Yesterday, I shared the story of a mysterious painting I found outside the main branch of the New York Public Library.

My discovery of the canvas combined with what I’d learned while researching the artist online raised a few additional mysteries— (more…)

Marooned, which is devoted to science fiction about Mars, took note today of my short story “Mom, the Martians, and Me,” which was published in 2002 in Pete Crowther’s anthology Mars Probes.

The blogger calls my tale “a clever short story” and shares what he describes as “a cool passage describing how Mom turned her bedroom into an astronomical museum and space library.”

I’m happy to see that an older story of mine is still getting some attention!

So there I was in Manhattan yesterday morning, walking north on Fifth Avenue toward the SCI FI Channel offices at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. I was in town for my usual bimonthly meeting. As I passed the steps of the main branch of the New York Public Library, I saw a painting leaning against the base of one of the two world-famous sculptures of lions which stand guard out front.

I paused to admire the artwork, and as I was doing so, I slowly realized that there was something odd going on—its owner was nowhere to be seen.

I looked around, figuring that I’d find the artist nearby. Or if not the artist, then at least someone who was trying to sell it, as I often come across people hawking paintings and prints on the streets of New York. But I couldn’t see anyone whose posture or eye contact made claim to the painting.

I was intrigued. Perhaps, I thought, the artist is hiding somewhere nearby to judge how people will interact with his paintings. So I studied it further, fully expecting someone to step up beside me after I’d admired it long enough and reveal himself or herself as the creator. But no one appeared.

I could see no signature, simply a letter K at its lower right corner. So I turned over the painting in the hope that I could discover a clue to its origins. (more…)

The American Society of Magazine Editors has just announced its finalists for the Best Magazine Covers of the Year. Categories include Best Celebrity Cover, Best Concept Cover, Best News Cover and more.

Pictured below is one of the three finalists in the most important category, Cover of the Year. The New Yorker is up against covers from Interview and New York.

You can see all the finalists here.

Winners will be announced October 6 at the American Magazine Conference in San Francisco.

On page 318 of Esquire‘s 75th anniversary issue, the magazine takes satiric note of “75 Years of Esquire Corrections.” One of these mock entries explains the real reasons for Raymond Carver’s fame:

Due to a printer’s error, 948 words were accidentally omitted from “Neighbors,” Raymond Carver’s first short story published in Esquire, in the June 1971 issue. Credit for Carver’s influential spare style, once attributed to a former editor at the magazine, should now be directed to a retired print manager in New Jersey.

In what as far as I know is its first review, Aliette de Bodard tackles Postscripts #15 over at The Fix and has this to say about my story:

In “A Very Private Tour of a Very Public Museum” by Scott Edelman, the robot narrator was once the curator-in-training of a museum but was promoted to curator when the Visitor, an alien robot, arrived and decreed that robots should not be the subject of art. While a clever story, I remain not quite convinced by the ending, which felt too easy to me.

Move over, whippersnappers—it’s time for the geezers to rule!

Are you getting tired of all those lists which anoint the 30 hottest writers/artists/whatevers under 30? If so, then does Slate have a list for you!

The magazine has just gathered together a more seasoned group of movers and shakers by focusing on the other end of the age spectrum with its list of 80 Over 80: The Most Powerful Octogenarians in America.

Here are those who made the list from the literary and publishing worlds:

9. Edward Albee, 80
11. Studs Terkel, 96
13. Helen Gurley Brown, 86
26. Stan Lee, 85
28. Mary Higgins Clark, 80
46. Maya Angelou, 80
48. Horton Foote, 92
53. Jacques Barzun, 100
59. Louis Auchincloss, 90
67. Cynthia Ozick, 80
74. W.S. Merwin, 80
78. Stanley Kauffman, 92

You can check out the entire list here.

The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log reports on a Cartoonist’s 10 Commandments, as drafted for young cartoonists by the Groupement des Auteurs de Bande Dessinée du Syndicat National des Auteurs et des Compositeurs (that is, the French Artists’ Syndicate’s Comics Creators Group).

According to the site’s translation of French journalist Didier Pasamonik’s paraphrasing of the original document, the manifesto includes such common-sense recommendations as—

1. You will not surrender your talent for the rest of your life.

&#151and—

4. You will recover your rights if your work is not in exploitation.

—all of which can be applied to any creative endeavor, and not just comics.

Any readers of French out there can download the original document here.

Seen at the supermarket …

Courtesy of Times Online comes a list of “10 Books Not To Read Before You Die,” excerpted from Richard Wilson’s upcoming book, Can’t Be Arsed: 101 Things Not to Do Before You Die.

Wedged between Pride and Prejudice at #1 and Ulysses at #10 is Lord of the Rings. According to Wilson:

The best I can say about this book is that it was a very useful tool at school for helping to choose your friends. Carrying a copy of Tolkien’s monstrous tome was the equivalent of a leper’s bell: ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ I knew I would have nothing in common with anyone who had read it. Their taste in music, clothes, television, everything was predetermined by their devotion to Gandalf. Without a shadow of a doubt, in a few years, these people would be going to Peter Gabriel gigs and reading Dune.