An interesting word for Wednesday is horologium (hor-oh-LOGE-ee-yum) a noun meaning a time-keeping apparatus like a clock, sundial, etc, or a structure that supports a time-keeping piece.
Giveaway:
One commenter will get a copy of Annalee Newitz’s The Future of Another Timeline.
John Hartness (l) and Melissa McArthur of Falstaff Books. And a shameless plug for Aluminum Leaves.
Conventions:
Last week I spent three days at AtomaCon in Charleston, South Carolina. This was a small convention, which I enjoy. I had a wonderful time! I’m going to plug some people. I tried a VR experience for the first time (undersea images) and I am a convert. My con-buddy was nearly run over by the guy next to her, who was taking an active approach to fighting ninjas. At one point he trapped the vendor in the corner!
Myke Cole, military historian Michael Livingston, Gail Z Martin and T. Frohock provided good information about historical research, especially against a fantasy background. Frohock’s trilogy is set against the Spanish Civil War. Cole and Dr Michael Livingston also participated on a panel discussing their show on the Discovery Network called Contact.
Michael Mammay (Mod) at far left; Dr. Michael Livingston and Myke Cole discuss Discovery.
I got to meet my publisher, John Hartness, who owns and runs Falstaff Books, and his associate publisher Melissa McArthur, who are great people and great fun.
The Unitarian Church graveyard in Charleston is designed to let nature overtake the graves and slowly return everything to the earth. It’s a wonderful place to take photographs. Actually, the entire downtown area is great for photographs, walking, and history, much of which is bloodstained.
Books and Writing:
One month a year John Scalzi opens up his blog to reader questions, and that happened in November. Here is a roundup of short questions. I always enjoy his take on things.
The UK Guardian gives Andrew Michael Hurley’s Starve Acre, a folk-horror novel set in the 1970s, a mixed review. The take-away for me was that folk-horror is a subgenre.
The Circular Congregational Church of Charlestone has headstones dating back to 1740.
I think this Book View Café column about how to downsize your personal library contains some controversial points. What do you think?
On Tor.com, James Davis Nicholl offers up five forgotten classics in honor of Frederick Pohl’s birthday—his 100th birthday, were he alive.
Annalee Newitz goes on a quest to find the New Internet. (Thanks to The Whatever for this link.)
Seven Ways to Write Great Characters might stir up some conversations.
TV and Movies:
Frozen did well in its opening week.
Amazon premieres The Expanse’s next season on December 13.
Internet:
This week’s weirdness in fandom episode includes a chapter in the continuing saga of a king of a Society for Creative Anachronisms kingdom who is being tried for murder. (Actual murder, not some reenactment.) The accused has pled not guilty.
Science:
Amateur astronomers feared that images they captured of Jupiter showed its famous “red spot” flaking away and shrinking. Physicist Philip Marcus puts the fears in perspective and provides another explanation for the changing shape and size of the southern hemisphere’s long-running storm.
The Smithsonian has an article about a new theory that Britain’s Queen Elizabeth I may in fact have been the actual translator of a long-overlooked version of Tacitus’s Annals.
I love T Frohock’s Los Nefilim stories! The characters are compelling and so is the world building based on excellent historical research.
I also enjoyed reading Annalee’s essay. Many thanks for the link :)
Is Atomacon always in Charleston? And always around Thanksgiving?
Yes, that’s my understanding.
Sounds like a lot of fun, thanks for sharing!
I followed the link to the Charleston cemetery. I think it actually looks like old 18th-century and early 19th-century illustrations of how a graveyard is “supposed” to look, with a weeping mourner (real or statuary) by the grave, and an overhanging weeping willow tree, etc.! A place full of the ineffable and the sublime!
I really love the feel of that place.
Margo, if you live in the USA, you win a copy of THE FUTURE OF ANOTHER TIMELINE!
Please contact me (Marion) with your US address and I’ll have the book sent right away. Happy reading!
(Please note, the book may not get mailed until after the holidays.)