Books and Writing:
Shadow and Bone Cover, image from Book Smugglers.
Here are seven author-owned bookstores. This article is about an early woman-owned bookstore in New York. The place must have been wonderfully bohemian.
The Last Dangerous Visions anthology will open to submissions for ONE DAY ONLY on April 30, 2021.Please note they are accepting ONE story. Here is some submission info. The post includes a “release form,” which I’ve never seen before. I didn’t real the whole thing—the first part simply seems to be the author affirming that it’s original work.
Disney is moving back into book publishing with the launch of Hyperion Avenue. It’s nice to see women heading the biz, at least.
Also from Publishers Weekly, here are the highlights of the week’s Bestseller lists. The full lists seem to be behind a paywall.
Sarah A Hoyt will write for the new comic Barbarella, which is based on the (clears throat) classic 1968 Jane Fonda movie, which was based on a comic book.
Preparing for the Netflix show, Book Smugglers re-reads Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo.
This has nothing to do with anything, but it’s pretty amusing, as Wheezy Writer takes us on his journey of self-discovery, using bullet journaling.
Space:
On Mars, MOXIE produced oxygen! Ingenuity made its third flight. It’s sending home pics.
NASA’s plans for space travel are bolder than they used to be.
Movies, TV, Streaming:
Here’s a cute story about Ben Barnes in Shadow and Bone.
Internet:
This new BBC podcast about a heist sounds intriguing.
A controversial hire exits Google.
There Can Be Only One… Josh. This was the premise of last week’s Josh Fight in Nebraska. The winner is four years old. One year ago, a man named Josh challenged Joshes everywhere to meet and fight. Armed with pool noodles, many did so, and the Chosen One emerged.
I really appreciate the link to the article about The Sunwise Turn bookshop! I hadn’t seen the article, and was unfamiliar with the history. I know it’s tempting to view such a place as a lost bohemian wonderland, but I suspect that going there would have been a bit like dealing with a cross between the snots who used to staff the original location of the Barneys department store (and probably its later location) and the sorts of holier-than-thou humorless rich kids who went to my liberal-arts college in the 1980s and spent their time “protesting” by erecting fields of little tiny crosses, etc., etc.
I went to Google Streetview to see if the original location was still there, but it’s not–the big building that now stands there must have been built in the 1920s or 1930s.
But I did discover a couple cool historic hotels, the Wolcott Hotel on West 31st, and the Hotel Chandler on East 31st.
The Hotel Chandler can cost hundreds of dollars and looks like it has better rooms, but it doesn’t look like it’s as cool and historic-looking as the Wolcott Hotel, although you might luck out and get a fantastic bathroom and a gorgeous enormous historic fireplace if you pay the big bucks.
But the Wolcott Hotel is a lot more affordable. The room I saw online had pretty mediocre furnishings, but the reason I’m telling you all this is the lobby is *amazing*. It makes the Titanic look like a barge. I’m going to have to write down the name of the place in case I ever need to go to New York again. (I hope the hotel isn’t an SRO at all.)
Maybe I should spend all my time just seeking out secret amazing interiors in Manhattan.