My next interview for the blog, with Rati Mehrotra, should be up in the next week or so. In the meantime, read some interesting news and have some fun with this set of links.
Book Links
SF/F legend Ursula K. Leguin died earlier this week. I don’t have a lot to say about this since so many others with greater knowledge of her work have already done it better. But she was a sharp, clear thinker, and her voice will be missed.
Lightspeed Magazine is open to submissions in February. Send your original SF and fantasy stories between February 5th and 19th! (Disclosure: I have been a slush reader of theirs for 4 years.)
Tea Links
The 6th annual Toronto Tea Festival is around the corner. I’m going, but I don’t know how much I’ll buy because I have so damn much already, and also because of digestive issues. I’ll probably stick with greens this year.
KittyLovesTea just posted a delightful review of a fukubukuro bag from Yunomi, a Japanese vendor. I’ve never heard of fukubukuro bags before this, but it sure sounds fun.
Life, the Universe, and Everything Links
I love Foz Meadows’ blog, and this deconstruction of The Last Jedi is another reason why. Its dissection of why the Canto Bight subplot doesn’t work (because apparently we can’t have Gay Space People) is especially trenchant.
Every so often, io9 shares interesting short films. The Defector is a particularly good example, putting an SF-nal spin on the death/disappearance of Australian PM Harold Holt in 1967. It’s got great dialogue, staging, and production values for something so short.