NBC is premiering their “New York is a kingdom! Also, have some Bible!” series, Kings, in about two weeks. I lay out the buzz over at Tor.com.

It’s based loosely on the Biblical story of the life of King David. I know a little about the life of King David, because I went to Catholic school on Monday nights after my secular school day. I would know more about the life of King David, but I got kicked out of CCD so often that I hardly had time to learn anything. It was fine, since I think I mostly missed out on coloring things and gluing cotton-ball sheep together to be lambs of the Lord. It went like this a lot:

[Genevieve is eight.]

Teacher: Let’s talk about King David. I hope everyone has read the story in their Children’s Bible? Good. Now, when David killed Goliath –
G: In the King James Bible in church it says that David put Bathsheba’s husband where he would be killed so David could marry her. Isn’t that a sin?
Teacher: Well, in the Children’s Bible –
G: Also he lay with her while she was married. Isn’t that –
Teacher: OUT IN THE HALL, MISS VALENTINE.

I was a little bastard, sure, but I still call shenanigans. They had the Bibles right out there in church! Mass lasted two hours; what else was I supposed to do but read up? Why is she getting angry with me for asking questions about the text? It is RIGHT THERE.*

I do want to see how the show handles things, and I’m wondering how much of the Bible stuff will be tweaked – will it end up super-religious? Will they use allusion? Will it be Verse-of-the-Week? I have no idea, because NBC is really not promoting it. We’ll find out in two weeks! Watch this space.

* Teacher: When Mary and Joseph married, they –
G: But Leviticus says that a man shouldn’t marry a whore, and Mary was pregnant and not married, so why –
Teacher: OUT IN THE HALL.

“29 Union Leaders Can’t Be Wrong” is up on Escape Pod!

I have to wait until I’m home from work to listen to it, but I’m stoked. Mostly because I look like a badass in the parental warning underneath the intro:

“Rated R. Contains adult situations and violence.”

That’s right! Adult situations AND violence. (Note: not together. That dog won’t hunt, Monsignor.)

Oh, ONTD. 90% of the time you are Jensen Ackles picspams. 10% of the time, you are gold.

Scenes from the new sitcom “I Love Rorschach.”

So, I’m eligible for the Campbell.

I’m in superexcellent company, which Mary Robinette Kowal points out, so I have no expectations. I’m frankly excited just to be eligible.

In early 2007, I was working at a job I hated. I hadn’t written anything in two years – the same two years I had been at my job, which didn’t occur to me until later. (I was a genius.) I had one short story to my name; I figured it would never go anywhere, and when a friend made me submit it somewhere, I thought, “This is pointless.”

The day 29 Union Leaders Can’t Be Wrong ran in Strange Horizons, I gave notice at my job.

Things have since improved.

When I realized I was eligible this year, I called my mom to tell her. I explained what the eligibility meant, so she didn’t confuse it with a nomination, and reminded her which story it was (she only knows this one by name; everything else I have ever written is named “That Weird One”).

She said, “That’s great! Under your real name?“

This is the runway version of Marisa Tomei’s dress from the Oscars:

And I stared at it for about thirty seconds before I finally figured out what it reminded me of!

It reminds me of a very sharp-edged and postmodern take on Mina’s red dinner dress from Dracula, which I saw recently at the Gothic exhibit at FIT.

Man, do I love pleats.