Tue 21 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Something for New Yorkers from Keith Snyder:

The NYC premiere of I LOVE YOU, I’M SORRY, AND I’LL NEVER DO IT AGAIN will be Saturday, August 25 at the ACE Film Festival in Manhattan.

This is the short crime musical I wrote and directed that I’ve been working on for the last two years. Admission is $12, and that gets you into all the films at the ACE Film Festival that day, not just this one. The only place that price is available is at my website: http://www.woollymammoth.com/iloveyou. I bought a big block of these day passes so I could offer them at a price that made sense. (If you just show up that day, they’re $40 at the door.)

August 25
3:00 PM
Broad Street Ballroom
41 Broad Street (across from the New York Stock Exchange)
New York City
Cast/crew/friends hang afterwards: Ulysses, 95 Pearl Street

You’ll receive an email after the purchase with all the will-call details, etc.


Mon 20 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

We’re on the road (ah, the wind in one’s hair, the wine in one’s glass, the red and blue lights in one’s mirror) and yesterday, while sipping iced tea with Karen Joy Fowler, we talked to the lovely Rick Kleffel about LCRW, Karen’s movie (The Jane Austen Book Club) and new novel (Ice City), writing, and much more. Some of which can be heard here.


Mon 20 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

We’re on the road (ah, the wind in one’s hair, the wine in one’s glass, the red and blue lights in one’s mirror) and yesterday, while sipping iced tea with Karen Joy Fowler, we talked to the lovely Rick Kleffel about LCRW, Karen’s movie (The Jane Austen Book Club) and new novel (Ice City), writing, and much more. Some of which can be heard here.


Liz time again

Mon 20 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Liz Hand recently had the #1 article on Salon, “In meth we trust“: “Meth has cut across class lines as both “mother’s little helper” and a frighteningly powerful libido enhancer adopted by the gay club scene in the 1990s.” Read the comments for more fun.

Generation Loss gets local approval in a review in Working Waterfront for “look[ing] at the dark side of life in Maine, where the present is haunted by the past.”

Bella Online likes it, too: “Cass is a gritty and complex character (who often gets off some darkly funny lines). Photography buffs will love this book: unlike some authors who skim the surface of a profession, Hand grounds us in the fascinating details of this fine art – while never slowing down the action.”


He’s killing them at home too

Sat 18 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Bush’s lethal legacy: more executions

The US already kills more of its prisoners than almost any other country. Now the White House plans to cut the right of appeal of death row inmates…

By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 15 August 2007

The Bush administration is preparing to speed up the executions of criminals who are on death row across the United States, in effect, cutting out several layers of appeals in the federal courts so that prisoners can be “fast-tracked” to their deaths.


Mon 13 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

World Fantasy Awards Nominations

Nominations for this year’s World Fantasy Awards, for works published in 2006, have been released. Winners will be announced at this year’s World Fantasy Convention, to be held 1-4 November 2007 in Saratoga Springs, New York.

NOVEL
# Lisey’s Story, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton)
# The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner (Bantam Spectra; Small Beer Press)
# The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch (Gollancz; Bantam Spectra)
# The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden, Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
# Soldier of Sidon, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

NOVELLA
# “Botch Town”, Jeffrey Ford (The Empire of Ice Cream, Golden Gryphon)
# “The Man Who Got Off the Ghost Train”, Kim Newman (The Man from the Diogenes Club, MonkeyBrain)
# Dark Harvest, Norman Partridge (Cemetery Dance)
# “Map of Dreams”, M. Rickert (Map of Dreams, Golden Gryphon)
# “The Lineaments of Gratified Desire”, Ysabeau S. Wilce (F&SF Jul 2006)

SHORT FICTION
# “The Way He Does It”, Jeffrey Ford (Electric Velocipede #10, Spr 2006)
# “Journey Into the Kingdom”, M. Rickert (F&SF May 2006)
# “A Siege of Cranes”, Benjamin Rosenbaum (Twenty Epics, All-Star Stories)
# “Another Word for Map is Faith”, Christopher Rowe (F&SF Aug 2006)
# “Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)”, Geoff Ryman (F&SF Oct/Nov 2006)

ANTHOLOGY
# Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E. Howard, Scott A. Cupp & Joe R. Lansdale, eds. (MonkeyBrain and the Fandom Association of Central Texas)
# Salon Fantastique, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (Thunder’s Mouth)
# Retro Pulp Tales, Joe R. Lansdale, ed. (Subterranean)
# Twenty Epics, David Moles & Susan Marie Groppi, eds. (All-Star Stories)
# Firebirds Rising, Sharyn November, ed. (Firebird)

COLLECTION
# The Ladies of Grace Adieu and other stories, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
# The Empire of Ice Cream, Jeffrey Ford (Golden Gryphon)
# American Morons, Glen Hirshberg (Earthling)
# Red Spikes, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin Australia; Knopf)
# Map of Dreams, M. Rickert (Golden Gryphon)

ARTIST
# Jon Foster
# Edward Miller
# John Picacio
# Shaun Tan
# Jill Thompson

SPECIAL AWARD, PROFESSIONAL
# Ellen Asher (For work at SFBC)
# Mark Finn (for Blood & Thunder: The Life of Robert E. Howard, MonkeyBrain)
# Deanna Hoak for copyediting
# Greg Ketter for Dreamhaven
# Leonard S. Marcus, ed. (for The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy, Candlewick)

SPECIAL AWARD, NON-PROFESSIONAL
# Leslie Howle (for her work at Clarion West)
# Leo Grin (for The Cimmerian)
# Susan Marie Groppi (for Strange Horizons)
# John Klima (for Electric Velocipede)
# Gary K. Wolfe (for reviews and criticism in Locus and elsewhere)

Judges for this year’s awards are Gavin Grant, Ed Greenwood, Jeremy Lassen, Jeff Mariotte, and Carsten Polzin. Final ballot nominations are determined through a combination of convention member votes (two items in each category) and judges’ selections. Winners will be determined by the judges.


Mon 13 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

World Fantasy Awards Nominations

Nominations for this year’s World Fantasy Awards, for works published in 2006, have been released. Winners will be announced at this year’s World Fantasy Convention, to be held 1-4 November 2007 in Saratoga Springs, New York.

NOVEL
# Lisey’s Story, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton)
# The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner (Bantam Spectra; Small Beer Press)
# The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch (Gollancz; Bantam Spectra)
# The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden, Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
# Soldier of Sidon, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

NOVELLA
# “Botch Town”, Jeffrey Ford (The Empire of Ice Cream, Golden Gryphon)
# “The Man Who Got Off the Ghost Train”, Kim Newman (The Man from the Diogenes Club, MonkeyBrain)
# Dark Harvest, Norman Partridge (Cemetery Dance)
# “Map of Dreams”, M. Rickert (Map of Dreams, Golden Gryphon)
# “The Lineaments of Gratified Desire”, Ysabeau S. Wilce (F&SF Jul 2006)

SHORT FICTION
# “The Way He Does It”, Jeffrey Ford (Electric Velocipede #10, Spr 2006)
# “Journey Into the Kingdom”, M. Rickert (F&SF May 2006)
# “A Siege of Cranes”, Benjamin Rosenbaum (Twenty Epics, All-Star Stories)
# “Another Word for Map is Faith”, Christopher Rowe (F&SF Aug 2006)
# “Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)”, Geoff Ryman (F&SF Oct/Nov 2006)

ANTHOLOGY
# Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E. Howard, Scott A. Cupp & Joe R. Lansdale, eds. (MonkeyBrain and the Fandom Association of Central Texas)
# Salon Fantastique, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (Thunder’s Mouth)
# Retro Pulp Tales, Joe R. Lansdale, ed. (Subterranean)
# Twenty Epics, David Moles & Susan Marie Groppi, eds. (All-Star Stories)
# Firebirds Rising, Sharyn November, ed. (Firebird)

COLLECTION
# The Ladies of Grace Adieu and other stories, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
# The Empire of Ice Cream, Jeffrey Ford (Golden Gryphon)
# American Morons, Glen Hirshberg (Earthling)
# Red Spikes, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin Australia; Knopf)
# Map of Dreams, M. Rickert (Golden Gryphon)

ARTIST
# Jon Foster
# Edward Miller
# John Picacio
# Shaun Tan
# Jill Thompson

SPECIAL AWARD, PROFESSIONAL
# Ellen Asher (For work at SFBC)
# Mark Finn (for Blood & Thunder: The Life of Robert E. Howard, MonkeyBrain)
# Deanna Hoak for copyediting
# Greg Ketter for Dreamhaven
# Leonard S. Marcus, ed. (for The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy, Candlewick)

SPECIAL AWARD, NON-PROFESSIONAL
# Leslie Howle (for her work at Clarion West)
# Leo Grin (for The Cimmerian)
# Susan Marie Groppi (for Strange Horizons)
# John Klima (for Electric Velocipede)
# Gary K. Wolfe (for reviews and criticism in Locus and elsewhere)

Judges for this year’s awards are Gavin Grant, Ed Greenwood, Jeremy Lassen, Jeff Mariotte, and Carsten Polzin. Final ballot nominations are determined through a combination of convention member votes (two items in each category) and judges’ selections. Winners will be determined by the judges.


Fri 10 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Needed from the UK for taste testing: Hobsons choice as Britain’s best beer Hobsons Mild, made in Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire, was chosen as the winner from more than 50 finalists at the Campaign for Real Ale’s Great British Beer Festival in London.

Cases, pints (don’t spill it!), barrels, etc., to the usual address, thank you.


Fri 10 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Needed from the UK for taste testing: Hobsons choice as Britain’s best beer Hobsons Mild, made in Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire, was chosen as the winner from more than 50 finalists at the Campaign for Real Ale’s Great British Beer Festival in London.

Cases, pints (don’t spill it!), barrels, etc., to the usual address, thank you.


Wed 8 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

We are traveling soon thus service on this site and by paper mail will be slow, irresolute, perhaps a little inconvenient, out of time, and general discombobulated. How does this differ from usual? Not sure.


Wed 8 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

We are traveling soon thus service on this site and by paper mail will be slow, irresolute, perhaps a little inconvenient, out of time, and general discombobulated. How does this differ from usual? Not sure.


Tue 7 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Updated: a review in Library Journal just popped up online. Yay! Now watch the ellipsis in action!

 “This curio-cabinet of literary works is … a bit like an otherworldly Farmer’s Almanac…. Its charming and eclectic sensibility should appeal to readers of fantasy or literary fiction.”

Ahem.

—

Hold still, I'm reading.

The Best of LCRW has arrived! To our new office! We are overcome! New York Times list: here we come!

Please do remember to buy your contracted-for 40 copies on Aug. 29th or just after. You don’t remember signing that contract? Please ignore the note below.

The quote you can’t read on the front cover is either (where are my glasses?) either from Oprah or Matt Derby. Those two are so hard to keep straight.

By reading this note you agree you will purchase (either from a New York Times reporting store or an indie bookshop or at least Amazon) 40 (forty) copies of The Best of LCRW on or about August 30, 2007.


Tue 7 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Updated: a review in Library Journal just popped up online. Yay! Now watch the ellipsis in action!

 “This curio-cabinet of literary works is … a bit like an otherworldly Farmer’s Almanac…. Its charming and eclectic sensibility should appeal to readers of fantasy or literary fiction.”

Ahem.

—

Hold still, I'm reading.

The Best of LCRW has arrived! To our new office! We are overcome! New York Times list: here we come!

Please do remember to buy your contracted-for 40 copies on Aug. 29th or just after. You don’t remember signing that contract? Please ignore the note below.

The quote you can’t read on the front cover is either (where are my glasses?) either from Oprah or Matt Derby. Those two are so hard to keep straight.

By reading this note you agree you will purchase (either from a New York Times reporting store or an indie bookshop or at least Amazon) 40 (forty) copies of The Best of LCRW on or about August 30, 2007.


ebookery

Tue 7 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Last week Jed was busy tearing lots of our books apart, taking very careful pictures of each of the pages (just as he did with that Harry Potter book*), and mailing the photos to Fictionwise. Over there they have carefully assembled the photos into facsimiles of the books (complicated!) which can be ordered in up to eight formats (none of which are technically edible). Hereaways are the books you can now get:

Endless Things by John Crowley

Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand

Water Logic by Laurie J. Marks

Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead by Alan DeNiro

Also these (more to come soon):

Trash Sex Magic by Jennifer Stevenson

Carmen Dog by Carol Emshwiller

Mothers & Other Monsters by Maureen F. McHugh

Storyteller by Kate Wilhelm—this ebook is only available from our web site.

* No. He didn’t.


’08 books

Mon 6 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

We’ve lined up two collections for next year. (Earlybirds order here.) Simultaneous HC/PB for each which make it interesting.

The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories
John Kessel

April 8, 2008
9781931520515 · Trade cloth · 5.5 x 8.5 · 300 pp · $24
9781931520508 · Trade paper· 5.5 x 8.5 · 300 pp · $16

John Kessel’s first collection since 1997 is a literary collection of astonishing stories from an award-winning science-fiction writer and satirist whose stories intersect imaginatively with the worlds and characters of Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein, The Wizard of Oz, and Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” Includes Kessel’s modern classic four story sequence about life on the moon.

Kessel’s stories have won the Nebula, Sturgeon, Locus, and Tiptree Awards. His books include Good News from Outer Space, Corrupting Dr. Nice, and collections The Pure Product and Meeting in Infinity (a New York Times Notable Book). Kessel and his family live in Raleigh, NC, where he co-directs the creative writing program at North Carolina State University.

John Kessel on WUNC talking about “A Clean Escape,” writing, and more. (Thanks Richard)

The Ant King and Other Stories
Benjamin Rosenbaum

August 5, 2008
9781931520522 · Trade cloth · 5.5 x 8.5 · 272 pp · $24
9781931520539 · Trade paper· 5.5 x 8.5 · 272 pp · $16

Benjamin Rosenbaum’s is one of science fiction’s brightest stars. His debut collection spans the weirdest corners of literature and science fiction, exploring family, loyalty, and memory. A dazzling, post-modern collection of pulp and surreal fictions: a writer of alternate histories defends his patron’s zeppelin against assassins and pirates, a man’s wife becomes hundreds of gumballs, an emancipated collective of children go house hunting. Benjamin Rosenbaum grew up in Arlington, Virginia, and received degrees in computer science and religious studies from Brown University. His work has been published in Harper’s, Nature, McSweeney’s, F&SF, Asimov’s, Interzone, All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories, and Strange Horizons. Small Beer Press published his chapbook Other Cities. He lives in Basle, Switzerland, with his family.

  • “Orphans,” originally published in McSweeney’s, Issue 15, was honorably mentioned in The Best American Short Stories 2006.
  • Rosenbaum has a story on the current Hugo Award ballot.
  • Part of the collection is free online licensed under the Creative Commons license.
  • Selections from Other Cities were reprinted in the debut issue of the Michigan Avenue Review.
  • Rosenbaum is the author of an art book, Anthroptic, with Ethan Ham (The Present Group, 2007).
  • Rosenbaum’s stories have been translated into Swedish, Italian, Finnish, Bulgarian, Romanian, French, Croatian, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese, and Czech.
  • Rosenbaum’s stories have been podcast on Escape Pod and Beam Me Up.
  • Rosenbaum’s stories have been reprinted in Harper’s, Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology, The Year’s Best Science Fiction, The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and Fantasy: The Best of the Year.
  • Early galleys at NEIBA.
  • Rosenbaum has stories coming out in the next six months in Interzone, Realms of Fantasy, and F&SF.

    • Benjamin Rosenbaum on Strange Horizons talking about writing, regender.com, and more.


    Thu 2 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

    Not sure if I believe him, but this laugh out loud lines these are one of the reasons to read Will’s Hang Fire blog:

    Speaking of pulp fiction If you haven’t seen Black Snake Moan drop everything and rent it now! Christina Ricci play the greatest Jailbait Trailertrash Nympho ever captured on film…and I would know.


    Thu 2 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

    Not sure if I believe him, but this laugh out loud lines these are one of the reasons to read Will’s Hang Fire blog:

    Speaking of pulp fiction If you haven’t seen Black Snake Moan drop everything and rent it now! Christina Ricci play the greatest Jailbait Trailertrash Nympho ever captured on film…and I would know.


    OMD, Maid of Orleans

    Thu 2 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

    Not at all sure what if anything the video means—but that’s the way of the genre. Its incredibly catchy and there are cousins somewhere who look somewhat like that McCluskey fellow:


    Wed 1 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

    The conversation about What the Hell is Interstitial? and Maybe It’s Everything? and Hey, This Book is Ok! rolls on with a recent review at Strange Horizons (“each “interfiction” shares this sense of disjointed narrative, but in very different ways that do not lend themselves to easy genre categorization”) and today on Bookslut.

    The latter characterizes Small Beer as seeking “to provide a definition for the genre of interstitial fiction.” Nope. In no way are we into defining things (except on the very satisfying good chocolate/great chocolate scale) or taking a shot at writing definitions. We leave that to the editors, the IAF, and John Clute et al. All we did was get in the editors’ ways and try and push the book out there. Which is right there at the end of the review:

    The concluding interview with editors Sherman and Goss provides further insight into how these specific stories were chosen and the overall plan the editors had for the book. I found a similar sense of adventure in all the writing found within Interfictions and certainly enjoyed exploring the ideas and formats put forth by these exciting authors. There is much here to delight and confound readers of any age. Seek it out for the bedside table and decide for yourself just how successful these experiments in fiction truly are.

    The new ish of Bookslut also has an interview with Matt Ruff by our pal Geoffrey Goodwin and a good review of Kelley Eskridge’s collection, Dangerous Space. And a ton of other stuff, you know.

    More blog reviews due soon from those happy/unhappy readers who received free copies from the Interfictions giveaway.


    Wed 1 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

    The conversation about What the Hell is Interstitial? and Maybe It’s Everything? and Hey, This Book is Ok! rolls on with a recent review at Strange Horizons (“each “interfiction” shares this sense of disjointed narrative, but in very different ways that do not lend themselves to easy genre categorization”) and today on Bookslut.

    The latter characterizes Small Beer as seeking “to provide a definition for the genre of interstitial fiction.” Nope. In no way are we into defining things (except on the very satisfying good chocolate/great chocolate scale) or taking a shot at writing definitions. We leave that to the editors, the IAF, and John Clute et al. All we did was get in the editors’ ways and try and push the book out there. Which is right there at the end of the review:

    The concluding interview with editors Sherman and Goss provides further insight into how these specific stories were chosen and the overall plan the editors had for the book. I found a similar sense of adventure in all the writing found within Interfictions and certainly enjoyed exploring the ideas and formats put forth by these exciting authors. There is much here to delight and confound readers of any age. Seek it out for the bedside table and decide for yourself just how successful these experiments in fiction truly are.

    The new ish of Bookslut also has an interview with Matt Ruff by our pal Geoffrey Goodwin and a good review of Kelley Eskridge’s collection, Dangerous Space. And a ton of other stuff, you know.

    More blog reviews due soon from those happy/unhappy readers who received free copies from the Interfictions giveaway.


    The Best of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet

    Wed 1 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Books| Posted by: Gavin

    So good there had to be a book. Or something. The Best of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet is now available from Del Rey. It’s a collection of fiction and sometimes fancy (but usually plain) knitting patterns (a lie), recipes (ok, there are a few drink recipes), poetry (some great poetry), and an apology or two.

    It is the most surprising anthology of the year (in many ways: scary stories, poetry, a book from a zine, a flying iron, so many ways).

    We hope you will enjoy it and we hope to do another of these. There was so much we wanted to put in and couldn’t.

    What did Jim Munroe say? “Like the whisky sours they so admire, the Rosebud Wristlet gang have brought whimsy and fantastical twists to a malt steeped in literary tradition: stories as potent as they are tasty.”

    Reviews · Audio / interviews ·

    You too could be part of this page. Send us a link to your review, your Youtube flick, etc., and we will link it from here.

    Pictures of the book.
    Wikipedia!

    Table of Contents

    • Cover by Jacob McMurray
    • Preface by Chunterers
    • Dan Chaon, Introduction
    • Kelly Link, Travels with the Snow Queen, LCRW 1
    • Scotch, An Essay Into A Drink, LCRW 2
    • David Findlay, Unrecognizable, LCRW 3
    • Ian McDowell, mehitobel was queen of the night, LCRW 4
    • Nalo Hopkinson, Tan Tan and Dry Bone, LCRW 4
    • Margaret Muirhead — An Open Letter, LCRW 4
    • Margaret Muirhead, I am glad, LCRW 4
    • Margaret Muirhead, Lady Shonagon’s Hateful Things, LCRW 5
    • Karen Joy Fowler, Heartland, LCRW 6
    • What a Difference A Night Makes, LCRW 7
    • Ray Vukcevich, Pretending, LCRW 8
    • Shh! I can’t hear the music! LCRW 8
    • William Smith — The Film Column
    • Amy Beth Forbes, A is for Apple, LCRW 9
    • Shh! I said I was listening to some music! LCRW 9
    • Mark Rudolph, My Father’s Ghost, LCRW 9
    • A list of chickens (From The Fairest Fowl, Portraits of Champion Chickens)LCRW 9
    • Jeffrey Ford, What’s Sure to Come LCRW 10
    • Roadtripping, zinemaking, cooking, cleaning, reading, and eating musicLCRW 10
    • Geoffrey Goodwin — Stoddy Awchaw, LCRW 10 (Listen | song)
    • A selection of teas the LCRW kitchen has acquired or been given over the years LCRW 10
    • Theodora Goss, Rapid Advance of Sorrow LCRW 11
    • Nan Fry, The Wolf’s Story, LCRW 11
    • Sarah Monette — Three Letters from the Queen of Elfland, LCRW 11(prize winner!)
    • David Moles — Tacoma-Fuji, LCRW 11
    • David Erik Nelson — Bay, LCRW 12
    • Richard Butner — How to Make a Martini, LCRW 12
    • All About the T: Swept (not sweeped) away by the love of irregular verbsLCRW 12
    • Jan Lars Jensen — Happier Days, LCRW 12
    • Philip Raines and Harvey Welles — The Fishie, LCRW 12
    • The Switch. Hope in the form of planted tomatoes LCRW 12
    • Gwenda Bond — Dear Aunt Gwenda
    • William Smith — The Film Column
    • David J. Schwartz — The Ichthymancer Writes His Friend with an Account of the Yeti’s Birthday Party, LCRW 13
    • A By-No-Means-Complete Joan Aiken Checklist LCRW 13
    • Veronica Schanoes – Serpents, LCRW 13
    • Homeland Security, LCRW 13
    • David Blair — Vincent Price; For George Romero, LCRW 13 (First book coming soon!)
    • Douglas Lain — Music Lessons, LCRW 14
    • James Sallis — Two Stories, LCRW 14
    • Karen Russell — Help Wanted, LCRW 15
    • Sarah Micklem — “Eft” or “Epic”, LCRW 15
    • John Kessel — The Red Phone, LCRW 16
    • Lawrence Schimel & Sara Rojo, The Well-Dressed Wolf, COMIC LCRW 15
    • Deborah Roggie — The Mushroom Duchess LCRW 17
    • Seana Graham — The Pirate’s True Love, LCRW 17
    • You Could Do This Too, LCRW 17
    • Sunshine Ison — Two Poems LCRW 18
    • [Name Withheld] Article Withdrawn
    • Becca De La Rosa — This Is The Train The Queen Rides On LCRW 18
    • A selected list of Automobile City/Hwy Mileages LCRW 18
    • Gwenda Bond — Dear Aunt Gwenda
    • John Brown — Bright Waters LCRW 17
    • K.E. Duffin, Two Poems LCRW 19
    • D.M. Gordon, Sliding LCRW 19
    • Cara Spindler & David Erik Nelson, You Were Neither . . . LCRW 19

    Reviews

    “Because of its quirks, rather than in spite of them, the collection is an immersion into a fantastic world.”
    — Adrienne Martini, Baltimore City Paper

    “Genre-blurring stories, poems and articles by a few major authors—including Theodora Goss, Sarah Monette and Karen Joy Fowler—and a host of relative unknowns appear in The Best of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant. With a major SF imprint publishing this hefty anthology, LCRW’s times as a low-profile fringe zine may be at an end, though it remains to be seen whether mainstream readers will share Link and Grant’s fondness for the oddball and peculiar.”
    —Publishers Weekly

    “An otherworldly Farmer’s Almanac.”
    —Library Journal

    “Showcasing a selection of the top new and exciting writers working today, The Best ofLady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet presents a wondrous playground for lovers of experimental and avant-garde literature. If this is the 21st century zine, the form can be taken off the endangered list.”
    —Rick Klaw (Austin Chronicle)

    “LCRW is one of my favorite literary magazines, featuring authors like Jeffrey Ford and Nalo Hopkinson and strange and lovely stories you won’t see being published in the Paris Review or VQR. (And why not, I might ask you.) The fact that one of the editors is one of the best living short story writers doesn’t hurt.”
    —Jessa Crispin

    “Idiosyncratic to the extreme, this collection of the best of the zine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlethighlights some of the weirdest and most interesting writing in speculative fiction. Short stories, poetry, essays and assorted nonfiction make this a must for fans of bleeding-edge speculative fiction with a distinct literary — and bizarre — bent.”
    —Romantic Times (4.5 stars)

    “A treasure trove. . . . a quirky mix that has become the hallmark of LCRW. Eclectic, heart-warming, cautionary, funny, informative, and most of all enthralling best describe this book. You will find no better place to explore this outstanding and unique publication: I highly recommend you pick up a copy today.”
    —Sf Revu

    “Dan Chaon provides an introduction, but really, no introduction can quite prepare you for the celebrated mix of insane ideas that await in the pages, ready to pounce. Link herself delivers the first, a modern-day revisionist fairy tale titled “Travels with the Snow Queen.” Karen Joy Fowler’s “Heartland,” about doomed young love amongst fast-food employees, is a heartbreaker, and among the book’s early highlights.”
    –Rod Lott (Bookgasm)

    Comments from the cheap seats: Yay!

    Audio interviews

    Kelly Link, Gavin J. Grant, Karen Joy Fowler

    Seana Graham

    interviews

    Sci Fi Wire · Amazon

    Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet still goes out sometimes:

    lcrw wrestles with the futureNo. 20

    No.1

    Subscribe or get the zine

    Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet is published twice a year by:

    Small Beer Press
    150 Pleasant St., #306
    Easthampton, MA 01027

    Please make checks payable to Small Beer Press. Thank you.

    LCRW should be in these shops (or get it here):

    Atomic Books, Baltimore, MD
    The Book Cellar, Chicago, IL
    Borderlands Bookshop, San Francisco, CA
    Broadside Books, Northampton, MA
    Downtown News & Books, Asheville, NC
    Elliott Bay, Seattle, WA
    Dreamhaven, Minneapolis, MN
    Pandemonium, Cambridge, MA
    Powell’s, Portland, OR
    Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA
    Prairie Lights, Iowa City, IA
    Quimby’s, Chicago, IL
    The Raconteur, Metuchen, NJ
    A Room of One’s Own, Madison, WI
    St. Mark’s Bookshop, NY, NY
    Mark V. Ziesing, Bookseller, CA


    Andi Watson

    Tue 31 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

    Turns out Andi Watson (of Geisha, Love Fights, etc) has been working on a book (“Glister”) which will go out as “all ages”. This comes into his great review of Travel Light which he posted recently on Newsarama:

    I recognise Halla’s feeling of time passing so quickly that it’s like it’s playing tricks on her. I’m looking down the wrong end of my 30s and the right end sure zipped by quickly. Halla’s disgusted by the corruption of the world, yet navigates it the best she can. By not wanting to be a hero she becomes the hero, living life the best way she sees fit. So, it’s a wise book, but not a worthy book, it travels light over the serious aspects and still has plenty of fun along the way. I loved it and when my daughter’s a little bit older I think she’ll enjoy it too. That’s the joy of an all-ages book. It’s one we can share.

    We have most of Andi’s books—do yourself a favor and order Skeleton Key, one book won’t be enough—so it was quite a shock to get an order from him a couple of months ago. The kind of shock that leads to emails that read, “Thanks … uh, yeah, thanks.” And not much more. But Andi saved us from ouselves and was incredibly graceful in reply. Phew!


    Chinese publication

    Mon 30 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

    A couple of stories for Chinese readers:

    Jedediah Berry’s “Thumb War” (originally in Pindeldyboz). Don’t think they quite got permission for that. Just the rewards of fame.

    The Simplified Chinese translation Kelly Link’s “The Specialist’s Hat” on Celestial’s web site (originally on Ellen Datlow’s Event Horizon).

    “When you’re Dead,” Samantha says, “you don’t have to brush your teeth.”
    “When you’re Dead,” Claire says, “you live in a box, and it’s always dark, but you’re not ever afraid.”

    “你成为“亡者”以后，” 萨曼莎说，“就没必要刷牙了。”
    “你成为“亡者”以后，” 克莱尔说，“会呆在一个盒子里，那里永远都是黑的，但你再也不会害怕了。”


    Bookslut R US

    Mon 30 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

    From Monday August 6 to Friday August 10 we will be guestblogging over at Bookslut.

    We will be opinionating, pimping, scatterbrained, and at some point during the week travelling to San Fransisco. Suggestions?

    &: Booklust Is Also Us.


    2 new Kelly stories

    Mon 30 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

    Two new stories from Kelly come out this month:

    The first is “The Wrong Grave” in The Restless Dead, edited by Deborah Noyes (Candlewick), an anthology of dark stories from M. T. Anderson, Holly Black, Libba Bray, et al.

    The second is “The Constable of Abal” in The Coyote Road, the latest mythic fiction anthology edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling. (Other stories in the anthology include are from Jeff Ford, Holly Black, Katherine Vaz, Delia Sherman, Patricia A. McKillip, Steve Berman, and Carol Emshwiller et impressively al.)

    Both of these stories will be in Kelly’s next collection—a book of young adult stories to be published by Viking in the autumn of 2008. In the meantimes, check out the anthologies.


    Sun 29 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

    New this week in the USA (but months old old in the UK) is the new Manic Street Preachers album* Send Away the Tigers. Which, if you like the big pop rock sound, is great. If you don’t, go away now, we’ll all be happier.

    One of the singles—”Your Love Alone is Not Enough”—features (here looking oddly doll-like) Nina Persson from The Cardigans and A Camp on guest vocals and has (at least) two historical nods: one to their own song, “You stole the sun from my heart” from the album This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours and much more head-stretchingly weird a jangly-sing along chorus of “Trade all your heroes in for ghosts” from Da Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”.

    Everything is on this thing: Queen, OMD, that stadium geetar sound, a Wyndam (sic) Lewis quote (“When a person is young they are usually a revolutionary of some kind. So here I am speaking of my revolution.”**); Welsh panache***. It has the huge choruses of “A Design for Life” in the single “Your Love…” and “Autumnsong” and the in your face politics of “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next” in “Rendition” (“Rendition, rendition, blame it on the coalition … Rendition, rendition, never knew the sky was a prison”), a John Lennon cover (more on the ok side than brilliant, but that’s .. ok) and features pics from the self-published art of Valerie Phillips from her book Monika Monster: Future First Woman on Mars (which are cute but aren’t as SF as it might sound).

    Video of catchy summer hit:

    * At this point we are still asterisking album to point out that the parents-of-the-kids call them CDs and that who the hell knows what the kids call them.
    ** Regendered by design.
    *** You believe it once you’ve seen it.


    Sun 29 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

    New this week in the USA (but months old old in the UK) is the new Manic Street Preachers album* Send Away the Tigers. Which, if you like the big pop rock sound, is great. If you don’t, go away now, we’ll all be happier.

    One of the singles—”Your Love Alone is Not Enough”—features (here looking oddly doll-like) Nina Persson from The Cardigans and A Camp on guest vocals and has (at least) two historical nods: one to their own song, “You stole the sun from my heart” from the album This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours and much more head-stretchingly weird a jangly-sing along chorus of “Trade all your heroes in for ghosts” from Da Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”.

    Everything is on this thing: Queen, OMD, that stadium geetar sound, a Wyndam (sic) Lewis quote (“When a person is young they are usually a revolutionary of some kind. So here I am speaking of my revolution.”**); Welsh panache***. It has the huge choruses of “A Design for Life” in the single “Your Love…” and “Autumnsong” and the in your face politics of “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next” in “Rendition” (“Rendition, rendition, blame it on the coalition … Rendition, rendition, never knew the sky was a prison”), a John Lennon cover (more on the ok side than brilliant, but that’s .. ok) and features pics from the self-published art of Valerie Phillips from her book Monika Monster: Future First Woman on Mars (which are cute but aren’t as SF as it might sound).

    Video of catchy summer hit:

    * At this point we are still asterisking album to point out that the parents-of-the-kids call them CDs and that who the hell knows what the kids call them.
    ** Regendered by design.
    *** You believe it once you’ve seen it.


    Aimee Mann’s nightmare

    Thu 26 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

    Thanks, as it were (and again), to Scalzi, here we find fave songstress Aimee Man* trying to escape Neil, Geddy, and Alex in “Time Stands Still“.

    For a first time viewer (ahem.) (Spoiler!) of this video, Aimee eventually (after 5+ minutes of bluescreen glory) gets away from da boys. It’s no”Afterimage”(with that amazing intro—not that the song lives up to it) or “Distant Early Warning” but but but, that video, it does take one baaack.

    And here’s another one that the old youtube suggests: Luscious Jackson making the dance happen with their “Ladyfingers“.

    * Best moment at Orange Peel, Asheville, show was the girl (born the year the song came out: awesome!) in front of us hollerin out for That Song, you know, the Til Tuesday one she sings as an acoustic breakdown with her band on tour, pulls off, drowns you in. The one with the hilarious hilarious vid.


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