Sale over dude, sale over

Sat 29 Dec 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Or perhaps the quote was Game Over? Anyway. We have been too lazy to take down our sale page and so it has dragged on a bit past its sell-by date. Oops and all that. So. It will disappear soon. No, really.

In the new year there will be activity, linking to wonderful things about writers, news, all that stuff. In the meantime—


KSR @ Google

Fri 21 Dec 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Read Sixty Days and Counting, give them for Xmas (or your holiday of choice—happy solstice), read an interview with Kim Stanley Robinson, and now watch (or listen) to this alternately depressing and hopeful talk he gave at Google (which annoyingly can’t be embedded for some reason).


Episode 5: Bottling Your Homebrew

Wed 19 Dec 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Michael

Bottling is technical and tedious, nobody’s favorite part of the brewing process. So I’ll lead with the good stuff.

Ra came to where the beer stood waiting in seven thousand jars, and the gods came with him to see how by his wisdom he would save mankind.

“Mingle the red ochre of Abu with the barley-beer,” said Ra, and it was done, so that the beer gleamed red in the moonlight like the blood of men. “Now take it to the place where Sekhmet proposes to slay men when the sun rises.”

—from this great Egyptian myth retelling of the war-goddess Sekhmet’s transformation, via beer, into Hathor, goddess of fertility. Just pretend that jar of cobras on her head is a jar of blood-colored beer. Like an old timey St. Patrick’s Day!

Read more


Kelly’s daemon

Sat 15 Dec 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Slightly different from the one she did last April(!), here’s Kelly’s new daemon:


First chance at John Kessel’s collection

Wed 12 Dec 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

baum.JPGThis week we got in a couple of boxes of galleys of John Kessel’s April collection The Baum Plan for Financial Independence—John should be getting them soon (honest, they’re in the mail!) and they’ve gone out to the trades for review. Other reviewers and so on will be getting them soon.

We’re having fun with the design of this one (or, at least, the hardcover). Not going to say what we’re doing just in case it doesn’t pan out!

something.JPGThen, yesterday we came across something unusual (and we’re not saying where) that was so unexpected that we decided to see if anyone can identify it. If someone does, we’ll send them one of the hundred copies of John’s book that there are in the world.

Usual rules apply: you have to be alive and able to read to receive this book.


The Year’s Best No. 20

Tue 11 Dec 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

ybfh20.JPGCome ye to pre-industrial pastoral hills and villages where ye cheese and bread eaters mix with the ale swillers and fight ye evil orcs. Yea, verily, tis time to till the soils and put forth magick into ye lande (and also all ye e’s missing from A Void) in ye name of Ye Annum’s Superlative Phantasies & Politicians.

A few things happening on The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror 2007: Twentieth Annual Collection front. First: the book is out there (and makes a wonderful holiday gift…).

There’s an online party at Green Man Review celebrating the 20-years-so-far run. There are reviews of all the volumes (don’t read them all at once, your head may explode), an interview with cover artist Tom Canty, an essay by packager Jim Frenkel, and an interview with Ellen Datlow and Gavin Grant:

In any given year, approximately what percentage of writers have appeared in a previous YBFH? Do you seek out just the best, or do you like to showcase new talent?

Ellen: In 2006 in my horror half there were nine stories by writers from whom I’d never taken a story for YBFH. In 2005, there were twelve. So obviously, I showcase new talent all the time. I seek out the best and that often means discovering new talent. Some of the writers have been well-known but I’d never taken anything from them before because their earlier stories weren’t the best or maybe they were too long.

Gavin: We pick based on the stories. Who the author is has nothing to do with it. It drives me crazy that an editor would only read work by familiar writers. That would make the book The Best of Who You Know instead of it always being full of surprises. Every editor likes to discover new talent.

One of the best aspects for us is to reach out into the non-genre magazines, collections, and anthologies, select something to reprint, and then to hear from the editor or writer how excited they are by it. It’s also great to find out that many of those editors and writers are reading widely across different fields and are already familiar with the anthology.

Also out there on the internets is a new handy reference guide compiled by Rodger Turner at the SF Site: The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror: by Volume:

In 1988, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling collected together what they thought was the best short fantasy and horror from the previous year. They went through as many of the magazines, collections and anthologies published in 1987 that they could find and chose those stories which they decided best represented the fantasy and horror field. Jim Frenkel arranged for its publication by St. Martins’s Press and it has been produced every year since then. In 2003, Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant took over from Terri Windling as the fantasy editors.

Here’s our (rather basic) page for the books which includes the fantasy contents of this year’s book which has stories and poems from

  • magazines: the late-lamented Alchemy, F&SF (including M. Rickert’s World Fantasy Award-winning “Journey into the Kingdom”), Ninth Letter, Fairy Tale Review
  • online magazines: Strange Horizons, The Journal of Mythic Arts, Diagram
  • anthologies: Salon Fantastique, Twenty Epics, Firebirds Rising, Paraspheres
  • and collections: Brief Encounters with Che Guevara, Of Tales and Enigmas, Becoming the Villianess

as well the extensive summaries and lists of honorable mentions. We think we look at ~3,000 stories a year (will have to do the math properly sometime!) and in 2006 we listed 205 Honorable Mentions, or about 1 in every 15 stories we read. For the curious after the break there’s a list of where the HMs came from and how many per venue.
Links to previous volumes:

Meanwhile even as we celebrate the 20th edition, we are deep in the reading for the 21st edition—there’s always more to read!

Read more


Gavin’s daemon

Tue 11 Dec 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

A little late, as per usual, with the memes. Thought the film was quite good, although the rhythm of the ending was all wrong, but c’est la vie. Armored bears!


Sale!

Wed 28 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Spread the word: we are having a once-a-year (or less!) blow out. Books: cheap! 40% off. Or: Even More!

Sale

— Books ship December 6th.
— To arrive for the holidays: please order Priority Mail Shipping
— Books shipped by Media Mail will probably not arrive before the holidays.
— International shipping.
— Permanent remainder sale here.

Do us a favor: Go Nuts.


Mobipocket

Tue 27 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

We’ve uploaded a couple of books to Mobipocket—more will follow, although probably not too fast. Hey, when did we last move fast at anything?

Generation Loss | Endless Things | Stranger Things Happen

Fun to upload stuff to Mobipocket just as Amazon probably kills it with the Kindle . . . we’ll have Kindle editions of these books, too, at some point.

—

Later tonight: more!


Ouch

Mon 26 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

We get tough love from the Chicago Reader.

Are we hipsters? Hadn’t really considered us that way . . .

Q. Do you have a cool car?

A. Hipsters use the subway and taxis.

Q. Are your tastes impeccably aligned with next month’s Pitchfork columnists?

A. Pitchfork is so Aughts.
Q. Did you see that show by ____ at ____ last night?

A. I used to like them but since they went _____ they kind of suck.

Q. Where do you get your hair done?

A. Hey, I just woke up?

Q. You know it’s 3.08 PM and you’re in a shirt and tie at work, right?

A. Pass.


Mon 26 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Liz Hand is serializing her novella “Chip Crockett’s Christmas Carol” on The Inferior 4+1:

“Chip Crockett?” Brendan frowned, staring at his computer screen as though he was afraid Tony might materialize there. “You mean, like, The Chip Crockett Show?””Yeah, man.” Tony sighed deeply. “My brother Jake, he just faxed me the obituary from the Daily News. He died over the weekend but they just announced it today.”

There was a clunk over the phone receiver, a background clatter of shouting voices and footsteps. Tony was working as a substitute teacher at Saint Ignatius High School. Brendan was amazed he’d been able to hang onto the job at all, but he gathered that being a substitute at Saint Ignatius was way below being sanitation engineer in terms of salary, benefits, and respect. He heard a crackle of static as Tony ran into the corridor, shouting.

“Whoa! Nelson Crane, man! Slow down, okay? Okay. Yeah, I guess it was lung cancer. Did you know he smoked?”

“You’re talking about Chip Crockett the kiddie show host. Right?” Brendan rubbed his forehead, feeling the beginning of a headache. “No, Tony, I didn’t know he smoked, because I don’t actually know Chip Crockett. Do you?” (Via Boingster Hall)


Mon 26 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Liz Hand is serializing her novella “Chip Crockett’s Christmas Carol” on The Inferior 4+1:

“Chip Crockett?” Brendan frowned, staring at his computer screen as though he was afraid Tony might materialize there. “You mean, like, The Chip Crockett Show?””Yeah, man.” Tony sighed deeply. “My brother Jake, he just faxed me the obituary from the Daily News. He died over the weekend but they just announced it today.”

There was a clunk over the phone receiver, a background clatter of shouting voices and footsteps. Tony was working as a substitute teacher at Saint Ignatius High School. Brendan was amazed he’d been able to hang onto the job at all, but he gathered that being a substitute at Saint Ignatius was way below being sanitation engineer in terms of salary, benefits, and respect. He heard a crackle of static as Tony ran into the corridor, shouting.

“Whoa! Nelson Crane, man! Slow down, okay? Okay. Yeah, I guess it was lung cancer. Did you know he smoked?”

“You’re talking about Chip Crockett the kiddie show host. Right?” Brendan rubbed his forehead, feeling the beginning of a headache. “No, Tony, I didn’t know he smoked, because I don’t actually know Chip Crockett. Do you?” (Via Boingster Hall)


Episode 4: Honey Porter

Fri 23 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Michael

In which I ramble about the history of beer in New England and demonstrate the process of brewing up a batch of a favorite and storied style.

This is a Dutch family crest hanging in the cathedral in the city of Haarlem, The Netherlands. Note the kegs. And those little golden shapes being carried in the arms of the rampant lions are sheaves of barley. I wish I had taken more pictures of these. There were some with barley, kegs AND beehives.

Read more


More than your typical taciturn anti-hero

Wed 21 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Elizabeth Hand gives good interview at Laura Hird’s site:

‘You know, it’s like sex.’ Elizabeth Hand is very enthusiastic about writing novellas. ‘Short stories are like a quickie,’ she explains. ‘It can be kind of satisfying, but it’s over really fast. While a marathon novel-length session can be tiring and it’s a big commitment. But a novella is just the right amount of time to kind of linger over everything, build a little bit…

and a review of Generation Loss:

While utilising the form of a thriller, this book continues to exert its spell when many thrillers prove anti-climatic. After an intriguing beginning, the average thriller will have me shrug and say, ‘well, that’s it,’ when the big mystery is revealed. Then I forget about it. But the strength of the characterisation and the atmosphere carries this book into places where many other thrillers peter out and expire.

Laura’s site is in the UK. Up in Canada Ian Rogers reviews the book for The Lindsay Post:

The thing I enjoyed most about ‘Generation Loss’ is the protagonist. In a book abound with puzzles, Cass Neary turns out to be a veritable mystery herself. Her actions are often questionable, it not flat-out immoral, and she doesn’t come off as the most sympathetic character. And yet there is so much more lurking below the surface than your typical taciturn anti-hero.

What is she, then? Well, that’s part of the mystery. It’s also part of the fun. Check out the book and find out for yourself.


Formats

Tue 20 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

In our newsletter there is news(!) about the multiple formats the new LCRW is available in as well as a secret sale. Secret!

Here’s part of the skinny on LCRW:

Order: Paypal | order form | Powells | Fictionwise | Lulu

We’ll post more about the secret sale here, too.

Probably.

Later.


Evolutionary reading

Tue 20 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Hope you are enjoying Michael’s posts on literary beer. (Mmm, beer.) More posts from Howard Waldrop are expected in a while—he’s got some stories to write which pay even better (cough) than this gig.

And in the meantime here’s something from intern, Margaret Kinney:

It is holiday time. People will be telling you that you, that we, have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas. They may mean Jesus, or pure giving or love, or something vague like that. Nowadays, they will also be telling you that, by forgetting this meaning and engaging instead in an orgy of materialism, you are destroying the environment and contributing to our wasteful, consumerist culture. But more people will be telling you that Christmas is a time for giving, abundant giving, and that you need to come to their store and spend, spend, spend on whatever it is that will assuredly make you and everyone you love so happy. And I believe them. And so do you. And we will buy things and wrap them in wasteful, shiny papers, and set them in heaps until we unwrap them together and glow with happiness just like the ads promised. Those naysayers above offer various reasons for this; we are sinful, greedy, taken in by modern temptations, we are shortsighted, our culture is irredeemably materialistic. Yes, probably. But maybe there is something else.

Read more


Episode 3: Cider Revisited

Thu 15 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Michael

It seemed I was a mite of sediment
That waited for the bottom to ferment
So I could catch a bubble in ascent.
I rode up on one till the bubble burst,
And when that left me to sink back reversed
I was no worse off than I was at first.
I’d catch another bubble if I waited.
The thing was to get now and then elated.
—Robert Frost, In a Glass of Cider

(For the start of my cider-making exploits, see Episode 1: Traditional Hard Cider)

Today, I noticed that the bubbles of CO2 emerging from the airlock on my jug of cider had slowed to a rate of one per minute, indicating that yeast activity had tapered off and the primary stage of fermentation was complete. Being careful to leave behind as much of the sediment as possible, I siphoned off the clarified cider into a clean glass jug. Mostly, anyway–right at the end I decided I couldn’t help myself and redirected the last ounce or so into a pint glass for testing purposes.

Read more


We are Conan

Wed 14 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Leonard Rossiter and Sue NichollsMike Levy reviews The Best of LCRW on Strange Horizons and says Kelly and Gavin…

have created something of a miniature literary empire for themselves.

Who knew we could build an empire without working out on our (bronz’d) thews?

Lucius VorenusSince the only empire we know of that fell and rose again was Reggie Perrin‘s and since we have recently been watching the wonderful and despair-inducing 2nd series of Rome on the televisual box now we are worrying how bloody our empire’s fall will be. Eek! We surrender, we surrender!


Numbers trouble

Thu 8 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Unread around here as yet but posted as something of passing interest to more than a few people we know. Besides Jedediah Berry’s new story, the latest issue of the Chicago Review (53:2/3) has an article about gender breakdown in poetry in Conjunctions, The New Yorker, and 10 other magazines. The article, a response, and some numbers can all be found here.


Episode 2: Beer Economics

Tue 6 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Michael

In an interview I once read in The Valley Advocate (a local Western MA arts paper), with regard to his experience starting Small Beer Press, Gavin quoted the following old chestnut: “How do you make a small fortune in publishing? Start with a large fortune.”

The same is more or less true of brewing beer. In the long run, it costs half as much to brew your own beer as to buy it, assuming you’re used to drinking beer of quality. But starting out as a brewer of small beer does require some investment in equipment. And the small fortune you accrue in savings over a long life spent developing the craft of making delicious spirits will be nothing compared to the matching spiritual fortune you will reap. The analogy to independent publishing begins to seem apt indeed.

In this episode I’m going to do some beer math (somewhat less accurate than tea math, but less jittery than coffee math, and more fun). I will lay out the financial requirements in gear and raw materials and graph that against the quantity and quality of the beer produced, in the hopes of helping you, the avid consumer of literary beer, to decide if you’re ready to brew.

Read more


Ethical credit cards?

Tue 6 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

In the UK the link between personal spending and personal ethics are openly acknowledged and talked about in articles on the MSN, the Thrifty Scot (ahem), and in The Guardian:

This week the Co-op Bank launched a new credit card called “think”, which offers a lower rate of interest for designated ethical purchases via a link-up with partners including Ikea, cosmetics firm Lush, green electricity company Ecotricity, bikes giant Raleigh and fair trade organisation Traidcraft.

The first time the card is used, the bank will arrange for half an acre of Brazilian rainforest to be bought and protected in the customer’s name. Also, for every £100 spent on the card, 25p will be donated to the charity Cool Earth, which protects rainforests.

In the US there are “affinity” cards where donations in the range of  0.25 – 0.75% of spending go to the charity (or whatever) the individual wants to support.

Of course there’s also Working Assets but their credit card program is run by FIA, who are formerly MNBA—associated or owned or the same thing as the massive and depressingly willing to squeeze the last drop of air from your dying throat, Bank of America. Which isn’t really a friendly happy company.

There don’t yet seem to be ethics-slanted credit cards on the US market. So what’s left? Cash rewards and donations to charities of choice? Give it up and just go for the airline miles? Hmm.


“the star called Wormwood”

Mon 5 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

John Crowley, who popped in to the WFC this past weekend for a reading from Four Freedoms and to sign a few books for the ardent multitudes, has a letter in the NY Times Book Review.

Ron Drummond, also in Saratoga, was carrying around a printer’s dummy or blank of his crazy beautiful 25th anniversary edition of Little, Big. It is huge! 7.5 x 10 inches, 3, maybe 4 inches thick. He also had some early, nearly-final copies of the first chapter. This is going to be one awesome object.


Free Liz Hand book

Mon 5 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Elizabeth HandOver at AbeBooks in the Author’s Corner there’s an interview with Liz and a chance to win a free copy of Generation Loss.


Crowley in London, L.A.

Sat 3 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , | Posted by: Gavin

and other disingenuous titles. Actually, the London Review of Books. Has to be read on paper, one copy of which John will receive in, yes, Saratoga. Where much swapping of paper will occur.

Tomorrow in Ed Park’s L.A. Times column, Astral Weeks, he writes about Endless Things and the conclusion of the whole shebang:

The “Aegypt” cycle has always been about its own slow process, its private alchemy, its impossibility, but in the brisk “Endless Things” Crowley dismantles the machinery while dazzling us, showing how each part gleams.

Also, Strange Horizons are reviewing all the World Fantasy Award novel finalists—including The Privilege of the Sword.

More reviews:

Interfictions at Fantasy Book Spot.

Water Logic at the Feminist Review.

LCRW 20 at Horrorscope.


Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 21

Thu 1 Nov 2007 - Filed under: LCRW| Posted by: Gavin

November 2007 · $5

LCRW 21 is the latest iteration of the eleven-dimensional being known as LCRW. Although it has always been there, it began protruding into our space time consciousness in November of 2007 as a sixty-page stapled zine with a lovely creamy cover.

Humans cannot perceive the other seven dimensions of LCRW, but if they put it against the top of their head while jumping off a small box of caramels, they can get a hint of what they are missing.

Reviews

“I very much enjoyed reading LCRW #21; it’s primarily fiction but also includes poetry, nonfiction, and comics. The layout and design is impeccable: crisp, clean, beautifully formatted. Carol Emshwiller is a regular contributor and the material itself covers a wide range, from odd boarding schools to a strange co-worker writing code (I don’t want to say much more for fear of giving it away), and there isn’t a single wrong note in here. Literary zines are sometimes a tough sell, but this one shouldn’t be–it’s well worth the time and money. (And there are even subscription options which include chocolate…)”
—Xerography Debt

“If there’s an overarching theme to this issue it might be the assumption that the reader will accept the worlds and situations written here as they are–there is little or no explanation offered. All these stories have an other-worldly quality, like the stream-of-consciousness writing of a syntactical genius. These stories are a catalogue of madnesses, all carrying with them a sense of dread that never finds resolution, only the respite offered by the story’s end. That’s not to say that there isn’t humour here. Probably one of the greatest lines appears in the first story “The Night and Day War.” It’s a truth we’ve always known, but may not have had spelled out: “Vampires are made to wear clothing well and whale on people.” Even the ads aren’t a disruption to the mood: rather than an interruption, they seem to make a community out of what initially seems like a group of terminal navel-gazers. The overall effect is the feeling that you’ve been sucked into a fully-functioning surrealist society. Perhaps some of their stories are a touch long, and the last story in the collection is so cruel that it felt like a kick in the teeth, but these are definitely authors you want to spend some time with.”
—J. Blackmore, Broken Pencil

masthead
Made in the Autumn of 2007 by:
Gavin J. Grant · Kelly Link
Jedediah Berry · Michael Deluca · Annabel Link

Fiction
Alice Sola Kim, The Night and Day War
Adam Ares, The Curmudgeon
Matthew Cheney, The Lake
Stephanie Brady Tharpe, On a Dark and Featureless Plain
Jeannette Westwood, Two Variations
Kirstin Allio, Clay
Brian Conn, The Postern Gate
Benjamin Parzybok, The Coder
Corie Ralston, Maps to God
Carol Emshwiller, Sanctuary

Poetry
Lauren Bartel, Two Poems

Nonfiction
Gwenda Bond, Dear Aunt Gwenda
Mamoru Masuda, A Primer on New Wave and Speculative Fiction in Japan

Comics
Suzanne Baumann, The Blokes of Ball Point
Abby Denson, The Mysterious Mr. M.

Cover
Tatsuro Kiuchi

Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, No.21 November 2007. ISSN 1544-7782 Text in Bodoni Book. Titles in Imprint MT Shadow. Since 1996 LCRW has usually appeared in June and November from Small Beer Press, 150 Pleasant St., #306, Easthampton, MA 01027 (Please note that’s a new address.) · info@smallbeerpress.com · smallbeerpress.com/lcrw $5 per single issue or $20/4. Contents © the authors. All rights reserved. Submissions, requests for guidelines, & all good things should be sent to the address above. No SASE: no reply. Thanks for reading. This zine is printed by Paradise Copies, 30 Craft Ave., Northampton, MA 01060 413-585-0414

About the authors

Today’s Writers Today

Kirstin Allio‘s novel Garner (Coffee House Press) was a finalist for the LA Times Book Award for First Fiction. She has recently been selected one of “5 Under 35” writers to watch (and hopefully read) by the National Book Foundation. She lives in Providence, RI with her husband and sons.

Adam Ares enjoys staring at blank word processor documents, reading books in languages that he doesn’t really understand, and Galaga. Perhaps, in the future, he will put adamares.com to some better use than he does now.

Trained in yoga, baking and phlebotomy, Lauren Bartel lives in Minneapolis where she is currently involved with the newborn book publishing efforts of Whistling Shade Press, contributing to various food-related publications, and planting tomatoes.

Suzanne Baumann has been making minicomics for over a dozen years and plans to make many more. She feels most at ease in places where there are lots of pens and scraps of paper lying around.

Gwenda Bond is writing young adult novels while keeping her pets in line and her books close by.

Matthew Cheney has published fiction and nonfiction in Rabid Transit, Locus, Pindeldyboz, Strange Horizons, Failbetter.com, Rain Taxi, English Journal, and other venues of questionable taste. He is the series editor for Best American Fantasy. He teaches high school in New Jersey.

Brian Conn grew up in a forest where it often rained on Christmas Eve. His work has also appeared in GUD and Sybil’s Garage. He is an MFA student at Brown and a graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop. He lives in Providence, and the only thing that can make him laugh these days is Beckett.

Abby Denson is the creator of Tough Love: High School Confidential, Dolltopia, and Night Club. She has scripted Powerpuff Girls Comics, Simpsons Comics, and comics for Nickelodeon Magazine. She rocks out with her bands Abbymatic and The Saturday Night Things. She loves New York, container gardening, and her cat, Slinky.

Carol Emshwiller‘s most recent books are a novel, The Secret City, a young adult novel, Mr. Boots, and a collection, I Live with You. Small Beer published her novel The Mount and her collection, Report to the Men’s Club as well as reprinting her first novel, Carmen Dog.Recent awards include a couple of Nebulas for short stories, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement. She lives in New York City.

Alice Sola Kim lives in San Francisco and works at a strange startup. Most recently, her job has involved gossiping about Nicole Richie eating a Kit Kat bar. Her work has appeared in Rabid Transit: Long Voyages, Great Lies, and is forthcoming in Strange Horizons.

Benjamin Parzybok is the publisher of Gumball Poetry, a literary journal published into gumball machines. He founded the Black Magic Insurance Agency which runs a city-wide mystery/treasure hunt called Operation Peachblow. He lives in Portland, OR, with the writer Laura Moulton and their son. He has two novels ready to go: Couch, in which three social misfits carry a couch from Oregon to South America and A Body of Water where a 20-something isn’t sure whether to help his brother commit euthanasia.

Corie Ralston is a scientist by profession, although sometimes she wonders what on earth possessed her to go to graduate school. She writes in the spare nanoseconds of her life, in all the transitions, wishing always that there was more time. She has been published in Strange Horizons and a variety of other venues. She is absolutely determined to finish her novel. And she does not need utensils to hear her mother.

Stephanie Brady Tharpe is a lifelong resident of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. She spends her time writing, raising her fifteen-year-old daughter, and teaching English and Creatiove Writing at Skyline High School. Her poetry appears in multiple volumes of The Poet’s Domain. This is her first fiction publication.

The Best of LCRW is doing fine, thanks for asking. How are you? Did Aunt Gwenda’s answer help?

Jeannette Westwood still lives in California. Her newest hobby is stenciling and painting T-shirts.


10 x 5

Wed 31 Oct 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

5 spooky books for Halloweeen from Kelly; 5 not-so spooky from Gavin.


New LCRW

Tue 30 Oct 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

The image “http://lcrw.net/images/lcrwcovers/lcrw21-200.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.The new LCRW is at the printer—so we should have it (fingers stiff from still being crossed) in Saratoga. In the table of contents there are names familiar and surprising (as per).

In fiction we have stories from authors new (to us) such as Adam Ares, Alice Sola Kim (whose story “The Mom Walk” is also fantastic) the Stephanie Brady Tharpe (first publication!), the redoubtable Garbo (aka Matt Cheney), Corie Ralston, Benjamin Parzybok, and Kirstin Allio (whose novel Garner appropriately garnered much praise).

Returning to us are Jeanette Westwood (LCRW 18), Brian Conn (LCRW 10), and Carol Emshwiller (LCRW 8, 19)—who will be a guest of honor this coming weekend at the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs and who we think is completely fabby.

We only have one poet (again, new to us) this time, Lauren Bartel. Happily Dear Aunt Gwenda is back and we have a short piece from the World Sci Fi Convention in Japan. We twisted Abby Denson’s arm until she sent us a comic with cats and dolls and we have Suzanne Baumann’s tiny drawings all through.

The cover is by the fantastic Tatsuro Kiuchi.

There is a lack of zine reviews, so maybe they will appear on the site later.

We updated the subscription page for this issue and added the Google Map of LCRW stores (so few! won’t your store carry this zine?) to the main LCRW page.

And as an aside, you can order it (and now The Best of LCRW as well as many other things) here.

LCRW 21 should be mailing out to authors, artists, poets, subscribers, shops, shoppes, and preorderers, in the first week of November. Chocolate is actually here ahead of time and if it isn’t eaten first will be in your happy hands within 2 weeks. Or so. You know mailing on time is our weakness.

Fiction
Alice Sola Kim, The Night and Day War
Adam Ares, The Curmudgeon
Matthew Cheney, The Lake
Stephanie Brady Tharpe, On a Dark and Featureless Plain
Jeannette Westwood, Two Variations
Kirstin Allio, Clay
Brian Conn, The Postern Gate
Benjamin Parzybok, The Coder
Corie Ralston, Maps to God
Carol Emshwiller, Sanctuary

Poetry
Lauren Bartel, Two Poems

Nonfiction
Gwenda Bond, Dear Aunt Gwenda
Mamoru Masuda, A Primer on New Wave and Speculative Fiction in Japan

Comics
Suzanne Baumann, The Blokes of Ball Point
Abby Denson, The Mysterious Mr. M.

Cover
Tatsuro Kiuchi


Cheney, Schanoes, Tempest tonight

Tue 30 Oct 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

If you’re in NYC and aren’t sure if the short story is dead, get along to the INTERFICTIONS READING & SIGNING tonight at McNally Robinson (look at the pretty pictures!), 52 Prince St., New York City, and see the revivified form burst to life with editor Delia Sherman, and contributors Veronica Schanoes, Matt Cheney, and K. Tempest Bradford.

Tuesday October 30, 2007
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
McNally Robinson


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