Hippoi Athanatoi

Sarah Monette has now put up the second chapter of The Mirador on her website (the first is also up there). This is the sequel to Mélusine and The Virtu.

For May, Jacqueline Carey has updated her official site with a second sample chapter from for Kushiel’s Justice, the second book in the second Terre d’Ange trilogy.

Since it is May 1st today, I didn’t have a riding lesson (we’re all good old socialists here, after all), but what I did have was a dog show. After the last one, I was persuaded to handle the dog at the next one, so I’ve tried to practice a little on and off over the last month. Of course, he’s just recently had a bit of a stomach upset, so it was touch and go if we could make it. But the last 2-3 days he’s been his usual crazy self, so we decided to give it a try.

Dabel Brothers Productions and have published the Red Prophet hardcover, collecting the six issues of the mini-series as well as an adaption of an original, never before published “Enderverse” story by Orson Scott Card.

The Fantasy Book Critic has posted an extensive interview with Ernst and Les Dabel of Dabel Brothers Productions. Topics cover past, current, and future publications.

Spring is here again (it made a quick visit a while ago), so today we ended up riding in the paddock. Which I had nothing against since I was put back on Murphy. Partially, it seems, because Nelson is currently taking less weight due to some problems, though hopefully that’s a temporary thing. Either way, I was very interested in seeing if the last two weeks good lessons on Fleur and Nelson would make any difference for me on Murphy.

The nominees for the 2007 Eisner Awards have been announced. There are a number of excellent nominated works, including All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, , Jack of Fables by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, Tony Atkins, and Andrew Pepopy, and Absolute DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke.

It’s International Pixel-stained Technopeasant Day today (all started due to these comments from the SFWA’s current vice-president), which means a heap of free stories from published authors. Browser the community—John Scalzi, Charles Stross, Diane Duane, and many more have contributed works.

The top five nominees in each of the Locus Poll categories have been posted. The results will be revealed on June 16th during the Locus Awards Ceremony.

I’ve been feeling a little queasy these last two days, and during the drive to the stables I was hit by some serious motion sickness, worse than I’ve had it for many years. It also lingered for quite a while after I had gotten to the stables, so I started worrying about being put on Fleur again while feeling less than well. Fortunately, I got Nelson instead, and eventually I got better too.

A much slimmed-down Nelson, I might add. Not that he’d lost any weight, but he had lost a lot of hair. The fluffy coat had been replaced by a short, clippered coat, so he doesn’t look quite so much like a polar bear now. He’s still a bit of a cheeky thug, though, who is all over you when you get him ready. He did eventually get some candy for his efforts, though I made sure not to feed him out of my hand. Murphy, who is in the stall next to Nelson’s, also got some of course. He seemed rather curious about why I was standing around in and outside of Nelson’s stall instead of his own today, and kept poking his head in over the side of the stall. A little jealous (and not just about the candy), one hopes. ;)

One of Amazon’s deals for today is the complete set of all Buffy seasons at 51% off, making it just under 100 dollars. Now that’s what I call a bargain.

Kurt Vonnegut, acclaimed author of novels such as Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat’s Cradle has passed away at the age of 84.

Sarah Monette has posted to her livejournal that she will be auctioning off a freshly printed ARC of The Mirador, with the proceeds from the auction going to the John M. Ford Memorial Book Endowment. The auction will open on April 12th and it will run for twenty-four hours, closing at the same time on April 13th. More details here.

The annual Locus Magazine poll is currently running, and voting is open to everyone who’s interested. The awards has one of the largest voter bases among SF/F literature fandom, and is very well-laid out, with suggestions for each category plus room to include fill-ins.

The deadline is April 15, so vote quickly.

It seems our instructor has once again remembered her notion about putting me on horses other than Murphy for a while, as he was in our lesson today but she put me on Fleur. Given that its not so cold any longer (though it was still quite windy today), I don’t really mind, though she is a bit less interesting to ride than Murphy. Still, given my problems the last few dressage lessons on Murphy, some variety is probably a good idea.