Ted Chiang, movie(!), and Lightspeed

Tue 4 Dec 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kelly Link, Lightspeed, Ted Chiang, the movies | Comments Off on Ted Chiang, movie(!), and Lightspeed | Posted by: Gavin

The new issue of Lightspeed Magazine just went out and besides all that new and shiny stuff it includes Kelly’s story “Catskin” and Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life.” Kelly’s story will go live on December 18th but Ted’s is exclusive to the ebook—which of course you can get on Weightless.

The other big news for Ted Chiang fans was last week’s announcement that “Story of Your Life” has been optioned for film. The source material is about as good as it gets, so fingers crossed that it will be made and be great.

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Bookslinger Update: “Child-Empress of Mars”

Mon 3 Dec 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Interfictions 2 | Comments Off on Bookslinger Update: “Child-Empress of Mars” | Posted by: Gavin

Consortium’s Bookslinger features Theodora Goss’s “Child-Empress of Mars” this week:

The Bookslinger app has been updated with a new story!

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That’s it.

Thu 29 Nov 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Ursula K. Le Guin | Comments Off on That’s it. | Posted by: Gavin

The Unreal and the Real is out of stock at the distributor. If you want copies for the holidays, order them now. (Powells have plenty.)

We think they were two of the best books published this year—no matter what other lists say! Wait a couple of years and try and see. Of course we feel the same about all the books we publish (otherwise, sang the chorus, what would beeeeee the point?) so if you miss them, may we suggest:

a deep and dark collection of strange stories . . . half a dozen stories of earth and air . . . a debut collection that Adam Roberts mentioned in the Guardian . . . that Armitage family . . . a guidebook to 26 fantastic cities . . . a first of its kind anthology of contemporary Mexican stories . . . nine stories of science, aging, and imagination . . . a pageturning science fiction thriller . . . the Sykes’s children’s find their mother and she is no longer who they thought she was!

       

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Tomorrow in Northampton

Thu 29 Nov 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., bookshops, chuntering on, I've got to wear shades, panels, so bright | Comments Off on Tomorrow in Northampton | Posted by: Gavin

Did I ever post this? I’m on a panel tomorrow morning at our lovely local library (handy, I can pick up the 2 books I have on hold!) with Susan Stinson—whose Northampton novel, Spider in a Tree, we will publish next year, Nancy Felton, co-owner of one of our local bookshops, Broadside (who carry LCRW, yay!), and an amazing book artist, Daniel E. Kelms. Come on by!

The State of the Book in the Digital Age

Friday November 30, 2012
10:00 AM

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A CHAT WITH FOUR LOCAL BOOK PEOPLE

What’s up with books these days? Books are ordered online, created on demand, and distributed in digital form to individuals and libraries. True SEO Professionals improve the search engine results that’s why people are able to find books more easily online. Sadly many bookstores have closed in recent years, and publishers have had to drastically downsize, retool or go out of business.How have individuals and businesses responded to this new environment? Are books giving a last gasp or being reinvented? An author, a book artist, a publisher and a bookstore owner will give their thoughts on the changing environment for books.

Panelists:

Susan Stinson is the author of three novels and a collection of poetry and lyric essays. Writer in Residence at Forbes Library, she is also an editor and writing coach.

Daniel E. Kelm is a book artist who enjoys expanding the concept of the book. In addition to creating his own projects he offers consultations, bindery services, and rental of his studio and equipment.

Gavin J. Grant is the publisher of Small Beer Press. He co-edits the zine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet with his wife, Kelly Link, and runs an the independent press ebooksite, http://weightlessbooks.com, with a friend.

Nancy Felton is a co-owner of Broadside Bookshop, where she has worked since 1980 in a variety of capacities, including children’s book buyer, sales clerk and bookkeeper. She has been an active member of NEIBA (New England Independent Booksellers Association) and Pioneer Valley Local First.

Come to Forbes Library on Friday, Nov. 30 at 10 am to hear these local book lovers talk about their own experiences, and give their visions of what books might look like in the future.There will be plenty of time for questions from the audience.

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The Unreal and the Real: Publication Day

Tue 27 Nov 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Publication day, Ursula K. Le Guin | Comments Off on The Unreal and the Real: Publication Day | Posted by: Gavin

It is amazing to sit here and think about these two books being out in the world. The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin Volume One: Where on Earth and Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands.

There are many people we owe thanks to for their help and patience as this rather big book came slowly into sight: Ursula K. Le Guin, of course, and her agent, Vaughne Lee Hansen of the Virginia Kidd Agency; John D. Berry for designing the covers; Tugboat Printshop for the use of their art; and Michael J. DeLuca, Julie Day, Kelly Lagor, Anne Horowitz, Julia Patt, and Georgiana Lee for last minute help.

Should you wish signed copies, you should keep an eye on Ursula’s calendar. Her next reading is at Powell’s City of Books on January 6, 2013.

Now the books are out and getting read and reviewed widely, selling like hot cakes, and generally behaving as if, yes, it is incredibly obvious that such books would be well received, it is an immense relief and a hell of a way to end the year on.

Because, besides an upcoming issue of LCRW, this (these!) is (are!) the last book(s!) from us for 2012. (Ok, ok, so we’re well into our 2013 books and buying books for 2014, what’s your point?) Whether you read these books in their lovely hardcover editions or download them as ebooks, I hope you enjoy them as much as we have.

 

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Saddest email of the weekend

Mon 26 Nov 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Elizabeth Hand | Comments Off on Saddest email of the weekend | Posted by: Gavin

Suffice to say, another copy of Errantry is on its way:

I write book reviews for XXXXX. You were nice enough to send a copy of Elizabeth Hand’s ERRANTRY, which I have been planning to write up for December — but today my bag went missing after a screening of Lincoln, of all things. (I’m fascinated trying to work out who it is who go to see Lincoln on a Saturday afternoon while keeping an eye out for bag-thieving opportunities.)

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Friends on film & elsewhere

Wed 21 Nov 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Gwenda Bond, movies, Ted Chiang, to be watched | Comments Off on Friends on film & elsewhere | Posted by: Gavin

Ok, so Gwenda Bond’s book Blackwood is (ok: may be) going to be made into a TV series! Cool? Cool! . . .

. . . and our neighbor one-town-over Cassandra Clare’s bestselling Mortal Instruments series breaks into movieworld next summer in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones! (“Everything you’ve heard about monsters . . .  all the stories are true . . . “)

We went to see Cloud Atlas the other night. I think it was the first good film I’ve seen in ages. Ok, so I might not have seen anything in the cinema since The Avengers, but have I missed anything good? I’m glad we made the trip out to see Cloud Atlas. Even with the weird and bad choices (and I’m not just talking casting Tom Hanks here) the producers made, they did a good job of making a big, complicated book into a big, complicated film.

Meanwhile over in Chicago, The Chicago Nerd Social Club (what a great name!) are featuring Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and Others at their next book club meeting:

When: Monday, December 10, 2012 – 6:30pm-7:30pm
Where: Filter, 1373-75 N Milwaukee Ave Chicago, IL
Cost: Free

And in Uppsala, Sweden (hello everyone in that lovely city!), Wired’s Noah Schachtman unwinds a fabulous story of a philologist who, gifted with a mysterious manuscript, eventually helps decode it:

. . . in January 2011, Schaefer attended an Uppsala conference on computational linguistics. Ordinarily talks like this gave her a headache. She preferred musty books to new technologies and didn’t even have an Internet connection at home. But this lecture was different. The featured speaker was Kevin Knight, a University of Southern California specialist in machine translation—the use of algorithms to automatically translate one language into another.

Then, down in North Carolina, the Charlotte Observer has a great story on Kelly’s cousin Bryan Jones who with his friend Mark “Hootie” Bowman (I never knew his name was Mark, I’ve only ever heard of him mentioned as Hootie!) are selling “interactive hardbacks that introduce children to popular colleges and universities.” In other words, if you have a sports-obsessed parent in your life, hie thee to Collegiate Kids Books and get them a book now.

Action movie!

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A new LCRW

Tue 20 Nov 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., LCRW | 3 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

News!

We’ve got a table of contents for Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 28, the one that is a little late! It should be out next month. (Have you heard that before?) Partly this was inspired by finding five new stories and poems to buy for the next issue! This issue is missing a column from our Dear Aunt Gwenda, so if you have questions for our Dear Auntie, send them along and we will see if we can bring her back for the next issue. Which may come sooner than you might expect!

Without further witherwathering, here’s the table of contents for the June December 2012 issue of LCRW:

Fiction

Michael Penkas, “Coffee with Count Presto”
Krista Hoeppner Leahy, “Killing Curses, a Caught-Heart Quest”
Kevin Waltman, “Notes from a Pleasant Land Where Broken Hearts Are Like Broken Hands”
Erica Hilderbrand, “Akashiyaki (Octopus Dumplings, serves two)”
Brian Baldi, “Springtime for the Roofer”
Andrea M. Pawley, “Vanish Girl”
Kamila Z. Miller, “Neighbors”
Helen Marshall, “The Book of Judgment”

Nonfiction

Nicole Kimberling, “Feeding Strays”

Poetry

John McKernan, “Prayer to Oatmeal”

Cover

Junyi Wu

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Low stock warning

Mon 19 Nov 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kij Johnson, Maureen F. McHugh, Ursula K. Le Guin | Comments Off on Low stock warning | Posted by: Gavin

As we head into the holiday season, I’m happy to see we have some hit books that will soon be out of stock:

It looks increasingly likely that our two volume Selected Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin will be sold out by publication day (November 27).

We just got copies in of the second printing of Kij Johnson’s At the Mouth of the River of Bees so, it won’t be out of stock but for those who collect first editions, we will keep shipping them out from the office until we run out.

And although it’s now in its third printing, we still have a few first printings of Maureen F. McHugh’s collection, After the Apocalypse. 

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Listening to Ursula K. Le Guin

Mon 19 Nov 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on Listening to Ursula K. Le Guin | Posted by: Gavin

Right now I’m listening to Francesca Rheannon’s interview with Ursula K. Le Guin on the Writer’s Voice.

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Trafalgar’s chaste light

Thu 15 Nov 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Amalia Gladhart, Angelica Gorodischer | 2 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Before you know it we’ll be publishing our second novel by Angélica Gorodischer, Trafalgar, translated by U. of Oregon professor Amalia Gladhart. Originally published in Argentina in 1979, it’s a very light and funny book. We had some good news recently: the book is getting a small grant to help with translation costs from the “Sur” Translation Support Program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Culture of the Argentine Republic. (Obra editada  en el marco del Programa “Sur” de Apoyo a las Traducciones del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto de  la República Argentina.) How cool is that? It is awesome.

We’re also working with Ron Guyatt on the final cover.

Trafalgar is a novel-in-stories and the first one, “By the Light of the Chaste Electronic Moon,” is more bawdy than the others, which is a funny way to set things up! But it also starts right in with Trafalgar Medrano, salesman and storyteller, who, given time and seven double coffees, will tell all about his sales trips to the farthest parts of the galaxies. Another of the stories, “Trafalgar and Josefina,” is forthcoming on Belletrista, but you can get a tiny taste of the first story here:

“By the Light of the Chaste Electronic Moon”

I was with Trafalgar Medrano yesterday. It’s not easy to find him. He’s always going here and there with that import-export business of his. But now and then he goes from there to here and he likes to sit down and drink coffee and chat with a friend. I was in the Burgundy and when I saw him come in, I almost didn’t recognize him: he had shaved off his mustache.

The Burgundy is one of those bars of which there aren’t many left, if there are any at all. None of that Formica or any fluorescent lights or Coca-Cola. Gray carpet—a little worn—real wood tables and real wood chairs, a few mirrors against the wood paneling, small windows, a single door and a façade that says nothing. Thanks to all this, inside there’s a lot of silence and anyone can sit down to read the paper or talk with someone else or even do nothing, seated at a table with a cloth, white crockery dishes, and real glass, like civilized people use, and a serious sugar bowl, and without anyone, let alone Marcos, coming to bother them.

I won’t tell you where it is because one of these days you might have adolescent sons or, worse, adolescent daughters who will find out, and goodbye peace and quiet. I’ll give you just one piece of information: it’s downtown, between a shop and a galería, and you surely pass by there every day when you go to the bank and you don’t even see it.

But Trafalgar came over to me at the table right away. 

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Errantry: publication day

Wed 14 Nov 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Elizabeth Hand, Errantry | Comments Off on Errantry: publication day | Posted by: Gavin

Everyone’s favorite writer of strannnnge, uneasy, disquieting, disturbing, itchy and scratchy stories, Elizabeth Hand, has a new book, Errantry: Strange Stories (print | ebook), out today.

Errantry collects ten of Liz’s recent stories and includes the very popular “The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon” as well as Shirley Jackson Award winner, “Near Zennor.” (Between this, the forthcoming Le Guin Selected Stories and Kij Johnson‘s book, we’ve had a great year for short story fans!) And I should  mention that next year we’ll be reprinting one of our favorite of Liz’s novels, Mortal Love. More Liz, all the time!

As for Errantry, Stefan Raets writes in his review on Tor.com today:

These are stories of the overwhelmingly mystical breaking into our world in small, almost unnoticeable ways, seen from the point of view of the few people who get to witness those minor intrusions and who then have to try and process their meanings. The subtlety is deceptive: there’s something huge going on, but it’s as if we and these characters are peeking at it through a keyhole, only seeing a small glimpse of what’s on the other side and only being hit by a small portion of the light it sheds. The suggestion that that door may open further is only part of what gives these stories their “slightly sinister” atmosphere.

Liz’s stories definitely get under your skin. There’s nothing quite like reading these stories late at night with the light pooled around you and being aware that you can’t quite see what’s going on in the darker corners of the room. Is that something moving?

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P&W article

Fri 9 Nov 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Ig Publishing, Publishing, Small Beer Press, To Read Pile, Two Dollar Radio | Comments Off on P&W article | Posted by: Gavin

Did you see the huge lovely article by Michael Bourne featuring family-run presses in the current issue of Poets & Writers? There’s a big old photo of Kelly and me (we’re the stern ones!). The article features Ig, Two Dollar Radio, and Small Beer, and looks at the joys and sorrows (er, pros and cons?) of running a publishing house together. First up: Ig Publishing, run by Robert Lasner and Elizabeth Clementson (their photo is nice and cheery!). Ig have a nice line of Dive Bar books but are perhaps best known for their popular politics titles. Next: Two Dollar Radio, run by Eric Obenauf and Eliza Wood-Obenauf—who have a fab, informal photo!—who published Grace Krilanovich’s The Orange Eats Creeps along with other books you may know. You may want to get your Two Dollar tattoo now—they’ll send you free books for life. But seventeen people have already done it and they are capping the offer at 25!

It was fun to be interviewed for the article. I always want people to talk about the books, not the press—Wait, what’s that you said about us? Oh, do tell! Let me not protest too much—and it’s hard to talk about the press without talking about our lives since the public/private split in indie press publishing can be near nonexistent.

That said, there was a fabulous article written in alternating first person by two poets, Brenda Shaughnessy and Craig Morgan Teicher, in the summer issue, “Enduring Discovery: Marriage, Parenthood, and Poetry.” The couple are married and are both published poets with new books out this year. Everything went well until:

“After a healthy pregnancy with no complications, our son suffered a catastrophic brain injury at delivery…. Our beautiful, amazing boy is now five years old and he has severe cerebral palsy. He’s nonambulatory, nonverbal, and has a smile that lights up a room like nothing else. Yes, we’ve been through hell, but we’ve had this angelic, loving, marvelous child with us the whole time.”

Both poets speak about their own lives, their family, and their work so clearly and strongly that I had to stop and read the whole article at once and then put their new books on the To Be Read list. So I like other people talking about their lives! Thanks for the write-up, Poets & Writers!<

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Beers of WFC 2012

Fri 9 Nov 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Literary Beer | Comments Off on Beers of WFC 2012 | Posted by: Michael

Fermented Adventures was well represented at World Fantasy Convention in Toronto this past weekend. As you can imagine, we went at it in earnest, like the semipro drinkers…er, writers…we are.

I bought and saved up beers over a couple months until I had 24 bottles of really good Michigan beer. I muled it (legally) over international lines. Then Scott, Raj and I and a crowd of other writers sampled and shared them all weekend alongside Toronto microbrews liberally provided by con staff, hotel bar and friends.

It all went (gloriously) something like this:

• Mill Street Organic, Toronto – a yellow lager, meh
• Steam Whistle Pilsener, Canada – very nice, crisp and authentic-tasting
• Frankenmuth Pilsener, Michigan – Not quite as authentically German-style but I like it
• Arcadia Loch Down, Michigan – a very nice scotch ale, 7% alcohol, round, easy drinking
• Bells Double Cream Stout, Michigan – reviewed earlier by Scott, decent but not mind-blowing.
• Growler of IPA from some local Toronto brewpub – spicy, earthy, citrusy, medium bitter, a kitchen sink IPA
• Smithwicks – Not nearly as good as the Arcadia scotch ale.
• Rickard’s Red, Molson – Not bad. Middle o’ the road.



• Bells Cherry Stout – We love the sour/stout combo. This as far as I’m concerned is the exemplar.
• Founders Breakfast Stout, Michigan – the gold standard
• Pilgrim’s Dole Wheat Wine, New Holland, Michigan – a huge 12% alcohol wheat wine with currant, plum flavor notes. Amazing, but would have been 100x better if I’d aged it 3 years first.
• Dark Horse Blueberry Imperial Stout, Michigan – The blueberry is almost all in the nose, so not quite a sour stout but still delicious.
• Mill Street Coffee Porter, Toronto – A tiny bit too much coffee for me in a porter this light.
• Atwater Block Bourbon Barrel Porter, Michigan
• A different growler of IPA from some local Toronto brewpub – Super-citrusy, aggressively bitter, a bit much for me but nice to sample.
• Motor City Brewing Works Hard Cider, Detroit – Best Detroit area cider I’ve had, dry, strongly effervescent, acidic, strong in tannin, with funky earthy notes from the yeast. Must buy more….



• 2012 Hot Pepper Chocolate Stout, my homebrew – This one had a pepper in the bottle, very fiery indeed
• 2011 Sweet Fern Scotch Ale, my homebrew – A 70 shilling ale flavored with a pinch of wild-harvested sweet fern, a spicy, woody perennial
• 2011 Cyser, my homebrew
• 2011 Honey Porter, my homebrew

And that’s just the ones I can remember!

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The Diary of a Young Monster Hunter

Thu 8 Nov 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Peter Dickinson | Comments Off on The Diary of a Young Monster Hunter | Posted by: Gavin

Next year we are reprinting Peter Dickinson’s novel Eva Tupper’s Diary. Guess who did the cover? Kathleen Jennings, yay! Publishing being what it is, we’re telling the sales reps about the book now so that they can take it to the booksellers and then when you wander into your local bookshop next May, boom! there it is. Emma arrives in Scotland to spend the summer with her cousins, the McAndrews. The McAndrews have the typical kid’s book family: a late mother, a distant father, and an assortment of cousins four years apart from 14 onup.

There’s also a mini-submarine and perhaps more. Here’s an excerpt from early on in the book:

“Creature?” said Emma. “Do you mean a monster?”

Andy laughed.

“Oh yes, we’ve got one of those,” he said. “It’s made of rafts of weed which get carried up from the bottom by gases from decaying stuff underneath them. They make black hummocks, quite long sometimes, so that you see several things in line that might be the humps of a sea-serpent, and then the gas gets out and they sink again. That’s what all the monsters really are—Loch Ness and Loch Morar as well as ours. How long since anybody saw its head, Mary? Mouth, eyes, teeth?”

“Och, you’ll not see them and live,” said Mary placidly. “But there was poachers came up from Glasgow when you were in your cradle, Master Andy—an ignorant class of men, as everybody knows there’s no fish worth poaching in our loch. But they brought two boats by night, and nets, and by morning both boats were overturned and three of the men vanished. Those were the last poachers I heard of coming this way.”

“And the first,” said Roddy, “if everyone knows there’s no fish worth poaching. Hey!”

Mary had walked round behind his chair while he was talking, and now biffed him hard on the ear with her open palm; then she nodded to Emma and walked out smiling. Roddy rubbed his ear and went on eating his toast.

“Even if there’s only a story about a monster. . .” said Emma. “I mean there’s only a story about Loch Ness.”

“That one’s had two hundred years to spread,” said Andy.

“But things happen so much faster now,” said Emma. “I mean if only you could get your story on television . . .”

“Cousin Emma,” said Andy, lordly and handsome, “you have only just reached civilisation after a formative childhood in the desert. Understandably you are besotted by the television set. But you will later learn that it cannot do everything—in particular it cannot make one stretch of water which might have a monster in it look more interesting than another stretch of water which might not.”

“He’s the expert,” said Roddy. “His girl’s in the Glasgow studios.”

 

 

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A Better Day

Wed 7 Nov 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on A Better Day | Posted by: Gavin

After a shorter night than expected, this is a better day than expected. Mitt Romney’s speech, when at last it came, was gracious. At some point soon perhaps he will be relieved to be off the campaign trail for the first time in many years.

President Obama’s speech was strong. He won the popular vote and the electoral college. He speaks to everyone, not only just communities. In immediately reaching across the aisle and offering to work together in government with the Republican party he offered a way forward for a polarized nation.

I am proud of this country’s continued ability to peacefully run elections and transfer power. That said, I’d vote for election day being a paid, Federal holiday at the drop of a hat. In a participant democracy, voting should be easy, not hard. The NYTimes says the country drifted rightward. No matter which way the country leans, I hope it will continue to tack toward a future where health care, inclusiveness, and the common weal—looking after the 100%—is in the forefront.

As hundreds of thousand of people are still without power—the latest victims of ever worsening weather—I recommend that the PACs and SuperPACs on all sides of the political spectrum send what is left of their funds here:

Red Cross.

First Books.

(Further suggestions welcome!)

Also: yay!

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Endorsing President Obama

Thu 1 Nov 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | 2 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

On Election Day, I am voting for President Obama. I hope you will, too.

Hurricane Sandy really brought home to me the differences between the two candidates and how important it is that Mr. Romney is not elected. He would close FEMA (because New Jersey and New York—like Louisiana before them—can pay for all the damage themselves?) and believes that 47% of the country is outwith his remit. He seems not to realize that the President is the President to all Americans, regardless of party affiliation.

Given that the Republican Party’s strategy of government has been to try to stop any bills with presidential support being passed instead of trying to work with the elected government, I don’t suppose he is just toeing the party line. For four years they’ve tried to block any actual governing from happening. The GOP would rather the country ground to a halt instead of having Obama as president. It is hard to believe that a party would seriously choose this strategy and expect to be elected.

Hurricane Sandy only meant high winds and some rain in Western Mass. We were very lucky. We have spent the last 3 years and 8 months feeling lucky. Our daughter, Ursula, was born prematurely in February 2009 and spent her first 14 months in the hospital. We were lucky that the emergency generators kicked in during the worst storms while she was in hospital. We didn’t have to carry her (or watch while the nurses did it) out of the hospital while attached to all her tubes and machines. Reading about the kids and patients being evacuated from NYU Hospital was horrifying. While Ursula was in hospital we walked along beside her on the way from one room to another while nurses hand pumped her ventilator. It was no fun in a bright, daylit hospital. I cannot imagine in at night, without power, in a hurricane. Those nurses are fantastic.

Sometimes a person needs taken care of by someone other than themselves and their family. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has looked after Ursula in ways that we never expected and for which we will be eternally grateful. Ursula’s care has cost somewhere around a couple of  million dollars. We would be bankrupt and homeless if we had had to pay for it. So I am extremely grateful to Governor Romney for the work he did to instill safety nets and to widen the health care coverage in Massachusetts. If he had the courage of his convictions and was supporting extending this very successful plan nationwide, I would consider supporting him. Instead he intends to cut these programs and continue the transfer of wealth to his own people, the 1%.

Sometimes a group of people need to be taken care of by someone other than themselves and their family. Hurricane Sandy illustrated that even New York State (with almost 20 million people) and New Jersey (8.8 million) need help.

In The New Yorker‘s endorsement of Obama they included this:

“A visitor to the F.D.R. Memorial, in Washington, is confronted by these words from Roosevelt’s second Inaugural Address, etched in stone: ‘The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide for those who have too little.'”

I don’t want a nanny state. I don’t want government health care to be the only option. But I want it to be an available option. If people have the money or will to pay for private health care, that option should be available. But in a civilized country there should not be 44 million people without health insurance.

The last four years, following directly on a terrible financial crash, have been hard. The eight before that were desperate: two wars kicked off, off-the-record prisons around the world, the USA used (uses?) torture as an everyday tool, individual rights were trampled, the people’s voices were ignored. Going back to that, but adding on contempt for the middle and working class (never mind the working poor, homeless, and all other disenfranchised groups) and a focus on money flowing to the monied over the weal of the common people is a nightmare that would send this country into the past, rather than into the future.

This country was founded by a bunch of individuals who managed to get together, despite their differences, and form a government. That government has been a living changing idea ever since. I believe that this country deserves a government who will look after the people first, not the corporations, and that is why we will be voting for President Obama on Tuesday.

Gavin J. Grant
Kelly  Link

 

 

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2012 Holiday Shipping deadlines

Thu 1 Nov 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., holidays, post office, shipping, usps | Comments Off on 2012 Holiday Shipping deadlines | Posted by: Gavin

Here are the last mailing dates before Christmas/your holiday of choice from the US Post Office.

Media Mail shipping is included in all our prices and Priority Mail can be added.

Remember that all mail slows down at the holidays. Media Mail packages are only included by the post office if and when there is space so they can languish for days during the holidays. If you are ordering after December 1st, 2012, and you would like your books to arrive for Christmas we recommend choosing Priority Mail.

You can also buy Gift Certificates to Small Beer or Weightless.

Holiday Dates for Military Mail

Calculated for December 25, 2012.

Addressed to	First-Class Mail® Service	Priority Mail® Service
APO/FPO/DPO AE ZIPs™ 090-092	Dec. 10	Dec. 10
APO/FPO/DPO AE ZIP 093	Dec. 3	Dec. 3
APO/FPO/DPO AE ZIPs 094-098	Dec. 10	Dec. 10
APO/FPO/DPO AA ZIP 340	Dec. 10	Dec. 10
APO/FPO/DPO AP ZIPs 962-966	Dec. 10	Dec. 10

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Suggested reading for Sandy

Mon 29 Oct 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Hurricanes, To Read Pile | Comments Off on Suggested reading for Sandy | Posted by: Gavin

Here’s a scary comparison pic on the WSJ of Hurricane Irene (2011, $15bn damage) and Hurricane Sandy (2012, flooding NYC and surrounds already; picture below from the NYT live update feed).

How big is Sandy? It’s bigger than the Random Penguin merger. Boo merger! Wonder who HarperCollins will merge with now? They were thinking $1.6bn in cash for Penguin and you know how it is when you go shopping but they don’t have the publisher you wanted in stock, might as well see who else is up for sale . . .

I love Penguin books and all the tat that they sell: we have the mugs and cards and tea towel and are quite happy to keep stacking the shelves with those old and new classics. And, they published Kelly’s YA collection, Pretty Monsters. But! I also love the name Random House. It was (was? erk.) one of the best names for a publishing house. What’s coming next? A cookbook? A collection of poetry? A science fiction novel? Yes to all of the above! And, one of their imprints published The Best of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. RHP? Meh. And, only 1 letter away from RIP. (Hmm, that’s a bit too much reading the bones, methinks.)

While Random Penguin is a publishing behemoth in the making (they’ll be awaiting government approval: Obama says, “Hmm, maybe.” Romney says, “Merger? Assets stripped, jobs outsourced, big dividend to stockholders? Do it!”) they’re fleas on the back of the other players in publishing, as someone tweeted today:

Charlie King ‏@charlietheking

Interesting context RT @arhomberg Market value of Apple $567 billion, Google $221 billion, Amazon $108 billion, Random Penguin ~ $3 billion

Anyway.

Recommended reading for the next few days: Kim Stanley Robinson’s Forty Signs of Rain wherein Washington DC is flooded and the politicians (and the taxed-but-not-represented locals) are the ones who have to deal with the Katrina-like events. I reviewed it tho those many years ago for BookPage:

There are flood warnings throughout (beginning with the Biblical reference in the title) but the blinkered D.C. politicians won’t pay attention until the rising water is lapping at their doorways. Robinson skips between the domestic, scientific and political spheres without missing a beat and delivers a hot-topic page-turner that leaves the reader gasping and stranded at high tide, eager for the next book from this science fiction master.

Once you’ve read that you’re going to want the sequel, Fifty Degrees Below, (“an intensely positive book, brimming with ideas and hope for the future real or imagined.” Review), and the final one: Sixty Days and Counting. (“Every senator, especially the ones with presidential aspirations, should read Kim Stanley Robinson’s Sixty Days and Counting.” Review).

These books should be on the must-read list for all politicians, but then again I think Robinson’s books should be on everyone’s to-be-read stack.

Be safe.

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Saddest email of the week

Fri 26 Oct 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kathe Koja, post office, tracking is a must | 2 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

It’s hard to imagine the disappointment of reader C.H. who ordered the new paperback edition of Under the Poppy and instead, well, read this:

Hi Small Beer Press-

I had ordered a paperback copy of Under the Poppy by Kathe Koja and received notification on October 19 that it had shipped, USPS Tracking #xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.  I received the envelope today, but there the book was not inside the envelope. Instead there is a a booklet and several discs for Microsoft 98. Very confused, and then I noticed on one side of the package there is a USPS Rewrapped/Resealed packing tape. Obviously the package was tampered with some where along the order coming to my address. Is there anything that can be done to rectify this?

Thanks for your time,
C.H.

Suffice to say we quick smart dropped another copy of the book in the mails. With tracking of course. If there is someone out there looking for the Microsoft 98 discs, I can put you in touch with the person who has them!

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Proud to be you and me

Thu 25 Oct 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on Proud to be you and me | Posted by: Gavin

Just in time for the upcoming election, here’s some nice stuff.

Yo, politicos, don’t step on the immigrants! You were only born here, adult immigrants chose this country. Besides, apart from Native Americans, everyone’s family here were immigrants at some point. And soon enough immigrants get legal status and we remember who was putting us down. So instead of that, let’s play nice with one another and work together to, as Stephen Colbert puts it, Re-become the Greatness We Never Weren’t!

 

   

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Chris Abani says

Thu 25 Oct 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on Chris Abani says | Posted by: Gavin

of A Stranger in Olondria:

“Sofia Samatar has an expansive imagination, a poetic and elegant style, and she writes stories so rich, with characters so full of life, they haunt you long after the story ends. A real pleasure.”
—Chris Abani, author of GraceLand and The Virgin of Flames

Absolutely!

Since Stranger  doesn’t come out until next April, you can catch up with Sofia in the meantime on her blog where she answers 10 questions about Stranger in Olondria, writes about her experiences as a debut author at the debut author at the Heartland Fall Forum, and introduces her Weird Fiction Review essay on Mervyn Peake.

Sofia published a fabulous poem on Strange Horizons this summer, “Lost Letter” which starts:

we were going to start an artists’ commune
we were going to start an avant-garde artists’ commune
we were going to live on youth good looks and music

but you should go read it!

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Where I Write by Lydia Millet

Wed 24 Oct 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Lydia Millet | Comments Off on Where I Write by Lydia Millet | Posted by: Gavin

Loved the photos and the advantages/disadvantages listed with each of Lydia Millet’s writing destinations:

“Fitness.” . . . Advantage: Puffy armchair; fitness potential, chiefly latent. Disadvantage: Half-naked, hard-bodied individuals saying bad things; many have pink acrylic talons.

Read more.

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Brian Conn: yay!

Tue 23 Oct 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Brian Conn, LCRW | Comments Off on Brian Conn: yay! | Posted by: Gavin

Fully ganked from Shelf Awareness this morning: fantastic, cheery news for a writer we love, Brian Conn has won the 2013 Bard Fiction Prize. How awesome is that? That is awesome. Ten years ago (well, probably eleven, given how slow we read submissions) we were thrilled to read his story “The Mushroom” and published it in LCRW #10. Five years later he sent us “The Postern Gate” and in it went to LCRW #21. Besides being a fascinating writer, Brian also co-edits Birkensnake, a journal you can either download for free or buy a lovely print edition of.

From Shelf Awareness:

Awards: Bard Winner

Brian Conn has won the 2013 Bard Fiction Prize, intended to support promising young fiction writers. The prize has a $30,000 cash award and appointment as writer in residence at Bard College for a semester.

Conn won for his debut novel, The Fixed Stars (Fiction Collective 2), published in 2010. The prize committee praised the science fiction book for “the remarkable way the weird, perplexing bleakness of the imagined society is firmly held in place by a narrative style at once bewildered and lucid–it has the air of a kind of deadpan tragedy, of the sort Kafka scared us with, and made us yearn for more. The Bard Fiction Prize has been anxious to celebrate innovation in the novel–and in Conn’s The Fixed Stars we found a perfect match of inventive fable with disquietingly radical storytelling. The prose sparkles with unique images, and the narrative itself is wonderful, at times wondrous even, and a highly original formal work, full of life.”

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Small Beer Podcast 14: Benjamin Parzybok’s “The Coder”

Tue 23 Oct 2012 - Filed under: Benjamin Parzybok, Not a Journal., Benjamin Parzybok, Julie Day, Michael J DeLuca, Podcastery, small beer podcast, The Coder | 1 Comment | Posted by: Julie

My podcastery life doesn’t get much better than this. Two of my favorites in one audio track: Benjamin Parzybok and  Michael J. DeLuca. Benjamin Parzybok’s story “The Coder” was first published in Lady Churchhill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 21. We bring it to you in audio for the first time. Not only that. Michael J. DeLuca makes another guest appearance on the Small Beer Podcast. Michael is more than a guest reader; he is a passionate advocate of “The Coder.” He spent long hours with his laptop, software and microphone getting the digital track just right. I can’t think of a better homage to this particular Parzybok story.

For those of you who follow such things, Episode No. 4 of our podcast features an excerpt of Ben’s novel, Couch. In other words, we are returning to the scene of the Parzybok crime. Ben is currently finishing his second novel, Sherwood Nation. You can find out about Ben and all his various projects at his site, ideacog.net.

Episode 14: In which Michael J DeLuca read’s Benjamin Parzybok’s “The Coder.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe to the Small Beer podcast using  iTunes or the service of your choice:

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Win the audiobook of The Freedom Maze

Tue 23 Oct 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., audio books, Delia Sherman | Comments Off on Win the audiobook of The Freedom Maze | Posted by: Gavin

All you need to do is leave a comment here—and there are only a few, so your chances are high!—on this interview with The Freedom Maze’s narrator, Robin Miles.

Can’t wait to hear this!

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Coming this week: book, podcast, freebies, &c

Mon 22 Oct 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Benjamin Parzybok, Julie Day, Michael J DeLuca, Peter Dickinson | Comments Off on Coming this week: book, podcast, freebies, &c | Posted by: Gavin

Monday: Publication day for our latest Big Mouth House title: Peter Dickinson’s new collection, Earth and Air: Tales of Elemental Creatures. It’s now available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook editions. The first story “Troll Blood” is also available in F&SF’s September/October issue. Here’s a short interview on F&SF about the story.

There are two strong reviews (from Faren Miller and Rich Horton) in the latest issue of Locus and Tom Shippey gave it a marvelous review in the Wall Street Journal:

“Mining folklore for ideas is routine in modern fantasy, but not many can add the surprising twists and novel logic that Peter Dickinson does. These are beautiful stories, deft, satisfying, unexpected. They deserve to become classics of the genre.”

Tuesday:

1. A new podcast from a lovely triumverate, Julie Day, Michael J. DeLuca, and Benjamin Parzybok—which I am listening to right now, awesome! Michael reads Benjamin Parzybok’s story “The Coder” from Lady Churchhill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 21. Come back tomorrow (or subscribe now) and you too can get your coding joy on, too.
2. The Humble Bundle ends. 77,000 people have partaken of the first ebook Humble Bundle so far. I think it’s a pretty incredible thing: pay what you want for a baker’s dozen of DRM-free ebooks. It’s been hugely popular, especially internationally, and I can’t wait to see 1) how it ends and 2) what the next one will be!

Thursday:

1. We send out 15 free copies of Elizabeth Hand’s Errantry to the Goodreads giveaway winners.
2. Kij Johnson reads at 7 p.m. at the Big Tent at The Raven in Lawrence, Kansas.

Will there be more news and more goings on? Probably. Unless the debates fill us with such lethargy that we become slugs and end our days in a bowl of beer. Which, you know, is going to happen one way or the other.

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Mac laptops

Mon 22 Oct 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Apple | 9 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

As noted before, I seem to be somewhat rough on my laptops: Kelly and I have twice bought new laptops (new white MacBooks sometimes in the 2000s, then used MacBook Pros in March 2011) at the same time and I have worn mine out first.*

So now I have a question for Mac laptop users (as I will be Time Machining my current laptop & software over to the new one). I am probably moving from a 15″ MBPro to a 13″ and would love to hear user’s experiences with both the 13″ MacBook Pro and the 13″ MacBook Air. (I am tempted to buy the former with a steady-state drive.)

As I mentioned, I appear to be somewhat hard on my laptops—it goes to and from home with me and most of the press’s work is done on it. At any given day I will have Mail, Firefox (which seems to be crashing the current laptop, so I may switch to Chrome), Safari, Word, InDesign, PhotoShop, Preview, QuickBooks, Cyberduck, and I don’t know what else running so I would love to hear from people who are using their laptops for such things. Can the little laptops do these things or should I just go back to the 15″ (5.6 pounds/2.56 kg) monster?

Any help appreciated!

* There is a chance that I wear my laptops out for the same inherited reason I can’t wear a wind-up watch. I was horrified as a kid when I go a watch for the first time from Santa (memory serves: it was a Sekonda!) and it stopped working within a few hours. There’s nothing like the secret horror of thinking you’ve broken your big new present before lunch. I was hugely relieved to discover that my mum can’t wear a wind-up, either. I had a few more watches as a kid, then carried a robot pocketwatch for a while and now with the ubiquity of phones I don’t bother. I might be able to wear a modern, quartz watch, but I’m happy without one now. Besides, why give my “talent” with machinery more opportunity to express itself?

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