Iggy Pop chats with Dinah Shore

Bruce Campbell: Hungry Like The Wolf

Lloyd Alexander; Fantasy and Adventure Writer

Lloyd Alexander, 83, a critically acclaimed fantasy and adventure writer whose coming-of-age novels use vivid action and elements of mythology to depict contemporary struggles between good and evil, died May 17 at his home in Drexel Hill, Pa. He had cancer.

Mr. Alexander wrote more than 40 books and is regarded as one of the best-known writers of juvenile fiction of the past several decades. He won over adult reviewers with cliff-hanging plots, stylish prose and believable characters that make his fanciful, long-ago settings seem plausible and relevant.

Essayist Laura Ingram, writing in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, said the books have 'the special depth and insight provided by characters who not only act, but think, feel and struggle with the same kinds of problems that confuse and trouble people in the twentieth century.'

He completed three major series -- the Chronicles of Prydain, which focuses on the maturity of an assistant pig keeper named Taran and is loosely based on Welsh mythology; the Westmark trilogy of political intrigue, whose main character is a printer's apprentice on the run in a corrupt European kingdom; and the Vesper Holly series, about a young Philadelphian who comes to the rescue of President Ulysses S. Grant.

Worldwide Adventure Writing Month

June is Worldwide Adventure Writing Month.
Join us in expanding the number of free, downloadable adventures for tabletop roleplaying games!

The goal is to write a complete 32 page adventure module by June 30th, 2007.

Important. And pass it on...

I found this on Neil Gaiman's blog and thought that it was definitely worth passing along.

John M. Ford was pretty much the smartest writer I knew. Mostly. He did one thing that was less than smart, though: he knew he wasn't in the best of health, but he still didn't leave a proper will, and so didn't, in death, dispose of his literary estate in the way that he intended to while he was alive, which has caused grief and concern to the people who were closest to him.

He's not the first writer I know who didn't think to take care of his or her posthumous intellectual property. For example, I knew a writer -- a great writer -- separated from and estranged from his wife during the last five years of his life. He died without making a will, and his partner, who understood and respected his writing, was shut out, while his wife got the intellectual property, and has not, I think, treated it as it should have been treated. These things happen, and they happen too often.

There are writers who blithely explain to the world that they didn't make a will because they don't mind who gets their jeans and old guitar when they die but who would have conniptions if they realised how much aggravation their books or articles or poems or songs would cause their loved ones (or editors, anthologists or fans) after their death...

The dark legacy of Carlos Castaneda

For fans of the literary con, it's been a great few years. Currently, we have Richard Gere starring as Clifford Irving in 'The Hoax,' a film about the '70s novelist who penned a faux autobiography of Howard Hughes. We've had the unmasking of James Frey, JT LeRoy/Laura Albert and Harvard's Kaavya Viswanathan, who plagiarized large chunks of her debut novel, forcing her publisher, Little, Brown and Co., to recall the book. Much has been written about the slippery boundaries between fiction and nonfiction, the publishing industry's responsibility for distinguishing between the two, and the potential damage to readers. There's been, however, hardly a mention of the 20th century's most successful literary trickster: Carlos Castaneda.

If this name draws a blank for readers under 30, all they have to do is ask their parents. Deemed by Time magazine the 'Godfather of the New Age,' Castaneda was the literary embodiment of the Woodstock era. His 12 books, supposedly based on meetings with a mysterious Indian shaman, don Juan, made the author, a graduate student in anthropology, a worldwide celebrity. Admirers included John Lennon, William Burroughs, Federico Fellini and Jim Morrison.

[To read the full story you will have to watch an ad, but I think that's a small price to pay to read some of the stuff at Salon.]

Game Geeks #7 Spycraft 2.0

An ongoing RPG review video "podcast" available through YouTube. Well done and produced, Game Geeks is well worth checking out. The reviews are informative and certainly comparable to anything that I have seen in print.

Family Ties

family ties, originally uploaded by Cleveland Desolation.

Next week I am starting a new game with the group, using the d6 Adventure rules. It might lead to something, but it's too early to talk about that right now.

The flyer is still tentative but it hits some of the themes that I want for the game. It isn't finalized though.

House of Hammer rises from the dead

Unholy lusts, depraved, thrilling passions and unspeakable acts of violence and terror - all in glorious, gothic Technicolor. When the legendary Hammer House of Horror group set out to scare the wits out of people in the 50s, 60s and 70s, it did it in style, leaving one British censor musing: 'The curse of this thing is the Technicolor blood: why need vampires be messier eaters than anyone else?'

For three decades, Hammer Film Productions has lain dormant, with fans having to rely on special late night showings at cinemas or the occasional reissue of one of the more popular classics from its prodigious 295-item back catalogue on DVD.

But now the brand that defined the great British film alongside Ealing comedies and James Bond is back in business and plans to make more movies to terrify a new generation of fans.

Responsible for the classic horror series of Dracula, Frankenstein and Quatermass, alongside such gems as Blood from the Mummy's Tomb and the Sweet Scent of Death, the company will repackage some of these old favourites but also plans new productions, inspired by such modern horror movies as the just released 28 Weeks Later.

Solve the Brooke Shields mystery

They haven't shown us what the alphabet is yet but graffiti around London is hinting at it's existence.

'Alphabet of Brooke Shields' – what does it mean?

This small bit of grafitti has been popping up all over London for the past few weeks, and is puzzling the living daylights out of everyone who spots it. From Tower Bridge to Wembley Park, it's everywhere. There are even reports of it appearing as far away as Hamburg and the Netherlands.

A Google search reveals nothing but bemused blogs speculating as to what's so special about the actess, model, former Mrs Andre Agassi and sparring partner of Tom Cruise. Does she have her own private alphabet? What?

What is the Alphabet of Brooke Shields, and how does it relate to the world? Hopefully we will find out.

Here's a Flickr pool documenting the graffiti. And here is a Google map showing the locations where graffiti has been found.

Share your thoughts.