

Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke

All You Zombies by Robert Heinlein

A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury

Retronaut and More!

In addition to having one of the most fabulous names imaginable, Retronaut is a really cool archive of images and curios from the past- people presenting themselves and their world as they saw it way back when. The tourist bureau for the foreign country of the past.

And while we're looking back, check out US History Minus the White Guys. I know some of you are rolling your eyes about that, but it's got all sorts of fun stuff on it like dispatches from Queen Lili'ukolani, Kate Warne the lady detective, and Matthew Henson, who was on the first trip to the North Pole. (For those of y'all reading this and grousing about the deliberate exclusion of only white men from this history blog, please consider it a supplement to the history available in public schools, which because of lack of time and resources, often confine their materials to dealing principally with the actions of white men in offices of power).

Jake Kerr on Massive Editing

Inkpunks is a good place anyway, and one that I've recommended before, but if you haven't seen Jake Kerr talk about editing The Old Equations you really should check it out. 

10 Successful, Handsome Men Who Used to be Women

I hate to profile transdudes for how cispretty they are, but some of these guys are amazing looking. 

Happy Bastille Day

Here is a photo essay collection of people around the world sharing kisses.

Pretty Strong

Sarah Robles is an Olympic super heavyweight weight lifter. On her blog, she talks about athleticism, celebrity, and body shape. She's got a very interesting take on things.  

Walking in a Photo Wonderland

Kirsty Mitchell's lovely fantasy photo series is dedicated to her deceased mother. 

Ronald Regan Riding a Velociraptor

By which I mean Happy Forth of July. 

Pretty Pretty Princesses

This is just dark fluff, but I really enjoyed it. It's some absolutely fantastic work. 

500 Free Movies Online

I know that looks like spam mail, but it's a list from the Open Culture project of 500 movies including classics, independent films, and films made with government funds. Check it out, it's pretty cool. 

Brobdignagian Backlist of Badassery

You know, I don't think I've actually linked Badass of the Week here before, which is a shame, because it's an awesome site. As indicated above, it's got a lot of content built up. 

Zen Pencils

I actually found this site when they quoted Neil Gaiman, but the whole thing is worth a read through. This guy has a great hand at mixing art and words (my personal favorite compositions so far are Dr. Seuss and Buddha. The one from Neil Degrasse Tyson is pretty spectacular too). Yeah, go poke around.

The Economics of Anarchy

Well, not really, but it's some thoughts about economics from a different perspective.

LitReactor

I try to be on the lookout for sites that run writing advice- especially useful writing advice (you know, not just "have a blog", "build your brand", and "feel the fiction"). I've been poking around LitReactor and it seems to be pretty handy (my favorite so far is the article on visceral horror by Jack Frickin' Ketchum). There's a pay-only section of the site that includes more articles and a workshop forum, but I haven't paid, so I can't tell you anything about those (though there are lots of free services for critiquing).

Anyway, go have a read, it's nice. 

Unspeak

A dear friend of mine pointed me at the Unspeak blog, which is all about language, and particularly the ways it is used by politicians and the media. Check it out and enjoy yourselves!

World SF Blog

Check out the World SF Blog! They do science fiction from around the world. Plus sometimes they post fiction. 

Oldest and Fatherless

This one's just a bit of fun, fannish fluff, but it's a different take on Tolkien's Tom Bombadil.