http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AintItCoolNews-CoolNews/~3/yK0HCYcPNac/41670

So … I haven’t gotten any writing done this weekend, but I have an excellent excuse. See, for awhile now I’ve been talking about throwing a website up for the alternate-history universe in which my upcoming book Boneshaker is set. This universe also holds a novelette that’s up for free and immediate reading over on Subterranean Press’s website, as well as an upcoming novella through that same publisher (Clementine) and the upcoming novel upon which I ought to be writing right now (Dreadnought).

Since these stories cover three separate fiction forms and two different publishers, I thought that a website dedicated to their world setting would be a useful, unifying device to give curious readers a chance to poke around and try out the idea, just to see if they like it. And then, through a convoluted series of events that do not warrant a dry retelling, it turned out that I might very well need such a site for reference purposes within oh, say … real soon.

Therefore, with some help from the hubs, I got down to business and up to no good. It took a couple of days, some blood sweat and tears, and a whole lot of jaw-clenching, but now it’s live and fully operational — just like something that isn’t a moon. So it is with great nervousness but significant pride that I present to you all:

Please, if you have a minute (and if you are so inclined), feel free to click that link and go poking around the site you find on the other side of it — and then by all means click whatever other links you find. Flip through the tabs. Do a little reading. Tell me if there’s anything else you’d like to see included on the site, and let me know if anything isn’t working.

And if you could find it in your heart to link the site, or add it to your bookmarks, I will love you forever. The Clockwork Century will be updated periodically with artwork from the series, including maps and future book covers, publication and release information, progress on upcoming projects, and anything else even marginally pertinent to the universe. I hope it gets a little love, and maybe inspires a little pre-ordering (though right now, Boneshaker is the only thing available in that capacity).

Anyway, thanks for your time and thanks for reading, and I hope that every single one of you has a most excellent evening. I’ll see you online again tomorrow morning.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AintItCoolNews-Coaxial/~3/kWLskjiOsdA/41669

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheComicsCurmudgeon/~3/fIBQThpuI5Q/

http://joshreads.com/?p=3531

Blondie, 7/12/09

I’ve often wondered at the obviously complex relationship between Dagwood and Mr. Dithers. For a while, I thought that Dithers was really Dagwood’s millionaire father, who disowned him when he decided to marry low-class flapper Blondie (this is the strip’s pre-Depression backstory, FYI) but who was never able to cut the kid out of his life completely, and so has kept him employed despite his obvious incompetence. I don’t think that’s true, but it’s hard to tell exactly what keeps these two together, not just professionally but socially as well. Today at least hints at the source of their codependence: their relationship provides the sort of dramatic highs and lows, the anger and catharsis, that their stable, happy, and boring home lives never could.

Normally, of course, I’d be imputing some kind of sexual relationship or tension here, but it’s obvious to anyone who reads Blondie that the only kind of thing that stirs Dagwood’s loins involves pastrami and lots of mustard.

Crock, 7/12/09

As a regular reader of the shambling nightmare that is Crock, the core grotesqueries of this particular strip — that the dog intends to urinate on the cactus as an act of malice, and that the cactus can bend on its own accord and fire off its spines as defensive missiles — come as no surprise to me. I am a little perturbed to learn that the camel’s name is “Quench.” I understand that there is a certain conceptual nexus between camels and water-drinking, but it doesn’t seem quite right; it’d be better as the name of a robot that, in an ill-conceived promotional exercise, can morph into a bottle of the new Quench™ brand sport energy drink, in the upcoming Paramount/Dreamworks film Transformers 3: Revenge of the Thirsty.

Oh, and the camel is wearing a hat, which is also inappropriate.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheComicsCurmudgeon/~3/mleH1O51qTA/

http://joshreads.com/?p=3524

Funky Winkerbean, 7/11/09

NOOOO! DON’T OPEN THE DOOR! DON’T OPEN THE DOOR! IT’S … ZOMBIE WALLY, COME TO EAT YOUR BRAINS HAPPINESS!

No, seriously, this whole week has been full of foreboding and doom, and since we all know that nobody in the history of Funky Winkerbean can ever be happy, and since there’s been all sorts of weird hints about it, obviously Wally has been held secretly captive in Iraq for 10 years, or 5 years, or whatever mishmosh of space-time has passed since the big jump, and now he’s come back to find that his wife has remarried, and everyone involved — Becky, Wally, John, Wally Jr. — is going to be absolutely devastated no matter how it all plays out. It’ll be just like Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Enemies, A Love Story, except not good.

Mary Worth, 7/11/09

NOOOO! DON’T LOOK BACK, DELILAH! DON’T MAKE EYE CONTACT! YOU’LL BE DOOMED! DOOMED!

God bless Mary Worth for really bringing the laughs this week. Today’s second panel is particularly hilarious. The gears in Charley’s head are spinning furiously; he seems to have consulted some mid-century text on how to have a socially appropriate interaction with someone that doesn’t make it obvious that you’re just trying to bang whomever you’re talking to, and he suddenly remembered, about 45 seconds after the conversation actually ended, that you’re apparently supposed to mention that you look forward to your next encounter with your interlocutor. Meanwhile, Mary looks like a grim-faced Marine escorting a civilian prisoner out of some sort of war zone. “Don’t worry, you’re in good hands now. Once we get back to base, though, you’ll have to undergo an extensive debriefing to see we can glean any useful intelligence from your contact with that enemy subject.”

Dennis the Menace, 7/11/09

The real menace here, of course, is the suffocating nanny state, which has filled Dennis’s head from birth with such emasculating nonsense as “steps should be taken while traveling via motor vehicle to reduce the chances of being horribly killed.” Now Dennis can’t even enjoy red-blooded American sports like being trampled to death by horses!

Oh, and hey! Even though I didn’t post yesterday, it still was a very important moment: it was the fifth anniversary of the very first post on this blog. Have I really been doing this thing for five years? Mercy! Huge thanks to all of you, new readers and old alike, for your constant support and affection, without which I surely would have given this up in despair long ago. And special thank for the reminder of my agedness to longtime faithful reader Mooncity, creator of the Autumn Lake Webcomic, who whipped up the following charming graphic for the occasion:

To be fair, it’s also possible that people aren’t following the site because they haven’t heard of it — yet. If you know some non-ninny who might enjoy it, send them the link, won’t you?

A new study commissioned by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs recommends a complete ban on tobacco, which would end tobacco sales on military bases and prohibit smoking by anyone in uniform, not even combat troops in the thick of battle.

According to the study, tobacco use impairs military readiness in the short term. Over the long term, it can cause serious health problems, including lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. The study also says smokeless tobacco use can lead to oral and pancreatic cancer.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/41668

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AintItCoolNews-Coaxial/~3/78gTDCoBwkc/41667

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AintItCoolNews-CoolNews/~3/XEQAl3TOf2k/41666

• Jewelry box with compartments


• Sewing box with compartments


• Large bath sheets or beach towels


• Magnetic bookmarks or book darts (you can't have too many)

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AintItCoolNews-CoolNews/~3/94EHgiMOgE4/41665