Archive for May, 2009

A small good thing…

Saturday, May 16th, 2009

There's a lot of bad stuff in the world today.  Let's face it, times are hard.  And getting harder for a lot of people.  And that puts aside all of the other things seeking our attention.  On an on-going basis, it's important for everyone to pitch in in their own way, and according to their means, to make the world a better place.

I like to think that everyone does what they can.

This ISN'T about that, though.

This is about a little thing that you can do on a quiet Saturday morning to put some tunes in your head and your money where your interests are.

See, Paste Magazine is having a short term crisis.  A cash crunch.  And they're turning to their readers to get them over the hump.  They're accepting donations via PayPal or credit card. 

So you're asking, maybe, why should I donate to save, of all things, a magazine?  If you have to ask, clearly you don't know Paste: it's probably one of the best magazines on the market, with some of the finest writing on music and pop culture that you'll find.  Paste digs deep, and the results are right there on the page.

Also, Paste is dangerous.  I don't think I've ever read a single issue where I didn't end up buying 4 or 5 new CDs from their recommendations, or from the free sampler CD that comes with each volume.

So, yeah, please donate a little bit, because Paste is worth it.

And if not for altruism, donate for strictly selfish reasons — your donation gets you access to more than 65 donated rare and previously unissued songs, with more being added even as we speak.  Send this magazine ten bucks and you both reap the benefits.

Okay, that's all I'm gonna say.  I've got new music to listen to…

  

As promised yesterday…

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

… the cover for the Chinese edition of Before I Wake.
(click on the small image for a slightly larger image)
Pretty sweet, eh? And that's the Amazon.cn site. I think.

I'm not even going to look…

Monday, May 11th, 2009

… at how long it's been since I've posted here.  It makes me shudder.

There are good reasons for my absence, largely filed under "work" and "writing" and "Life", but I'm not gonna make any excuses.  I've been a bad blogger.  I should be spanked.

So a bit of a catch-up (while completely avoiding the topic of "Rob, when's the damn book gonna be done?!?!?!?):

– we've decided on a title for the novella, coming this summer from CZP.  It's going to be called The World More Full of Weeping, which I figure should tip people off that it's the sort of lighthearted, frothy romp that they've come to expect from me…

– and the plan is to be in Montreal for WorldCon to launch the book in August.  Which is both exciting and a shade terrifying.  But hey, Montreal!  Never been there…

– in other exciting (possibly only to me) news, I got my first glossy magazine credit last month, with this piece in the UVic Alumni magazine, Torch. (You'll note that the photograph accompanying the piece was taken last summer, which leaves me with but a single question: where the hell did all this grey in my hair and beard come from in ten short months?)

– I also received my author's copies of the Chinese edition of Before I Wake last month – I'll link to the cover image as soon as I can find it again: my google-fu is somewhat hampered when it comes to Simplified Chinese.

– speaking of which, I'm seriously consider having the Chinese title for BIW permanently emblazoned on me somewhere as my newest tattoo.

– this weekend saw the publication, in the Globe and Mail's Buried Treasures column, of a review that I've been working on, emotionally, for more than fifteen years.  It's likely not my last word on Little, Big, but it nicely summarized some of the welter of feelings I have around the book.

Okay, that's probably long enough for a wrap-up.  If you're interested in a bit of different blogging for me (ie, doing it regularly), we've created a blog over at the Bolen Books website where I put up some thoughts on a semi-daily basis.  And for the next couple of days, I'll be taking the reins of BookNinja from the inestimable George Murray while he's off saving the world.

And I'll be back here soon, I promise.