Mongoose Publishing's latest edition of its homegrown magazine Signs & Portents is out. Issue #56 of the role-playing/wargaming magazine includes "An introduction to 760 Patrons" detailing a new mission-oriented source book for Traveller, "Conan Combat Styles", two alternative campaigns for Babylon 5 Call to Arms, "Cthulhutech Spells" and much more.

The StarShipSofa podcast (http://www.starshipsofa.com/) is metamorphosing into the StarShipSofa - The Audio Science Fiction Magazine, following in the great tradition of magazines like Analog, Asimov and Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Each week the StarShipSofa will deliver a full package of SF related audio material all free including audio fiction, fact audio essays, flash fiction and poetry, all by leading names in the SF field. Many many writers have agreed to let StarShipSofa narrate their works including Ben Bova, Joe Haldeman, Alistair Reynolds and M John Harrison to name a few.

There will be two shows per week, the Wednesday show, also know as Aural Delights will contain narrated audio fiction, fact and poetry and the weekend show will be an in depth look into an author's life and work.

This week (4/27/08) saw the first of the metamorphosing with the StarShipSofa's Aural Delights show. Fiction was provided by Kage Baker's fantastic story "The Likely Lad", there were two poems by Bruce Boston and Laurel Winter, both winners of the Rhysling Award for SF Poetry. Flash fiction came from a very short but very powerful story called "Repeating The Past' by Peter Watts, author of the SF novel Blindsight.

If you ever wanted to check out my "Summon WebScryer" column in Knights of the Dinner Table Magazine, but were never able to pick up a print issue, here's your big chance. Kenzer & Company is has posted Issue #132 as a free download.

It's a full-version of the magazine, including 26 pages of comics, plus a wealth of regular features. In addition to my column, which rounds up official and fan web sites dedicated to RuneQuest, theres also Mur Lafferty's print version of "Geek Fu Action Grip", which deals with the rise of social networking.

You can also check out the Lost Game Safari (reviewing Greyhawk Wars) , Tony DiGerolam's "Lookin' At Comics focusing on Dragon Con finds, and Noah Antwiler's infamous "A Gamer's Rant on the Movies", which takes on Babylon 5: Lost Tales. On the gaming side of things, there's "Treasures and Mysteries", "Deadly Trappings" Casting Call", "Bait and Tackle", "Dungeons: Ready to Occupy" and more.

GoodReads is a social networking site for readers, allowing users to add their book collections to online bookshelves and then share those collections with friends. Books can be stored on different book shelves, rated, and reviewed. You can compare your collection to that of a friends, with the site giving you a side-by-side comparison of ratings for the books you have in common as well as a percentage indicating how much alike you are. It also supports a cool group feature that allows you to have a group reading list, and then talk about that list in a discussion forum.

The Geek Gazette returns from holiday break with its January/February 2008 issue. It includes a 2007 geek news recap, an essay on the merits (or lack there of) of digital comic books, rumors and speculation on Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, and a look ahead movies, game and book releases for the new year, and capsule reviews of The Simpsons, Halloween and Futurama: Bender’s Big Score.

Isse #115 of the Australian flash fictin webzine Antipodean is online. Among this month's stories are "The 32 Paths" by Nathan Burrage, "Close Encounter" by Richard Pitaniello, "Just Your Type" by Joan Malpass, and "The Favour" by Lynton Haggett. Check it out at www.antisf.com.

Ansible 245 (December 2007) has Harlan Ellison's rants about re-purposing of his Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever"; don't go there if you don't want any Trek-related spoilers and here's to hoping he doesn't try and come and smash my Geek Tree's Guardian ornament. The issue also briefly recounts the SFWA e-piracy controversy, the 2007 Bad Sex Awards, and much more.

Phantom of the Attic, my friendly neighborhood gaming/comic book store moved to downtown Easton, Pa. this week. The store's located at 125-129 Third Street, one block east from the Route 22 4th Street exit. The new location is great -- it's got beautiful hard wood floors, expansive amounts of space, and the Silver Surfer flying in one of the two display windows.

The October edition of SF Site sees reviews of Dreamsongs by George R.R. Martin, Thirteen by Richard Morgan, The Necronomicon Tarot by Donald Tyson and Shatterday by Harlan Ellison.

"Green River Rain" by John M. Whalen is the latest short story up on SpaceWesterns.com. Whalen's work has also appeared in Ray Gun Revival.

Jake Bracken never liked the rain. It always seemed to bring him bad luck. It rained that night back on Earth when Holly left him. Took off with a pharmaceutical salesman from Abilene. It rained the day he came home from the Terror War and saw that the Qaeda had burned his ranch to the ground. It was raining now, as he pulled his Hover Jeep up to the boardwalk in front of the Green River saloon.