Because really, can you have enough YALSA?

Following up on posts from previous days, I have to throw my support behind Daisy Kutter by Kazu Kibuishi. While I have not yet read all of Daisy Kutter, I did read what Kazu had on his website about Daisy, as well as Kazu's extraordinary comic, Copper. His work has the feel at time of Charles Schultz or Bill Watterson, but then there's something Moebius about it, too.

Oh, and YALSA's nominated Daisy Kutter as one of the best books of the year for young adults. Definitely worth it.

An interesting search tool

Here's an alternate way to look for photos on Flickr:

Retrievr

What this little piece of software attempts to do is to compare what you draw to images on Flickr. The index of images is not the complete set of what's available on Flickr, but a distinct set. This probably helps them with their algorhithms, and that's how I'd set up a testing environment, too. You want to test the positive first to even see if your idea is possible, then move on to breaking it.

So, why even do this? Well, if you're like a lot of people, sometimes the words you want to use to describe something just either aren't part of your vocabulary, or have escaped your vocabulary at the moment. But, you can remember what the thing looked like. Also, and this is particularly important for a service like Flickr that thrives on individuals tagging items to describe them, perhaps what you'd call an object is not what it's been tagged. Who knows how people think?

(Yes as a librarian I am paid to try and think like other people: patrons, catalogers, website creators, editors, authors, and take that assumed information and find what people are looking for; oh yeah, it's magic, more like voodoo really)

IMO, Retrivr is pretty darn cool. I'd love to see it become something bigger. It's not perfect, as my results here show (you have to wait a little for my page to load), but it works fairly well. Of course, you need to be drawing something that actually exists in Flickr (and in this case in the subset of Flickr they're using) to even have a chance of success. I'm always happy to find a new way to look for things. (See my Gnooks post from earlier)

As the people from Retrivr say: "This is an experimental service. Please treat it nicely."

From Hidden Peanuts via TechCrunch.

The Hugos are coming! The Hugos are coming!

Well, it's been a little over a week since I received my progress report from LA Con IV. Inside this report, was the Hugo Nomination Form. Forms are due by midnight Pacific Standard Time March 10, 2006. you are eligible to nominate for the Hugos if you went to or supported World Con last year in Glasgow, or if you are going to or are supporting LA Con IV this year. So, with that in mind....

Electric Velocipede is eligible for Best Fanzine Hugo. Something to keep in mind since you get five slots for nomination. Also, all of the stories from last year are short stories, except for Hal Duncan's "The Chiaroscurist," which is a novelette. Thom Davidsohn is a great candidate for Fan Artist, since he did great work last year with JPPN 2 and Electric Velocipede.

I won't go on the record as pushing any piece from the zine over another, but there were a lot of good stories last year. My problem is, outside of Electric Velocipede, I have not read much of anything.

I know that Accelerando from Stross is a fricking amazing novel, and that if it doesn't win the Hugo, it's a crime. I also know that Jess Nevins' The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana from Monkeybrain Books is an incredible book and should be on everyone's Hugo ballot.

I see the lists from Locus and NESFA, and I know more will come in the next few weeks, but I need to know if there's anything outside of these lists that's been overlooked.

It's disappointing to see that nothing from Electric Velocipede made any recommended lists (so far), but there's not much I can do about that.

So, what do I want to make sure that I read that's outside these lists? Anything people feel needs a little help that I could put on my nomination form? Put yer suggestions in the comments please!

It's tough enough shaking a snickers bar free...

As always, Steven Cohen makes a smart observation on technology that's not being used for a library, but could be.

The basic thought Steven puts forth is vending machines for library books. This is inspired by the vending machines for books that are popping up in Paris and The University of Iowa (where you can buy books and kits for hand-made books), among other places. Steven envisions users swiping the bar code on their library card, selecting a book, and checking it to themselves.

Of course, you'd only be able to offer a limited selection of books through the machine, and it would only make sense to run the machine when the library isn't open. I can see all sorts of issues with the answer "We have the book in our collection, however you'll need to step outside and check it out of the vending machine." People will be thrilled with that, I'm sure.

But then again, do you stock the thing every night after you close? That seems like a lot of extra work. Of course, if it's popular, you'd have to re-stock it all the time anyway, so it might not be extra work.

To be fair, our library has rental books (super popular books) that are $1 for a week, as well as having regular circulation copies of the same titles. Patrons can wait for the regularly circulating copy to come back in or they can pay the $1 to take it home now. I suppose having them step outside (and without the $1 fee? with the $1 fee?) to get a copy of the book isn't that big of a hassle, but....

Here's an even more radical concept that isn't workable yet, but may be some time down the line. A vending machine for POD books. Yes. A vending machine that creates the book when you pay for it. These may exist, but I haven't heard of one. If there were public domain books, you could even have those be titles you could check out with your library card.

Of course, POD with library check-out may not be the best, or even a good, answer. If you didn't have the title in your collection before, who says that you'd want it now? The person who generates the POD vending book may be the only one that ever wants that title.

All the same, these are some interesting ideas. Who knows if POD vending machines, or even EBOD (electronic book on demand; something to load on a PDA, flash drive, or iPod? did I just invent that concept?) vending machines, will ever be something we need to concern ourselves about?

Realms of Fantasy online

As posted by others (and not by anyone who's in the issue that I can see...), the current (February 2006) issue of the much-overlooked Realms of Fantasy is now online for free. This is similar to something I did with issue #9 (am I perhaps influencing the powerful? hard to say).

As I started this entry, Realms of Fantasy and Shawna's editorialship is not talked about much by the field. I think this is a horrible oversight. I suspect at least partially Shawna is trying to give people a chance to try the magazine without committing money to it. Without being able to get inside Shawna McCarthy's exquisitely brilliant mind, I can only speak to why I did it and wonder if there were any similar reasons for Shawna. For me, a big reason was that I sold all the copies I had. I'm sure this is not the case for Shawna. However, it was also a way to give more people a chance to experience the zine. It got me mentioned on BoingBoing, which is way cool, and I think it brought more people to my fold.

Of course, it goes without saying that I need to follow up the success of issue #9 with a bang and not a whimper. I'll be getting reprints of #9 in a few weeks, then helping my wife through childbirth, and then #10 will appear in the world. Issue #10 will contain work by Jeffrey Ford, Rick Bowes & Mark Rich, Robert Freeman Wexler, and a host of others. There will also be a limited edition. Something hand-made and cool. Watch for the announcement for the limited.

In the meantime, go check out Realms of Fantasy for free. And then, since I know you'll love it, subscribe and never miss an issue. It has great consistent fiction from the likes of Liz Williams, Christopher Barzak, Patrick Samphire, and William Shunn. It's great stuff.

YALSA strikes again

Following on yesterday's post, I see today that YALSA has announced the 2006 ALEX awards; given to books written for adults that have good cross-over appeal to a YA audience. Glad to see books edited by two people I know; The Necessary Beggar by Susan Palwick, edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez, edited by Paul Stevens. Congrats guys!

If you liked the Narnia movie you should read...

From the ALA Young Adult Library Services Assocation (YALSA for short), a list of books that you can recommend to tweens and teens if they like the Narnia movie and/or books.

The list includes things like Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books, Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi's Spiderwick Chronicles (as well as Black's standalone Valiant and Tithe), Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books, and one of my favorite books of all, time Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth.

I thought the list might overlook some things, but I think it looks pretty good. I would probably add Scott Westerfeld's Midnighters books, Justine Larbalestier's Magic or Madness, as well as Margo Lanagan's Black Juice. But I'd be hard-pressed to say that anything major is missing.

Am I wrong? (post in the comments if you have other ideas)

New Voices in Science Fiction

I've been meaning to talk about this for a few weeks now, but just haven't gotten around to it. I was asked near the beginning of the month to create a small display of science fiction books for the front table at our library.

I was pretty excited about this. I had no preconception that I was going to create a table that people would talk about or devour or anything wildly exciting, but I wanted to do a good job. So I had to settle on a theme. I eventually settled on something sort of inspired by a 'new voices' concept. I figured most of the patrons for our library were not as well-versed in science fiction as I am. So, I went through the collection looking for authors that have only been publishing in the past decade or so. I went back a decade so that I could find authors who might have a number of titles in the collection.

What did I end up with? Well here's the list:

• Kage Baker-Mother Aegypt and Other Stories
  
• Steve Aylett-Lint
  
• Cory Doctorow-Someone Comes to Town Someone Leaves Town
  
• Jeff VanderMeer-Veniss Underground (yes, the Prime edition)
  
• Max Barry-Jennifer Government
  
• Alex Irvine-A Scattering of Jades
  
• Alastair Reynolds-Revelation Space
  
• Charles Stross-Singularity Sky
  
• Ken MacLeod-Newton's Wake
  
• Richard Morgan-Altered Carbon
  
• China Mieville-Perdido Street Station
  

Not a lot of stuff, but we're not the biggest library in the world, so I think this collection of books is pretty good. And, the stuff is getting checked out. We've replaced titles with things like David Marusek's COUNTING HEADS and Ty Drago's PHOBOS. We have a lot of Baker, MacLeod, Doctorow, Mieville, and Reynolds in the collection (meaning all or most of the books they've published) so there's more stuff to put out if more keeps getting checked out. It's done better than I thought it would, which is cool.

Here's some photos of the display in separate links. We're in the midst of a renovation, so our diaply space is limited. These books are on a table that is the first thing once you enter the library.

In related news, I've been told that I'll be in charge of acquiring science fiction for the library. How cool is that?

So, any books I may not be thinking about that are a definite add to the collection? You can go here to see what's in the catalog.

And now for your viewing pleasure...Scott Westerfeld!

OK, this is also part of the "this is great news but nothing definite"category that I posted about just a moment ago. It appears that motions to turn Scott Westerfeld's amazing Midnighters series of books into a television series is moving closer to reality.

Way cool! Congrats to Scott!

Oh, and one more thing about Gavin and his work

My most-anticipated release of the year is Alan DeNiro's Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead from Small Beer Press. Followed closely by Barth Anderson's The Patron Saint of Plagues.

Seriously this blog is not all about Kelly Link, but...

"The Faery Handbag" has been optioned for film rights. From Gavin. Not that this guarantees that a movie will appear, but cool nonetheless.

I wish the two of them the best of luck. I won't be able to see them this Wednesday at KGB or when I travel north to pick up reprints of issue #9 (yes, this is happening, it's not just a rumor) since they are in North Carolina, so I wish them virtually.

Here's a toast to continued success.

Oh! And they're reprinting Howard Who?!! How fucking great is that?!?

And yeah, I'm drinking a little and enjoying the Golden Globes and making ice cream. Life is good.

Thanks to Mr. Shunn, I've got some nice Scotch to have with my ice cream.

Too bad you're not here, it's rocking.

Gnooks Literary Map

The more-than-excellent blog from VHPS (that's Von Holtzbrinck to you) points out a great time-killer of a website. It's called Gnooks and it lets you type in the name of an author and see what other authors people who read the first author also like.

For example, when I typed in "Jeff VanderMeer" I get this map. You can see people like Lucius Shepard, Greer Gilman, John Crowley, etc. really close to Jeff. And Even people like China Mieville, Jonathan Carroll, and Haruki Murakami a little further out. Heck, you'll see Franz Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges, and Italo Calvino, too, which is pretty damn cool. Then click on another name and see a new map.

Very cool. Very dangerous if you have a deadline you're trying to meet.

Very cool if you're trying to market a book...

The Year That Was: 2005

Taking a page from Tim Pratt, here's a recap of what I did accomplish last year, no matter what resolutions I set out to have.

Editorial/Publishing Deeds:

• Published two issues of Electric Velocipede; which included stories by Charles Coleman Finlay, Liz Williams, Hal Duncan, Jay Caselberg, Mark W. Tiedemann, and many others; issue #9 (which premiered at WorldCon in Glasgow) sold out and needs to be reprinted.
  
• Did the lay-out for the premiere issue of Fantasy magazine.
  
• Threw a zine/small press party at World Fantasy with Gavin Grant and Alan DeNiro.
  

Personal Accomplishments:

• Tried to read a book a week and finished about 35 (six of which were for school).
  
• Took 27 degrees worth of Master's studies in Library Science.
  
• Completed my Master's in Library and Information Science (graduated with honors, 4.0 GPA).
  
• Learned I was going to be a father in March of 2006.
  
• Went to Scotland (drove 1,000 miles in five days on the wrong side of the road).
  
• Got a part-time job as a reference librarian.
  
• Got a part-time job working on a digital library.
  

Material Things:

• Bought a laptop.
  
• Set up a wireless network in my home.
  
• Bought the Macromedia MX 2004 Suite (includes Dreamweaver, Flash, and Fireworks)
  
• Bought InDesign CS 2.
  

Those things seem almost silly to include on this list, but they helped me complete everything I did this year. They'll also help me keep organized for the coming year. I've got a new Electric Velocipede website in the works that I'm building with Dreamweaver, and I'll be using InDesign to lay out the zine from now on. I'm also working on some further editorial irons, but nothing can be said at the moment.

Somehow it seems like I did more, but I know that lost in a list like this is how the end of the year was working at Barnes & Noble, working at Princeton Public Library, working at Franklin Township Public Library, completing group projects for school, designing two websites for school, preparing to travel home for a baby shower and Christmas, etc.

Hope everyone else was productive last year and I look forward to 2006 being just a productive.

John Klima
Editor
Electric Velocipede