With some Photoshop tinkering by Lynda, while we eagerly await the cover for Righteous Anger from Edge. :-)
posted by Lynda at 09:40   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 



posted by Lynda at 07:05   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
Calling all Visionaries ... says the The Stardance Project website. Jeanne Robinson is looking for support for a movie that will give a boost to her vision of dancing in zero gravity, brought to life in the books by herself and her husband Spider Robinson. Visit the site for a sight of some lovely pictures, and contemplate support for the cause. (One of the supporters listed is our very own Virginia O'Dine!)
posted by Lynda at 08:44   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
Cover to Cover Call-In show coming up! ? by Summer Brooks (re-posted here)
 
Okay, the live caller experiment is expanding.
 
We will be recording the next "Cover to Cover" feature on Saturday, May 13th, beginning at 10:30am Pacific Time.
 
What makes this different is that we'll be talking with 3 authors from Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publications, and you'll be able to call in with questions and comments during and after their roundtable discussion.
 
Rebecca Rowe ("Forbidden Cargo"), Lynda Williams ("Courtesan Prince", "Throne Price", "Righteous Anger"), and Australian author and Aurealis winner K.A. Bedford ("Orbital Burn", "Eclipse", "Hydrogen Steel") will be talking about their books, all of which use either genetic modification or the use of nanotechnology in humans within their writing.
 
Consider it a preview of their appearances at this year's WorldCon.
 
Listeners will be able to hear the feed here:
http://haven.homelinux.net:12346/listen.pls
 
Australian listeners can catch a feed closer to home:
http://stream.froosh.net:8000/wingin_it.m3u
 
We are in the process of adding another server, so keep an eye out here, and in the new IRC channel #dragonpage for more news.
 
Both IRC channels #dragonpage and #wingin_it are available at irc.freenode.net
 
posted by Lynda at 09:07   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
Just sent off a care package of Okal Rel Universe material to a new e-mail correspondent, Dr. Tatjana Chroney. She is interested in the way that votary authors participate in the Fandom Press publications, and in a broader sense how the ORU thrives on contributions from reader/supporters in general. She studies reader response theory from the fascinating perspective of one well acquainted with 17th Century practices. The 17th Century experienced a watershed where the printing press was the thing encroaching on earlier approaches to loving literature, which placed more value on circulating manuscripts among interested parties.

See Dr. Chorney's article Interactive Reading, Early Modern Texts and Hypertext: A Lesson from the Past available via the Academic Commons.
posted by Lynda at 13:41   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
I'm behind in getting good stuff recognized, including this fractal creation by Alison. Also a song by Garth F., reader's theatre adaptation of the scene where Ann meets Amel by Elizabeth W., some Horth pictures by Alison (one is in the flash gallery if anyone wants to hunt it up there, if not -- it will appear here ... soon) and more of the exciting sketches Brianna shared with me.

Click the detail of the Flashing Floor to get the full picture in the graphics gallery.

posted by Lynda at 13:32   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 

Got my copy of Forbidden Cargo today, from EDGE publishing. Can't wait to read it.



Also, just finished Julie Czerneda's Migration, #2 in the Species Imperative series. I found myself a little lost, cuz it had been a couple years since I read the first one. Once again, Julie keeps the pace pretty fast, the characters interesting, and we're treated with a surprise at the end. It's not nearly as much of a jolt as in the first book, and it's way easier to digest. Number three will be out soon, and I'll forward to it.
posted by Virginia at 10:37   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 1 comments

 

Character study of Ann by artist Brianna Thomas. More to come ...

posted by Lynda at 22:18   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments

 
In San Jose, last week, I met a neat lady named Shelley Brown Kesselman. I discovered her sitting at a table with the sign Listening Post in front of it, and an invitation to share my triumphs and concerns. If the sign said Chaplaincy I wouldn't have stopped. I've been allergic to people telling me what good is since my early teens. But I did stop, and Shelley listened with intelligent interest to my own way of tackling moral issues, through my fiction, before I even found out that she was Assistant Chaplain of the Anglican mission at San Jose State University. After that we talked about -- not our differences -- but our shared values and increasing disgust with the money-first attitude of capitalist-fever around us, which seems to be less and less concerned with moral checks and balances. She said her mission is to help people figure out what they believe about spirituality and help them live up to those beliefs. Even rationalist humanists like me. I told her about Neil Lettinga, from UNBC, who had recently engaged me in conversation in the same fashion by showing an interest in my work and recognizing my preoccupation with moral dilemnas and the pressure to ditch ethics in order to win. That's twice in one year I've found myself more in sympathy with the "bad guys" of my early years than the "good guys". The good guys of my youth were the enlightened scientific types who would bring relief from suffering and a higher standard of living for all. Now they seems to be more interested in better service at expensive dinners and more lucrative patents. The "bad guys" were the religious types who wanted to keep us in the dark ages, stifle free thought, terrify the innocent and make decent people feel ashamed of themselves for being a bit different. Life can be confusing, can't it? Bottom line, whatever it is called, any belief that gives people the strength to be moral and care about each other in this frantic world has got to be a force for good. :-)


posted by Lynda at 08:52   permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments