Macro Monday Has Luminous Spines

It’s not the greatest photo I’ve ever taken, but really, I quite like it. Those are, of course, the spiny spines of the luna moth (Actias luna) caterpillar, spines that, should you touch them, will give you a nasty little passive sting for your intrusion.

If you want to see something really freaking weird, PEEP THIS:

BEHOLD THE MOUNTAIN OF FLESH

ALL HAIL THE SQUIRMLORD

BE CONSUMED BY ITS QUIVERING PILE OF TENDONS AND MEAT

Okay, fine, it’s not a mountain of flesh, nor is it a Squirmlord —

Those are the mouthparts of Zorak, our resident mantis (here is Zorak, posing for the camera):

In other, sadder news, the voiceover and animation artist who voiced and drew Space Ghost’s Zorak, C. Martin Croker, passed away, and that’s not cool. 2016, you are shit.

Anyway.

So, what’s going on? Well —

This coming Thursday, I will be at the new Emmaus, PA location of Let’s Play Books, and I will be talking about Invasive and Star Wars and really whatever else you want me to talk about. I will be bringing BUG-ENCRUSTED FOOD-STUFFS (entomophagy ftw), and I will also be featuring cupcakes from the best cupcake place from which I’ve tasted cupcakes: Sugar So Sweet, also in Emmaus. The cupcakes will not contain bugs, so you can thank me for that mercy. I’ll sign books. I’ll sign children. I’ll answer questions. I’ll try to get you to eat crickets. And so on. Come! Say hi! Thursday, the 22nd, at 6PM.

Now, behold: the Pelee Island Writers Retreat IndieGoGo campaign. Click that and you will see that it is a writer’s retreat on an island (!) in October 2017 which at different times will feature Margaret Atwood and, at the complete other end of the spectrum of literary shenanigans, me. But, you need to go, sign up, donate, if you want this to happen. You! Me! Margaret Atwood! Birds! Words! Probably swearing! I don’t know! Go sign up.

DID YOU SEE ME ON COOKING THE BOOKS WITH FRAN WILDE? YOU SHOULD. It’s me! And Fran! Talking about food and bugs and also there’s a recipe so go clicky.

Also, three new reviews for Invasive:

Awesome author Harry Connolly talks about the book a little: “Terrific. Wendig has a way with words, which is not to say that his writing is delicate and lovely, but that it’s very inventive, specific and filled with vitality.” (Thanks, Harry!)

At Skulls in the Stars: “The broad strokes of Invasive may seem familiar to those who have read the works of Michael Crichton, in which there is often a remote high-tech research facility in which the experiments go horribly wrong.  First I should note — and I think this is vague enough to not be a spoiler — that there is a dramatic, indeed catastrophic twist about 2/3rds of the way through Invasive that is surprising and very different from anything I remember of Crichton. There is a bigger difference between Wendig’s writing and Crichton’s writing, however…” (read the rest to find out what that is)

And at Ian Hiatt’s blog: “So I finished INVASIVE within 48 hours of starting it. I highly recommend doing this. It’s not that the book is so good as to warrant dangerously speedy devouring. It is—but my warning comes from a place of squirminess. You don’t want your mind resting on the main stars of this book. Ants. Lots and lots of ants. Thousands. Probably millions.”

(Anyway, point is, hey, yay, Invasive: Indiebound | Amazon | B&N)

Two more things, then I’m out:

First, my NYCC schedule is mostly done baking, and I’ll post it soon as it is.

Second, question to the crowd — I’m considering closing up shop on the Flash Fiction Fridays. They’ve been… less trafficked recently and I wonder if it’s maybe time to quietly close the door on them. (I didn’t post one on Friday.) Though, sometimes summers can be quiet, too, so maybe we’ll be ramping up more soon? Let me know!