New Tapestry

KesselsKramer's New Tapestry is an updated version of the Bayeux Tapestry, a huge medieval work of art showing the current affairs of its time. Where the Bayeux Tapestry told the news stories of 1066, New Tapestry tells the news events of 2009. It's 30 meters long and illustrated by 44 international artists.

"My" artist, Ilene Winn-Lederer, who did the glorious cover & illustrations for my book The Golden Dreydl (see Userpic), is Weeks 14 & 15: "The Blessing of the Sun" and "Galileo Galilei." (And, yeah, I do wish they had run a pop-up of the actual names of the artists who were good enough to contribute art, don't you?)

While we're on the subject, Winn-Lederer's newest book is Between Heaven and Earth: An Illuminated Torah Commentary (Pomengranate Press). Pure glory. Take a look at this Slide Show, and you'll see why it's the perfect wedding/ba(r/t) mitzvah gift forever.

Or maybe you'd prefer her self-published The Alchymical Zoodiac: A Celestial Bestiary ?

I also want to thank her for generously contributing some really nice spot art to the all-new, all-revised IAF website.

Kage Baker

I saw her in a wheelchair at World Fantasy, talked with her about her cancer, and meant to post about it as soon as I got home; was ashamed to have forgotten, only I see here that she was not eager to have it known; but still . . . . .

Kage Baker is one of the living F/SF authors whom I most admire. I am polite about a lot of writers, but there aren't many I admire.

It is just appalling to me that she is not rich and famous with a shelf full of Hugos and Nebulae and those incredibly ugly busts of H.P. Lovecraft (World Fantasy). Not that she isn't a frequent nominee, and doesn't get brilliant reviews. But she seems to fly under the radar of general popularity. Maybe she's too smart? Too funny? Too wry? Too knowledgeable on history and language? Maybe her characters suffer too quietly, have sex too realistically? Maybe the world was not waiting for several well-written series and a huge net of short stories that all, amazingly, turn out to be interwoven even though at first you'd deem it impossible?

When I saw her at WFC, she said she wasn't able to sit up and write, but that her sister (a million blessings on her head) was taking dicatation on a new work. I hate the idea of a world without a new Kage Baker story or novel.

The word is out, now, on just how ill she is. Her caregiver has posted e/address for cards etc. They are not asking for money to cover health care. Which doesn't mean we shouldn't all give something back. Please, do yourself a giant favor - and let the world of publishing know she's valued - by buying some of Kage Baker's work.

I'd love to see your comments here on what Kage Baker book or story you'd recommend. Me: For a long and enjoyable ride, I'd say start with In the Garden of Iden, and run right through the entire "Company" series - and how I envy you not having to wait a year or two or seven to find out how it all comes out! Don't want to commit? Try Empress of Mars (it's the name of a tavern. In a mining town. On, yes...) , or The Anvil of the World (think "Thorne Smith meet Fritz Leiber and they go on a road trip").

Here's a recent interview, mostly about House of the Stag. Here's one from 2005 that delves into the complexity of her series. Here's another good one from 2002.