Memorial Day Round 'em Up

I'm going to be off and on this weekend, depending on the freelancery and chores lists. There may be other posts, if not, enjoy your weekend. As I posted on someone else's blog, "Go out and see your neighbors molting into summer this weekend as they shed the heavy outer coats, shake off the excess liquid, and unfold their wings of gingham in the warm air."

Until we see each other again, here's some linkery and newsery.

Ken McConnell's story, The Renoke, is finally up for your reading pleasure over at Space Westerns. Give it a read and let Ken know what you think.

Charlotte is a Misner! Nathan is up to no good, again. Yes, it's another writing exercise. And it's not SF! Oh, the horrors, the horrors, the... mmm, Fannie Flagg.

Mars landing this Sunday. Phoenix will land this Sunday. While it's not as glamorous or interesting as the Mars Rovers (which are starting to develop problems, four years into their 3 month mission :) ), will feature a powered landing. Very tricky. The video of the landing, "7 Minutes of Terror" is nice (although a bit over dramatic).

Robert Asprin has passed on. I was all set to attend MarCon, where we was Guest of Honor, when the economy put a kobash to those plans. I first knew Robert Asprin from the Thieves' World shared-world anthologies. For a young boy, just starting out in D&D, those books definitely formed much of preconceptions of what fantasy was. They also colored many of my D&D campaigns into rough, gritty, stab before you're stabbed adventures. Then I found his Myth books when I ran out of TW, and I lightened up. A lot. His books probably were the first I found I could quote from memory ("Aahz," he said. "Oz?" Skeeve asked. "No relation.") It was just on Tuesday that noticed there was a new Myth book out (and a collection of the old stuff). If Glen Cook is the serious side of fantasy, and Steven Brust the sits in the middle writing his tales, Robert Asprin is on the other end of the table cracking jokes. The Myth series did to heroic fantasy what Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series did for Space Opera. It poked a much needed hole in the pretentiousness bubble of high-fantasy to release the gas in a whoopee cushion fashion. As much as I was going to take my Brust books to be signed, I had collected my Myth books together as well.