Google has a cool new map feature that shows you up-to-date satellite images, mostly of the US. For example, should you be interested in visiting Locus HQ or simply nuking it from orbit, you would find it here:

Courtesy of Tim Pratt, the latest journal meme thing where interviews are done, questions are asked. It’s kind of fun. If you want to do it, you’ve got to:

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your livejournal/website with the answers to the questions and leave the answers as comments here (or at least provide a pointer to your site).
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

(If by chance a bunch of people want to be interviewed, I reserve the right to only ask questions of the first two or three)

1.) What’s so bad about American coffee, anyway?

There are two different kinds of wrong with American coffee. The first kind of wrong is when the coffee is weak, watery, and tastes burnt. I’ll never forget walking through Los Angeles International Airport the first time I went to the States and seeing coffee on sale in these enormous cups, and thinking everyone must be off their heads with all of the caffeine. The second kind of wrong is when the coffee is over-done, overdecorated, all flowery and prissy. It’s all No-Carb Grande Mocha Almond Caramel Fudge Latte with a Hickory Stick. What’s with that? Can’t they just serve a simple cappuccino, latte or long black? I feel like every time I visit the US I have to relearn the coffee vocabulary just to get a flat white.

2.) I read this book one time that said Australia was a very dangerous place — poisonous snakes, lethal sea life, Prime Ministers who go swimming and disappear into the ocean. Ever had a near-deadly Australian experience?

Australia is a terrifyingly deadly place – nine of the world’s top ten most poisonous creatures live here, and dedicate their time to culling the population. That said, though I have seen enormous deadly red-back spiders and thought I’d been bitten by a horribly poisonous sea-dwelling creature when I was about eight (I hadn’t been – it was just a crab), I’ve basically gotten though unscathed. Broke my head open once, but that’s another story.

3.) Howard Waldrop vs. Joe R. Lansdale: Which is more Texan?

Lansdale hissownself. Waldrop is god, an amazing writer with a gift for constructing tales that no one would even think of, but Lansdale has the voice, the attitude, and the tall tales. The only competition would be Neal Barrett.

4.) God calls you up and asks you to edit the first annual Afterlife SF Annual, with all new stories by ten deceased SF/fantasy writers. Just name the writers, and God will get them to write something for you. Which authors do you commission?

Ooh. That’s a cool idea. The problem with compiling the book would be deciding whether you aim for a consistent, coherent book or just go for the writers you’d most love to work with, or see new work by. I think I’d probably go for the latter, because it’s too irresistible. Allowing that I could re-write this list a hundred times, I’d go with:

1. J.R.R. Tolkien
2. H.P. Lovecraft
3. Edgar Rice Burroughs
4. Cordwainer Smith
5. Robert A. Heinlein
6. Philip K. Dick
7. Theodore Sturgeon
8. Fritz Leiber
9. James Tiptree Jr
10. Avram Davidson

I think it would make for a brilliant, weird hodge-podge of a book.

5.) Name one novel, one collection, and one anthology coming out later this year that you’re really looking forward to reading.

I hate this question, hate it, hate it, hate it. I could name six novels, and five collections, and four anthologies, and not scratch the surface. I’m really eager to read The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl and Mothers and Other Monsters and too many others. But, if it has to be just one, then allowing for what I’ve already read this year, then:

Novel: The Girl in the Glass, Jeffrey Ford
Collection: Magic for Beginners, Kelly Link
Anthology: One Million Years A.D., Gardner Dozois

I noticed that over on Neil Gaiman’s journal he talks about a perfect news story, and wondered if it would seem less perfect if he knew the details of the case. The baggage handler is suspected of interfering with a passenger’s luggage by placing 4 kilos of marijuana in her luggage. The passenger is currently on trial in Indonesia and is facing the possibility of the death penalty.

Edit 13 April: In fairness to Neil, while I seem to recall news reports linking the two cases (more directly than it simply being same airport, same airline, same city etc), I can’t seem to find them online at the moment. It might be child-induced fatigue. Either way, a step back on my part. The story is funny on the surface, but at the least resonates unfortunately when more info is available.

It’s interview week over on Ben Peek’s LiveJournal. I’ve done the five questions thing, which show up pretty soon. There is also this, which is flattering and kind, and much appreciated.