I posted this on Tumblr a few days ago, and meant to repost here, and did not. For those not following along, Amazon has announced that, in short, they're going to publish fanfic for specific established existing books/television shows/etc, which would allow the authors of those fics to be paid a certain amount. Pennies, in some cases, but still more than they'd get by posting them on the fanfic sites. It would all be very legal and above board and no smut would be allowed.

(Which cancels out approximately 80% of the existed fic out there, but eh, details.)

Here's my reaction:

( Call this continuation of the Sharon-has-an-exestential-crisis-of-faith-regarding-writing seriesCollapse )

Someone else mentioned this book and I thought, hey, I've heard of that. Only I can't find it, nor can I remember enough about it to search it out. With help, I've located a Chinese book with this as part of its title, but that's not the right one. The trouble with remembering the story is that what keeps coming to mind is a story I know is called Wizard of the Pigeons. For both books, what I remember isn't so much the plot as the feeling. WotP is an urban fantasy. I feel as if WoG should be non-urban, possibly set in the mountains. It could potentially also be a short story. I haven't a clue when I would've read it.

Any ideas?

Seaboe

I read this mystery / suspense novel back in the late '60s or thereabouts, and it may have been several years old at that time.  Here is what i think i remember about it.

A young British woman is searching for her brother, who disappeared while in Finland (or somewhere in Northern Europe). She travels to the place she knew he last was known to be to search for him. She gets involved with a local man there who was also searching for her brother. The part that sticks in my mind is he tells her to call him by his last name, because she would not be able to pronounce his first name.

I think the author was British. I had thought it was Mary Stewart, but did not find a synopsis online of a story like this.

FWIW, I just met Peter Jurasik. I offered him this account. He was flattered and said no, but said to tell you all hello.

I am looking for a book I read about 20 years ago but can't remember the author or title. It was about a Jewish boy from Yemen who came to Israel during Operation Magic Carpet in the late 1940's/early 1950's. I believe it was a non-fiction book, but it may have been fiction based on a true account. It was a thick hard-back book of several pages, probably published in the 1970's or earlier, with a drawing on the cover of the boy looking at a view either of his hometown in Yemen or from a hilltop in Israel. I remember some pieces from the book: 1) the boy was in a hospital & was fascinated by a ceiling fan & a piece of ice which he had never seen before, he cried when the ice melted in his hand, at first he thought he had died & was in Heaven, a blond nurse named Ingrid took care of him, he thought she was an angel, he thought the old white-haired doctor was God, they fed him something sweet that he thought was Manna 2) During the Operation Magic Carpet flight the Yemeni Jewish women (who had never seen a plane before) lit a fire inside the plane to cook for their hungry children & the crew were upset 3)In Israel the boy saw a grease-covered mechanic crawl from underneath a car & thought he was the Devil 4) at the beginning of the book, there was a description of a man in Yemen biting a coin to verify it was real 5) the boy went to live on a Kibbutz & met a girl there who he ended up marrying 6) the prologue mentioned that the boy grew up & became an El Al pilot & his wife was expecting their first child
I cannot remember any more from the book, but hopefully someone can help me from the above descriptions.
Thanks in advance!!!!

I need help remembering a book I read while in High School. I don't remember much, but the story was about a young man who was kidnapped by aliens for a zoo. He was placed in an exhibit that had furnishings from earth. The only other thing I remember was that he escaped by using stomach acid to burn through the door(?) and escaped with a stolen spaceship. If I remember correctly, the last thing in the story was about him thinking how he was going to return for payback. Possibly written by Gordon Dickson, or in a book of short stories edited by him. Hope somebody can help. Thanks!

Drunk, Jane spoke as though she were Nancy Drew. I was a fool for a girl with a dainty lexicon.

Michael Chabon, from _Mysteries of Pittsburgh_

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The dogs (Crash and Kablam, both bichons) consider Brianna their master.  Crash, a year older, has always shown more affection toward Brianna than me (I suspect this is because his trainer was female), and little Kablam follows him.  And when Brianna and I come home, the dogs will run to her.  OK, I can accept this. No biggie.  Brianna's their master, even though I feed them and take them for walks.

But... when we all sleep together, I snore, and sometimes it's so loud that I exile myself to the living room to give her some quiet.  But the weird thing is that the dogs get out of bed and follow me.  So they chose to sleep with me rather than Brianna, even though they obviously consider her their master.

Why?

We haven't been able to figure this out.

Is it that my body temperature is slightly different than Brianna's and more appealing?

Is it that they're waiting for me to wake up so I'll feed them or take them for a walk?

Is it because they want to give their master more space?

Or are they, being small dogs, guarding the outskirts of the camp?

I am no dog whisperer, but this behavior has long puzzled us.

On the train to work I saw a girl dressed as Finn from Adventure Time and another who was dressed as Red Steampunk (luminescently red from her hair to her dress to her boots), both of whom I got to compliment and told I'd see later at the convention. :D

Also, last Saturday eustaciavye invited me over for a David Tennantfest including the BBC Casanova, which last has been pleasantly haunting me all week. I never knew before that his first name was Giacomo -- anglicized, he's Jack Newhouse. Now I wonder if anyone's written a horny, charming character named Jack Newhouse into something or other.

Amazon is currently selling Love is the Law on pre-order for 35 percent off. This is a guaranteed price. If you have Amazon Prime and get free shipping, amazon will depending on where you live, either barely break even and perhaps even lose money on every sale.

So...

PRE-ORDER TODAY
STARVE THE GLUTTON
DESTROY THE BEAST