Ponzi & Other Schemes

Wed 17 Dec 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

Ponzi schemes: anyone want to invest $50bn with us? $5bn? Letters and cheques to the usual address.

We promise to at least deliver you some very nice books, if not the kind of “returns” Bernard Madoff was promising. Ah, the system shows itself to be built on sand after all. What’s that? No more foundation money for us? But… but… we had been relying on… oh, yes, that old thing: sales. Fingers crossed that Couch and The Serial Garden keep doing what they’re doing!

Chocolate update: Apparently the Chocnomicon has shipped! Meanwhile we must try this. (Via, um, forget.)

Is it ok to lift links wholesale? Because that’s how we got this first chunk (hope you don’t mind, Ben!):

Fun with “The Ant King and Other Stories”:

The Serial Garden:

  • Garth Nix reveals the reason he was happy to write an introduction.
  • The Harvard Book Store chose it for their Holiday Hundred List and have stacked it up in unmissably high piles throughout the store—all at 20% off. Yay!
  • “An excellent way to show Harry Potter fans that magic can come in small doses too.”
    —Author Magazine
  • “The Armitage’s world grows richer as it is extended. This is a collection of stories which allow — in fact demand — the reader joins in with their own imagination and remakes the story inside their own head. Aiken’s pragmatism shows through in her stories. Instead of remaining in or reflecting upon the past like some of her contemporaries, they show an author making the best of the world and coming out ahead with humor and imagination.”
    —January Magazine

What’s going on with Couch? We got some great entries in the couch competition and we’ll get those online and announce the winner soon. We have a small and exciting Portland-based surprise, more about that in January; John Joseph Adams talked to Ben about it at Sci-Fi Wire; and it’s an Indie Next List pick for January and we are going to force Ben back out on the road. He puts on a good show: there’s the couch moving part, the crying, the sharks, the whole 4,000 miles in 20 minutes or so.