Random News and a Personal Announcement

I've been busy working on a few final details of matters, so this post is going up a little later than I had planned, so please bear with me as I talk a bit about things I've been working on and things that I've gathered from talking with authors and others in related fields the past few days.

As I believe some of you may have gleaned from comments here and there over the past couple of months, I am planning on leaving public school teaching, at least on a full-time basis, at the end of my contract in late May. However, I was a little coy in saying what I planned on doing, as it depended upon a few things that I couldn't quite control. My recent health scare with my liver postponed the announcement of my plans until now. My condition shouldn't keep me from doing vigorous activity, plus I am desirous of increased socialization. I've been lifting weights and I am conscious that I can win in professional competitions.

But instead of boring you with description, let me show you what I've been training to, via link.

I'm not the only one, however, who's been busy working with SF-related matters. Below are a few things that I've seen on the web in recent days:

• Inspired by the anti-George R.R. Martin blog, Finish the Book, George, a group of disgruntled fans of Harlan Ellison, who has failed to complete The Last Dangerous Visions for over 35 years now, have started a copycat site called (of course), Finish the Anthology, Harlan. Reportedly, Ellison has been collecting rotting skunk corpses to be sent to the malefactors' addresses, once those are discovered.

• Exhausted by all the 16-18 hour days he's put into trying to complete The Wheel of Time, Brandon Sanderson has announced on his blog that he's now going to take a 6-12 month break to finish a series that he believes will make him much more money than the pittance he's receiving to finish Robert Jordan's series. Link here, with Amazon pre-order page here.

• Just over a year ago, author Felix Gilman blogged about a near-fatal encounter with a hamster packing heat. He just recently announced on his blog that he was so inspired by what occurred, that his third novel, due out in 2010, will be the first of several novels devoted to a new literary movement he's starting that shall be called Hamsterpunk. Below is a mock-up of the first book's, Hamster Calling, cover art:

• Jeff VanderMeer has been busy announcing several new projects for 2010. First up is a sequel to his upcoming Booklife book coming out in September, I believe. Then there may be plans to write a fictional documentary transcript of his experiences grooming penguins. Finally, he's been rather coy about this on his site, but I've learned from hints dropped via email that he's landed the high-profile position of ghostwriter for the Immortal One. Yes, Jeff has landed the plum role of writing the tie-in novelization for this all-time classic:

More news later, as I learn more on this and other developments.