The Witching Well

I can’t describe it. Just watch it.

The 2006 Hugo Awards were presented last night at LA Con IV: the nomination list is here, and the winners list is here.

I’m thrilled to see that Serenity won Dramatic Presentation: Long Form, and that Doctor Who picked up DP: Short Form. Congrats to all the winners, of course, but also to the nominees, because it’s a very cool thing just to make the short list, don’t you think?

I kid you not: Eric Bakovic at the Language Log has posted some very amusing linguistics hip-hop.

Yesterday, I discovered that someone I used to work with has landed a four-book deal for a series of YA novels. I’m so excited for her! Check out her website: Marley Gibson, author. And watch those bookstore shelves: her name should be there in spring of 2008.

Sen. George Allen is full of shit. His office has been claiming that the word “macaca”, which he used to describe a young man of Indian descent, was an off-the-cuff neologism intended to highlight S.R. Siddarth’s hairstyle and his annoying presence — ie, “mohawk” + “caca” = “shithead.” Nevermind that Mr. Siddarth’s hairstyle is a mullet, not a mohawk.

The truth is, Allen’s mother is from French colonial northern Africa, where the word “macaca” is most definitely a racial slur.

End of bloody story.

Eric’s started updating The Adventures of Brigadier General John Stark again. Yay!!

Dead Ringers tries their hand at explaining why Christopher Eccleston left Doctor Who after only one series. Very very silly.

Scarfed from Barb.

One book that changed your life:
Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings was the book that made me a geek, made me want to write, and made me realize that creating your own languages was not completely wierd.

One book that you’ve read more than once:
The above answer would fit well here, too, but let me pick something different for each question, if I can. So: Wild Cards, edited by George R.R. Martin.

One book you’d want on a desert island:
Let’s go with a timeless classic for that: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

One book that made you laugh:
Um. Something by Terry Pratchett. Eeny, meeny, miny: Wyrd Sisters.

One book that made you cry:
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s Blood Games. Nothing like sitting in a man’s head while everyone he loves dies a horrible, violent death he can’t do anything about to get that reaction from me.

One book that you wish had been written:
How about the one I haven’t finished writing yet my own self?

One book that you wish had never been written:
Probably the one from the Dune series that I never finished. The fifth one, I think: Heretics of Dune. I got about half a chapter into it and then asked myself why bother.

One book you’re currently reading:
Charles de Lint’s From a Whisper to a Scream.

One book you’ve been meaning to read:
Le Mort d’Arthur. I got it as a wedding gift, nigh on 13 years ago, and still it sits there, taunting me.

SciFi is finally confirming that they’ll be running Series Two of Doctor Who starting in September! And to make me even happier, the BBC Doctor Who News site assures us that they won’t be skipping The Christmas Invasion as a lot of us have been worried they might.

Happy fangirl dance!