Bruce Chrumka points out that there’s a new Howard Waldrop story “Kindermarchen” available to read for free (free!) over the Lou Antonelli’s Sentinel Science Fiction. You need to go check it out. So do I. Damn I wish Howard was on email.

I forgot that Sterling was fuh-nee! The Leggy Starlitz stories are f*cking hilarious. I love them. Even though they’re out of date, pointing back to some bygone moment just after the Russians tore down the wall, they’re still the most up to the moment thing Sterling’s ever written. There’s lots more to say on this. The Shaper/Mechanist stuff is a hipper version of Baxter’s Xeelee stuff, but out of date. Gone daddy, gone. “Dori Bangs”, though, will never date. Nor will the fantasy stuff. And, how did I miss that “Taklamakan” was what brought it all full circle? Suddenly, there is it is: Leggy Starlitz meets the Shaper/Mechanists. A Russian scam about star travel buried deep under some crazy-ass Asian steppe. Awesome stuff. More on this soon, but (a) you need to buy this book when it comes out – the collections are no substitute; (b) you have to read from the beginning to the end – no skipping; and (c) I need to write the goddamn flap copy.

Oh, and anyone got ideas for the title for an original antho series? It’s getting ridiculous.

PS: I love the interwebs when proofing. Sterling refers to ‘kawai’ as Japanese cuteness in a story. Google says 3.8 million hits, if you spell it ‘kawaii’. Neat. You need to be cautious, but how useful is that?