Weekend Update!

My Christmas break wasn't entirely unproductive.  I've got two new short stories and the first chapter and outline of a new fantasy novel.  I spent a lot of time with family and friends, and I read a tremendous amount of economic history.  I also read at least one novel, and I'm still trying desperately to finish Game of Thrones before I start watching the HBO television show.  I've gotten really interested in the economy of magical worlds, so I've been spending some time looking at how the economy actually works in the real world.

In the meantime, I haven't seen anything new in the theaters.  I'm really looking forward to seeing Les Miserables, Django Unchained, Jack Reacher and Zero Dark Thirty (which I've been informed hasn't been released nationwide, yet).  The Hobbit, while enjoyable, was underwhelming.  On a somewhat related note, George Lucas is engaged to DreamWorks Animation Chairperson Mellody Hobson.

Speaking of Zero Dark Thirty, it's been getting a lot of attention from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who are questioning the narrative it advances, and wondering whether CIA operatives purposefully misled the filmmakers about the importance of torture in finding Osama bin Laden.  The debate centers around the films portrayal of "advanced interrogation techniques" producing timely intelligence in the manhunt of the terrorist leader.  Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee want to know if it's true.  And if it's not, they want to know why the CIA gave the filmmakers false information. 

January looks like a pretty good month for genre releases.  First of all, the behemoth against which all fantasy epics are compared comes to a conclusion this month.  A Memory of Light concludes the Wheel of Time.  Since the tragic loss of Robert Jordan, the series has been helmed ably by Brandon Sanderson.  The final book is set to be released Tuesday, January 8th.  Jay Lake's third installment of the Green Trilogy, Kalimpura is set for a January 29th release.  Peter Hamilton's new book, The Great North Road was released this last Tuesday, January 1st.  I'm kind of interested in The Explorer by James Smythe.  Here's the publisher's synopsis:

When journalist Cormac Easton is selected to document the first manned mission into deep space, he dreams of securing his place in history as one of humanity’s great explorers. But in space, nothing goes according to plan. The crew wake from hypersleep to discover their captain dead in his allegedly fail-proof safety pod. They mourn, and Cormac sends a beautifully written eulogy back to Earth. The word from ground control is unequivocal: no matter what happens, the mission must continue. But as the body count begins to rise, Cormac finds himself alone and spiraling towards his own inevitable death, unless he can do something to stop it.

 Tor.com is offering, for free, an ebook collection of the best short stories offered from their site in 2012.  You can read them all on the site, or you can download the collection.  Either way, it seems like a pretty good deal.