I recently posted some thoughts about monoculture, and primarily I was responding to a column I’d seen, hailing monoculture as a good thing. To be honest, I can see a certain part of the argument, but there are things about monoculture that bother me. Sure, the idea of a shared experience - as much as [...]

Why is it when I read this news article, the main thing that stood out to me is that if I had a character in a novel named Lex Lawless, I’m sure I’d be criticized for picking something so phony. Doesn’t it sound fake to you? And at a gun range, no less. [...]

The Diverse Nerd Association is up and in full swing now, and my first weekly news column is now up.  It’s a great site site if you like video games, comics, or anime- and my column will probably throw in some science fiction here and there, too.  I hope you’ll have a look.

Damon doing interviews (or something like an interview) and me pulling excerpts, no wonder why we aren’t done with the new site! Today I have another exclusive excerpt,  a chapter from Ekaterina Sedia’s The Secret History of Moscow, a chapter she described as being as nice a sample as you can find being a bit [...]

It’s weird how this Damon has time to do author interviews while I’m slaving over here trying to bring the new site to you guy but he gets away with it by bringing newa to Brown Coats with this bit from Brust: “Firefly” is the only TV science fiction I’ve ever enjoyed;” I don’t even know if [...]

First, watch this. And then this… Just trust me. And just one more: I know people have debated over whether or not a person’s more inclined to review a book favourably if they receive it for free. That might be true for a short time for what I’ll call blog reviewers, people who don’t review for [...]

I’ve been tagged by Aidan Moher with the meme “Science Fiction Movies Based on a Novel.” The rules are [...]

I have been lax and a few days have passed from the last mailbag so this one a bit bigger then normal. Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi The Spoke by Friedrich Glauser Afro Samurai by Takashi Okazaki Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait by K.A. Bedford The Snowtear Wars by Scot R. Stone Of Wind and Sand by Sylvie Berard The Ghost [...]

Weekend editions may be a little lighter then weekday’s depending on time. -Why is the Joker Batman’s archenemy? -The stigma of changing agents -Lee Goldberg on how to pitch a series to a network. -The latest Carnival of the Criminal Minds has been spotted -Outside of the Romance section you just don’t see covers like that that [...]

We have another one of my quick reviews from my wife.  She gives the book a 9 out of 10.  Her thoughts follow: I felt like every other page I was saying, hey that is just like me.  I may not do everything she says exactly, but it sure will make me change a bunch of [...]

Taking a break from the grunt part of the our forthcoming new redesign and no rest for me, instead I take 5 and announce a new contest for you lovers of short fiction.  Two winners will be walking away with a copy of Clockwork Phoenix edited by Mike Allen that includes stories from people like [...]

In a recent poll on CTV.ca Canadians indicated that the performance of Team Canada at the Olympics mattered. Specifically, that how many medals won was a matter of national pride. If that’s the indicator, there isn’t much for us to be proud of. “As the Beijing Olympics reach the half-way point, Canada’s hopes for 15 medals [...]

Over at Declan’s blog Adrian McKinty offered up why he thinks crime fiction is better then other genres. About SF/F we find this: Early science fiction wasn’t interested in multi-dimensional characters or exacting prose. The idea was everything. Nothing wrong with that, but sixty years later, pretty much all the ideas have been used or [...]

I would welcome suggestions of famous or compelling quotations from literary authors born after 1950, or for simplicity’s sake, from books or short stories or plays or poems or essays published after 1980. Dave Thompson from Busted Flush Press has been freely disseminating Cornelia Reed’s story Hungry Enough from the Hell of a Woman anthology. Who would [...]

Recently, I visited a bookstore. There’s nothing unusual about that, but this was a store that sells new and used books. I scanned the mystery section and didn’t see my book there. Then I noticed that Michael Connelly was shelved in fiction. So was Peter Robinson. I continued looking, and sure enough, [...]

Instead of a forgotten book how about a lost and unknown book. I want to state this clearly and up front. Brian Evenson is one of the greatest writers that you probably aren’t reading. In 2003 The Brotherhood of Mutilation was released as a limited edition novella. There were only 315 [...]

*opens window for fresh air as Mockra always gives him a headache* Alright peeps, it’s that time again to take a look at the week of bookspot that was!  I’m going to be a little ghost this week and next here as we work on the new site design. We are in the grunt stages of [...]

Warren Ellis recently suggested that blogs and other online resources need to be more then link farms, less passive and more active in original content. And though he is ultimately right this fails to recognize the inherent value of links and the function they serve as a guidepost to point readers in a direction. [...]

Okay fellas, got another hot exclusive for you. This is an exclusive excerpt from Unclean Spirits by M.L.N. Hanover, the first book in The Black Sun’s Daughter sequence. Most of you know the author better as Daniel Abraham, author of the sweet epic fantasy series from Tor, The Long Price Quartet (which we also have [...]

To the people that actually keep up with the blog, I have been super busy moving our main site over to wordpress, its been crazy but when it is done I think it will be better for our reviewers as well as our readers so stay tuned.  I have a new mailbag coming up tomorrow [...]