Gout as a Serious Health Issue

Help Kids Defeat the Mouth Monsters

Healthcare leaders and the public say how they would balance the NHS� books

Talk About It! PSA with Greg Grunberg

Ask About the Curve Public Service Announcement

Lenine Cunha, Portuguese Paralympian and Win for Meningitis campaign ambassador

Knifedads and youtube celebrities Karate Johnathan and Steeliest Daniel train the Appleton County High Security Elementary School on resisting drugs and witchcraft.

Every now and then a forum member posts something so creative and impressive that I stop shouting in anger at my monitor. Today I'd like to highlight a particularly amazing post.

I had to kill a young enemy scout with the detached head and neck of a giraffe. Afterwards, in a powerful moment, Ellie realized it was the giraffe from the first Last of Us. In a more powerful moment, Ellie realized the giraffe's neck was tattooed with the words I BET THAT KID HAD A FAMILY

This week, I want to talk about corporations using global tragedy to “get their brand name out there” and otherwise profiteer off of human misery.

I'm so very happy to announce that my next Graceling Realm book, Seasparrow, will release on November 1, 2022. Scroll down for my beautiful covers in the US and the UK! I'll also include links for pre-ordering at the bottom of this post.

Seasparrow is told from the point of view of Hava, Queen Bitterblue's secret sister and spy, who has the Grace of changing what you think you see when you look at her. In other words, the Grace of hiding in plain sight. In Seasparrow, Hava sails across the sea toward Monsea with her sister, the royal entourage, and the world's only copies of the formulas for the zilfium weapon Hava saved at the end of Winterkeep. As in all of my books, adventure ensues — the kind of adventure that will cause Hava to do some soul-searching. While Bitterblue grapples with how to carry the responsibility of a weapon that will change the world, Hava has a few mysteries to solve — and a decision to make about who she wants to be in the new world Bitterblue will build. Seasparrow was edited by Andrew Karre. Thank you, Andrew, for helping me help Hava find her wings!

Prior to today, I've only been talking about this book on Twitter, where I don't have a lot of space to say meaningful things. I have space on this blog, so here are a few non-spoilery bits of info about Seasparrow.

* Unlike my other Graceling Realm books, this one is told from the first-person point of view. Why? Because it was right for this book. Hava is a character who's so internal that often other people don't even know she's there. I suppose I can't entirely explain why, when I started writing, I knew I needed to write in first person, but maybe it's because in order to write about Hava, I needed to get deep inside, where she was. I don't think I've ever written a book from the perspective of someone so hidden before. And yet, from the start, Hava let me in. It felt like she was the one making the decision about what point of view we needed.

* Though the page count is higher (624!), the word count is not higher than any of my other Graceling Realm books. That's because Hava's story is told in a lot of pretty short chapters. That felt right for Hava and the way she processes things; again, it felt like she was the one making this decision. Short chapters have a way of creating a sense of empty space inside a printed book, which is an effect I've always liked, so I went with it.

* The interior art that Ian Schoenherr created for Seasparrow is spectacular. Maybe more than any of my books prior to this, I'm excited for the day when I'll have the finished product in my hands.

* Four years ago, I spent some time in the Arctic on a tall ship. I planned this book while I was on that trip. I started writing it the moment I got back. I could not have written this book were it not for my experience doing an artist residency with the organization The Arctic Circle. Here's a link to the blog posts I wrote about my Arctic experience, which are mostly compilations of pictures. Click on "More Posts" at the bottom to see them all.

 

And now for the covers! Here's the US/Canada cover for Seasparrow, which will be published by Dutton/Penguin Random House. Kuri Huang is the cover artist. Jessica Jenkins is the cover designer. And as I've already said, the interior will include beautiful art by Ian Schoenherr.

 

And here is the UK/Australia/New Zealand cover for Seasparrow. My editor at Gollancz is Gillian Redfearn. Micaela Alcaino is the cover artist and Tomás Almeida is the in-house designer.

Finally, here are some direct pre-ordering links! Seasparrow can be ordered in the US at:

Bookshop.org

barnesandnoble.com

Target

Amazon

 

And in the UK at:

UK.Bookshop.org

Waterstones

Blackwells

 

...and wherever books are sold.

 

Happy holiday weekend for those celebrating. And happy reading!

My latest short story is out in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. When I first started writing short stories, back in the 90s, F&SF was one of the ‘big three’ that I really wanted to get a story in to cross off my bucket list. The big three were Asimov’s, F&SF, and Analog. […]

As Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stirs up false claims of voter fraud ahead of Election Day, we look at the role of an increasingly “partisan” Federal Election Commission with former FEC general counsel Larry Noble, who explains why “voters of a lot of wealth have the ability to influence elections the way that the rest of us don’t.” As the influence of money in politics grows unchecked, he warns, it has the effect of “silencing the voter.” Noble also responds to multibillionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaways to Pennsylvania voters and discusses the lasting impact of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision on campaign finance law.

As voters across the United States head to the polls on Election Day, many face “a choice between two unsatisfactory candidates,” says Democracy Now! co-host Juan González. This choice is especially “excruciating” for those “who are outraged by our government’s continued support for Israel’s yearlong genocidal assault on Gaza.” He says the 2024 election has echoes of 1968, when many progressives sat out the election because of anger over Vietnam, but Richard Nixon’s victory and ultimate expansion of the war proved to be disastrous. “It would take many years for some of us to realize we had made a big mistake in sitting out that election. … Making these decisions at the time of election may be difficult but sometimes necessary to do to open up the way for possible change in the future.

Thousands attended a Palestine Festival of Literature event about “America and the War on Palestine” at the historic Riverside Church in New York Sunday, featuring conversations about U.S. complicity in Israeli human rights abuses. The literary festival, known as PalFest, aims to raise awareness of the Palestinian struggle through arts and letters. The acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates moderated the conversations, including one featuring the Palestinian human rights attorney and scholar Noura Erakat. “This is about all of us,” says Erakat. “The fact that Palestinian children have been evaporated, beheaded, killed in NICU, their NICU system, rotted in NICU beds, right? And their parents have had to collect their flesh to weigh it in rice bags in order to bury them, right? At this point, there should have been mercy.”

My ITR3 for AY 2023-24 has been processed by CPC under OLD REGIME without recognizing the Taxation Option exercised undersection 115BAC for NEW REGIME by filing FORM 10IE during AY 2022-23 on 01-Jun-2022, which has been CONTINUED for AY 2023-24, as EVIDENT in the ITR3 filed for this Assessment Year. I have also Registered my grievance in this regard in the e-portal of the IT Department and have sought RECTIFICATION FIVE TIMES under Section 154 but have got the same RECTIFICATION ORDER repeating the same MISTAKE with processing done under OLD REGIME with TAX DEMAND of Rs.87,000. (Similar thing had happened in AY 2022-23 but it was corrected by RECTIFICATION). I am in continuous correspondence through email and written communication several times with the Department, including grievances raised on E-PORTAL, but the issue remains UNRESOLVED. I have also registered my grievance in this regard in CPGRAMS Portal of GOI which is pending.
I request advice on further course of action to resolve the issue including as to whether i can file an Appeal under Section 264 .
G S Prakash

Charlotte, a stingray in a small North Carolina aquarium, is taking a DIY approach to reproduction

A lunar lander nicknamed Odie carries 125 small moon sculptures by artist Jeff Koons that could become the first authorized artwork on the moon

The Army, The Navy “BBIDGI” The Army, The Navy are a folk duo with the same basic set up as Simon & Garfunkel – two singers, one guitar. The interesting thing with them, most especially on “BBIDGI,” is how their melodies and vocal harmonies are much closer in style and tone to mid 90s through […]

Everything you need to know about Rwanda's outbreak of Marburg virus, which has been described as one of the deadliest human pathogens

Complex carbon-based molecules crucial to life on Earth originated somewhere in space, but we didn't know where. Now, huge amounts of them have been spotted in a huge, cold cloud of gas

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Droplets of fluid have been known to hover above a hot surface, but a new experiment suggests the same can happen to tiny jets of liquid too

An AI-assisted robot can listen to spoken commands and assemble 3D objects such as chairs and tables out of reusable building blocks

Toshiyuki Morikawa stars as titular dog in 12 episodes now streaming

I remember the days when a week could go by and you wouldn’t even register the fact that we had a president, much less be aware of some stupid thing that he had said or done.  Unfortunately the past four years that hasn’t happened.  It seems not a week has gone by where Trump hasn’t found a

Continue Reading "FREAK OUT FRIDAY – September 25, 2020" →

We will not laugh. This is serious business. We are * heh * we are adults here and we will not laugh at the situation.  There are * heh heh * there are lives on the line and we will not chuckle, guffaw or otherwise spread any sense of amusement over the… …the… BWWAAAAAHAAHAHAHAAHAAHAHHHHHHAAAAA Ha. Okay.  Okay,

Continue Reading "FREAK OUT FRIDAY – OCTOBER 2, 2020" →

It’s astounding how election day seems to both be speeding toward us and simultaneously taking its own freaking sweet time.  As fast as it’s moving, it’s also taking forever.  We are becoming that desperate to get Trump out of office that every day he’s still there seems like ten. It’s also been ten days since Trump came

Continue Reading "FREAK OUT FRIDAY – October 8, 2020" →

I did as I said I would:  I watched “Supernatural,” and don’t regret it for a moment.  I then tuned in to watch the last half hour of Biden:  he seemed natural, relaxed, and sane. Then, in order to write this column, I sat down and watched the Trump town hall on Youtube.    I am producing this commentary

Continue Reading "FREAK OUT FRIDAY – October 16, 2020" →

We have neighbors down the street with whom we had developed a sort of tradition.  Every year we’d go over to their house on New Year’s Eve.  We’d celebrate the end of the old year, watch the ball drop in Times Square.  I’d sing “Edelweiss” for some reason because the wife loved the way I did that song.  It

Continue Reading "FREAK OUT FRIDAY – October 30, 2020" →

Ever heard of Stanley Stinkbug? 

 Yeah, me neither. 

 Apparently he's a children's character who looks like this:

As far as anthropomorphic bugs go, I guess he's not TOO terrifying. I'd put him somewhere between Heimlich the caterpillar and Hopper the evil grasshopper: Not a bug you'd want to cuddle, exactly, but that probably wouldn't make you run screaming from the room, either. Plus the neckerchief is fun.

Anyhoo, of course - of course - bakers have been asked to make cake versions of Stanley, and of course some of those bakers have done so... poorly.

The good news is today's baker was only asked to do a flat illustration on a cupcake cake (patooie!), which is a running head start, right? No molding or sculpting, just a picture. Heck, they could even print one out!

So what do you think, did they make Stanley's eyes all wonky? Is his scarf the wrong color, is he missing some legs? Oh! I know! I bet... you just want me to just show you the cake, don't you.

 Fine.

 BEHOLD!

Actual footage of my reaction:

Also now this gif is blocking my view of the cake, so... BONUS.

Now, before I nope right out of here, I'd like to point out that the baker CLEARLY thought management wanted an actual stinkbug cake for the display case, but never thought to ask A) WHY DEAR LORD WHY, or B) why it was named Stanley. 

 I mean, c'mon, you get told to draw a random bug named Stanley, tell me you wouldn't add some glasses and a sweater vest. That's just common sense.

Also, is this the sort of bakery where random horrific requests are this common? Was the baker asked to make a "Tiffany Tapeworm" last week, so Mr. Stinkbug was par for the course?

::dares to scroll up briefly to see the cake again::

K, last question: Did the baker think putting the giant semi-realistic stinkbug on a bed of lettuce... was helping??

Aaaaand I'M OUT.

Thank you(?), Emily S. I do not approve.
*****

P.S. After my crack about cuddle-worthy bugs, naturally I had to go see if I could find some. And I gotta say, the ant? ADORABLE:

Plush Bugs
*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

This piece of literary mayhem is exclusive to Smart Bitches After Dark, but fret not. If you'd like to join, we'd love to have you! Have a look at our membership options, and come join the fun! If you want to have a little extra fun, be a little more yourself, and be part of keeping the site open for everyone in the future, we can’t wait to see you in our new subscription-based section … Continue reading Let’s Talk About Some of the Latest Cover Re-Designs →

The Gift Guides officially start on Wednesday, but I wanted to post this ASAP so – quick and early gift guide! NB: some links in this and future gift guides include affiliate links which send a portion of your purchase back to us at no extra cost to you. You’re not required to use our links, and thank you in advance if you do. There is a gift with purchase from now until 11/11 at … Continue reading I Need to Tell Y’all About this Lego Set →

eeeeee

haaaaaahhhh

I mean, yes,

it's probably fine

Full Article