Angel's turn for this week's Stuff We Like and she's brought us something a little unusual... Hi all! None of our regular readers will be shocked to hear that I love gardens. I've posted a couple of times about them, after all. Probably also not a shock that I like unusual art installations. So this week's SWL is an ingenious melding of the two. Longwood Gardens, about half an hour from our house, is the former estate of Pierre S. DuPont, a man of vast wealth and power who was nevertheless one of the good guys. He rescued a beautiful arboretum from the lumber companies, bought it and the surrounding lands, and created an amazing country retreat with formal gardens, conservatory, greenhouses, and wild spaces. In his waning years, he gave the gardens to the public, for everyone to enjoy. Longwood is an art installation itself with it's ever-changing colors, it's wonderful celebration of the seasons. But to provide an additional bit of amazement, for the past couple of years artist groups have been setting up large-scale installations with light and sound, using the plants as a backdrop. This year's installation was called "Nightscape" in which several areas in the gardens, both indoor and outdoor, were transformed after dark into these astounding giant art pieces using projected light and music. It's a bit difficult to explain, so I thought it best to show you: These videos only show a portion of the installation. It was bloody brilliant, the whole thing and I can't wait to see what they do next year. :)
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Freddy here. I want to talk about my Outside the Margins column today, but first I have to tell you about PBA. What is PBA? Prism Book Alliance is a great source for readers of queer fiction. They are a review site - they do mostly MM romance but review other stuff as well. Their reviewers do a great job of reviewing the book without giving away major plot points (or the endings - which we as authors and publishers appreciate), let us know what worked for them or what didn't, and they try to highlight why other people may like the book even if they didn't. Positive people. And that's awesome. Brandilyn is the site owner. It started off as a review site of her own and has grown tremendously over the past couple of years. She does a lot of things for both the readers and authors. Five Things Fridays Retro Reads Author Spotlight Giveaways Guest Blogs Interviews Reviews Sunday Spotlights Outside the Margins All of these allow readers a one stop location for the reader to find lots of different info while allowing authors to help build a platform for themselves. You can pick and choose what information you want to see and so forth.
When Brandilyn asked me to be an OtM contributor, I jumped at the chance, not really knowing what I would do. Ultimately I decided on a flash fiction piece. ;) There are a lot of different contributors to the column, all sharing, spreading ideas and facilitating discussions. It's wonderful to see so many different people come together to talk about things they feel are relevant to them, publishing, readers, and the world at large. Edmond Manning has wonderful commentary as does Hank Edwards. Posy Roberts shares bits of wisdom with us. There are wonderful articles by KJ Charles, Anna Zabo, Brigham Vaughn, and so many others. And the best part about it? All these different voices are in one spot to share their voices, experience, and wonder with the world. What other place would that happen? So, thank you, Brandilyn. For bringing all of us together and giving us a place to speak. |
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