Join The Great Twitter Bond Read!

I'm going to be reading all of the Ian Fleming James Bond books and twittering about them chapter by chapter. If you want to read along or just read what I have to say, get on Twitter and follow me @upwithgravity .

I was going to tag it #gtbr but that's already taken by the Great Texas Balloon Race. I'm serious. It takes up a lot of precious characters, but I'm going to tag my Bond tweets #bondread. I don't have a lot of time for reading so this could be a very long and drawn out process. The good news is it'll be easy to catch up if you jump in late. The tweets may not be comprehensive, but maybe they'll be entertaining enough that you'll be tempted to read the books.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS! But, shit, you've had like fifty years to read these things!

We'll be reading chronologically. This, according to the Big W:

* 1953 Casino Royale
* 1954 Live and Let Die
* 1955 Moonraker
* 1956 Diamonds Are Forever
* 1957 From Russia, with Love
* 1958 Dr. No
* 1959 Goldfinger
* 1960 For Your Eyes Only
* 1961 Thunderball
* 1962 The Spy Who Loved Me
* 1963 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
* 1964 You Only Live Twice
* 1965 The Man with the Golden Gun
* 1966 Octopussy and The Living Daylights

Jump in! Swim around! It will be an epic adventure in miniature. We may all come to the end of it and discover that we've become worse human beings. You may also discover that Fleming's Bond is a bit more human than Hollywood's.

See you there!

The Milkman

Welcome to new follower Mike! Scoot over, everyone!

Not sure why anyone would want to, but I just added some sharey buttons to the bottom of each post. So go share.

There's got to be someone out there who hasn't seen this. Of course, those people may not know what a milkman is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJZM3X4dpzo&videos=TYclA49_y3s

Billy's Picture Book

Illustration by Rudy Rucker

Billy's Picture Book has been released and the e-book is available online for free! It collects 13 Billy Stories by Terry Bisson and is Illustrated by Rudy Rucker. These are wonderful, funny, creepy tales of a kid caught between two mundane, strict parents and fantastic creatures with bad attitudes. Get it here:

http://www.rudyrucker.com/billysbook/

Two of these stories are available in audio from from StarShipSofa, narrated magnificently by Gareth Stack. Gareth's readings, coupled with the stories themselves, had me cackling with glee. Two of my best Sofa experiences ever. And that includes with girls. Check them out here:

Billy and the Wizard
http://www.starshipsofa.com/20080821/aural-delights-no-38-kage-baker/

Billy in Dinosaur City
http://www.starshipsofa.com/20090916/starshipsofa-aural-delights-no-100/

Go!

Circle Triangle Square

By Lego artist Nathan Sawaya

Prancing Through The Bookstore

Welcome, new follower Bradzooks! Awesome name, bro.


The other day at work:

Regular Customer: Has anyone ever told you that when you walk, you prance?

Me: No. I've been told that I've frolicked and gamboled, but never pranced.

126

Story 126 just went out the digital door. A pissy little seven this year but the year's not over yet.

The Strega Cristobel and the Old Rattler Ken

First off, let me say welcome to new follower, Kate! I think I've welcomed every follower except for one, because at the time I couldn't figure out which one of you it was. You were like an optical illusion in which a crowd of people seem to have developed an extra head. So a belated welcome to that person too.

Now I want to turn you on to magnificent narrator Larry Santoro reading a story by magnificent writer Larry Santoro. The story is The Strega Cristobel and the Old Rattler Ken and the venue is the Old Towne Books & Tea podcast. I downloaded this months ago but just listened today and the story is wonderful. I've already talked up Larry on this blog, go listen for yourself:

http://oldtownebooksandtea.podomatic.com/entry/eg/2010-03-20T20_01_36-07_00

I have to be straight and tell you the host of the show is still feeling things out here as this is only episode 3 and he rambles a bit, so be patient or skip ahead. Enjoy the story.

Beware The Hairy Mango 36 Is Live!

I usually don't mention the Mango here, but I haven't done one in a while and my friends on Facebook see this too and who would want to deprive them? The new Episode is Truck Stop and Climbing Trees! Check it out here:

http://bewarethehairymango.com/episode-36-truck-stop-and-climbing-trees/

Sale To Tor.com!

I sold my story, Beauty Belongs to the Flowers, to Tor.com! If you know Tor.com, you know this is mighty awesome. If you don't know Tor.com, let me just tell you that this is mighty awesome. This is my second pro sale and it's great exposure for a story that I love (number 57 of 1,000). I'll let you know when it's out and provide a link. If you guys remind me, I'll give you the story behind the story here on the blog when it comes out.

I'm a happy goose.

I know I've put Gene on here a couple of times before, but this deserves a Gene style celebration!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R28b8XXoXs

Kicking The Horse

My favorite story from The Moth: http://castroller.com/podcasts/TheMothPodcast/1074125

A Cold Day in Crisis

My story, "A Cold Day in Crisis," (Number 51 for those of you keeping track) is up at Electric Spec today. Give it a go:

http://www.electricspec.com/issues/volume-5-issue-2-may-31-2010/a-cold-day-in-crisis-by-matthew-sandborn-smith.asp

What It Feels Like

Found this on Neatorama today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajPvCQjatW4&feature=player_embedded

Groovin' To The 8-Bit

@steveattwitter turned his followers onto this groovy little 8-bit player today. You need Flash. Sorry iPaddies!
http://8bitboy.popforge.de/

Discovered this great new science fiction market thanks to Duotrope. They need lots of stories. Looks like they'll be e-mailing a story a day out to their subscribers.
http://dailysciencefiction.com/

Sometimes I Try Too Hard

So I'll stop. I liked this: http://su.pr/45PHz4