Correction, A Contest, And More!
First, a small correction: Wolfinthewood gently told me that the Carnivalesque wasn’t something she had linked to yesterday. She’s right–it was the someone at the Medieval Studies group who had given the link. Sorry about that. (I plead lack of caffeination.) But Wolf is always worth the read too.
Next up, if you live in the UK, there’s a chance to win one of five ARCs of Night Shift, the first Jill Kismet book. Just hie yourself hence to My Favourite Books and rustle up some crossword puzzle skills. Big kudos to the fantastic and irrepressible Liz, who put this whole shebang together. I don’t know what I’d do without the mods on my message board. They are, as my grandfather would have said, Good People.
And since Liz has put together that contest, I’m going to dip my toesies in the water too. I have two Night Shift ARCs I can sign and send to the continental US or Hawaii. If you’re in that geographic location (dudes, I’m sorry, but I can’t mail out of the US; I’m on some sort of List) now’s your chance to score.
Drop me a line and 1) tell me why you should win an ARC or what you would do for an ARC. Or you can 2) write me an short, short original piece of fiction in the Watcher or Valentine worlds. Deadline is Thursday, May 29.
If nobody chooses to do #2, I’ll take the two winners from those who do #1 and make me laugh the hardest. (Sorry, this is a subjective contest.) If we get entries from #2, I’ll pick one of each. Winners will get a signed Night Shift ARC. (And please, no death or suicide threats for #1, even if funny.)
Now, if you have a blog etc. and would like to review Night Shift, pop on over here and drop Orbit a line. They’re usually more than happy to get review copies out, and since the book comes out on July 1, now is the time to get ‘em.
Whew. I’m exhausted just looking at all that.
I’m currently reading Mao, The Unknown Story. It’s well-written and very interesting. Reading so much about Stalin (you can’t read about WWII and the Eastern Front without bumping up against him) and other historical tyrants and “leaders” makes me wonder how far sociopathy is a prerequisite–not a necessary one, but a damn helpful one–for political power. There seem to be two different types of leaders: the idealists, who generally get assassinated; and the sociopaths, who seem to thrive in creating fascist dictatorships. *sigh* Of course I’m boiling things down to generalities, and I realize the imprecision of such.
Still, reading true crime and history does kind of make one wonder if lots of political leaders, especially ones who are successful in building dictatorships, are just functioning sociopaths. It’s a chilling line of thought and one I don’t enjoy very much. But I went from reading some Crime Library stuff about serial killers to the biography of Mao, and some of the similarities are…well, thought-provoking. And to top that all off, I had been rereading bits of The Stand, especially the bits where Glen Bateman, the sociologist, lays out some rules of human nature. Part of the thought experiment part of The Stand that I really enjoy is the look at how politics might function in a post-apocalyptic society, and there is much Food For Unpleasant Thought there.
I love me some Stephen King. And as Norbert Keene is described in IT, I find much to wonder about and very little that is uplifting in the human condition. I suppose that could describe the way my thoughts are tending today. Not exactly the most optimistic subject in the world, but heigh-ho-the-dairy-o, I’m going to read some more of Mao’s biography today and work on Weasel Boy for hours in between. Dinner is mostly already prepared and in the crock pot, and I might actually get a lot of work done today.
So with that, dear Reader, I’ll bid you adieu. Pardon my wandering, I’m in an itchy and uncomfortable mood, and a good scratching with the comb of fiction is in order. Off I ramble.
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