Interviewed (Again)

Well, I guess that when Harry interviewed me a few weeks ago, it was so successful that people just wanted more. So, now I’ve been interviewed at Ubiquitous Absence. So, go learn more about me and Neth Space.

I’m still a bit surprised, honored, and chuffed when things like this happen.

One Door Closes, Another Opens

So, today is the day that Wotmania.com dies. Wotmania was at one time the single best community on the web devoted to the late Robert Jordan’s series, The Wheel of Time. Unfortunately, it suffered management problems – the guy running the site just didn’t seem to have the time, energy, desire, or whatever to help Wotmania become what it could have been. Thankfully, the community there kept it alive.

I care because Wotmania is the place that got me started on all this. Back in about 2001 I discovered Wotmania when I was looking for information about the next Wheel of Time book – I liked what I saw and lurked for many months. Then I started posting, then I became more active. Somewhere along the way, the OF Board was started and I became introduced to SFF authors beyond Robert Jordan. Authors like Neil Gaiman, George RR Martin, Steven Erikson, China Miéville, Scott Bakker and many, many more. I became even more active and then I became an admin as well. Somewhere along the way I started writing reviews, then I created a blog to store those reviews at. And now…

So, I owe my being here to Wotmania and I’m sad to see it close. And I’m not alone – Larry, Pat, Adam, and others were all there in the beginning. Wotmania influenced a lot of us who have greater visibility now. In reality, I’m also very angry at how and why it is closing and I lament the website it could have been if were allowed.

But the music never dies and some faithful members have started RAFO.com. The intent is to center things on discussion of SFF books (like the OF Section at Wotmania). The admin are all fresh and enthusiastic. The community is invigorated (if a bit smaller). The message board is still archaic (as the community wishes). So, join me in welcoming RAFO.com to web – I sure hope it’s a success.

News and Winners Announced

Well, I’m seemingly hopelessly behind around here. I review pretty much every book I read and I generally only read one book at a time. A quick glance over at the Currently Reading widget shows 4 books. Well, I’m really only reading one right now – Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound). I’ve finished the others, but still need to right reviews for them. I got behind with work and personal travel last month, almost got caught up, and then got really busy again. Dust of Dreams is a huge book (just shy of 900 pages in hardback), so I’ll probably get caught up before I finish reading it. And maybe I’ll find some spare time for other posts, but we’ll see.

Anyway, enough about me. With the help of Random.org, winners have been chosen for the WIND BAGS OF DUNE giveaway…err… the giveaway of two copies of The Winds of Dune by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound) and 5 string Winds of Dune bags from the good people over at Tor Books. So the winners are…

Winds of Dune bags:

• David from Toronto, Ontario
• Linda from Burford, Ontario
• John from Winder, Georgia
• Ric from Cutler Bay, Florida
• Bill from Greensburg, Pennsylvania

Signed copies of The Winds of Dune:

• Jeff from Fitchburg, Massachusetts
• Andrew from Toronto, Ontario

Congrats to all the winners!

Neth Space Profiled and Interviewed

Harry Markov over at Temple Library Reviews has a regular feature where he interviews bloggers. It’s an interesting look behind the blog and a curious experience for those of us who are generally on the other side of such a feature.

So, if you ever wanted to know just a bit more about me (or if you are hopelessly bored), check it out.

The Other End …

Aidan of A Dribble of Ink has gone and turned the tables on a few of the bloggers and reviewers out there in the SFF world (and even a publicist). He asked us a bunch of questions in a round-robin interview format – the answers are as verbose, self-serving and uninteresting as you would expect (so you should drop everything and go read them immediately). The list of participants includes me, Pat of the Hotlist, Chris (the book Swede), the SciFiChick, Graeme, Jeremy of The Fantasy Review, Robert the Fantasy Book Critic, Rob of SFF World, and La Gringa.

It looks like the interview has been cut out into two parts:

• Part One
  
• Part Two