Wed 4 Jan 2012 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, Kij Johnson, Lydia Millet, Nancy Kress, Sofia Samatar| Posted by: Gavin
2012? Wooee. Must be the future. Must remember to post about 2011 before it fades completely. In the meantime: we have a couple of podcasts to come—and did you listen to Rick Kleffel talking with Ayize Jama-Everett and Lisa Goldstein after their event at the Capitola Book Cafe? Not to be missed.
We had a big ebook sale on December 31st: it was huge. Seems like people, they like ebooks. With upcoming travel and so on we’ll have to keep pushing back any print book sale for a loooong time.
We published the POD+ebook edition of A Working Writer’s Daily Planner, which is an interesting experiment.
We have some nebulous plans of a new model of bookselling—hey, who doesn’t right now? So far no one has shot it down. We’re not going all Kickstarter all the time (would be interesting though, wouldn’t it, if we put every single book on Kickstarter and if it didn’t fly we didn’t publish it??) or all subscriber or citizens . . . but maybe something in between.
Anyway, that’s all pie in the sky. Really just wanted to move the sale post off the top of the page and note that soon we’ll have t-shirts for sale and, more importantly, we have new books coming from:
April
Nancy Kress, Fountain of Age and Other Stories
June
Sofia Samatar, A Stranger in Olondria
Geoff Ryman, The Unconquered Country
July
Lydia Millet, The Shimmers in the Night
August
Kij Johnson, At the Mouth of the River of Bees: Stories
As well as late titles(!):
LCRW 28
Laurie J. Marks, Fire Logic
Geoff Ryman, Was
And paperback editions of books we are about sold out on! The Serial Garden, What I Didn’t See, The Fires Beneath the Sea. And that’s it for now. From this tiny outpost to yours, Hello!
Thu 30 Jul 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, Kelly Link| Posted by: Gavin
Frank Marcopolis completes his podcast of Kelly Link’s story “The Hortlak.”
Here’s Part 1.
If you like the free audio stories, check out Frank’s site. He’s podcasting some of his own stuff as well as Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and others.
Thu 23 Jul 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, Interstitial Arts| Posted by: Gavin
Last week Matt Cheney posted an mp3 of his reading of his story, “A Map of the Everywhere,” which was published in the first Interstitial Arts Foundation anthology, Interfictions. Check, one-two-three. Check, one-two-three. You are good to go:
I’ve been meaning for a while to record a reading of my story “A Map of the Everywhere”, first published in Interfictions
, because when I’ve done a reading of the story, the response has often been somewhat different from the response to the text on the page — many people have told me they hadn’t realized the story was humorous until I read it aloud. Here, then, is an mp3 of me reading the story. It’s not particularly high quality — the microphone I have is one step up from something in a Cracker Jack box. I’m also a better reader with an audience. And there are some glitches in the first minute or two. But for what it’s worth, here is “A Map of the Everywhere“.
Thu 25 Jun 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, Creative Commons, Kelly Link| Posted by: Gavin
By Frank Marcopolis courtesy of Creative Commons. He’s split the story into two: part one is here, part 2 TK.
“Can Erik and Batu revolutionize convenience retail? And what about all those zombies? ”
– Is the All-Night Convenience a metaphor for life itself? If so, how?
– What other symbols are used in the story (if any)?
– Is a new style of retail, one that will usher in a revolutionary era, on the horizon?
– Do you believe in ghosts? Zombies? Dog ghosts? Why or why not?
– Do you sleep in pajamas?
– What themes/issues/whatevers from the story do YOU want to talk about?
I’d love to know your thoughts. Listen to the story, and let’s discuss in the comments section.
Tue 9 Jun 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, Gavin J. Grant, Publishing| Posted by: Gavin
A couple of weeks ago Gavin was on a panel on “The Future of Publishing” with these fine people:
Gavin J. Grant, Small Beer Press
Jennifer Jackson, Donald Maass Literary Agency
Robert Miller, Harper Studio
Bob Stein, Institute for the Future of the Book
Moderator: Geoffrey Long, MIT
MIT has posted audio of the whole thing online here.
ETA: And now you can, erk, watch the whole thing here.
These were the panel questions to kick things off:
Read more
Tue 19 May 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, Cons, Greer Gilman, readings| Posted by: Gavin
This month, or maybe next, depending on which bibliographic source you believe, Greer Gilman’s second novel, Cloud & Ashes, springs fully formed into the world. If you’ve ever had a chance to hear Greer read you’ll know what an entrancing, immersive experience this book is.
Greer has a new website up and has very handily opened up a thread on her live journal answering any and all reader’s questions on Cloud & Ashes:
To begin with, I wanted a Yorkshire dialect, because I so love the Watersons’ voices. It’s changed over the long years, becoming more itself, more Cloudish, but it’s founded on Yorkshire, mostly on the Dales and the North York Moors and coast.
Greer will read from Cloud & Ashes for the first time at Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass., on Wednesday, May 20, at 7 PM, then at Tuesday May 26 at 7 PM, she will read from Cloud & Ashes at Back Pages Books in Waltham. After that she is one of the Guests of Honor at Readercon 20 (July 9-12) and there may yet be a couple more readings appearing on the schedule.
Somewhat recently, Greer was one of the guests at the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts and she sent us a recording of her reading. Greer is introduced by her friend and fellow conspirator, Faye Ringel, and after a 40-minute reading, Sonya Taafe sings “The Scarecrow,” one of the songs Greer incorporates into the novel, then Greer reads a little more. You can download and listen to the (large) MP3 here.
We spent a decent part of last week shipping out most (nothing ever gets finished) of the pre-orders for Cloud & Ashes as well as a goodly number of review copies, so there should be more happy readers and more people reading about it soon.
For more about the book, see our page, Greer‘s, or order your copy now:
Buy | Mail Order | ebook | Fictionwise (TK) | Powells | Indie Bookstore
Thu 14 May 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, John Crowley, John Kessel, To Read Pile| Posted by: Gavin
Karen Joy Fowler has a great essay about writing Wit’s End on Powell’s blog (Wit’s End is just out in paperback, read now!). She does life in the connected (pre-collapse? c-cough) 21st century very well:
A lot of my novel is focused on privacy, and what that means in the age of the internet. This includes things like the creation of the author persona, the mediated fake intimacy of the net, and a new kind of accessibility of writer to reader.
John Crowley in The Believer (Four Freedoms coming soon):
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| “IT’S PROBABLY CENTRAL TO THE NATURE OF FICTION ALTOGETHER, TO TRY TO ENTER INTO LOST WORLDS OR ENTER INTO ‘THE LOST’ IN SOME WAY.” |
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Reasons to get involved with the science-fiction crowd:
They speak Latin
They respond promptly to blogs
Their untamed romantic impulse |
John Kessel on the podcastery and the radio:
In the first week of May I’ve had two interviews that are now available for your listening. In the first, by Douglas Lain, author of LAST WEEK’S APOCALYPSE, we talk about science fiction, politics, utopia, some of my short fiction, and my twenty-year-old novel GOOD NEWS FROM OUTER SPACE). It’s available at Dietsoap, Doug’s quirky website, along with other recent podcasts.
The second interview was on the May 7 edition of “The State of Things” with Frank Stasio on WUNC radio, 91.5 FM in the Research Triangle. We talk about “Pride and Prometheus”, Mary Shelley, and Jane Austen. Here’s the link.
And another thing worth reading on Powell’s, this time an essay by Lisa M. Hamilton, author of Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness:
Writing about farmers has taught me a lot about how to be a witness. In simplistic terms, it’s because not much actually happens on the farm. Most days in the lives of farmers I know are composed of unremarkable tasks repeated over and over: milking one cow after another, weeding up this row and then down the next. Any writer who expects to swoop in, get a hot story, and then swoop out, will likely come away empty-handed.
I’ve learned that, to write about farmers, one must instead slow down to that rhythm of repetition. The writer must sit in the combine as it chugs along in concentric circles, taking hours to close in on the center of the field, only to pick up, move to the next field, and do it all over again. Being witness means a willingness to pass the same barn or tree or fencepost two dozen times and continually try to learn something new about it.
And Hannah Tinti (The Good Thief) gets an in-depth interview on Bookslut that goes well beyond the usual questions:
Women in this time period were almost always buried in their wedding dresses, because these were the nicest pieces of clothing they owned. I grew up in New England surrounded by old graveyards, and often picnicked and played in them. For this book I went back and spent time there and took many names for characters from the headstones.
Sun 1 Mar 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, ebooks| Posted by: Gavin
Happy to see PW reporting that Amazon backed down on the text-to-speech debacle. It’s not that the robotic voice reading a book aloud is a huge problem now, but letting it go now would create huge problems later when contextual reading widgets will allow text-to-speech to sound more human. (10 years? More like 5?):
In a surprising about-face, Amazon has decided to give publishers and authors the choice over whether or not to enable the Kindle 2’s text-to-speech function…. Despite protests from the Authors Guild, Amazon’s move came as a surprise since the company rarely reverses a policy once it is in place….
Amazon are the 800lb gorilla everyone in publishing deals with and they own so many parts of the book business that we have to be careful with every move they make. No doubt we are missing some of the ramifications of their actions right now….
Their market share isn’t that high, but it is enough that they can dictate terms—and they are not particularly kind. It’s a relief to see IndieBound getting more creative and useful, being able to link to individual titles should have been available years ago, but at least it’s available now.
Mon 9 Feb 2009 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, Kelly Link| Posted by: Gavin
Next Sunday at 6.30 PM GST, BBC Radio 7 will air their adaptation of Kelly’s story “The Faery Handbag.” (It also re-airs at 00:30 that night.) We’re very excited and curious to see what it will sound like!
“The Faery Handbag” is the third (of four) episodes in a show called Fantastic Journeys—you can go and listen (for another 6 days) to the current show, “Fifty Cents,” by Tim Powers and James Blaylock.
Thu 18 Sep 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, Benjamin Rosenbaum| Posted by: Gavin
The title story of Ben Rosenbaum’s collection The Ant King, is part of this weeks’ StarShipSofa podcast (starting around 35:00):
Stan went to a group to try to accept that Sheila was gone. It was a group for people whose unrequited love had ended in some kind of surrealist moment. There is a group for everything in California.After several months of hard work on himself with the group, Stan was ready to open a shop and sell the thousands of yellow gumballs. He did this because he believed in capitalism, he loved capitalism. He loved the dynamic surge and crash of Amazon’s stock price, he loved the great concrete malls spreading across America like blood staining through a handkerchief, he loved how everything could be tracked and mirrored in numbers. When he closed the store each night he would count the gumballs sold, and he would determine his gross revenue, his operating expenses, his operating margin; he would adjust his balance sheet and learn his debt-to-equity ratio; and after this exercise each night, Stan felt he understood himself and was at peace, and he could go home to his apartment and drink tea and sleep, without shooting himself or thinking about Sheila.
Thu 21 Aug 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, John Kessel| Posted by: Gavin
Listen or download a John Kessel interview on WMUA’s Writer’s Voice here.
The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories just received a great thoughtful review in the LA Times:
“There is at least one universal truth running through this collection. Rejection, unlike love, is a sure thing. Its contours can be measured, its gravity weighed. In that, Kessel’s losers surely aren’t alone in stumbling off the path to paradise.”
Down in western North Carolina WNC Magazine gave the book a corker of a review in their August issue (on stands now):
“Politically conscious science fiction, macabre humor, and economical, slice-of-life storytelling…. A treasure trove of polished gems for anyone who enjoys a well-told tale.”
Update: a new review popped up on Anthem (who also have a great Feist/John McCain house-counting mashup):
What keeps the reader motivated to power through the slow points is salient feature of the book is the deftness with which Kessel builds his characters. The stories are based around misfits, nerds, and criminals—people who, for one reason or another, lie about who they are.
Thu 1 May 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, Benjamin Rosenbaum| Posted by: Gavin
Tickle your ears today with the sound of “The Ant King”—the title story of Ben Rosenbuam’s upcoming collection—the fifth in the new fantasy-flavored PodCastle (a castle in a pod: how science fictional!):
By Benjamin Rosenbaum
Read by Stephen Eley.
Introduction by Rachel Swirsky.
First appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction.
Also by the Author: The Ant King: and Other Stories (Paperback)
Sheila split open and the air was filled with gumballs. Yellow gumballs. This was awful for Stan, just awful. He had loved Sheila for a long time, fought for her heart, believed in their love until finally she had come around. They were about to kiss for the first time and then this: yellow gumballs.
Stan went to a group to try to accept that Sheila was gone. It was a group for people whose unrequited love had ended in some kind of surrealist moment. There is a group for everything in California.
Rated PG. Contains surrealism, involuntary cohabitation, strong language and characters with unconventional genders. Also, an extremely large number of geek culture easter eggs.
Listen here.
Thu 10 Apr 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, John Kessel| Posted by: Gavin
Two things! A thoughtful and wide-ranging review/interview in Metro Magazine in Raleigh, NC (Kessel’s hometown—unless you count his football homeland, Buffalo):
Kessel proves himself again a master not just of science fiction, but also of the modern short story, crafting compelling characters and following them through plots that never fail to please — or to defy prediction.
Second Thing:
In preparation for the actual publication day (April 15) next week, we’ve got more free audio fiction from John Kessel: this week it’s his fantastic 19th century mash-up, “Pride and Prometheus,” first published in the January 2008 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction:
Miss Mary Bennet, the bookish younger sister of Elizabeth Darcy, meets a mysterous and handsome scientist from the continent come to Regency England on a matter of life-and-death.
Pride and Prometheus, Part 1 (1:02.25)
Pride and Prometheus, Part 2 (27:52)
——————
Previously:
“The Baum Plan for Financial Independence”
“Every Angel is Terrifying”
(read by Gregory Frost, author of Shadowbridge)
Thu 3 Apr 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, John Kessel| Posted by: Gavin
Greg Frost is a multi-talented (and sharp-dressed) man. Here’s his IMDB page and his latest novel, Shadowbridge (the second part of the duology is due this summer), is a celebration of storytelling in all its forms.
This week John Kessel posted Greg’s reading of his story “Every Angel is Terrifying”:
Railroad is a murderer and a man haunted by God. What happens in the aftermath of his latest crime, when the pet cat of his last victims offers him a chance ot change his life? (With apologies to Flannery O’Connor).
Every Angel is Terrifying (39:05)Read by Gregory Frost, author of Shadowbridge. First published in Fantasy and Science Fiction. Copyright © 1998
——————
Previously:
“The Baum Plan for Financial Independence”
Thu 13 Mar 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, John Kessel| Posted by: Gavin
Here’s John Kessel reading the title story of his new collection:
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“The Baum Plan for Financial Independence”
Ex-con Sid and his sometime girlfriend Dot break into a house in the Blue Ridge Mountains and open a door to a world that changes everything.
The Baum Plan for Financial Independence (33:03)
First published in SciFiction.
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Updated again with a link to a “sneak preview” of the story in the Raleigh News and Observer. John will be reading in Raleigh in a couple of weeks: see the events calendar over there on the right (a direction that makes no sense in your blogreader of choice) or here.
Mon 20 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, LCRW| Posted by: Gavin
We’re on the road (ah, the wind in one’s hair, the wine in one’s glass, the red and blue lights in one’s mirror) and yesterday, while sipping iced tea with Karen Joy Fowler, we talked to the lovely Rick Kleffel about LCRW, Karen’s movie (The Jane Austen Book Club) and new novel (Ice City), writing, and much more. Some of which can be heard here.
Mon 20 Aug 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, LCRW| Posted by: Gavin
We’re on the road (ah, the wind in one’s hair, the wine in one’s glass, the red and blue lights in one’s mirror) and yesterday, while sipping iced tea with Karen Joy Fowler, we talked to the lovely Rick Kleffel about LCRW, Karen’s movie (The Jane Austen Book Club) and new novel (Ice City), writing, and much more. Some of which can be heard here.
Sun 20 May 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, Books| Posted by: Gavin
Last Thursday we threw an tiny local shindig (ouch?) at Artifacts gallery in the Florencian part of Northampton. We had lined up the readers, gotten in the chairs, talked to the weather god and cursed* the Sox for playing that night … all the usual set up thingies. (Need flyers put up fast: call Flyer Girl!)
Liz Hand drove down from Maine, showed us her new tattoo (a work in progress), signed books like she may have done it before, and still managed to finish a book review by her deadline. Paul Park arrived and eventually we headed over to the space: which is huge, beautiful and fills us with longing. (We could do such things in such a space! We could put the letterpress here, the silkscreening could be done over there, the tandoori over over there.)
The Artifacts people, Ann, Julia, and Bob, had done tons of set up and the place was organized. We just needed peeps. And peeps, they arrived. They parked their jetpacks carefully (only one small brush fire) flocked to the refreshments, and admired Susie Horgan’s Punk Love photos—Liz knew some of the people and places!
Happily for us, Erik wrote the evening up for the MassLive Sound Check blog with links to all the readings:
Click here for an advice column on the topic of confronting an electric toothbrush that seems vaguely malevolent.
Click here to listen to Elizabeth Hand reading from Generation Loss.
Click here to listen to John Crowley reading from Endless Things.
Click here to listen to Michael DeLuca’s reading of “The Utter Proximity of God” from Interfictions.
Click here to listen to Diana Gordon reading “Sliding” from LCRW 19.
There’s no recording of the hilarious Paul Park story (“A Short History of Science Fiction”) as he is still working on it.
After all the readings Philip Price and Flora Reed of the Winterpills played a short set. It was mind-blowingly gorgeous music and a great cap for the evening. Then there was still a chance to buy books and CDs (and beautiful silk-screened Winterpills tour posters, ahem), and much swapping of “When I first read John Crowley…” tales.
We videod parts of each of the readings but if those go up here it will be in a while. Here’s Diane on the night and Friday’s (weekly) parasite.
* Just kidding. Who is brave or stupid enough to curse the Sox? Not us!
Thu 17 May 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Alan DeNiro, Audio out| Posted by: Gavin
Don’t miss the Bat Segundo / Pinky’s Paperhaus interview with Lit Blog Coop spring Read This! pick Mr. Alan “Space Poetry” DeNiro.
Nominator: Carolyn Kellogg
Nominee: Alan DeNiro
(A co-production of the LBC, Pinky’s Paperhaus and The Bat Segundo Show.)
Thu 10 May 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, Laurie J. Marks| Posted by: Gavin
Podcast Thusday. Which we will keep to when we have stuff. Mostly.
This week: not Alan DeNiro! (Although he will have an interview posted on the LBC sometime this week.)
Laurie J. Marks has recorded the first chapter of her fabby new novel Water Logic. You can go ahead and read it or listen to it in 2 parts: one, two.
We love this book. It’s the first fantasy series we’ve ever been a part of publishing and we’re very happy to say that the first and second books are available as mass market paperbacks. Haven’t read them? Read or listen to the start of each:
- Fire Logic: read · listen one, two.
- Earth Logic: read · listen.
Thu 26 Apr 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, Kelly Link| Posted by: Gavin
Lit-Cast, an audio journal of literature, has posted Kelly’s part of a panel from an AWP panel on Fairy Tales, moderated by Kate Bernheimer. Listen here.
Thu 26 Apr 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, Kelly Link| Posted by: Gavin
Lit-Cast, an audio journal of literature, has posted Kelly’s part of a panel from an AWP panel on Fairy Tales, moderated by Kate Bernheimer. Listen here.
Thu 19 Apr 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, Elizabeth Hand| Posted by: Gavin
Inaugerating our podcastery thingie (which can be subscribed to here) is Liz Hand who recorded an awesome reading of the first couple of chapters of Generation Loss. Check out that voice!http://www.elizabethhand.com/2007/gen_loss.mp3
Fri 30 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Audio out, 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.
