Fri 30 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 1 Comment | Posted by: Gavin

gone


Podcastery

Fri 30 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Podcastery | Posted by: Gavin

One of these days we will start a podcast. You, You, You (Tu, dear), can subscribe to it now using the Podcastery link up there on the right hand side (of the site—I doubt this will show on your RSS feed).

Individual category RSS feeds! The niched-info future is coming. Soonish.


Lost people

Wed 28 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 2 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

More people we have lost:

Heather Pioro: sorry, we didn’t notice the reply envelope in your submission was missing a stamp. The post office returned it to us but by then your submission was gone. Sorry!

Missing people:

Jennifer Woodroffe, once of Greenville, NC.
Tim Luke, once of Elizabethtown, KY.
George Tucker, once of Oakland Park, FL.
Guillermo James, once of Columbus, OH.

Where did you go? We have zines for you!


Tue 27 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 3 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Venus Zine was asking for questions for Patti Smith, so naturally I forward that to Liz Hand and decide that some You Tube research is necessary. So I’m well into “Horses“, “Land“, &c. but then in the related box up pops an absolutely irresistible video: “Furry Happy Monsters” from a visit by REM to Sesame Street. Instantly curious who was doing the harmony, google led to more info:

In case you’re wondering, the red-haired female Muppet singing harmony was modeled on B-52 Kate Pierson. Puppeteer Stephanie D’Abruzzo, who manipulated the Kate Monster puppet, also provided the vocal part.

If you’re looking at this on Firefox using a Mac for some reason the video doesn’t appear (although it does on Safari, que??), so watch it here.


Tue 27 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 3 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Venus Zine was asking for questions for Patti Smith, so naturally I forward that to Liz Hand and decide that some You Tube research is necessary. So I’m well into “Horses“, “Land“, &c. but then in the related box up pops an absolutely irresistible video: “Furry Happy Monsters” from a visit by REM to Sesame Street. Instantly curious who was doing the harmony, google led to more info:

In case you’re wondering, the red-haired female Muppet singing harmony was modeled on B-52 Kate Pierson. Puppeteer Stephanie D’Abruzzo, who manipulated the Kate Monster puppet, also provided the vocal part.

If you’re looking at this on Firefox using a Mac for some reason the video doesn’t appear (although it does on Safari, que??), so watch it here.


Tue 27 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 1 Comment | Posted by: Gavin

“Grey or Gray?” someone asked recently. One of those questions that always pops up and no matter what the answer is going to leave someone unhappy (or amused at the poor choice).

Grey has that e in the middle that slides along like a car skiding on a wet street, like a cat dragging its sodden tail.

Gray has the giant space of the a encompassing the sea, the sea, and everything from ash to storms. Very overdone, very baroque, but cutting through all those down to the simplicity of itself. Gray.

Either/or, then. Depending on mood, year, weather, dinner, book last read, road last driven, election last voted on, bird just seen.

A long time ago Kelly wrote about this in The Specialist’s Hat:

Mr. Coeslak can tell the twins apart, even if their father can’t; Claire’s eyes are grey, like a cat’s fur, he says, but Samantha’s are gray, like the ocean when it has been raining.


Tue 27 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 1 Comment | Posted by: Gavin

“Grey or Gray?” someone asked recently. One of those questions that always pops up and no matter what the answer is going to leave someone unhappy (or amused at the poor choice).

Grey has that e in the middle that slides along like a car skiding on a wet street, like a cat dragging its sodden tail.

Gray has the giant space of the a encompassing the sea, the sea, and everything from ash to storms. Very overdone, very baroque, but cutting through all those down to the simplicity of itself. Gray.

Either/or, then. Depending on mood, year, weather, dinner, book last read, road last driven, election last voted on, bird just seen.

A long time ago Kelly wrote about this in The Specialist’s Hat:

Mr. Coeslak can tell the twins apart, even if their father can’t; Claire’s eyes are grey, like a cat’s fur, he says, but Samantha’s are gray, like the ocean when it has been raining.


Mon 26 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , , , | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

Last Wednesday some of us here trundled down the glorious winter roads to New York to the KGB Bar to see Carol Emshwiller and David Louis Edelman read. Both readers were worth getting the matched pair out and the (somewhat long) curricle ride. And is there anything more beautiful than the rural fields of Stamford and the rolling hills of New Haven on the approach to the glittering metropolis of New York?

However, despite the lovely readings and the feast following the reading, we left with something unexpected: a “Devil Bug of Doom” (copyright Gwenda Bond) which had us shaking like Elvis for a couple of days. Or maybe just Shakin’ Stevens.

Things You the Reader Could Do*:

Send us the new Adobe Creative Suite…? MacRumors says the pricing will be released tomorrow — which is far enough ahead of the software packages’ ship dates (which run April to June) for us to get over the sticker shock. We are using new (for us, maybe 6 months old now) MacBooks (tiny, cute computers!) and PhotoShop and InDesign run a bit slow so these upgrades are much anticipated. The Design package is what we’re looking at:

CS3 Design Premium (up) $1799.95
CS3 Design Standard $1199.95

…although we might be able to get an upgrade from PhotoShop 7 for only $900. So, Johnny, you know how we promised to take you to DissMeLand for your birthday this year? Small Beer says, Sorry Kid, maybe next year, maybe never. Don’t cry kid. Aw.

* If you were perhaps either stuck in traffic for 36 hours and bored out your head. Or just a little more than tipsy. Or a crazy stalker**. Or just wealthy. Or just plain crazy.

** We don’t have any of these, yay!

In other news:

  • John Crowley’s Endless Things received one of its first big reviews in Book Forum: “With Endless Things and the completion of the Ægypt cycle, Crowley has constructed one of the finest, most welcoming tales contemporary fiction has to offer us.”
  • Liz Hand (whose novel is will shipped from the printer next week) is part of a new group blog, the inferior 4 +1.
  • Matt Cheney posted the contents for the first Best American Fantasy anthology which includes Kelly’s “Origin Story” from A Public Space, Liz Hand’s “The Saffron Gatherer”, as well as a ton of other great stories.
  • Happy to see that Michael Dirda’s Washington Post piece was run by the Austin American Stateman this weekend.
  • Did Scotland actually win at football? Reports say the final score in some kind of European tourney was Scotland 2, Georgia 1. But we were in Georgia recently, in Atlanta, and while the accents were strong, they did not seem to be Europeans (and I could have sworn we drove, so how did we cross the water?). Scotland play Italy on Wednesday. You never know. Unless you’re a Scotland fan.

Mon 26 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , , , | 4 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Last Wednesday some of us here trundled down the glorious winter roads to New York to the KGB Bar to see Carol Emshwiller and David Louis Edelman read. Both readers were worth getting the matched pair out and the (somewhat long) curricle ride. And is there anything more beautiful than the rural fields of Stamford and the rolling hills of New Haven on the approach to the glittering metropolis of New York?

However, despite the lovely readings and the feast following the reading, we left with something unexpected: a “Devil Bug of Doom” (copyright Gwenda Bond) which had us shaking like Elvis for a couple of days. Or maybe just Shakin’ Stevens.

Things You the Reader Could Do*:

Send us the new Adobe Creative Suite…? MacRumors says the pricing will be released tomorrow — which is far enough ahead of the software packages’ ship dates (which run April to June) for us to get over the sticker shock. We are using new (for us, maybe 6 months old now) MacBooks (tiny, cute computers!) and PhotoShop and InDesign run a bit slow so these upgrades are much anticipated. The Design package is what we’re looking at:

CS3 Design Premium (up) $1799.95
CS3 Design Standard $1199.95

…although we might be able to get an upgrade from PhotoShop 7 for only $900. So, Johnny, you know how we promised to take you to DissMeLand for your birthday this year? Small Beer says, Sorry Kid, maybe next year, maybe never. Don’t cry kid. Aw.

* If you were perhaps either stuck in traffic for 36 hours and bored out your head. Or just a little more than tipsy. Or a crazy stalker**. Or just wealthy. Or just plain crazy.

** We don’t have any of these, yay!

In other news:

  • John Crowley’s Endless Things received one of its first big reviews in Book Forum: “With Endless Things and the completion of the Ægypt cycle, Crowley has constructed one of the finest, most welcoming tales contemporary fiction has to offer us.”
  • Liz Hand (whose novel is will shipped from the printer next week) is part of a new group blog, the inferior 4 +1.
  • Matt Cheney posted the contents for the first Best American Fantasy anthology which includes Kelly’s “Origin Story” from A Public Space, Liz Hand’s “The Saffron Gatherer”, as well as a ton of other great stories.
  • Happy to see that Michael Dirda’s Washington Post piece was run by the Austin American Stateman this weekend.
  • Did Scotland actually win at football? Reports say the final score in some kind of European tourney was Scotland 2, Georgia 1. But we were in Georgia recently, in Atlanta, and while the accents were strong, they did not seem to be Europeans (and I could have sworn we drove, so how did we cross the water?). Scotland play Italy on Wednesday. You never know. Unless you’re a Scotland fan.

Not for the squeamish

Sat 24 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Not for the squeamish | Posted by: Gavin

Fury: Manson holds a skinned fox in the ad aimed...

Shirley Manson says: “Here’s the rest of your fur coat”:That’s the rest of a fox. Manson’s pic is for PETA and one of the best parts of this piece in The Scotsman is a quote from Frank Zilberkweit, a director of the British Fur Trade Association and owner of a London furrier:

“Peta is employing a cheap stunt by using a fox carcass. It’s a cowardly and shameful attempt to try to condemn a real industry that provides employment while regulating standards in animal welfare.”

Um, yes. In the same way perhaps that euthanasia regulates standards for the elderly?

Oh come now, that’s a bit much.

Yes, but how dumb is that statement? Could someone (Mr. Zilberkweit, perhaps…?) explain exactly how it’s “cowardly” to show a fox carcass? Aren’t fox, chinchilla, mink, dog, etc. carcasses a part of your “real” industry (as opposed to say, car manufacturing, an “unreal” industry)?

http://helpinganimals.com/images/FamkeJanssen_ad.jpg

If that poster is a bit much, you can order a print quality version of this one instead and print it in glorious full color in your zine. Ladies and gentlemen: Famke Janssen!


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

While writing the Year’s Best summation (big voice: “The Year in Fantasy!” Chorus, drums, piles of books, a little research, another cup of tea, please nurse) I typed that William Nicholson’s Seeker was the first in his Nobel Warriors series.

He is the Seeker. He has hunted down medals in Medicine (that bark had a pretty good bite), Physics (how much force does a mace carry?), Chemistry (who is that surprisingly pretty boy from nowhere?), Economics (how much bread and ale does a gold piece buy?), Literature (that old library kept him warm all winter), and now, in his greatest adventure, he has to fight for the last, greatest Prize: for Peace.


Tue 20 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 1 Comment | Posted by: Gavin

While writing the Year’s Best summation (big voice: “The Year in Fantasy!” Chorus, drums, piles of books, a little research, another cup of tea, please nurse) I typed that William Nicholson’s Seeker was the first in his Nobel Warriors series.

He is the Seeker. He has hunted down medals in Medicine (that bark had a pretty good bite), Physics (how much force does a mace carry?), Chemistry (who is that surprisingly pretty boy from nowhere?), Economics (how much bread and ale does a gold piece buy?), Literature (that old library kept him warm all winter), and now, in his greatest adventure, he has to fight for the last, greatest Prize: for Peace.


Mon 19 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

Want a free copy of Liz Hand’s new novel Generation Loss? There’s a dozen going The Great American Book Giveaway.


Mon 19 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

Want a free copy of Liz Hand’s new novel Generation Loss? There’s a dozen going The Great American Book Giveaway.


Monkeys & others

Mon 19 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Monkeys & others | Posted by: Gavin

This week Monkeybicycle.net is featuring a hilarious piece from Rob Bloom: “A Zagat Writer Reviews Everyday Life.”Save Short Fiction Online has an offer for online zines: they will host your site for free if your mag:

       

  1. publishes short fiction online that is available to the public and

    2.    

  2. pays its contributors.

Terri Windling and Midori Snyder, among others, are keeping it fasinating over at the Endicott blog. They recently covered the IAF blog and Interfictions (review copies are mailing now) anthology and (great title:) Monkeys and Revelations.It’s been four years since the US invaded Iraq under false pretences. Has the monkey boy President noticed there are no WMDs, there is was no Al Queda link? Does he care? No. Are thousands of people dead? Yes. Is he to blame? Yes.If SFWA is your thing the idealistic young whippersnapper John Scalzi, Esq., is chatting up future here.Gwenda and Christopher, worried that small cute dogs are not properly represented in the blogarium adopt another.Made it to the last showing of the Ateh Theater Group’s adaptation of The Girl Detective in NYC and it was great fun. There were three big dance numbers (memo to writers: make sure you include a chorus of dancing girls in all stories) and the cast, given a play which involves a lot of talking directly to the audience, seemed to be enjoying themselves. The audience seemed to like it, too—did wonder what it would be like to see the play without knowing the story. More news on another adaptation of the story to come at some point in spring (no, not a movie or TV thing).


Howard Who?

Sun 18 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 1 Comment | Posted by: Gavin

Howard Who?Michael Dirda acquires many cultural brownie points for pointing people toward our favorite iconoclast Howard Waldrop in his Washington Post review of the new Old Earth Books collection THINGS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME: Selected Short Fiction, 1980 – 2005. He also mentions Howard Who?, signed copies of which are available etc. etc.

The books went shooting up the charts at Amazon.com (have there ever been 2 Waldrop collections in the top 1,000? Things Will Never Be… was at #330 recently and Howard Who? at 1,269. Excellent, excellent. Since Howard is a guy who literally lives off his writing and he mostly writes short fiction, we’ve got to find this man some readers.

Writers are invited to write up wondering pieces on Howard for all the writing mags and living sections of the weekend newspapers about: how to live on short story income; how to do research (when you don’t use Google); fishing; cartoons and how they show the nation’s true spirit.

To get the full effect, writers should interview Waldrop (by phone, letter, or in person—he really doesn’t do the email thing as such) and help the world discover him before he dies and it’s left to Library of America to collect all his books in one fat volume and give him the he’s a weird writer but he’s dead so it’s ok to read him stamp.

Updated: So close! Things Will Never Be… now at #314 recently and Howard Who? at 1,045. Have to run off so please keep an eye on them and tell us if they goes higher.


Thu 15 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 2 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Liquor: A Novel CoverWe are buried! Who timetabled this life? Where is Aunt Gwenda and her Super Scheduling Ability? Where? Whine whine, etc., etc. Yawn.
Anyway, two recommendations from beside—rather than in—the heap. First: Liquor by Poppy Z. Brite. Kelly has been passing this to people for a while but it took me a while to read it. What fun! Two guys grow up in New Orleans together, work in kitchens together (some kitchens being better than others), and one of them gets the idea to start a restaurant where all the food will have liquor in the ingredients somewhere. The guys, Rickey and G-man, are, like all the rest of the characters, rounded people with ambitions, faults, all that stuff. The descriptions of the food are mouth-watering and will make you want to either go to your fave restaurant, dust down a cookbook, or get on a plane to New Orleans.

New Orleans is as much a character here as the various chefs and dishwashers and I can’t wait to read the books Brite has written since Hurrican Katrina hit and the government completely failed the city. Brite’s early books were horror novels which I doubt I’ll ever read, but this series (which is not horror at all) has me hooked. There’s a sort-of-mystery in the novel but the real body of it are the kitchens (which range from crappy to mind-blowing kitchen porn) and the work. It’s great to read about people doing interesting work, and working hard. Most of the time I don’t miss working in a kitchen but Liquor reminds the reader how satisfying working hard at something you love can be.
So far I’ve only read Liquor and a prequel, The Value of X (published by Subterranean) but I’m looking forward to catching up with the rest of the books—and catching the inevitable TV series when it comes.

Second: the Winterpills have a new CD out, The Light Divides (stream it here) filled with gloriously springlike music even if the weather (up here in the mid-north) isn’t cooperating—and it was recorded in autumn, how did they manage that? If you liked The Maggies, Philip Price used to sing with them and in the Winterpills he’s joined by Flora Reed’s gorgeous voice.

If you’re in Austin at the SWSX madness you can catch them there or on tour:

Thursday, March 15, 2007
Live on WMVY
5 pm
Momo’s
UTNE Reader showcase.
11 PM
SXSW
Austin, TXFriday, March 16, 2007

Mother Egan’s Irish Pub
Signature Sounds showcase
4:45
SXSW

Sunday, March, 18, 2007
The Last Concert Cafe
1403 Nance St., Houston, TX

March 20, 2007
Schuba’s
Chicago, IL, 9 pm

March 22, 2007
Strictly Discs
In-store performance
5:30 pm
Madison, WI

March 22, 2007
High Noon Saloon – w/ The Long Winters
Madison, WI – 8 pm

March 23, 2007
WFPK – Live At Lunch Perfomance
12 pm.

March 23, 2007
Uncle Pleasants
w/ Dennis Crommett opening
Louiseville, KY 8 pm

March 24 2007
Live on WRNR, Annapolis, MD.
Interview/Performance. 12 noon.

March 24 2007
IOTA Club and Cafe
w/
Washington, DC 8 pm

April 2, 2007
The Middle East
w/ Robert Gomez
Cambridge, MA

April 3, 2007
College of the Atlantic
8 pm
Bangor, ME

April 21, 2007
Pearl St. Nightclub
w/Fountains of Wayne
Northampton, MA


Thu 15 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 2 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

Liquor: A Novel CoverWe are buried! Who timetabled this life? Where is Aunt Gwenda and her Super Scheduling Ability? Where? Whine whine, etc., etc. Yawn.
Anyway, two recommendations from beside—rather than in—the heap. First: Liquor by Poppy Z. Brite. Kelly has been passing this to people for a while but it took me a while to read it. What fun! Two guys grow up in New Orleans together, work in kitchens together (some kitchens being better than others), and one of them gets the idea to start a restaurant where all the food will have liquor in the ingredients somewhere. The guys, Rickey and G-man, are, like all the rest of the characters, rounded people with ambitions, faults, all that stuff. The descriptions of the food are mouth-watering and will make you want to either go to your fave restaurant, dust down a cookbook, or get on a plane to New Orleans.

New Orleans is as much a character here as the various chefs and dishwashers and I can’t wait to read the books Brite has written since Hurrican Katrina hit and the government completely failed the city. Brite’s early books were horror novels which I doubt I’ll ever read, but this series (which is not horror at all) has me hooked. There’s a sort-of-mystery in the novel but the real body of it are the kitchens (which range from crappy to mind-blowing kitchen porn) and the work. It’s great to read about people doing interesting work, and working hard. Most of the time I don’t miss working in a kitchen but Liquor reminds the reader how satisfying working hard at something you love can be.
So far I’ve only read Liquor and a prequel, The Value of X (published by Subterranean) but I’m looking forward to catching up with the rest of the books—and catching the inevitable TV series when it comes.

Second: the Winterpills have a new CD out, The Light Divides (stream it here) filled with gloriously springlike music even if the weather (up here in the mid-north) isn’t cooperating—and it was recorded in autumn, how did they manage that? If you liked The Maggies, Philip Price used to sing with them and in the Winterpills he’s joined by Flora Reed’s gorgeous voice.

If you’re in Austin at the SWSX madness you can catch them there or on tour:

Thursday, March 15, 2007
Live on WMVY
5 pm
Momo’s
UTNE Reader showcase.
11 PM
SXSW
Austin, TXFriday, March 16, 2007

Mother Egan’s Irish Pub
Signature Sounds showcase
4:45
SXSW

Sunday, March, 18, 2007
The Last Concert Cafe
1403 Nance St., Houston, TX

March 20, 2007
Schuba’s
Chicago, IL, 9 pm

March 22, 2007
Strictly Discs
In-store performance
5:30 pm
Madison, WI

March 22, 2007
High Noon Saloon – w/ The Long Winters
Madison, WI – 8 pm

March 23, 2007
WFPK – Live At Lunch Perfomance
12 pm.

March 23, 2007
Uncle Pleasants
w/ Dennis Crommett opening
Louiseville, KY 8 pm

March 24 2007
Live on WRNR, Annapolis, MD.
Interview/Performance. 12 noon.

March 24 2007
IOTA Club and Cafe
w/
Washington, DC 8 pm

April 2, 2007
The Middle East
w/ Robert Gomez
Cambridge, MA

April 3, 2007
College of the Atlantic
8 pm
Bangor, ME

April 21, 2007
Pearl St. Nightclub
w/Fountains of Wayne
Northampton, MA


Nick Burton?

Mon 12 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Nick Burton? | Posted by: Gavin

Nick, we are looking for you! You moved from York in Ontario and we need your new address.

More of these pleas may appear here as we realize how many people we have lost along the way.


NBCC says

Thu 8 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on NBCC says | Posted by: Gavin

read James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips (St. Martin’s Press). That award should send it back to the presses again and more people get to be addicted, weirded out, and awed by Alice Sheldon’s life and Julie Phillips’s biography.


Early reviews

Thu 8 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Early reviews | Posted by: Gavin

How early? Over a month! The official publication date for Elizabeth Hand’s lit thriller Generation Loss is April 16th and the book should just be hitting stores then. (Pre-orderly people may see it a tiny wee bit earlier if we can get the AutoOctopoidal Shipping Contrapshun to work right this time.)

But reviews are good, so here we go! Bookslut jumps in the water ahead of the rest and our own Valley Advocate gets in there too with a review so early they use the galley cover! (The real cover is prettier and, ooh, shiny!)
In the same issue editor Maureen Turner has a hilarious and cutting editorial that shouldn’t be missed about the fate of a Springfield family whom the patriach epnymously dubbed “the Kennedys of western Mass.”

Should we feel bad for Ray Asselin, Sr., the 69-year-old former head of the Springfield Housing Authority who was sentenced last week to 10 years in federal prison for a years-long scheme in which his family stole an estimated $6 million-plus from his agency?


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

We break into the ongoing AWP madness (Tiki Bars! Michael Martone! Vests! The Neverending Search for Decent Food!) with a couple of fantastic UK reviews for Magic for Beginners.

The first is a five star(!) review in the Independent on Sunday where they give a lovely tag-line, “Weird, funny, sad, scary, moving, hip, ingeniously executed and brilliantly written stuff.”

The second is even more mind boggling: a review in The Guardian by Audrey Niffenegger which begins:

I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of fed up with realism. After all, there’s enough reality already; why make more of it? Why not leave realism for the memoirs of drug addicts, the histories of salt, the biographies of porn stars? Why must we continue to read about the travails of divorced people or mildly depressed Canadians when we could be contemplating the shopping habits of zombies, or the difficulties that ensue when living and dead people marry each other?


Fri 2 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 1 Comment | Posted by: Gavin

We break into the ongoing AWP madness (Tiki Bars! Michael Martone! Vests! The Neverending Search for Decent Food!) with a couple of fantastic UK reviews for Magic for Beginners.

The first is a five star(!) review in the Independent on Sunday where they give a lovely tag-line, “Weird, funny, sad, scary, moving, hip, ingeniously executed and brilliantly written stuff.”

The second is even more mind boggling: a review in The Guardian by Audrey Niffenegger which begins:

I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of fed up with realism. After all, there’s enough reality already; why make more of it? Why not leave realism for the memoirs of drug addicts, the histories of salt, the biographies of porn stars? Why must we continue to read about the travails of divorced people or mildly depressed Canadians when we could be contemplating the shopping habits of zombies, or the difficulties that ensue when living and dead people marry each other?


Sweet Georgia

Tue 27 Feb 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Sweet Georgia | Posted by: Gavin

is where we are headed — to Atlanta* for the AWP conference. We have our fingers crossed that the first copies of Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss’s Interstitial Arts Foundation anthology Interfictions will arrive and be available for reviewers.
We’ll have a table at the Bookfair (split with jubilat) and Kelly will be on a couple of panels:

Friday, 10.30 AM, North Court East, 2nd Floor

F129. Fairy Tales and Contemporary Fiction.
(Judy Budnitz, Kathryn Davis, Rikki Ducornet, Kelly Link, Kate Bernheimer, Stacey Levine) Distinguished writers discuss the influence of fairy tales in their work, and read from selected writings. This gathering seeks to reveal how the traditional form of fairy tales inspires innovative contemporary writing.

Saturday, 9 AM, Ballroom A, 2nd Floor

S103. From the MFA to the Editor’s Desk: MFA graduates talk about careers in publishing and editing.
(Jim Clark, Kelly Link, Leigh Anne Couch, Matt O’Donnell, Renee Soto, Allison Seay) In this panel, editors from five different publishing arenas will talk about the editorial opportunities and challenges available to creative writers. The panelists will also consider how being an editor has added to and taken away from their lives as writers and how their lives as writers influence their decisions as editors. Introductions by Allison Seay.

Another conference note: WisCon says that they are nearing their 1,000 membership cap so if you are tempted to go, now is the time. Kelly Link and Laurie J. Marks (whose flabbergastingly good novel Water Logic we will publish in June) are the Guests of Honor and Madison is a great place to spend a sunny weekend with 999 other smart, feminist science fictioneers.

* In the future, after the seas rise, Atlanta will be known (once again) as Atlantis.


Odd links

Tue 27 Feb 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Odd links | Posted by: Gavin

Forgot to post these:

Ozzy is giving it away and making the man pay! That’s got to be a go Johnny, go Johnny, go go go! Ozzfest retitled Freefest.

Steve Jobs says things out to be DRM-free and no one really argues. Until EMI say Pay for Play! And people keep not buying their CDs until they realise they are hearing the sound of no cash register ringing.
Latest issue of Words Without Borders is all comics and includes “A Bomb in the Family” by David B.

Bay Area Reporter review of Brothers of the Head, coming soon on DVD.

A piece on Howard Waldrop on the Internet Review of SF (log in required).

Spooky and fantastic Pet Shop Boys video.

Maureen McHugh is part of a group blog, Eat Our Brains. (When you’re asked to comment, just say they asked for it.)

Added our April to August catalog to this page.


The Girl Detective in New York

Fri 23 Feb 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 3 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

The Girl DetectiveVery exciting — the Ateh Theater Group production of Kelly Link’s “The Girl Detective” opens tonight at the Connelly Theater (220 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10009, btw. avenues A & B).

The show will play through March 17th on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 8PM with an additional performance Monday, February 26 at 8PM.

Go!

The Girl Detective is a master of disguise. She finds missing things, chases tap dancing back robbers and eats our dreams. But in her life of intrigue and adventure one mystery remains: the whereabouts of her long lost mother. Join her on a wild journey to the underworld in this surreal, darkly funny story of loss and reunion.

Link’s dark humor leads the reader through a dreamy underworld of tap-dancing bank robbers and missing mothers to explore everyday emotional mysteries of personal loss and identity. Her writing has been compared to the likes of James Joyce, Philip K Dick and her title character to Nancy Drew.

Tickets may be purchased online or by calling 212-352-3101 or 1-866-811-4111. Tickets may also be purchased at the door 1 hour prior to the show.


The plural of Clarion is

Thu 22 Feb 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on The plural of Clarion is | Posted by: Gavin

Opportunity, baby. If writing werkshops are your thing.

Clarion Diego is open for applications so if you have the urge to write like a dog, surf, and spend 6 weeks by the sea with lovely writers such as Greg Frost, Jeff VanderMeer, Karen Joy Fowler, Cory Doctorow, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman, you have until April 1 to get your app in.

A quick check shows Clarion West in Seattle is also taking applications, or, you could wait two years until the next Clarion South in Brisbane…


Carmen Dog at last

Wed 21 Feb 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Carmen Dog at last | Posted by: Gavin

http://lcrw.net/images/fries-carmen-dog.jpgThis was a picture we didn’t even realize we were waiting for until it arrived. Carol Emshwiller just forwarded us this pic that her brother, Bob Fries, took of his Newfoundland “puppy”. The puppy (surely named Carmen?) is only six months old but already huge . . . but it’s ok, the Met will feed her well when she gets that part in Carmen.


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