Science fiction author William Gibson (Neuromancer, Spook Country) is answering questions about writing, publishing and general work habits on his blog.
Via Boing Boing
Author Archives: Editor
Graphic Novel: It Was the War of the Trenches
It Was the War of the Trenches, by Jacques Tardi, is available in English for the first time.
The graphic novel depicts the life of the average soldier in the trenches of World War I. The artwork looks gorgeous and the story is apparently quite harrowing. A nice big hardcover version seems the perfect presentation.
Here are more photos of the book.
Podcast Novel: A Princess of Mars (Chapter 17)
This is the first John Carter of Mars novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of the Tarzan books. It was his first novel, published in 1917 and it’s a work of rip-roaring science fiction that has inspired many of the great writers in the genre.
Chapter 17: John Carter, Dejah Thoris, and Sola make their escape across the Martian landscape for the city of Helium.
You can find all the previous chapters of the book here.
You’ll find regular podcasts of all the chapters over the next couple of months. Subscribe to our feed.
Duration: 00:17:43
Read by Alessandro Cima
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Audio Podcast Novel: Pinocchio (Chapter 6)
DOWNLOAD PINOCCHIO – CHAPTER 6
Per l’Italia! More of our story!
This is one of the great gifts from Italy to the children of the world. Carlo Collodi’s 1883 masterpiece, The Adventures of Pinocchio, is the story of the wooden marionette who desperately wants to be a real boy. His adventures are full of mischief, wonder, sadness, joy, treachery, danger and all the exuberant life of a real Italian boy. This is the English translation by Carol Della Chiesa.
Subscribe to audio with iTunes
Reading and illustration by Alessandro Cima
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute copies of our MP3 audio or video stories. They are for your personal use. If you choose to burn our MP3 stories onto a personal CD, do not make copies of the CD or distribute them to other people. Also, do not sell CDs containing our audio stories. All audio stories are copyrighted by Candlelight Stories, Inc.
Audio Podcast Novel: Pinocchio (Chapter 5)
DOWNLOAD PINOCCHIO – CHAPTER 5
Per l’Italia! More of our story!
This is one of the great gifts from Italy to the children of the world. Carlo Collodi’s 1883 masterpiece, The Adventures of Pinocchio, is the story of the wooden marionette who desperately wants to be a real boy. His adventures are full of mischief, wonder, sadness, joy, treachery, danger and all the exuberant life of a real Italian boy. This is the English translation by Carol Della Chiesa.
Subscribe to audio with iTunes
Reading and illustration by Alessandro Cima
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute copies of our MP3 audio or video stories. They are for your personal use. If you choose to burn our MP3 stories onto a personal CD, do not make copies of the CD or distribute them to other people. Also, do not sell CDs containing our audio stories. All audio stories are copyrighted by Candlelight Stories, Inc.
I’m Gonna Beat You With My Poem
I’m about to show you why I have so few friends. It’s because I don’t put up with ‘team mentality.’ Hey kids, come over here and join my poetry team! Yeah dudes! Get with it! Get hip to my dang poetry team, bro! We could win! We could take the whole prize, sista! Yeah, baaaaaaby!
I’m the kid eating the Twinkies, picking my nose, twirling the Frisbee on my finger and looking at you like you’ve got a gun. That’s me. You scare me, poetry dude.
For some reason, in our young national culture, we enjoy teaching our children to compete via talent shows of all stripes. Since it’s National Poetry Month, the Louder Than a Bomb demo video caught my somewhat jaundiced eye. I put up with it all the way through even though it made me squirm. Poetry as in your face talent competition doesn’t fit my world view.
Right away the video starts out with total obnoxiousness. The guy says, ‘We de-emphasize the competition, but you want to win!’ A-hole. What an idiot. Kids, remember, always run from a guy that says something like that. Run and don’t look back.
I feel the same way about film festivals, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars and the Academy Awards. I even feel the same way about online writing contests, though I’ve hosted them myself. They are intended to boost traffic on a web site. They serve no real purpose and offer no true value at all. Contests are held to make mediocrities feel like they can hand out prizes. A kid who is going to be a poet is going to leave by the back door every time.