BLOG LIKE ME # 5: Christmas EVERY Thursday

Tue 25 Sep 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 1 Comment | Posted by: Howard Waldrop

I once used to live in Austin, City Of. Now I live in Austin, City Of, but in the part of Williamson County that sticks a little finger of tax-grab down into Austin. ( The rest of Austin is in Travis County, the way God ((and Democrats)) intended it.)

What this has to do with anything: Twice a year, usually April and October, but it rotated, Services sent out an announcement to you U.S. Mail: the week of, say, April 13th will be Big Trash Day in your neighborhood. In other words, pretty much anything you could get to the curb, they had to take. There were rules; no broken glass, no nails in lumber, no demolition trash; don’t put anything near the mailbox or over the water meter; separate wood, metal and rubber—up to eight car tires at a time. Don’t put anything against a fence, blocking an alley, or under a low tree ( they have a flatbed truck with a big grappling device to pick stuff up on a long arm and put it in a regular garbage truck and they need, in the words of Larry Storch in The Great Race, “ some fightin’ room.” )

They also had Big Brush Day, another twice-a-year—yard waste; all the limbs that broke off during the last windstorm etc.—but that doesn’t concern us here.)

Through the years, on Big Trash Day, or the weekend leading up to when it starts on a Monday—I’d gotten several swell bookcases, stands, chairs, small tables etc. Absolutely nothing wrong with them except someone got tired of them, or they clashed with the new couch or something.
In South Austin ( and, I’m told, in Japan where they have Big Trash Day once a month, and the places are so small that if you buy anything new, you have to throw something out ) scrounging and scavenging is de rigeur. In the run-up to B.T.D., there anything swell put out at twilight is gone before dawn. Less nice but still servicable stuff may last right up until the grapple-truck turns the corner, but probably not. Every pile tends to get smaller; my guess is in S. Austin, the solid-waste people end up with about 60% of what was put out for them…

The last month I lived in South Austin, Doug Potter, who knew I was looking for a TV stand, called me—it was B.T.D. coming up in the next neighborhood and on his jog he’d seen a likely-looking pile with part of an entertainment center sticking out of the middle of it. I drove over in my ‘85 Toyota Tercel Wagon full of tools.

Skeptical HowardWell, that pile turned out to be a dud ( as many do) but the next one over was a goldmine—there was a pie-shaped formica-topped built-in corner desk that had once been part of a run of built-in cabinets. ( I may have mentioned this in reference to the tractor-desk I’d made, last time.) I could tell it had been custom-built judging from the style, in the 1950s, because the formica had been put on after the top had been nailed into the run of cabinets—over the nails.

Long story short: it didn’t work out as a desk ( balance problems after I put legs on it) but it’s now the yellow, half-moon shaped headboard of the bed in the new house, and a damned fine one, if I do say so myself.

This is high-tone suburban North Austin. Scrounging is not the Life Style. The great new is , every trash day is Big Trash Day. We’re on Round Rock ( the town that killed Sam Bass ) Refuse, and anything you get to the curb, they take. Every Thursday! Last week, at dawn, I went two blocks up the street, afoot, to see what was out. There, in three pieces, leaning up against a garbage can, was an, at least, 100 year old solid oak desk. I picked up the 3 ½’ x 5’ top (covered with hard rubber of the kind they haven’t used on desks in at least 80 years). It weighed around 150 lbs. I put it on my foot and pissanted it 2 blocks back to the house. I took the car back. The two side pedestals, filled with drawers, were too big to fit in the wagon without reconfiguring it completely, and the garbage truck was coming. So I took all seven 18” x 36” drawers, including one double-file drawer ( all solid oak) which I’m using now for files. The top and the other 6 drawers are out in the garage, awaiting my liesure attention.

Today, just before the first rain squalls from Tropical Depression Erin hit, I drove around the neighborhoods. A block down, in perfect condition, was a 40-yr–old Disney Hunny Jar Winnie-The-Pooh lamp with an illustrated E.H. Shepard shade, sitting on top of a garbage can. I brought it home, tried it out ( it needed a new $2.00 pushbutton socket, which had been replaced once already, as the socket didn’t have an Underwriter’s knot on the wiring) and found the sticker from the high-tone store it was bought at—$78.99.

I advise you all to check whether Your Town, USA has a Big Trash Day, or if it’s like Round Rock Refuse, every week.

Just because it’s out with the rest of the garbage doesn’t mean it’s trash….

—Howard Waldrop


Thu 20 Sep 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

Best of LCRW reading at KGB: packed, great readers, martinis served (thanks to a reading of Mr. Butner’s “How to Make a Martini” and a free LCRW with every martini!). Ok.

Rest day.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao CoverNow go ye and order a copy The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and get with the new century.

Who is it for? Everyone.

Only read postmodern fictions? It’s pour vous.

Straight up sci-fi hardcase? It’s all you.

John Clute? It’s you, too.

Want a dark comedy? How about a modern immigrant tale? Like graphic novels?  It’s for you!

Understand? This one’s so rich it’s for everyone.


Thu 20 Sep 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 3 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Best of LCRW reading at KGB: packed, great readers, martinis served (thanks to a reading of Mr. Butner’s “How to Make a Martini” and a free LCRW with every martini!). Ok.

Rest day.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao CoverNow go ye and order a copy The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and get with the new century.

Who is it for? Everyone.

Only read postmodern fictions? It’s pour vous.

Straight up sci-fi hardcase? It’s all you.

John Clute? It’s you, too.

Want a dark comedy? How about a modern immigrant tale? Like graphic novels?  It’s for you!

Understand? This one’s so rich it’s for everyone.


Moved!

Tue 18 Sep 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Moved! | Posted by: Gavin

Read, read, read.We have moved! We’re now in a lovely space in the Paragon Arts building (website may not be current) in arts-crazy Easthampton. Here are some pics. Going to have to sell some books, hmm?

Lucky we just sold a ton at the Brooklyn Book Fest, so that’s next month paid for. Ha ha.

The new address (see below) has been slowly rolling out across the website and into the world — although we expect that will take a while. The old address will still be good for a while, so no worries there.

The new address:

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


Tue 18 Sep 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

Where did Howard’s blog go?

While we were in Japan Howard mailed us some more “posts”. So now they go off to our wonderful volunteer and next week or so they will start again with “Christmas Every Thursday.”


Tue 18 Sep 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 2 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Where did Howard’s blog go?

While we were in Japan Howard mailed us some more “posts”. So now they go off to our wonderful volunteer and next week or so they will start again with “Christmas Every Thursday.”


Brooklyn Book Festival

Sat 15 Sep 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 5 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Today, Sunday, Sept. 16,  from 10 AM until 6 PM (plus or minus a few minutes, come on, this is us , after all) we will be joining the hordes at the Brooklyn Book Festival in Brooklyn, NY.

We should be at Table 27, easily distinguished by it’s whiff of late summer lavender and dancing goat display. Also, it is between tables 26 (Housing Works Bookstore Café) and 28 (BOMB Magazine). And near Drawn & Quarterly (32). And some 90+ others. Many of whom will have fascinating texts that might interest You, Dear Reader.

So take the train down (2, 3, 4, 5 to Borough Hall; R to Court Street; A, C, F to Jay Street/Borough Hall) or perhaps it will be lovely and you will want bike instead (aren’t cars banned from NYC by now?) and do drop by to say hello.


Fri 14 Sep 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

Catch up with Alan DeNiro tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 15, at 7 PM, in Milwaukee at the Bay View Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop.

Thanks to everyone at Schwartz Books for making this happen, especially Mike Carey who said of Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead “Of the many books I’ve read this year, this has been my absolute favorite.”


Fri 14 Sep 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

Catch up with Alan DeNiro tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 15, at 7 PM, in Milwaukee at the Bay View Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop.

Thanks to everyone at Schwartz Books for making this happen, especially Mike Carey who said of Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead “Of the many books I’ve read this year, this has been my absolute favorite.”


Sat 1 Sep 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

Japan: awesome! Yokohama: great place for a convention! Hugo Awards pre- and post-reception: yummm!

And now this:


Sat 1 Sep 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 3 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Japan: awesome! Yokohama: great place for a convention! Hugo Awards pre- and post-reception: yummm!

And now this:


Barzak

Tue 28 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Barzak | Posted by: Gavin

chris barzak catches me catching himBarzakian Secrets of the Barzakian Plan for Barzakian Galactic Domination:

1. Wear great shirts.

P1030381.JPG2. Get on the Colbert Report.

3. If (2) does not work: Dance them to death. However. There has to be dance practice. And perhaps karaoke. But no mp3s of the performance, please!

Higgins, Lanke, Martocci, Barzak4. Get old before everyone else and get photographed at a party or a wedding to prove it. Pick him out if you can!

Blow Em Out!5. Then surprise and horrify everyone by becoming younger and younger every year.

6. Favor sloth but practice the opposite.

7. Design (but have someone else host) A Mad Tea Party.

8. Live on the edge of a verb. A noun. Or an adjective.

9. Get your international freak on.

10. Have local pop star write a song about you. (Wait, he already did that.)

11. Write a novel.

12. Publish novel today.

13. Take over blogosphere for 24 hours. Have the print and TV media in your town pick it up. Become a star. Shine, baby, shine.


Sat 25 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

We are in Tokyo! Arrived via Northwest. Flight ok—tiny seats but at least they serve up all the bad movies you want on your tiny screen (Namastey London isn’t bad: it had the proper amount of cheesy pop and fun dancing).

マジック・フォー・ビギナーズWe were met at the airport by Kelly’s editor at Hayakawa, Naoki Shimizu, who very kindly accompanied us all the way to our hotel (the amazing Hotel Grand Palace). He also gave Kelly a copy of the new hardcover Japanese edition of Magic for Beginners—which has a lovely painting of a telephone box on the cover, a review in the Nikkei paper, and her schedule (Tues/Wed: busy!)

How sensible it seemed that there are regularly scheduled buses from the airport to all the big hotels. We picked up a rental cell phone at the airport, maybe we ate something, but mostly what we did was wonder why we were awake until, happily, we were not.

Now it is Saturday evening. We started out the day with the fabby Japanese breakfast at the hotel (rice/rice porridge, miso soup, poached eggs, pot of green tea, some fishy and meaty bits for those that like that sort of thing) then made a quick trip out doors. It is melty: hot and humid. So it was a slow trip around a few blocks then to Lawson to see how the onigiri had progressed in the last 10 years. (Still tasty!) Lucky we got those snacks, because Mari Kotani had arranged for us to see the Takarazuka Revue. We were originally meant to go on Tuesday with Eileen Gunn and others but Kelly has interviews all day so we were thinking we would miss it. However, Mari not only arranged for us to go today, but also bought our tickets. Mari is traveling with Eileen, John Berry, and Ellen D., so we have not seen her yet. Instead her assistant, Yasuko Nakaegawa came to the hotel and took us (in a taxi with those groovy self-closing doors) to the Takaruzaka Theater (Thanks Yasuko!). We got there just on time and loved our seats: by themselves on the end of a row so that we could both stretch our feet out each way. (Still cramped up from the flight!)

The Revue was fantastic and shouldn’t be missed (even if you somehow managed to miss it in its home city of Osaka while teaching there for a year, cough). It’s an all-women cast, something still unusual today. (The audience was also something like 90% women.) There were two shows, Valencia, 90 minutes of something about Napoleon and Spain, then a mind-blowing 30-minute show, Space Fantasista. Which is really something to write home about. Not so much the plot (um, the origins of the universe?) but the lights, songs, dances, and the way way way out costumes. Feathers. Lots and lots of feathers. There was a shop where you could buy a special edition $600 DVD of one of their shows. We bought four, of course. Be ready for them at Xmas!

After that it was hard to be impressed by anything. Except we were in Ginza and went to goggle over the new toys at the Sony store (shiny! small! like Apple, but Sony!), eat pizza (hee hee! Italian food is great in Japan), go to HMV (hello Mayumi Kojima! Super Butter Dog!—nothing new but listened to a lot. Any recommendations welcome!), wander round lovely stores (all the lovelier with a/c—we were told it is an extra hot summer this year, yay…!), and take the subway back. Yay public transport. Now to avoid sleeping too early so that we will not zoink awake at 5 AM. Again.

We have some email access but will be mostly off it until Sept. 14 when we will be back in the office in Easthampton (and to the Brooklyn Book Fest on the 16th, eek!). There may be some more We Did This and That from Japan. It Depends. We are going to the WorldCon (schedule below) and then will travel about some. Most of that will probably be off the grid. Yay!

Kelly’s schedule:

Fri 1400 What Do You Read Passionately Besides SF Is cross-genre reading all that popular? Can an author of one genre rightly expect his/her readers to follow when the author switches genres? What, as a fan, do you like to read? Do you read outside that genre? As an author, do you write outside that genre? Grant CARRINGTON, Kelly LINK, Kirsten (KJ) BISHOP, Marianne PLUMRIDGE-EGGLETON, Susan DE GUARDIOLA, Carolina GOMEZ LAGERLOF
Fri 1700 Introducing the Triptree Award and the Sense of Gender Award   Reona KASHIWAZAKI, Yutaka EBIHARA, Hisayo OGUSHI, Tomoyo KASUYA, Megumi KOBAYASHI, Yasuhiko NISHIZAWA, Natsuko MORI, Mari KOTANI, Kelly LINK, Candas Jane DORSEY, Eileen GUNN
Sat 1600 Is It Really Strange?: New Slipstream Bruce Stterling coined the term Slipstream nearly twenty years ago. Since then a bunch of new writers has written a lot of that kind of unclassifiable strange fiction. But is it a type, or subgenre? One thing is clear now. Many writers in their thirties now prefer to write bizarre and surrealistic stories within our genre. And it happens in Japan, too. Kelly LINK, Patrick NIELSEN HAYDEN, Mark L. VAN NAME, Takashi OGAWA
Sun 1000 Small Press Publishing in the United States, Japan, Europe … Some of the most exciting work in science fiction, fantasy and horror is produced by small presses. What makes a book good? Can small presses save us from degeneration? What challenges in design, production, and marketing do small presses face? Can labors of love make money? Daniel SPECTOR, Bob EGGLETON, Charles ARDAI, John D. BERRY, Kelly LINK

Gavin’s schedule:

Fri 1000 Sprawl Fiction
Participants: Ellen DATLOW, Gavin J. GRANT, Lou ANDERS, Yoshio KOBAYASHI
“Sprawl fiction” was coined to show how new writers, most in their thirties, are trying to expand our genre yet still loving its very core, straight SF. Terms like “new Weird”, “interstitial”, “strange fiction” or “new fabulist” don’t cover the trend fully. It is a natural reflection of our urban society and probably heralds the new stage of our evolution; to the stars. We talk about why the new generation slipstream is not the fusion of literary fiction and SF/F.

Fri 1200 How Healthy is the Short Story
Participants: Ellen DATLOW, Gavin J. GRANT, Joe HALDEMAN, Larry NIVEN
For decades, there has been talk of the death of short fiction in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Are markets shrinking? Is the quality less than it was thirty years ago?

Fri 1700 Kaffeeklatsche
Participants: Gavin J. GRANT

Sun 1400 The Short Story’s Role in Fantastic Fiction
Participants: Ellen DATLOW, Gavin J. GRANT, Larry NIVEN, Pat CADIGAN
Short fiction rarely gets the attention that novels do by reviewers. It is harder to sell collections and anthologies than novels. The panelists, writers and editors of short fiction discuss their thoughts about the shorter forms (short story, novelette, novella) of fantastic fiction.

Sun 1600 Lost Tribes of Cult Novels
Participants: Elizabeth Anne HULL, Gavin J. GRANT, Yoshio KOBAYASHI
Where have the cult novels gone? They were once legion; “Stranger in a Stranger Land”, “Cat’s Cradle”, “The Lord of the Rings”, “Illuminatus!”, “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”, “Neuromancer” and “The Wasp Factory” . But what about “Snow Crash” and “Harry Potter”? Why aren’t they cult novels?


Sat 25 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 3 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

We are in Tokyo! Arrived via Northwest. Flight ok—tiny seats but at least they serve up all the bad movies you want on your tiny screen (Namastey London isn’t bad: it had the proper amount of cheesy pop and fun dancing).

マジック・フォー・ビギナーズWe were met at the airport by Kelly’s editor at Hayakawa, Naoki Shimizu, who very kindly accompanied us all the way to our hotel (the amazing Hotel Grand Palace). He also gave Kelly a copy of the new hardcover Japanese edition of Magic for Beginners—which has a lovely painting of a telephone box on the cover, a review in the Nikkei paper, and her schedule (Tues/Wed: busy!)

How sensible it seemed that there are regularly scheduled buses from the airport to all the big hotels. We picked up a rental cell phone at the airport, maybe we ate something, but mostly what we did was wonder why we were awake until, happily, we were not.

Now it is Saturday evening. We started out the day with the fabby Japanese breakfast at the hotel (rice/rice porridge, miso soup, poached eggs, pot of green tea, some fishy and meaty bits for those that like that sort of thing) then made a quick trip out doors. It is melty: hot and humid. So it was a slow trip around a few blocks then to Lawson to see how the onigiri had progressed in the last 10 years. (Still tasty!) Lucky we got those snacks, because Mari Kotani had arranged for us to see the Takarazuka Revue. We were originally meant to go on Tuesday with Eileen Gunn and others but Kelly has interviews all day so we were thinking we would miss it. However, Mari not only arranged for us to go today, but also bought our tickets. Mari is traveling with Eileen, John Berry, and Ellen D., so we have not seen her yet. Instead her assistant, Yasuko Nakaegawa came to the hotel and took us (in a taxi with those groovy self-closing doors) to the Takaruzaka Theater (Thanks Yasuko!). We got there just on time and loved our seats: by themselves on the end of a row so that we could both stretch our feet out each way. (Still cramped up from the flight!)

The Revue was fantastic and shouldn’t be missed (even if you somehow managed to miss it in its home city of Osaka while teaching there for a year, cough). It’s an all-women cast, something still unusual today. (The audience was also something like 90% women.) There were two shows, Valencia, 90 minutes of something about Napoleon and Spain, then a mind-blowing 30-minute show, Space Fantasista. Which is really something to write home about. Not so much the plot (um, the origins of the universe?) but the lights, songs, dances, and the way way way out costumes. Feathers. Lots and lots of feathers. There was a shop where you could buy a special edition $600 DVD of one of their shows. We bought four, of course. Be ready for them at Xmas!

After that it was hard to be impressed by anything. Except we were in Ginza and went to goggle over the new toys at the Sony store (shiny! small! like Apple, but Sony!), eat pizza (hee hee! Italian food is great in Japan), go to HMV (hello Mayumi Kojima! Super Butter Dog!—nothing new but listened to a lot. Any recommendations welcome!), wander round lovely stores (all the lovelier with a/c—we were told it is an extra hot summer this year, yay…!), and take the subway back. Yay public transport. Now to avoid sleeping too early so that we will not zoink awake at 5 AM. Again.

We have some email access but will be mostly off it until Sept. 14 when we will be back in the office in Easthampton (and to the Brooklyn Book Fest on the 16th, eek!). There may be some more We Did This and That from Japan. It Depends. We are going to the WorldCon (schedule below) and then will travel about some. Most of that will probably be off the grid. Yay!

Kelly’s schedule:

Fri 1400 What Do You Read Passionately Besides SF Is cross-genre reading all that popular? Can an author of one genre rightly expect his/her readers to follow when the author switches genres? What, as a fan, do you like to read? Do you read outside that genre? As an author, do you write outside that genre? Grant CARRINGTON, Kelly LINK, Kirsten (KJ) BISHOP, Marianne PLUMRIDGE-EGGLETON, Susan DE GUARDIOLA, Carolina GOMEZ LAGERLOF
Fri 1700 Introducing the Triptree Award and the Sense of Gender Award   Reona KASHIWAZAKI, Yutaka EBIHARA, Hisayo OGUSHI, Tomoyo KASUYA, Megumi KOBAYASHI, Yasuhiko NISHIZAWA, Natsuko MORI, Mari KOTANI, Kelly LINK, Candas Jane DORSEY, Eileen GUNN
Sat 1600 Is It Really Strange?: New Slipstream Bruce Stterling coined the term Slipstream nearly twenty years ago. Since then a bunch of new writers has written a lot of that kind of unclassifiable strange fiction. But is it a type, or subgenre? One thing is clear now. Many writers in their thirties now prefer to write bizarre and surrealistic stories within our genre. And it happens in Japan, too. Kelly LINK, Patrick NIELSEN HAYDEN, Mark L. VAN NAME, Takashi OGAWA
Sun 1000 Small Press Publishing in the United States, Japan, Europe … Some of the most exciting work in science fiction, fantasy and horror is produced by small presses. What makes a book good? Can small presses save us from degeneration? What challenges in design, production, and marketing do small presses face? Can labors of love make money? Daniel SPECTOR, Bob EGGLETON, Charles ARDAI, John D. BERRY, Kelly LINK

Gavin’s schedule:

Fri 1000 Sprawl Fiction
Participants: Ellen DATLOW, Gavin J. GRANT, Lou ANDERS, Yoshio KOBAYASHI
“Sprawl fiction” was coined to show how new writers, most in their thirties, are trying to expand our genre yet still loving its very core, straight SF. Terms like “new Weird”, “interstitial”, “strange fiction” or “new fabulist” don’t cover the trend fully. It is a natural reflection of our urban society and probably heralds the new stage of our evolution; to the stars. We talk about why the new generation slipstream is not the fusion of literary fiction and SF/F.

Fri 1200 How Healthy is the Short Story
Participants: Ellen DATLOW, Gavin J. GRANT, Joe HALDEMAN, Larry NIVEN
For decades, there has been talk of the death of short fiction in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Are markets shrinking? Is the quality less than it was thirty years ago?

Fri 1700 Kaffeeklatsche
Participants: Gavin J. GRANT

Sun 1400 The Short Story’s Role in Fantastic Fiction
Participants: Ellen DATLOW, Gavin J. GRANT, Larry NIVEN, Pat CADIGAN
Short fiction rarely gets the attention that novels do by reviewers. It is harder to sell collections and anthologies than novels. The panelists, writers and editors of short fiction discuss their thoughts about the shorter forms (short story, novelette, novella) of fantastic fiction.

Sun 1600 Lost Tribes of Cult Novels
Participants: Elizabeth Anne HULL, Gavin J. GRANT, Yoshio KOBAYASHI
Where have the cult novels gone? They were once legion; “Stranger in a Stranger Land”, “Cat’s Cradle”, “The Lord of the Rings”, “Illuminatus!”, “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”, “Neuromancer” and “The Wasp Factory” . But what about “Snow Crash” and “Harry Potter”? Why aren’t they cult novels?


Blog Like Me: 4. Research You’ll Never Need

Tue 21 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Blog Like Me: 4. Research You’ll Never Need | Posted by: Howard Waldrop

Skeptical HowardI was walking with Tim Powers at some long-ago lost Armadillocon, and we got around to research.

“I love it!” he said. “You’re in some bookstore on Charing Cross Road or somewhere, and you come across a map of the sewer system of Florence Italy in 1517 and you say ‘I NEED that! I’m going to set a story right there and then.’ And you buy it.” Then he said, “And you really do believe you’re going to write the story you bought the map for.”

I’ve had moments like those; also the other way. I walked into a new used bookstore in Austin 15 years ago, and in the first ten feet were two books I’d been looking for for 25 years…Also I was fishing the Chama River in downtown (all two blocks of it) Chama, NM and there was a sign on the front of a house on the highway that said “Bookstore.” I walked in and found a book I was looking for right then: Wehrner von Braun’s The Exploration of Mars (Viking, 1955) with full color paintings by Chesley Bonestell. For $4.00. I had been looking for it right then, because I was going to give it to George R.R. Martin, who needed references to the Old Mars of our youth to write a story or do a screenplay or something. I gave it to him when I came back through Santa Fe on my way back to Texas. “Where’d you get this??” he asked, knowing I hadn’t been anywhere near a city for ten days. “In a house in Chama,” I said.

* * *

Then there’s the other kind of research—the kind that comes from the reading you did growing up. I was raised to young manhood being serially-fascinated with different writers. I read everything in the late 1950s and early 60s, by and about: Dylan Thomas; Eugene O’Neill; Thomas Wolfe and James Agee (“names totally unknown to most SF fans,” as Steven Utley would say). I tried being the next Eugene O’Neill in drama classes in college. Earlier I’d tried to be the next Dylan Thomas (til I realized I wasn’t a poet, didn’t like drinking all that much, and wasn’t Welsh.) I tried being James Agee, (especially the James Agee of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men) and used to write 11-page stream-of-consciousness letters to my then-New Jesrey friend G.R.R. Martin (“letters so long it took 4¢ to mail them!” in George’s words) at least twice a week.

I wrote an article on Agee that was published in a fanzine. Off the top of my head I wrote a story about Dylan Thomas as a famous distance runner (he was a grammar-school miler at one time). I used O’Neill in a few places. When it came time to write “You Could Go Home Again,” the novelette about Thomas Wolfe and Fats Waller coming back to an alternate America after the 1940 Tokyo Olympics, I only had to read a few biographies published since the early 60s to get the job done.

I’d also followed (if that’s the word) the career of J.D. Salinger a long time. Holden has a cameo in “Why Did?” and Zooey Glass gets a mention in “Major Spacer in the 21st Century!”; he was after all, an early Fifties TV actor. Salinger himself—“Jerry”—shows up in “You Could Go Home Again” as the social director on the airship Ticonderoga. “What? you say, the most reclusive writer of the 20th Century a social director?” you cry? Well, in 1938, Salinger’s dad, a meat importer, sent Jerry to Europe to check on operations there. He got his passage over and back by working as an assistant social director (“Ping-Pong, anyone?”) on the Bremerhaven, or one of those fancy-schmansy liners that used to run back and forth to Europe every week between the Wars… Trust me.* You know these things if you read enough growing up; you don’t have to do much research to write a story, if you’ve been around the subject that long…

* Salinger could have ended up being Eugene O’Neill’s son-in-law, instead of Charlie Chaplin. Salinger squired Oona O’Neil around the Stork Club and other swank NYC watering holes before she moved west and met Chaplin. But that, as they say in Irma la Douce, is another story for another time…

—Howard Waldrop


Tue 21 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | 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.


Tue 21 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 5 Comments | 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., , | Comments Off on | 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., , | 2 Comments | 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., | Comments Off on Liz time again | 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., | Comments Off on He’s killing them at home too | 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.


Blog Like Me: 3. My Writing Really Pulls the Plough

Tue 14 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Blog Like Me: 3. My Writing Really Pulls the Plough | Posted by: Howard Waldrop

Skeptical HowardI just moved, starting in February, and it took 6 weeks and the PO still hasn’t grasped the forwarding concept (some mail has been forwarded; most hasn’t and it’s a 34-mile round trip to pick it up at the old place. The mail that has been forwarded took 16 days from the postmark to get to the new place). The irony is, for two weeks, I’m housesitting at the old place….

Anyway, before the move, two things happened. I decided to paint my desk/table to lively myself up. I went to Home Depot to get two premixed (I didn’t want to wait for them to mix up custom colors from the samples, and I only needed two pints anyway) contrasting colors—I found some, and brought them home and began to paint.

Halfway through, I realized I was painting my desk in John Deere green and yellow. Not just sorta. The John Deere colors, exactly. I didn’t plan it, really.

So I can say, my writing pulls the plow.*

Or would have, had not Doug Potter called me one morning. In Austin, we have what is known as Big Trash Day, twice a year (I hear they have them once-a-month in Tokyo). Anything you can haul to the kerb they have to take away; special crews and trucks come around whenever it’s your neighborhood’s B.T. Day. (Back during the Black Mold scare of the mid-90s I saw a whole housefull of furniture out on the kerb, 50’ long piled 10’ high…). South Austin is full of salvagers and scavengers anyway (the old joke was that, when the Revolution came, in South Austin it would be a soft one: everybody would just move to the slightly-better house next door…) Anyway Doug called and said “You gotta come look at this stuff someone’s throwing out—I think maybe the stand you want is there.” He knew I was looking for a stand: I’d had a 13” TV: my friend Bud had gone up to a 54” HDTV and gave me his 12-yr-old 32”er (which took up 1/3 of the room I was living in…)

I went to look at the stuff: it was neat, but not quite right. But, next door to that pile was another; in the middle of it was a wonder: a formica-topped corner desk that used to be part of a custom built-in run of cabinets. I could tell because a) it didn’t have legs, having been supported by the ends of the cabinets and b) the formica had been put on after the table had been nailed to the cabinets. It looked like a big slice of gooseberry pie. It had two shallow drawers. I fell in love. I took it home; I liked it so much, like an idiot I put legs on it and reaaranged my room for it, then had to move everything to the new place. (Bud and Brad Denton brought their pickups; as I said once, “if you have a pickup in Austin, you have friends for life…”) It would have been much better to leave it alone until I got to the new place.

Then: problems. The corner desk, when legged, tended to buck up like a bronco when you rested your elbows on the front. I doubled the single (point of pie) leg. That didn’t help. The desk still tried to move (the new place had shag carpet in the room). I built a 1×4 extension from the front leg toward the center and put a fuckin’ cinderblock on it. The desk still moved slightly.

I also needed a headboard for the studio bed. It was backed onto the John Deere desk which is where the copier and paper racks sit, and all the file drawers and crates are stacked underneath it.

But the pillows kept slipping into the 4” gap between the top of the bed and the bottom of the table apron…

So here’s what I did. I took the 4 2×4 legs off the corner desk and built a new small regular desk, making a frame from the 1×4 cedar pickets I’d replaced on the fence at the new place. I used a piece of 26”x34” hardboard for the top. I moved the John Deere table over to the wall and put the files under it. I moved the new desk behind the bed, where the larger one had been. I took the old, custom built corner desk apart, crying all the time, and took the triangular top and bolted and nailed it to the bed as a headboard and a frame for a pinboard in front of the new desk. (People: do not buy a prebuilt pinboard for $15.00; buy a 2’x2’ piece of foamcore and cut it in the shape and nail it like you want—in this case, a pinboard in the shape of the back of the triangular headboard, above the desk—and save yourself @ $13.00…)

And I painted the desktop and the headboard Navy Blue, and I just realized while writing this, I can paint the headboard bright yellow, like a half-moon, and get some grey paint and put in craters and maria and make it a Half-Moon…

* * *

(for those who haven’t gotten the word: new address: Harold Waldrop, 12608 Wittmer, Austin TX 78729-7787, USA, no phone yet.)

* a line from a review, or blurb, by Harlan Ellison of someone’s work, much parodied by certain types of Internet clown. I never really knew what it meant til I looked at my finished desk.

—Howard Waldrop


Mon 13 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | 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., | Comments Off on | 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., | Comments Off on | 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., | Comments Off on | 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., | Comments Off on | 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., | 1 Comment | 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.


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