Etching the Shadows for the Red Nosed Bass

I just posted my review of KJ Bishop’s debut novel, The Etched City for SFFWorld. With that in mind, Ms. Bishop gets my writer of the week award. Ms. Bishop was nominated for the World Fantasy Award last year, as the small-press publisher, Prime Books, published The Etched City in 2003. Last week, it received a wider release under one of Random House’s SF imprints, BantamSpectra. Her name has been around the net for the past year in nothing but praise-worthy tones, let me say the praise is justified and I’m excited about reading more of her work.

Thanks to the banzai cat, I’ve checked out Cheryl Morgan’s latest issue of Emerald City, one of the best and most consistent web-zines covering Fantasy and Science Fiction. Cheryl provides in-depth reviews, for starters. And any fan of FS&F considering making a visit to a Convention should read the ‘zine, she always has great coverage of the conventions she attends and chairs, providing a snapshot of what you may expect should you attend a con. Cheryl generally publishes on a monthly basis. This issue, she’s got a review of Tad Williams’ Shadowmarch, and in it she gives an excellent overview of not just Shadowmarch, but some of Tad’s past work and what truly makes him one of the best modern fantasy writers publishing today. Click over there and read it, you shan’t be disappointed.

As I feared, last night’s episode of Smallville was a typical paint by numbers, what does kryptonite do to people this week episode. After about 25 minutes into the show, I switched to watch Rudolph, which was shown for the 40th year. Yes I’m 30, but so what? Along with Santa in the Thanksgiving Day Parade, this is the other great signifier that the Christmas season is truly in full swing. Last year’s Last year’s Elf, with Will Ferrell, paid a classy homage in its opening to all the Rankin-Bass (creator of the Rudolph special) Christmas specials.

My beer of the week is Bass Ale, which compliments last week’s beer Guinness quite nicely as the bottom of the famous Black & Tan. Bass is an English beer, very tasty and pretty easy to find in your local liquor store or bar.

That's it for today.