Links
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Blogs
- My Livejournal blog. Please note that this Livejournal blog is locked and
entries are therefore limited to LJ Friends. If you have a Livejournal account and would like me to friend you, please e-mail me and tell me who you are.
- Eclectic Reviews by Amy Sisson. This is a blog consisting of reviews I've
written for myself, as opposed to those I do for publication (VOYA, Magill Books Online, etc.). Because it's on Blogspot, it can be
easily subscribed to by an RSS feed such as Google Reader. Reviews may cover science fiction, fantasy, young adult fiction, children's books, movies, and
sometimes even the ballet! This blog is completely open to the public.
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Writing/Reading/Publishing
- AnthologyBuilder. This is a print-on-demand service that allows
readers to create their own "fantasy" anthology by picking the individual stories they want to be included, which will be printed
in a hardcover volume at a very reasonable price. Currently, all stories available at AnthologyBuilder have been previously
published elsewhere, and there are also some stories that have fallen into the public domain.
- Clarion West. A six-week intenstive SF&F writing
workshop that takes place in Seattle each summer. Clarion West is an offshoot of the original
Clarion workshop that began at Clarion State College (now Clarion
University) in Pennsylvania and continues today in East Lansing, Michigan. There is also a
Clarion South that has been founded in Australia. I attended
Clarion West in 2000 and edited their alumni newsletter, The Seventh Week, from 2003 to 2006.
- Library Thing. This is a combination book cataloging/social
network site that allows you to enter ISBNs (or title, or author, if you prefer) to add the books from your personal library.
It then produces all sorts of fun information and statistics about your library; my favorites are the "tag cloud" and
"author cloud." You can keep your account entirely private if you prefer, or allow others to see your username
(no other personal info is displayed unless you so choose). It's super easy to use; you can upload from any
pre-existing lists you have created, and let it do all the searching work in the background. You can get a free
account that lets you catalog up to 200 books, or a lifetime account for a flat fee of $25. (It also allows you to
download your collection back to yourself in a spreadsheet or tab-delimited format, which makes it a handy back-up
inventory for insurance purposes.) This link goes
to my personal catalog, which I'm always working on -- as of October 2008, I'm probably 90% through my book collection.
But I am also including books I don't own that I've read (and marking them as such), because I'm a librarian
and I can't bear to lose that information.
- Locus Online. The online companion to the print magazine Locus; both contain
a wealth of information about the SF/F/H publishing fields.
- Nutrition Action Health Letter. This is the companion
website for the nonprofit publication Nutrition Action Health Letter. It's published 10 times per year by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and offers lots of nutrition and health information in an advertisement-free, readable style.
My favorite feature appears on the back cover of every issue: Right Stuff vs. Food Porn, in which brand-name products are featured
along with calorie counts, fat intake, and more. Here's an
example telling you what you can expect from Amy's Kitchen (vegetarian organic) Refried Beans versus Burger King's BK Stackers.
They also choose some type of product every issue (salad dressings, crackers) and compare name brands on a point-by-point basis.
- Ralan.com - Ralan's SpecFic and Humor Webstravaganza. You might
not know it from the site's title, but this is an extremely useful genre market listing, with listings
divided into categories such as "Anthology Markets", "Semi- and Pro Markets", "Paying Markets", and
"4theLuv Markets". Updated frequently, and often daily.
- SFRA - Science Fiction Research Association. The SFRA is a
"professional organization for the study of science fiction and fantasy literature and film."
- SFWA - Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.
Useful info for both members and nonmembers.
- Voyages of the Imagination. Jeff Ayers is the author of
Voyages of the Imagination: The Star Trek Fiction Companion, which is the definitive
guide to published Trek fiction. Jeff's site contains updates and news about Trek publishing.
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Online Fiction
- Strange Horizons. A professional genre webzine, with new content
(fiction, nonfiction, art, poetry, etc.) every Monday.
- Lone Star Stories. A bimonthly webzine publishing speculative fiction
and poetry, edited by Eric Marin.
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People
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Miscellaneous
- Battlestar Galactica set visit photos, because, quite frankly, I can't resist posting them!
- Amy's Kitchen, my favorite brand of organic vegetarian snacks and meals -- and
I'm not just saying that because I share the name! They have a fun website, and their food tastes great. Even if you're not vegetarian,
you might really like some of their food, like their Spinach Pizza Pocket. And their meatless Shephard's Pie is very tasty and filling, but has only 160 calories.
- Green Mountain Energy, the "largest retail provider of less-polluting electricity to
residential and commercial customers in the U.S." The electricity is delivered through your current carrier, but comes from
less-polluting sources such as wind, water, solar, biomass, geothermal, and natural gas. As of May 2005, Green Mountain Energy serves
customers in Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oregon, and Texas. In Texas, it's my understanding that customers are currently
being given the choice of 100% wind-generated electricity at a small surcharge over the going commercial rate, or pollution-free (90% hydro, 10% wind) electricity at
the same as the going commercial rate.
- Starbase Houston, a "non-profit fan-based organization providing a home for people who have
an interest in science fiction and fantasy to share their interest with others." SBH holds monthly meetings and "away mission" events.
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