A sea lion is mesmerized by a lizard’s tongue. No, seriously.

Many of you have probably seen this British family’s lockdown take on “One Day More” from Les Miserables.

Books and Writing:

Free or cheap digital comics!

Rick Riordan interviews Rebecca Roanhorse about her middle grade story Race to the Sun.

One of the mainstays of MAD Magazine passed away.

Comic artists share five ways to spark creativity during the shelter  in place orders.

On Facebook, Somtow Sucharitkul announced his return to writing SFF with a self-published novel. Suchartkul came onto the SFF scene in the late 1970s with the Mallworld series and a number of short stories. He changed his work name to S.M. Somtow and wrote horror, and was the Horror Writers Association from 1998-2000. He is also known as a composer. Thanks to File 770.

NPR interviewed John Scalzi about The Last Emperox. This is a podcast.

SF writers find ways to save local, independent bookstores.

Mark Lawrence writes about aphantasia – he doesn’t have a “mind’s eye” and he doesn’t visualize things. It doesn’t prevent him from writing powerfully descriptive prose.

Sarah Pinkser won the Philip K Dick Award, which was announced via livestream on April 10.

Giveaway:

I’ll give a copy of K.D. Edwards’s The Hanged Man to one commenter.

TV and Movies:

Disney has taken Artemis Fowl out of its theatrical release line-up and will offer it on its Disney-Plus streaming service.

Oh, boy! A Salem’s Lot remake! Gary Dauberman will direct. I think right now if a vampire confronted me I’d ask it if had washed its hands.

Disney+ (I think I typed it incorrectly in an earlier item) launches a show that features movie props.

From late March, AV Club reviews The Walking Dead season-ender.

Decider has a review of Syfy’s The Vagrant Queen.

Internet:

Yes, only my neck of the woods, northern coastal California, would come up with virtual wine tasting parties. What? Well, apparently it’s the party that’s virtual, not the tasting. You pay, and I guess they send you the wines and some recipes so you can make tasty snacks (or a whole meal) to go along with your flight, and then you check in via Zoom.

Tech:

Here are some tips for video-chat improvement.

Google Meet remains a very popular video-chat platform.

 

Space:

On its way to Mercury, spacecraft BepiColombo took some photos of earth.

Earth:

Serbian miners uncovered the remains of a probable Roman ship and two smaller boats in a coal mine. While carbon dating and other research is on hold during the pandemic, it’s still pretty cool.

Discoveries in a small highlands village in New Guinea change the entire narrative of Neolithic culture there.

Videos:

Emperor penguins.

Here’s a cute video of tiger cubs playing with Mom. It’s about a minute and a half long.

Tap dancer strut their stuff to “Cups” from the film Pitch Perfect. It’s about 3 minutes long.

At 4:52 minutes, a remix of classic dance numbers set to Uptown Funk.

 

Author

  • Marion Deeds

    Marion Deeds, with us since March, 2011, is the author of the fantasy novella ALUMINUM LEAVES. Her short fiction has appeared in the anthologies BEYOND THE STARS, THE WAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE, STRANGE CALIFORNIA, and in Podcastle, The Noyo River Review, Daily Science Fiction and Flash Fiction Online. She’s retired from 35 years in county government, and spends some of her free time volunteering at a second-hand bookstore in her home town.

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