Miscellany of Ten or Eleven Things, with Finch, Mustian, Banks, Le Carre, Steamp***, and Zombies

(The new Iain M. Banks, which I'll be reviewing for [redacted], with guy holding cat in photo Ann acquired at an antique store. Apparently that photo hung in a restaurant for a long time and is someone famous. Anyone recognize him?)First off, if you love zombies, you should definitely check out Tor's week-long zombie feature with all kinds of prizes and undead stuff. (I hate zombies, so it is useful that they will be all gathered in one avoidable place for a month.) I will be hosting anti-zombie week here at Ecstatic Days, which will consist of 66 blog entries on Robert Musil's The Man With No Qualities.Second of all, Jeremy Jones is still doing awesome posts on Booklifenow, so go show him some love.Third, Finch is now available through Audible.com: 17 hours of pulse-pounding noir thriller wrapped inside a spy novel wrapped inside an interrogation wrapped inside universe-bending SF wrapped inside oldfashioned mushroompunk. With music by Murder by Death. You know you want it. You know you may need some kind of mind-altering substance while listening. That too.Fourth, I had some barbarians separated at birth on two separate Pyr covers to show off, but apparently my fingers hate barbarian slaughterpunk, because those two Nordic atrocity-slashers somehow got lost between the POB and my car. Sigh.Fifth, I've posted an interview with Mark T. Mustian, author of The Gendarme on Omnivoracious. The book takes place in the present-day and during the Armenian genocide (1915).Sixth, I'm about a third of the way through Le Carre's latest, Our Kind of Traitor, and he's still amazing. The opening of this novel is a stunning example of why he's one of our most gifted storytellers--knowing just what to reveal and what not, when to double-back, when to go forward, when to slow down and when to speed up. Any writer can learn tons from Le Carre, no matter what stage of development they're at.Seventh, here's a juxtaposition that didn't make my mash-up post earlier. Go figure.Eighth, Felix Gilman's The Half-Made World ARC comes with a limited edition chapbook designed by none other than the great, the mighty John Coulthart.Ninth, the chapbook of student writings from this year's Shared Worlds, designed by the equally mighty Will Hindmarch, is available for download on the SW site:Tenth, my best friend from high school, Duane Bray, who more or less co-founded Ministry of Whimsy with me---we also worked on our high school lit mag and newspaper together---and designed a lot of the early Ministry books including Leviathans 1---3, is a major player in physical design. Awesome!Eleventh, here's a teasing glimpse of the rough layout thumbnails from the Steampunk Bible art/makers section. Say goodbye to this layout--a lot of it's changing!