A while back I posted the drawing from The New Yorker's latest cartoon caption contest. The winner has been announced, and though it's not mine it's a good one:

"He feels he can do more good working within the system."

"If you finish it, your meal is free."

Via pnh...

As I was accompanying Laura to the front door this morning, I chanced to notice an oversized envelope with Storyteller Magazine as its return address sticking out of our mailbox. I opened the envelope then and there, and I just about fell over when I saw the cover on my contributor's copies of the Winter 2004 issue.

I do not know if this issue is available yet on newsstands in the U.S. (or Canada, for that matter), but I'll surely holler when I find out.

(By the way, "The Ice Queen" is the story I read in December on Hour of the Wolf, the audio of which can be found here.)

I need to start carrying a camera. Tuesday morning I took Ella for a morning walk down to the East River. The bare edge of the rising sun was reflecting from the windows of high-rises in Manhattan and on Roosevelt Island as if bright red lanterns were burning in apartments and offices everywhere. And the water was filled with big chunks of sheet ice flowing upriver as the tide came in. Man.

Well, what do you know! This just in from the New York Review of Science Fiction Reading Series mailing list:

The New York Review of Science Fiction and the South Street Seaport Museum Present

The Eighth of February Writer's Group
Monday, February 7th, 7 o'clock

Hosted and guest-curated by William Shunn, featuring Richard Bowes, Jae Brim, David Barr Kirtley, Barbara Krasnoff, and Robert J. Howe.

The 8TH OF FEBRUARY GROUP is a private writing workshop specializing in science fiction and fantasy which meets monthly in Manhattan. It is named for Jules Verne, the genre pioneer who was born on that date in 1828. The workshop was founded by Robert J. Howe and William Shunn, both 1985 graduates of the Clarion Workshop, and has just celebrated its first anniversary.

RICHARD BOWES has published dozens of stories and five books. He has won the World Fantasy Award and the Lambda Literary Award, and has twice been nominated for the Nebula Award. Upcoming are stories in Nebula Awards Showcase 2005, Postscripts 3, and Datlow/Windling's Tricksters; collection Streetcar Dreams from PS Publishing in England; and novel From the Files of the Time Rangers from Golden Gryphon.

JAE BRIM's short fiction has appeared in Writers of the Future and Strange Horizons. She attended Ithaca College and the National Theatre Institute for acting and directing and the Clarion Workshop for speculative fiction, and studied theatre in London.

ROBERT J. HOWE has published short fiction in Analog, Weird Tales, Salon, Newer York, and other markets. His novelette, "Entropy's Girlfriend," is forthcoming in Analog. He is co-founder, with William Shunn, of the 8th of February Group.

DAVID BARR KIRTLEY's short fiction appears in magazines such as Realms of Fantasy, Weird Tales, On Spec, and Cicada, and in anthologies such as New Voices in Science Fiction. His most recent publication is "Veil of Ignorance" in the anthology All the Rage This Year. http://www.sff.net/people/davekirtley/

BARBARA KRASNOFF's stories have appeared in the magazines Amazing Stories, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, and Descant, and in the anthologies Memories & Visions: Women's Fantasy and Science Fiction and Such A Pretty Face. Most recently, her story "Hearts and Minds" appeared in the December issue of Weird Tales.

WILLIAM SHUNN's short fiction has appeared in Salon, F&SF, Science Fiction Age, Realms of Fantasy, Electric Velocipede, and other markets. He has been nominated for the Nebula Award and honored by the Association for Mormon Letters. His short story "The Ice Queen" is forthcoming in Storyteller.

---
WHEN:
Monday, 2/7/5
Doors open at 6:30

WHERE:
The South Street Seaport Museum's Melville Gallery
213 Water Street (near Beekman)

HOW:
By Subway
Take 2, 3, 4, 5, J, Z, or M to Fulton Street; A and C to
Broadway-Nassau. Walk east on Fulton Street to Water Street

By Bus
Take M15 (South Ferry-bound) down Second Ave. to Fulton Street

By Car
From the West Side: take West Street southbound. Follow signs to FDR
Drive Take underpass, keep right­use Exit 1 at end of underpass. Turn
right on South Street, six blocks.
From the East Side, take FDR Drive south to Exit 3 onto South Street
Proceed about 1 mile.

LINKS:
http://www.hourwolf.com/nyrsf
http://www.nyrsf.com
http://www.southstseaport.org

--
The New York Review of Science Fiction is celebrating its 16th Year
Subscribe or submit articles to the magazine! Check the Web site!
New York Review of Science Fiction
PO. Box 78, Pleasantville, NY, 10570
NYRSF Magazine: http://www.nyrsf.com

From the latest issue of Science Fiction Weekly:

[Nick Gevers:]  Your next published novel will be Mammoth, due out in mid-2005. This features the rebirth of the eponymous prehistoric species. In exploring this theme, do you concur with the sentiments of the Jurassic Park films, or is your vision different, more complex?

[John] Varley:  Actually, I don't remember much about Jurassic Park except the T. Rex chewing up the SUV. That was cool. Oh, yeah, and the lawyer being plucked out of the porta-potty and swallowed whole. Even cooler.

Dig this blizzard warning for the New York area from the National Weather Service. My favorite part:

ANY TRAVEL IS STRONGLY DISCOURAGED. IF YOU LEAVE THE SAFETY OF BEING INDOORS... YOU ARE PUTTING YOUR LIFE AT RISK.

THIS IS A LIFE-THREATENING WINTER WEATHER SITUATION! PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD COMPLETED BY NOON TODAY!

Sometimes you feel pang because you don't have a camera at hand. This morning when I emerged from the subway station to go to work, I looked up Park Avenue to see the Met Life building looming there over Grand Central Station, with the sun casting the giant shadow of the top quarter of the Chrysler Building directly onto its face. Sometimes the sights of nature stop the breath, and other times artificial beauty can cast the same spell.

Sigh.

(Asshole-sourcing provided by Reverse DNS Lookup.)

My contribution to the January CD Mix of the Month Club was Thrilling Wonder Stories.

(The story so far.)