Fictionwise gets wristleted

Wed 13 May 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., ebooks, LCRW| Posted by: Gavin

Looks like Fictionwise have caught up and added a bunch of our zines. (And some of them are available as DRM-free ebooks here.) Um, here’s a cut and paste including reviews (or, rather, ratings, where are the reviews? where’s the fun?). And, if you like the ebooks, this would be a good time to catch up on back issues as they all seem to be on sale.

1	Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 23 [MultiFormat] by Gavin J. Grant & Kelly Link		Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet is a twice-yearly zine of eclectic fiction, poetry, comics, etc. No. 23 features stories from Kirsten Allio, Nick Wolven, Angela Slatter, Mark Rich, Jodi Lynn Villers, and others. Ted Chiang contributes an algorithmic essay on The Problem of the Traveling Salesman (there’s math in it, but it’s fun, we swear). Plus, Abby Denson’s new comic explains how to create cats for fun and profit. Elsewhere within: murderous deer, fey graffiti, your wizardly father gives di… more info>> (Published: 2008) Hugo Award Nominee, Locus Poll Award Nominee Words: 35532 – Reading Time: 101-142 min. Category: Fantasy
	Regular Club List Price: $5.00 $4.25 You Pay: $3.00 $2.55 You Save: 40% 49%
2	Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 22 [MultiFormat] by Gavin J. Grant & Kelly Link		Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet is a twice-yearly zine of eclectic fiction, poetry, comics, etc. No. 22 features amazing stories from Carol Emshwiller, Maureen F. McHugh, David J. Schwartz, Charlie Anders, and others. Aunt Gwenda weighs in with some writing tips, and Abby Denson’s comic reveals the secrets of snake-slaying. Will the blind camera find aquatic love? Will the children of Winter undo their mother’s great work? Where has Satan been tending bar these days? All this and more within. (Published: 2008) Hugo Award Nominee, Locus Poll Award Nominee Words: 37657 – Reading Time: 107-150 min. Category: Fantasy	3 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor
	Regular Club List Price: $5.00 $4.25 You Pay: $3.00 $2.55 You Save: 40% 49%
3	Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 21 [MultiFormat] by Gavin Grant & Kelly Link		Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet is a twice-yearly zine of eclectic fiction and so on. No. 21 is the first issue to be made available on Fictionwise and features amazing stories from Alice Sola Kim, Matthew Cheney, Kirstin Allio, Brian Conn, Benjamin Parzybok, Carol Emshwiller, and others. Of course the real reason to read it is for Dear Aunt Gwenda’s advice column (or perhaps Abby Denson’s comic?) wherein you too can learn the secrets of the universe. (Published: 2007) Hugo Award Nominee Words: 41372 – Reading Time: 118-165 min. Category: Fantasy	4 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor
	Regular Club List Price: $5.00 $4.25 You Pay: $3.00 $2.55 You Save: 40% 49%
4	Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 15 [MultiFormat] by Gavin J. Grant & Kelly Link		Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet is a twice-yearly zine of eclectic fiction and so on. Issue No. 15 features a lady (Churchill, we presume) riding a tiger, and includes fabulous stories by Karen Russell, Sarah Micklem, Bruce McAllister, John Trey, Benjamin Rosenbaum & Paul Melko, Michael Northrop, Ellen M. Rhudy, Sarah Monette, Geoffrey Goodwin, Richard Parks, Stepan Chapman, Mark Rich, Amy Sisson, and Neal Chandler. (Published: 2005) Words: 39167 – Reading Time: 111-156 min. Category: Fantasy
	Regular Club List Price: $5.00 $4.25 You Pay: $3.00 $2.55 You Save: 40% 49%
5	Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 16 [MultiFormat] by Gavin J. Grant & Kelly Link		Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet is a twice-yearly zine of eclectic fiction and so on. No. 16 features fiction, poetry and suchlike from the wonderful Jenny Ashley, Gwenda Bond, Chris Fox, Scott Geiger, Eric Gregory, Michaela Kahn, John Kessel, Matthew Kirby, Ursula K. Le Guin, Yoon Ha Lee, Sandra Lindow, David Lunde, Christina Manucy, Kat Meads, Sean Melican, Eric Schaller, and Kara Spindler (Published: 2005) Words: 40539 – Reading Time: 115-162 min. Category: Fantasy
	Regular Club List Price: $5.00 $4.25 You Pay: $3.00 $2.55 You Save: 40% 49%
6	Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 18 [MultiFormat] by Gavin J. Grant & Kelly Link		Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet is a twice-yearly zine of eclectic fiction and so on. Issue No. 18 features a house monster. Black & white with handtinted woodblock cuts by famous and unknown artists. Printed on a 12th century Chinese letterpress on sheets of kelp-paper handmade by centaurs and sprites. Unattractively bound in the skins of dead animals. Alternately: attractively bound in more handmade paper, these sheets fairly traded from The Mysterions: Those Who Live at the Center of the Ea… more info>> (Published: 2006) Words: 39363 – Reading Time: 112-157 min. Category: Fantasy
	Regular Club List Price: $5.00 $4.25 You Pay: $3.00 $2.55 You Save: 40% 49%
7	Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 19 [MultiFormat] by Gavin J. Grant & Kelly Link		Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet is a twice-yearly zine of eclectic fiction and so on. No. 19, our 10-year anniversary issue, has wrestlers on the cover and features such wonderful authors as Ray Vukcevich, Daniel A. Rabuzzi, Dennis Nau, Nancy Jane Moore, Cara Spindler & David Erik Nelson, Kara Kellar Bell, Andrew Fort, Anna Tambour, and Carol Emshwiller. (Published: 2006) Hugo Award Nominee Words: 35506 – Reading Time: 101-142 min. Category: Fantasy
	Regular Club List Price: $5.00 $4.25 You Pay: $3.00 $2.55 You Save: 40% 49%
8	Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 20 [MultiFormat] by Gavin J. Grant & Kelly Link		Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet is a twice-yearly zine of eclectic fiction and so on. No. 20, the notorious “robot” issue, includes amazing stories by Marly Youmans, Anil Menon, Edward McEneely, Steven Bratman, Michael Hartford, M. Brock Moorer, Laura Evans, Amelia Beamer, Meghan McCarron, Jon Hansen, and Karen Joy Fowler. There is also some very fine poetry from Neile Graham, Rose Black, and David Blair, and the always endearing Dear Aunt Gwenda. And robots! (Published: 2007) Hugo Award Nominee Words: 39850 – Reading Time: 113-159 min. Category: Fantasy

---

Animaux de pierre

Tue 12 May 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kelly Link| Posted by: Gavin

Looks like Kelly’s story “Stone Animals” is a nominee for le Prix Imaginales in the Nouvelle category, yay!

In other news, we just received a copy of the Recorded Books audio version of Pretty Monsters and it is tres jolie. It can be downloaded from various sites or gotten from your library: encourage them to stock it on CD, or Playaway—a fave version of some people we know who love to go hiking and listen to books.

---

Suisman in the WSJ

Tue 12 May 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., To Read Pile| Posted by: Gavin

Holy crap, look at the size of that . . . review! The Wall Street Journal spends some time reading Selling Sounds, David Suisman‘s first book. You might know him from his old radio show on WFMU, or, you might not know him! Selling Sounds is about to come out and David’s got a reading in NYC in a week or two (ok, details: Thursday, May 21, 6 PM, Barnes & Noble, 105 Fifth Ave. @ 18th Street) where you too can be wowed.

We’ll have a little something from David in a week or so. In the meantime, maestro!

Music and Money

From Tin Pan Alley to RCA Victor: shaping musical taste, profiting from it.

In 1888, the music publisher M. Witmark & Sons opened an office near Union Square in New York, not long after the fledgling company had enjoyed success selling sheet music for a song penned by one of the Witmark boys, “President Cleveland’s Wedding March.” Witmark would go on to play a major role in the commodification of music from the late 19th century to the Depression — the subject of David Suisman’s “Selling Sounds.” As the author notes in an epilogue, the Witmark building was just a few doors away from a contemporary bastion of what the commercialization of music wrought: a Virgin Megastore. Now, in an epilogue to his epilogue, Virgin’s music emporium will soon become a thing of the past: Like so many other retail music stores of late, it has announced that it is going out of business. The story of “Selling Sounds,” then, is especially timely.

---

Worldcon memberships for sale

Mon 11 May 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Cons| Posted by: Gavin

For sale: 2 adult memberships for Worldcon 67 in Montreal this summer (Aug. 6-10) for sale. Currently memberships cost US$195, these are $175 each (which is what we paid for them a couple of months ago). Email info@lcrw.net and we’ll send them your way.

Edited to add: Sold! Thanks internets.

---

Man with good taste posts about

Mon 11 May 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Carol Emshwiller| Posted by: Gavin

Carol Emshwiller. Yeah!

Short Story Month – Guest Post – Richard Grayson

I’d like to put in a good word for Carol Emshwiller’s wonderful short stories.  Her 1974 collection, Joy in Our Cause, published by Harper & Row, was one that influenced me a great deal.  I guess the stories could be classified as experimental, but they are all playful as well as profound.

---

Happy author

Tue 5 May 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Greer Gilman| Posted by: Gavin

Rediscovered this great old pic of Greer Gilman and all the other iwnners of the World Fantasy Award in 2004 while googling something about Cloud & Ashes:

---

Lunch find

Tue 5 May 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., LCRW| Posted by: Gavin

Best lunchtime LCRW slush-reading find: in the envelope with the story, a rejection from The Literary Review. Is this person submitting in reverse alphabetical order>=?

---

Freecycle

Mon 4 May 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Northampton & environs| Posted by: Gavin

Hey, we just successfully freecycled our old workhorse (which was the name of it in the end) Powerbook Mac to a guy who’s going to take it apart and maybe repair it for a computer repair class: excellent!

This press was basically run off that laptop from sometime in 2001 to sometime in 2006. It was bought when our place in Brooklyn was robbed (on July 4th weekend, how patriotic!) and it turned out rental insurance was one of the best ideas we’d ever had. At some point we put in a new harddrive, more than doubling its capacity to a mind-boggling 20GB. Ha. Then in 2006 or so it started slowing down and we stripped a lot of stuff off it and it was replaced with a MacBook. For a while it worked as a mini-server (and an AirTunes repository) then, one day, silence. We toasted it then, we toast it again. (Maybe all that toasting was why it stopped working? Is heat bad for laptops? How about peanut butter)

And now off it goes to a new and more scattered place: thanks old boy, good luck in your next life(/lives)!

---

New Scottish Poet Laureate

Mon 4 May 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., poetry, the world| Posted by: Gavin

Lovely news from the UK about the new poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, whose poetry we’ve enjoyed in the last couple of years. If you want to try her out, start with Feminine Gospels or The World’s Wife.

Duffy, the first woman and—since she was born in Glasgow and moved with her family to England when she was 5—the first Scot to get tapped for the job obviously knows how government works and is on top of the most important aspect of the job:

The job also comes with a “butt of sack” – traditionally a type of wine, which nowadays translates into around 600 bottles of sherry.

Duffy said: “Andrew (Motion) hasn’t had his yet so I’ve asked for mine up front.”

Should be more fun to read her occasional poetry than the poor, blocked Mr. Motion’s.

---

Get your summer read on

Mon 4 May 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Benjamin Parzybok, bookshops, Kelly Link, the world, To Read Pile| Posted by: Gavin

Awesome news: Couch is on the Spring/Summer 2009 Indie Next List for Reading Groups. We’ll have a reading guide for Couch up within the next few weeks and if anyone wants to contribute, you know what to do. We haven’t seen the paper version of the list yet, but we like that Couch is in #9—and that the recommendation comes from Florida, yeah! (That’s a long way for a Portland-based couch to travel….)

Other recs include a couple of Kelly’s fave books, Molly Gloss’s bestseller The Hearts of Horses and Tana French’s In the Woods, and, in the YA guide, Kelly’s collection!

9. Couch by Benjamin Parzybok
“Couch follows the quirky journey of Thom, Erik, and Tree as they venture into the unknown at the behest of a magical, orange couch, which has its own plan for their previously boring lives. Parzybok’s colorful characters, striking humor, and eccentric magical realism offer up an adventuresome read.” –Christian Crider, Inkwood Books, Tampa, FL

The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss
(Mariner Books, $13.95,  / 0547085753)
“Molly Gloss tells a heartwarming story of a young woman who earns her way as a ‘horse gentler’ on the eastern Oregon frontier during the early 1900s.” –Sandra Palmer, Wy’east Book Shoppe & Art Gallery, Welches, OR

In the Woods: A Novel by Tana French
“This is a contemporary murder mystery set in Ireland with just the right hint of spookiness and great layers of psychological suspense, as a pair of detectives seek to solve the murder of a young girl in an ancient stand of woods. The current murder is foreshadowed by a crime against three young children many years ago that may hold a key to the new mystery.” –Sandra Palmer, Wy’east Book Shoppe & Art Gallery, Welches, OR

And here are some suggestions of great titles for reading groups of younger readers…

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson

Chains by Laurie Halse AndersonThe Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Pretty Monsters: Stories by Kelly Link, Shaun Tan (illus.)

---

Unicorns

Sat 2 May 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kelly Link, To Read Pile| Posted by: Gavin

Kelly wanted to note that while Gavin is off not shipping and reading Libba Bray’s Going Bovine she has been busy re-reading for the nth time P. C. Hodgell’s The God Stalker Chronicles (two separate novels, God Stalk and its sequel Dark of the Moon) and Seeker’s Bane (two separate novels,  Seekers Mask and its sequel To Ride a Rathorn) which Baen books recently reprinted. For which: yay and thanks! And, also, there must be more in this series, right?

A few of Kelly’s favorite books are here and occasionally she adds books to LibraryThing (but the widget links to Amazon, meh).

Armor-plated unicorns!

---

Going Bovine

Thu 30 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., To Read Pile| Posted by: Gavin

I know I should be shipping hundreds and hundreds of books out (and yay for that!) but really what I am doing is wishing I were sitting reading Libba Bray’s Going Bovine. Started it last night and it is weird and excellent. Stupid work.

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy!

---

Award Season: Nebulas

Tue 28 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Books, John Kessel| Posted by: Gavin

The Nebula Awards were given out this weekend at the LA Times Book Festival and it’s a great slate of winners, including many Small Beer authors and friends including Kate Wilhelm who received one of the inaugural Solstice Awards, John Kessel, whose story “Pride and Prometheus” is getting nominated for every award there is and which received the award for Novelette, and Ursula K. Le Guin, who received the Best Novel for Powers. (Powers is a really good book, but Voices, the middle of the three Western Shore novels, is fantastic.)

Carrying on from looking at the gender breakdown of the Tiptree list: who are they, where do they come from?

Winners: 1 man; 4 women
Nominees*: 16 women; 14 men

* includes Norton Award but not script.

And here’s the reading list:

• Best Novel: Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Best Novelette: “Pride or Prometheus” (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 2008, The Baum Plan for Financial Independence)
• Andre Norton Award: Flora’s Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) by Ysabeau Wilce

---

Arlen Specter

Tue 28 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., the world| Posted by: Gavin

This just popped up on the NY Times:

Specter To Switch Parties

which means that the government will actually get the chance to govern without being blocked for petty party reasons. Which is awesome! Congratulations Mr. Specter, we very much applaud your decision!

---

Charge me up!

Tue 28 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., cars, the world| Posted by: Gavin

Ganked wholesale from Autobloggreen—which is usually all about groovy new cars we can’t get here in the old-old USA—and it may be the perfect storm of blogginess for Gavin: electric cars, beer, and solar power, ack! Must move Small Beer Press to Chico, CA!

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Green Daily, USA

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. goes electric with charging stations

by Jeremy Korzeniewski on Apr 27th 2009 at 7:56AM

A few months back, we heard about Sierra Nevada Brewing Company’s plans to begin using waste from its beer brewing process to make ethanol. That’s great, but there’s apparently more greening going on at the company’s brewery in Chico, CA. The first two ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations from Coulomb Technologies have been installed at the plant and will be used by employees and customers that happen to own electric cars.

Anyone that carries a subscription to Coulomb’s ChargePoint Network will be able to use their Smart Card to charge their electric vehicles at any charging station in the world. That’s not the beer maker’s only new commitment to being eco-friendly – this weekend also marked the dedication of Sierra Nevada’s new 1.5 MW AC solar system. Who knew beer could be so green? Click past the break for the full press release.

[Source: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company]

---

Jimmy Carter for President

Tue 28 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Books| Posted by: Gavin

I don’t like guns. 30,000 people are killed every year with guns in the USA. That’s only 0.01% of the population but it’s thousands more than would be killed if guns were illegal. It’s really, really hard to carry out a massacre at your local school without guns. How is it that we even have the recognizable catchphrase “school shooting”? Why doesn’t that phrase make the NRA spin in their spinning suits?

However you or I feel about owning guns, former President and proud gun owner Jimmy Carter calls it on assault weapons:

I have used weapons since I was big enough to carry one, and now own two handguns, four shotguns and three rifles, two with scopes. I use them carefully, for hunting game from our family woods and fields, and occasionally for hunting with my family and friends in other places….

But none of us wants to own an assault weapon, because we have no desire to kill policemen or go to a school or workplace to see how many victims we can accumulate before we are finally shot or take our own lives. That’s why the White House and Congress must not give up on trying to reinstate a ban on assault weapons, even if it may be politically difficult.

Please write to your representative to support the ban on assault weapons.

---

Award Season: Tiptrees

Mon 27 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Books, John Kessel| Posted by: Gavin

I’m very happy to see that the Tiptree winners and honor list have been announced. I was the chair of the jury this year and we very much enjoyed reading the recommended work. As with my experience on the World Fantasy Award jury, I can highly recommend the reading list and hasten to point out that an appearance there is a rare and wonderful honor. I can’t wait to see the art that each of the winner’s will receive (and hear about the song…). I recused myself from discussions of any Small Beer Press or Kelly’s stories so it is great to see John Kessel’s great story, “Pride and Prometheus,” made it onto the list anyway.

It never struck me to do this while the jury were working but just now I looked at the winners and honor list in the way I normally look at winners: who are they, where do they come from?

Winners: 1 man (UK); 1 woman (USA)
Honor List: 7 women (4 USA, 2 Australia, 1 UK); 5 men (4 USA, 1 Sweden)

Here’s the whole list: how many have you read?

2008 Tiptree Award Winners Announced!

The James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award Council is pleased to announce that the 2008 Tiptree Award has two winners: Patrick Ness’s young adult novel, The Knife of Never Letting Go (Walker 2008) and Nisi Shawl’s short story collection, Filter House (Aqueduct Press, 2008). Read more

---

Amherst and why is this brilliant?

Fri 24 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., YouTube| Posted by: Gavin

We are at the Juniper Fest at UMass Amherst tomorrow: 6 PM until late, Saturday 12 midday (that’s a decent hour) until later. Eric Lorberer, Lucy Corwin, and all sorts of good people will be there. (And Gavin will disappear off to Boston for a panel at MIT partway through the PM, oh well.)

Embedding is disabled by request (boo!) but you have to watch this and then tell us just why it it so brilliant and funny? (It absolutely is!)

---

At the printer

Thu 23 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Art, Greer Gilman| Posted by: Gavin

We just got a note that Greer Gilman’s (awesome) second novel Cloud & Ashes will ship soon from the printer, Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan. That is one Michigan company who do great work and we doubt they need any bailout. Also, we’re very happy to be working with an employee-owed company. So, Cloud & Ashes will  be in stores within a couple of weeks. If you’d like yours faster, order it here.

You can see the amazing front cover by Australian artist Kathleen Jennings at Powell’s or on Indiebound, what you can’t see is the full wraparound effect of it which is pretty pretty. Here’s a little note from the artist abut it.

Thanks again to those readers who pre-ordered the book—you can find their names in the old-fashioned subscription list on the inside of the dustjacket.

“Sublimely lyrical Jacobeanesque dialect . . . readers who enjoy symbolism and allusion will cherish Gilman’s use of diverse folkloric elements to create an unforgettable realm and ideology.”—Publishers Weekly

---

Biking in Edinburgh

Wed 22 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., the world| Posted by: Gavin

This is not the way we bike, but it’s a fun thing to watch this guy do some “huge riding” around Edinburgh. Fast forward to about the minute mark (and YMMV with the soundtrack) to get to the livelier part:

---

Are you uncomfortable?

Wed 22 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., LCRW| Posted by: Gavin

Gustave Bondoni gets The Best of LCRW at SF Reader:

This is not a book which will fall into most readers’ comfort zones. The stories, poetry and even the movie reviews attempt to make you think, as opposed to giving you an open and shut storyline. You will not be satisfied with the endings of these stories. And you are not meant to be. You are meant to challenge your assumptions.

---

Call for artists

Tue 21 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Art, Interstitial Arts| Posted by: Gavin

From the Interstitial Arts Foundation who are going to have a lot of fun with their next anthology before, during, and after it comes out. These are the people, after all, who’re interested in skipping and slipping along between the cracks, so read on if you like the weird mixed with the weird:

——–

Dear lovers of Interstital Arts,

We are proud to announce the publication of our second volume of Interfictions, edited by Delia Sherman and Christopher Barzak.

To celebrate the release of this unique anthology we are delighted to present our second annual Interfictions auction. Like all interstitial arts, this auction is more than the sum of its parts. Artists participating in this year’s auction may draw their inspiration from the first anthology or will be allowed to have first look at a story from the new book. This means that the 2009 auction is in the unique position of being an artistic fan celebration for an anthology that does not yet technically exist. We invite you to add your voice to this synthesis of words and imagination.

The first auction featured jewelry artists from across the country participating in a collaboration across mediums. The artists’ imaginations, triggered by words and images, produced over a dozen magnificent pieces of art. This year we’re expanding the focus beyond jewelry to music and wearable/portable art in any medium.

From April 20 to September 20, 2009 the Interstitial Arts Foundation invites artists and musicians of all genres and mediums (interstitial or not) to participate in the Interfictions 2 auction.

How It Works:

• On the Call to Artists page you will find short excerpts from the stories in Interfictions 2. As you click through them, we hope that at least one will immediately call to you. Choose a story you’d like to read in full, then fill out the form at the bottom of that page. Alternately, artists may also choose to submit work based on the first Interfictions volume, available in bookstores.
• Within 7 days we will send you a confirmation of receipt and, barring any questions we may have, you will receive the story you chose in email as a PDF. Then read, enjoy, and be inspired!
• Completed pieces are due by September 20. The auction begins in November!

To read the excerpts and express your interest, please click here.

Have questions? Check out the FAQ. Still have questions? Email us here:

---

266. (Nothing to do with 2666.)

Mon 20 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., the world| Posted by: Gavin

It’s been great seeing transparency and public responsibility hit the government in the last 3 months since the previous administration was turfed out. (It’s not all getting an equal amount of light: hello State Secrets Act, time for bed!)

So we have today’s headlines which are all about two men who got tortured—waterboarded—by the US Government. Not once:

The controversial technique that simulates drowning — and which President Obama calls torture — was used at least 83 times in August 2002 on suspected al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah, according to the memo.

Interrogators also waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times in March 2003. Mohammed is believed to be the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.
—CNN

Which doesn’t quite jibe with the propaganda spouted in 2007:

A former C.I.A. officer, John Kiriakou, told ABC News and other news media organizations in 2007 that Abu Zubaydah had undergone waterboarding for only 35 seconds before agreeing to tell everything he knew.
—NY Times

We spent the period from January 20, 2000, to January 19, 2008, being lied to by our government. Around the world everyone else knew that the US was operating secret prisons (what kind of military junta were we being led by??) abroad although few members of the media reported it here.

Now it’s time to clean up and for those cowards who lied (for our own good, of course) should stand up and be counted, try and defend their actions, and where it fits, be tried and sentenced.

It won’t be particularly easy or nice and it might be distracting during this huge recession but if we as a country want to have any say in how the world works we have to own up to our mistakes and take the punishment for crossing lines which should not be crossed.

---

Tumblr

Fri 17 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., website bumph| Posted by: Gavin

Ok, we were told this was easy. Sounded like a challenge. Nope. No challenge. Really, really easy. What’s it for? Who knows? For the nonce, here’s http://smallbeerpress.tumblr.com/

---

Some Mass. book affairs

Fri 17 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Cons, To Read Pile, workshops, Writer's Daily Planner| Posted by: Gavin

We have a few things coming up in local environs that we wanted to tell yous all about in an endeavor to get you off the internet and back into peopleville. First up, a busy weekend, second a publishing course, and last, the best, a book!

1. First one comes in two parts:
   a) The 9th ANNUAL JUNIPER LITERARY FESTIVAL Celebrating 50 Years of the Massachusetts Review April 24 & 25, 2009, wherein there is a bookfair where we will be selling books and, if they have it like they did last year, eating candy floss and attending readings by Marilyn Hacker, et al.
   b) June 21-27, Juniper Summer Writing Institute (which includes the  Juniper Institute for Young Writers). Wherein Holly Black (and maybe Kelly Link) will be teaching.
2. The same weekend as the Juniper Lit. Festival Gavin will be in Boston for a panel at MIT as part of the MiT6 Conference:
   The Future of Publishing
   Gavin Grant, Small Beer Press
   Jennifer Jackson, Donald Maass Literary Agency
   Robert Miller, HarperStudio
   Bob Stein, The Institute for the Future of the Book
   Moderator: Geoffrey Long, MIT CMS
   Saturday, April 25, 6:45-8:15 pm, Wong Aud., E51
3. Then in May, Gavin’s on a panel at Emerson as part of their 2-week Certificate in Literary Publishing program:
   Keeping Afloat in Literary Publishing
   May 22 – 1:00 to 4:00 pm
   Panelists: Jan Freeman, Gavin Grant, William Pierce, Thomas Radko & Ladette Randolph – Moderator: Gian Lombardo
   A panel of literary periodical and book publishers will present information on their presses and magazines, outline their key concerns, and be available for questions from participants. Jan Freeman is founder and director of Paris Press. Gavin Grant is publisher of Small Beer Press. William Pierce is senior editor of Agni and contributes a series of essays there called “Crucibles.” Ladette Randolph is director/editor-in-chief of Ploughshares.  Before that she was an editor at the University of Nebraska Press, and was managing editor of Prairie Schooner.
4. This last one’s a bit of a stretch, but we’ll be having a closer look at it nearer pub. date and the press is based in this state. Also, after all these conferences and writing workshops, it’s a bit of a relief to talk about an actual book!
   Harvard UP is publishing a book by one of our favorite WFMU DJs, David Suisman. (Check out that great cover!) If this rings a tiny (musical) bell, it might be that you read David’s great piece in The Believer a couple of years ago, “Welcome to the Monkey House: Enrico Caruso and the First Celebrity Trial of the 20th Century“—which you can read today through the magic of the internet (and The Believer and whoever taught you to read). Pre-order the book here:Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American Music
   From Tin Pan Alley to grand opera, player-pianos to phonograph records, David Suisman’s Selling Sounds explores the rise of music as big business and the creation of a radically new musical culture. Around the turn of the twentieth century, music entrepreneurs laid the foundation for today’s vast industry, with new products, technologies, and commercial strategies to incorporate music into the daily rhythm of modern life. Popular songs filled the air with a new kind of musical pleasure, phonographs brought opera into the parlor, and celebrity performers like Enrico Caruso captivated the imagination of consumers from coast to coast.

---

Whose the big bad wolf?

Thu 16 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., eating, To Read Pile| Posted by: Gavin

Something for the to-read pile from Shelf Awareness:

Shelf Starter: An American Trilogy

An American Trilogy: Death, Slavery and Dominion on the Banks of the Cape Fear River by Steven M. Wise (Da Capo Press, $26, 9780306814754/0306814757, March 23, 2009)

Opening lines of books we want to read, excerpted from the prologue:

In the fall of 2008, I learned that an undercover agent working for People for the Unethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) had been investigating reports of cruelty at a large hog-breeding farm. I asked PETA lawyer Dan Paden to send me some video showing what their agent had seen.

I thought that nothing we humans do to pigs could upend me. Then Paden sent me a four-minute highlights clip of what the latest farm investigator had seen. Soon after I flicked it on, I began crying so uncontrollably that it took me an hour and a half to finish it.

Read on

---

new picture book

Wed 15 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Art, LCRW, picture books, Publishing, To Read Pile| Posted by: Gavin

One of our favorite writers has her first book out: and this one comes with pictures. Mabel, One and Only is by Margaret Muirhead who long time readers will recognize as a contributor of some great and hilarious poetry as well as an early nonfiction piece. Some of these pieces can be found (or rediscovered) in The Best of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet.

When we saw Mabel, One and Only was coming out (and it should be in your local store now), we tracked down Margaret and got her to sit still long enough to answer a few questions. Of course, we very much recommend her book:

We just loved reading your new picture book, Mabel, One and Only. Can you tell us about it?

Mabel is the story of a girl who is the only kid on her block. Usually she can convince her grown-up neighbors into playing a game or two, but one afternoon, she finds they’re all busy. So Mabel and her canine sidekick, Jack, set about to find their own fun.

Mabel is a great, lively kid. Do you have more stories for her planned?

Read more

---

#amazonfail

Tue 14 Apr 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., bookshops, ebooks| Posted by: Gavin

Pity we missed the latest Amazon debacle due to chocolate consumption and losing a couple of days to a cold. Whether it was a cataloging error, hack, or whatever, it sure did make (heads up for a late Easter reference) keeping all one’s eggs in one basket sound like a bad idea.

Perhaps readers might take note that Amazon’s annual sales are over $10 billion and that books are only a small part of that total, which make Amazon more of a Wal-Mart than a bookshop. And we know what Wal-Mart wants to do to your town: rip out its heart and make you drive out to the periphery to buy cheap stuff made abroad in factories where people are paid pennies.

Happily Indiebound is easier to use than it used to be (we just ordered a couple of books from there which went out through one of our fave bookshops in Chicago, Women & Children First) so we 100% encourage everyone to keep a multitude of voices alive and Shop Local!

---

« Later Entries in — Earlier Entries in »