Check out Author Island this month. From their website:

We've got Demons, Vampires, Shape shifters, Werewolves, Ghosts, Aliens, Witches and other Immortals hanging out over at AuthorIsland.com this month. As a matter of fact, I have so many great contests going on over at the Island right now, I couldn't include them all here. (Can you believe this is less than half of them?)

So be sure to head over to the AuthorIsland Contest Page to find all the other fantastic prizes waiting to be won from more fabulous authors of horror and paranormal like Caridad Pineiro, Devyn Quinn, Candace Havens, Diane Whiteside, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Susan Squires, LA Banks, F. Paul Wilson, Jeanne C Stein, Jennifer Cloud, Shiloh Walker, and Lori Handeland.

Hit the link and scroll through the contests. There are a lot of goodies up for grabs.

Read an article about libraries in Medford, OR being outsourced because the county ran out of money. An outfit called Library Systems and Services is taking over, providing books, employees and maintenance on the buildings. For half of the $8 million dollars previously spent on libraries, LSSI will have a full time staff operating 24 hours a week. Does this mean the for-profit company will stock the shelves with bestsellers only? Are librarians going to be replaced by service reps? Will the current librarians have to reapply for their old jobs at a lower salary? Am I the only one not crazy about this idea?


Is there another Serenity movie in the works? It seems the Serenity DVD Special Edition is selling so well, Universal may be considering it. Go Browncoats! And check out this site for all kinds of great Can’t Stop the Serenity stuff.

Ever wonder what the world’s worst poem is? The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has proclaimed a piece written in 1873 by Theophile Jules-Henri Marzials the winner (he should have gotten points for his name alone.) Anyway, for your reading pleasure (or pain) :

A Tragedy

Death!
Plop.
The barges down in the river flop.
Flop, plop,
Above, beneath.
From the slimy branches the grey drips drop...
To the oozy waters, that lounge and flop...
And my head shrieks - "Stop"
And my heart shrieks - "Die."...
Ugh! yet I knew - I knew
If a woman is false can a friend by true?
It was only a lie from beginning to end--
My Devil - My "friend."...
So what do I care,
And my head is empty as air -
I can do,
I can dare
(Plop, plop
The barges flop
Drip, drop.)
I can dare, I can dare!
And let myself all run away with my head
And stop.
Drop
Dead.
Plop, flop,
Plop.


Yikes, what do you think? Can you think of any poem that’s worse?  ¶ posted by Jeanne Stein @ 4:08 AM