Smart Advice from Smart People

Thursday Linkfest

To kick it off, some members of WA fandom are putting to together a fanzine, Hope, to raise funds for the Bushfire victims in Victoria. A bunch of talented folks have already volunteered work, so much so that there will now be more than one issue. Worth keeping an eye on, all up.
With all the doom and gloom surrounding small press publishing, there is at least a glimmer of hope that the recently deceased Realms of Fantasy may come back courtesy of a buy-out of the magazine/brand. Until then, a farewell by the RoF Sushmaster that includes a list of the accepted stories we won’t get a chance to see (With commiserations to my friend Ben Francisco, who unfortunately has a very fine story caught on that list).
Something Positive on the tendency among American reviewers to associate the stop-motion film Coraline with Tim Burton.
Speaking of webcomics, XKCD addresses an issue that does actually bother me.
My old friend Villainous_mog, now lost to the wilds of London forever, posts about the subject lines of Lost Property e-mails at his workplace. (Yes, random, but I find it interesting and I keep misreading the 5th one as “a frothing, whizzing gadget found on the kitchen floor” and thinking it sounds like the start to a story)
Speaking of Laura Goodin (We weren’t, you say? Ah well, we should be), here’s some fun stuff snurched from her blog this week: Shakespeare doing the facebook 25 things meme & steampunk cake!
The Australian Horror Writers Mentorship program is open for applications. As mentorship programs go, this is one of those insane-good-value deals if you’re an aspiring writer looking to make the next step.
Chris Lynch’s Clarion South 2007 Bibliography, now updated, charting the various achievements of my Clarion peeps over the last two years.
Chris Lynch is also over on the Battersblog, talking about the week 4 experience at Clarion South 2007.
Jay Lake on a subject near and dear to my heart after the trauma of losing everything a few years back – backing up your fiction like a pro.
10 Privacy settings every facebook user should know – because facebook is actually evil.

PeterMBall

Peter M. Ball is a speculative fiction writer, small press publisher, and writing mentor from Brisbane, Austraila. He publishes his own work through Eclectic Projects and works as the brain in charge at Brain Jar Press.