John Caspell

I was stunned and saddened to hear today that John Caspell has died. He is the brother of my friend Paul, and the only person gently encouraging enough to get me to sing in public in the last fifteen years. A fuzzball of a man, wonderfully matched to his filking partner Brooke Lunderville, fabulous, funny player of guitars, stroker of cats, hugger of people. It is indeed a loss to the speculative fiction community to have him so suddenly gone.

I have stolen this photo of John from his memorial website, put together by Allegra Sloman, and the one below from the site he shared with Brooke, where you can find oodles of their filksongs, lyrics and chords, as well as a good number of mp3s.

My heart goes out to those who knew and loved John, and to you, John, you dear, laughing, lovely man.

Young Adult Books Reviewed by Young Adults

Below are excerpts from the Flamingnet website. The site belongs to Seth, a young adult with a passion for reading and for encouraging reading in other young adults. It is an ambitious project which you writers and readers of YA books will want to check out.

Our Mission

Flamingnet's mission is to promote reading among young adults; making reading more fun by highlighting books that young adults may enjoy and fostering literacy through charitable work.

Background

Flamingnet was created in 2002. When I was in fifth grade, I read many different books. This led me to combine my reading with my father's hobby, computer programming. Gradually I wrote reviews on the books that I read, and my father posted these reviews on the Internet at Flamingnet. After seeing our website, national publishers and authors of young adult literature began asking me to review their books. These publishers include Penguin Books, Scholastic, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Time Warner, and HarperCollins, as well as many other publishers and individual authors. As I received more books to review, Flamingnet began to accept student reviewers from all over the United States to help with the reviews.

Our Mission Flamingnet's mission is to promote reading among young adults; making reading more fun by highlighting books that young adults may enjoy and fostering literacy through charitable work. Background Flamingnet was created in 2002. When I was in fifth grade, I read many different books. This led me to combine my reading with my father's hobby, computer programming. Gradually I wrote reviews on the books that I read, and my father posted these reviews on the Internet at Flamingnet. After seeing our website, national publishers and authors of young adult literature began asking me to review their books. These publishers include Penguin Books, Scholastic, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Time Warner, and HarperCollins, as well as many other publishers and individual authors. As I received more books to review, Flamingnet began to accept student reviewers from all over the United States to help with the reviews. Flamingnet is currently a growing young adult book website, and my father and I are kept very busy spreading the word about our site and working with all the reviewers, underwriters (adult volunteers that assist our student reviewers with their writing), Flamingnet members, authors, publishers, and publicists that have become part of our Flamingnet community. My grandfather in Florida is also very busy sending out letters to libraries telling them about my website. Here are links to awards that have been received by Flamingnet and comments from users about my site. The Website My website is for students between 8 and 18 years old, their parents, grandparents, teachers, and librarians who are looking for books to recommend or buy for their children, grandchildren, students or patrons. Flamingnet has lists of both classic books, as well as new titles, that this age group may find interesting and enjoyable. Our Student Reviewers Over the years, hundreds of young adults have reviewed new and advance books for Flamingnet. Information about how to become a Flamingnet student reviewer and an application are found elsewhere on the site (information and application). Our student reviewers not only get to read new books before they become available in bookstores, they get to keep the books that we send them to review. Flamingnet student reviewers also learn how to express their opinions in writing about what they read. Through our underwriter program, adult volunteers (authors, teachers and librarians) assist our students with their writing skills and provide important feedback in order to encourage them to become better writers. After a student reads and reviews a new book, we ask them to rate each book they review on a scale from 1 - 10 (10 being the best). Flamingnet's TOP CHOICE AWARD is given to books based on this student reviewer rating. We also ask our reviewers about the language and content (drugs, sex, and violence) in the book, and students rate books for content using our Flamingnet Content Rating. Hopefully, their reviews and ratings will help you decide on your choice of books. How To Submit A Book To Flamingnet For Review If you have questions, please send me an email or call.

Kindling the Mosque

Ahmed tells me that A Mosque Among the Stars is now available on Kindle.

So come one, come all! Download your favourite collection of Muslim-related SF, including "Miss Lonelygenes' Secret" by C. June Wolf. Just follow the link to the great prayer rug in the sky.

http://www.amazon.com/A-Mosque-Among-the-Stars/dp/B0027P87LU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240829292&sr=8-1

Kindle Price:	$7.20 & includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
You Save:	$1.80 (20%)

First Library Listing

Happily, Finding Creatures & Other Stories is now being carried by the Vancouver Public Library, so if you haven't got a copy and would like to read it (and live really really close by) you can do so for freefreefree!

Here's the link.

Overlooked Praise: SF Waxes Philosophical

Two reviews of Ahmed A. Khan's anthology "SF Waxes Philosophical", 2008, ZC Books have come to my notice. The first is a LiveJournal review by selfavowedgeek. For the full review please click on the link above.

2009-03-22
Finally finished the SF Waxes Philosophical anthology edited by Ahmed A. Khan...So, I didn’t read a single clunker. Granted, any given anthology is bound to have that waxing and waning effect with me. Anthologies by their very nature invite a buffet of styles and voices; heck, you even get that with a single-author short story collection. I didn’t feel as if I wasted my time reading any of the stories.

I’ll hasten to add Ahmed appears to have done a very careful, deliberated job of soliciting and winnowing based on the quality of what I’d encountered (and hope this anthology is an indication of things to come from our doughty author-editor).

My single complaint: I wish it had been a bigger anthology.

Without further ado, I won’t bore you with a rundown of each and every selection but will lump them into three categories. Again, it’s rare for me to come away from reading an anthology and liking each selection.

And, based on my totally subjective experience as a reader, here are the stories that I more-than-liked. You might also notice that I’m partial to the pieces by the ASFM forumites, too. Hey, they write well and dominated half the TOC ‘cause that‘s just how they roll.

The Good:

* “The Day the World Lost Gravity” by Ian Shoebridge
* “Different and Different Again” by Sean M. Foster
* “Lords of Light” by Ren Holton
* “These Old Bones” by C. June Wolf
* “The Squirrel That Didn’t Bark” by Douglas A. Van Belle

selfavowedgeek then goes on to list the ones he likes even more. So he more than likes mine, but is over the moon about some others. Not a bad recommendation at all for this unusual anthology.

The second review--in actuality the first review, from 16 May 2008 in the Australian SF zine, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, is by Simon Petrie.

SF Waxes Philosophical is a collection of fourteen short stories, slightly over half of them original to this volume, whose unifying characteristic is the application of science-fictional techniques to philosophical concerns. It's a moot point, to my mind, as to which works of SF don't, in some matter, deal with philosophical questions - both fields of endeavour, as the introduction notes, tend to ask the question 'What if?' and then seek to follow it to its logical conclusion, in both cases inviting comparison with our present-day circumstances. My impression is that the editor's strategy has been to select stories which aim to tackle the sorts of questions for which Douglas Adams once proposed a numerical answer lying somewhere between forty-one and forty-three. Here, though, calculations on such problems tend to deliver a rather different result. SFWP is a reasonably serious-minded anthology, to the extent that it also features explanatory notes, presumably scripted by each of the story authors, which deal with the origins, the history, and/or the implications of the philosophical principles they've explored in the preceding story...

..."These Old Bones," by C. June Wolf, is a subtle, atmospheric tale of the interaction between two loners who share an interest in palaeontology. It's an intriguingly elusive story that's reminiscent in style to the work of Kate Wilhelm. For me, it echoed long after I'd finished reading...

I finished reading the anthology not entirely convinced of the overall success of these efforts to marry SF and philosophy. The most effective stories here, as works of fiction, I judge to be the reprinted offerings of Utley and Kosmatka and the first-release works by Wolf, Holton and Van Belle, though these were not the only stories I found enjoyable. The exploration of philosophical components in the commentary following each story was, in most cases, interesting but hardly essential for an appreciation of the fiction, and I found the stories which appeared to deal most directly with philosphical issues - such as "Waveform", "Different and Again Different", and "The Saving Power" - were less than completely successful in their efforts to craft memorable fiction from the tenets of philosophy. This is not to say that the anthology is unsuccessful: even a negative result is worthwhile, and there are a good number of intriguing stories here. So: if you're shopping around for a new philosophy textbook, I don't think this would fit the requirements; but if you're looking for a collection of intelligent, thoughtful, mostly serious SF, SF Waxes Philosophical is worth a peek.

For the full review, click here. To purchase a copy of SF Waxes Philosophical, click here.

Susan Boyle--Wow, My Heart.

When I went to You Tube and began to watch this video I had two reactions. I was delighted with Susan as she spoke and laughed, and twirled her hips most admirably, and I was sickened by the snickers and rolled eyes. If I hadn't trusted the woman who sent me the clip (Eileen Kernaghan) not to send me something terribly upsetting, I would have turned it off right then.

I have seen these shows in the past and their despicable treatment of people who don't fall into the audience and presenters' narrow view of what is beautiful and who is worthy. I avoid them firmly.

But I watched on. When Susan opened her mouth and began to sing tears sprang to my eyes. This was the beauty I see inside every squashed down working class kid and woman and man, every person who has been shunted and ignored and discriminated against, and it was rising like a plume of luminous joy from Susan and lighting everyone who heard.

For the moments she was singing, we were all there, all together, no one critical and nasty, no one hoping for someone to fail, no one terrified they were going to be the next one to be targeted. What an absolute moment of bliss.

Thank you, Susan, for your commitment to your dream, for not letting the sniggers extinguish you, for caring for your mum and caring for yourself. Thank you for showing your splendid face and heart, and for awakening our own lost dreams in our own burdened breasts all around the world.

Blessings, all.
Casey

I tried to upload the video but had problems. I'll try again but in the meantime, here is the link to the best version of Susan Boyle's triumph on You Tube.

Click here to hear the only song (so far!) that Susan has recorded on CD:
Cry Me a River.

CheriePie's Nibbles on Finding Creatures...

Ah, ah,,,...! It is so lovely to see people enjoying something I labored over in my wee dark room and wondered at times, would anyone but my goodest pals ever see this stuff? And if they did, would they like it? Sigh... Thanks, CheriePie.

CheriePie's Books ::..

Books I've had my nose in lately, and my snots thoughts on them. *snort*

Cherie: an eclectic free-spirit with a passion for books, bunnies, natural makeup and

skincare, and various other witchy and spiritual pursuits.

View my complete profile

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Finding Creatures & Other Stories by C. June Wolf

Author C. June Wolf was kind enough to send me a copy of her first published collection of short stories for review. Finding Creatures & Other Stories is a collection of stories that spans the various sub-genres of fantasy, science fiction, and speculative fiction.

Though I haven't yet read it in full, I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce this book now since I plan to savor it slowly, reading a few stories here and there between my full-length reads instead of cover-to-cover. This is similar to how I read my last fantasy anthology, Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears, though I certainly don't plan on taking that long with this particular book. :) I also got the impression that this particular collection of stories was best enjoyed this way anyway, allowing time for the nuances of some of these remarkable stories to settle with you before moving on to the next. I can already see this book taking up permanent residence in my bookcase, to be shared among friends and family throughout the years.

I'll return to post a more thorough review of this book once I've finished it. But if you'd to grab a copy for yourself now, you can follow the links above to purchase from Amazon, and check out the amazing reviews it's already received, or purchase directly from the publisher here.

Humanizing the Impossible: Ursula Pflug Reviews Finding Creatures

Ursula Pflug, author of Green Music, reviews Finding Creatures & Other Stories for the Internet Review of Science Fiction.

Ursula's long awaited story collection After The Fires is on the Aurora Awards short list. She is also a journalist, produced playwright and creative writing instructor.

April, 2009 : Review:

Humanizing the Impossible

Finding Creatures and Other Stories, by Casey June Wolf

by Ursula Pflug

I first ran across Casey June Wolf's work in the Canadian speculative anthology Tesseracts. The ninth volume in the series, edited by luminaries Geoff Ryman and Nalo Hopkinson, included a wonderful fantasy story of Wolf's called "The Coin," about Haitian street-children. Its sense of place was almost palpable, hence I wasn't surprised to find out Wolf has worked extensively as a volunteer in Haiti. The second time I ran across her writing was when she posted a rant on the SF Canada list-server. [See Comment Secion of this post for the full rant. CJW] The subject was feminism—the many headed monster—though I can't remember whether people were for or against. Wolf's observations were ones I largely agreed with, but my point is that her rant was deeply passionate and personal and intelligent. It evidenced a life rich in experience, and a mind noble enough to examine that life, and brave enough to turn some of its gleanings into art. I must have made a mental note to pay attention, because when Wolf's debut story collection "Finding Creatures" recently launched, I immediately got myself a copy.

The same rich breadth of experience, passion, and compassion fires the nine stories herein, which includes the (previously mentioned) magical and thought provoking story, "The Coin." The titular "Finding Creatures" is about a dusty Winnipeg summer, during which eight year old Bernadette, an only child, wishes terribly for playmates, and if she can't have those, an animal will do. She has richly detailed fantasies, the kind only children and world-building fantasy and science fiction writers have. She brings home worms and leeches and dogs and things, all of which are disallowed. Then one day, seemingly in answer to her fervent prayers to baby Jesus, a horse appears in her yard. The horse is quickly named Angel, and takes the little girl for rides around the neighborhood, during which they are invisible, which is probably a good thing, as Bernadette and Angel wander farther and farther afield. One day all this changes. They visit a section of town they've never been to before, where a little boy plays alone. When he looks up he sees both the horse and the girl. Another day, the pair encounter a girl called Manjeet, who thinks Angel is her horse, and named Sita.

Over the rest of the summer, the list grew. Children who had played with Angel at lunchtime or on weekends. Lonely children seeing her for the first time. Children who'd spied her in their yards but never approached her. Children who had known her long ago, who thought they'd never see her again, and there she was, and there we were, too.

And when September comes, and Angel stops coming, those who had the luck to ride her around the dusty summer streets of Winnipeg form an ad hoc gang. There is a surprise ending to do with living breathing dinosaurs, but I won't spoil it by including it here.

In the story "Claude and the Henry Moores," a security guy (Claude) at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto (where Wolf has also worked) discovers that the Henry Moore sculptures are inhabited by beings, trapped within them in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the alien-in-the-tree in the second story, "Thunderbirds." Claude also discovers he is able to free them using a combination of empathy and what can only be called metaphysical faculties. But first he takes them (and himself) north to watch the Aurora. The deep and healing beauty of nature is wonderfully described in this passage as well as many others in the collection.

In the aforementioned "Thunderbirds," an indigenous back woods sort called Norman encounters a crashed alien ship. He buries the body, first wondering what the proper protocol for doing so is, finally deciding that all dead must be treated with respect, even if one doesn't know the customs by which they lived and died. Meanwhile the alien, who goes by the name Chitta and is capable of such things, isn't dead at all. She has however exited her body and entered the first living thing within easy reach, which happens to be a tree. Chitta spends days on end learning about her new body, and is only a little sad that she will no longer be ambulatory nor have an intellect with which to engage with others as before. Nevertheless, inhabiting a tree with one's spirit and mind intact is preferable to death. One day, Norman returns to the crash site, and something draws him to the tree. He sits there, and maybe he falls asleep for awhile, but in the end the alien in the tree and the man communicate somehow, and leave one another enriched, even though the meeting and the communication have both been so subtle as to be barely acknowledged by its participants.

What is curious about both stories is what happens to their protagonists when they encounter the alien Other, largely by the use of subtle skills which some might call psychic and others might say are the inevitable result of true compassion. Both Claude and Norman wish mainly for their strange friends to find freedom. Claude, in particular, leads an isolated life but both characters go largely unnoticed and, uncomplaining, try to find joy in their simple routines. These stories exemplify Wolf's central theme which is: what is one to do with one's loneliness? Her answer seems to be: reach out in any way you can, even if the reaching takes a form that many might tell you is simply not possible. And as such, of course, these stories about alien communication serve as metaphor for the eternal human problem of communication.

In both stories, what is at first momentous becomes small scale and human, and this, in the end, humanizes the impossible. Charles de Lint, in his lengthy introduction, makes much of Wolf's work for her combined rich imagination and rich reserves of empathy.

Wolf uses different genres, different voices, different cultures—in short whatever she needs to make the story work. What ties it all together is her sure-handed prose and a depth she brings to her writing, that indefinable element that rises up from between the lines and gives a good story its resonance.

I might add that she creates characters whose human vulnerability readers will recognize and take joy in. Not only that, but fiction writers with serious intentions must be supported, or we as readers have all fallen victim to the censorship of the marketplace.

And I've always had a soft spot for bravely ranting women.

Copyright © 2009, Ursula Pflug. All Rights Reserved.

Internet Review of Science Fiction, Site Design © 2007, Quintamid LLC.

The design of this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

To order Finding Creatures & Other Stories, click here.

A Room of One's Own

'a woman must have money
and a room of her own
if she is to write fiction'

Virginia Woolf

I thank heaven every day that I have the room, if not much money. Thank you, world.

A Mosque Upon My Bookshelves!

At long last! My copies of A Mosque Among the Stars have arrived!

I haven't had a chance to do more than flip through this anthology of science fiction stories related to Muslims and Islam, but I am eager to see what the stories are like. My own "Miss Lonelygenes' Secret" is in it, along with "Squat", by Donna McMahon, "A Walk Through the Garden", by Lucius Shephard, and the intriguingly titled "The Weight of Space and Metal" by Camille Alexa. The cover is by Lee Kuruganti.

Thanks for putting this together, Ahmed and Muhammad!


From the publisher's website:

A MOSQUE AMONG THE STARS

Edited by Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmed and Ahmed A. Khan, this anthology features 12 SF stories (originals and reprints) that portray Islam or Muslim characters in a friendly light.

Table of Contents Lucius Shepard: A Walk in the Garden Tom Ligon: For a Little Price Jetse De Vries: Cultural Clashes in Cadiz Howard Jones: Servant of Iblis Andrew Ferguson: Organic Geometry Ahmed A. Khan: Synchronicity Camille Alexa: The Weight of Space and Metal G.W. Thomas: The Emissary Kevin Miller: A Straight Path Through the Stars Pamela Taylor: Recompense C. June Wolf: Miss Lonelygenes' Secret D.C. McMahon: Squat Pages: 260 Price: $20 + shipping To order: email zc.press@gmail.com

Bitten by Book Reviews.

I had the rather odd experience last week of dreaming that if I was to be turned into a monster, I would like to be either a vampire or a werewolf, because they are bitten on the neck before they die.

Besides showing a sad misunderstanding of werewolf physiology, and a shockingly ribald undercurrent to my dreams, this does at least speak clearly to the love/not-love relationship it is possible to have with things like biting, and book reviews.

Being a sensitive soul, I was a little droopy after reading the review of Finding Creatures & Other Stories on the Bitten By Books site last night. Then a few hours later I saw another review posted to LibraryThing. The interesting thing about these two reviews is that in part they are commenting on the same thing, with extreme opposite reactions to it. A good reminder to me, when I am assessing a book, to remember that just because it isn't working for me, that doesn't mean it isn't working. (I shouldn't have needed the reminder--Charles de Lint says the same thing in the intro to my book. Oopsies.)

Anyway, to save you, dear readers, the trouble of searching around for these reviews, I will copy them here and let you struggle to your own conclusions.


Mar 8, Review by Ricki
Finding Creatures & Other Stories by C. June Wolf (out of a possible 5 tombstones)
***

A collection of short stories is a good way to get a feel for an author. Canadian author C. June Wolf’s writing style comes across loud and clear in Finding Creatures & Other Stories.

Finding Creatures & Other Stories is a collection of 15 short stories. While some of the stories are fantasy and some are sci-fi, a few are closer to just plain fiction. In all of them, though, the main character learns some important inner truth, but often in a bittersweet way. A lot of the stories also have origins in religions and beliefs from various parts of the world, making each unique in their own way.

Out of all of the stories, the two that I enjoyed the most were the title story, “Finding Creatures” and “Miss Lonelygenes’ Secret”. “Finding Creatures” is a heartwarming story about a lonely girl who meets an invisible horse who helps her make friends to fit in at her new school. Also ending on a positive note is “Miss Lonelygenes’ Secret,” a sci-fi tale about a matchmaker who finds a way to make her own match.

Wolf excels at poetic prose, as evidenced in every one of her stories in Finding Creatures & Other Stories. However, most of these stories, while beautiful, were hard to really get into, lacking a connection between the reader and the main characters. Also, the dismal endings of some made the whole collection somewhat of a downer. Plus, many of the stories has a post-modernist feel to them as they lack an easily identifiable climax or conclusion.

If you enjoy beautiful short stories or learning about other philosophical beliefs, C. June Wolf’s writing will appeal to you. However, for those looking for a fun paranormal read, I would suggest looking elsewhere.

***************************************

(Interjection from the future: As I said, this didn't exactly make my day. But I went back today - 4 June 2009 - and discovered these wonderful comments. The last is by the owner of the Bitten By Books site. Now that's a vote of confidence. Thank you, all!), all

1. Comment by Ursula Pflug — April 3, 2009 @ 4:50 pm

   I really enjoyed Casey’s book and so did Charles de Lint who wrote a lengthy introduction.

   I’ve reviewed it for the April Internet Review of Science Fiction.

   ---

   
   
2. Comment by Nicole Hicks — April 9, 2009 @ 7:57 pm

   Sometimes Happy ever after endings begin to pale, I will have to look into this for those times!

   ---

   
   
3. Comment by Rachel — April 9, 2009 @ 8:23 pm

   This is the kind of book I can really get into. I am going to have to get my copy soon. Casey is an amazing author and very kind. Good sense of humor. I enjoy some of her poetry from her site. Definitely worth checking out. You can’t really get much better of an an endorsement than Charles de Lint.

***************************************

sandragon's review

Many of these short stories are about people faced with making choices that any one of us may come to face in our lives. The fact that the circumstances surrounding the choices are often wondrous or fantastical is beside the point. To me, these stories are about what it is to be 'human'. Each story contains characters that were very real to me in the strength of their thoughts and emotions. In these stories there is hope and compassion, people who care about what's happening around them and people making connections no matter the differences between them.

I tend to blitz through short story collections, reading one story immediately after another, so that the memory of one story bleeds into another. This time I decided to do as Charles de Lint recommended in his introduction and took breaks between each of Wolf's stories; sometimes as little as 30 minutes between stories, sometimes as much as a few weeks. I'm glad I did as I really got to savour and appreciate each story, every one of which I enjoyed, although a couple left me puzzled.

sandragon | Mar 8, 2009 |

***************************************

To order Finding Creatures & Other Stories and judge for yourself, click here and choose from the many options.

A Delicious Review & Wee Updates

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I’m plunking along revising Làkansyèl (novel). This is both a tiring and an inspiring task. The first drafting was intense, scary, exciting. Returning to source materials and writing copious notes, then going through those notes and deciding what remains, what goes, what needs to be fleshed out, doing the fleshing, and then inserting them into the narrative…fascinating, nerve-wracking, a feat of endurance, and a lot of fun.

A few days ago I signed a contract with Adams Media for my contribution to the anthology Out of the Broom Closet, scheduled for release in September. This is not speculative fiction, or fiction at all, but is autobiographical and centers on spiritual life. So for that book I am using another name, to keep the two streams of my writing clearly separate.

I am pleased to be a part of this project and am looking forward to reading the other entries.

The Vancouver Public Library is the first library to order Finding Creatures & Other Stories—it is a relief to know that those in Vancouver who can’t afford to buy it will now have the option to borrow it. If you are in another town and would like the book to be available or simply can’t afford to buy it yourself, please consider asking your library to buy a copy. There are generally forms on library websites for suggesting purchases, or call or drop in and ask the procedure. Many thanks to those who requested FC&OS through VPL.

Although the publisher and I have sent out a number of review copies, and more copies of the book are showing up on LibraryThing, very few actual reviews have been posted.

Don D’Ammassa, longtime SF fan in the eastern US, posted this paired review, unfortunately contained in his “Horror” section. FC&OS is definitely Not Horror, so I’m not sure what good it will do, but the suggestion that the stories ought to have been published in Fantasy & Science Fiction or Realms of Fantasy is satisfying.

Finding Creatures & Other Stories by C. June Wolf, Wattle and Daub, 2008, $15.95, ISBN 978-0-9810658-0-9 1864

Both of these are from small presses and both are authors whose names I didn’t recognize…The second collection tends more toward contemporary fantasy. I hadn’t read anything by Wolf either, and most of these stories apparently first appeared in small press and Canadian markets. They vary from okay to quite good and once again I’m surprised that none of them came from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction or Realms of Fantasy. I’d rate the Wolf collection as slightly the better written of the two, but the subject matter in Thomas’ book appealed more to my personal prejudices. 12/8/08

A very lovely review appeared on LibraryThing this week.

Once opened Finding Creatures and Other Stories turned out to be impossible to close, I had to keep going and read just one more until too soon I reached the end. Even the most fantastic dreams, beings from other worlds and wild creations of human mind were made so real you'd almost expect to see some when you raise your eyes from the page. If only the book itself was as magical as its contents, after finishing one story there would forever be another.

Kirjastonhoitaja | Mar 3, 2009 |

I have also signed up for Twitter under the name C. June Wolf. My goal there is to write one 140 character or less comment each day tied to writing, as a way to keep focused and connected with others around writing. If you wish to follow my Twitters please search for me there or click straight from here to my homepage there. Unlike our beloved but in ways unwieldy Facebook, Twitter is brief and to the point.

And with that, I return to Làkansyèl.

As for you, may you notice one clear moment in your day and meet it joyfully.

Casey

Amazing Interview Stats

I was in touch this week with Irma Arkus, of HiSciFi.com, who interviewed me at VCon 33. In the course of conversation I remarked to her that although there was only one comment left below my interview, I knew of several people who had listened and enjoyed it. This is her reply:


Feedback is the hardest thing in the world. But to make you feel a bit better, the interview itself has been downloaded 168 times, and on Mininova, the show that features the interview has been downloaded 751 times and counting.

 The general interviews receive over 500 downloads off site, and are listened to over 100 times - it just takes a little while. That is only the "tip of the iceberg" so to speak, because most of them on average are downloaded (in a course of a 60 day period) over 3000 times. That is of course, only based on information available from sites I monitor, and these files tend to travel wide and far.

 I've worked at CTV for Vicki Gabereau show, and this nation-wide broadcast program, that was distributed daily, kind of like Oprah, had but a handful of emails and responses. So, trust me, even though it may seem like little, the fact that there are thousands of people who go out of their way to visit the sites and intentionally download the interviews, is quite amazing. This is not a show that is handed to listeners on a silver platter. They don't "incidentally" hear bits and pieces of it, but look for it, intentionally. I always thought that that is amazing.

 Anyways, I just hope that makes you feel a bit better. And do let me know if you write any new material that you would like to promote.

Sincerely,
Irma Arkus

HiSciFi @ VCon: C. June Wolf, author of Finding Creatures & Other Stories

• Great interview!