Catch-up day here, peeps. I have enough announcement-type thingies  to justify a post.

1. The winner for the Alice Loweecey nun doll is Kim. 🙂 Kim, congrats! I’ll make sure you and Alice connect.

2. If you remember, in November I interviewed Cindy Pon and Shveta Thakrar for Writer Unboxed about writing the culturally diverse novel. Cindy’s book, Silver Phoenix, is now available in paperback with its new, edgier cover art. Also, Cindy began her diversity tour with an impressive list of contributors. For more details, check out this page.

3. Writer Unboxed has acquired a Facebook page which any and all are welcome to join. I believe you can “like” it yourself, but if you want an invitation, just leave me a comment below and I’d be happy to facilitate that. The page is a great place to post writing links and have informal chats about industry-related topics.

4. I don’t think I told you guys formally, but that gaming post I wrote which was referenced in the MSNBC blog? It also got picked up by the gaming site, Kotaku.com.  (Article here.) Needless to say, that was a lovely surprise, and I’m very grateful for the exposure!

5. If you write science fiction and fantasy, you might be interested in a 3-day conference on the Washington Coast this July. Instructors include David Levine and Jay Lake, and TOR executive editor, Beth Meacham. For more details, please go to the Cascade Writers website. 

6. Lastly, if you are searching for a playful and generous writer — one with such an amiable nature it would never occur to him to retaliate for practical jokes, no matter how provoked — you couldn’t do any better than Timothy Power. Srsly.

Glen Campbell (left), portrait of an uncorrupted Timothy Power on the right

Who else would tolerate unsubtle references to his parentage?

Who else would laugh when given a new nickname, Rhinestone Tim-bo?

So to close out this post, in honor of Timothy’s Teflon cheerfulness, let’s share the best nicknames we know. I won’t tell you who, but I’m thinking of a guy who was born with a heart murmur, suffered with athlete’s foot (once), and had wavy hair (which he hated). How did his compassionate siblings respond, you might ask?

Naturally, they called him Heart Attack Fungus Curl.

Have any nicknames you want to confess?