The 42 Challenge Review...

...will start next Thursday, January 21st 28th. [Because I can't get my act together, so I'll have two reviews then]

While I have finished the first book I was planning to review (Mary Robinette Kowal's debut story collection Scenting the Dark and Other Stories), my unexpected trip into New York City on Tuesday sort of knocked me for a loop, shifted my plans and further exacerbated my already wonky sleeping schedule. The concert we saw (that sooper-secret show I mentioned before, which may not have been as sooper secret as I assumed, more on that later) was well worth it, but trips into NYC always leave me tired and usually with headache, this one being no exception.

Rather than throw something together and possibly give a less than well thought out review, I've decided to hold off another week and get my balance back. In addition to Scenting the Dark I've already got a bunch of stuff lined up to absorb and review from various media (books, TV shows, music), and look forward to sharing them with you.

Don't be disappointed, the world isn't going to end because of this. I've delayed that, too.

The 42 Challenge

Back on my New Year's Day post I named two projects I was going to be undertaking this year (two of several, but what those others are among the unnamed will have to wait for now, they're not ready to play with you, Internet Peoples). The first was my 25x52 giving project, which has now has two weeks worth of goodness under its belt and is rolling along nicely. The second, also numerically inclined, is the 42 Challenge.

While 25x52 was my creation, the 42 Challenge was born of and is curated by Becky of Becky's Book Reviews (and a few other blogs; aside from leaving a comment on her blog announcing my participation, I haven't really made her acquaintance yet, but I will remedy that soon enough). I had heard of it last year and thought it was a neat idea, but didn't give any more thought to it until I saw a link to it again at the end of the year (or two weeks ago, take your pick), when I read her call for 2010 participants. I have been wanting to put up reviews here for a while (along with interviews, so far only one in that category, but hopefully more this year), and this seemed like a nice way to do it and hopefully get a little more traffic the Manifesto's way.

What is the 42 Challenge? Well, the short of it, borrowed from the Challenge's blog, is to...

Review 42 sci-fi related items: short stories, novellas, novels, radio show episodes, television show episodes, movies, graphic novels, comic books, audio books, essays about science fiction, biographies about sci-fi authors, etc. Adapted or abridged works are okay as well.

Keen, no?

Originally, my first entry was going to be a review of Avatar, but everyone's mother has already done one, and I have ever-growing mixed feelings about it to posit any kind of decent review. Instead, I just received a long-anticipated short story collection from Subterranean Press that I'm almost through and can't wait to tell the world about.

Starting next week the 42 Challenge reviews will post on Thursday afternoons, weekly, until I hit the magic number--and maybe beyond if I'm inclined. I'll keep my requisite running list as per the challenge rules on the sidebar somewhere with linked entries to each of the reviews (that'll go up when the first review does).

Until then...

2010, the year of giving...

Happy New Year to all!

So, you've all had about 16 hours at this point to break your resolutions--16 hours in my time zone at least, some of you have had over a day.

As for the passing year, it was more rough than smooth. Some people had a very good year, though, which is promising for the rest of us. It means that even in tough times good things happen. 2009 was an up and down year for me personally. I got engaged, left the publishing company I co-founded, was lucky enough to have my Day Job at the end while others there were not so fortunate, and watched loved ones lose theirs.

Once again I have high hopes for the New Year. 2010 promises new challenges and the next phase in an exciting adventure I started three years ago when I met my beloved. Our wedding is this May, the 15th to be exact. It's going to be an awesome event which I'm sure I'll share here.

Along with my wedding, my departure from BLAM! Ventures enables me to re-prioritize my writing life, my creative life really. I'm not going to go into all that right now, rather I'll follow Derek Sivers advise on handling that.

I will let you in on two things I'm doing, though:

The 42 Challenge. This is something I discovered only yesterday, but it coincided with something I've been wanting to do for a while now, and just haven't had the time to do. So I've signed myself up for it and should have something posted in the next couple of weeks towards this.

25x52. This one is personal, of my own creation, and why I've christened this the year of giving. It's about giving back--which in many respects has been a lacking quality in my life--and a reassessment of where I'm at. I'll have more on this in another post to follow tonight, along with my first donation of the year (which I just made a little while ago).

With that, I will wish you all a Happy New Year once more, and I look forward to taking on 2010!