Yow -- got too much going on again today. We're finishing up a course I developed at work, so things are nice and crazy at the day job, but it's fun. I just haven't had a chance to share all the cool news and nifty links piling up 'round me.

First off, I got another excellent email this morning from an editor, this time from Stephen Eley at the podcast magazine Escape Pod, and he wants to record and reprint my story "Natural Order." Woo-hoo! It should be available for your downloading and listening pleasure in April or so. Now I can join cool kids Greg, Tim, SarahP, Jason, Vera, Clarion classmate Sue, and all the other fine writers being podcasted...

Speaking of podcasting, I'm learning how to actually use podcasts and download 'em to my iPod. I listened to the first podcast of Jason's Lies and Little Deaths, where he talks about the technology and philosophy of podcasting, as well as reads his short tale "Songstress." Check it out. It's a nifty, cutting little story.

And I also had time on my drive to work to listen to the opening chapter of James Patrick Kelly's podcasted novel Burn. So far, so good. You can't go wrong with a Jim Kelly tale, and his novels are far too few.

Whew. But I'm not done linking YET!

Fellow writing pal James Hartley has his latest Jack Stein SF mystery novel out, entitled The Star Tablet. James writes under the name of Jay Caselberg, and I'm behind in the series (I was reading the second book on my Palm Pilot before that gadget crapped out on me!). This is good stuff -- a great SF setting, a burned-out "psychic detective," twists and turns. Check it out!

And since I'm plugging other authors, my appreciation for James Blaylock's story "His Own Back Yard" is now up at the ED SF Project for the soon-to-be-defunct SCI FICTION Web site. Watch me get all emotional about being a Dad, and how I try to somehow connect that to Blaylock's story...

And finally, finally...

Elizabeth and I sat through "Star Wars 3, Revenge of the Sith" last night. Endured is a better word. Ugh. No story, no character development, just landscapes and fights. Dumb. And this is coming from a lifelong Star Wars geek -- I had Star Wars bedsheets and wallpaper as kid, okay?

But when you start making fun of the movie ten minutes into, doing Anakin as Napoleon Dynamite ("God! They won't make me a Jedi master on the stupid council! Idiots!"), you know you're in trouble. And I won't even talk about the "Noooo!" at the end of the movie. What has been Lucas been doing the past 20 years? Not working on his writing, especially not his depiction of female characters. Sheesh.

Okay, that's enough for today... Later!