an important bookstore wants to stay open

Borderlands Books is an important enough independent SF/Fantasy/Horror bookstore in California that it has a Wikipedia entry nobody has even nominated for deletion. But like most independent (and many not-so-independent) physical resellers, they’ve had trouble competing with digital and online-only sellers, and have reached a crisis point.

And as a mostly-digital artist doing mostly-digital work, I still think physical media matters. I think used books matter, too, which is why I buy only DRM-free books in digital form. Seanan McGuire has talked a good bit about how much used book matters, and while I already cared, her thoughts made me care more.

But as I said above, Borderlands Books have hit a crisis point, much like Scarecrow Video did here in Cascadia last year, and are faced with having to close down. But, also like Scarecrow, they’re trying a new path to staying around. They’re looking for sponsors, more or less – they aren’t going the complete 501(c)3 route, since unlike Scarecrow, they aren’t a library-like environment, so that wouldn’t work as well. But it’s similar.

Reaction has already been strongly positive, and in a day they made it more than halfway towards goal. So if you have interests in this sort of thing, and have the money to be a sponsor, go give their proposal a look. Californians in particular – go see what you think.

Let’s keep the bookstores open, why don’t we?

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Classic Who nostalgia

In the 1990s, this animation aired between episodes of Doctor Who on KBTC. It aired pretty regularly and I adored it. (I ♥ Spider Chip 68000!) Anyway, it's hard to find, but I've been ripping VHS and! found the tape Paul had previously found which had it. And here you go.

WELCOME ABOARD THE SHUTTLE. ARE YOU READY TO BE SCARED TO DEATH?