Wed 18 Apr 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Linkfarming:

  • Tonight at the KGB Bar Fantastical Fiction series: Kit Reed and Jon Armstrong read from the color opera: Bronze and Grey.
  • Thursday, Kelly Link reads at the 11th annual Mad RiverLiterary Festival at Northwestern Connecticut Community College. (Magic for Beginners review from an interesting point of view.) Meanwhile a screenwriting class is working on “a STRONG ADAPTATION, not a freewheeling one” of “The Specialist’s Hat” for their final assignment. And at some point there will be tiny films based on “The Girl Detective” from a grad program. More news from Kelly soon. Besides the story “Magic for Beginners” appearing in Fiction—the French edition of F&SF.
  • Friday: Yo La Tengo play at the Academy of Music in Northampton, MA.
  • Birnbaum notices Endless Things. Does he need to read it? Oh yes.
  • A truly-worth-reading review on Rain Taxi of Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead:

    DeNiro’s range and the suppleness of his voice would set him apart even minus the compassion that drives Skinny Dipping.

  • Jennifer Stevenson on the addictive and sometimes helpful madness of writing a book in a week. (Jennifer’s up to Chapter 17 in her podcast of Trash Sex Magic.)
  • Congratulations to this year’s crop of Young Lions (check out their NYC events):

Chris Adrian, The Children’s Hospital
Kevin Brockmeier, The Brief History of the Dead
Tony D’Souza, Whiteman
Olga Grushin, The Dream Life of Sukhanov
Karen Russell, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised By Wolves

  • Sharp-eyed folks will remember Karen Russell from LCRW 15 — her story “Help Wanted” will be reprinted in this autumn’s surprise Costco Book of the Year and Costa Award Winner The Best of LCRW.
  • St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves: Stories Cover2 of Karen’s stories from her collection also appear on the Tiptree Honor List — congratulations to winners, Shelley Jackson for Half Life and Catherynne M. Valente for The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden and all the honorees:

Andrea Hairston, Mindscape (Aqueduct Press 2006)
Betsy James, Listening at the Gate (Atheneum 2006)
Ellen Kushner, The Privilege of the Sword (Spectra 2006) [HC]
James Morrow, The Last Witchfinder (Morrow 2006)
Michaela Roessner, “Horse-Year Women”; (Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 2006)
Karen Russell, “Ava Wrestles the Alligator”; (Granta 93, April 2006; St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (Knopf 2006))
Karen Russell, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” ( Zoetrope: All-Story, Summer 2006; St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (Knopf 2006))
Karen Traviss, Matriarch (Eos 2006)
Mark von Schlegell, Venusia (Semiotext(e) 2005)

  • Ed Park‘s novel Personal Days got pre-empted by Jonathan Cape. That’s pretty exciting news.
  • Final covers for all our books are up. Books are all either at the printer or somewhere in flight between the Moon and You.
  • Women & Children FirstDo everyone a favor and put your next book order (or three) in to Women & Children First in Chicago. This is an amazing bookshop that for huge community resource. Like many other city center bookstores it is fighting for survival due to rising rents (in part due to the increased foot traffic the bookshops bring to an area) and of course internet book sales. They sell some of our books and stock LCRW, which is amazing. But that’s not the reason it’s worth sending some of your hard-earned their way. W&CF work for the community as much as for themselves. Look at their Organization of the Month and the Women’s Voices Fund. Anyway, enough: here are some recs to get there: The Cottagers, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Ironside.
  • More TK. TBA. To come. To Be Arranged. TBS. To Be Shelved. TSPTD. To sleep, perchance to dream.
  • This space above for useless comments on recent events.

Wed 18 Apr 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Linkfarming:

  • Tonight at the KGB Bar Fantastical Fiction series: Kit Reed and Jon Armstrong read from the color opera: Bronze and Grey.
  • Thursday, Kelly Link reads at the 11th annual Mad RiverLiterary Festival at Northwestern Connecticut Community College. (Magic for Beginners review from an interesting point of view.) Meanwhile a screenwriting class is working on “a STRONG ADAPTATION, not a freewheeling one” of “The Specialist’s Hat” for their final assignment. And at some point there will be tiny films based on “The Girl Detective” from a grad program. More news from Kelly soon. Besides the story “Magic for Beginners” appearing in Fiction—the French edition of F&SF.
  • Friday: Yo La Tengo play at the Academy of Music in Northampton, MA.
  • Birnbaum notices Endless Things. Does he need to read it? Oh yes.
  • A truly-worth-reading review on Rain Taxi of Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead:

    DeNiro’s range and the suppleness of his voice would set him apart even minus the compassion that drives Skinny Dipping.

  • Jennifer Stevenson on the addictive and sometimes helpful madness of writing a book in a week. (Jennifer’s up to Chapter 17 in her podcast of Trash Sex Magic.)
  • Congratulations to this year’s crop of Young Lions (check out their NYC events):

Chris Adrian, The Children’s Hospital
Kevin Brockmeier, The Brief History of the Dead
Tony D’Souza, Whiteman
Olga Grushin, The Dream Life of Sukhanov
Karen Russell, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised By Wolves

  • Sharp-eyed folks will remember Karen Russell from LCRW 15 — her story “Help Wanted” will be reprinted in this autumn’s surprise Costco Book of the Year and Costa Award Winner The Best of LCRW.
  • St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves: Stories Cover2 of Karen’s stories from her collection also appear on the Tiptree Honor List — congratulations to winners, Shelley Jackson for Half Life and Catherynne M. Valente for The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden and all the honorees:

Andrea Hairston, Mindscape (Aqueduct Press 2006)
Betsy James, Listening at the Gate (Atheneum 2006)
Ellen Kushner, The Privilege of the Sword (Spectra 2006) [HC]
James Morrow, The Last Witchfinder (Morrow 2006)
Michaela Roessner, “Horse-Year Women”; (Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 2006)
Karen Russell, “Ava Wrestles the Alligator”; (Granta 93, April 2006; St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (Knopf 2006))
Karen Russell, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” ( Zoetrope: All-Story, Summer 2006; St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (Knopf 2006))
Karen Traviss, Matriarch (Eos 2006)
Mark von Schlegell, Venusia (Semiotext(e) 2005)

  • Ed Park‘s novel Personal Days got pre-empted by Jonathan Cape. That’s pretty exciting news.
  • Final covers for all our books are up. Books are all either at the printer or somewhere in flight between the Moon and You.
  • Women & Children FirstDo everyone a favor and put your next book order (or three) in to Women & Children First in Chicago. This is an amazing bookshop that for huge community resource. Like many other city center bookstores it is fighting for survival due to rising rents (in part due to the increased foot traffic the bookshops bring to an area) and of course internet book sales. They sell some of our books and stock LCRW, which is amazing. But that’s not the reason it’s worth sending some of your hard-earned their way. W&CF work for the community as much as for themselves. Look at their Organization of the Month and the Women’s Voices Fund. Anyway, enough: here are some recs to get there: The Cottagers, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Ironside.
  • More TK. TBA. To come. To Be Arranged. TBS. To Be Shelved. TSPTD. To sleep, perchance to dream.
  • This space above for useless comments on recent events.

Read This!

Mon 16 Apr 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the DeadLitblogistan is about to get a whole lot weirder:

The LitBlog Co-op is proud to announce our Spring 2007 Read This! selection: Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead  – by Alan DeNiro, published by Small Beer Press.

PodwikicasteryRSS 2.0 and all that coming soon.


Ybee

Thu 12 Apr 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

We think we are finished with the Year’s Best Fantasy. Think. There is one poem which we are still waiting on hearing about because the rights are complicated. Once it is wrapped up—or we are turned down!—we’ll post the full table of contents.

In the meantime, we have handed in the contents, then the intros to the stories (shorter intros every year), the list of honorable mentions (about 200 from this side of the book), and the summation. The last which is a beast and will be written about (and maybe we will post previous year’s summations  along the way) at some point in the next couple of months before the book comes out.

But! The book, as far as we are concerned, is done! So we are celebrating in the way we have become accustomed. Hustling to try and get our next book to the printer.


Wed 11 Apr 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Tomorrow, having just gotten back from a week away (hello St. Louis! [who knew they had so much green space?] {more on that later}), we are headed to the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont, where Kelly will do a couple of class visits and so on. Comics! Cartoons! Maybe more art for LCRW!*

All of this, of course, dependent, as usual, on the dependent clause. Said clause this time being the weather, particularly a winter storm which, realizing it had missed winter, is trying to catch up and is promising us a couple of inches of snow while we drive and ice pellets up in Vermont. Long Johns, Ahoy! Ahem? Ahoy!

That is all.

* We are always hoping for more art then the great fiction takes up all the space. We can’t manage it. Need to take some lessons from Sybil’s Garage, Flytrap, Electric Velocipede and others who balance it so well.


Wed 11 Apr 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Tomorrow, having just gotten back from a week away (hello St. Louis! [who knew they had so much green space?] {more on that later}), we are headed to the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont, where Kelly will do a couple of class visits and so on. Comics! Cartoons! Maybe more art for LCRW!*

All of this, of course, dependent, as usual, on the dependent clause. Said clause this time being the weather, particularly a winter storm which, realizing it had missed winter, is trying to catch up and is promising us a couple of inches of snow while we drive and ice pellets up in Vermont. Long Johns, Ahoy! Ahem? Ahoy!

That is all.

* We are always hoping for more art then the great fiction takes up all the space. We can’t manage it. Need to take some lessons from Sybil’s Garage, Flytrap, Electric Velocipede and others who balance it so well.


Thu 5 Apr 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Notes from the road: we handed in the finished draft of our Year’s Best introduction. It’s huge! And we are setting off fireworks and shutting down the government tomorrow in celebration. More on that later.

  • The Albany train station has wireless, yay! Amtrak is fun — very relaxed attitude to arrival times. The St. Louis train station has been replaced by a shed. Hmm.
  • Subterranean Books in St. Louis is Awesome. Tomorrow we have to go back as they have a new exhibit, something about robot vacations.
  • Richard Butner on the renfairs.
  • The Perpetual Motion Roadshow is kaput! It was an absolute blast to go on (hi Geoffrey! hi Liisa!) and an incredible thing to be part of. Jim Munroe, who started it (and let it go, man has style!) talks lessons learned.

Thu 5 Apr 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Notes from the road: we handed in the finished draft of our Year’s Best introduction. It’s huge! And we are setting off fireworks and shutting down the government tomorrow in celebration. More on that later.

  • The Albany train station has wireless, yay! Amtrak is fun — very relaxed attitude to arrival times. The St. Louis train station has been replaced by a shed. Hmm.
  • Subterranean Books in St. Louis is Awesome. Tomorrow we have to go back as they have a new exhibit, something about robot vacations.
  • Richard Butner on the renfairs.
  • The Perpetual Motion Roadshow is kaput! It was an absolute blast to go on (hi Geoffrey! hi Liisa!) and an incredible thing to be part of. Jim Munroe, who started it (and let it go, man has style!) talks lessons learned.

Generation Loss updates

Mon 2 Apr 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Things are going gangbusters for Liz Hand’s new thriller — a review popped up in Entertainment Weekly*, it was listed in the Washington Post‘s spring recommendations list, first chapter is here, there’s the promise of a fantastic review in Booklist, readings are beginning to be set up.

Now, how about that book?

Turns out there was a printer mistake. The book should have shipped from the printer on March 16th (even that was a week later than expected). What happened? In one of those small early (with huge consequences) wrong-checkbox-ticked mistakes: the printer chose the wrong paper stock. We didn’t discover this until final copies were shipped to us. Too late and suddenly we were in the midst of perhaps our biggest printer screw-up ever. Evah? Ever.

So the book was restarted from zero and is now scheduled to ship next Monday — Yet another week and amost a month after it was expected to go out. Liz is probably thinking, “What was all the hurry for anyway back in December and January?” and we’re gnashing our teeth. Natch.

Fingers crossed the book will ship next Monday (and be in stores maybe a week after that) andthat all these early challenges just makes the final book stronger.

In the meantime the EW review is below. Next week we’ll be sending out more review copies (and early orders) and be posting something about looking for pictures of fave punk bands (or people) and weird and damaged pix a la Cass Neary. But that’s next week.

Update:  There’s a groovy review in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal:

“Hand (Mortal Love, Black Light) expertly ratchets up the suspense until it’s at the level of a high-pitched scream near novel’s end.”
– Dorman Shindler

*Here’s the EW review:

Thirty years ago, Cassandra Neary’s grim photos of punks and corpses briefly made her the toast of the downtown art scene. Now an alcoholic wage slave, Neary accepts a magazine assignment to interview one of her reclusive photographer heroes on a Maine island, where a rash of missing-teenager cases and an off-kilter populace grab her attention. It takes time to warm to the self-destructive, sour-tempered protagonist –she drives drunk, pops Adderall and Percocet, and generally tries to not stick out her neck. Luckily, Hand’s terse but transporting prose keeps the reader turning pages until Neary’s gritty charm does, finally, shine through.

B


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