…featuring Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and a brand-new viola concerto by local player and composer Jonathan Ward, is in today’s LeaderPost. It begins: What do you program for the final masterworks concert of the 100th season of a symphony orchestra? It would be hard to improve on the Regina Symphony Orchestra’s answer to that question: Beethoven’s …
I received this copy of Peter V. Brett‘s The Warded Man (published in the U.K. as The Painted Man, by the way) in my book bag at World Fantasy Con in Calgary back in October, but it took me a while to get around to reading it–which is why I ended up reading an “Advance …
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2009/04/photic-sneezing.mp3[/podcast] “Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy,” the late John Denver sang. “Sunlight in my eyes can make me cry.” Lovely lyrics. But as a kid, I thought it would have made more sense for Denver to sing, “Sunlight in my eyes can make me sneeze.” Because for somewhere between one in 10 and …
Yeah, I know. Of all the superfluous book reviews in the world, another one of Wicked is probably the superfluousmost. After all, it’s a New York Times bestseller, with more than three million copies in print. USA Today called it “an outstanding work of imagination.” John Updike called it an “amazing novel.” The Los Angeles …
I first discovered David Weber’s Honor Harrington series rather late, reading the first few installments in ebook form on my hieBook reader when they were made available for downloading at the Baen Free Library. I loved them, and moved on to buy the next few in paperback. Now I am fully addicted and purchase them in hardcover …
I’ve confirmed three signing events for Terra Insegura so far, if you’d like to come out and get a signed copy and meet me in person. (Which might be interesting to some people, although I spend all day with me and sometimes I get pretty tired of myself.) The first signing will be at the …
This is the review I’ve sent to CBC’s Afternoon Edition and is more or less what I’ll be saying on the radio this afternoon (probably about 4:10 p.m., though I haven’t heard for certain). As they say, check against delivery! *** Globe Theatre is closing out its mainstage season right now with Doubt, A Parable, a …
I attended a terrific event today at Regina’s St. Gabriel and Jack MacKenzie schools. Called World Book Day Saskatchewan, it was a celebration of Saskatchewan authors. Besides myself, Alison Lohans, Anne Patton, Dave Glaze, Deana Driver, Glenda Goertzen, Jean Freeman, Judith Silverthorne, Linda Aksomitis, Lori Punshon, Mary Harelkin Bishop, Maureen Ulrich, Mercedes Montgomery, Myrna …
My preview of New Dance Horizon’s presentation of Montreal’s Fortier Danse Creation’s Cabane is in today’s LeaderPost. It begins: Cabane, says Paul-Andre Fortier of Montreal’s Fortier Danse Creation, is not your typical dance show: instead, it’s “somewhere between dance, theatre, performance art, installation and site-specific.” Presented by New Dance Horizons tonight at 8 p.m. in …
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/surveying-technology.mp3[/podcast] I’m working on a history of the Saskatchewan Land Surveyor’s Association—and, as with everything I work on, learning stuff I never knew before. In this case, stuff about the technology of surveying. The ancient Romans did pretty well using just three simple instruments: the groma, the chorobate, and measuring rods. The groma consisted of …
OK, this post is strictly for those for whom the juxtaposition of the words “Swallows” and “Amazons” makes sense, as opposed to seeming as random as, say, “Hummingbirds” and “Cossacks.” But those for whom those words in combination conjure up pleasant memories of classic children’s books involving resourceful kids in sailing boats will appreciate the accompanying …
I’ve fallen a bit behind in posting my mini-reviews of the books I read, but I’m going to do my best to catch up in the next little while, beginning with Felix Gilman‘s Thunderer . There’s a long tradition of fabulous and exotic cities in fantasy fiction, from Gormanghast to Minas Tirith to Ankh-Morpork, but …
