Today's burning question: Dude, where's my zeppelin?

Oh, here?  Thanks.  Always wanted a personal blimp.  (I love the little fins...)

(via Futurismic and BoingBoing)

Re "The Big Meow" domain host move: thanks to all who contributed!

Thanks to everybody who hit the little ChipIn button to help change hosting for The-Big-Meow.com. The necessary funds were raised pronto: we're now sorting things out with the new hosting provider.

The move should happen later in the week. In the meantime, my apologies for the site still looking messed up.  Something I did broke the CSS (site formatting language, for you non-techies) in a way I've had no luck fixing, and at this point it seems to make more sense just to wait until the domain's moved to its new home and then do a clean install of Drupal 5.0, pulling the necessary files and settings in one at a time to make sure the CSS behaves itself this time. (sigh)

Meanwhile, chapter 7 of The Big Meow is in process, and should be posted around the end of the week. Chapter 6 will go public at the same time (the database will be sending out a notification to the "general information" list when it does).

Thanks again, all!

Ficlet: "Invictus"

It's good to take a challenge every now and then. From over at Daily15, for today's challenge word, which is "solstice":

Invictus

In the dimness he woke and knew it was too late. Morning never came so late unless the world was ending.

Fortunately, he knew what to do about that.

( Read more... )

Was the real "New Hope" ...a droid??

And not so much a new hope, but an old one? This essayist thinks so.

If we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon, then a lot that happens in the original films has to be reinterpreted in the light of the prequels. As we now know, the rebel Alliance was founded by Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. What can readily be deduced is that their first recruit, who soon became their top field agent, was R2-D2.

Consider: at the end of RotS, Bail Organan orders 3PO's memory wiped but not R2's. He wouldn't make the distinction casually. Both droids know that Yoda and Obi-Wan are alive and are plotting sedition with the Senator from Alderaan. They know that Amidala survived long enough to have twins and could easily deduce where they went. However, R2 must make an impassioned speech to the effect that he is far more use to them with his mind intact: he has observed Palpatine and Anakin at close quarters for many years, knows much that is useful and is one of the galaxy's top experts at hacking into other people's systems. Also he can lie through his teeth with a straight face....

And there's more. Why did this never occur to me before?...

 

Peter Morwood's "Greylady" and "Widowmaker" coming back into print

I dropped a brief note about this into the last message that went out to subscribers to The Big Meow. Now it's time to get started letting the world know in earnest.

Greylady and Widowmaker, the first two "Clan Wars" novels, have been out of print now for some time. They are by far the hardest-to-find, and at the same time the most sought after, of all Peter's books, with sources like AbeBooks offering the scarce copies that come on the market for prices in the hundreds of pounds Sterling. These two novels (and a third, Cradlesong, is projected) tell how the Horse Lords first came to Alba, what they found there, how they coped...and how they set up the cultural, political, and magical landscape in which their descendant Aldric Talvalin finds himself. Some of the characters will be entirely new, though some survive into Aldric's time...with uinexpected consequences.

Now that the books have reverted to Peter, he's free to do with them what he wills...and (impelled by much insistent email) he's now told me to "go do the Lulu thing."

And so we shall.

What we're asking interested readers of this posting to do -- whether you read it on DD's or Peter's blog -- is as follows:

(1) If you're interested in being notified when either of these books are republished and available for purchase -- a matter of days (DD is setting/grooming the type at the moment) please send an email to this address.

(2) In the subject line of your mail, please tell us which book you're interested in: GREYLADY, WIDOWMAKER, or BOTH.

Also, since the wonders of Lulu allow us to do this without it costing us anything extra:

(3) Also in the subject line, please tell us whether you're more interested in a British- or US- formatted edition (that is to say, with US or UK spellings): (UK) or (US).

We will be making both hardcover and softcover editions available. The softcover editions are similar to US trade paperback size. For the hardcovers, dustjackets will also be available for those who require them. Unfortunately, the original beautiful Mick Posen covers are copyright to Legend, so we can't use them in this republication. Until we can commission new cover art, the covers will feature swords from Peter's collection...including the sword he commissioned from the celebrated Italian swordsmith Fulvio del Tin (responsible for, among much other handsome weaponry, the "hero" version of the "Braveheart" sword) and which most closely evokes the look-and-feel of Greylady.

When you send your email, the database will save your address so that we can send you a notification when things are ready to roll in a week or less. It will also send you an acknowledgement that we've received your mail. (If it starts sending you multiple acknowledgements, please mail DD or comment back to her here at the blog to let her know: she will beat the machine into some kind of submission or other.)

We heartily encourage you to spread the word around to other Morwood fans. Pass the email address on to them, or pass this blog entry's URL/permalink along, and let them know that these rare and much-missed books are now coming back to the fans who've been demanding them for years!

..And thanks.