A. & the LBC

Tue 13 Feb 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on A. & the LBC | Posted by: Gavin

Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the DeadForced to post yet again despite the comfy couch, big old book, and cup of crabby green tea (too lazy to go see what the proper name is) by Pinky‘s rather exciting news from the Lit Blog Coop announcing that Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead is one of three Read This! picks for Spring ’07:

The Cottagers by Marshall Klimasewiski (W.W. Norton)

Sacco and Vanzetti Must Die! by Mark Binelli (Dalkey Archive Press)

Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead by A. DeNiro (Small Beer Press)

So at some point this spring all the lit bloggers who take part in the LBC will be talking about these books on their own blogs and at LBC central. There will also be podcasts, interviews, free donuts (ask at your local coffee shop, say the LBC sent you), and so on.

This is fantastic news — thanks to the bloggers who nominated Alan’s book and everyone else who has anything to do with this. Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead is a fantastic book on many levels and an incredibly strong debut collection. Alan’s writing moves carefully and easily across and through familiar genres creating a unique and unmistakably individual voice. We very much look forward to following the conversations about the book.

Recent Read This! selections (yanked right from the LBC homeship) have included:

———-

Update: But will any of the conversations be as deep (and wacky) as Chris Nakashima-Brown‘s?


UK!

Tue 13 Feb 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on UK! | Posted by: Gavin

Showing that they certainly know how to do things right over there in the UK, when we arrived back at Small Beer HQ (after 400 hours or so of travel from Sydney (why did we leave??)) there on the table was a bright* and beautiful bunch of flowers from Kelly’s UK publisher HarperPerennial to celebrate the UK publication of Magic for Beginners. Yay!
One of our fave writers, Jon Courtenay Grimwood reviewed it for SFX, and described it thusly: “A frighteningly original collection of stories from a frighteningly original voice.”

Will Kelly be hopping a Virgin 747 to London, Manchester, Birmingham? Only time will tell. Calling Richard Branson?

(It really depends on the inflight movies: managed to skip Man of the Year on 3 flights … however, Mistress of Spices (“Spices…”) may, er, be worth a laugh look.)

Updates on some of Kelly’s stories &c. (sorry if any of these are repeats, trying to catch up):

* Bright is important as it’s Dark here in Massachusetts.


    Year’s Best ToC (mostly)

    Tue 13 Feb 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Year’s Best ToC (mostly) | Posted by: Gavin

    This is the almost complete table-of-contenty goodness for the fantasy section of The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror 2007: Twentieth Annual Collection edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant. Ellen Datlow will post her horror selections on her Amazon blog (don’t call it that!) and various message boards. We’ve sent in our picks to the man behind the book, Jim Frenkel, who is doing the permissions and contracts and so on. He says there are a few people still to contact so we will post the complete version when all is hook, line, and sinkered.
    Now we’re reading for the annual Summation and for the 200 or so Honorable Mentions we list and we’ve also (obviously!) begun reading for this year’s book.

    Nathalie Anderson, “Tell“, (poem) The Journal of Mythic Arts, Summer/Autumn
    Jeanne Marie Beaumont, “Is Rain My Bearskin?”, (poem) Fairy Tale Review, Green Issue
    Josh Bell, “Yep, I Said Camel, (poem) Ninth Letter, Vol. 3, No.1
    Paul Di Filippo, “Femavillle 29”, Salon Fantastique
    Jeffrey Ford, “The Night Whiskey”, Salon Fantastique
    Jeannine Hall Gailey, “Persephone and the Prince Meet Over Drinks” and “Becoming The Villainess” (Poems)     Becoming the Villainess
    Minsoo Kang, “A Fearful Symmetry”,     Of Tales and Enigmas
    Ellen Klages, “In the House of the Seven Librarians”, Firebirds Rising
    Tim Pratt, “Cup and Table”, Twenty Epics
    M. Rickert, “Journey into the Kingdom”, F&SF, May
    Benjamin Rosenbaum, “A Siege of Cranes”, Twenty Epics
    Christopher Rowe, “Another Word for Map Is Faith”, F&SF, August
    Geoff Ryman, “Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter”, F&SF, Oct/Nov
    Ira Sher, “Lionflower Hedge”, ParaSpheres
    Delia Sherman, “La Fee Verte”, Salon Fantastique
    Ysabeau S. Wilce, “The Lineaments of Gratified Desire”, F&SF, July
    Caleb Wilson, “Directions”, Diagram 6.4


    some reading

    Mon 5 Feb 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Comments Off on some reading | Posted by: Gavin

    Interview at Hobart with Ray Vukcevich.

    Jacob McMurray, who designed the cover for Elizabeth Hand’s Generation Loss, has a fantastic new blog where he is posting huge amounts of his poster and book work.

    Early bloggerly rave for Generation Loss.

    Henry Wessells, bookmaker, publisher, and seller extraordinoire, has started a blog.

    Not sure what to make of this. Except: my, that’s a big one. How can Burns night be celebrated without whiskey? (That unforgettable line from that forgettable film: “Argh! The haggis! The Haggis!”)

    Lone Star Stories has a new story by Gavin, Jenn Reese, and Nina Kiriki Hoffman.

    Chris Nakashima-Brown goes nuts on Futurismic.

    —

    We are still in the Southron Hemisphroid and interweb access is like unto our teenage years: spotty and unpopular, so: apologies for slow replies and shipping and all that. Back to normal amounts of poor emailng and so forth in mid-month.


    Between shelves

    Sat 27 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 6 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

    Interfictions, the first book from the Interstitial Arts Foundation, has just gone off to the printer. A few review copies have gone out but most will go out closer to the pub date — let’s call the pub date Monday, April 30th. By then the book will be in the stores, sliding between shelves, cracking open heads, and warming the hearts of readers everywhere in Bookland.

    Want to review it? Drop us a line.

    The cover (featuring a photo of 3D art by Connie Toebe) is below as well as the full table of contents — although that’s still alphabetical, the true order will be revealed Later.

    You can read a version of the introduction online but for the rest you’ll have to wait a bit. The Afterword, by hard-working editors Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss, is a great conversation on expectations, editing, definitions (and the lack or use of them), and should be kickstart further conversations of interest. Maybe that can be posted in the form of blog posts by the editors or maybe it will end up on the IAF forums.

    A page for the book will appear soon(ish), it can be preordered here (or at your fave book shop), and it will be pretty.
    http://lcrw.net/images/covers/IAF-200-72.gif

    Heinz Insu Fenkl, Introduction
    Karen Jordan Allen, “Alternate Anxieties”
    Christopher Barzak, “What We Know About the Lost Families of – House”
    K. Tempest Bradford, “Black Feather”
    Matthew Cheney, “A Map of the Everywhere”
    Michael DeLuca, “The Utter Proximity of God”
    Adrián Ferrero, “When It Rains, You’d Better Get Out of Ulga” (translated from Spanish)
    Colin Greenland, “Timothy”
    Csilla Kleinheincz, “A Drop of Raspberry” (translated from Hungarian)
    Holly Phillips, “Queen of the Butterfly Kingdom”
    Rachel Pollack, “Burning Beard – The Dreams and Visions of Joseph Ben Jacob, Lord Viceroy of Egypt”
    Joy Marchand, “Pallas at Noon”
    Anna Tambour, “The Shoe in SHOES’ Window”
    Veronica Schanoes, “Rats”
    Léa Silhol, “Emblemata” (translated from French)
    Jon Singer, “Willow Pattern”
    Vandana Singh, “Hunger”
    Mikal Trimm, “Climbing Redemption Mountain”
    Catherynne Valente, “A Dirge for Prester John”
    Leslie What, “Post hoc”
    Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss, “Afterword: The Space Between”


    Sun 21 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

    Magic for BeginnersWe are far away. Cat Sparks posted some pics to prove it. Gavin may look peely wally but rumors of his death proved to be a little premature. How much we’re not telling.

    Kelly is now teaching at the Clarion South workshop just outside of Brisbane. She’ll be reading at a local bookshop on Thursday night. But if you live in Brisbane (and you care about these things) you probably already know that. Otherwise, besides (the awesome) Galaxy in Sydney, you can get signed copies of Magic for Beginners at Pulp Fiction in Brizzy (as we are told to say).

    And, look, the first appearance of the UK edition of Magic for Beginners. It is such a beautiful edition with shiny bits and bumpy bits and art on the inside of the covers. Wow. Comes out prop’ly Feb. 5th. Maybe we can go to the UK and see it there, too.


    Sun 21 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 1 Comment | Posted by: Gavin

    Magic for BeginnersWe are far away. Cat Sparks posted some pics to prove it. Gavin may look peely wally but rumors of his death proved to be a little premature. How much we’re not telling.

    Kelly is now teaching at the Clarion South workshop just outside of Brisbane. She’ll be reading at a local bookshop on Thursday night. But if you live in Brisbane (and you care about these things) you probably already know that. Otherwise, besides (the awesome) Galaxy in Sydney, you can get signed copies of Magic for Beginners at Pulp Fiction in Brizzy (as we are told to say).

    And, look, the first appearance of the UK edition of Magic for Beginners. It is such a beautiful edition with shiny bits and bumpy bits and art on the inside of the covers. Wow. Comes out prop’ly Feb. 5th. Maybe we can go to the UK and see it there, too.


    Thu 11 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

    Great SF Site review of Travel Light by Paul Kincaid:

    Travel LightAlthough simply and clearly told, this story is far from simple or pleasant, it is crowded with cruelty, betrayal, duplicity, slaughter, and the more exalted or heroic a character is the more vile their behaviour.

    Harriet Klausner liked it too(!):

    Fans of Potter will enjoy this excellent reprint of a 1950s young adult fantasy starring a wonderful heroine and a terrific support cast who makes shapeshifters and dragons seem real. The story line is more a coming of age series of vignettes in the life of Halla with her fifteen adventures fun to follow especially soaring with dragons. Fans will appreciate this fine tale of a heroic child and the “heroes” who adopt her.

    Most unexpected link for Travel Light: feral children.


    Thu 11 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

    Great SF Site review of Travel Light by Paul Kincaid:

    Travel LightAlthough simply and clearly told, this story is far from simple or pleasant, it is crowded with cruelty, betrayal, duplicity, slaughter, and the more exalted or heroic a character is the more vile their behaviour.

    Harriet Klausner liked it too(!):

    Fans of Potter will enjoy this excellent reprint of a 1950s young adult fantasy starring a wonderful heroine and a terrific support cast who makes shapeshifters and dragons seem real. The story line is more a coming of age series of vignettes in the life of Halla with her fifteen adventures fun to follow especially soaring with dragons. Fans will appreciate this fine tale of a heroic child and the “heroes” who adopt her.

    Most unexpected link for Travel Light: feral children.


    Wed 10 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

    This woman is . . . sending out Generation Loss galleys. We made a video of it. But we had to send it to the CDC it was so infectioussss.
    The image “http://lcrw.net/images/owl-mask.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.


    Wed 10 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

    This woman is . . . sending out Generation Loss galleys. We made a video of it. But we had to send it to the CDC it was so infectioussss.
    The image “http://lcrw.net/images/owl-mask.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.


    Planning to Fail

    Wed 10 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Planning to Fail | Posted by: Gavin

    “Fresh brian, fresh brian!” What’s your zombie plan? Check out the “Planning to Fail” PSA from the machinima series Red vs. Blue. (Watch in Lo-res Quicktime.) Thanks Tom!


    Wed 10 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

    Good news for Ellen Kushner, her novel The Privilege of the Sword is on the preliminary Nebula ballot—along with lots of other good books by Rick Bowes, Paul Park, Jeff Ford, David Marusek, etc., etc. Barzak, Delia Sherman, Dora Goss, and many other interesting things on there. What fun.

    Ellen will also be at the New York ComicCon at the Bantam Spectra booth and will be signing and giving away 100 copies of TPOTS (sometime between Feb. 23-25).
    Lasty, Ellen reports that Privilege has been sold to a Dutch publisher. More swashbuckling around the world!
    On rights sales that (sadly) really don’t have anything to with us except that it’s cool, Sean Stewart’s Perfect Circle has sold to the following: La Factoria de Ideas, Spain; Fabryka Publishing, Poland; and Karisto Oy, Finland.


    Wed 10 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

    Good news for Ellen Kushner, her novel The Privilege of the Sword is on the preliminary Nebula ballot—along with lots of other good books by Rick Bowes, Paul Park, Jeff Ford, David Marusek, etc., etc. Barzak, Delia Sherman, Dora Goss, and many other interesting things on there. What fun.

    Ellen will also be at the New York ComicCon at the Bantam Spectra booth and will be signing and giving away 100 copies of TPOTS (sometime between Feb. 23-25).
    Lasty, Ellen reports that Privilege has been sold to a Dutch publisher. More swashbuckling around the world!
    On rights sales that (sadly) really don’t have anything to with us except that it’s cool, Sean Stewart’s Perfect Circle has sold to the following: La Factoria de Ideas, Spain; Fabryka Publishing, Poland; and Karisto Oy, Finland.


    Tue 9 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

    January means it’s time for another Tiptree Award anthology (once more cleanly designed by John Berry). This year’s is the third in this series and has a ToC that just shines, baby, shines. Ted Chiang, Timmi DuChamp, Ursula K. Le Guin, Margo Lanagan, Nalo Hopkinson, Aimee Bender, Tiptree.
    Also out on the tubes: an     interview with Cindy of Doris zine fame. Yes, you should order it.

    And after you read that interview check out the glory that is ZineWiki. Or should that be the Time Sink That Is ZineWiki? For it is indeed an amazing place. Phew. Get to work, you heathens! Edit, Edit, Edit!

    Another interview: Tim Sandlin in the Jan. issue of Bookslut—which has a lot of good reading. Sandlin is the author of Skipped Parts, a hilarious read, and has a new novel coming out next week or so, Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty—which, if you like labels, is maybe near-future social science fiction. Or, a fun read in which a bunch of old baby boomers (although sadly not Jimi) rebel against their unfair captivity. Give it to any boomer and watch them whine about how it wasn’t like that in the Sixties and anyway, how would you know, were you at Berkeley in ’68? I didn’t think so.
    (Exit, laughing.)

    And: Sean & Co. are busy again. Win a trip to space. Immerse, immerse!


    Tue 9 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

    January means it’s time for another Tiptree Award anthology (once more cleanly designed by John Berry). This year’s is the third in this series and has a ToC that just shines, baby, shines. Ted Chiang, Timmi DuChamp, Ursula K. Le Guin, Margo Lanagan, Nalo Hopkinson, Aimee Bender, Tiptree.
    Also out on the tubes: an     interview with Cindy of Doris zine fame. Yes, you should order it.

    And after you read that interview check out the glory that is ZineWiki. Or should that be the Time Sink That Is ZineWiki? For it is indeed an amazing place. Phew. Get to work, you heathens! Edit, Edit, Edit!

    Another interview: Tim Sandlin in the Jan. issue of Bookslut—which has a lot of good reading. Sandlin is the author of Skipped Parts, a hilarious read, and has a new novel coming out next week or so, Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty—which, if you like labels, is maybe near-future social science fiction. Or, a fun read in which a bunch of old baby boomers (although sadly not Jimi) rebel against their unfair captivity. Give it to any boomer and watch them whine about how it wasn’t like that in the Sixties and anyway, how would you know, were you at Berkeley in ’68? I didn’t think so.
    (Exit, laughing.)

    And: Sean & Co. are busy again. Win a trip to space. Immerse, immerse!


    Crap days in publishing

    Mon 8 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Crap days in publishing | Posted by: Gavin

    Ours are just overloaded, in other places it’s truly crap.

    After seven years, Clamor Magazine is folding. Clamor were good people providing viewpoints and voices that aren’t often heard. Darn.

    The Independent Press Association has (not unexpectedly) gone toes up. Punk Planet and their ilk are the sufferers here. Magazine distribution is, well, pick your favorite metaphor for pain and suffering, add a pinch of humilation, and that feeling you get when there’s a long, long queue at the post office and the only person working is medically dead, and it’s something like that. The IPA hoped to help but failed. Magazine distribution choices are disappearing faster than hope for clean elections.

    Then the elephant in the room: AMS and their Chapter 11 bankruptcy. AMS have been under SEC investigation since at least 2002. They have been delisted from the stock market for not complying with quarterly reporting rules and a few ex-top execs who messed with ad revenue figures are trying out alternative modes of living. ie prison. AMS are huge: they supply CostCo with those pallets of books that lie around the front of the warehouses (whoopee, that’s some fun shoppin’). AMS are also, as of a couple of years ago, the parent company of Publishers Group West, exclusive distributors for Soft Skull, McSweeney’s Books, Tin House, and ~150 others. Fingers crossed that if PGW are sold off quick the publishers see their money and not just pennies on the dollar.


    Mon 8 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

    Latest logo comes from Terry Lau of Beehive Design. Terry did the wonderful logo for Jim Munroe’s No Media Kings. The first of these came in a couple of stripes, with Small Beer Press at the bottom or at the side. The second is cut from a spine mockup. What do you think?
    http://lcrw.net/images/logo/Lau1.gifhttp://lcrw.net/images/logo/Lau2.gif

    Kelly is in Maine reading tonight at the Stone Coast MFA program. Sunday we leave for Australia where Kelly will teach Clarion, we’ll be at the Aurealis Awards, visiting Pulp Fiction, Galaxy, Infinitas, and as many other bookshops as we can. (Just the usual, then.) Maybe see some sights, maybe hole up and hide from the heat.


    Mon 8 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 5 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

    Latest logo comes from Terry Lau of Beehive Design. Terry did the wonderful logo for Jim Munroe’s No Media Kings. The first of these came in a couple of stripes, with Small Beer Press at the bottom or at the side. The second is cut from a spine mockup. What do you think?
    http://lcrw.net/images/logo/Lau1.gifhttp://lcrw.net/images/logo/Lau2.gif

    Kelly is in Maine reading tonight at the Stone Coast MFA program. Sunday we leave for Australia where Kelly will teach Clarion, we’ll be at the Aurealis Awards, visiting Pulp Fiction, Galaxy, Infinitas, and as many other bookshops as we can. (Just the usual, then.) Maybe see some sights, maybe hole up and hide from the heat.


    Wed 3 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

    Book CoverHello 2007, have we met? Maybe not. Might be due to the extended holiday dazey feeling. Ah, holidays. There just aren’t enough of them in the USA. 2 weeks paid holiday? Pah. Time to move to Europe where you get four or five or six weeks.

    So, 2007. First thing: Kelly did a short interview with Ysabeau Wilce for BookPage.

    After mailing out some stuyff today (more on that later), now everyone here is digging their way out of 2006’s pile of fiction for LCRW and the Year’s Best. We have until the 14th. Fingers crossed.


    Wed 3 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on | Posted by: Gavin

    Book CoverHello 2007, have we met? Maybe not. Might be due to the extended holiday dazey feeling. Ah, holidays. There just aren’t enough of them in the USA. 2 weeks paid holiday? Pah. Time to move to Europe where you get four or five or six weeks.

    So, 2007. First thing: Kelly did a short interview with Ysabeau Wilce for BookPage.

    After mailing out some stuyff today (more on that later), now everyone here is digging their way out of 2006’s pile of fiction for LCRW and the Year’s Best. We have until the 14th. Fingers crossed.


    No-Ka

    Sat 30 Dec 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on No-Ka | Posted by: Gavin

    Lovely loverly blogosphere look at the the fun thing you have popped up for us: an expose of a chocolatier! Ha. Everybody is pointing to this story and it is worth reading. Poor No-Ka, soon No-business.


    Endless Things galleys

    Thu 28 Dec 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Endless Things galleys | Posted by: Gavin

    Proof (ahem) that John Crowley’s final Ægypt novel, Endless Things, exists, and is one more step along the road to being. These Advance Uncorrected Galleys just arrived (thanks UPS and Fidlar Doubleday!) and in the next couple of days will start to wend their way out to reviewers and so on.

    It’s been 20 years since Ægypt was published and we know (from the fantastic number of pre-orders — yay!) that tons of people have been patiently waiting for this one to appear.
    The image “http://lcrw.net/images/covers/crowley-galley.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

    http://lcrw.net/images/covers/crowley-galley2.gif


    Logo redux

    Thu 28 Dec 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Logo redux | Posted by: Gavin

    And so the web did us more good than harm again and we did receive another set of logos, these all from Candace Bradbury-Carlin:

    The image “http://lcrw.net/images/logo/CBC-1.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors. The image “http://lcrw.net/images/logo/CBC-2.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors. The image “http://lcrw.net/images/logo/CBC-3.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

    The image “http://lcrw.net/images/logo/CBC-4.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors. The image “http://lcrw.net/images/logo/CBC-5.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.


    Lone Star Stories

    Thu 28 Dec 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Comments Off on Lone Star Stories | Posted by: Gavin

    LCRW 19In our great quest to become the number one consumers of chocolate bon-bons while lying on the couch reading comics and drinking champagne we have taken to selling off the pages of LCRW at exorbitant rates to anyone whose cheque book is big enough to take the hit.

    Because we are such indolent proles, sometimes this doesn’t go as well as we’d like.* For instance, for LCRW 19 among the other lovelies spreading good word about Fictionary Devices and so on, there was the following ad for an online zine we have enjoyed more with each issue, Lone Star Stories. Those with Great eyesight may be able to see on the inside back cover where the ad should have gone. Were that PDF sent to the printer. It wasn’t. Eek! Sorry, Eric! Should be in the next one, but in the meantime, here it is:

    Lone-Star-Stories.gif

    * What we’d like is the bon-bon truck to come to the door once a day and someone cheery to refill the bon-bon tray and perhaps refill the record player with a new set of 78s. How we struggle with how to make this come to pass?!


    Some LCRW stories in a book

    Wed 27 Dec 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on Some LCRW stories in a book | Posted by: Gavin

    Thanks to Gwenda (and Meghan) for the reminder to post something about this.

    Next November or so, in a stunning experiment in bindery, Del Rey editor Jim Minz will personally hand-sew* a collection (or, properly, an anthology) of stories (and so on and so forth) from Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. This anthology will not, however, be graced with any of the following titles:

    • God of Mars, Cadbury, Nestle, and Even Some Grown Up Chocolate Brand Maker Thingies
    • The New Yorker: Best Stories, 1996 – 2006
    • Wall, What Waaaaa? and Other Marathon Questions
    • Sliding into Home and a Sportsbag Full of Other Obliquely Misused Sports Metaphors
    • Ringtones of Glory: Poetry and Prose for Your Mobile! Kidz! Cool! Daddio? Myspace? A Little Help Reaching the HipsterKids Here? Bebo?
    • Minxes!
    • Celebrity Zine with the Stars!
    • Whistling in the Corner: 10 Years of Happy Penguin Stories
    • Weirdness Quotient: Bagel — 10 Years of Poisoned Mushroom Tales
    • A Little Bit Off the Left, Please: Twenty Years (Minus 10) of Damn, That’s Wacky Good Stuff
    • You Tube Used to be An Insult and Other Pithy Tales from PreHistory
    • Not Bad
    • Scene: Lady Zine Been Seen with Lean Queen and Mean Dean (Better Writing Inside)
    • Vidblogging the Wikipod: 10 Years of Rebelde, LCRW, and Metacafe
    • Actually Comes with Chocolate and Other Wonders from the Pages of LCRW, Perhaps the Only Zine Named After Jennie Jerome, Mother of Winston Churchill (and Editor of a Short-Lived Journal (The Anglo-Saxon Review) Which Was Beautiful and We Would Love a Full Set, Please)

    Actual publicity notice picked up from Meghan from Publishers Marketplace:

    Gavin Grant and Kelly Link’s UNDER THE RADAR: The Best of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, an anthology of the best fiction, nonfiction. and poetry that has appeared in the ‘zine, with an introduction by Dan Chaon and contributions from Karen Joy Fowler, Karen Russell, Jeffrey Ford, James Sallis, and Nalo Hopkinson, to Jim Minz at Del Rey, by Renee Zuckerbrot at Renee Zuckerbrot Literary Agency (NA).

    Ta da!

    *The contract lets Minz outsource a limited percentage of sewing to assistant editors (as long as he plies them with martinis) and should the book sell out** he will have the option to use a stapler on future printings.

    ** Isn’t any book a sell out? Discuss. Endlessly. Meanwhile, put some old people up against the wall. Use them to climb said wall. Take possession of the “palace”. Put the kettle on. Make a zine. Wonder what that disturbance in the garden. Wander outside with your now-somewhat-crumbly mates. Get put up against the wall. Offer them the “palace”in return for your life. Sigh as they explain (endlessly) that they’ll never sell out.
    Could have been worse. You could have been born a Bush.


    SBP logo

    Tue 26 Dec 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 4 Comments | Posted by: Gavin

    A long time ago (April 5, 2005) we posted this in our newsletter:

    Possible logo
    Ok, so we don’t have a logo, have never really felt the need for a logo, have rejected a couple of ideas, and laughed when we were told we’d disappear without one. We’re still here, right? You can see this? Is there anyo

    Okay, so (reprise). Here’s the gig: make us a pretty Small Beer Press logo and we’ll hide it, ah, put it up somewhere on our site, put up a poll to see who likes
    which one, and maybe at some point even use one. If we do use it we’ll pay you something (you like chocolate, right?). If we don’t, well, you had fun, right?

    Below are a few of the logos sent in ages ago and never posted, sorry folks! Rich Stoehr, Brian Worley (#’s 2+3), and Beth Adele Long, are the artists. All of them captured something of the spirit of the concept: tasty comestibles are us. Thanks again everyone who took part.

    http://lcrw.net/images/logo/Stoehr_logo2.gif

    http://lcrw.net/images/logo/Worley-chocolate-bar.gif

    http://lcrw.net/images/logo/Worley-letters.gif

    http://lcrw.net/images/logo/Long-sbp_logo.gif


    LCRW 19rs post fact ideation

    Tue 26 Dec 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Comments Off on LCRW 19rs post fact ideation | Posted by: Gavin

    At some point we asked our LCRW 19 contributors to send ideas for gifts they’d like to give or receive. Or, something (which thing does not have to be a Thing) that would be a good present to receive in January from someone who has gone and missed the whole darn holiday season. Not that we know anyone like that. Nope.

    Updated with Laura’s somehow missed in the messy inbox.

    Received:
    3 grocery receipts totalling over $200
    35 student essays: 19 on W.D. Snodgrass, 2 on Adrienne Rich, 2 on Ted Kooser (1 plaigiarized), 13 etc.
    1165 calories in holiday chocolate, cheese, jam, and eggs at Investment Club Christmas Party
    14 ideas to fix the public schools ranging from isolation to abandonment to inventing parents
    1/12th share of 3 shares TM
    2 whimpers from tired miniature dachsund long-haired terrier mix
    a symphony on inconsolable grief through window from dog some blocks away, 1.5-2.5 hours in duration
    1 (and only 1) glass Merlot
    2 email; 1 confessing R.B.’s crush on E.D.; 1 requesting items received/desired

    Pending or Desired:
    breakfast in bed
    1 student essay
    the desire to walk around the block, sign up for Y yoga class, attend water aerobics, attempt health
    elimination of poverty, mass education, behavioral training and awakening
    dividend
    12 whimpers from lively miniature dachsund long-haired terrier mix
    silence
    2 (or 2 1/2) glasses of Rioja
    1 slice tortilla Espana
    acceptance
    —Laura Lee Washburn
    I’d like someone to build me a home like Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Hill House or his reconstructed townhouse in Glasgow. Sadly, it wouldn’t fit inside an Xmas stocking. Photoshop CS probably would, but no one I know has that kind of money. Alternatively, someone could buy me a view, a window programmed to show anyplace on earth. It could even become a mirror reflecting back a room I don’t actually live in, in a house I could never afford—like the master bedroom at Hill House. Unfortunately, such a view would also cost money, and would certainly be difficult to fit inside a stocking.
    —Kara Kellar Bell

    My wife and I never seem to get it together to write a “Christmas” letter in time for Christmas. So, taking a cue from my brother who at one time sent out “Ash Wednesday” letters to mock the whole holiday letter thing, we decided to call our Christmas letter a “New Year’s” letter and tried to get it out in January. Success! But only for that first year. Not meeting the January deadline the following year, we ranamed our missive an “Annual” letter, thinking that gave us several months to get it out to friends and relatives. That worked for a couple of years, but last year, although we eventually got around to writing something, we did not manage to get it out within the first half of the year and so embarrassment kept us from sending the letter out at all.
    But now, with a letter in hand, we are thinking about recycling…our lives are pretty much the same from year to year, so who will know the difference?
    —George Schaller

    I’ve decided that I want a set of bagpipes for Christmas this year. I heard them playing in Edinburgh this summer, bagpipes, attached to guys in kilts, a basket for money in front of them, awaiting a Euro here, a Euro there. The music was beautiful.
    That’s not the real reason I covet bagpipes. I started playing guitar when I was 10 years old. I would have been a very successful musician except for one thing: I lack talent. My son started playing guitar when he was 10 years old and after the first hour I could tell that he would be better than I ever hoped to be. Similar things happened with the piano.
    My son went on to get a B.A. in music.
    I want to be able to play an instrument that my son can’t play better than I can. I will practice and lock the bagpipes in the closet when my son visits. I don’t want a repeat of that ugly Thanksgiving meal in 1998, when I played a number that I’d been practicing for three months on the harmonica. I showed my son how the scale was organized on the harmonica. By the end of the night, he was playing Beethoven’s sixth symphony on it, and an early Grateful Dead number, all from memory.
    So, to draw this story to a conclusion, I will admit that I’m going to buy bagpipes on the internet, and give it to my wife to give to me for Christmas.
    —Dennis Nau

    This Non-Denominational Gift Giving Season, I would very much like to receive harmonicas in any natural minor or harmonic minor key. As for those who miss the season entirely, I suggest the give the gift of bees. Giving bees clearly communicates the core message: “It was no accident that I failed to give you a Christmas, Chanukah or Kwanzaa present.”
    —David Erik Nelson

    I’m thinking of giving my mother a ride in hot air balloon over the Arizona desert this year. The balloon will be red and green and yellow and the basket will brown wicker, and everything will be so high and quiet up there above the bugs. The Saguaro cacti will stand around with their hands up. She’ll be able to see her house in Phoenix in one direction and way over there the house where I grew up, with rolling hills, mesas, and a couple of deep canyons between the two. The Gila River, the Superstition Mountains, the town of Globe where there is both a Serbian and a Croatian cemetery.
    —Ray Vukcevich

    I’ll confess that I’ve been bothered by the cupie doll nature of this seasonal gift-giving, and all its bows and wrappings that send beautiful, toxic flames up the chimney. I’m giving Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder, about the remarkable Dr. Paul Farmer and his personal war against AIDS and multi resistant TB in the poorest places in the world, centered in Haiti. The man, the stories, Kidder’s writing, all wonderful. Restores faith in what we can be; it was all I could do, when I finished the book, to not stop everything and go help this man and Ophelia Dahl, Roald Dahl’s daughter. So folded into the copy of the book, I’m also giving donations to their Partner’s In Health in the name of the people I’m giving the book to.
    I’m also interested in receiving such gifts. There is so much suffering, think what $30, multiplied by the millions of desperate gift givers, could do in the right hands.
    A government of the people, for the people and by the people would be nice.
    —Diane Gordon


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