Nancy says:

Tue 8 May 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Speculative fiction is where it’s at.

Also, see you at the Nebs.


Thu 26 Apr 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 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., , | 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.


Wed 11 Apr 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Tomorrow, having just gotten back from a week away (hello St. Louis! [who knew they had so much green space?] {more on that later}), we are headed to the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont, where Kelly will do a couple of class visits and so on. Comics! Cartoons! Maybe more art for LCRW!*

All of this, of course, dependent, as usual, on the dependent clause. Said clause this time being the weather, particularly a winter storm which, realizing it had missed winter, is trying to catch up and is promising us a couple of inches of snow while we drive and ice pellets up in Vermont. Long Johns, Ahoy! Ahem? Ahoy!

That is all.

* We are always hoping for more art then the great fiction takes up all the space. We can’t manage it. Need to take some lessons from Sybil’s Garage, Flytrap, Electric Velocipede and others who balance it so well.


Wed 11 Apr 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Tomorrow, having just gotten back from a week away (hello St. Louis! [who knew they had so much green space?] {more on that later}), we are headed to the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont, where Kelly will do a couple of class visits and so on. Comics! Cartoons! Maybe more art for LCRW!*

All of this, of course, dependent, as usual, on the dependent clause. Said clause this time being the weather, particularly a winter storm which, realizing it had missed winter, is trying to catch up and is promising us a couple of inches of snow while we drive and ice pellets up in Vermont. Long Johns, Ahoy! Ahem? Ahoy!

That is all.

* We are always hoping for more art then the great fiction takes up all the space. We can’t manage it. Need to take some lessons from Sybil’s Garage, Flytrap, Electric Velocipede and others who balance it so well.


Mon 26 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , , , | 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., , , , , , , | 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.

Fri 2 Mar 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 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., | 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., , | 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.


The Girl Detective in New York

Fri 23 Feb 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 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.


UK!

Tue 13 Feb 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | 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.


    Sun 21 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 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., , | 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.


    Mon 8 Jan 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | 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., , | 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., | 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., | 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 20 Dec 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

    — An interview with Neil Williamson (author of a collection worth tracking down The Ephemera).

    — Magic for Beginners hits another couple of year’s best lists: Seattle Times, (“odd, absorbing, fantasy stories”) and Nancy Pearl, librarian extraordinaire (list, listen). “If you do nothing else, read the title story…. It’s like looking at an M.C. Escher drawing…. It’s just a fabulous story, so don’t miss Kelly Link.” [Nancy also picks out Kevin Brockmeier, Susannah Clarke, Elizabeth Strout, etc.]– Lovely literary bookmarks by Eddie Campbell (sorry, forget where the link came from).

    — See you at KGB tonight.

    — The Scotsman reports on a BBC Scotland radio show they’re dubbing “the Scottish Simpsons“.

    — Old Earth Books has a new release date (March) for their Howard Waldrop collection, THINGS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME: Selected Short Fiction, 1980 – 2005.

    — Some pix of Venice — many more to follow.

    — Also: an interview with M.T. Anderson (thx Gwenda).

    — Just received: a new issue of the Fairy Tale Review and from Dean Francis Alfar, Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.2 (Kestrel), The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories, and Story Philippines.


    Wed 20 Dec 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

    — An interview with Neil Williamson (author of a collection worth tracking down The Ephemera).

    — Magic for Beginners hits another couple of year’s best lists: Seattle Times, (“odd, absorbing, fantasy stories”) and Nancy Pearl, librarian extraordinaire (list, listen). “If you do nothing else, read the title story…. It’s like looking at an M.C. Escher drawing…. It’s just a fabulous story, so don’t miss Kelly Link.” [Nancy also picks out Kevin Brockmeier, Susannah Clarke, Elizabeth Strout, etc.]– Lovely literary bookmarks by Eddie Campbell (sorry, forget where the link came from).

    — See you at KGB tonight.

    — The Scotsman reports on a BBC Scotland radio show they’re dubbing “the Scottish Simpsons“.

    — Old Earth Books has a new release date (March) for their Howard Waldrop collection, THINGS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME: Selected Short Fiction, 1980 – 2005.

    — Some pix of Venice — many more to follow.

    — Also: an interview with M.T. Anderson (thx Gwenda).

    — Just received: a new issue of the Fairy Tale Review and from Dean Francis Alfar, Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.2 (Kestrel), The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories, and Story Philippines.


    Cleveland gets DeNiro

    Thu 14 Dec 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

    — Added an exciting reading: A. DeNiro will read with Christopher Barzak and Sean Thomas Dougherty on Jan. 4 at Mac’s Backs in Cleveland Heights. Great store, we love doing events there. Don’t forget to eat at Tommy’s next door. Yum. (Reading calendar.)

    — Also, John Kessel took a look at A.’s book in F&SF:

    About fifteen years ago, in an essay I wrote comparing sf and mainstream fiction, I quoted Raymond Carver’s assertion that short stories are more like poems than novels. I protested that you would be hard pressed to find more than a handful of sf stories published every year of which this was true.

    I don’t think that’s true anymore.

    — Nice little story about another fave bookshop (we have so many…): Malaprop‘s in Asheville. Which is very near Salsa’s. Ah, the food of the traveling days. Malaprop’s also picked Magic for Beginners as one of their faves of 2006.
    — Elsewhere: an interview with Kelly Link by Bat Segundo. (Download.)

    — And: a review of Julie Phillips’s biography of Alice Sheldon. (This was necessarily foreshortened to fit the space available. What can you do?)

    Besides all the other great reviews The Double Life… received, it was just picked as a Salon Book of the Year and there’s an interview with Julie here.


    Tiny rapido Italia report

    Wed 13 Dec 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

    Last week, due to the amazing work of Marta Donzelli (editor at Donzelli editore who are publishing Strangers Things Happen and Magic for Beginners) and the US Ambassador’s office, Kelly was invited to read in Turin and Rome in Italy. It was a brilliant but molto rapido week. We took the train down to Venice (a beautiful and surreal consensual illusion between tourists and the small permanent population); up to Turin (cars! arcades! book shops!); and then seven hours back to Rome (a city beyond parenthetical comments).Kelly read in Turin — the World Book Capital from April ’06 to April ’07. She was introduced and translated by sarcastic artistic bon vivant Luca Scarlini, one of the organizers of the Turin Book Festival and the Book Capital, who travels so much that his studio in Florence (where he keeps 35,000+ books) is the closest thing he has to a home. (Not that he wants one. “It’s too boring to be trapped in the one place all the time!”)

    Piu Libre, Piu Liberi in Rome is nominally the Italian “Small Press Fair.” But many of the preses there were akin to Donzelli who do 90 books a year and have (after ~15 years) about 1,000 titles in print. The fair was huge, packed, inspiring. Thousands of people thronged the floors of the exhibit halls and shopped for books, hundreds of authors were on hand — magnificent. The New York Small Press Center book fair last week was fun; this was tremendous. Kelly was interviewed on one of the national radio stations (with a simultaneous translator) along with Diana Evans (winner of the 2005 Orange Prize for New Writers). Then rushed off to a panel where she, her translator, Riccardo Duranti of the University of Rome, and Sara Antonelli (and Bruna, the amazing simultaneous translator) went at it again. Then there were a whole bunch of radio and TV interviews—all the while giving us a chance to see the Donzelli team in action at the fair. (Kelly’s book was popular but their new translation of the Arabian Nights, the first new one in many years, was getting a ton of publicity and selling like hotcakes).

    Actually posted some pix (statues! pigeons!) and a quick interview with Marta about Italian publishing (now below).

    We didn’t have enough time to do anything: we’ll have to go back. There’s supposed to be another big bookfair in summer in Rome….

    — A short with Marta Donzelli — filmed in the basement of the expo center as it was the only relatively quiet spot:


    Next week: Italy

    Thu 30 Nov 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

    Kelly Link will be at a couple of book festivals in Italy next week thanks to the good people at Donzelli editore — who published Stranger Things Happen in Italian — and the American Embassy there.
    But, first, on the morning of Dec. 7th she will teach a class at the SCUOLA HOLDEN (yes, named after that Holden). Then she will read at 18 (6 PM) at the Atrium in Piazza Solferino.

    On the 9th at 16 (4 PM) she will read at the Rome Book Fair, being introduced by Riccardo Duranti, her translator, and Alessandro Portelli, a leading Italian scholar of American Literature.

    Invites to the readings are below! Wish us luck. It will be scattered showers all week, but we don’t care as it will be 60 degrees and We Will Be in Italy!

    Earlier we mentioned that we’d post some PDFs of an interview piece with Kelly from an Italian magazine. At last here they are. Go see for the fabby art. They’re large-ish files but can be downloaded here: Contents page, title page, interview1, interview2.
    The image “http://www.lcrw.net/images/Link_Roma.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
    http://www.lcrw.net/images/Link_Torino.jpg


    Signed Waldrops; Suggestion Plea

    Tue 21 Nov 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , | Posted by: Gavin

    Howard Who?During a brief sidetrip to Texas (where a bunch of plausible fabulists were gathered and wondering where a certain Mr. B. Rosenbaum was {Swizzerland, it seems}), we asked a boon of Mr. Howard Waldrop. He consented (when approached with ice cream and beer: Texans!) to apply his signature to his book. Huzzah, we announced, to the surprised gila monsters everywhere. Huzzah.

    Then we returned to Gueros again. For: verily, the tacos are unbeatable. Also, Las Manitas. Oh, the joy that was in our hearts, even as it was enspicened by the knowledge that we would have to leave this city of joyous eats and head away, away.

    Even Joe’s Cafe was a place of wonders in this time of joy. (Joy especial as the fabulist gathering was on the edge of the City of Great Foods so to be in the center was akin to being the chocolaty center of a bon bon.) There, and a few other places, we were able to speak with Mr. N-B (interviewed here) whom, should you get the opportunity to see him read, you should take as he is, really, quite wonnerful.

    Eventually retured to the Small Beer HQ and enstrengthened by our collection of Waldropian Signatures (for he is Mighty with his pen or typewriter), we are making these books, this debut collection, Howard Who? which is its name, available for sale.

    Lo, it is done.

    Other titles we have signed copies of: many. Move thy clickity thingy over here to see. (Kelly Link, Ellen Kushner, A. DeNiro, Carol Emshwiller).

    Now your turn: Please send us Suggestions for what kind of sale we should put on this year. Suggestions welcome by email or in the comments below.

    Other tiny updates: everywhere on our site. Because the paper in the office it overwhelming, of course.

    A. is reading at the Erie Bookstore on Dec. 30th at 2 PM. Drop by and see him!

    Added links to a couple more audio recordings (almost like podcasts!) of Kelly (or readers reading Kelly’s stories) here — includes a Real Audio (oh well) file from November 2005 from Prairiie Lights where she read “Monster.”

    Kelly also got a nice mention in this piece about short stories by Kevin Sampsell (micro emperor!).


    Kelly reads “The Hortlak”

    Tue 31 Oct 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

    KQED just posted a downloadable mp3 of Kelly reading one of her favorite stories to read, “The Hortlak“, on The Writers’ Block:

    Kelly Link reads “The Hortlak,” from her short story collection Magic for Beginners. “The Hortlak” is a Turkish word, meaning revenant, or ghost. Eric and Batu work at the All Night Convenience store across the road from the Ausible Chasm, at the bottom of which lies a vast zombie city. Zombies stop in at the All Night on their way to the chasm. Are Eric and Batu part of some kind of “new retail” experiment designed to study the shopping habits of zombies? Will Eric ever get the nerve to talk to Charley, the woman who works at the local SPCA putting dogs to sleep?

    “The Hortlak” was first published in Ellen Datlow’s ghost story anthology The Dark. Most recently it’s been translated into Japanese by Motoyuki Shibata for an anthology of recent fiction by American writers.

    That city, still burning.


    Slither!

    Thu 26 Oct 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

    For those who like the horror movies, Slither, Kelly’s favorite horror movie since Shaun of the Dead, is now available on DVD.

    For those who keep track of these things, it stars Nathan Fillion of various things and is directed by James Gunn (who wrote The Specials—an excellent little film—and the newer Dawn of the Dead). Apparently it’s smart and funny and plays with all kinds of horror conventions.

    Kelly would be like the millions of peeps who missed this if it weren’t for some smart folk in North Carolina who dragged her to see it. They knew what they were doing (thanks!) and she’s been telling people about it ever since. She got her copy yesterday.


    Poor hungry Not a Journal.

    Wed 4 Oct 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

    Never gets fed. Until this afternoon.
    Ellen Kushner’s The Privilege of the Sword pb is in its 4th printing. Our edition is selling nicely.

    Great review of Howard Who?

    Back in print after so many years, Howard Who? remains a terrific collection of short stories. There is nobody else alive writing stories as magnificently strange, deliriously inventive, and utterly wonderful as Howard Waldrop. More.

    This won’t stay online, so here’s the full thing.

    Nancy Pearl Books Reviews for 10/2/2006:

    On the one hand, reading Magic for Beginners, Kelly Link’s exquisitely loopy collection of stories, demands a certain suspension of disbelief, not unlike when you read Garcia Marquez, Salman Rushdie, or the other magical realists. (As Shakespeare had Hamlet note, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”) You simply have to accept (at least for the length of the story) that there might be zombies living among us, or that a purse can expand to hold a complete village. On the other hand, Link’s writing is so remarkable, her use of language so mind-boggling perfect, that you’re sucked into the world of the stories before you know it, beguiled by descriptions like this one, of a sofa covered in “…an orange-juice-colored corduroy that makes it appear as if the couch has just escaped from a maximum security prison for criminally insane furniture.” My favorite is the title story, which reminds me of a drawing by M.C. Escher’s picture The Drawing Hands. It’s intricate, wildly imaginative, and totally wonderful. Whether or not you think you like fantasy, if you’re a fan of inventive plots and good writing – Link’s use of language will fill you with awe and joy – don’t miss this collection.


    Get your name in a story &c.

    Wed 4 Oct 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

    More interesting things from the Clarion auction: your name in a Kelly Link story. Howard Waldrop on your answering machine. Your name in a Kate Wilhelm novel. Wacky. Other cool stuff.


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