I imagine this transmission has taken months to reach you, as on a recent adventure, I veered off course after a mid-flight calamity; a spare Black Hole Starter Kit exploded unexpectedly, and the resultant wormhole transported me to the fabulous Vega Omega Funtime Planet, where I felt obliged to spend a couple months in orbit. I took in a few shows (including the runaway hit “Springtime in Secunda Giedi”) enjoyed the amazing and exotic food, and met some truly remarkable fellow travelers. At one late-night story-swapping roundtable, Big Jones Leary asked “How are things back on Earth?” The table grew quiet with anticipation and I told them:
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The Solar System, Interpreted
When you first espy the Jovian Giant Red Spot, what do you see: an angry and turbulent planet, an interstellar behemoth as threatening as it is grand? When you turn your mind’s eye to the Moon, do you imagine her content or a sad and mournful mistress?
Earlier this year, the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. asked designers and artists to gaze into the heavens and consider the planets of the Solar System. What legends about the gods color our contemporary conception of their celestial namesakes? How has human exploration changed our understanding of these worlds both far and distant?
The results of this creative exercise are dazzling to behold: a set of ten finely crafted collectible postcards featuring the work of Fantagraphics designers Jacob Covey and Adam Grano, former 826 Seattle design interns Spencer Charles and Julia-Anne Bork, Golden Lasso designers Roshan Gurusinghe and Robert Well, local artists Adam Spencer and Jenny Catchings, cartoonist David Lasky, and in-house designer Justin Allan.
The postcards are now available
on-line . As a special treat, limited-edition seven-color screenprints of the
Jupiter and limited-edition gilcee prints of
Saturn are available. Word has it additional planets are soon to follow.
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Tickle Your Brain
A package recently arrived at the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. marked DO NOT OPEN UNTIL MAY 15. It set the staff to wondering and conjecturing what could possibly be waiting inside: a dangerous alien egg pod, the new shipment of Mighty Minion Robots, something horrible yet amazing (and maybe even shiny)?
We do have one lead: At a recent student workshop, a group of particularly creative and clever kids spent hours developing a new product for sale in the store. Described as “the perfect tool for average people aiming to be super, jocks secretly yearning to be brainiac nerds, smart people desiring to be even smarter, bored people, writers with writer’s block, travelers stuck in the middle of nowhere, anybody with hair (or not), and scientists in need of innovative ideas,” this product is sure to revolutionize modern cortical stimulation. And it’s reportedly “very shiny.”
UPDATE: The product--THE
METALLIC BRAIN STIMULATOR--was unveiled on Saturday, May 15, to much applause and cheering. Check out out website for more information - though an in-store demonstration really is required to get an idea of just how cool this product is.
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New In The Store
Attention aspiring writers: Need a little inspiration, a guide, or a checklist as you put the finishing touches on your novel? Courtesy of our friends at 826 National, we have two tools to assist you:
The Secret Miracle: The Novelist’s Handbook, edited by Daniel Alarcon. This collection of interviews documents a star-studded discussion on the craft of writing by a slew of notable figures from all walks of the literary community, including Michael Chabon, Paul Auster, Amy Tan, Haruki Murakami, and Stephen King. Get an inside look at the alchemy of writing fiction: everything from nuts-and-bolts queries to perennial questions posed by writers and readers alike.
Are You Absolutely, Positively, and Wholeheartedly Ready To Publish Your Novel? Poster: You're done. You've finally finished that soon-to-be Pulitzer winner, monster of a book, and it's giving you all these warm, fuzzy feelings of satisfaction. But are you really done? Is this really it? After months, years, or decades of careful deliberation over those transitions and subplots, are you totally ready to give your paper child its first true glimpse of sunlight? Don't you want one last double-check of your novel's readiness for publication?
We had a feeling that might be the case. That's why the certified poster specialists at 826 National have engineered the A
re You Absolutely, Positively, and Wholeheartedly Ready to Publish Your Novel? poster. Designed to provide exhaustive answers to all of your queries and quell all of your concerns and self-doubts, this detailed poster is a must-have. Pick one up for yourself or your favorite writer today!
Be hella cool in a new Mercury Cougar-rama Muscle Car–‘Splosion Tee-shirt. Forget supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Mary Poppins, who? Singer/songwriter Neko Case has brought us the newest verbal mouthful, the Mercury Cougar-Rama Muscle Car–'Splosion! To celebrate the benefit auction for Neko's '67 Mercury Cougar (launching in June on eBay) she has also designed these awesome, limited edition t-shirts. Proceeds from the tee-shirt and the auction benefit 826 National.
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Until Next Time
With that I must say farewell, as Big Jones Leary needs assistance operating his newfangled DVD player. Remember, what happens in the Vega system rarely escapes the star’s gravitational pull. Farewell fellow space traveler!
Adventure Awaits!
