Category: Reading

ShopLocal instead of Amazon

TIL about Canada’s answer to bookshop.org: ShopLocal. Given an ISBN, it pops up a map to local indie bookstores with that book. Example:

I’m going through my blog and adding ShopLocal links to all the relevant posts. To use it yourself, add the book’s ISBN to the end of this URL: https://shoplocal.bookmanager.com/isbn/

Or use the ShopLocal URL generator I created here: https://nrmroshak.com/shoplocal-book-finder/

Hurricane Child review

Hurricane Child cover

I’m perenially catching up on my reading, and just finished Kacen Callender’s 2020 MG debut, Hurricane Child. It was a thoroughly engrossing read. Set in the US Virgin Islands, it delivered a multisensory immersion into the life of a lonely 12-year-old. The main character, Caroline, is friendless and motherless. Her isolation nurtures her unique spirit. Caroline’s not quite like anyone else on the inside, and knows it. She sees spirits, and falls in love with an equally unusual girl.

The book’s structure feels a little messy, but in a way that works. Middle school is messy. For example, Caroline’s questions around her ability to see spirits are left unresolved. But that’s OK. No one’s finished figuring themselves out at 12.

Continue reading “Hurricane Child review”

Local Author Wins Prize For Great Story

Today I had the pleasure of meeting one of this year’s Writers of the Future winners, John Haas. John’s a talented author and a published novelist. His debut novel, The Reluctant Barbarian, was published by local small press Renaissance Press. His fiction has also appeared in numerous anthologies & magazines.

I’m really looking forward to seeing John’s story in Writers of the Future 35. Congratulations, John!

There’s always new SFF to discover…

In a perfect world, I’d have time every month to read every sff magazine and zine and listen to every sf, fantasy, and horror podcast. In the real world, of course, I rarely make it beyond my 4 or 5 favorites. But… sometimes I’ll write a story, or a poem, and when it’s done, it doesn’t seem quite right for any of the magazines or zines I read every month… Hooray, it’s time to go market-hunting! I get to explore and discover new magazines, zines, websites, podcasts, communities, etc. I’m nominally looking for a place for a given story, but the fun is really in reading the free issues online. Continue reading “There’s always new SFF to discover…”

Philosophy and Science Fiction

I first encountered Dr. Eric Schwitzgebel’s work in the Sept. 2017 Clarkesworld, which published his story Little /^^^\&-. (That’s neither a typo nor an encoding error. If you haven’t seen the story, I recommend it.) Dr. Schwitzgebel, a professor of philosophy at UC Riverside, writes philosophical SF and also maintains a list of philosophical spec-fic recs here: http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/SchwitzAbs/PhilosophicalSF.htm Continue reading “Philosophy and Science Fiction”