Everyone’s going bovine

Fri 13 Nov 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Everyone’s going bovine | Posted by: Gavin

Go read Going Bovine. But first, watch this (old but excellent short):


Free books, songs, arguments

Tue 10 Nov 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , | 1 Comment | Posted by: Gavin

BSCreview has 3 free copies of A Working Writer’s Daily Planner 2010 to give away.  Want Want Freebies?

Lev Grossman included Kelly’s Magic for Beginners in a list of “the six greatest fantasy books of all time.” Ladies and Gentlemen, start your arguments.

Richard Nash calls out BEA (via Shelf Awareness) on their rather silly decisions not to have a big party and not to let in the grand reading public. BEA is dying and no one seems to care. The American Booksellers Association has sensibly started a new thing, the very successful Winter Institute where publishers and booksellers get to meet in peace. Book fairs (hello Brooklyn!) do tremendously. ComicCon is spinning off secondary fairs like no one’s business. Kids are lining up to get into manga fairs. Someone else is going to take up the slack (hello again, Brooklyn, LA, Washington DC, Miami). Putting publishers in front of the public is no bad thing. We went to a huge indie book fair in Italy that was 4 days long and bigger than the Javits Center. People love that stuff — come on BEA, get like AWP and other smarter conferences, let the people in.

Hal Duncan has songs (with Neil Williamson) and a successful pay-per-view (or whateveryoucallit) going on on his site.

There have been two fascinating reviews (one website, one blog—there are many on the blogs but I just happen to be posting right now) of Greer Gilman’s Cloud & Ashes: Paul Kincaid on SF Site,

Time and again, in innumerable different ways, we see hints about the ways that the stories we tell shape the actions we take…. This is where the circle is broken, and if events drive us incessantly towards tragedy as stories must, it is a very different tragedy from what has gone before.

Cloud and Ashes is not an easy book to read, but it is incredibly worth while making the effort. Any sense I have given of what goes on here is inevitably only partial, there is so much I have had to omit, major characters, significant plot lines. Above all, I have barely hinted at how much it plays with gender roles, how much it has to tell us about the role of women in shaping the world, indeed how every potent active character is female. It is a book you will barely grasp, but it is a book whose hold on your mind, on your memory, is assured. It is a story about story, and stories are what we are all made of. Abandon hope all ye who enter here.

And She Who Must on LJ:

I loved it, and it still took me about a month to read it; it’s quite long, and very, very rich. After a few pages I’d have to stop and digest what I’d read. I don’t think that’s a bad thing – indeed, I was in no hurry to reach the end, I didn’t want it to be over.


Other end of the stick

Tue 10 Nov 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on Other end of the stick | Posted by: Gavin

Received by email today from one of the trade review journals after we queried them in September about reviewing our current books:

Dear Gavin,

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the title “XXXXXXXX.”
Unfortunately, this title was not selected for review by XXXXXXX
as it did not fit our present needs. However, we would
encourage you to send your future titles to us for review consideration,
and we look forward to receiving them.

Best,

Oh well. Next time.


Interfictions: LA + Henry Jenkins

Tue 10 Nov 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Interfictions: LA + Henry Jenkins | Posted by: Gavin

First once-was-MIT honcho Henry Jenkins heads for LA, now he’s writing about interstitialism (fantastic intro here), and now tonight there’s a huge event tonight in LA.

La what? No! L.A.! Don’t miss the latest Interfictions event tonight in LA (and then on Friday in Boston) with a huge selection of readers, musicians and so on. Here’s the info straight from the horse’s mouth:

Q&A with Cecil Castellucci, and Interfictions 2 hits LA tonight!

To celebrate the launch of Interfictions 2, we’ve been arranging a number of interviews with the contributors, which will be posted to the new Interviews page in the Interfictions 2 section of our site. The first of these is with none other than a host of (and a featured performer at) tonight’s Interfictions 2 Reading in Los Angeles – Cecil Castellucci!

In addition to being the author of the Interfictions 2 short story “The Long and Short of Long-Term Memory”, Cecil is the author of three YA novels, Boy Proof, The Queen of Cool, and Beige, with a fourth, Rose Sees Red, coming in 2010 from Scholastic; two YA graphic novels, The PLAIN Janes and Janes in Love, illustrated by Jim Rugg; and numerous short stories. She is currently working on a hybrid novel and the libretto for a multimedia opera. She has played in bands, produced and directed a feature film, a few one-woman shows, a play, and does the occasional confessional stand-up comedy gig. She is always on the lookout for new ways to tell stories. Having lived on both coasts and both sides of the 49th parallel, she appreciates a well-coordinated snow removal operation but wisely hides out where none is needed. For more information, go to www.misscecil.com or visit her blog at castellucci.wordpress.com.

For those of you in or around Los Angeles, here’s the rundown on tonight’s event:

LOS ANGELES
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 from 8 to 10 PM
@ M Bar – 1253 Vine (at Fountain)

Liz Ziemska and Cecil Castellucci invite you to an evening of readings from INTERFICTIONS 2: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman & Christopher Barzak!

Performances by: Patty Cornell, Dave Foley, Kimberly Huie, Michael O’Keefe, Rasika Mathur, Darcy Martin, & others reading stories by Cecil Castellucci, Elizabeth Ziemska, Brian Francis Slattery, Ray Vukcevich, Peter Ball, Nin Andrews, and Stephanie Shaw.  Directed by: Flint Esquerra.  Musical accompaniment by: Jonathan Stearns.  No Cover + $10 food minimum.  Reservations are strongly encouraged: 323-856-0036.  Books will be for sale available courtesy of Skylight Books
http://castellucci.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/interfictions-2-anthology-reading-los-angeles/

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=154863864759&ref=mf

Sounds like quite a party! Until then, though, why not check out the interview? And stay tuned – we also have interviews with Jeffrey Ford, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Ray Vukcevich and others coming soon!


UK Twilight site giving away Pretty Monsters!

Mon 9 Nov 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , | Comments Off on UK Twilight site giving away Pretty Monsters! | Posted by: Gavin

Ganked wholesale from BellaandEdward.com(!):

BAE UK Book Contest: Win Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link!

Posted on 31 Oct 2009 by Jenny || 0 Comments
We at BAE know how much you guys like books, and thanks to Canongate in the UK, we have a pretty cool Halloween contest for you.

Pretty Monsters is a great collection of horror short stories, and is a good crossover book that teenagers and adults will love. I really enjoyed it!

Photobucket

UK Competition:

Canongate Books is pleased to offer BellaandEdward.com prize copies of Pretty Monsters.


What’s for dinner?

Sat 7 Nov 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Comments Off on What’s for dinner? | Posted by: Gavin

Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book Eating Animals is causing a nice ruckus on the Huffington Post — and lots of other places. Nice to see people thinking about their impact on the world. I think it would be a great bookclub pick. For those interested in the numbers, United Poultry Concerns posted a list of the numbers of animals slaughtered for food (US only):

Chickens
Total number died for food: 8.13 billion (7.67 billion for meat, 458 million for eggs)
Average number killed per American meat-eater: 27.5 (26 for meat, 1.5 for eggs)
Average number consumed per American lifetime: 2,147 (2,028 for meat, 120 for eggs)

…

ALL ANIMALS
Total number died for food: 80 billion
Average number consumed per American meat-eater: 270
Average number consumed per American lifetime: 21,000


!

Sat 7 Nov 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | 2 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

I just like exclamation points.


Read an excerpt from D*U*C*K

Thu 5 Nov 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Comments Off on Read an excerpt from D*U*C*K | Posted by: Gavin

The good folk at BSCreview just posted an excerpt from Poppy Z. Brite’s D*U*C*K which is the second half of our new books, Second Line: Two Short Novels of Love and Cooking in New Orleans. Starring lovable chefs Rickey and G-man and their assorted crew of hard working, fun loving restaurant crew the first novel, The Value of X, introduces Rickey and Gary (as he is known in his pre-G-man years!) and tells the story of their first years together. D*U*C*K jumps past the intervening years (chronicled in the novels Liquor, Prime, and Soul Kitchen) to when the guys have their own restaurant but Rickey can’t resist a challenge and takes on an outside gig to cater the annual Ducks Unlimited banquet.

Also: we’re working on printing up a menu for the banquet for Poppy to sign and if it does work out we’ll be selling them here with or without copies of the book.

In the mean time, read on:

Everything you’ve heard about summer in New Orleans is true. The only tourists who visit during that infernal season are hardy Germans and Australians, who can weather anything, and people from Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas, who are used to it and don’t have far to drive. The deepest pits of Hades have nothing on your average August day in the Crescent City. (You can say Crescent City if you like, because the Mississippi River cups the city in a crescent shape. Say “the Big Easy,” or, worse, “N’Awlins,” and people will know you’re a tourist.)


The impish love child of Tutuola and Marquez

Wed 4 Nov 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 1 Comment | Posted by: Gavin

That’s what Nalo Hopkinson says of Karen Lord’s debut novel: “The impish love child of Tutuola and Marquez. Utterly delightful.” Yes it is, yes it is!


Interfictions 2 is made of Top 10 Stuff!

Tue 3 Nov 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | 2 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

It’s publication day for Interfictions 2 (yay!) and there’s a lot going on:

Don’t despair ebook readers: the book is available as a DRM-free PDF directly from us or in many formats on Fictionwise.

This week there are readings all across the country: drop in and join the fun! These are events you won’t want to miss—readings, music, light shows, unicyclists (maybe), and so on:

NEW YORK
Friday, November 6 at 7:00 p.m.
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
126 Crosby Street

LOS ANGELES
Tuesday, Novemberr 10 at 8:00 p.m.
M Bar
1253 Vine (at Fountain)

BOSTON
Friday, November 13 at 7:30 p.m.
The Lily Pad
Inman Square
1353 Cambridge Street


Free copies of Interfictions 2

Mon 2 Nov 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , | 11 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Now is probably a good time to mention that we have 5 free copies of the snazziest mind-poppingest new anthology of short stories out there, Interfictions 2, to go out to readers in the USA + Canada who will review it on blogs, websites, etc., etc.

Write Everything Down by Susan SaltzmanIf you live outside these two countries, we’d be happy to send you a PDF.

Drop us a note in the comments box and we’ll contact you to get your address.

Interfictions 2 comes out tomorrow so preorders are shipping and events are starting to happen: today the IAF are launching their online auction of pieces inspired by the stories in the book—this is just fantastic stuff, check it out.

—

Later this week there will be more free Super Special Books (!) offered up of so do come back.


In which we are awarded!

Sun 1 Nov 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , | 7 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Lovely news from San Jose: Gavin & Kelly have been awarded the World Fantasy Award, Special Award, Professional, for Small Beer Press and Big Mouth House: yay, we say, yay! John Kessel, whose collection we were proud to publish, was on hand to pick up the Howards which seemed appropriate as it is all about the books.

Other winners include: Jeff Ford (twice!), Margo Lanagan—Jeff and Margo: they rule this award!—Rick Bowes, Kij Johnson, Paper Cities (ed. by Ekaterina Sedia), Shaun Tan, and Michael Walsh of Old Earth Books for his two Howard Waldrop collections.

—

Don’t know that we’ll keep counting, but this year we did some gender breakdown of a few of the genre awards and back in August we posted the  World Fantasy Award nominees and the gender breakdown:

  • 26 men
  • 21 women

And the winners  (not counting the two extra Life Achievement Awards to Jane Yolen and Ellen Asher):

  • 6 men (1 AUS, 5 USA)
  • 4 women (1 AUS, 3 USA)

Hound update

Sun 1 Nov 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | 2 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Brian at BSC review hit the nail on the head in a review of Vincent McCaffrey’s Hound. The titular bookhound, Henry Sullivan, is a man alone has immersed in the world of books—a world the author is worried might be passing away (or at least in a state of rapid decline)—and Hound explores one reaction to the possibility of that passing. Perhaps the novel should have been subtitled “an investigation into the possible death of the book as a physical object,” but it doesn’t roll off the tongue.

If you missed Vince’s conversation-starting posts at Powell’s (get your cup of tea and biscuits/cookies ready) you can read them here. Here’s a reaction to the reading/panel on the future of the book at Mysterious Bookshop. I think Vince knows that the paper book won’t completely disappear but he is right to wonder and to agitate and to keep the conversation going on what the future will look like and who will make it.

And, yes, you can buy Hound as an ebook. Vincent might be worried about the death of the paper book, but we’re quite aware there is a growing percentage of readers who like to read our books on other substrates.

And in case you missed his readings (there’s one TK at the Odyssey in South Hadley in January, dorp by!) he was interviewed by The L Magazine and Jamaicaway Books:

Or, of course, just start reading Hound.


Second Line shipping

Thu 29 Oct 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 1 Comment | Posted by: Gavin

We’ll be shipping out Poppy Z. Brite’s Second Line to reviewers and readers asap — contact us if you want to review it.

We may yet have a nice little surprise for collectors (give us another week after all) and a little something sort of special for regular readers…


Greenstart

Tue 27 Oct 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 2 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

In 2008 I was happy to see our home electricity through New England GreenStart came from:

  • 75% hydroelectric power
  • 20.9% biomass
  • 3% solar
  • 1.2% wind

For summer 2009 the figures had improved to:

  • 69.3% hydroelectric
  • 19.9% biomass
  • 4.7% solar
  • 6% wind

So solar and wind now make up more than 10% of our power: a good start! I think the program has changed in some way but as far as I know on it goes, happily charging a little extra to invest in alternative options.


Poppy Brite fun

Tue 27 Oct 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal. | Comments Off on Poppy Brite fun | Posted by: Gavin

If all goes well tomorrow we should have a fun surprise to offer Poppy Brite fans. If all does not go well this post does not exist.


Fantasy football for books people?

Sun 25 Oct 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , | Comments Off on Fantasy football for books people? | Posted by: Gavin

So why isn’t there something like Fantasy Football or the Hollywood Stock Exchange for books? Wouldn’t it be fun to bet who was going to be #1 next week, which house would have all the NBCC winners, etc., etc.? And if game-theory peeps are to be believed, wouldn’t the simulacrum give us some sense of the real world?

Anyway, some techy-programy-bookie-type person out there: please go and make millions on this now, please, thank you.


The Ant King

Fri 23 Oct 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on The Ant King | Posted by: Gavin

LitDrift are giving away a free copy of Ben Rosenbaum’s wide-ranging and excellent story collection The Ant King this week. Drop by and leave a comment for your chance to win. They also, bravely, encourage haiku.

Congratulations to last week’s winner, Paul Ketchum, who gets a free copy of Couch!


Planner Preview + $4.95 DRM-free PDF

Fri 23 Oct 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Comments Off on Planner Preview + $4.95 DRM-free PDF | Posted by: Gavin

We have just posted the month of March here as a preview of our Working Writer’s Daily Planner which is at the printer now. (2011’s will be earlier!)

The Planner is also now available as a DRM-free PDF (emailed within 24 hours of purchase — and usually sooner) for just $4.95.

We’re selling it as a nicely-bookmarked 2MB PDF (formatting makes it harder than other books to convert into other formats) which means you can print it at any size you want: letter-sized to put in a 3-ring binder, tiny to go on index cards, or 6″ x 9″ to replicate the printed edition.

We’d love to hear about different printing and use strategies and we’re always open to suggestions for what should go into next year’s edition. (Read the table of contents for this year’s Planner here.)


If it’s Thursday, must be Portsmouth

Thu 22 Oct 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Comments Off on If it’s Thursday, must be Portsmouth | Posted by: Gavin

RiverRun Books is one of the most popular Twittering Bookstores and they love Hound — you can’t miss it, it’s right there on their front table — which is great as Vince is reading there tonight.

Vince is blogging all week at Powell’s.com and is part of a great book event in New York City on Sunday.


Wed 21 Oct 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

Dave Schwartz posted a fantastic photo: “Alan Deniro’s poster at the Rain Taxi Twin Cities Book Festival, handmade publicity for his imminent novel, Total Oblivion, More or Less.” Click on it and make it bigger:

Threat Level Gnosis by Snurri.


What do you think the price should be?

Mon 19 Oct 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 5 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

What should we price the pdf ebook of our upcoming A Working Writer’s Daily Planner 2010? The paper version is $13.95 (and is at the printer).

The ebook will be pdf only — there is too much formatting and too many pics for anything else.

Suggestions?


Free calendar

Wed 14 Oct 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Free calendar | Posted by: Gavin

Update: Done!

We just received this promo and we won’t be ordering them (just like last year!) as we have a calendar all of our very own making that at long last is at the printer. It’s a nice enough planner, a month per page, and various handy things.

So, instead of letting it molder until next year, we’ll send it out to the very next reader to order one of our books or zines.

Not our calendar by you.


Ray Vukcevich at the movies (almost)

Mon 12 Oct 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Comments Off on Ray Vukcevich at the movies (almost) | Posted by: Gavin

Meet Me in the Moon RoomA couple of readers have emailed us to ask if the skippy viral thriller-chiller film Paranormal Activity is based on Ray Vukcevich’s incredibly creepy and wonderful story “Whisper” — which was collected in Meet Me in the Moon Room (and originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in January 2001).

The answer: while we haven’t seen the film at the moment we don’t think so. Ray tells us there has been a lot of film interest in “Whisper” over the years (along with a few of his other stories) but even though both “Whisper” and Paranormal Activity feature paranoid people setting up cameras to record themselves sleeping it seems that this is one of those cases of parallel evolution where the a similar idea is interpreted artistically from a couple of different points of view.

Either way, if you like creepy stories and haven’t read “Whisper,” now’s your chance.


Redemption in Indigo

Mon 12 Oct 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | 2 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Karen LordSmall Beer Press are very happy to announce they have acquired the rights to Karen Lord‘s debut novel, Redemption in Indigo, which received the pre-publication BDS$10,000 Frank Collymore Award in Barbados and will be published as a trade paperback original in June 2010.

Redemption in Indigo is a clever and entrancing debut which incorporates folktales to tell the story of a woman who frees herself from a troublesome and capricious husband only to become the unwitting heroine in a fantastic struggle to reconcile the supernatural forces of fate with humanity’s free will.

Jewel Forde interviewed Karen on CBC’s “Mornin’ Barbados” and Karen’s just posted the video on Facebook.

Read the introduction after the break:

Read more


Cloud (& Ashes Lit)Drifts Free

Fri 9 Oct 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Cloud (& Ashes Lit)Drifts Free | Posted by: Gavin

Following last week’s Hound (hope you enjoy it, James DeBruicker!) this week’s freebie at LitDrift is Greer Gilman’s intense and magical Cloud & Ashes. Email them or leave a comment to enter.


LCRW hits 25, isn’t out

Tue 6 Oct 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Comments Off on LCRW hits 25, isn’t out | Posted by: Gavin

The Choir Boats: Volume One of Longing for Yount Cover2 LCRW things (make that 4) about the next LCRW which is apparently number 25. Which, if we were numerically inclined would be yet another reason to celebrate. But we are too busy cutting lead type (um, no, not really) and then these:

  1. We are collecting questions for Dear Aunt Gwenda. Please send us yours!
  2. We just bought a couple of stories and if we are lucky we will have a translation (of an award winning story!) in the next issue and, separately, maybe more from a different country in the future.
  3. We are catching up a little with submissions but in the pile there are even yet and still some submissions from at least as far back as February and March of this year. Darn.
  4. I just read former LCRW contributor Daniel A. Rabuzzi’s debut novel, The Choir Boats, (Indiebound/Powell’s) a huge, inventive fantasy about 19th century London and Yount, another place,  and hope to post an interview here with him soon.

Another Hound freed

Fri 2 Oct 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | 1 Comment | Posted by: Gavin

Over at LitDrift.com they’ll be giving away one of our books a week all month and they’ve started things off with Hound.


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