A Post-Christmas Miscellany

December 28, 2011 in Book Trailers, Christmas Miscellany, Clips, Podcasts, Short Stories by Brian | No comments

I have, on occasion in the past, produced a miscellanies of assorted nonsense here in honour of the festive season. I do like to keep a tradition going, so here we are. This time around, just a randomish concoction of audio-visual amusements.

Audio first.

In the science category, the Astronomy Cast is a relatively new discovery for me, and I commend to you a recent special edition they did concentrating on Strange Stuff in Spaaaaace. Lots of their episodes are fun and informative too, so give them a browse.

In the fiction category, not one but two Christmas stories (this year and last) from Tim Pratt (one of my favourite short fiction writers) and Heather Shaw, courtesy of Podcastle: the 2011 one is The Ghost of Christmas Possible, that from a year ago (probably my favourite) is a bonkers romp entitled The Christmas Mummy.

And in the ‘Writers Talking’ category, here’s a properly substantial interview with Steven Erikson, creator of the properly enormous Malazan series that began with Gardens of the Moon. I found it extremely interesting, for all sorts of reasons which can perhaps best be summed up under the single heading of: ‘here’s a writer of epic fantasy who has thought deeply and seriously about what he’s doing’. It’s an education in how much can be going on in an author’s head, and why their books turn out the way they do. Also, it sounds like I’ve been mentally mispronouncing ‘Malazan’ all this time. Who knew?

Books. Kind of.

The book trailer is finally starting to come of age, I think. Good ones are still extremely rare, but in recent weeks I’ve noticed a few pretty enticing ones showing up here and there. I’ve absolutely no idea whether these things actually make a difference to sales, mind you; someone must think they might, though, or they wouldn’t exist.

Both of at those achieved at least this much: I’m curious about the books. (Although I have to admit, I was already curious about the second one).

Clips, clips, clips

The last issue of SciFiNow I read had a loooong list of funny/interesting geeky clips that have appeared on the internet over the years. I shamelessly (and lazily) harvested their suggestions to bring to you the following, which I offer without further comment. (And apologies for any irritating ads that may precede the start of the stuff that’s potentially funny or interesting).

Okay, suspending the no further comment thing for a moment, this next one’s an amazing thing to find buried in a list of geeky clips: the legendary Fritz Lang, creator of Metropolis, talks about his encounter with the Nazi propaganda machine. Did I say this is amazing?