I don't mean to nitpick, Tom, but is this really your plan?

A People’s Future of the United States, ( is that a trademark problem? )Meghan Scott Molin, The Frame-Up: ( comic book mystery )
Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Certain Dark Things:( vampire intrigue )
Helen Hoang, The Kiss Quotient: ( sex work as meet cute )
Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Time: ( Spiders inherit the stars )
N.J. Jemisin, How Long ‘Til Black Future Month?: ( good question )
Corinne Duyvis, On the Edge of Gone: ( apocafic )
Ben Aaronovitch, Lies Sleeping: ( Faceless no more? )
Richard K. Morgan, Thin Air: ( Noir Mars )

Thanks to shoofus for the virtual panda!

I’ve been listening to Alanis Morissette’s Jekyll & Hyde, a delightful bonus track on the iTunes version of havoc & bright lights. That album, plus the new Pet Shop Boys, made me realize that putting together b-sides is getting to be as complicated as it was in the bad old days, what with Amazon and iTunes having different versions (and often enough different prices, though Amazon is going to $1.29 on some tracks too).

eBay wants to force you into arbitration (which you will never be able to afford a lawyer for, much less win) unless you opt out. ( details )

The awesome Steve Burt (disclosure: I’m proud to call him a friend) gets a full story in the NYT, in which his practice of focusing on the poets he likes and not spending time on criticizing those he doesn’t gets some attention.

Not unrelatedly, George Orwell on “Why I Write."

My favorite vid from Vividcon was bradcpu’s Ride to California.  I love how it uses “California” as a metaphor for the heroism of the Avengers; I can’t explain exactly why I love that so much, but the vid is great fun.

( Charles Stross, Richard Morgan )

The LJ user representative election is ongoing, and I think it may be worthwhile to vote, if only to show that there are people who take this more seriously than the lead non-fandom candidate does. As others have said, I’m dubious that LJ will take a user rep seriously, but I know that they won’t if the users vote for an asshole like him. From what I've seen, rm, vichan, and legomymalfoy are fans. For more on the voting method, the wikipedia article on instant runoff voting is quite helpful. Intriguingly, there are situations in which voting for someone can cause her to lose, at least in theory, but overall the method has many attractive features, especially for a disorganized group like LJ users. It seems like a good choice of procedure, at least.

And while I'm here:

( Comics: Black Widow )