You guys are going to think I'm getting kickbacks from Tor for sponsoring these giveaways. Trust me, I'm not, though should they so desire to slip me a free copy of any of their latest ARC's I won't turn them down. :-)

This week's free giveaway is Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott. All you have to do is sign up for their newsletter.

Go get it.

Doubleday, Penguin Try to Revive Bond Series With New Author
In the 44 years since the death of writer Ian Fleming, his character James Bond has flourished as a movie star. As a literary figure, however, Bond has looked more like Inspector Clouseau.

Stories from the Golden Age
In the same year that Superman was introduced and radio reports of aliens starting a War of the Worlds induced panic across America, a small group of publishers and famous authors also shook the world: they created what was to become known as the Golden Age of Science Fiction which laid the groundwork for Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Star Wars saga.

Thoughts on writing success
Jim Baen and Eric Flint, as well as other fiction writers and editors, have both made statements to the effect that every writer and publisher is competing for a reader's "beer and movie money." While not always literally true, their underlying point is all too accurate. A successful fiction writer has to leave his or her readers feeling that their time and funds were well-spent.

Did Earth Once Have Multiple Moons?
The history of planet Earth is a fascinating story, involving catastrophic collisions with other small planets and a veritable plethora of asteroid impacts. What we see around us today has been here for a relatively short amount of time, and what came before is of great interest to many of us. So I was immediately intrigued by the possibility that, in our past, we had more than one moon.

Last week I blogged about how I just didn't get Twitter. To put it plainly, I didn't see the point.

As I write this now, I have to retract my initial opinion at least partially. I'm still not 100% convinced it's the next best social medium, but I'm coming around. I started twitting since I wrote that last post about Twitter and, I have to say, I'm marginally hooked.

Is it fun? Yeah, a little. Exciting? Ah, not really. Interesting? Yeah, it is actually. Informative, too, because people aren't telling me about what they had for lunch, they're passing out links to useful software information, tips on how to make better use of Twitter, and there's this guy who does inning-by-inning updates of the San Francisco Giants games (I've been a Giants fan for about 30 years now).

My advice: don't be like me--don't knock Twitter until you've tried it.

If you've already jumped on the Twitter Bandwagon or are just getting started, you can follow me here. I can't guarantee I'll be nearly as interesting as some others, but who knows--maybe I'm under-rating myself.

Happy Twitting.

Apex is running into some trouble with their subscription numbers and needs some help.

They write:

The reality of the situation is that we need 150 new subscribers (or roughly $3000), or we’re looking at a hiatus until I have enough disposable income to push out another issue. We use the term “hiatus” because there won’t be any mercy killings going on around here. We love the damn magazine too much to let it go (or possibly too stubborn), but the hiatus could be an extended one.

and,

Subscriptions are a measly $20 for 4 issues in the US. $24 for Canada/Mexico. $34 for the rest of the world.

We've re-initiated the APEX FOR LIFE subscription option that gives you Apex until you die. This goes for $100.

Visit their store and give them a hand.

I was getting ready for a vacation last Friday, so I never did work on my weekend links for last weekend. In any case, here's a short list for this weekend.

See if any of these give your "idea machine" a jolt.

15th-century shipwreck laden with treasure found
The ship was laden with tons of copper ingots, elephant tusks, gold coins -- and cannons to fend off pirates lurking off Africa some five centuries ago. It had nothing to protect it from the fierce weather off a particularly bleak stretch of inhospitable coast. It sank, only to be found last month by men seeking other treasure.

H.P. Reports Big Advance in Memory Chip Design
Hewlett-Packard scientists reported Wednesday in the science journal Nature that they have designed a simple circuit element that they believe will make it possible to build tiny powerful computers that could imitate biological functions.

Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says
Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests. The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday.

If you've noticed a "Listen Now" button at the top of my posts then you know I've signed up for Odiogo, a podcasting service that auto converts your text blog entries into mp3's. There's a separate feed that contains both my text and audio blog entries for now, but I plan to integrate the mp3 link into my regular ol' feed so that both are in one place sometime soon.

I like the service, though I'm not sure anyone really wants to listen to my posts as opposed to just reading them. But who knows... podcasts seem all the rage these days (right up there with Twitter ;-) ), so maybe this is the wave of the future and I'm riding the crest baby!