Midnighters, Book Three: Blue Noon, by Scott Westerfeld

Since I've actually met Scott Westerfeld, I don't hold with those theories. You know, the ones where he's just the figurehead of a production studio of writers cranking out prose á la Alexandre Dumas or a made-up person like J.K. Rowling. (Trust me, that woman's real name is Madge Montgomery, and she's just a front for a litter of creative but distractable Shih Tzus. I have it on good authority.) Still, Westerfeld turns out a lot of books (something like ten in the past couple of years) and he could perhaps be forgiven if they sucked. But they don't.

Case in point, my fave of his efforts: the Midnighters series.

( SPOILERS ABOUND HERE. STEP CAREFULLY LEST YE TRIP OVER PLOT-TYPE FACTS AND STUFF YE WOULD PROBABLY RATHER NOT KNOW IF YE PLAN TO READ THE MIDNIGHTERS BOOKS BUT HAVEN'T YET, KTHNX )

Like Feet Wrapped in Leathery Burnt Bacon

Aimee Poynter has nice things to say about The Water-Poet and the Four Seasons over at Tangent Online:

"Schwartz's use of poetic tropes creates the perfect world, ethereal enough to encompass the personifications of the seasons, yet still have a place for the more mundane aspects of the water-poet's life. I especially liked the dual natures of the items exchanged between the seasons and the water-poet. All in all, a beautifully written story."

Kristin's got the cover for Rabid Transit 5: Long Voyages, Great Lies up at her blog as well as some words of warning for those of us who enjoy cons without actually doing any of the work of putting them on (I'm looking at myself, here).

This video is all kinds of awesome. Don't want to say much, but it fills in some blanks between "A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back."

I'm not 100% on when our WisCon reading is going to be yet, but it's either Sunday morning at 10 or Sunday afternoon at 1:

Empathy, Lust, and Destruction: two boys, three girls (Reading Group) (Readings)
Five storytellers enter. One leaves.
Alice Kim, Jason Erik Lundberg, Meghan McCarron, Haddayr Copley-Woods, David J. Schwartz

It's going to be awesome, and it's going to be over at Michelangelo's. Come on over and have a cappafrappamochalattayerbadillyicious drink and listen to some stories.

My only panel is on Sunday afternoon at 2:30:

Make Shit Up (Writing SF&F: The Craft)
So many of us get caught up in thinking too hard about what to write, or considering what we "should" write—for money, or career, or just because it would look cool—that we forget that joy often drives us. Joy powers the creative urge. So why don't we just, y’know, make shit up and have a blast? Let's all take turns in standing up and just...making something up. Just talking. Just imagining the beginning of a book and speaking it out loud.
Ellen Klages, David J. Schwartz, Barth Anderson, Douglas L. Hulick, Jay Lake, Jennifer Stevenson, Nicola Griffith

Looks like an exemplary group of shit-maker-uppers. Should be fun!