tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83147612024-03-05T15:09:45.262+01:00The Diva's Divine DaysVoice, voice, voice. Oh yeah, and family too!Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.comBlogger241125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-54442877592510480182019-09-11T16:54:00.000+02:002019-09-11T16:59:31.940+02:00Rocket FuelI've been updating my website (at dianeseverson.eu) and realized that I hadn't linked to my poem Rocket Fuel, which was published in <a href="http://www.sfpoetry.com/sl/issues/starline40.3.html" target="_blank">Star*Line 40.3</a>, but not available to read there. So, here it is. By the way, my parents never said the last line to me, but I know they worried.<br />
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<span class="" style="font-family: "courier"; font-size: 14px;">Rocket Fuel</span></div>
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<span class=""><span class="" style="font-family: "courier"; font-size: 14px;">If music fueled the world</span></span></div>
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<span class=""><span class="" style="font-family: "courier"; font-size: 14px;">in your car and drive</span></span></div>
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<span class=""><span class="" style="font-family: "courier"; font-size: 14px;">Driving cross-country might prove</span></span></div>
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<span class=""><span class="" style="font-family: "courier"; font-size: 14px;">Starships could hire an orchestra</span></span></div>
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Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-44850217420714857392018-02-08T12:55:00.000+01:002019-09-11T14:08:51.853+02:00It's been a whileHoo whee. I just noticed that it has been over a year since I last posted to this blog. It's not that I haven't had anything to blog about, quite the contrary. Just too busy and distracted to actually sit down and do it.<br />
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So, since last January, some stuff has been going on. First, we moved. To the UK. Again. Magnus was headhunted for a job with Urenco, a company that enriches and sells uranium. This time we are outside, but fairly close to London, in Buckinghamshire. We've been here for about 6 months now (since early August) and things are settling in. It's a beautiful area, quiet with lots of nature around. We have an orchard in our back yard: 5 apple trees, 1 each of plum, pear and cherry trees and blackberries too. We are close enough to London to take day trips, but we haven't done many. Weekends have been spent settling into the house.<br />
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The Boy is enjoying school, especially since he got a place at the local school, St Paul's Church of England Combined School in Wooburn Green. He went to a school in High Wycombe (Beechview), which is a 15 minute drive from home, because there were no spots available at closer schools. Long story. He is participating in a lot of activities: Fencing, Tech Club, Cub Scouts, Film Club, and Karate. He has made several friends and is doing well academically.<br />
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On the poetry scene - I had 3 reviews of collections in issue no. 40.2 of <a href="http://sfpoetry.com/sl/reviews/16reviews.html" target="_blank">Star*Line</a>: <i>Jackalope Girl Learns to Speak, Field Guide to the End of the World, </i>and <i>An Assortment of Sky Things</i>. They are in Alphabetical order on the linked page.<br />
I also had another poem published in Star*Line 40.3 "Rocket Fuel".<br />
And The Boy had a poem published in Star*Line 40.4 as well:<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">The Big Bang</span><br />
<span style="color: #660000;">where our imaginations began</span><br />
<span style="color: #660000;">and the fluid of time</span><br />
<span style="color: #660000;">flows.</span><br />
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Brilliant, isn't it?<br />
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I have a concert coming up in Germany: The 20th anniversary concert of the Women's Schola Choir Hildegardensis of Dillenburg. I've been singing as their soloist, primarily on the program of music by Hildegard von Bingen since their inception. We'll be singing some Hildegard, plus Cesar Franck, Frank Martin, Heinrich Schütz, P.F. Böddecker and others. It will be so lovely to sing with the group, Joachim Dreher (the church musician there) and in Dillenburg. Who knows when I'll ever do it again!<br />
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I've hooked up with the local church and there are some gems of musicians hidden away there. A retired professional accompanist has been helping me prepare for the concert in Dillenburg and we are having fun just singing all sorts of things and thinking about what we could perform in a recital. We might do a joint recital with a wonderful baritone, Craig Turpie, who is also a member of the church.<br />
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I have a few singing pupils already, just by word of mouth, but hopefully I'll be able to get a few more in the coming months.Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-59763230155254233742017-01-06T13:14:00.000+01:002017-01-06T13:14:32.692+01:00"I Wanna Die Easy" - new Intro for Tales to TerrifyThis week the new intros to the District of Wonders podcasts <a href="http://starshipsofa.com/" target="_blank">StarShipSofa</a> and <a href="http://talestoterrify.com/" target="_blank">Tales To Terrify</a> have gone live and guess whose music is being used for Tales to Terrify? That's right Yours Truly! "I Wanna Die Easy" sung live by the Choir of the Church of Christ the King, Frankfurt (director Kathy Bird) with solo vocals by me is the new background music for the podcast. I'm a pleased puppy, that Tony wanted to use this music.<br />
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You may be asking yourself, "But why this song?" Well, there's a little story that might explain it a little bit, but for the real reason, you may have to ask Tony Smith (host and owner of the District of Wonders podcast family). Way back in 2007, when I first started listening to StarShipSofa and joined their member forum, Tony was vetting each new member and he found his way to my MySpace space, where I had this song in my playlist. He wrote to me and told me he was blown away by it, and would like to play it on the next show. Now, this was when it was StarShipSofa (no other podcasts) with him and Ciaran O'Connor shootin' the sh*t, as it were, about Science Fiction authors, reading listener email and such. I have to admit I didn't understand why he would want to play that song on a show about Science Fiction, but hey, I wasn't going to complain about the exposure! He played it on show #?? about SF author ??<br />
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Years later, Tony asked me if he could use it for the theme and promo music of the podcast Blood & Chrome, which was to be about Battlestar Galactica, if I remember correctly. Unfortunately, that show never got off the ground, but long-time, loyal listeners might remember it and the song.<br />
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Now, it has a new lot in life as the Intro and Outro music for the very popular Horror Fiction podcast <a href="http://talestoterrify.com/">Tales to Terrify</a>. Go have a listen, you don't have to listen to the whole show if Horror is not your thing. If it is, I highly recommend it, you won't hear my dear, late friend and colleague, Larry Santoro's dulcet tones hosting the show, but the "new" host and the show are still excellent.Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-14793602002061079322016-02-16T18:08:00.000+01:002016-02-16T18:08:50.068+01:00Poetry Planet No. 16 Animals & Creatures - Show Notes<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dear Listeners, dear Readers!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's been a long time since I produced a new Poetry Planet - about a year! And 3 years since I produced a themed edition, as opposed to a Science Fiction Poetry Association Award/Contest Showcase. But here we are and Poetry Planet No. 16 has hit the airwaves! You can listen to it as part of StarShipSofa No. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This edition features the fauna of Poetry Planet - its Animals and Creatures. And while we don't catch a glimpse of them all, we do hear from Ants, Earthworms, Rabbits, Cats (many cats!), Chimpanzees, Dragons, and Dinosaurs. I hope you enjoy(ed) it!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Since I included 12 poems including 2 rather long ones, I decided NOT to include the bios and publication credits within the show. As it is, it's 25 minutes long! So here is the missing information on the poets and their poems:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://poetrusselljones.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Russell Jones</span></b></a> - "The Ant Swap" first appeared in <i><a href="http://stewedrhubarb.org/post/54425812683/spacesoftheirown" target="_blank">Spaces of Their Own</a></i>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Russell Jones is an Edinburgh-based writer and editor. He is the author of four published collections of poetry: <a href="http://www.freightbooks.co.uk/the-green-dress-whose-girl-is-sleeping-by-russell-jones.html" target="_blank">The Green Dress Whose Girl is Sleeping</a> (Freight Books, 2015), “<a href="http://www.prolebooks.co.uk/" target="_blank">Our Terraced Hum</a>” (in Caboodle, Prole Books, 2015), "<a href="http://stewedrhubarb.org/post/54425812683/spacesoftheirown" target="_blank">Spaces of Their Own</a>" (Stewed Rhubarb Press, 2013) and "<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Last-Refuge-Science-Fiction-ebook/dp/B00J7NI0US" target="_blank">The Last Refuge</a>" (Forest Publications, 2009). He is the poetry editor and assistant editor at <a href="http://www.shorelineofinfinity.com/" target="_blank">Shoreline of Infinity</a>, a Scottish science fiction magazine, is the editor of "<a href="http://www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk/index.php/2012/10/where-rockets-burn-through-2/" target="_blank">Where Rockets Burn Through: Contemporary Science Fiction Poems from the UK</a>" (Penned in the Margins, 2012) and was a guest editor for The Interdisciplinary Science Reviews. Russell's poems have been widely published internationally, winning recognition in awards and competitions including The Best Scottish Poems 2013, The Eric Gregory Award, The Venture Award for Poetry and the Bridport Prize. He has a PhD in Creative Writing from Edinburgh University and has published on the poetry of Edwin Morgan. Russell’s has also published travel writing and is currently working on writing novels for young adults. Russell has taught Scottish Literature and Creative Writing at The University of Edinburgh, The City of Edinburgh Council and the Scottish Universities’ International Summer School (2009 to present).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Delbert R. Gardner </span>- </b>"The Meek Shall Inherit ... (the Earthworm Speaks)" was first published in <a href="http://www.goblinfruit.net/2009/summer/poems/?poem=meek" target="_blank">Goblin Fruit, Summer 2009</a>. Reprinted in The 2010 Rhysling Anthology: The Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Poetry of 2009, selected by the Science Fiction Poetry Association, edited by Jaime Lee Moyer, Science Fiction Poetry Association, 2010.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A veteran of World War II, Dr. Delbert R. Gardner taught English literature and creative writing at Keuka College in upstate New York. Recent SF/F publications include a story in <i>Lamplight</i> and poetry in <i>Songs of Eretz Poetry E-Zine, Star*Line, Goblin Fruit</i>, and the 2015, 2010, and 2009 <i>Rhysling Award anthologies</i>. Fifty of Dr. Gardner’s poems and stories have appeared in publications such as <i>The Literary Review, Poetry Digest, American Poetry Magazine, Provincetown Review, and Christian Science Monitor</i>, among others. A scholar of the Pre-Raphaelites, his nonfiction credits include the book <i>An "Idle Singer" </i>and<i> His Audience: A Study of William Morris's Poetic Reputation in England, 1858-1900</i>. Learn more at <a href="http://www.gardnercastle.com/">www.gardnercastle.com</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Joanne Merriam</b> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- "Magic Rabbits" first appeared in Stride Magazine (27 April 2010).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Joanne Merriam is the owner and editor of <a href="http://www.upperrubberboot.com/" target="_blank">Upper Rubber Boot Books</a>, and former editor of Seven by Twenty.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">She was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1973. A graduate in English and Mathematics from Dalhousie University, she has worked as an oil and gas lease and title administrator, courier dispatcher, telemarketer, charity fundraiser, sheet music librarian, Medicaid claim sorter, check composition specialist, disability and workers’ compensation administrator and web designer.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In 2001, she quit her job as the Executive Assistant of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia to travel Canada by train, and then parts of the Northeastern and Southern United States. Her first book of poetry, <a href="http://www.upperrubberboot.com/the-glaze-from-breaking/" target="_blank">The Glaze from Breaking</a> (Stride, 2005; Upper Rubber Boot, 2011), was written, in part, about those travels.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In 2004, she immigrated to the USA. She has lived in Kentucky and New Hampshire, and now resides in Nashville, Tennessee.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Joanne Merriam’s poetry and fiction has appeared in dozens of magazines and journals, including <i>The Antigonish Review, Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Fiddlehead, The Furnace Review, Grain, The Magazine of Speculative Poetry, The Mainichi Daily News, Per Contra, Riddle Fence, Room of One’s Own, Strange Horizons and Vallum Contemporary Poetry, as well as in the anthologies Ice: new writing on hockey, To Find Us: Words and Images of Halifax and The Allotment: New Lyric Poets.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Upper Rubber Boots published two anthologies both released in 2015, <i><a href="http://www.upperrubberboot.com/how-to-live-on-other-planets-a-handbook-for-aspiring-aliens/" target="_blank">How to Live on Other Planets</a>: A Handbook for Aspiring Aliens, </i>and<i> <a href="http://www.upperrubberboot.com/choose-wisely-35-women-up-to-no-good/" target="_blank">Choose Wisely: 35 Women Up To No Good</a></i>, which she co-edited with H. L. Nelson.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b style="color: #990000;">Adele Gardner</b> - "God's Cat" first appeared in <i>Sybil's Garage</i> No. 6, May 2009 (Senses Five Press, Ed. Matthew Kressel). Reprinted in <i>The 2010 Rhysling Anthology: The Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Poetry of 2009</i>, selected by the Science Fiction Poetry Association, Ed. Jaime Lee Moyer, SFPA, 2010 (Short Poem category).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A Clarion West graduate and an active member of SFWA, Adele Gardner serves as literary executor for her father and mentor, Delbert R. Gardner. Adele's first poetry collection, <i><a href="http://store.albanlake.com/product/dreaming-of-days-in-astophel/" target="_blank">Dreaming of Days in Astophel</a></i>, appeared in 2011. With two poems winning third place in the Rhysling Awards, she’s had stories and poems in venues like <i>Daily Science Fiction, Legends of the Pendragon, The Doom of Camelot, Strange Horizons, James Gunn’s Ad Astra, Mythic Delirium, NewMyths, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly</i>, and more. Two stories and a poem earned honorable mention in <i>The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror</i>. Previously published as C. A. Gardner and Lyn C. A. Gardner, Adele lives under her middle name to honor her father and namesake, Del. Learn more at <a href="http://www.gardnercastle.com/">www.gardnercastle.com</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b style="color: #990000;">Greer Woodward</b> - Far From Home originally appeared in the January 2008 issue of <a href="http://sdpbookstore.com/beyondcentauri.htm" target="_blank">BEYOND CENTAURI</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Greer Woodward is a graduate of Clarion West, one of the founders of the New York City writing group Altered Fluid, and a member of the Writers Support Group at Tutu's House on Hawaii's Big Island. Her poetry has appeared in Star*Line, Illumen, Silver Blade, and Beyond Centauri. Her poem "Closure" was among the winners of the Science Fiction Poetry Association's 2012 Dwarf Stars Award, placing second. Her poem "Crater Conundrum Pizza" placed 3rd in the <a href="http://www.sfpoetry.com/contests/15contest.html" target="_blank">2015 SFPA Poetry Contest</a>. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Pertinent to Animals and Creatures, her monologues and lyrics about a talkative budgerigar and his writer companion were featured in the Off-Broadway musical revue Pets!. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b style="color: #990000;">Geoffrey A. Landis</b> - "Tree" appeared in Iron Angels, 2009.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiIjsrgtPzKAhVCvhQKHS9DAk0QFgggMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.geoffreylandis.com%2F&usg=AFQjCNEcQqKxfRPa0yDVLCNnHmXl9pB80A&sig2=j_C2QHFx5zE0TzsXN3Iiow" target="_blank">Geoffrey A. Landis</a> is a scientist (with the N.A.S.A. John Glenn Research Center) </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">and a science-fiction writer.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As a writer, he is the author of eighty published short stories and novelettes, and circa fifty poems. His novel Mars Crossing appeared from Tor Books, and a short story collection Impact Parameter (and other quantum realities) from Golden Gryphon.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In 1990 his story "Ripples in the Dirac Sea" won the Nebula award for best short story; in 1992 his short story "A Walk in the Sun" won the Hugo award. (Now available on audiotape), and in 2003 his short story "Falling Onto Mars" won the Hugo. His novel <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mars-Crossing-Geoffrey-A-Landis/dp/0812576489">Mars Crossing</a> won the Locus Award for best first novel of 2000. In 2014, he won the Robert A. Heinlein award "for outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings to inspire the human exploration of space." In poetry his poem "Search" (which appears in his collection Iron Angels), won the 2009 Rhysling Award for best long poem. His</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> poem "Fireflies" won the SFPA's 2009 "Dwarf Stars" award for best short short poem.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b style="color: #990000;">David C. Kopaska-Merkel</b> - "Orpheus in Ulthar, in Nehwon" was first published in his blog "<a href="http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.de/" target="_blank">Dreams and Nightmares</a>".</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">David Kopaska-Merkel raises giraffopards for the Venusian Defense</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Force, and publishes <a href="http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.com/">Dreams and Nightmares magazine</a>, now in its 29th</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">year. He has served as president for the Science Fiction Poetry Association. He won the Rhysling award for best long poem (2006) for a</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">collaboration with Kendall Evans. Their latest collaboration, <a href="http://store.albanlake.com/product/tin-men-and-other-poems-by-kendall-evans-david-c-kopaska-merkel/">The Tin </a></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://store.albanlake.com/product/tin-men-and-other-poems-by-kendall-evans-david-c-kopaska-merkel/">Men</a>, was published by Sam's Dot in 2011.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b style="color: #990000;">Mary Turzillo</b> - "Invisible Cat" appeared in The Ubercat and Dragon Owner's Manual, Sam's Dot, 2012. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After a career as a professor of English at Kent State University, <a href="http://www.maryturzillo.com/">Dr. Mary A. Turzillo</a> is now a full-time writer. In 2000, her story "Mars Is No Place for Children" won SFWA's Nebula award for best novelette. Her novel <i><a href="http://www.analogsf.com/0407_08/Martian.shtml">An Old-Fashioned Martian Girl</a></i> was serialized in Analog in July-Nov 2004. These two works have been selected as recreational reading on the International Space Station.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mary's Pushcart-nominated collection of poetry, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Your-Cat-Other-Space-Aliens/dp/0978924401"><i>Your Cat and Other Space Aliens</i></a>, appeared from VanZeno Press in 2007. Her collaborative book of poetry/art, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Professional-Reading-Marge-Turzillo/dp/0978924452/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455630587&sr=8-1&keywords=Dragon+Soup+Mary+Turzillo">Dragon Soup</a>, written with Marge Simon, appears from VanZeno in 2008. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mary's collection<i> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G79B9GW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1">Lovers and Killers</a></i>, in addition to winning the in Elgin Award 2013 for best full-length collection, was also on the Stoker ballot and contains "The Hidden," second place winner in the Dwarf Stars award for 2012, plus two Rhysling nominees "Tohuko Tsunami," "Galatea." Her collection <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Poison-Marge-Simon/dp/1937128865/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1455630454&sr=8-1&keywords=sweet+Poison+mary+turzillo">Sweet Poison</a></i>, co-written with Marge Simon won the 2015 Elgin Award.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Michael Bishop</span></b> - "To a Chimp Held Captive for Purposes of Research" first appeared in <i>Isaac </i></span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine</i><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">, Jan 1985. I said in the podcast that it had won the Rhysling Award for best poem, but that was incorrect. Bishop is indeed a Rhysling Award winning poet, but for another poem, "For the Lady of a Physicist" in 1979.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.michaelbishop-writer.com/">Michael Bishop</a> was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the son of Leotis ("Lee") Bishop (born 1920 in Frys Mill, Poinsett County, Arkansas) and Maxine ("Mac") Elaine Matison (born 1920 in Ashland, Nebraska). His parents met in the summer of 1942 when his father, a recent enlistee of the Air Force, was stationed in Lincoln. Bishop's childhood was the peripatetic life of a military brat. He went to kindergarten in Tokyo, Japan, and he spent his senior year of high school in Seville, Spain. His parents divorced in 1951, and Bishop spent summers wherever his father happened to be based.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Bishop entered the University of Georgia in 1963, receiving his bachelor's degree in 1967, before going on to complete a master's degree in English. In 1969, he married Jeri Ellis Whitaker of Columbus, Georgia. He taught English (including a course in science fiction) at the United States Air Force Academy Preparatory School in Colorado Springs from 1968 to 1972. After his service career, he taught composition and English literature at the University of Georgia in Athens. A son, Jamie, was born in 1971, and a daughter, Stephanie was born in 1973. Bishop left teaching in 1974 to become a full-time writer. In those early years of freelance writing, he would occasionally work as a substitute teacher in the public schools and as a stringer for the Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He and Jeri, former counselor at Rosemont Elementary School, have two grandchildren, Annabel and Joel, by their daughter Stephanie. On April 16, 2007, their son Jamie, a Lecturer in German and I.T. Studies, was one of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. His novelette, "Vinegar Peace; or, The Wrong-Way, Used-Adult Orphanage" was written in reaction to that event and first appeared in <i>Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine</i>. I narrated it for <a href="http://www.starshipsofa.com/20090429/aural-delights-no-82-michael-bishop/" target="_blank">StarShipSofa.com No. 82</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He has written and co-written numerous novels and is the recipient of many awards including the Nebula Award, the Locus Award, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and the Shirley Jackson Award. His first solo novel in 20 years is coming out in June 2016 by Fairwood Press under the Kudzu Planet Productions imprint. Joel-Brock the Brave and the Valorous Smalls, "A Novel for Young People, Whatever Their Age," will feature illustrations by Orion Zangara.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Scott Virtes</b></span> - "Tasting the Pier" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><a href="http://tales.scvs.com/">Scott Virtes</a> has had over 500 stories and poems published since 1986. His works have appeared in Nature, Analog, Space and Time, Star*Line, Dreams and Nightmares, and many more. He has five poetry chapbooks available including "Afterlife 9" and "Improbable Jane". You can watch him die in "Master and Commander", but he's okay now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Rachel Swirsky</b></span> - "Terrible Lizards" appeared in an online issue of Diet Soap (podcast) - now defunct. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://rachelswirsky.com/">Rachel Swirsky</a></span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span>holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers Workshop, and she graduated from Clarion West in 2005. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Hugo, Locus, World Fantasy and Sturgeon Awards. She’s twice won the Nebula Award: for her 2010 novella, “The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen’s Window” and her 2014 short story, “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love.” Her poetry has appeared in Sybil's Garage, Mothering Magazine, and Ideomancer, among other places. Her first collection, <a href="http://www.aqueductpress.com/books/978-1-933500-38-6.php" target="_blank">THROUGH THE DROWSY DARK</a>, a slim volume of poetry and fiction, is out from Aqueduct Press.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Find her on Twitter as rachelswirsky and support her on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/user?u=236743&ty=h" target="_blank">Patreon</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana", sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Bruce Boston</span></b> - "Dragon People" first appeared in Raven Elektrick, 2006 and was subsequently collected with other "People" poems in Anthropomorphisms, Elektrik Milk Bath Press.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bruceboston.com/">Bruce Boston</a> (born 1943)is a speculative fiction writer and poet who was born in Chicago and grew up in Southern California. He received a B.A. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, 1965, and an M.A., 1967. He lived in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1961 to 2001, where he worked in a variety of occupations, including computer programmer, college professor (literature and creative writing, John F. Kennedy University, Orinda, California, 1978–82), technical writer, book designer, gardener, movie projectionist, retail clerk, and furniture mover. He lives in Ocala, Florida, with his wife, writer-artist Marge Simon, whom he married in 2001.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Boston has won the Rhysling Award for speculative poetry a record seven times, and the Asimov's Readers' Award for poetry a record seven times. He has also received a Pushcart Prize for fiction, 1976, a record four Bram Stoker Awards in poetry for his collections, and the first Grandmaster Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, 1999. His collaborative poem with Robert Frazier, "Return to the Mutant Rain Forest," received first place in the 2006 Locus Online Poetry Poll for Best All-Time Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror Poem. He was named the Science Fiction Poetry Association's first Grand Master of Poetry in 1999. His collection <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Roads-Selected-Poems--2012/dp/1937128903/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377427406&sr=1-1&keywords=dark+roads+bruce+boston">Dark Roads</a></i> was among the winners of the 2014 and 2015 Elgin Award, placing 3rd and 2nd respectively. His collection <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1937128407"><i>Notes from the Shadow City</i> </a>placed 2nd in the 2013 Elgin Award.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Boston's most recent poetry collection is <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Resonance-Dark-Light-Bruce-Boston/dp/069228141X">Resonance Dark and Light</a></i> from Eldritch Press, 2015.</span><br />
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Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-69542344240202316362015-12-08T11:07:00.000+01:002015-12-08T11:40:03.189+01:00Thanksgiving, Choir Class Concert, Advent and a ReviewThis has been a busy week around here!<br />
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We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday. Practical reasons really: no one has Thursday off and to eat a tradition Thanksgiving dinner at 7pm is just wrong and bad in so many ways, plus I'm unwilling to cook it all all by myself, which is what would happen if we did it on Thursday. Dante was so excited! We mad toilet paper turkey napkin rings on Friday and on Saturday he asked about every 5 minutes when the guests were arriving. It was pure torture. For him and us. We invited our new friends the Pillai's, whose daughter shares a desk with Dante at school. They are of German/Sri Lankan/Canadian extraction. And we invited our foodie and kitchen guru (Holger Kahl from Poggenpohl designed and built our kitchen) and his family. Turns out his son is also Type 1 diabetic! An Australian friend sent us a wonderful collection of readings curated by Seth Godin (<a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/11/a-thanksgiving-reader.html" target="_blank">A Thanksgiving Reader</a>), which we attempted to do (the Germans went on strike!) and it was lovely. It includes quotes and brief passages by the likes of Khalil Gibran and Native American prayers and such.<br />
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And will wonders never cease? The food was all hot when it landed on the table and it tasted delicious!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHDIWKHVMclEWTKCnaZyQsQ2iOMSm5ptWp0DA-m9CTkUT1O1hyphenhyphen3bWh4GYPWmgpCZupsywkFNB321tEzTU_W5t8rG80jEhbPhmYsJd9NjsvRBB2GBxovzglLUnIEQf18EGCY15Bjw/s1600/DSCN1804.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHDIWKHVMclEWTKCnaZyQsQ2iOMSm5ptWp0DA-m9CTkUT1O1hyphenhyphen3bWh4GYPWmgpCZupsywkFNB321tEzTU_W5t8rG80jEhbPhmYsJd9NjsvRBB2GBxovzglLUnIEQf18EGCY15Bjw/s320/DSCN1804.JPG" width="320" /></a>The next day, yes, on a Sunday morning, was the Hannover Chorklassenkonzert (Choir Class Concert). We had to be at rehearsal at 9:15 and pick up one of his classmates on the way. Ugh for the early start. But the whole thing was wonderful! The program encourages schools to designate one class per grade as the Choir Class and music and singing play an important role in the character of the class and the singing is integrated into the lessons as well. Dante loves it, I'm so glad he was chosen to be in that class. His singing skills have improved dramatically! For all the exposure to and learning about music and instruments that happened at Ecole Koenig they always sang songs that were too low and pretty much just shouted the whole time! Not so here! Yay! The concert itself was actually quite good. There were 3 schools represented. The other schools had a couple of grades each, but Dante's is the only Choir Class in his school. It was really interesting to see how well they sing<br />
together after having done so a few years. Dante still pretty much looks like a deer in the headlights, <br />
but he said it was fun, so....<br />
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This year we are doing all the activities. Germany makes a lot of Fall and Winter activities integral to childhood and Dante's just at the right age to appreciate everything. There was the St Martin's parade, where the kids make lanterns and parade through the streets sing the lantern songs. Now we have the Advent Calendar, where he gets a treat or a mini-present everyday and in a couple of days St Nicholas comes to give the kids goodies or coal. We also have an advent wreath that we light every evening, and we've put up most of the decorations. The Christmas tree will go up this weekend. On the 13th is Santa Lucia, who brings The Kids in Scandanavia and Verona, Italy presents. He's getting totally spoiled. But the poor kid has so many activities and so much homework that there's not much time for playing!!!<br />
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And now, comes the plug for my most recent poetry review. Last Spring I wrote a LOT of reviews for Star*Line (the journal of the SFPA) and my agreement with the editor is that I can use those reviews for Amazing Stories as well after a period of exclusivity. That's cool, because Star*Line pays me (a token) whereas Amazing Stories does not (yet). So, when I went on hiatus prior to the end of school for Dante, our vacation in Italy and the end of our sojourn in Paris and move to Germany, I still had 2 reviews from S*L that hadn't yet appeared on Amazing Stories. I completely forgot about them, because my hiatus extended into Fall and in fact just ended about 3 weeks ago with my return to posting at Amazing Stories. ANYHOO, the 2nd and last of those reviews appeared last week Tuesday (which is the new Wednesday - which was my posting day). It is a review of Carolyn Clinks ever morphing poetry collection entitled <a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/12/poetry-review-much-slower-than-light-c-clink/" target="_blank">"Much Slower Than Light"</a>. It includes 3 full poems in audio read my moi.<br />
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<br />Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-87551882065695354222015-11-23T12:42:00.001+01:002015-11-23T12:42:54.450+01:00I'm baaack! Various and sundry, but mostly France to Germany and a new blog post!It has been a long while since I posted hasn't it? Since June at least. I went on an extended hiatus from all things bloggy and podcasty and poetry-y while we (the family and I) went on vacation in Italy after school got out, finished out our sojourn in France, arrived in Germany and prepared to begin and began elementary school and all that entails. It was a busy summer that extended into the fall and seems not to be slowing down. Although now, I'm making sure I take time to start doing the things I love to do, namely sing, teach singing, narrate stories and poetry, produce my podcast segment Poetry Planet, blog for Amazing Stories, writing reviews and round up cool poetry. But phew! That's a lot!<br />
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I have a lot less time for my hobbies and even my work than I did in France. Dante only goes to school from 8:00 to 13:00 (1pm). Then we have lunch and start on homework and/or go to one of his after school classes. He has Italian on Mondays, Guitar on Tuesdays, German on Wednesdays (which will fall away in January) and Karate on Thursdays. They get homework on most days and since he's training in the discipline of Olympic Dawdling, it takes him forever. Unfortunately, that doesn't leave much time for play. And since I am responsible for feeding him, supervising his homework, and taking him to his after school activities, that leaves little time for me. Mornings only folks! And when do I shop, run errands, clean the house, etc. Well, whenever it just has to be done and not a moment sooner. I have started teaching again, but just a couple of students so far and I've committed to singing with a small vocal ensemble, Vox Animae, in Bremen with my former co-student there, Imma Einsingbach. She's also helping me do a course on Hildegard von Bingen's music in the new year, so there's that.<br />
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We miss Paris, sure. Hannover is NOT Paris. But one a trip back in October I discovered that there are certain things I do not miss at all: the crowds of tourists, the dirt and the air pollution. Life is just a little bit more comfortable, easier and healthier here in Germany. We miss the flair of our neighborhood (close to the Eiffel Tower), despite the tourists and the sheer plethora of things to do in Paris. We miss being able to go (but rarely actually going) to movies in English at any time. Except kids movies. They were ONLY in French! What's up with that?!? We miss the wonderful food and restaurants of Paris. We have a wonderful market right in front of our door here in Hannover, but there just isn't much imagination to the things they sell at the vegetable/fruit a meat market stalls. The necessities and that's about it. It is nice, though, to be known by name (even after 3 years away) and to meet people I know and have a cup of coffee every Wednesday. But I did that in Paris too, I suppose. It's different here, but wonderful in it's own quiet way. But it's still not Paris. The Eiffel Tower never got old. Here's a photo I took in October:<br />
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When the horrible attacks occurred in Paris we were glad that we now live in quiet provincial Hannover. But then a few days later, the terrorists decided to plan something in Hannover of all places. Luckily, their plans were leaked, and they were foiled by the efficient German police.<br />
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ANYWAY, I also recently took up my blogging on Amazing Stories again. My first post after my hiatus since June focusses on Science Fiction Poetry with the natural sciences, technology and space exploration as its basis and the WOMEN who write it: <a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/11/women-destroy-hard-sf-poetry-round-november-2015/" target="_blank">"Women Destroy Hard SF Poetry - Round Up November 2015"</a>. This week I resume reviewing poetry collections and naturally I'll post those links when they go live.<br />
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I also managed to finish a narration for FarFetchedFables (the sister podcast to StarShipSofa that does Fantasy) that was in the works for WAAAAAY too long. I'll post here when it goes up, promise.<br />
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And I'm making progress on a long overdue (sound familiar?) themed Poetry Planet for StarShipSofa. In fact, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it should be ready to go VERY soon. Really. Which StarShipSofa show it'll go into is up to Tony and his assistant Jeremy Szal, though. Stay tuned.<br />
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Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-87229370876332055622015-06-02T17:00:00.000+02:002015-06-02T17:00:09.542+02:00Poetry Review - Littlest Lovecraft series by Tro Rex and Eyona Bella (Amazing Stories Mag)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-7IIY7C9zat3Out0LUQ_Mk7WwfTTawI4tsUttpI7d5mX3GZ4Z2YTcG4Ke5tHBLQKfo4SDwx8Lo0JHTI9T5F9NCz4uC8kovHXHQZ91l5uPDaBxQssBZeXt2As-yiC9GdM-vaejcQ/s1600/Littlest+Lovecraft+logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-7IIY7C9zat3Out0LUQ_Mk7WwfTTawI4tsUttpI7d5mX3GZ4Z2YTcG4Ke5tHBLQKfo4SDwx8Lo0JHTI9T5F9NCz4uC8kovHXHQZ91l5uPDaBxQssBZeXt2As-yiC9GdM-vaejcQ/s320/Littlest+Lovecraft+logo.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Littlest Lovecraft is a series of picture books in verse based on novels or stories by H.P. Lovecraft. I have helped Kickstart all 3 Littlest Lovecraft books in the series. It finally occurred to me that I could review the first 2 (<i>The Call of Cthulhu</i> and <i>The Dunwich Horror</i>) and promote the 3rd (The Shadow over Innsmouth) for Amazing Stories. There are 2 audio excerpts, <i>The Call of Cthulhu</i> read by moi and <i>The Dunwich Horror</i> excellently read by Dan Putnam.</span><br />
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<a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/02/poetry-review-littlest-lovecraft-series-tro-rex-eyona-bella/" target="_blank">Poetry Review – Littlest Lovecraft series by Tro Rex and Eyona Bella</a></span><br />
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Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-12241654060526037322015-06-01T16:59:00.002+02:002015-06-01T16:59:45.234+02:00Poetry Review - The Sex Lives of Monsters by Helen Marshall (Amazing Stories Mag)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo2DakY9gMX81kE4DnK3V6XUDataAXgQxe96qntbaCJIksUT7Jo6Tb_4JpOr-NNEJLBafFTRJUTXkT4ydotaZK_5kQqDQ8wXtXSxD1AYV5GhdkHrwNY0UJTgBDcpkS26DfYAOpBQ/s1600/sexlives-248x400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo2DakY9gMX81kE4DnK3V6XUDataAXgQxe96qntbaCJIksUT7Jo6Tb_4JpOr-NNEJLBafFTRJUTXkT4ydotaZK_5kQqDQ8wXtXSxD1AYV5GhdkHrwNY0UJTgBDcpkS26DfYAOpBQ/s200/sexlives-248x400.jpg" width="123" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Elgin Award winning (2014) collection <i>The Sex Lives of Monsters</i> by Helen Marshall was one I'd been planning on reviewing in full (more than just the mini-review that I did in 2014 along with all the other Elgin nominated works). I also recorded 2 full poems (one of which is a series of 5 short poems on Billy the Kid) for your listening pleasure!</span><br />
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<a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/02/poetry-review-sex-lives-monsters-helen-marshall/" target="_blank">Poetry Review – The Sex Lives of Monsters by Helen Marshall</a></span><br />
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<br />Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-31371318370591502402015-05-30T17:00:00.000+02:002015-05-30T17:00:00.108+02:00Video Interview with Kim Stanley Robinson (SofaCon2 - StarShipSofa)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizsJQdA32Ha4isCD1lDOqyhCuLN15IUqV_Xt310__FgI7tiB9pGtPWslO1Q1b-pF4VqDzGlaf9RV8EGy0GHoRN3JVAPS6ePuhiV6fkZSIBor57QaQyylQfa-zaRT7DQTDqld52tg/s1600/Kim-Stanley-Robinson-in-the-Sierra-150x150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizsJQdA32Ha4isCD1lDOqyhCuLN15IUqV_Xt310__FgI7tiB9pGtPWslO1Q1b-pF4VqDzGlaf9RV8EGy0GHoRN3JVAPS6ePuhiV6fkZSIBor57QaQyylQfa-zaRT7DQTDqld52tg/s1600/Kim-Stanley-Robinson-in-the-Sierra-150x150.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had the intense pleasure of being allowed to interview master Science Fiction Author and Hugo and Nebula Award winner Kim Stanley Robinson for StarShipSofa's SofaCon2. We talk about his next book <i>Aurora</i> (or as much about it as he feels he can say), about his writing space, the book of poetry and another fiction anthology he edited, about education in the US and he answers several questions from fans. I was hopped up on pain-killers having just had oral surgery and I am considerably addled, but he was very kind, intensely interesting and eloquent!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/120679054" style="color: #6dc6dd; line-height: 22.5px; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Interview with </a><a href="https://vimeo.com/120679054" style="color: #6dc6dd; line-height: 22.5px; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Kim Stanley Robinson at SofaCon2</a></span><br />
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Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-75442749424875201462015-05-29T17:00:00.000+02:002015-05-29T17:00:05.794+02:00Genre Poetry Round Up - Haiku! (Amazing Stories Mag)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeltY17ZZpcCkVANTAuLz7KEXsMTiA1qSpZJ01M_CBPdDki7nRTvICAtRyd0unsHf3rxhEFdxogpmvI2yQxTexQineTvpjM5hglSVoGoM1Sgl22d14ECY6wK0J4KqLBLgM991qIA/s1600/Grievous+Angel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeltY17ZZpcCkVANTAuLz7KEXsMTiA1qSpZJ01M_CBPdDki7nRTvICAtRyd0unsHf3rxhEFdxogpmvI2yQxTexQineTvpjM5hglSVoGoM1Sgl22d14ECY6wK0J4KqLBLgM991qIA/s200/Grievous+Angel.jpg" width="165" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't normally theme the Round Ups for Amazing Stories, I feature what catches my </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">fancy. But what was coming into focus was quite a bit of haiku and so I thought I'd gather it up into one post. I'm no expert and so I got some help on this Genre Poetry Round Up dedicated to SF haiku. Thanks Deborah P. Kolodji and Julie Bloss Kelsey:</span><br />
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<a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/03/genre-poetry-round-march-2015-haiku/" style="color: #6dc6dd; line-height: 22.5px; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Genre Poetry Round Up - haiku!"</span></a><br />
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Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-82680809252845602992015-05-28T17:00:00.000+02:002015-05-28T17:00:07.886+02:00Interview with SF poet Steve Sneyd (Amazing Stories Mag)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUl4XRKeARVhYtcs4cm12ABSQSencFAXmmAIFb18umQVagI_R5SKYnUfKHHdORIT2LpNWkvTAJcSWr2f6nyfst7nNyvnTI-0nkaQJvl5D2wgLKbkG9Ex69Y2xED0EDkUJmbM7Ppw/s1600/Steve+Sneyd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUl4XRKeARVhYtcs4cm12ABSQSencFAXmmAIFb18umQVagI_R5SKYnUfKHHdORIT2LpNWkvTAJcSWr2f6nyfst7nNyvnTI-0nkaQJvl5D2wgLKbkG9Ex69Y2xED0EDkUJmbM7Ppw/s1600/Steve+Sneyd.jpg" /></a><span style="color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 22.5px;">There is a nowadays little known master of SF poetry living in the UK named Steve Sneyd. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 22.5px;">He's (still) well-known among British SF poets, and also American SF poets who've been around awhile, but I, for one, had never heard of him until last year, when I was researching a Poetry Round Up on British SF Poetry. I have nominated him for the honor of Grandmaster of SF Poetry awarded by the SFPA (voting through June 15, 2015) and I sincerely hope he wins. It's important to remember poets like him. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 22.5px;">He is pretty much completely offline and only writes handwritten letters or anything for that matter, including his SF Poetry newsletter DataDump. I interviewed him by snail mail and transcribed his hand-written responses:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #6dc6dd; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.5px; word-wrap: break-word;"><a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/03/interview-sf-poet-steve-sneyd/" style="color: #6dc6dd; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Interview with SF Poet Steve Sneyd</a></span><br />
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Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-83906184719913076892015-05-25T17:00:00.000+02:002015-06-01T16:50:02.321+02:00Narration - Moon Cup, by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>It's not poetry!</b> At long last I narrated another story for StarShipSofa! This one is by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley, who I had the pleasure of meeting for coffee in Paris. She sent my son a hand-knit Cthulhu later!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />The women will definitely appreciate this story, as it asks the question of what happens to the blood and delves into calamity as well. The assistant editor of StarShipSofa, apologized for giving me the story, if it was too icky (my words). I assured him that, since I am also a woman, I could, in fact relate to the ick, no need to apologize!</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2015/04/08/starshipsofa-381-sylvia-spruck-wrigley/" style="color: #6dc6dd; line-height: 22.5px; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moon Cup by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley </span></a><br />
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Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-12137127817724782612015-05-23T17:00:00.000+02:002015-05-23T17:00:02.888+02:00Resonance Dark and Light by Bruce Boston (Amazing Stories Mag)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I have interviewed SFPA Grandmaster Bruce Boston and reviewed his work before. This is his most recent collection. I enjoyed this addition to his oeuvre very much! I love the cover, which Boston designed himself.<br /><br /><a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/04/poetry-review-resonance-dark-light-bruce-boston/">Poetry Review - Resonance Dark and Light by Bruce Boston</a> <br /><br />I recorded three full poems for your listening pleasure as well. </span>Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-35965894484647684642015-05-22T17:00:00.001+02:002015-05-22T17:00:07.187+02:00Genre Poetry Round Up (Amazing Stories Mag)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">April was National Poetry Month in the United States. I celebrated with a Poetry Round Up that focussed mostly on humorous poetry. I had a look at ChiZine Publications annual Shitty Poetry Month Contest and the April 1st edition of the normally serious poetry journal <i>Stone Telling.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I also talked about a very important project for me, which was my first "print" (even if it was only online) editorial gig. I edited the 16th issue of the SFPA's quarterly online journal <i>Eye to the Telescope</i> with a theme of Music. It was a huge task for me, but one I did with pleasure. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /><a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/04/genre-poetry-round-up-april-2015/">Genre Poetry Round Up - April 2015</a></span></div>
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Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-49332330744034825602015-05-22T17:00:00.000+02:002015-05-22T20:00:24.558+02:00Poetry Review - Turn Left at November, by Wendy Rathbone (Amazing Stories)<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As I mentioned yesterday, I discovered I've been very remiss in keeping up this blog. To be honest, I've been too busy with life and keeping up the blog at Amazing Stories and I just forgot about this one. But this blog reaches different people than Facebook and Twitter do, so when I feel like I miss some of you when I don't announce my activities here on this blog. I wonder if that's actually true? Let me know in the comments if this is the first you're reading about the stuff I've posted yesterday and today. <br /><br />I was asked to review an omnibus collection (in ebook format), Unearthly, of Wendy </span><br />
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Rathbone's previously published chapbooks about a year ago, I'd say. So many people have asked me to review their collections or chapbooks that I had to increase the frequency of my posts at Amazing Stories from once a month to every other week (or fortnightly, which is a word I love!). Even so, I now find myself in the position that I have such a backlog of reviews to write that I could publish one every week until the end of the year! At any rate, it took me so long, that Wendy's next collection was due to come out just when I was really getting down to business reading Unearthly. Wendy graciously agreed that I should review the new one instead. So here it is - and I even manage to mention Unearthly as well!<br /><br /><br /> <a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/05/poetry-review-turn-left-november-wendy-rathbone/">Poetry Review - Turn Left At November, by Wendy Rathbone</a><br /><br /><br />This is a very atmospheric collection all about Autumn! It includes 3 poems in audio. I hope you enjoy it. Here's a snippet of my review: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Turn Left at November is a diminutive 63 page volume of 47 poems. 12 poems, listed at the beginning, appeared in the poetry journals Star*Line, Dreams & Nightmares, Scifaikuest, One Sentence Poems and The Southern California Haiku Anthology. The rest are new to, presumably, just about everyone.<br /> </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Wendy Rathbone paints with words. There’s no better way to describe what she does, even if it sounds a bit cliché. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What are you waiting for?!? Click the link above to read the whole thing and listen to some lovely poetry!</span><br />
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Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-154048816596012222015-05-21T11:48:00.005+02:002015-05-22T10:58:18.488+02:00Graphic Poetry Review - Stairs Appear in a Hole Outside of Town, John Philip Johnson (Amazing Stories Mag)<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Oh boy! I've been very busy and absolutely remiss in blogging about my writing and narrating! It's been 3 months! In those three months I've written quite a bit. Not quite the once-a-week blog post that I was hoping to do, but still! I'll start with the most recent and work my way back in time in separate posts. Get used to hearing from me every day or so....<br /><br />My most recent post on Amazing Stories Magazine is a review of John Philip Johnson's recently Kickstarter-funded Graphic Poetry Comic Book "Stairs Appear in a Hole Outside of Town", with artwork by 6 different artists of various renown (Bob Hall of Spider-Man perhaps the most famous). My review includes one poem in audio and links-a-plenty, including to the full-package experience of listening to me read the title poem while following along with the Graphic Poem!</span><br />
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<a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/05/graphic-poetry-review-stairs-appear-hole-outside-town/" style="color: #6dc6dd; line-height: 22.5px; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Graphic Poetry Review - Stairs Appear in a Hole Outside of Town</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I’m not sure if this is the very first genre graphic poetry book, but it sure seems like it might be. I haven’t been able to find much else available for purchase (although I have found the odd graphic poem in various out-of-print publications). <a href="http://www.johnphilipjohnson.com/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.12s ease-out; border: 0px; color: #2b82ae; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.12s ease-out; vertical-align: baseline;">John Philip Johnson</a> has taken 5 of his most successful poems over the past few years and had them made into little mini-graphic novels. Each line of the poetry has its own panel, and each poem is a couple of pages long. Each poem is illustrated by a different cartoonist/artist/illustrator—and some very successful ones, at that.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">John Philip Johnson is a member of the SFPA and a poet with whom I’ve had the pleasure of corresponding mostly on poetic topics but also other things. We have similar tastes and ideas and he hired me to be the voice of his poetry on two occasions, for which I am very grateful....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">You'll have to follow the link above to read the rest!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-54129366718887799442015-02-05T13:47:00.002+01:002015-02-05T13:47:40.689+01:00Suzette Haden Elgin - RIP (Amazing Stories) and remembering other mentors<a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/02/suzette-haden-elgin-rip/" target="_blank">My latest article on Amazing Stories</a> is a tribute to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzette_Haden_Elgin" target="_blank">Suzette Haden Elgin</a>, the author (<a href="http://smile.amazon.com/Native-Tongue-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00CCTXRPW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1423140158&sr=1-1&keywords=native+tongue.+suzette+haden+elgin" target="_blank">Native Tongue</a> among many others), linguist and founder of the <a href="http://www.sfwa.org/members/elgin/SFPoetry.html" target="_blank">Science Fiction Poetry Association</a>, who died recently (27 January 2015) at the age of 78. I also review and discuss "The Science Fiction Poetry Handbook", which she published in 2004. Her works are not only of interest for Science Fiction or Poetry readers. She also wrote many non-fiction books on variations of her most famous work "The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-defense". One day I hope to read and appreciate her "The Grandmother Principles", the skills of which she says are disappearing. She was a mentor that I wish I'd had. She withdrew from the (writing/online) world in 2009 when advancing Alzheimer's made writing impossible.<br />
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Speaking of mentors, my beloved singing teacher, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_L._Reid" target="_blank">Cornelius L. Reid</a>, died 7 years ago on February 3, 2008. He would've been 105 on Feb. 7, 2015. I miss him and wish I had known him longer (earlier), because he had so much knowledge and expertise to offer and I only gleaned a small fraction of it from him. At least I did get to experience his work first hand and I have his books, so I'm still learning from him in a sense.<br />
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I also learned recently that another college professor passed away: Samuel Jones, my Diction for Singers prof. I disliked him intensely, but for some reason he like me, so I did not suffer too much at his hands (like others). He was extremely knowledgeable and demanded the best and I did learn a lot from him. Here's <a href="http://m.host.madison.com/news/local/obituaries/jones-dr-samuel-m-jr/article_8a445e98-0cf3-5112-bd72-8840b58a0399.html?mobile_touch=true" target="_blank">the obituary</a>.<br />
<br />Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-74016945432213182452015-01-28T20:56:00.001+01:002015-01-28T20:56:31.747+01:00Poetry Planet No. 15, Amazing Stories Poetry Reviews and Narration!OK, guys, this is going to be an info filled post. First the "show notes" for Poetry Planet. Then I forgot to post here about last week's review on Amazing Stories and today the next one went up. Then last week also put a story narration of mine out into the ether. So, I'll try to keep the blather to a minimum!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Poetry Planet</span><br />
I've finally finished <a href="http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2015/01/28/starshipsofa-no-372-norman-spinrad-tobias-s-buckell/" target="_blank">Poetry Planet No. 15 - The 2014 Elgin Award Showcase Part 2</a>! This time you'll hear some examples of poetry from the 3 placing chapbooks in the award:<br />
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1st place: <a href="http://www.blurb.ca/b/4562574-the-sex-lives-of-monsters" target="_blank">The Sex Lives of Monsters</a>, by <a href="http://www.helen-marshall.com/" target="_blank">Helen Marshall</a><br />
Kelp Queen Press, 2014. Available from <a href="http://www.blurb.ca/b/4562574-the-sex-lives-of-monsters">Blurb.com</a> - $9.99 (paperback)<br />
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2nd Place: <a href="http://store.albanlake.com/product/edible-zoo/" target="_blank">The Edible Zoo</a>, by <a href="http://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">David C. Kopaska-Merkel</a><br />
<a href="http://albanlake.com/" target="_blank">Alban Lake Publishing</a>, 2013. $8.00<br />
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3rd Place: <a href="http://boutique.poetshaven.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=93" target="_blank">Inhuman: Haiku from the Zombie Apocalypse</a>, by <a href="http://www.vanzenopress.com/author_gage.htm" target="_blank">Joshua Gage</a><br />
<a href="http://www.poetshaven.com/" target="_blank">The Poet's Haven</a>, 2013. $6.00<br />
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If you only want to listen to Poetry Planet (but why would you? There's some great content in this episode!) it starts at the 1:03.45 mark. Enjoy!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Amazing Stories Magazine</span><br />
<a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/01/poetry-review-rings-ganymede-kendall-evans/" target="_blank">Poetry Review: The Rings of Ganymede by Kendall Evans</a>. This review includes an audio excerpt by me and poetry reciter extraordinaire <a href="https://www.acx.com/narrator?p=A3KCYVRBZQCEMS#elementId=aboutTabItem&tabDivId=aboutTabContent" target="_blank">Robert Neufeld</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/01/poetry-review-endless-machine-max-ingram/" target="_blank">Poetry Review: The Endless Machine by Max Ingram.</a> This review also includes 2 poems in audio form (read by me).<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">StarShipSofa</span><br />
Story narration: <a href="http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2015/01/20/starshipsofa-no-371-ian-creasey-ian-whates/" target="_blank">Silence in Florence by Ian Creasey</a>. This is a story I narrated for StarShipSofa at least 4 years ago, maybe 5! But now it is finally floating in the ether for your listening enjoyment!<br />
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Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-45991790276458446112015-01-08T17:29:00.000+01:002015-01-08T17:29:53.679+01:00Amazing Stories - Roundup and Recap 2014 and Holiday AccountI just spent 2 weeks in Italy over the holidays, so I wasn't able to write about my <a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2014/12/speculative-poetry-round-december-2014/" target="_blank">final Speculative Poetry Roundup</a> on Amazing Stories:<br />
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Quite by accident I seemed to be following a new poet around the internet. John Reinhart had poetry appearing in all 3 of the webZine's that I showcased - Interfictions, Silver Blade and Songs of Eretz. There's lots of other great poetry, which I take a closer look at, as well as a couple of sf poetry-centric blogs by David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Bryan Hall (aka Kurt MacPherson). I hope you'll go have a look. You can also hear my rendition of a poem by Kopaska-Merkel on Silver Blade if you follow the link.<br />
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Also, my <a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2015/01/2014-recap-year-spec-fic-poetry/" target="_blank">first post of the year</a> was published today on Amazing Stories. (The link takes you to the front page of Amazing Stories, you'll have to find it from there) In it I recapitulate my year with speculative poetry. If you think you might have missed anything that's the best place to go for all the linky-links.<br />
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It's always nice to go to Italy and spend time with the family and eat way too much Christmas food. However, this year was fraught with illness. For once, not mine. My husband has been suffering from a herniated disc and so all the heavy lifting and bending fell to me. My mother-in-law had been sick on antibiotics so she wasn't 100% either. My son fell ill with the flu (even though he was vaccinated - but in France!) and developed a hefty cough and a low-grade fever every afternoon for a couple of hours. Worst though, was that my 2-week-old nephew caught whatever it was that his sister had (from whom D got it too, I surmise) and ended up spending a week in the hospital on a respirator. He's doing better and better now, though.<br />
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At any rate, I'm glad to be back home only having to take care of two boys. I mean 2 people.<br />
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Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-67395297685782745702014-12-17T13:30:00.000+01:002014-12-17T13:30:36.860+01:00Poetry Planet No. 14 - Elgin Award Showcase 2014 Part 1This week on <a href="http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2014/12/17/starshipsofa-no-367-e-saxeystephen-v-ramey/" target="_blank">StarShipSofa No. 367</a> you'll hear the next Poetry Planet. In it I showcase the winning and placing poetry collections of the Elgin Award 2014. I read at least one poem from each collection and talk a little about the collection itself and the poet. Below you'll find links to the collections and poets as well as the reviews I've done of the collections on Amazing Stories, which contain more audio examples.<br />
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Winner:<br />
<i><a href="http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com/" target="_blank">Demonstra</a></i>, by <a href="http://thaoworra.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Bryan Thao Worra</a>.<br />
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2nd place:<br />
<i><a href="http://www.newbinarypress.com/" target="_blank">Unexplained Fevers</a></i>, by <a href="http://www.webbish6.com/" target="_blank">Jeannine Hall Gailey</a>. <a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2013/10/review-unexplained-fevers-by-jeannine-hall-gailey/" target="_blank">Review</a> on Amazing Stories (with more audio).<br />
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3rd place:<br />
<i><a href="http://www.darkrenaissance.com/" target="_blank">Dark Roads - Selected Long Poems</a>,</i> by <a href="http://www.bruceboston.com/" target="_blank">Bruce Boston</a>. <a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2013/03/interview-with-bruce-boston-part-2/" target="_blank">Interview</a> (Part 2) on Amazing Stories (with more audio from <i>Dark Roads</i>). Do check out Part 1 as well!<br />
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I'll follow up with the chapbook winners and honorees in a few weeks! Stay tuned!<br />
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<br />Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-54932106542111125542014-12-10T17:15:00.000+01:002014-12-10T17:15:00.032+01:00Cinderella Jump Rope Rhymes on Amazing Stories and other newsSo, after taking last week off, I'm back with <a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2014/12/poetry-cinderella-jump-rope-rhymes/" target="_blank">a post about an anthology of poems</a> based on the familiar Cinderella Jump Rope Rhyme, a production of Cabinet des Fées and published by Papaveria Press. If you ever jumped rope in a schoolyard in the USA, at least through the '80's you'll know this rhyme. Some talented poets have lent their twisted minds to creating some new verses. They are fun! And the proceeds go to a good cause. Have a look and a listen - I recorded excerpts. The artwork for this, by Adam Oehlers, is great. <a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2014/12/poetry-cinderella-jump-rope-rhymes/" target="_blank">Go there</a> just for that, if nothing else!<br />
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In other news, I finally finished a long-ish story narration, complete with faux-gregorian chant! "Trial By Fire," by Matthew Iden is part of a shared-world anthology - <i>Walk the Fire 2 - May the Ferryman Take You</i> - created and edited by John Mierau. I backed this anthology when the editors ran a Kickstarter to fund it. They didn't reach the stretch goal to make the audiobook available for free to all backers, but I'm expecting as a co-creator I'll get a copy anyway! :-) The book and the audiobook will come out later this month (I believe) and I will let you know when it does.<br />
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So that's 2 things (sort of) down from the list I created in the last post. Yay!</div>
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Remember, if you would like to listen to anything that I've recorded, be it music or narrations you can go to my <a href="http://www.divadiane.eu/" target="_blank">website</a> (shiny, shiny) and follow the link "Recording" there. Most everything is available for free. I've only done a few things that you would have to buy to listen to, but that's clear on the website. </div>
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Not so interested in Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror literature or poetry? I haven't done much that isn't, to tell you the truth, but you may be interested in one particular story, especially if you are a musician or music buff or just interested in a good story. Kim Stanley Robinson wrote the wonderful <a href="http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2012/08/01/starshipsofa-no-249-kim-stanley-robinson/" target="_blank">"The Timpanist of the Berlin Philharmonic, 1942"</a> which ran on StarShipSofa No. 249, despite not being an SF story at all. If you like Beethoven's 9th symphony, go check it out.<br />
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Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-70974292190285062472014-11-26T17:52:00.000+01:002014-11-26T17:52:32.135+01:00Amazing Stories - Poetry Review: Mourning Jewelry, by Stephanie M. WytovichSo, I don't have multiple items for you this week, just one article published on Amazing Stories Magazine: Poetry Review - Mourning Jewelry by Stephanie Wytovich.<br />
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This is the first mostly negative review I've published. It's not that it's bad poetry per se (although it's not excellent either), it's just a little over the top for me. Death, death and more death. And then death again. BUT if this is your thing, then you'll probably enjoy this collection and perhaps even the review. Feel free to let me know in the comments there, if you have a different opinion and can tell me why.<br />
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And now, because I have a dearth of things to announce, how about I list the items on my To Do List?<br />
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<li>Narrate <i>Trial by Fire by Matthew Iden</i> from the shared world anthology Walk the Fire 2</li>
<li>Record and put together the next Poetry Planet(s) - Elgin Award Showcase, Animals & Creatures, SFPA Poetry Contest, Rhysling Award Showcase (because by the time I get the Elgin Award one finished they'll have announced the Rhysling Award...)</li>
<li>Record <i>Cthulhu Haiku II and other Mythos Madness</i> (OMG this has been on my plate for so long, but it's not my fault, really!)</li>
<li>Narrate <i>The Potter's Daughter</i> by Martha Wells (!) for Far-fetched Fables (podcast)</li>
<li>Update website to list the poetry recorded (got my website updated - yay!)</li>
<li>Write the next Amazing Stories post (and the next and the next!)</li>
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That's enough to keep me busy well into next year!</div>
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Diane</div>
Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-5934580700103913852014-11-19T18:34:00.001+01:002014-11-24T20:00:39.681+01:00Various and Sundry - Poetry Planet: Dwarf Stars, and FearwormsLast week was almost another week of vacation for the adults of this family. Dante went to school, except for Tuesday, because it was a holiday here in France, and so my husband took Monday off as well because why not?!? The organization he works for was moving its offices on Friday so he was home from work then as well.<br />
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We went to see Interstellar on Monday morning (at 9:30 am)! We weren't the only couples with that idea - the theater was almost full! I really liked it, although there are the requisite problems that arise from thinking too much about the flow of time. I had one BIG problem with the movie and I've read a total of 2 reviews of the film and both mentioned the same thing: the music was mixed too loudly. There were times when I couldn't understand the dialogue for the booming music. That said, the music was amazing. Quite effective, except when I was thrown out of the narrative conscious of the loudness of it. Sigh. And on top of it, Matthew McConaughey, really has turned into quite a fine actor.<br />
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Tuesday we did the Eiffel Tower. Finally. Magnus and I visited about 8 years ago, pre-Dante, but we hadn't been up with Dante since we moved to within spitting distance. It was wonderful. Dante really enjoyed the excursion.<br />
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Friday, Magnus and I went out to a fancy restaurant for lunch. Quinzième, Rue Chautry, 70015 Paris - chef Cyril Lignac. The food was wonderful, traditional, but quite interesting French cuisine. The chef came out to greet us. Check out this amazing dessert:<br />
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Today, I have 2 items of interest if you are a poetry lover:<br />
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First, a new edition of Poetry Planet (No. 14)! It's been awhile, and this is not the one (Animals & Creatures) that's been in the works for over a year, but rather "The Dwarf Stars Awards Showcase 2014". It's a short and sweet one, due to the nature of the short short poetry. You can find it on <a href="http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2014/11/19/starshipsofa-no-363-megan-lindholm-robin-hobb/" target="_blank">StarShipSofa Episode No. 363</a> - together with a story by Megan Lindholm aka Robin Hobb! I swoon.<br />
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The next Poetry Planet will be the Elgin Award Showcase for 2014. Last year, I put the two awards together in one podcast, but it was taking me to long to get it together, so I decided to split them up, especially, since I thought it might run way too long if I did it all in one. After that, I'd like to slip the Animals & Creatures one in before tackling the SFPA Contest 2014 and The Rhysling Award Showcase editions.<br />
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Second, a review of an upcoming poetry collection by Robert Payne Cabeen, <i><a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2014/11/poetry-review-fearworms-robert-payne-cabeen/" target="_blank">Fearworms - Selected Poems</a></i> went up on Amazing Stories today. I've recorded 2 of the 12 poems collected and linked to the audio of two more, so I hope you'll go read and listen.<br />
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Enjoy!<br />
<br />Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-44097408792273709062014-11-11T17:20:00.000+01:002014-11-11T17:20:15.047+01:00"The Dritty Doesen -
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<span class="s1">Today I bring you something different - my friend and fellow Sofanaut (someone who does regular pieces for StarShipSofa.com), Matthew Sanborn Smith has published his first collection of short stories. It's called <i>the Dritty Doesen.</i> I'm posting the "title" story in full below. I hope you'll take a few minutes and read it and then go and check out the rest of the collection <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PF7XOPQ" target="_blank">here at Amazon</a>. Matt tells me "Dritty Does" is a pretty surreal story, but perhaps it would appeal to the poetry types who read my blog. The whole collection is a wonderfully bizarre set of stories as only Matt can tell them. But first, a little introduction by the author himself:</span></div>
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Thank you, Diane, for sharing my story! <i>The Dritty Doesen</i> is my first collection, full of my least reasonable stories. As you might imagine I named it in honor of the following story, because <i>Dritty Does</i> is the least reasonable of them all. The collection contains eleven more stories (most of which are easier to understand than this one), and behind the scenes looks at how each of them came into being. If that wasn't enough, you get a gorgeous cover by the great Galen Dara! Enjoy!</blockquote>
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<span class="s1">And as an aside, if you don't know Matt's podcast <a href="http://bewarethehairymango.com/" target="_blank">"Beware the Hairy Mango"</a> and love a good manically weird story that will only take 5 minutes to listen to, this is the podcast for you! </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Now on to the story!</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Cover art</span> copyright © 2014 Galen Dara</div>
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<h4>
<span class="s1"><i>DRITTY DOES</i></span></h4>
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Dritty heaved and drew heaven-long strings of lights in from across the nocturnal sea. The ocean-wide song of them rocking in the water sang itself, played itself out as it poured off the world stage. It didn’t need to be done. Nothing needed to be done but in Dritty’s mind. He who put old batteries in all of the stars so they might flicker overhead in the formerly dead night when comets and meteors tired of their running, panted tongue-sweaty and drank the waters just beneath the horizon. And he who swept those same slackers in his mastodon nets to haul them in and swing them back up into play. They hated him for it and would have plotted his destruction had they more than a jackal’s sense and distractions.</div>
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I myself for extended years smothered, too tied up in the Kepla fires to overly concern myself with any of it. Over time they burned black sigils into both of my souls, scarring me with forever regrets and excuse enough for a free responsibility ride my whole crawling slow life. I did revel in Dritty’s water music, however. Its turquoise spray cooled my skin, made my flames pop. His tropical winds washed the ash from my body. I rolled and I lolled and before I knew it, I forgot the bindings and they burned themselves through. I fell free again and damned myself to no avail. Terrifying scary. I ran to find the next prison so I could curse and cry and scream at injustice once more. So I could feel safe again.</div>
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In time I came to hate Dritty, though I couldn’t point to why. The troubles into which I sank myself never seemed deep enough, the drink never drunk enough. I cried chilling in sweat-soaked beds, I scratched at my father’s eyes, felt the acupuncture thirst and still I starved. Maybe down in my intestines where I never saw, only felt, I held some Dritty-shaped lump of blame in there. I didn’t like to think of him.</div>
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I always thought of him.</div>
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When the Dread locked down the weevils, they fled scamper-shot into their wholes and all talk of Revolution became all talk. Dritty cranked the World on its axis with a creaking and groan of that old wooden wheel that made the savage thunder meep in comparison. There lived villages out there, I tell you, villages that knew what went on and flew their kites high into the black sky beyond the blue to catch the super orbital photon winds which came only one time in a Dritty mood. In all the little worlds of frying eggs and falling loves and the sweet taste of coconut, each and every thing of us made a little world in each and only event. We all ran worlds, just a question of their scale. Dritty made the big world happen.</div>
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In my grey wanderings I fled from my own void up the skystep to find the old Dritty cotton-candying the winds. I felt the weight of everything there in his red barn lair. His single rooster, a Rhode Island Magnetite Red, perched permanently overhead, bowed and dizzy. Straw floors gritted and stabbed my bare feet. A googly-eyed froggy magnet pinned one single paper to a vast rippling expanse of refrigerator door that doubled propping up the Moon. The paper, done on the Indonesian Postal Service in fat orange crayon, sported a B-minus in red ink and a smiley sticker above the words “Good Try!” This, of all of his accomplishments merited the door. My eyes ran. So sweet. Simple.</div>
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Watching him there I contemplated the even bigger world, the climb of magnitude up that made ones like us look out and wonder. Well, I just felt the weight of even everythinger. I nearly fell faint with the crushingest pressure that the universe knows as Anxiety. But I saved me by a glance of Dritty’s mighty oaken limbs, muscles bulging from muscles, hewn from the iron cores of stony worlds and they worked. They worked our corner of cosmos like the watch-spring whipping tensions of spiral galaxies, forces of nature, natures of force, and habanero pepper seeds. And there came no fatigue in those old bones. Lactic acids splashed off of him, beaded up and rolled from his Armor-All D.A., impenetrable!</div>
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Power and potential never occurred to him. He just felt the need to work those big machines and he galumphed off, from one to another, spinning plates on their poles while gamma radiation bursts played the circus music behind him. Beneath his fingertips, life tasted lemon sharp and ran pug wild and Dritty never even knew it. He just lived. Just lived. His lungs drew hard and his hot blood forced itself through supple, long arteries, roaring rivers pounding dams to dust. He bellowed from Hindenburg lungs to rock the space-time foundations until a little blip in the vast infinity/eternity saw dinosaurs riding cowboys in Tokyo Bay. One wonder-spitting child, racing from thing to glorious thing as if his life could never fit it all.</div>
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Only when I took in the absolute of him, that entire life captured in his body, the oppressive wholeness spilled off of me like it never soaked into him. I went to him, rubbed his vast Volkswagen shoulders and I thanked The Allness for him, for that great Paul Bunyan chest, for the magma heart that burned white within it. He was too busy working worlds to shrink before their masses, more alive than that whole damned writhingeatingfuckingshitting biosphere.</div>
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In that next instant he turned to me. His large, calloused hand cupped my face. I smelled the ozone on his breath till my pee hole burned and hot liquid ran down my inner thighs. So unknown, Dritty’s attention on me! Why?</div>
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He looked in me. I stood bare for the most intimate of all physical exams. My liver, my kidneys, my brains, all saw sunshine for the first time in their lives. All of us needed to cringe in his eyelight. None of us could, exquisite and painful.</div>
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<span class="s2">“</span>Your beautiful fires,” he said, “They have become unkindled.” He held me, wrapped those tree trunk arms around me gentle as a kitten, scritchily licked the salt from my body. He healed my wounds, the runes on my skin and the ruins deep below its surface. I took him into me, me, long toes, long breasts and he wide and weighty. We disturbed the silk of caterpillar nest which held the heavens in place. Worlds shook with our exertions and gravity boiled.</div>
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When he moved on to the next piece of existence, I sat on the skystep and found myself for the first time devoid of have-tos. My former addictions, every niggling one, from morphine to blinking, scattered on the winds like dandelion seeds. Directions shot out of me like rays of laser, but I would sit here for a while and catch my breath. I stretched my corneas and watched my baby at play, five thousand miles away.</div>
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Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8314761.post-74414552912991739852014-11-05T17:08:00.000+01:002014-11-18T16:40:22.881+01:00Trip to Lyon & Posts on Amazing Stories<br />
I went to Lyon, France with my family for a few days of tourism recently. We stayed in a nice little hotel on the Presqu'ile (the "Almost Island") of Lyon. The town is good sized, but much of it is within walking distance. They also have a great public transportation system with subway, trams and electric bus routes. We got a 2-day tourist pass, which gave us free access to many museums, the transportation system and discounts on other stuff. We made good use of it!<br />
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Before I get into it, with pictures and all I'd like to tell you quickly about the other things that have been going on lately:<br />
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I forgot to post about the <a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2014/10/speculative-poetry-round-october-2014/" target="_blank">Speculative Poetry Round Up</a> that went up on Amazing Stories recently. In it, I showcase the website Niteblade, The poetry in Amy H. Sturgis' Halloween Countdown, The SFPA's annual Halloween Poetry Reading and their online journal Eye to the Telescope, a poem by F.J. Bergmann and the Mythic Delirium Anthology. Enjoy!</div>
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My most recent post on Amazing Stories (<a href="http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2014/11/music-anthology-interplanetary-folk-music-vol-1-craig-leon/" target="_blank">"Music - Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music, Vol. 1 Craig Leon"</a>) went up today. It's on the subject of Music, so something a little different. My friend and colleague Craig Leon has had some of his pioneering electronic music from the early 80's re-released (and improved) on CD and vinyl ("Early Electronic Works - Nommos Visiting" and "Anthology of Interpolanetary Folk Music, Vol. 1 respectively). Since the inspiration for the music is pretty Science Fictional I was given permission to feature the CD and record on my blog at Amazing Stories. </div>
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This is what we did in Lyon (not necessarily in this order) with accompanying pictures.<br />
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We went to the Miniatures and Cinema Museum, which was great and a big hit with the boy (Whew!).<br />
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We ate MANY very good meals with way too much food. We tried many of the local specialties, such as quenelles (a sort of huge, oblong dumpling often served with a lobster sauce), Saucissons briochés (a sort of huge pig in a blanket), coussin (chocolate pralines) and way too much more at the special Bouchons restaurants as well as other places.<br />
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We went on a boat cruise on the Saone, but despite our intentions didn't go on any others (on the Rhone, for example). We meant to go to the Planetarium, but we got lost and ended up at the (free) zoo instead, which was really nice, but brief, because it was already late in the day.<br />
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Dante had three trips on the carrousel. We saw the Roman ruins, which were amazing.<br />
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We walked along the top of the hill trying in vain to find the Roman Aqueducts on the way to the Basilica Fourviére.<br />
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On our way back to Paris we stopped in Auxerre for lunch, which turned out to be an unexpected gem of a town. It was full of half-timbered houses and BIG churches. We only went into two of them. The first church (with the red doors) was empty except for us, so I sang a bit of Hildegard von Bingen. It was the perfect acoustic for her music - live, but not too much so.<br />
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Diane Seversonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16215125623849612348noreply@blogger.com1