A’s in the throes of TAKS testing this week and needed to bring a book to school for when he finished early. For those of you not in Texas, TAKS is the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. While I’m not against standardized tests per se, the emphasis put on these tests and the process of teaching to the test that occurs even in the best schools, is sobering. Anyway, that’s a rant for another Read more…
The awards are in and the winners are: Novel: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union , Michael Chabon Novella: Fountain of Age, Nancy Kress Novelette: The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate, Ted Chiang Short Story: Always, Karen Joy Fowler Script: Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro Andre Norton Award: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling Michael Moorcock was also honored as the Damon Knight Grandmaster. John Picaccio’s speech introducing him included letters from many many of Read more…
Well that was fun. The first night of the Nebulas was the mass autographing where everyone roamed around and greeted old friends and there were plenty of rock stars for fans (and aren’t we all) to get autographs from and to ooh and aah over. The Tales from the Secret City authors mostly congregated at one table (and we let Jayme Blaschke sit with us because he said he would cry if we didn’t). We had Read more…