Free Kessel Free

Tue 15 Apr 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

Kessel, Baum PlanIt’s Tax Day here in the USA and in between the wailing, gnashing of teeth, and renting of garments and DVDs, we are celebrating the Publication Day of John Kessel‘s new collection, The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories.

How are we celebrating?

With John’s blessing we’re setting his book free into the world:

Today, April 15, 2008, is tax day in the USA and we all need cheering up. We’re celebrating at Small Beer Press by publishing John Kessel‘s first collection of short stories in ten years, The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories, as well as releasing it as a free download in a number of completely open formats—with, of course, no Digital Rights Management (DRM).

The Baum Plan includes Kessel’s Tiptree Award winning “Stories for Men” (gender inequality meet Fight Club . . . on the moon), “Pride and Prometheus,” a mashup of Frankenstein and Jane Austen, and “Powerless,” an amazing mix of pulp fictions, paranoia, and academia.

The Baum Plan is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license allowing readers to share the stories with friends and generally have at them in any remixing/interpretation/Web 2.0 huddly-cuddly noncommercial manner.

The collection is provided in these formats: low-res PDF, HTML, RTF, and text file. We encourage any and all conversions into other formats. Read more, download, and or order the collection here.

Creative Commons: Some Rights Reserved

Read more


The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories

Tue 15 Apr 2008 - Filed under: Books| Posted by: Gavin

April 15, 2008 · trade cloth | trade paper · 9781931520508 · $16 | ebook · $9.95

A BookSense Pick.
Reversible dustjacket.

John Kessel, ever at the forefront of fiction, mashes up Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein and comes up with a huge win: “Pride and Prometheus,” which received the Nebula and Shirley Jackson awards and was nominated for many others. The fourteen stories in this astonishing, long-awaited collection intersect imaginatively with literary classics (The Wizard of Oz, Flannery O’Connor) and history. The Baum Plan also includes Kessel’s modern classic “Lunar Quartet” sequence about life on the moon, one of which, “Stories for Men,” won the Tiptree Award.

By turns satirical, horrific, funny, and generous, these stories showcase the manifold gifts of the modern-day master of the screwball science fiction novel Corrupting Dr. Nice, a writer Publishers Weekly has called “capable of the most artful and rigorous literary composition, but with a mischievous genius that inclines him toward speculative fiction . . . he writes with great subtlety and wit . . . and his craftsmanship is frequently absolutely brilliant. Plus, his sense of comedy is remarkable.”

An ex-con finds himself falling, once more, under the spell of a seductive, amoral woman. A hidden door in the closet of a summer house leads to a land of plenty. The life of an inventor converges with the pulp fiction he reads in “Powerless.” In “Pride and Prometheus,” the Bennett sisters encounter Victor Frankenstein and his monster. And, in his acclaimed and award-winning Lunar Quartet, John Kessel explores the gender dynamics, politics, and long-term sustainability of a matriarchal lunar colony.

“A sustained exploration of the ways gender dynamics can both empower and enslave us. Kessel’s wit sparkles throughout, peaking with the most uproariously weird phone-sex conversation you’ll ever read (“The Red Phone”).” A-
—Entertainment Weekly


Table of Contents

The Baum Plan for Financial Independence [audio]
Every Angel is Terrifying [audio]
Downtown
 The Last American
The Invisible Empire
A Lunar Quartet
– The Juniper Tree
– Stories for Men
– Under the Lunchbox Tree
– Sunlight or Rock
The Snake Girl
It’s All True
The Red Phone
Powerless
Pride and Prometheus [part 1 | part 2]

The Baum Plan ... B!Hardcover dustjacket easter egg:

Reviews
— Metro Arts
— Foreword
— Dependable Erection(!)
— Podcasts

Book Sense“One of the best collections of the year.” — Locus

“These well-crafted stories, full of elegantly drawn characters, deliver a powerful emotional punch.”
— Publishers Weekly

“Kessel is a deft stylist and a master of all his tools, whose range is nearly limitless.”
— SciFi.com

“John Kessel’s writing exists at the edge of things, in the dark corner where the fiction section abuts the science-fiction shelves, in the hyphen where magic meets realism. Reading Kessel’s wonderful fabulations is like staying out too late partying and seeing strange angels while stumbling home in the dawn’s first light. This is one of those too rare short story collections that you can recommend with confidence to both the literary snob and the hard-core computer geek.”
— Rich Rennicks, Malaprop’s Bookstore, Asheville, NC

“Critics were all excited to see another anthology from Kessel … not only did Kessel pull off these stories with gusto but he did so in such a way that readers can enjoy his tales even if they have not read the original authors.”
— Bookmarks Magazine

On the web:

About the Author

Born in Buffalo, New York, John Kessel is the author of the novels Good News from Outer Space, Dr. Nice, and The Moon and the Other, and, in collaboration with James Patrick Kelly, Freedom Beach. His short story collections are Meeting in Infinity (a New York Times Notable Book), The Pure Product, and The Baum Plan for Financial Independence. Kessel’s stories have received the Nebula, Sturgeon, Locus, Shirley Jackson, and James Tiptree Jr. awards.

His story “A Clean Escape””was adapted as an episode of the ABC TV series Masters of Science Fiction. With Jim Kelly, he has edited five anthologies of stories re-visioning contemporary short sf, most recently Digital Rapture: The Singularity Anthology. Kessel holds a B.A. in Physics and English and a Ph.D. in American Literature. He helped found and served as the first director of the MFA program in creative writing at North Carolina State University, where he has taught since 1982. He lives and works in Raleigh, NC.

Credits


Interrogate them

Fri 11 Apr 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Confirming what everyone knew all along but the government were too lily-livered to admit:

Cheney, Others OK’d Harsh Interrogations
By LARA JAKES JORDAN and PAMELA HESS
Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) — Bush administration officials from Vice President Dick Cheney on down signed off on using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists after asking the Justice Department to endorse their legality, The Associated Press has learned.

Cheney et al knew it was right for the USA to use torture but they also knew it was right that no one should know it was  them who ok’d it. Double standard? Sure. But who cares about that. What we care about is that torture-porn like 24 aside, if they wanted porn they should´ve watched some Gay Furry Porn. These methods are inefficient, morally questionable, and has probably helped throw the USA into recession because the whole world looks at the USA differently now. And not different-is-good.

Hope Cheney (et al) gets prison time before his robo-heart gives out.


Sluttery

Fri 11 Apr 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

BookslutI’ll be posting some over at Bookslut for the next week and a bit so send me your hot tips, bitchy stories (all names redacted, mais oui), and so on.

Otherwise you know it will be all Alisdair Gray and Ursula K. Le Guin all the time.

Which sounds quite good, actually.


Podcast: Kessel 3!

Thu 10 Apr 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Two things! A thoughtful and wide-ranging review/interview in Metro Magazine in Raleigh, NC (Kessel’s hometown—unless you count his football homeland, Buffalo):

Kessel proves himself again a master not just of science fiction, but also of the modern short story, crafting compelling characters and following them through plots that never fail to please — or to defy prediction.

Second Thing:

In preparation for the actual publication day (April 15) next week, we’ve got more free audio fiction from John Kessel: this week it’s his fantastic 19th century mash-up, “Pride and Prometheus,” first published in the January 2008 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction:

Miss Mary Bennet, the bookish younger sister of Elizabeth Darcy, meets a mysterous and handsome scientist from the continent come to Regency England on a matter of life-and-death.

Pride and Prometheus, Part 1 (1:02.25)

Pride and Prometheus, Part 2 (27:52)

——————

Previously:

“The Baum Plan for Financial Independence”

“Every Angel is Terrifying”
(read by Gregory Frost, author of Shadowbridge)


LA to NY in 4 minutes

Wed 9 Apr 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Old fun YouTubery:


New Fowler

Fri 4 Apr 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Wit's End Signed CoverKaren Joy Fowler’s new novel Wit’s End is out this week—you can read the first chapter here and an interview here. There’s also a video of that interview if you have a WSJ log-in.

You can also pre-order a signed copy from Powell’s (and pick up a signed copy of Ursula K. Le Guin’s new novel, Lavinia, at the same time!).

Wit’s End is great.

That’s all.

More? Ok. Great fun, hilarious in parts, heartbreaking, and filled with Fowlerian grace notes. It’s one of the first novels to really look at the author’s place in this overheated Web 2.doh atmosphere. There’s more politics in it than The Jane Austen Book Club, which is a good fit as Fowler is one of the most acute and informed political observers we know. And now we can play the Casting the Movie game.

Also, here’s her new web site and upcoming events (via Gwenda).


John and Kate Beckinsale

Thu 3 Apr 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

From a short interview with Kessel on Foreword this Week. Spot the odd one out:

If you could have any five people over for dinner, who would they be?

Herman Melville, Jane Austen, Orson Welles, Richard Feynman, and Kate Beckinsale.


Podcast: Kessel 2!

Thu 3 Apr 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Greg Frost is a multi-talented (and sharp-dressed) man. Here’s his IMDB page and his latest novel, Shadowbridge (the second part of the duology is due this summer), is a celebration of storytelling in all its forms.

This week John Kessel posted Greg’s reading of his story “Every Angel is Terrifying”:

Railroad is a murderer and a man haunted by God. What happens in the aftermath of his latest crime, when the pet cat of his last victims offers him a chance ot change his life? (With apologies to Flannery O’Connor).

Every Angel is Terrifying (39:05)Read by Gregory Frost, author of Shadowbridge. First published in Fantasy and Science Fiction. Copyright © 1998

——————

Previously:

“The Baum Plan for Financial Independence”


13 days early

Wed 2 Apr 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

baum2.JPGBaum1.JPGArrived! The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories is a real and actual physical object even outwith that bandwidth one thinks of as one’s reading brain.

We’ll have more about it as the publication date (April 15) approaches including a nice surprise for peeps everywhere.

It’s already in some stores (especially those John is reading in) and should be arriving at your local book store soon.

Indie book shops may have it in their Book Sense section, chains will have it in New Books, Excellent Books, Short Story Collections by Extremely Smart People, or in the Tall section.


Carol: such hard good sentences. (and)

Wed 2 Apr 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats loves Black Sabbath (but who doesn’t) and has a book out on them soon. Interviewed on io9, he showed amazing good taste:

When I was a kid I pretty much worshiped Harlan Ellison and I still think he’s a good writer. Through his interviews & his introductions in the Dangerous Visions books I got into James Sallis & Carol Emshwiller, and I’m still a big Emshwiller fan to this day — she writes such hard good sentences.

Maybe he’s the reason The Mount has been selling so much recently?

———–

Update: Missed this until the kind people at The Stranger mailed us a real, paper copy. (We love paper, so there internets!) This was from Paul Constant’s Constant Reader column where he wrote a lovely piece about why people should go to Norwescon:

The best reason to pay attention to Norwescon is the Philip K. Dick Awards, an annual ceremony dedicated to celebrating a “distinguished original science-fiction paperback published for the first time during the award year in the USA.” Unlike most book awards, the PKD Awards almost always single out an excellent book. Of the last five years’ worth of PKD winners, three of them—Life by Gwyneth Jones, Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan, and The Mount by Carol Emshwiller—are books that, in a world unprejudiced to genre, would wind up on almost any critics’ annual best-of lists.

The Mount, particularly, is a marvel; originally published by a tiny Massachusetts art-house publisher, this novel—about a distant future wherein humans are content to be the transport animals (complete with bits and saddles) for tiny aliens who have enslaved us—is so refreshingly weird and allegorical that it evokes some of the earliest masters of the genre, like Orwell and Verne. If the PKD awards didn’t recognize The Mount, it’s doubtful that anyone else would have, either, which means that they’re possibly the only book awards in the world that actually do exactly what they’re supposed to do. recommended


Generation Loss – Chapter One

Tue 1 Apr 2008 - Filed under: Free Stuff to Read, Novel Excerpts| Posted by: Gavin

Generation LossThere’s always a moment where everything changes. A great photographer — someone like Diane Arbus, or me during that fraction of a second when I was great — she sees that moment coming, and presses the shutter release an instant before the change hits. If you don’t see it coming, if you blink or you’re drunk or just looking the other way — well, everything changes anyway, it’s not like things would have been different.

But for the rest of your life you’re fucked, because you blew it. Maybe no one else knows it, but you do. In my case, it was no secret. Everyone knew I’d blown it. Some people can make do in a situation like that. Me, I’ve never been good at making do. My life, who could pretend there wasn’t a big fucking hole in it?

Read more


KGB

Mon 31 Mar 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

A bloodless revolution, a changing of the guard. Yay for Matt Kressel! The series is funded out of Matt and Ellen’s pockets (unless you’d like to throw some $$$ their way?) so why not buy them a drink next time you see them?

New co-host of Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series

Ellen Datlow is proud to announce that she has a new co-host, writer/editor Matthew Kressel, for the KGB Fantastic Fiction Reading Series.

Kressel, publisher of Senses Five Press and Sybil’s Garage, is taking over for Gavin J. Grant as co-host of the monthly reading series at the famed KGB Bar in New York City.

Terry Bisson and Alice K. Turner started the reading series in the late 1990s, attempting to bring together mainstream writers with writers of speculative fiction in order to show, in Alice Turner’s words, “that at a certain level they were plowing exactly the same field.” In the spring of 2000 Ellen Datlow took over for Alice K. Turner and in August 2002 Gavin J. Grant, publisher of Small Beer Press, stepped in for Bisson when he moved to California.

For six years Gavin has co-hosted the series with Ellen. We wish to thank him for the bang up job he’s done, for the dedication he has shown to the authors and their work.

The KGB Fantastic Fiction readings—in addition to showcasing many of the major voices of the field—regularly bring together the members of New York City science fiction, fantasy, and horror communities where writers, editors, and readers can mingle and promote excellent fiction.

The readings (which are always free) are held on the third Wednesday of each month at 7 PM at KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street (just off 2nd Ave, upstairs).

Upcoming readers include P. D. Cacek, Jack Ketchum, James Patrick Kelly, Cassandra Claire, Christopher Barzak, Jeff Somers, Stefan Merrill Block, JoSelle Vanderhooft, and John Kessel.

For a full schedule visit:
http://www.sensesfive.com/kgb.php

KGB Bar website:
http://www.kgbbar.com

Subscribe to our mailing list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kgbfantasticfiction/join

To submit materials for consideration please send titles to:

Ellen Datlow

KGB Readings
PMB 391
511 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10011-8436

and

Matthew Kressel
Senses Five Press
307 Madison St, Apt 3L
Hoboken, NJ 07030-1937


Camberwick Green

Sat 29 Mar 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

The first half of the second season of Life on Mars is pants, mince, rubbish, etc. The 5th episode instead of just featuring the rightly-scary test card girl also featured Camberwick Green:


That 800lb gorilla

Fri 28 Mar 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

From today’s Shelf Awareness a note that’s going to affect a ton of indie presses:

Amazon has notified publishers who print books on demand that they will
have to use Amazon’s POD facilities if they want to sell their books
directly on Amazon.com, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“The move signals that Amazon is intent on using its position as the
premier online bookseller to strengthen its presence in other phases of
bookselling and manufacturing,” the Journal continued. Amazon “has
evolved into a fully vertical book publishing and retail operation. Most
recently, Amazon acquired audiobook seller Audible Inc. Amazon also
sells its own ebook reader called the Kindle.”

Publishers will have to use Amazon’s BookSurge POD subsidiary. Among
competitors are Ingram’s Lightning Source and lulu.com.

Read the whole piece here (put in any WSJ headline into Google News and you can read the whole thing).


Is Greater Than

Mon 24 Mar 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Some of the fine people from the much-missed Punk Planet have a new website, Is Greater Than, looking at all things indie, leftish, and interesting from fine foods (the all-veggie KFC Famous Bowl) to the ongoing Afghan War. They’ve been running a series on independent presses and have featured Tin House, Featherproof Books, and now Small Beer Press.

featherproof.jpgThis Will Go Down on Your Permanent RecordNot sure about the 3rd one there, but the first two are definitely worth checking out. (Or rather, check in from your zoned out state and see what they are up to.)

Tin House, well, we know you know. Fantastic journal and now putting out some wild books.

Featherproof are a newish press coming straight out of the Pork Center of the Americas, Chicago. Jonathan Messinger’s collection Hiding Out should just have enough weirdness to keep you happy. Or you could try their first step into the YA field with Susannah Felt’s novel This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record (great title!).


Swanwick & Keck

Wed 19 Mar 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Tonight’s Fantastic Fiction reading at the KGB Bar in NYC will be hosted by Matt Kressel, the man behind the curtain at Senss Five Press (publisher of the zine Sybil’s Garage and a new anthology, Paper Cities). Tonight’s reading, beginning at 7 PM features Michael Swanwick (The Dragons of Babel) and David Keck (In a Time of Treason).


Amtrak question

Tue 18 Mar 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

OK, so is there an arm of Amtrak (the Amtrak Foundation?) or Rail Canada which gives grants to writers (or, er, indie presses) who want to, just to pick a wild example out the air (or, more appropriately if less of an actual fit, off the land), for instance take the train across the USA, up to Vancouver, and then across to Calgary. (Or at least to Edmonton, since Calgary doesn’t seem to have a train connection.)

It would be great publicity for the train companies….


Synth Loops

Tue 18 Mar 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

This is just fantastic (lifted whole cloth from Bookslut):

Christian Bök performs part of “The Cyborg Opera: Synth Loops” & “The Aria of the 3-Horned Enemy” (from R. Murray Schafer’s The Princess of the Stars). Kamau Brathwaite reads from Born to Slow Horses.


Podcast: Kessel

Thu 13 Mar 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Here’s John Kessel reading the title story of his new collection:

“The Baum Plan for Financial Independence”

Ex-con Sid and his sometime girlfriend Dot break into a house in the Blue Ridge Mountains and open a door to a world that changes everything.

The Baum Plan for Financial Independence (33:03)

First published in SciFiction.

Updated again with a link to a “sneak preview” of the story in the Raleigh News and Observer.  John will be reading in Raleigh in a couple of weeks: see the events calendar over there on the right (a direction that makes no sense in your blogreader of choice) or here.


Kessel reviewers

Fri 7 Mar 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

We are running very low on galleys and won’t have copies of The Baum Plan for Financial Independence for a couple of weeks (see previous post). If any writer, blogger, etc. would like a PDF copy of the book for review, please either email or leave a request in the comments field.


Baum Plans for book stores

Thu 6 Mar 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Crowley, Endless ThingsIt’s almost all go on John Kessel’s new collection, The Baum Plan for Financial Independence. The book is at the printer , the proofs have been ok’d, it’s just a matter of ink being lathered onto paper then washed carefully off to leave the notes (or “letters” as John likes to call them) that you can take home and sing. Will the book be ready in time for John’s first reading at Quail Ridge Books? We are on the edges of our seats! (See more of John.)
Will you be able to find The Baum Plan in your local bookshop? Yes! The American Booksellers Association just announced their April bookseller picks and they’ve included Kessel’s book. Here’s what they had to say about this book (and a few others):

THE BAUM PLAN FOR FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE and Other Stories by John Kessel
“John Kessel’s writing exists at the edge of things, in the dark corner where the fiction section abuts the science fiction shelves, in the hyphen where magic meets realism. This is one of those too rare short story collections that you can recommend with confidence to both the literary snob and the hard-core computer geek.”
—Rich Rennicks, Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe, Asheville, NC

THE SHADOW YEAR by Jeffrey Ford
“I loved The Shadow Year. In this story of the secrets of a 1960s Long Island suburb, Ford’s writing is hypnotic, as he examines the dark side of living in a small town through the lives of three siblings.”
—Roberta Rubin, The Book Stall At Chestnut Court, Winnetka, IL

Other books on the list include new collections from Jhumpa Lahiri (Unaccustomed Earth) and Kevin Brockmeier (The View from the Seventh Layer); Jack O’Connell’s novel THE RESURRECTIONIST (which has already been highly recommended by a couple of readers we trust); the anthology of the moment, THE NEW WEIRD, edited by Jeff and Ann Vandermeer; and finally ARMAGEDDON IN RETROSPECT, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Between these and some of the rest of the list, that’s more than a month’s reading. Unless you are a book-a-day monster and then we are green and envious and trying not to be small about it all.

More on The Baum Plan:

There’s a humongous review by Nick Gevers in the March issue of Locus.

Library Thingers (now exploding locally!) your copies of The Baum Plan for Financial Independence are in the mails and may even have arrived. We look forward to your reviews. Maybe there will be copies of Ben Rosenbaum’s collection up for grabs later this spring.

Lunacon: No, we will not be there. However, there will be one copy of Kessel’s book available (along with a CD of John reading the title story) from the Book Exhibit and Raffle: “The funds raised go directly into the Donald A. and Elsie B. Wollheim Memorial Scholarship Fund, which helps beginning SF and fantasy writers attend the Clarion or Clarion West Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Workshop.” Bid high!Listen to an episode of Starship Sofa featuring John’s story “Buffalo” narrated by James Campanella.

Listen to an episode of Starship Sofa featuring John’s story “Buffalo” narrated by James Campanella.

And lastly here’s what Publishers Weekly thought about the book:

The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories
John Kessel. Small Beer (www.smallbeerpress.com), $24 (336p) ISBN 978-1-931520-50-8; $16 paper ISBN 978-1-931520-51-5
This nuanced mostly reprint collection, the first in a decade from Nebula winner Kessel (Good News from Outer Space), plays on the theme of a hapless, down-on-his-luck man thrown into extraordinary circumstances. “The Juniper Tree,” the Tiptree-winning “Stories for Men,” “Sunlight or Rock” and “Under the Lunchbox Tree,” all tied to Kessel’s lunar colony sequence, explore the limits placed on a man’s life in a beautiful, woman-dominated city on the barren moon. In “Powerless,” the only story original to the volume, a hapless inventor finally perfects a strange new power generator, destroying his relationships along the way. Paying homage to the classics, “Every Angel Is Terrifying” serves as a sequel to Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” while in “Pride and Prometheus” Mary Bennet meets Victor Frankenstein. These well-crafted stories, full of elegantly drawn characters, deliver a powerful emotional punch. (Apr.)

Powerful, baby, powerful.


Emshwiller hits the Top 20

Wed 5 Mar 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Apropos of the next item, we just bought a hilarious, poignant, excellent story by Carol Emshwiller for the next issue of LCRW. She’s getting to be a regular. We’ve had stories by her in LCRW 8, 19, 21, and even in Trampoline.

Last week the io9 blog picked a list of

The Twenty Science Fiction Novels that Will Change Your Life

which so far has been seen 93,718 times. And one of those novels (which was a pretty good list as lists go) was

The MountThe Mount (2002), by Carol Emshwiller
After human civilization is destroyed by a group of invading aliens, the survivors become the ponies of their new alien overlords. Generations later, our hero is a happy mount to the alien prince, but slowly begins to realize that the life of a pampered pet is not all he wants.

That’s right! It will change your life! Changed ours. Won an award, went back to press, sold some books, sold mass market paperback rights to Penguin, sold to Spain and some other countries. And, oh yes, it is awesome.

More about The Mount:

More about Carol:

  • Carmen Dog, Chapter 1.
  • “Mrs. Jones” from Report to the Men’s Club and Other Stories
  • A letter to Carol Emshwiller from James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon) written in 1975. You can see a scanned version of the letter here or read the letter here.

Date: Up.

Tue 4 Mar 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

Today’s juggling of tasks incomplete landed these few on the ground as done enough for now:

Kelly is one of the readers in a Tin House/excellent indie press night on Thursday at the Dweck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library in Grand Army Plaza with Anne Carson, Brenda Shaughnessy, and Lydia Millet.

Maureen McHugh has some new stories coming up (or at least one in Ellen Datlow’s Del Rey Books of Science Fiction and Fantasy) and maybe she’s working on a novel in between more of those computer game/operas she’s working on. Catch up with her in a Locus interview.

Updated the KGB Fantastic Fiction Reading Series page with some upcoming readers. Yes, you will need to go to the page to see who. Ooh! Unless, of course, it is you, Michael Swanwick or David Keck who is reading this. Some of these readers are more firmly booked than others.

Since we just finished the selections for the next Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror now seemed like a good time to update the page a little. Not much. There really are ghostly gremlins working away to make the site better so until then, hodge and podge are the breakfast, elevensies, lunch, threesies, nibbles, dinner, supper, and midnight feast around here.


PC

Sun 2 Mar 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

In the early 80s metal bands were pretty politically aware. Well, not sure if that’s what Iron Maiden qualify as. Metal, that is. They always seemed like a hard rock band more than heavy metal monsters—despite their predilection for a certain monster, Eddie. Yes, they were part of the New Wave of NWBHM Heavy Metal (could have picked a better acronym than NWBHM), but listen to this lovely pop song (the sound quality on this video is pretty poor) and see what you think.

Hmm. Iron Maiden are playing in LA during BookExpo. Tempting. Haven’t seen them since 1987.

This posted due to someone with a sense of humor giving me a CD of Number of the Beast at some point and me digging it up today while at work. I don’t know how often the CD will be played but it is clean, crisp old-fashioned somewhat-familiar rock’n’roll and is refreshingly noisy. Tomorrow will be time enough for calmer climes.

One funny thing is that I remember most of these songs pretty well (they were used to wake me up when I was 12 so they’re pretty deeply worn into the failing brainpan) except “Total Eclipse.” Without doing further digging to see if I still have a tape of the original album I suspect the reason is that that song may not have made it on to my tape.* Funny. It’s an ok song and there’s some fun Maiden-y time signature change-ups in the second half. Who knows why it didn’t make the cut. Funny to have it now as basically a new 26 y.o. song.

It’s ok Jed, I won’t play it while you’re here.

* Yes, as in taped album (or cassette), rather than something I owned. Naughty? Perhaps. Penurious way to acquire music in pre-internet age? Yes. Sued by record companies at the time? No. Later purchases of music owing a debt to those tapes: quite a lot. RIAA: go sue yourselves out of existence for being so anti-fan.


5 years of this

Tue 26 Feb 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

(which would be this) will no doubt bring us millions of hits, readers, and dollars. Our plan for wasting all our time on frivolous pursuits is going verrrry well.

Can’t find us? Look up, to the right near Old Radio Fun—who have a nice, easy to read 100% comprehensible message, and lots of fun old shows.


They may not have any feelings

Tue 26 Feb 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

as Mr. Cobain was wont to moan, but it looks like that piece of sushi (or, maybe that fried thing getting in the way of the mushy peas and chips) could count:

Their numerical ability is on a par with that of monkeys, dolphins and children aged between six months and 12 months. “We have provided the first evidence that fish exhibit rudimentary mathematical abilities,” said experimental psychologist Christian Agrillo, of the University of Padova in Italy.

From the whole story on the BBC’s Love Earth(!) site:

… as Agrillo points out: ‘The most interesting thing is that fish performance is very similar to what is observed in adult humans who possess a very limited vocabulary for numbers.’ For example, speakers of the Amazonian language Mundurukú lack words for numbers beyond five. ‘Their limits in quantity tasks closely resemble what we found in pre-verbal organisms such as fish!’ says Agrillo.


Monstrously Bad Sex

Sat 23 Feb 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

The Award.


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