pornokitsch

"Even so, I find myself wondering: how can you turn D&D into a film? I could understood a movie made about, say, Elminster or Drizzt or the Dragonlance novels or even one set in Eberron, but Dungeons & Dragons in a "generic" sense? What does that even mean?" -- Grognardia's James on D&D movies (conceptually, he mostly resists the urge to lambast the D&D movie)

Q: What vampire clichés did you want to avoid in writing the novel?
A: They’re emo. I’ve nothing against emos – someone has to sit around war memorials taking bad drugs and drinking cider – but vampires aren’t wandering the night because they’re heartbroken or couldn’t get tickets to the right gig. They own the bloody night. -- JCG in interview with SFX

Hub Magazine, the free genre eZine, is now made extra-awesome by the presence of some Pornokitschy reviews: The Sentinel Mage (134) and The Way of Kings (135). More in future issues, too. Unless the restraining order kicks in.

"The Beasts in the Arena": Sophie McDougall has just written a (free) (online) short story set in the world of Romanitas. You don't need to have read the rest of the series to appreciate it - in fact, it makes a nice little intro to the spirit of the world. Plus, dodos.

"I want to see an end to science fiction’s bad press. This will not happen by side-stepping the criticism through renaming the genre. It will happen when it is commonly acknowledged that science fiction, like all modes of fiction, encompasses both populist escapist tales and complex literary stories. Perhaps then I will not need to label my stories as science fiction. Perhaps then labels will be irrelevant." -- Ian Sales on writing science fiction

If you're still stuck on something to do tonight, the Boardgame Remix Kit has released four free games for Valentine's Day. My favorite is "Divorce!" the game of claiming joint property, based on Monopoly. Other games involve creating personal ads with Trivial Pursuit, dodgy acronyms with Scrabble and a bit of romantic wooing with Cluedo. You can download the four games as a free pdf here. (The original set of 25 games is still a less-than-whopping £2.99).

"Simple folk always overstress the ethical element in life, and it is quite natural that they should extend it to the realm of their pets. Accordingly, we hear many inane dicta in favour of dogs on the ground that they are faithful, whilst cats are treacherous. Now just what does this really mean? Where are the points of reference?... Discrimination must surely award the palm to the superior cat, which has too much natural dignity to accept any scheme of things but its own." -- HP Lovecraft (who never met Pickles)

"Well, of course. I’d never been in a condemned cell before. It was more or less what I’d imagined it would be like. There was a stone bench under the tiny window. Other than that, it was empty, as free of human artefacts as a stretch of open moorland. After all, what things does a man need if he’s going to die in six hours?" -- KJ Parker's "A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong". It is free, it is online, and it may be Mr/Ms. Parker's best work yet. 

Congratulations to China Miéville and Patrick Ness, the winner and runner-up in the Indie Lit Awards' Speculative Fiction category. The brainchild of Wallace from Unputdownables, the awards are each chosen by a panel of bloggers from a shortlist created by... well... bloggers. We were on the Speculative Fiction panel and the shortlist was amazing. Well done to Kraken for taking away the inaugural prize.

"I want to encourage people to resist stagnation and embrace change. The entire genre was based on people saying “well, what if” or “wouldn’t it be cool if” or “fuck, you know what I’d like to see.” It’s still about that. The next time you see a book that makes you uncomfortable on the bookstore shelf, pick it up, read the first chapter right there. You are never at a loss for having done something new." -- Sam Sykes, in an interview with Civilian Reader.