Pornokitsch

I want you to click my links like I'm the only girl in the world

It's inhumanly portioned café breakfasts and a really good night out. It's wearing shorts in March because there was the tiniest threat of sun. It's a country where even the supermarkets have a class system. It's the pathetic, doomed hope that our football team will do well in a tournament this summer... It is a vivid, vibrant place where everyone has an opinion about Yorkshire puddings. - Joel Golby's heart-warming and deeply offensive ode to Englishness

Lovely little blog - 100 days of fonts, all using free webfont combos. I spent yesterday trying at least 11 on our test site.

What I would have given for one scene with Kitiara amidst all the Companions. If Raistlin can find a place in the fellowship despite his love for power, his willingness to betray his allies in its pursuit, why not Kitiara? The answer, depressingly, seems to be that there are different rules for women. - Kamila Shamsie is a guest of the Dragonlance reread

The New York Times coins 'Generation K' - the results of a large-ish (1,000) survey of teenage women in the US and UK. There's a bit of making fetch happen with the name, but the insights are interesting - if, for the most part, troubling:

Like their male counterparts, this generation of young women is concerned about existential threats. Sadly, their fears stretch way beyond the typical teenage anxieties of boyfriends, girlfriends, peer groups and homework.... They also are inordinately stressed about how their own futures will pan out. Eighty-six percent of teenage girls are worried about getting a job and 77 percent about getting into debt.

Drink it better at one of London's 'library bars'. 

The colour signatures of famous books. (Fun fact: A Clockwork Orange isn't.)

Someone is building Borges' Library of Babel online.

KJP is OFF THE LEASH. With The Two of Swords now dropping into e-readers and his cover thoroughly blown, KJ Parker is chatting up a storm on the serial's dedicated forums.

Is this the future of the midlist? Or creativity, full-stop? A 2008 post from The Techium discusses the power - and potential - of '1,000 True fans'.

Ok, tangentially Hugo-oey, but only in what distantly provoked it - Gili Bar-Hillel talks about the experience of being the World part of WorldCon, and how it could be improved:

Don't cram all of your foreigners onto special panels for and about foreigners – just as you wouldn't (or shouldn't) relegate women only to panels about gender, and POCs only to panels about race. Not only does it rub our noses in the fact of our being outsiders, it makes it far too easy for the insiders to skip our panels for lack of interest, and not really expose themselves to us at all…

Take me for a ride, ride

Mahvesh and Jared have been announced as the editors of "Djinnthology" - a new anthology from Solaris, expected 2017.

Rebecca has joined the 21st century with her very own website. She'll also be the guest of the BSFA open night on 22 July, interviewed by Leila Abu El Hawa. Free entry - details here.

Bex, Jon and Jared tackled Spider-Gwen #1 for the One Comic Podcast. A little longer than usual, but we had a lot to say...

Jesse Bullington, interviewed by The Arkham Digest. Plus, an extract from "Pale Apostle", his upcoming short story in The Children of Old Leech, co-written with J.T. Glover.

The praise for Molly's Vermilion is getting a little ridiculous now - here's NPR calling it "a unique, hearty, thought-provoking romp".

We're hosting a Dune-themed horticultural evening (!) as part of the Chelsea Fringe on 19 May. Tickets and details here.