Saving Lone Star

On Monday, I caught the first episode of Lone Star--a show about a con man--found it engrossing and intriguing, and was eager to see how it developed.

Then on Saturday, in the New York Times, I read that the show, up against Event and Dancing with the Stars, had done so poorly in the ratings that it might have been canceled immediately.

Only Fox has given it another chance--maybe only one.

If you're free to watch television this Monday at 9:00 pm, please choose Lone Star.
It may be your last chance.

But if enough others watch to buy Lone Star more time, its creator, Kyle Killen, will thank you:

http://thelettereleven.blogspot.com/

And I'll thank you.

Reading now. . .

It's taken a mere decade, but Norman Spinrad's He Walked Among Us, first published in France, is finally available in an English hardcover from Tor (for a while Spinrad offered it on his website as a download).

It's vivid and gripping, and keeping me awake way too many nights, and will likely haunt my dreams when I'm done with it.




For reviews and other information (including Spinrad's forthcoming work), see

http://www.sff.net/people/normanspinrad/

Can't Wait to Read . . .

The Sultan's Shadow, by Christiane Bird, the story of Sultan Said of Oman and his daughter Princess Salme, who would write the first known autobiography of an Arab woman--and of the nineteenth century East African slave trade.

For more information about the book, see the Salon review:

http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2010/06/27/shadow_of_the_sultan

or the author's website:

http://christianebird.com/

The Blessing Next to the Wound . . .

. . . a memoir by Hector Aristizabal, co-authored by my friend Diane Lefer, is aptly subtitled "a Story of Art, Activision, and Transformation."

Exiled from his native Colombia, where he survived torture, Aristizabal now lives in this country. Trained as an actor, he works for social justice, often in collaboration with Lefer, who will be discussing their book this Wednesday at the radical bookstore and cafe Bluestockings, 172 Allen St., at 7 pm.

Lefer also writes wonderful plays and short stories. For information about her work, see

http://www.dianelefer.weebly.com

And for more information about The Blessing Next to the Wound, go to

http://www.lanternbooks.com/detail.html?session=f79da872f32a1be8f6672dd7f974c43a&id=9781590561713