That is pretty awesome. If you haven't seen it, you must also check out his post on genre microfiction.
"A final tear dripped down her dying cheek. Cancer! On our wedding day!" [Drama/romance]
"A final acidic tear dripped down her dying, scaly cheek. Dragon cancer! On our wedding day!" [Fantasy]
"A final tear dripped down her goggles to her sprocket-laden corset. Brass poisoning! On our wedding day!" [Steampunk]
And in this case, I do recommend reading the comments.
A final tear dripped down her bronzed Egyptian cheek. The world's first documented case of cancer! On our wedding day! Around 1500 BC! (historical fiction)
"A final tear dripped down her dying cheek. Or did it? On our wedding day! If it really WAS our wedding day!" [Conspiracy theories]
A final tear dripped down her dying cheek. Finally! Time for our wedding night. [Necrophilic erotica]
Is Mary's through DP?
Yes, it is! The second one will be out soon, probably October.
Fans, or would-be fans, of Iain M. Banks - he's reading (an abridged version of) his novel "Transition" in 15-minute bursts as a free podcast on iTunes. Story on io9.com
My lit crit class is going to be the death of me
No more Reading Rainbow: [link]
Grant says that PBS, CPB and the Department of Education put significant funding toward programming that would teach kids how to read — but that's not what Reading Rainbow was trying to do.
"Reading Rainbow taught kids why to read," Grant says. "You know, the love of reading — [the show] encouraged kids to pick up a book and to read."
Last weekend I got an advance copy of the Stoker-endorsed Dracula sequel. I'm not done with it yet (although I'll probably finish tomorrow) and:
1) I'm fairly confident that the only significant stuff coming from Stoker's notes are the occasional bits of backstory (like, Harker will reminisce about how he originally met Mina).
2) It is badly written. Granted, this is an uncorrected MS, but: whew. If I'd known to do it when I started, I'd have kept a running count of the cliches.
3) If you listed a bunch of different ideas for a Dracula sequel, they're in this. ALL of them. So it's bananas, which I have to admit does make it kind of entertaining. But probably not in the way that was intended.
4) Major plot point:
So... Elizabeth Bathory is another vampire. And she was Jack the Ripper. And that's why Dracula was trying to get to London originally. See?
As to 4) I have to say: Whoa! That's the crackfic.
And there's SO much more! Like
because of her dalliance with Dracula, Mina hasn't aged. And she's now discovering that she's a little bit superpowered. And since she got pregnant post-Dracula... so is her son.
It reminds me a little of Nicholas Meyer's Holmes pastiches. Except for being terrible. So it's educational, because Meyer kinda made it look easy.
