How the Genre Community Restored My Faith in Humanity

On January 10th, Catherine Schaffer and Mary Robinette Kowal organized a fundraiser to raise money for a genome sequencing procedure for fellow writer, Jay Lake.  Lake, as you might know, has been battling cancer for years, and recently received some terrible news about his future.  Having this procedure done could very well suggest new treatments that could extend his life.  The fundraiser offered a lot of amusing perks for different goal levels -- Paul Cornell, for example, offered to sing "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush (goal reached!):

10 Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2013

Now that I've covered movies and television, I think it's time I hit the big stuff -- books.

Here's the ten books I'm looking forward to this year (feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments):

I Don't Care Who Benedict Cumberbatch is in Star Trek Into Darkness...

And neither should you.

I've been avoiding all the discussion about Benedict Cumberbatch's mysterious role in the newest Star Trek film.  IMDB still thinks he's Khan; other people think he's Gary Mitchell.  Me?  I used to speculate, but have officially taken the "I don't give a shit" attitude.

Why?  Because isn't part of the fun not knowing who he's supposed to be?  Isn't that why we go to movies? For the surprise.  For the excitement.  For that amazing moment when the villain is

10 Movies I'm Looking Forward to in 2013

The other day, I released my "top 10" list for television shows premiering or continuing in 2013.  Now it's time for movies.  Why?  Because movies are where it's going to be hot this year.

Here goes:

10 TV Shows I'm Looking Forward to in 2013

There are so many things to watch this year, but I don't have a billion hours to stream every single TV show being made right now.  I've got to be picky.  Very picky.

The following are my top picks for the year.  Do with it what you will...

Here goes:

"Best Of" Lists: A Game of Gap-ology?

If you head on over to The OF Blog, you'll find this post containing links to over a dozen "Best of 2012" lists.  Larry wants us to look at them and take note of the commonalities and the differences.  Some of those lists are varied, unique, and fascinating; I found a lot of new reads through them.  Others?  Let's just say that Larry is right to identify a lot of similarities.

What many of these lists show is a serious lack of depth in reading interest.  Whether that is an intentional choice -- i.e., that someone does not want to read outside of their comfort zone -- or otherwise is impossible to say.  But when you look over the lists, you'll find the same novels repeating over and over.  I don't doubt that these works are good (some of them are my favorites this year); the problem seems to be that they are themselves repetitions.  Epic fantasy, urban fantasy, epic fantasy, urban fantasy, big name science fiction novel, and so on.  Many of them are painfully safe, too.  Where is the variety?  Where are the challenging works?

Maybe I've simply become a pretentious genre reader, but I really thought there would be more variety in terms of content among these lists.  It makes me wonder whether I've simply been blind to all of this over the years, or if something has changed with the way I view literature.  Am I more willing to challenge myself as a reader?  Or do I find books in different ways from others?

What do you think?

New Year's Resolutions

Well, it's that time of year again.  You know, when we look back at all the resolutions we made last year and slap ourselves for failing so miserably?  Yeah.  Not that I can remember what my 2012 resolutions were...

But since it's officially 2013, and I feel like setting some goals for myself, I am going to make a few resolutions.  Here goes:

Writing and Reading
--Write (finish) a novel OR 25 short stories.  My output during 2012 was pretty pathetic, in part because of a lack of motivation, but mostly because I worked insanely hard to create a financial buffer for 2013.  This year is going to be a writing year.
--Read at least 100 books (or the equivalent in some other written medium).  This should be easy enough, since there are 40 books on my PhD. reading list and 24 interview slots for The Skiffy and Fanty Show.  That leaves about 36 books I have to squeeze into the gaps.
--Write more reviews.

Health
--Lose 30 lbs.  Period.
--Eat healthier and consume more vegetarian meals.  Woo!

Financial
--Spend less money and save more for summer.
--Pay my taxes as early as possible and like it.

I think that's a good enough list, no?