Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

1. Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
2. Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
3. They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
5. Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
6. Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
7. Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
8. Their parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax revenue increases.”
9. Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
10. Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
11. All have had a relative–or known about a friend’s relative–who died comfortably at home with Hospice.
12. As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
13. Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
14. Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
15. Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
16. Haagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
17. Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
18. WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
19. Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
20. The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
21. Students have always been “Rocking the Vote.”
22. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
23. Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
24. We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
25. There have always been gay rabbis.
26. Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.
27. College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
28. IBM has never made typewriters.
29. Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
30. McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.
31. They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.
32. There has always been Pearl Jam.
33. The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
34. Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
35. They never tasted Benefit Cereal with psyllium.
36. They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
37. Authorities have always been building a wall across the Mexican border.
38. Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
39. Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
40. Balsamic vinegar has always been available in the U.S.
41. Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.
42. Their parents may have watched The American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.
43. Personal privacy has always been threatened.
44. Caller ID has always been available on phones.
45. Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
46. The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
47. They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
48. Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
49. Soft drink refills have always been free.
50. They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
51. Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
52. Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
53. The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum.
54. The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
55. 98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.
56. Michael Millken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.
57. Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.
58. Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
59. There have always been charter schools.
60. Students always had Goosebumps.

Sourced from The Beloit College Mindset List.

So sit back and listen to a fantastic sf tale exploring the chemical nature of love, expertly read by Heather Welliver. (podcast length: 72 minutes)

“The Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.”

And their press office speaks such lovely Orwellian language as:

“We need to focus our efforts where they will do the most good,” Kempthorne said in a news conference organized quickly after AP reported details of the proposal. “It is important to use our time and resources to protect the most vulnerable species. It is not possible to draw a link between greenhouse gas emissions and distant observations of impacts on species.”

Of course melting ice has nothing to do with global temperature.  Nor does the decrease in coral reefs have anything to do with warming seas.

And did you know this interesting fact?  In the US, we are required to blend 9 billion gallons of ethanol into the fuel supply every year.  To make this much ethanol requires 1/3 of all corn grown in the US.   By 2015, this requirement will jump to 15 billion gallons.  If corn production remains the same, we will then be using 55 percent of the US corn supply for fuel.  Never mind that corn has been driving up food prices globally and domestically.   This is for “energy security.” [source]

Her sf short story, “Down the Well” is now online at Strange Horizons (posted August 4, 2008).

She also has new novels forthcoming from Thomas Dunne Books:

…THE VAMPIRE SUFFRAGETTE, the first in a series, set it 1920s NY, when creatures of the night of every kind are also being discriminated against — and one woman is going to do something about it, to Karen Marcus at Thomas Dunne Books, in a two-book deal, by Ken Atchity at AEI Literary Management. (Publishers Marketplace)

Congratulations, Alaya!

In even better news, she recently sold a fantasy trilogy to Orbit:

N.K. Jemisin’s THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS, combining the politics of George R. R. Martin with the magic of Neil Gaiman, to Devi Pillai of Orbit, in a good deal, at auction, in a three-book deal, for publication in Fall 2009, by Lucienne Diver of The Knight Agency (World English). (Publishers Marketplace)

Take a moment to congratulate her!

So I have been practicing.

I have been playing computer chess (and losing) and have been studying with the oral lessons that come along with it (and wondering how people can keep so many moves in their heads at once).  And I have been playing online chess (and losing more).  What the hell was I doing wrong?

Today I looked at a few standard chess openings in between visits to clients.  I know zero about chess openings.  But I realized I used the same damn opening every time, and every time my pieces get stuck in untenable positions.  I would lose because I couldn’t move, and my opponent could.  Tonight, I played online chess against a player who was rated more than 200 points above me.  I used one of the openings I learned today.  Some kind of gambit.  He fell for it.  It left his pawn structure weak.  I worked him down to two rooks and a few paws, and I had a bishop, two rooks.  At this point he offered a draw.  I took it.  Perhaps I could have mated him.  I wasn’t sure.  My end game is still weak.  But it sure felt damn good not to LOSE for a change.  Maybe I just got lucky.  Maybe I’m improving.  Time shall tell.  I will let you know.

First off, if you don’t know what a book trailer is, it’s simply a short video that advertises/promotes a book. Think of it like a TV commercial. However, since most of the book trailers I’ve seen have been on the Internet, they have not been restricted to a time limit or particular format. I’ve seen book-trailer comedy sketches and book-trailer horror scene re-enactments.

The theme of Paper Cities is, of course, cities. And because the visual medium is so powerful, I wanted to choose images that would convey the idea of “mystery, magic, and wonder”– stealing copy from the back of the book. Using actual live-footage video was not an option because a) I didn’t have such video and b) to purchase or create it would have been prohibitively expensive. I had to make this video on the cheap and I had to do it quickly. The book was coming out soon, and I needed to have the trailer ready.

The first thing I did was ransack my hard drive for images. Lo and behold I had several photos of nighttime New York, images of Hoboken’s cobbled alleys snapped on digital film, and even one lovely shot looking up “out of the gutter.” (The photo was taken at the entrance to Jimmy’s No. 43 in the East Village). I found only three or four good photos, and this wasn’t enough. So I spent a half-day scouring various stock-photo sites, using what little credit I had left, to purchase the rest. Now I had the photos I needed to work with. Next was the music.

I knew music was essential to making the trailer work. Few media go as well together as images and sound. I knew I wanted music both ancient and modern, riffing off the anthology itself which has stories in the past, present, and future. I scoured creative commons music sites and found a song, an improvisational piece on electric guitar, that sounded like a baroque classical/modern jazz fusion. But after many listens, I felt the song took too long, a full minute, to reach its emotional epiphany. I thought the viewer might click away before the full minute elapsed. The music had to hook from the beginning.

But, “Hey,” I said. “I play guitar. Maybe I can do something here?” I had just put new strings on my acoustic and I slapped a capo on the first or second fret (I can’t recall which) and tried a few riffs. (For those musically inclined, you may notice a fingering similarity to Zeppelin’s “Over the Hills and Far Away.” The notes are different, but the movements are very similar.) I found a riff I liked, but it was simple. It needed layers.

In walked Audacity, a free audio program for the PC, and with it I laid down tracks like a prison chain gang. I started with the main riff. You can hear it in the opener. Then I added a second riff to harmonize, with notes that complement, yet accent the main riff. Then I added strums to each measure. I worked out a soloized harmony on the high frets. I kept layering and adding sounds until I felt that, yes, this song is what I’m trying to say. Or maybe I was just having fun. The tune sounded slightly mid-eastern, perhaps-Arabic, but it also had a modern, folk-style feel to it. And the acoustic guitar gave the song a rawness, an impromptu feel, like a busker on a street corner. Perfect.

Now, all I had to do was stitch everything together into a film. No easy feat. I used Adobe Premiere, a powerful and complicated video editing tool. It was my first time using it. The most difficult part for me was timing the musical changes to the images. I faded the photos in and out, added “glowing” titles, re-positioned images, blurred and sized, until eventually, many hours later, I had this video here:

I posted it to Youtube to show some friends and have them “proof” it, however, because most authors now have their Google Alerts poised like snipers on a fence, ready to pick off their name from a website a thousand routers away, some folks in Paper Cities got wind of the trailer less than an hour after I uploaded it, posted a link to it on their blog, and the cat was thus out of the bag. That’s why there are two versions of the trailer. One has some minor corrections. In my mind, the shorter version has better timing. The images are more synchronized with the music. The longer version, however, allows the viewer time to take in the scenery. Personally, I like them both. I hope you do too.

And that’s the story of my book trailer in a nutshell. By now, more than 1000 people have watched it. I hope that some of them were intrigued enough to go out and buy Paper Cities. At the very least, I hope they were entertained.

For those who are interested, the images in the trailer are presented in this order:
A scale model of ancient Jerusalem
Cairo (with a solar flare effect added by me)
Exit stairwell to Jimmy’s No. 42 in the East Village
Burmese temple
Hoboken street light
New York City, looking West, from the top of an apartment building
Hoboken’s Court Street
Candlelit steps of Petra

David J. Schwartz - “The Somnambulist”
Forrest Aguirre - “Andretto Walks the King’s Way”
Greg van Eekhout - “Ghost Market”
Kaaron Warren - “Down to the Silver Spirits”
Steve Berman - “Tearjerker”

If you are a member of SFWA, you can read the stories on the password protected portion of the SFWA web site.  If you like the stories, please vote for them!

“But just like there are different neighborhoods within a city, with different architectures, demographics and all subtle details that give or take away comfort or the notion of being at home, there are all sorts of stories within this anthology. Some excellent, many good, and just a few that didn’t work for me. But stories so different among them that readers may find most of them interesting in some level.”

And in summary, he says:

“Paper Cities is an amazing anthology that will be cited as one of the definitive of the urban fantasy subgenre.”

Read the full review here.

Also, please DO NOT assume, after having read our previous issues, that you know what we like. We are making a concerted attempt to diversify the types of stories we publish. If in doubt, send it to us anyway.

In addition, we are very interested in seeing stories written by and/or including varied ethnicities, social classes, and nationalities. We’d like to see more stories featuring under-utilized cultures and settings as well. Our editors and readers represent a variety of backgrounds and we’re always working to ensure that our publication reflects that as well.

Full guidelines are available here.

Press Release
For Immediate Release

The KGB Fantastic Fiction Raffle went swimmingly, generating enough money to keep the series viable for two years. 

New York, NY (July 29, 2008) –  The KGB Fantastic Fiction Raffle was a huge success.  Sixty nine highly-coveted prizes were awarded to individuals from all over the world, including winners in Germany and Australia.  The raffle has generated enough money to keep the series viable for two years.  In addition, the hosts will now be able to pay the readers a small stipend for their participation.

The hosts, Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel, wish to thank the donors and the ticket buyers.  We are immensely grateful for your support.  Your donations will help keep the reading series alive for a long time to come.

The full list of winners is online here:
http://www.kgbfantasticfiction.org/?p=167

“I want to correct an injustice. My favorite story in the issue by far was Barbara Krasnoff’s ‘All His Worldly Goods,’ a brilliant short-short piece with a tranquil surface spread just a hair’s-depth over razor-sharp satire.”

He also had this to say:

“The other major highlight was a surprise, something you don’t see often in a ‘genre mag’ — and proof that [editor] Matt is up to something different — Mercurio D. Rivera’s ‘The Best-Dressed Man on the Court,’ a moving real life memoir about paddleball, eccentric acquaintances, the transient nature of friendship and the way a tragedy can unite strangers who otherwise have nothing in common. It’s an excellent piece of writing.”

You can read the full review here.

Anyway, on to the winners. They are:

Peter Straub Short Story “Mallon the Guru” Raffle Ticket (PETERSTRAUB)
Winner 1 of 1
Matt Schwartz of Jersey City, New Jersey, United States
Order ID: 3

Ellen Datlow Short Story Critique Raffle Ticket (DATLOWCRIT)
Winner 1 of 1
Beverly Vincent of The Woodlands, Texas, United States
Order ID: 81

Jeffrey Ford Will Tuckerize You Raffle Ticket (FORDTUCKER)
Winner 1 of 1
Robert Killheffer of Watertown, Connecticut, United States
Order ID: 124

Bird Girls, pencil drawing by Terri Windling Raffle Ticket (TERRIWINDLING)
Winner 1 of 1
Kathleen Howard of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Order ID: 237

Tom Canty art for George R. R. Martin Novel Raffle Ticket (TOMCANTY)
Winner 1 of 1
Susan P Parris of Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States
Order ID: 156

SYBIL’S GARAGE Four-Issue Subscription Raffle Ticket (SYBILSGARAGE)
Winner 1 of 1
Adrienne J. Odasso of York, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Order ID: 15

Jeff VanderMeer CITY OF SAINTS AND MADMEN Raffle Ticket (VANDERMEER)
Winner 1 of 1
Joel Zakem of Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Order ID: 105

Holly Black Signed GOOD NEIGHBORS Raffle Ticket (HOLLYBLACK)
Winner 1 of 1
Amal El-Mohtar of Pontiac, Quebec, Canada
Order ID: 11

Elizabeth Hand Will Tuckerize You Raffle Ticket (LIZTUCKER)
Winner 1 of 1
William Lindblad of Plano, Texas, United States
Order ID: 238

Neil Gaiman Used Keyboard Signed to Winner Raffle Ticket (GAIMAN)
Winner 1 of 1
Jeff Plotnikoff of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Order ID: 32

Handmade Necklace from JoSelle Vanderhooft Raffle Ticket (VANDERHOOFT)
Winner 1 of 1
Rachel Monte of London, London, United Kingdom
Order ID: 228

Vacuum Tube Necklace Cyberpunk Jewelery Raffle Ticket (CLOCKWORKZERO)
Winner 1 of 1
Matthew Betts of Columbus, Ohio, United States
Order ID: 109

Mary Robinette Kowal Will Record Your Short Story (KOWALVOICE)
Winner 1 of 1
Jason Sizemore of Lexington, Kentucky, United States
Order ID: 170

Delia Sherman Short Story Critique Raffle Ticket (SHERMANCRIT)
Winner 1 of 1
Kristina Pivazyan of Woodbridge, Connecticut, United States
Order ID: 91

John Picacio Signed Cover Art Raffle Ticket (PICACIO)
Winner 1 of 1
Nicholas Parisi of Ronkonkoma, New York, United States
Order ID: 116

Michael Swanwick Story in a Bottle Raffle Ticket (SWANWICK)
Winner 1 of 1
Carol Burrell of Riverdale, New York, United States
Order ID: 216

Gardner Dozois Short Story Critique Raffle Ticket (DOZOISCRIT)
Winner 1 of 1
Erin Underwood of Marblehead, Massachusetts, United States
Order ID: 141

Lucuis Shepard Will Tuckerize You Raffle Ticket (LUCIUSTUCKER)
Winner 1 of 1
David Batista of Bronx, New York, United States
Order ID: 140

Nancy Kress Will Crit Novel Intro or Short Story Raffle Ticket (NANCYCRIT)
Winner 1 of 1
Jeff Soesbe of Sacramento, California, United States
Order ID: 246

John Douglas Novel Evaluation Raffle Ticket (DOUGLASNOVEL)
Winner 1 of 1
Bill Breedlove of Chicago, Illinois, United States
Order ID: 190

ROBERT BLOCH: THE FEAR PLANET Raffle Ticket (STEFAN2)
Winner 1 of 1
Brandon Eaker of Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
Order ID: 239

Wheatland Press’s POLYPHONY Series and Tote Bag Raffle Ticket (WHEATLAND)
Winner 1 of 1
Linda Daly of Norristown, Pennsylvania, United States
Order ID: 220

OTHER WORLDS, BETTER LIVES by Howard Waldrop Raffle Ticket (WALDROP)
Winner 1 of 1
Robert Davies of Somerville, Massachusetts, United States
Order ID: 14

Ray Bradbury Lettered Edition of THE CAT’S PAJAMAS Raffle Ticket (BRADBURY)
Winner 1 of 1
Susan Earle of Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Order ID: 208

Shawna McCarthy Short Story Critique Raffle Ticket (SHAWNACRIT)
Winner 1 of 1
Saladin Ahmed of Brooklyn, New York, United States
Order ID: 154

Cartoonist Gahan Wilson Animal of Your Choice Raffle Ticket (GAHANWILSON)
Winner 1 of 1
John Adams of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, United States
Order ID: 1

Signed Hardcover of Thomas Monteleone’s MAFIA Raffle Ticket (MAFIA)
Winner 1 of 1
Andrew Komonchak of Frisco, Texas, United States
Order ID: 187

Carnivorous Plant Terrarium Raffle Ticket (TERRARIUM)
Winner 1 of 1
Martel Sardina of Roselle, Illinois, United States
Order ID: 172

Unique Lovecraft “Memory Box” from WEIRD TALES Raffle Ticket (LOVECRAFTBOX)
Winner 1 of 1
Dalia Tebechrani of Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Order ID: 202

Subscription to THE GILA QUEEN Market Newsletter Raffle Ticket (GILAQUEEN)
Winner 1 of 2
William Lindblad of Plano, Texas, United States
Order ID: 238

Subscription to THE GILA QUEEN Market Newsletter Raffle Ticket (GILAQUEEN)
Winner 2 of 2
David Roberts of Los Altos, California, United States
Order ID: 194

Full Run of SIRENIA DIGEST by Caitlín R. Kiernan Raffle Ticket (SIRENIA)
Winner 1 of 1
Chris Dill of Greeley, Colorado, United States
Order ID: 117

L. Sprague de Camp’s SECRET AND URGENT Raffle Ticket (SPRAGUE)
Winner 1 of 1
Deborah Geisler of Middleton, Massachusetts, United States
Order ID: 106

John Kessel BAUM PLAN FOR FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE Raffle Ticket (JOHNKESSEL)
Winner 1 of 1
Robert Killheffer of Watertown, Connecticut, United States
Order ID: 124

PARADOX MAGAZINE Complete Series Forever Raffle Ticket (PARADOX)
Winner 1 of 1
Duane Spurlock of Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Order ID: 133

ELECTRIC VELOCIPEDE Subscription and Assortment Raffle Ticket (SPILTMILKPRESS)
Winner 1 of 1
Graeme Williams of Waltham, Massachusetts, United States
Order ID: 136

Reflexology Massage by Ellen Datlow’s Masseuse Raffle Ticket (REFLEXOLOGY)
Winner 1 of 1
Risa Karaviotis of Kew Gardens, New York, United States
Order ID: 35

Naomi Novik Tote Bag and TEMERAIRE First Edition Raffle Ticket (NAOMINOVIK)
Winner 1 of 1
William Lindblad of Plano, Texas, United States
Order ID: 238

Signed Hardcover of Tobias Buckell’s Crystal Rain Raffle Ticket (BUCKELL)
Winner 1 of 1
David Batista of Bronx, New York, United States
Order ID: 140

Autographed SWORDSPOINT 1st ed. by Ellen Kushner Raffle Ticket (KUSHNER)
Winner 1 of 1
Kathleen Howard of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Order ID: 237

Alan Clark print “Interior for The Dark Country” Raffle Ticket (ALANCLARK)
Winner 1 of 1
Michael Libling of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec, Canada
Order ID: 21

Gordon Van Gelder FOURTH PLANET FROM THE SUN Raffle Ticket (GORDON)
Winner 1 of 1
Brandon Eaker of Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
Order ID: 239

DIMENSION OF MIRACLES REVISITED by Robert Sheckley Raffle Ticket (SHECKLEY)
Winner 1 of 1
Matthew Staker of North Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Order ID: 155

Andy Duncan Will Tuckerize You (DUNCANTUCKER)
Winner 1 of 1
Dave Hammond of Farmington, New Mexico, United States
Order ID: 107

WASTELANDS Anthology Signed by John Joseph Adams Raffle Ticket (WASTELANDS)
Winner 1 of 1
Rhodi Hawk of Hoboken, New Jersey, United States
Order ID: 245

Wormhole from Physicist Michio Kaku Raffle Ticket (MICHIOKAKU)
Winner 1 of 4
Amanda Stiener of Easton, Pennsylvania, United States
Order ID: 134

Wormhole from Physicist Michio Kaku Raffle Ticket (MICHIOKAKU)
Winner 2 of 4
Kathryn Baker of Enfield, Connecticut, United States
Order ID: 53

Wormhole from Physicist Michio Kaku Raffle Ticket (MICHIOKAKU)
Winner 3 of 4
Chris McLaren of Hubley, Nova Scotia, Canada
Order ID: 78

Wormhole from Physicist Michio Kaku Raffle Ticket (MICHIOKAKU)
Winner 4 of 4
Clive Thompson of New York, New York, United States
Order ID: 26

Lifetime Subscription to DARK DISCOVERIES Magazine Raffle Ticket (DARKDISCOVERIES)
Winner 1 of 1
William Lindblad of Plano, Texas, United States
Order ID: 238

Imp in a Bottle and Necklace from Kris Dikeman Raffle Ticket (IMPDIKEMAN)
Winner 1 of 1
Walter Croft of Marietta, Georgia, United States
Order ID: 34

Galleys of YBFH, #8, #9, #10 Raffle Ticket (YBFHGALLEY)
Winner 1 of 1
Thomas Pendleton of Austin, Texas, United States
Order ID: 25

The Bird That Comes to Eat My Soul by Greg Weber Raffle Ticket (GREGWEBER)
Winner 1 of 1
Paul Walther of Hopkins, Minnesota, United States
Order ID: 89

Galleys of Little Deaths and Twists of the Tale Raffle Ticket (LITTLEDEATHS)
Winner 1 of 1
Nico Kronberg of Heidelberg, Baden Würtemberg, Germany
Order ID: 112

Ten Free Books from Juno Books Catalog Raffle Ticket (JUNOBOOKS)
Winner 1 of 1
April Wolford of Murray, Kentucky, United States
Order ID: 83

Richard Bowes Short Story Critique Raffle Ticket (BOWESCRIT)
Winner 1 of 1
Kris Dikeman of New York, New York, United States
Order ID: 161

Carol Emshwiller MS of “Abominable Child’s Tale” Raffle Ticket (EMSHWILLER)
Winner 1 of 1
William Lindblad of Plano, Texas, United States
Order ID: 238

Harvey Jacobs Signed Hardcover of AMERICAN GOLIATH Raffle Ticket (GOLIATH)
Winner 1 of 1
Matthew Staker of North Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Order ID: 155

Caitlín Kiernan Signed TALES OF PAIN AND WONDER Raffle Ticket (KIERNANTALES)
Winner 1 of 1
Michael Curry of Willimantic, Connecticut, United States
Order ID: 169

THE METAL MONSTER & BEST GHOST AND HORROR STORIES Raffle Ticket (STEFAN1)
Winner 1 of 1
Nico Kronberg of Heidelberg, Baden Würtemberg, Germany
Order ID: 63

Illustrated Hard Cover of Fantasex Raffle Ticket (FANTASEX)
Winner 1 of 1
Liam Watts of Springfield, Missouri, United States
Order ID: 233

Leather Book Cover Raffle Ticket (LEATHERBOOKCOVER)
Winner 1 of 1
Carol Burrell of Riverdale, New York, United States
Order ID: 216

Leather Manuscript Case/Cover Raffle Ticket (LEATHERCASE)
Winner 1 of 1
Luke Hannafin of Valley Stream, New York, United States
Order ID: 247

Custom Leather Book Cover Raffle Ticket (CUSTOMCOVER)
Winner 1 of 1
Patricia Nagle of Cedar Crest, New Mexico, United States
Order ID: 82

Galley of Neal Stephenson’s ANATHEM Raffle Ticket (ANATHEM)
Winner 1 of 1
Julian Yap of New York, New York, United States
Order ID: 207

Signed 1st Ed. of Neil Gaiman’s ANANSI BOYS Raffle Ticket (ANANSIBOYS)
Winner 1 of 1
David Roberts of Los Altos, California, United States
Order ID: 194

Signed Steven Saville’s LAUGHING BOY’S SHADOW Raffle Ticket (LAUGHINGBOY)
Winner 1 of 1
Cheryl Barkauskas of Jersey City, New Jersey, United States
Order ID: 171

Lucy A. Snyder’s SPARKS AND SHADOWS Raffle Ticket (SPARKSANDSHADOWS)
Winner 1 of 1
William Lindblad of Plano, Texas, United States
Order ID: 238

Signed Kim Harrison’s THE OUTLAW DEMON WAILS Raffle Ticket (OUTLAWDEMON)
Winner 1 of 1
Catherine Book of Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Order ID: 197

Congratulations to all winners! The donors will be contacting you shortly for shipping information.

“In this fifth issue of Sybil’s Garage, the bi-annual fiction and poetry anthology published by Senses Five Press, magic, consumerism, dead rock stars, and the just plain weird come together in an uneven but mostly well-written hodgepodge of fantasy fiction.”

Well, you can’t please all the folk, all the time.  Of particular note is the sentence:

“Each story is also peppered with illustrations that resemble nineteenth-century clip-art - since none of the stories takes place in nineteenth-century Britain, these images, which only very superficially reflect the events of the narratives, come across as twee and distracting.”

Not everyone has to like the 19th-century art, but without it, Sybil’s Garage is Not Sybil’s Garage, ya know?  That’s what makes us unique.  Anywho…

Here’s a link to the full review.

A unique Lovecraft memory box from WEIRD TALES.  (Damn I wish I could bid on this!)

As of this moment, we are no longer accepting donated raffle items.  Thank you to all donors!

Also, tonight is the Shirley Jackson Awards Benefit at KGB (this is a separate event from Fantastic Fiction).  Leading authors will read from Shirley Jackson’s canon.  I will NOT be co-hosting tonight, as some have assumed, but a humble audience member there for good company and, of course, beer.