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

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

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

Ahem.

—

Hold still, I'm reading.

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

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

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

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


Tue 7 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 5 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

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

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

Ahem.

—

Hold still, I'm reading.

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

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

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

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


ebookery

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

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

Endless Things by John Crowley

Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand

Water Logic by Laurie J. Marks

Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead by Alan DeNiro

Also these (more to come soon):

Trash Sex Magic by Jennifer Stevenson

Carmen Dog by Carol Emshwiller

Mothers & Other Monsters by Maureen F. McHugh

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

* No. He didn’t.


Blog Like Me: 2. Girl Stuff

Tue 7 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Blog Like Me: 2. Girl Stuff | Posted by: Howard Waldrop

Skeptical HowardEven in these enlightened, politically-correct times we live in, there’s still stuff (gender secrets) girls keep from guys. Not out of spite or meanness, or a secret closed cabal or coven, but because guys have always been too dumb to ask.

The classic case is Midol. During the 50s and 60s Midol was used as a pain-reliever for menstrual cramps. A guy usually only discovered it when he got a headache at his girlfriend’s place and she was out of Aspirin. “Here,” she’d say, “take one of these.” And the guy’s headache went away. “What the hell was that?” he’d ask. “That little pill? The pain was gone quicker than a mongoose can get on a cobra!”

“It was Midol,” she’d say.

Today we know it in its generic form as ibuprofen.

* * *

All those years, all those headaches and pains, and relief was just down the supermarket aisle with the Kotex and tampons . . .

Some other things are down there, too, guys . . .

I don’t know about you, but when I start screaming when I pee, and I’m urinating blood from a bladder or kidney infection (and those seem to be the discomforts of choice my decrepit old body is taking lately), the way I always deal with it is to drown my insides with cranberry juice. Three or four gallons in two days, and it clears right up and the urethral burn goes away and I start peeing clear again instead of, in Doug Potter’s words, “a fine root beer color.”

The cranberry juice raises the pH balance in the bladder and kidneys and kills whatever is making you scream. (The burn is because your urine has gone basal, rather than neutral, and if you remember your high-school chemistry, base + acid = some kind of salt, which, whatever else it does, doesn’t burn when it comes out.)

I remember 30 years ago a girlfriend got a raging urinary tract infection; c-juice wasn’t working, and she went to the doctor. He wrote her a prescription but forgot to tell her about the side-effects. She was in too big a hurry and too much pain to look at the label except for the dosage. About 45 minutes after she got home she went into the bathroom.

I heard a scream.

She was standing at the wall opposite the toilet, aghast, pointing.

“Look!” she said.

I looked. In the toilet bowl was a circular rainbow. She called the doc, thinking she was dying.

“Sorry,” he said. “I should have warned you. That’s a normal side-effect. You’ll do that for a day or so . . .”

She still wasn’t convinced.

* * *

Guys, if you have a urinary tract infection, wander down the Kotex aisle (“feminine hygiene” it’s usually called) and find something called Azo Standard (there are other Azos for other things). It’s the stuff my old girlfriend got by prescription only now it’s OTC. It’s essentially essence of the stuff in the acid of cranberries. Take it like the directions tell you: your symptoms will begin to ease in a couple of hours (like at the 1-gal., cranberry juice point, wherever that is for you). But, like my old girlfriend, you will pee rainbows—I have yet to produce a perfect multi-hued spectrum like she did, but have peed orange (most common), a bluish shade, and once, fluorescent green, in the couple of years I’ve been using it.

* * *

Women get yeast infections; female plumbing is an inexact thing, and for many reasons, yeast takes to it like a duck to a June bug. There are many products to fight it—the most common being Clotrimazole.

Guys if you have an irritation in your privates, as we say—and especially if you’re uncircumcised (if, like me, you were born in the Christian South before 1950, your parents had to ask for the procedure to be done; after 1950, they had to say they didn’t want one done)—and experience some swelling, irritation, etc., don’t go putting some greasy ointment all over Mr. Happy-head. Once again, wander down the Kotex aidle and get a Clotrimazole 3-Day Yeast Infection Treatment (generic ones are about $7.00 a box). There are all these plastic applicator things in there—you can throw them away or give them to nieces and nephews for finger-puppets. What you want is that little white 21gm (0.74 oz.) tube that’s in there. It’s greaseless and water-soluble and works wonders.

(I’m house-sitting this week and couldn’t find anything in this place to put on a really nasty sawcut on the back of my left hand: I used the tube of Clotrimazole I always keep in my toiletry bag, and it worked wonders on that, too.)

Gender knowledge is power.

—Howard Waldrop


’08 books

Mon 6 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on ’08 books | Posted by: Gavin

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

The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories
John Kessel

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

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

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

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

The Ant King and Other Stories
Benjamin Rosenbaum

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

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

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

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


    Bartleby’s Revenge

    Thu 2 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Bartleby’s Revenge | Posted by: jedediah

    scrivener icon
    If your writing process is anything like mine, each of your projects may consist of a dozen or more documents thrown together in a folder somewhere on your computer. You have old versions of the work-in-progress you’ve abandoned but can’t bear to delete, as well as one or two files serving as scrap heaps, a few for research, some for outlines, notes, and character sketches, and scattered everywhere are images, songs, maps, deeds, ships’ manifestos, cease and desist orders, and maybe editorial advice from friends and colleagues. Mixed up in all this mess is the book itself, trying to claw its way out.

    Or maybe you’re a writer with one pristine file, and everything you put into it is perfect, and you never go back or second-guess yourself, or have to refer to anything beyond the world of your own perfect brain. You may leave now.

    The rest of us ought to consider using Scrivener. Gwenda recently asked for a yea or nay on this piece of software, and having used it for several months now—both to revise one novel and to start work on another—I can heartily recommend it.

    First, Scrivener collects all the files related to the project into one browsable, searchable, cross-referencable master document. You can divide the text proper into chapters or smaller sections, and all your research and outlines are never far off. Drop images into your research folder and view them as you’re writing. Want to see only the documents with a certain character’s name in it? Type the name into the search bar and Scrivener immediately picks them out for you.

    You can also change the way you look at your material. Arrange it as a series of interchangeable index cards, view only the synopses in outline form, track word counts, sort by keyword tags, or color code according to your own organizational style. If that sounds like too much clutter, there’s also a full screen option, which recreates the glory days of WordPerfect.

    There are dozens of other smart features worth exploring, including a screenplay mode, internal and external links, and snapshots (second-guessing made easy).

    Scrivener’s been an invaluable revision tool, as I’m able to see more of the book at once while tracking all the changes I’ve made and all the changes I still have to make. It’s great for collecting research as well, and should serve those who are working on dissertations, novels, comic books, and fortune cookie fortunes.

    Keith Blount is a writer who wanted to design a piece of software for writers, and he’s done a fantastic job with Scrivener. Check out the demo here.


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

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

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


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

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

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


    OMD, Maid of Orleans

    Thu 2 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on OMD, Maid of Orleans | Posted by: Gavin

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


    Wed 1 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 5 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

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

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

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

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

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


    Andi Watson

    Tue 31 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Andi Watson | Posted by: Gavin

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

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

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


    Blog Like Me: 1. Your (Manifest Destinies Diving) Miss You

    Tue 31 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 11 Comments | Posted by: Howard Waldrop

    Skeptical HowardI hope you’ve noticed the symbolic recapitulation of American history on TV and in print ads lately. I’m talking about the Rozerem and the Alamo commercials. In the first (“your dreams miss you”), there’s Abraham Lincoln (in top hat and beard), an either stop- (or replacement-) motion or CGI to-look-like either process- animated beaver who talks, plus a guy in an old-fashioned diving suit (in the one set in the kitchen, he’s making pancakes) —anyway there’s this guy who’s not sleeping (no sleep = no dreams), Lincoln and the beaver are trying to get him to take Rozerem, a sleep-inducer (no side-effects, unlike the publicized troubles of Ambien CR, where you drive down to Apu’s Kwik-E-Mart while you’re sound asleep, or cook a 7-course meal at home, ditto—Rozerem supposedly has no side effecrs and is not habit-forming).

    The Alamo car rental ads are a CGI’d buffalo and a beaver (with its tail doubled up and tucked in its Bermuda shorts) having trouble with the car-rental machines at the airport while trying to, in the old Fifties’ slogan, See American First.

    You’ll notice there’s a beaver in both ads, the animal more responsible even than the buffalo for the settlement of the US from sea to shining sea.

    You’ll also notice Lincoln is wearing a stovepipe (“beaver”) hat. It’s all surrealistically related.

    In the 1820s, the European beaver (Castor fiber) had been hunted almost to extinction, about the time plug and stovepipe hats became popular.

    The Louisiana Purchase had pretty much lain there since Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery to find what was out there. Mainly, Native Americans, a couple of trading posts, and the British and Russians out on the Pacific coast; to the South the Spanish (by the 1830s, Mexicans) in between. There were still a few Frenchmen out there, the same kind of malcontents as the Anglos who would later be attracted there.

    The beaver changed all that: suddenly there was a rage for the pelts and skins of the (European) beaver that the American beaver (Castor canadensis) could fill. So we quickly got the Anglo mountain men out there on the headwaters of the Missouri and the Arkansas and over on the Columbia. Sterling types like Big Foot Wallace and Liver-Eater Johnson, running their traplines in pursuit of Castor canadensis and anything else with hair on it.

    So we had a thin homespun-and-buckskin line stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific for the first time. Westward the course of Empire began to wend its way.

    And along with everything else that was wrong with it (slavery, genocide and removal of Native Americans, some of whom lived in brick houses and owned slaves) the USA began to look at those lands being stubbornly claimed by a bunch of greasers . . . and of course, religion got thrown into the mix, and the Mormons pushed their handcarts to Deseret (which even the Native Americans didn’t want) and in 1846 there was the splendid cause of the Texas-Mexico boundary to go to war with Mexico over (the Republic of Texas had dissolved and entered the Union as a state in 1845. Later, Sam Houston was a unionist during the Civil War—“I worked too hard to get this damned state into the Union to see it leave”—and he flew the Union flag over his house til he died in 1862. As someone said, “You go tell Sam Houston,”—the only man to be governor in his lifetime of two states, the President of a sovereign Republic and leader of a Revolution—“to take down that flag.”)

    And two years later, in 1848, we owned everything from sea to sea, except the lumpy parts of Arizona and New Mexico that we bought a few years later as the Gadsden Purchase.

    Then we got busy killing each other in Kansas and Harper’s Ferry and then Sumter and the Civil War (“The War for Southern Independence” if you’re from the South.)

    What about the guy in the diving suit in the Rozerem ad? After the Civil War and the croaking of Lincoln in his beaver hat (it was in his lap when he was fleetingly introduced to Mr. Booth that night), anyway, a couple of years after Lincoln’s death, we bought Alaska (completing our continental Rendezvous with Density, as Back to the Future has it) and we drove the Golden Spike on the Transcontinental Railroad linking the Union and the Pacific and we laid the Transatlantic Cable to Europe, putting us in contact with the rest of the world.

    One of the advantages of the railroad was that you could shoot buffalo from the parlor car (since the railroads bisected the migration routes of the Northern and Southern herds of the Plains buffalo) and collect only their tongues to eat, and leave the carcasses to rot, so the Native Americans, instead of starving, would have to move onto the reservations and be given diseased, scrawny beef by the Great White Father in Washington (and his corrupt buddies and brothers). Hence the Alamo ads, with the beaver (alpha) and buffalo (omega) of Westward-immigrant-sucking wildlife resources.

    I’m not sure all this occurred to the people behind the ads (I’d like to think it did). I think the Rozerem people were looking for some home-grown Surrealism: Lincoln, beaver, diver. And the Alamo people: two species of Western wildlife (see America first, before we’re gone).

    If you think I’m wrong, consider this: the last US President to wear a hat to his inaugural was John F. Kennedy. It was a stovepipe (“beaver”) hat—probably silk in his case, and probably referred to as an “opera” hat. Anyway, it was there that he gave his “New Frontier” speech.

    Coincidence or what?

    —Howard Waldrop


    Chinese publication

    Mon 30 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Chinese publication | Posted by: Gavin

    A couple of stories for Chinese readers:

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

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

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

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


    Blog Like Me: Howard Waldrop

    Mon 30 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 4 Comments | Posted by: Howard Waldrop

    Skeptical HowardStarting Tuesday we’re going to have a somewhat regular column-y/blog-y thing from that Master of the Typewriter, Howard Waldrop. Howard (author of tons of wonderful short stories, some of which can be found in Howard Who?) will type them out, mail them to us, someone here (or elsewhere, thanks Cindy!) will type them out, and we will try and post them once a week or so. Until one of us drops the ball.

    Titled Blog Like Me, Howard will be writing on anything he damn well pleases. The first one, up tomorrow, is “Your (Manifest Destinies) Miss You” and is about recent TV ads, beavers, and the Louisiana Purchase, all tied together in that inimitable Waldropian manner.


    Bookslut R US

    Mon 30 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Bookslut R US | Posted by: Gavin

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

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

    &: Booklust Is Also Us.


    2 new Kelly stories

    Mon 30 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on 2 new Kelly stories | Posted by: Gavin

    Two new stories from Kelly come out this month:

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

    Video of catchy summer hit:

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


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

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

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

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

    Video of catchy summer hit:

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


    Aimee Mann’s nightmare

    Thu 26 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Aimee Mann’s nightmare | Posted by: Gavin

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

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

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

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


    Strange Horizons

    Thu 26 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Strange Horizons | Posted by: Gavin

    is asking for money to pay writers and giving away loot while doing so.

    Yeah, you can do it. Yeah, that’s good.

    But don’t request this:

     

    Sarah Canary Tour T-Shirt

    Originally designed in 1991 to celebrate Karen Joy Fowler’s book tour for Sarah Canary, this silkscreened t-shirt announces, rock-concert style, the Sarah Canary World Tour. (Donated by Ted Chiang.)

    because we wants it.


    Rachel Pollack

    Fri 20 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Rachel Pollack | Posted by: Gavin

    Mythic Passages: the Magazine of Imagination has posted Rachel Pollack’s story “Burning Beard: The Dreams and Visions of Joseph ben Jacob, Lord Viceroy of Egypt” along with an introduction by Delia Sherman.

    Recent Interfictions reviews include a conversation starter on PopMatters.


    Mon 16 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

    On SF Site Margo MacDonald writes:

    I have just finished reading the second and third books in Laurie J. Marks’ Elemental Logic series (which began with Fire Logic in 2002) and I am now sitting here asking myself why her books aren’t on everybody’s shelves, holding a place of honour right up there with Robin Hobb and Kage Baker? Despite having written eight novels since the 80s, Marks still remains somewhat on the fringes of the SF world, embraced by a dedicated group of fans but a relative stranger to the SF community at large. True it doesn’t help that some of her best work is out of print (Dancing Jack, for one), but with the publication of Water Logic by Small Beer Press (and the fact that the first two books in the series are still available from Tor), no one now has an excuse to avoid discovering this marvelous author.

    And it got me to wondering: who is reading Water Logic?A quick search finds the following: See Light, Coffee & Ink, Heather (tea still TK, Sorry!), Meghan, Plaid Adder, Liz Henry, and a Melissa.

    See what’s missing? The guys. But . . . why? These are amazing books, smart, sexy, political fantasy. So here’s a challenge for guys who read fantasy—novels and series—read these books!


    Mon 16 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 2 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

    On SF Site Margo MacDonald writes:

    I have just finished reading the second and third books in Laurie J. Marks’ Elemental Logic series (which began with Fire Logic in 2002) and I am now sitting here asking myself why her books aren’t on everybody’s shelves, holding a place of honour right up there with Robin Hobb and Kage Baker? Despite having written eight novels since the 80s, Marks still remains somewhat on the fringes of the SF world, embraced by a dedicated group of fans but a relative stranger to the SF community at large. True it doesn’t help that some of her best work is out of print (Dancing Jack, for one), but with the publication of Water Logic by Small Beer Press (and the fact that the first two books in the series are still available from Tor), no one now has an excuse to avoid discovering this marvelous author.

    And it got me to wondering: who is reading Water Logic?A quick search finds the following: See Light, Coffee & Ink, Heather (tea still TK, Sorry!), Meghan, Plaid Adder, Liz Henry, and a Melissa.

    See what’s missing? The guys. But . . . why? These are amazing books, smart, sexy, political fantasy. So here’s a challenge for guys who read fantasy—novels and series—read these books!


    R2

    Sat 14 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on R2 | Posted by: Gavin

    Forgot two Fantastic things at Readercon: two readings from the first volume of Jonathan Strahan’s new anthology series, Eclipse, which Night Shade Books will publish in October. The Table of Contents has tons of fabby (fabby, fabby, fabby!) writers but the two readings I saw were these:

    1) “The Lost Boy: A Reporter at Large” by Maureen F. McHugh
    Maureen is a great reader. Assured and calm and fully aware of the little bombs she’s dropping into her listeners’ minds. She said this was her take on a New Yorker piece without having to do the research. Makes you wish someone would ask her to write some pieces for them. (But she’s just started a novel, so maybe not right now.) She’s working toward that second story collection.

    2) “The Drowned Life” by Jeffrey Ford
    This was insanely good. Jeff read as if his life was on the line. The story seems like it shouldn’t work—but it certainly does. Jeff mixes a tiny of politics in and added a new layer to his writing. One I hope he continues to explore.

    Just on the strength of these two stories, this anthology should be a cracker—look for it in late October; or just pre-order it now and let it arrive long after you’ve forgotten you ordered it.

    Just finished another October book, Making Money by Terry Pratchett. Lots of fun with Lord Vetinari and Moist Von Lipwig, speculation on theories of money, and trying to deal with industrialization without killing thousands of people off working in factories. But: funny! (And: now with chapters.)


    Fri 13 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

    Readercon, Readercon (every three syllable word carries a tint of Washington, Washington). It’s a blast. Unfortunately we are terrible at writing up cons. Oh well.

    They added Thursday this year which made it less of a Friday night to Sunday morning (brunch? maybe…) deal. Instead it was a mellow drive into Burlington (where apparently it won’t be next year, yay!—although, that Indian food at the mall next door may be missed) and finding that some peeps were there already.

    The Readercon crowd really liked the Interfictions book—enough so that we sold out and pretended to sell chits. Honest, missus, we’ll mail you a copy. Why don’t you give us some of your hard earned Washingtons and we’ll take your name on the back of this chocolate bar wrapper and mail you a copy as soon as we get back to the office. A quick $100 later, we went to the Suffolk Downs and we have funded next spring’s books. Thanks folks!

    But what are you really interested in? Karen Joy Fowler is reason enough to travel to a convention. She and Lucius Shepard were the guests of honor. On Friday morning Karen read the first chapter of her newly completed and perhaps-temporarily-titled novel Ice City (sorry chaps: no ISBN or ordering yet but you may have heard it at WisCon) to an enthusiastic crowd which she thought of as a mystery and may not quite be. (Also: ask her sometimes about her strategy for answering those who want her to categorize her books.
    Later Karen was on the “Brilliant But Flawed” panel with John Crowley, Kelly, Barry N. Malzberg, and Darrell Schweitzer. Most of the panelists had T.H. White’s The Sword in the Stone in mind but over the hour there were discursions into Crowley’s own books, The Worm Ourobouros, and maybe some newer books.

    Adam Golaski’s wife had their first kid during the con so F. Brett Cox sturdily stepped into Adam’s shoes and interviewed Karen on Saturday afternoon. It was an often hilarious hour with Karen’s tales of discovering her idyllic early years in Indiana were actually an exile in hell for her parents; her deal with her husband (she would try writing for one year: she sold her first story another four years later); and just toward the end of the hour her experience of seeing her bestselling novel The Jane Austen Book Club being turned into a movie.

    Friday was the easiest day for us to see panels. After that the book room was busier, although we had much help from Jed, Michael, and Emily Cambias (the youngest of the Zygote Games peeps). There was an awful lot that went on that we didn’t see—the mafia made an appearance and so did some people with no pants looking for someone else’s key. Must remember to stay up late at these things, not miss all the fun.

    That’s it. Crap, ne?

    Next year (July 17-20) they have Jim Kelly and Jonathan Lethem as the guests.  On the website there is an easily accessible list of past guests from 1997 to the present (in other words, the first eight years are probably accessible somewhere, but not without searching . . . 2008 isn’t included because the memorial Guest of Honor wasn’t on the flier):

    • 2007: Lucius Shepard, Karen Joy Fowler; [Angela Carter]
    • 2006: China Miéville, James Morrow; [Jorge Luis Borges]
    • 2005: Joe Haldeman, Kate Wilhelm; [Henry Kuttner, C.L. Moore]
    • 2003: Hal Clement, Rudy Rucker, Howard Waldrop; [R.A. Lafferty]
    • 2002: Octavia E. Butler, Gwyneth Jones; [John Brunner]
    • 2001: David Hartwell, Michael Swanwick; [Clifford D. Simak]
    • 2000: Suzy McKee Charnas, Michael Moorcock; [Mervyn Peake]
    • 1999: Ellen Datlow, Harlan Ellison; [Gerald Kersh]
    • 1998: Lisa Goldstein, Bruce Sterling; [Leigh Brackett]
    • 1997: Algis Budrys, Kim Stanley Robinson; [C.M. Kornbluth]

    21 Guests of Honor (14 male, 7 female)
    11 Memorial Guests of Honor (8 male, 3 female)
    32 total (22 male, 10 female)

    Readercon is a great con that’s interested in looking inward at itself as well as outward at the world of literature. There are Readercon favorite authors (John Crowley is definitely one!) and the list only expands by the year. This isn’t an excuse or a call to action or anything. Just noting another asymmetry and wondering if and when and all that.


    Fri 13 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 1 Comment | Posted by: Gavin

    Readercon, Readercon (every three syllable word carries a tint of Washington, Washington). It’s a blast. Unfortunately we are terrible at writing up cons. Oh well.

    They added Thursday this year which made it less of a Friday night to Sunday morning (brunch? maybe…) deal. Instead it was a mellow drive into Burlington (where apparently it won’t be next year, yay!—although, that Indian food at the mall next door may be missed) and finding that some peeps were there already.

    The Readercon crowd really liked the Interfictions book—enough so that we sold out and pretended to sell chits. Honest, missus, we’ll mail you a copy. Why don’t you give us some of your hard earned Washingtons and we’ll take your name on the back of this chocolate bar wrapper and mail you a copy as soon as we get back to the office. A quick $100 later, we went to the Suffolk Downs and we have funded next spring’s books. Thanks folks!

    But what are you really interested in? Karen Joy Fowler is reason enough to travel to a convention. She and Lucius Shepard were the guests of honor. On Friday morning Karen read the first chapter of her newly completed and perhaps-temporarily-titled novel Ice City (sorry chaps: no ISBN or ordering yet but you may have heard it at WisCon) to an enthusiastic crowd which she thought of as a mystery and may not quite be. (Also: ask her sometimes about her strategy for answering those who want her to categorize her books.
    Later Karen was on the “Brilliant But Flawed” panel with John Crowley, Kelly, Barry N. Malzberg, and Darrell Schweitzer. Most of the panelists had T.H. White’s The Sword in the Stone in mind but over the hour there were discursions into Crowley’s own books, The Worm Ourobouros, and maybe some newer books.

    Adam Golaski’s wife had their first kid during the con so F. Brett Cox sturdily stepped into Adam’s shoes and interviewed Karen on Saturday afternoon. It was an often hilarious hour with Karen’s tales of discovering her idyllic early years in Indiana were actually an exile in hell for her parents; her deal with her husband (she would try writing for one year: she sold her first story another four years later); and just toward the end of the hour her experience of seeing her bestselling novel The Jane Austen Book Club being turned into a movie.

    Friday was the easiest day for us to see panels. After that the book room was busier, although we had much help from Jed, Michael, and Emily Cambias (the youngest of the Zygote Games peeps). There was an awful lot that went on that we didn’t see—the mafia made an appearance and so did some people with no pants looking for someone else’s key. Must remember to stay up late at these things, not miss all the fun.

    That’s it. Crap, ne?

    Next year (July 17-20) they have Jim Kelly and Jonathan Lethem as the guests.  On the website there is an easily accessible list of past guests from 1997 to the present (in other words, the first eight years are probably accessible somewhere, but not without searching . . . 2008 isn’t included because the memorial Guest of Honor wasn’t on the flier):

    • 2007: Lucius Shepard, Karen Joy Fowler; [Angela Carter]
    • 2006: China Miéville, James Morrow; [Jorge Luis Borges]
    • 2005: Joe Haldeman, Kate Wilhelm; [Henry Kuttner, C.L. Moore]
    • 2003: Hal Clement, Rudy Rucker, Howard Waldrop; [R.A. Lafferty]
    • 2002: Octavia E. Butler, Gwyneth Jones; [John Brunner]
    • 2001: David Hartwell, Michael Swanwick; [Clifford D. Simak]
    • 2000: Suzy McKee Charnas, Michael Moorcock; [Mervyn Peake]
    • 1999: Ellen Datlow, Harlan Ellison; [Gerald Kersh]
    • 1998: Lisa Goldstein, Bruce Sterling; [Leigh Brackett]
    • 1997: Algis Budrys, Kim Stanley Robinson; [C.M. Kornbluth]

    21 Guests of Honor (14 male, 7 female)
    11 Memorial Guests of Honor (8 male, 3 female)
    32 total (22 male, 10 female)

    Readercon is a great con that’s interested in looking inward at itself as well as outward at the world of literature. There are Readercon favorite authors (John Crowley is definitely one!) and the list only expands by the year. This isn’t an excuse or a call to action or anything. Just noting another asymmetry and wondering if and when and all that.


    LCRW map

    Wed 11 Jul 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on LCRW map | Posted by: Gavin

    lcrw wrestles with the future Here’s a map of the bookshops that carry LCRW. Not many! Any help appreciated and followed up in an incredibly slow manner. Hello again Google! We’ve been waiting to map this for 15 years—long before we started the zine. Maybe that’s why we started the zine? Who can remember?

    Anyway. How can we take over the world with The Best of LCRW if we have fallen to this few bookshops? Remember the days you could buy LCRW at the checkout at Target? Or when Isaac Miyake designed the free zine bag gotten with a Nordstrom Level LCRW subscription?

    God those were either good days or good drugs. And of course we are a drug free environment (barring naturally occurring endorphins and alcohol) here at Small Beer, so they must have have been great days.

    So many non-LCRW states!

    Come on shops d’books: wouldn’t you like a twice-a-year stack of stapled, no spine, b&w zines? This is the best collection of short fiction gathered in the slowest time in a zine named after an American emigrant. It’s the ultimate impulse buy… James Patterson writes for it… It’s all wonderful but ultimately tragic stories about puppies… It has a few Secrets in every issue…

    What’s that? No booksellers read these pages. Darn.


    « Later Entries — Earlier Entries »