Kestrell

Did you know your bookshelves could have bookshelves?

2020-07-16T15:32:03Z

Through search superskills and the use of my accessible tape measure, I found mini-bookcases which fit under the eaves of the aerye, and I thought I had gone about as far as I could go with that, but it turns out that there are book stands and book racks which are small enough to perch on top of the bookcases.

I got this spiffy adjustable wooden one
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UD6DA30/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
just this morning. It cost $10, and it came out of the packing already to go, just unfold the ends and adjust the length. It's also highly tactile, with vines carved all over it (I love vines).

Not unrelated to my ongoing book storage problem, it's
science fiction and fantasy week on GoodReads
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1890?ref=sffweek2020_eb

While GoodReads could really use an accessibility makeover (seriously guys, not even using headings?), I do enjoy it for a number of reasons and first among those reasons is all the lists, such as this one I found recently:
2020 books by Native authors and authors of color
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/132826.2020_Books_by_Native_Authors_Authors_of_Colour

Another great feature is that, if you check a book that isn't out yet as "Want to read," you get an alert the day it comes out. As I used to keep a list for this very reason, that's one less list I need to keep track of.

Occasionally, I even post reviews, and I always get a little buzz when someone likes one of my reviews. Oh, and when you look up a book, you can see the available formats. Now that NLS is using a lot of commercial audiobooks, especially for sf and fantasy, you can find reviews mentioning the narrator. The audiobooks for Rebecca Roanhor's duology, _Trail of Lightning_ and _Storm of Locusts_, for instance, was amazing, and pronounced all the Dine (pronounced di-NAY, the Navajo language, and the name by which the Navajo refer to themselves) words smoothly, which is the main reason I chose the audiobook.

comments

Re: Researching the Other notes

2018-07-18T16:23:47Z

Not really notes from the panel but my writings on blind characters, science fiction, and the technology of prosthetic eyes.

What Good Writers Still Get Wrong About Blind People, Part 1
https://kestrell.livejournal.com/593188.html#/593188.html

Part 2
https://kestrell.livejournal.com/593549.html#/593549.html

Part 3
https://kestrell.livejournal.com/593697.html#/593697.html

A great post on writing about blind characters from the writer's perspective
Why is Oree Shoth blind?
by M. K. Jemisin
http://nkjemisin.com/2011/01/why-is-oree-shoth-blind/

My thesis: Decloaking Disability: Images of Disability and Technology in Science Fiction Media
https://cmsw.mit.edu/alicia-kestrell-verlager-images-of-disability-and-technology-in-science-fiction-media/

How Kestrell's prosthetic eyes were made, or, Kestrell and Alexx Go to the Ocularist
Part 1
https://alexx-kay.livejournal.com/287659.html

Part 2
https://alexx-kay.livejournal.com/289581.html

comments

Gender stats on book reviewers in SFF

2011-03-26T18:09:44Z

Strange Horizons has this info-rich article on the gender stats of male and female reviewers from the major SFF venues
http://www.strangehorizons.com/blog/2011/03/the_sf_count.shtml

comments

Hal Duncan's "The Behold of the Eye" online

2010-06-13T15:18:40Z

I love Hal Duncan--not only does he create awesome queer Elizabethan pirates, he does totally riotous not-cute fairies. "The Behold of the Eye" features the latter.

"The Behold of the Eye" as a podcast from PodCastle
http://podcastle.org/2010/06/09/podcastle-107-giant-episode-the-behold-of-the-eye/
(includes men with accents!)
and as an etext
http://literary.erictmarin.com/archives/Issue%2028/behold.htm

comments

Phantom + The Alchemy of Stone available in ebook formats from Fictionwise

2010-06-13T15:10:07Z

Kes: Although it seems as if almost every book is available in a wide variety of formats, I often find that it is precisely the kind of literature I am most hoping to find--the more literate speculative fiction being published through the mid-sized and small presses--which is still the most difficult to find in electronic formats. Thus it is that I religiously prowl Fictionwise's "new ebooks" list every week, and this week I was doubly rewarded.

1. Phantom Edited by Paul Tremblay & Sean Wallace (Prime Books, 2009)
available as a MultiFormat ebook from Fictionwise
$9.95, on sale this week $8.46

http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b110302/Phantom/Paul-Tremblay/?

As one of those people who admits to being a horror fan, I am often asked--as occurred just earlier this week--why do you read that stuff?

While my long answer can be found here http://kestrell.livejournal.com/585544.html
my short anser is, in hopes of finding books like _Phantom_.

_Phantom_ contains fourteen stories written by some of today's most intelligent writers of horror and speculative fiction, each exploring the idea of what scares us. The answers in this collection offer nothing so trivial as zombies, vampires, or ghosts. Instead, they explore the fears which lie even deeper down in the psyche: the fear of being a monster, the fear of the human potential for inhuman violence, the fear that our very fears will overwhelm us.

_Phantom_ is an excellent introduction to the world of literary horror, as co-editor Paul Tremblay describes the term:

Block quote start
The literary horror story aims to do more than shock, titilate, scare, or affect the reader. While affect is a clear and important (possibly defining)
element of horror fiction, there needs to be more. In using the
elements of literary fiction-style, theme, setting, character-the
literary horror story goes beyond the scare, beyond the revealing
of some terrible truth (personal or social or universal) and asks the truly terrifying questions: What's next? What decisions are
you going to make? Does it matter the consequences? Do you know the consequences? How are you going to live through this?
How does anyone live through this? Stories where the shock or the grand revealings or implications aren't the point, but just a part of the exploration of how people react to the everyday horrors of existence, how they might answer How does anyone live through this?
Block quote end

I have not yet finished all the stories in the book, but among my favorites so far are: "The Cabinet Child" by Steve Rasnic, which explores how the desire we keep hidden can become both magical and monstrous;
"The End ofEverything" by Steve Eller, in which the last human living after a zombie apocalypse turns out to be the most monstrous of all;
and
"Kinder" by Steve Berman, in which a man is literally overwhelmed by his own fears.

Um, really, there are lots of great stories written by people not named Steve, too.

2. The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia (Prime Books, 2008)
This book is on the Locus Recommended Reading List
and was also on the Honor List for the 2008 James Tiptree, Jr. Award
http://lquilter.net/tiptree/?page_id=157
Available as a MultiFormat eBook from Fictionwise

$9.95 Sale: $8.46
http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b110301/The-Alchemy-of-Stone/Ekaterina-Sedia/?
eBook Description: Mattie, an intelligent automaton skilled in the use of alchemy, finds herself caught in the middle of a conflict between gargoyles,
the Mechanics, and the Alchemists. With the old order quickly giving way to the new, Mattie discovers powerful and dangerous secrets - secrets that can
completely alter the balance of power in the city of Ayona. This doesn't sit well with Loharri, the Mechanic who created Mattie and still has the key to
her heart - literally.

comments