Jun 19 2007
My series, the Jack Meter Case Files, is featured during the Summer Mystery Reading Challenge at Reviewed by Liz. Thanks, Liz, for a great write-up!
dynastic_queen has posted an interview with me on her LJ blog. She’s starting a new feature, LJ Writers’ Block, where she’ll interview authors. I was honored to be her first victim… ah, I mean interviewee. Thanks, Stephe!
Jun 11 2007
Beautiful pictures taken two weeks ago in Vermont, Robert Servranckx’s Nature Photography gives us tranquility but also a hint of the savage, as photos of carnivorous plants, in all their beautiful glory and deadly attractiveness, mix with serene images of waterfalls and lake.
The picture at left is a pitcher plant and the liquid inside is not water but a liquid produced by the plant itself that drowns and dissolves the insects the plant lured with either its color or an offering of nectar smells. The way the pitcher plants digest their preys is either through bacterial action or by using enzymes. Either way,
”…the prey items are converted into a solution of amino acids, peptides, phosphates, ammonium and urea, from which the plant obtains its mineral nutrition (particularly nitrogen and phosphorus). Like all carnivorous plants, they occur in locations where the soil is too poor in minerals and/or too acidic for most plants to be able to grow.” See Wikipedia for more.
I already have two of Robert’s prints (beautifully framed), and I don’t tire of looking at them. They capture one instant but make you imagine that life goes on and that everything in natue is elusive and ephemeral.
Jun 07 2007
From Locus Online:
| HARDCOVERS | Months on list |
Last month |
|
| 1) | Shadowplay, Tad Williams (DAW) | 1 | - |
| 2) | Command Decision, Elizabeth Moon (Ballantine Del Rey) | 2 | 5 |
| 3) | For a Few Demons More, Kim Harrison (Eos) | 1 | - |
| 4) | Un Lun Dun, China Miéville (Ballantine Del Rey) | 2 | 3 |
| 5) | Ysabel, Guy Gavriel Kay (Roc) | 3 | 1 |
| 6) | Sixty Days and Counting, Kim Stanley Robinson (Bantam Spectra) | 1 | - |
| 7) | Heart-Shaped Box, Joe Hill (Morrow) | 2 | 8 |
| 8 ) | The Terror, Dan Simmons (Little Brown) | 3 | 6 |
| 9) | Deliverer, C. J. Cherryh (DAW) | 2 | 4 |
| 10) | Belladonna, Anne Bishop (Roc) | 1 | - |
| PAPERBACKS | |||
| 1) | The Scent of Shadow, Vicki Pettersson (Avon) | 1 | - |
| 2) | Proven Guilty, Jim Butcher (Roc) | 2 | 1 |
| 3) | Storm Front, Jim Butcher (Roc) | 2 | 6 |
| 4) | Blood Bound, Patricia Briggs (Ace) | 3 | 2 |
| 5) | The Younger Gods, David Eddings & Leigh Eddings (Warner) | 1 | - |
| 6) | Moonshine, Rob Thurman (Roc) | 1 | - |
| 7) | Watch on the Rhine, John Ringo & Tom Kratman (Baen) | 1 | - |
| 8 ) | Engaging the Enemy, Elizabeth Moon (Ballantine Del Rey) | 2 | 5 |
| 9) | Regeneration, Julie E. Czerneda (DAW) | 1 | - |
| 10) | Kitty Takes a Holiday, Carrie Vaughn (Warner) | 1 | - |
| 11) | Old Man’s War, John Scalzi (Tor) | 3 | 3 |
| 12) | Tempting Evil, Keri Arthur (Dell Spectra) | 1 | - |
| TRADE PAPERBACKS | |||
| 1) | Day Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko (Hyperion/Miramax) | 2 | 4 |
| 2) | Overclocked, Cory Doctorow (Thunder’s Mouth Press) | 1 | - |
| 3) | X-Rated Bloodsuckers, Mario Acevedo (Rayo) | 1 | - |
| 4) | Wicked, Gregory Maguire (HarperCollins) | 16 | 2 |
| 5) | The Alchemist’s Apprentice, Dave Duncan (Ace) | 1 | - |
Jun 05 2007
I’m not a fan of advertisements, but this one is just superb. It plays more like a music video, the cinematography is clever, as are the special effects, and the singers are not only big stars but complement each other’s voices. Plus, the message is about female power. I’ll get behind that.
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