Tell us we can live without her, now that we have listened to the blog

It's going to be a busy week here on the blog, so be warned. We'll have special posts Monday and Tuesday, then we'll be reminding you about the YA Spring Fling later in the week. Check back early and often. You won't want to miss Monday's and Tuesday's posts!

Much more after the cut.

Willow fans! She'll be appearing, along with her Collectif Pin Up cohorts Mrion, Blop and Pikila, at Polymanga, a convention in Montreaux, Switzerland, April 3-6! They'll have some nifty merchandise for sale! Get more info here: http://www.polymanga.com/?lang=en And tell them Michiko and Beth sent you if you go!




More on the great Terry Pratchett: I was fortunate to have met him at a joint book signing many years ago, with Neil Gaiman on the U.S. Good Omens tour. In addition to a nice shiny Good Omens hardcover (bought at the store where the signing was held, of course), I also brought some early Discworld paperbacks that had already been well-read. This is what Sir Terry did to my copy of Mort:

I'm not sure how I wound up buying GURPS: IOU, since I don't even play RPG games, but I suspect that it was mostly because the illustrations were by the amazing Phil and Kaja Foglio. I remembered that Phil had done this illustration for the book, which is about roleplaying in a weird and somewhat dangerous college, and I wanted to share it. Sorry that the scan's a bit off.

And a few years ago, the legendary Celtic group Steeleye Span (in collaboration with Sir Terry) released an album based on the Tiffany Aching novel Wintersmith. I had a listen the other day, and while it's not their best work overall, there are some nice songs and moments. This link should, I hope, take you to a YouTube playlist with all the songs in their proper order. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13JsJzOvtdQ&list=PLLrrPFRCn_DEZBBbF-G1S3KV5zTdMo91M

If you like it, the mp3 album can be downloaded for $5.99 at Amazon, and that gives me an excuse to mention something new on the sidebar. If you don't use ad-blocking software, and I don't blame you if you do, you may have noticed the Amazon widget that shows all three Monkey Queen books. If you click on there to go to Amazon, even if you don't buy any books, this site gets a small referral bonus if you buy anything there. Don't feel obligated to do that, buy your Monkey Queen books whenever and wherever you want, but I'd be grateful if you did. Thanks, and I hope to see all of you Monday for a special announcement.