• The Evil Stepmother: An Essay
• Author Interview
• Talking Points

You can pre-order this one on Book Sense, Powells, Amazon, etc. or from here. Do not miss!

BEA

Mon 22 May 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., A. DeNiro, Cons, Maureen F. McHugh, To Read Pile | Comments Off on BEA | Posted by: Gavin

Book Expo — the annual trade show of the sliced wood imprinted with colored marks — is out of the way for another year. This time Small Beer did not have a booth (rather our distro, SCB, displayed some of our books and stacked up freebies of our catalog, the paperback edition of Mothers & Other Monsters, and Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead. One of the fun things of the show was A.’s reading guide and drinking game which can be downloaded here: (PDF warning) The Cabana on the Lake of the Dead. A. signed a ton of copies of his book and carried boxes of them all across our great taxed-but-not-represented capital city. Thanks, A.!

There were awesome parties (PGW [w/ the Brazilian Girls], Consortium, SCB[!] and others at Madam’s Organ, maybe the one below), a good time was had by most, galleys were picked up, and food was gathered more sparingly than dietitians recommend.

Books at the top of the stack include:

• M.T. Anderson The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party
• Karen Russell‘s debut collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.
• The Long Tail (apparently not about rats or anteaters, etc.)
• Ursula K. Le Guin’s follow-up to Gifts, Voices.
• Inside the Not So Big House (hoping for 4-dimensional shelving options).
• Liz Hand’s November collection, Saffron and Brimstone, from the lovely people (because they were kind to exhausted Sunday browsers) at M Press.
• Ysabeau Wilce’s first young adult book Flora Segunda.
• Susanna Clarke’s The Ladies of Grace Adieu. (The book will have b&w illustrations, so we’ll need a copy of that, too!)

There are tons more but now it is time to empty the suitcases into the washing machine (mustn’t mix up the galley-filled suitcase with the smoke reeking post-party clothes) and get ready to git on the road to WisCon.

May reading

Mon 22 May 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., To Read Pile, Uncategorized | Comments Off on May reading | Posted by: Gavin

– Not to be missed: a huge LA Times profile of Jim Sallis and review of his latest book.

– Takedown in Jill Lepore’s New Yorker review of Nathaniel Philbrick’s book Mayflower, a history of King Philip’s War (ca. 1675) in which Philbrick relies on a biography of Benjamin Church written by his son long after the war:

On the second-to-last page of his book, he [Philbrick] reluctantly concedes that Church is a “persona,” even as he insists that “Church according to Church is too brave, too cunning, and too good to be true is beside the point.” This is about as reasonable, and as indefensible, as writing a history of the Vietnam War that relies extensively and uncritically on an “autobiography” of John Kerry written in 2013 by Kerry’s daughter Vanessa.

– Congrats to Rick Bowes whose SCI FICTION story ” There’s a Hole in the City” won the Million Writers Award. (Seen at Matt‘s.)

– “The United States announced that it would free 141 of the 490 “enemy combatants” at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba because they do not threaten U.S. security after all.” (Harpers Weekly)

– New story on Strange Horizons by Gavin Grant: “We Are Never Where We Are.”

– Today’s moral leader: Steve Almond? Wow. Go Steve. (Seen at Bookslut.)

Like the president whom she serves so faithfully, she refuses to recognize her errors or the tragic consequences of those errors to the young soldiers and civilians dying in Iraq. She is a diplomat whose central allegiance is not to the democratic cause of this nation, but absolute power.

This is the woman to whom you will be bestowing an honorary degree, along with the privilege of addressing the graduating class of 2006.

It is this last notion I find most reprehensible: that Boston College would entrust to Rice the role of moral exemplar.

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L See RW May

Thu 18 May 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., LCRW | Comments Off on L See RW May | Posted by: Gavin

– A review of LCRW 17 just as it seems to be sold out! Shocking. Must have been that massive sale. Luckily #18 is just sticking its pretty nose around the corner and will take up the slack.

– New issue of LCRW (18, wherein LCRW can drink, drive, vote, and fight. Wait, can’t drink…) is taking shape. You can see the early, incomplete Table of Contents here. Feel free to preorder or subscribe. We have a wonderful story from David Schwartz who has a lovely gentle story this week on Strange Horizons. More SH goodies: an interview with our fave co-opist, Barth Anderson. Quote from his first line, “There’s no high culture without bug culture.”

– Also a new LCRW newsletter went out. Maybe with different stuff and maybe some the same.

– Congrats to Deborah Roggie whose story “The Mushroom Duchess” from LCRW 17 is among the stories selected by the Fountain Award jury for the short list. Congrats to all!

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Silly bugger

Mon 15 May 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Books, bookshops, Sean Stewart | Comments Off on Silly bugger | Posted by: Gavin

Some opinionist at Slate (in an attempt to get web traffic, therefore no link) says indie or local bookshops aren’t that important. We sell a lot of books at Amazon and in the chains but Small Beer Press basically wouldn’t exist without the support of indie bookshops. Park Road Books in Charlotte, NC, has sold 50+ copies of Mockingbird. Bailey/Coy has sold 200+ copies of Stranger Things Happen. These are booksellers who will read a new writer, such as Alan DeNiro, and put his book into customers hands — not everyone, but everyone who might appreciate it. Read more

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Travel Light reviews

Wed 10 May 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Naomi Mitchison | Comments Off on Travel Light reviews | Posted by: Gavin

New review of Travel Light on a Scottish web site. Poke around on the site for a bit, there’s lots of good stuff.

Another great review.

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Fordmania

Mon 1 May 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Books, To Read Pile | Comments Off on Fordmania | Posted by: Gavin

More Jeff Fordian news: Gwenda Bond and others are pushing and pulling at The Girl in the Glass all this week at the Lit Blog Coop. Short and punchy, baby.

– Crazy good news as Jeff Ford’s The Girl in the Glass wins the Edgar Award for Best Paperback! World domination beckons as his new collection, The Empire of Ice Cream, is available for all those readers looking to find out more.

– Time travel? Jeff Ford says he can.

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Kelly, April

Sun 30 Apr 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Kelly Link | Comments Off on Kelly, April | Posted by: Gavin

Darn and mea culpa:

Note on the Fifth Printing of Stranger Things Happen: We are sorry to say some copies of this printing have page 118 reprinted where page 188 should be. There are a couple of remedies. You can download the pdf of page 188 here or you can email us.
We are a tiny press and we apologize for our mistake. We hope the replacement page (or the book) will satisfy readers. However, if you’d rather, we will replace your book. Please email us if this is the case.
How to identify if your copy is a 5th printing: On the copyright page it states “First Edition 5 6 7 8 9 0”
Thank you.

Last minute reading: Kelly Link, Wed., Apr. 26, 7.30 pm — Club 356, 366 College Ave, Clemson, SC 29631 (864) 654-2356

Good man in a tight spot, Niall Harrison, says “Magic for Beginners” is a winner at the British Science Fiction Awards!

Also Magic for Beginners the collection and Kelly’s story “Some Zombie Contingency Plans” are up for the Bram Stoker Award.

• Magic for Beginners has sold to a bunch of places including Donzelli Editore in Italy, Gayatari Publishing in Russia, and Argo in the Czech Republic. (Sales only go on the bibliography when the check comes in so there have actually been more sales but they haven’t been listed quite yet.)
• Stranger Things Happen: Donzelli Editore, Italy; Delta Vision, Hungary; Gayatari Publishing, Russia ; and Argo, Czech Republic.
  And, a cancellation! Due to the instability of the Argentinian economy, [Company Name Redacted!] will not be able to publish Stranger Things Happen. Darn. Well, it was a gamble and maybe it will work out in the future.

Donzelli in Italy is going to publish STH in May and it looks like there might be an interview in a paper and so on. Now that’s fun!

Also, Kelly’s calendar got a few small updates (exact dates for Clarion South and so on).

Among the beautiful pages and good fiction and so on, go buy a copy of Sybil’s Garage #3 and read a new interview with Kelly Link carried out by Lauren McLaughlin.

A new interview with Kelly Link at Redivider.

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April reading &c.

Sat 29 Apr 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., To Read Pile, Uncategorized | Comments Off on April reading &c. | Posted by: Gavin

Jane Jacobs died yesterday in Toronto at the age of 89. She lived there because she thought it was one of the best cities in the (Western) world. Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities has had a great effect on city planners (and should be read by the people guilty of suburbing this country to death). She synthesized a ton of information and makes it palatable to the general reader. One smart woman. You could do worse than read more of her books.

– Meant to post a link to this obit for Muriel Spark who wrote many enjoyable books gave Maggie Smith the role of a lifetime.

– The Zoo Press story keeps going the rounds and Tom Hopkins won’t let it go — yay!

– Mad comic book update. As in, update on a mad comic book, not a long, impassioned, knowledgeable update on many comics. Mostly because while traveling we are piling up comix at our local comic shop (hoping they have added the new Kevin Huizenga titles) which means that at some point there will be champagne, chocolate truffles, and a pile of comics-day. Always a day to look forward to.

Meanwhile, the people at NBM keep putting out these absolutely crazy Lewis Trondheim books (as do Fantagraphics — great days for picturebook lovers). First “read” (as they’re often wordless) some of the minibooks (Diablotus was noted but not much said about it in LCRW 4) and loved the whimsy — not something that’s generally hugely popular around here — cut with irony.

Meanwhile, the people at NBM keep putting out these absolutely crazy Lewis Trondheim books (as do Fantagraphics — great days for picturebook lovers). First “read” (as they’re often wordless) some of the minibooks (Diablotus was noted but not much said about it in LCRW 4) and loved the whimsy — not something that’s generally hugely popular around here — cut with irony.

The latest NBM book is Dungeon Twilight Vol.1 Dragon Cemetery. There’s a whole complicated back story about a stopped planet with a dark side and a light side (hmm, think of the storms at the dark/light edge!) but what’s really going on is an absolutely mad quest with the Dust King, a barbarian-in-training rabbit who named himself after his hero, Marvin, giants, love (why not?), and so on.

If, since you stopped reading Conan and Rider Haggard, you miss the mountains of skulls those titles often featured; quick, order the book.

Talking of poetry (and we know you were as you are a secret poet (except your secret is out now!) and you have been gleefully using April, NatPoMo to you, to push chapbooks on everyone you know, you bastard) here’s an enthusiastic if uninformed recc: Joshua Marie Wilkinson’s Lug Your Careless Body Out of the Careful Dusk is great. It’s made up of seven long poems, you can read part of one here — which was also published in a chapbook, A Ghost As the King of the Rabbits.

Poetry is like stained glass windows, there’s light coming through and it illuminates the world in odd ways. Some people like it, some don’t. The light coming through here is hypnotic (hey, isn’t all poetry to a certain extent?) and addictive.

– Strange Horizons are in the midst of their spring fund drive. Please consider supporting them. With Scifi.com closing Scifiction last year and the recent closing of Fortean Bureau this is an especially good time to support Strange Horizons. Also, they have some great gifts (including a limited edition of Mothers & Other Monsters) and even memberships. Ok, it’s always a good time.

I doubt Strange Horizons will have Kelly Hogan singing backup the way the amazing Neko Case does on her current tour (Do Not Miss), but they do have annual Reader Awards and apparently readers are enjoying speculative poetry and getting put off starting a small press, yay!

Articles

• First Place: “Speculative Poetry: A Symposium.” Mike Allen, Alan DeNiro, Theodora Goss, Matt Cheney.
• Second Place: “How to Start a Small Press.” Gavin Grant.
• Third Place: “20 Questions with Kelly Link.” Lynne Jamneck

Also, in reviews, Third Place went to a review of Magic for Beginners by Geneva Melzack. Congrats to all the winners and thanks to all the readers who read and voted.

One of the nice things about editing the Year’s Best Fantasy is that people will sometimes send or give you books. (Of course, sometimes we can’t track down the books we’d really like to read which sucks.)

Last year at some convention Scott Thomas (I think!) gave us a copy of his book, Westermead. It sat on the shelf (we have a section of the office where Year’s Best materials pile up. It is not always pretty or tidy.) for a while until one of those days when a stack (in this case a stack is the length of one’s arm) was moved to a reading area for some quick smart reading. Westermead slowed everything right down. Its a collection of linked stories that borrows from nineteenth century pastoral novels without being the usual pastoral fantasy. It isn’t just the odd twists that the stories take, it’s the embedded stories and mythologies, the depth of the world glimpsed at in the margins. In some ways this was more reminiscent of the pastoral novels of Thomas Hardy or the short stories of M.R. James than other fantasy novels. Either way, a treat. Westermead is also available in a beautiful over-sized limited edition.

– A review of Justina Robson’s Living Next Door to the God of Love. Is it the title that makes readers love this book?

– Publishers Weekly did their annual science fiction and fantasy issue (yes, we all have issues) including a good piece on the state of the nation by by Gwenda Bond.

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Privilege quotes

Tue 25 Apr 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Ellen Kushner | Comments Off on Privilege quotes | Posted by: Gavin

Another couple of great advance quotes came in for Ellen Kushner’s The Privilege of the Sword:

“Unholy fun, and wholly fun . . . an elegant riposte, dazzlingly executed.”
— Gregory Maguire, Wicked

“Splendid — a swashbuckler for women! Katherine is everything I love in a female hero: Impudent, lively, idealistic, fierce, and in over her head.”
— Tamora Pierce, Trickster’s Choice

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Frank O’Connor Longlist

Thu 20 Apr 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., A. DeNiro | Comments Off on Frank O’Connor Longlist | Posted by: Gavin

Small Beer Press is proud to announce that Minneapolis-based poet and writer A. DeNiro’s passionate and political debut fiction collection, Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead , (July 1, 2006 · $16 · 1-931520-17-8) is on the 2006 Longlist for the Second Annual Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. At 35,000 euros (~$42,500), the award is the world’s richest prize for the short story form.

Author of a collection reminiscent of debuts by George Saunders and Aimee Bender, praised by leading short story writers Jonathan Lethem and Hannah Tinti, DeNiro, 32, was surprised and delighted: “It’s a thrill to be in such good company, for a prize that is doing a lot to foster appreciation and awareness of the short story throughout the world.”

DeNiro shares the list with 28 writers from Great Britain and Ireland, the United States, Nigeria, Canada, Japan, and elsewhere. The winner of last year’s inaugural award was Yiyun Li’s debut collection A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (Random House). Four finalists will be announced in mid-July and the winner declared at the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Festival in Cork, Ireland, Sunday, Sept. 24th 2006.

Small Beer Press publisher Gavin J. Grant said, “A. is a genuine 21st-century voice and we jumped at the chance to publish their first collection. We’d never read anything quite like these stories.”

DeNiro’s appearance on the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award is the latest piece of good news for Small Beer Press, who recently announced a hard/soft co-publishing deal with Harcourt Harvest for Elizabeth Hand’s novel Generation Lost — Harvest’s first co-publishing deal of this kind since Harvest and MacAdam/Cage’s bestseller, The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. Small Beer published two critically acclaimed collections in 2005: Maureen F. McHugh’s Mothers & Other Monsters, a Story Prize finalist, and Kelly Link’s Magic for Beginners, a Time Magazine Best Book of the Year.

Elsewhere: Dan at the Emerging Writers Network enjoys A. DeNiro‘s “Child Assassin.”

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