Ross E. Lockhart's Blog, page 51
April 7, 2012
The conspicuous absence of...
Snoring on the foot of the bed;
Rolling on the couch, kicking her feet with wild abandon;
Having a late-night drink of water,
then barking to go outside;
Running from room to room,
toenails clicking on the hardwood floors;
Prowling the kitchen, searching for a dropped bit of cheese;
Napping next to my desk,
just close enough to scratch on the head;
Sitting on my lap as I read;
Waiting by the front door when I come home;
The conspicuous absence of dog.
Based in part on a poem I read once, but never found again.
April 5, 2012
Thanks for the Knots
Sorry I had to go, but I wanted you to know something.
The thing I liked best was my clean new coat. Don't get me wrong, there were lots of things you did that most humans would never do for a dog, but that clean coat was best of all. I knew it would go away some day, I just didn't know when or how. I was so uncomfortable, I hated the way I looked, but you picked me.
You picked me!
What great fun we had. Especially when I'd take you out for walks. I liked doing that for you. I hope you liked it too. I think you did.
Well I'm just getting used to the place so I'm going to wander around a bit and check things out.
Oh, by the way, I saw Charlie, Meow and Cooper when I first got here. Charlie was running all over the place and has more strawberries than any dog could ever want, Meow gave me a quick tail flip and a wink, Cooper looked up, smiled, and went back to sleep. They seem fine.
But that clean fur, even with all those silly colored knots, was best of all.
I'm so sorry I had to go….
Your dog,
Maddie
P.S. Don't forget me. I'll never forget you.
[image error]
Photo by Randall Ingalls
March 18, 2012
Adult Beverage: Rogue Irish Style Lager
They say that everybody's a little Irish on St. Patrick's Day, but since I'm a little Irish all year long, I find the holiday to be a bit of a bother. Maybe it's because I'm colorblind, and have trouble telling green apart from certain oranges, reds, and browns. Or maybe it's the ridiculous conceit of St. Patrick chasing the snakes from Ireland, a waterbound ecosystem in which they never evolved (see also snake-free Iceland, Greenland, New Zealand, and Antarctica). Or, quite possibly, it's the rash of embarrassing Irish stereotypes that get trotted out by drunk knuckleheads every year: leprechaun hats and beards, pots of gold, jaunty jigs, four-leaf clovers, and bar fights.
But that doesn't mean I can't appreciate a nice, Irish Adult Beverage. But rather than the usual Guinness (Yay!) or green-dyed Miller Lite (Boo!) that everyone else is drinking right now, I'm having a Rogue Irish Style Lager (out of Newport, OR, not Dublin, IE). Originally created to float a Guinness in a black and tan, let's see if this lager stands on its own.
Rogue Irish Style Lager pours light gold with a couple inches of white, frothy head on top and a cluster of bubbles lurking at the bottom of the glass. The full head doesn't stick around particularly long, but does leave behind a ring of foam and admirable arches of lacing. Grape Nuts and fresh-cut grass on the nose, hinting of green apples and lemongrass. Sweet, bready, and astringent on the tongue: wheat and hops, with malt sugars emerging mid-sip, and crisp apple following. Creamy mouthfeel, with a ton of carbonation. Sour, bitter finish. Goes nicely with a spring training ballgame in which both teams are wearing Gaelic green, and worth trying in a black and tan (any excuse to break out the Brütül Lagerhead Turtle is a good one), but not likely a beverage I'll be sampling on a year-round basis.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
March 4, 2012
Adult Beverage: Hazelnut Brown Nectar
The one thing I love more than a good beer recommendation? A good beer recommendation I can actually find. So when Constance Ann Fitzgerald, author of Trashland A Go-Go and fellow Petaluma resident, told me that I not only needed to try Rogue Brewing's Hazelnut Brown Nectar, but that they had it at Wilibees Market, I headed right over to pick up a bomber.
After all, Rogue make outstanding beer. Last year, Jennifer, Maddie, and I rambled up to their brewery in Newport, OR for the Brewer's Memorial Ale Fest and had an outstanding time (beer, music, and dogs--how can you possibly go wrong with a combination like that?). And while I'm not going anywhere near their Voodoo Bacon Maple nightmare anytime soon, I'm usually willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Hazelnut Brown Nectar pours ruby-brown with a full--but quick--tan head that leaves behind a clean glass. A nose full of nuts in this one, fresh-ground hazelnuts toasted and caramel-coated. Hazelnut brittle on the tongue; this beer is like candy: toffee, caramel, cocoa, brown sugar, and, of course, nuts. Low carbonation, medium body. Spicy hops lend a slightly bitter finish. Well balanced. I'm half tempted to try this one with a scoop of vanilla ice cream next time. If you're nuts for nuts, this one's gonna make you smile.
February 25, 2012
You wanted a secret... Cthulhu 2: Electric Boogaloo
...drum roll please...
Guess who's coming back for seconds!
Cthulhu 2: Electric Boogaloo. Original artwork created for this bulletin by Vanyel Harkema, a talented young artist I met at last year's World Fantasy Convention in San Diego.
Here's the big secret announcement: I just signed a contract with Night Shade Books to edit The Book of Cthulhu 2, to be published in October of this year. No, we're not actually calling it Cthulhu 2: Electric Boogaloo. As I have just begun working on this project, I don't have more details I can share with you yet, but like the previous volume, it will be a mix of reprints and originals, showcasing even more of the best of the last several decades of Cthulhu Mythos short fiction. Watch this space as we reveal cover art and our table of contents over the next few months. Until then, here's our working jacket copy...
Last year, Night Shade Books unleashed The Book of Cthulhu onto an unsuspecting world. Critically acclaimed as "the ultimate Cthulhu anthology" and "a 'must read' for fans of Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos," The Book of Cthulhu went where no collection of mythos tales had gone before: to the very edge of madness... and beyond.
For nearly a century, H. P. Lovecraft's tales of malevolent Great Old Ones existing beyond the dimensions of this world, beyond the borders of sanity, have captured and held the imaginations of writers and aficionados of the dark, the macabre, the fantastic, and the horrible. Now, because you demanded more, anthologist Ross E. Lockhart has risked all to dive back into the Cthulhu canon, combing through mind-shattering manuscripts and moldering tomes to bring you The Book of Cthulhu 2, with even more tales of tentacles, terror, and madness.
Featuring monstrous stories by many of weird fiction's brightest lights, The Book of Cthulhu 2 brings you even more tales inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's greatest creation: The Cthulhu mythos.
This year, the stars are right...
And if you'd like to suggest a Cthulhu Mythos story or author you feel I missed the first time around, please feel free to let me know.
February 20, 2012
Notes on a Writers Conference and Imposter Syndrome
I was invited to be a presenter at this year's San Francisco Writers Conference, something which still boggles my mind a little bit (but more on that in a sec). So yesterday afternoon, I drove down to the InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel, at the top of Knob Hill, signed in, and participated in a standing-room-only genre fiction-focused panel called "Making Your Fantasies Come True," along with editor Gabrielle Harbowy (who gave me a copy of her Dragon Moon Press anthology, When the Hero Comes Home), authors Ransom Stephens (a fellow Petaluman) and Pam van Hylckama, and agent and dean of San Francisco Writers University Laurie McLean.
The panel was a blast, with a hungry crowd of prospective authors eager to ask questions and demystify the publishing industry, and I was pleased to be able to answer their questions, talk up Night Shade Books and our stable of authors, and give away a big handful of recent Night Shade titles to the eager audience.
After the panel and a handful of hallway pitches, I had a little bit of time to kill, so I ended up wandering up to a bar called The Big Four and having a beer (an Anchor Steam, for those keeping track) with a young writer from Tijuana named Xavier. We talked about graphic novels, literary influences (like me, Xavier is a big fan of William S. Burroughs), and how growing up along an international border–an Interzone, if you will–is, in itself, a science-fictional reality.
Then, I joined in the "Ask a Pro" session, holding court at a table, taking authors' questions and listening to pitches. One subject that came up was "Imposter Syndrome," something I suffer from on a regular basis. Imposter Syndrome is the anxious opposite side of the coin that reads, "fake it till you make it." It's the fear that someone's going to call you out, expose you as someone unqualified to belong to the fraternity of creative professionals. It's the phenomena that causes you to question whether you belong, to wonder what it is that qualifies you to be a part of the community of writers and editors, and whether you have that quality, or if you're simply faking it.
I've known writers and editors at all stages of their careers to exhibit signs of Imposter Syndrome, from first-time authors afraid the other shoe is about to drop to wizened writers uncertain how to navigate the damnable Retail Death Spiral. Writing is a solitary pursuit, wherein an investment of weeks, months, and years can be damned to failure by the whims of a fickle marketplace and the indifference of uninformed and brutal self-appointed critics. Rejection is such a soul-crushing force that even the threat of rejection can stifle the creative imagination and stay the hand that holds the pen. Even success is no guarantee, as writers are constantly faced with friends and family members who either don't read, or (worse) only read bestsellers, or ask the inevitable question, "You sold a book (or a short story), does that mean you're as rich as J. K. Rowling or Stephen King?"
As I said, I suffer from Imposter Syndrome myself, even though I've worked on hundreds of books, including a few major award winners, over the last five years. How do I fight it? How do I get through? I simply remind myself:
1) My anthology, The Book of Cthulhu not only made it onto the Locus Magazine Recommended Reading List this year, but it's also made it onto the Locus Awards ballot in the Best Anthology category. (Pssst… You don't have to be a Locus subscriber to vote, though subscriber votes count double, so if you want to make a difference and show your support for independent genre fiction, drop by the Locus website and vote!)
2) Also on the Locus Recommended Reading List and Locus Awards ballot are a number of other titles I worked on in some capacity, including Greg Egan's The Clockwork Rocket, Michael Swanwick's Dancing with Bears, Catherynne M. Valente's The Folded World, Kameron Hurley's God's War, Stina Leicht's Of Blood and Honey, Will McIntosh's Soft Apocalypse, Rob Ziegler's Seed (which I edited), Jonathan Strahan's Eclipse Four and The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Five, John Klima's Happily Ever After, and Ellen Datlow's The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Three.
3) Two novels I edited, John Hornor Jacobs' Southern Gods and Thomas S. Roche's The Panama Laugh, are Best First Novel nominees on this year's Stoker Awards ballot.
4) I'm doing a job I love, and having a great time doing it, so I must be doing something right.
After the "Ask a Pro" panel, I took off my nametag, enjoying the sudden anonymity as I walked back to the parking garage, retrieved my car, and drove home to Petaluma, stopping to pick up a burritos from La Azteca before I got to the house. Once home, I cracked open a Hop Wallop from Victory Brewing, purchased as much for the cartoonish prospector on its label as for the promise of a DIPA.
Notes on a Writers Conference, Imposter Syndrome, and Victory Hop Wallop (Adult Beverage)
The panel was a blast, with a hungry crowd of prospective authors eager to ask questions and demystify the publishing industry, and I was pleased to be able to answer their questions, talk up Night Shade Books and our stable of authors, and give away a big handful of recent Night Shade titles to the eager audience.
After the panel and a handful of hallway pitches, I had a little bit of time to kill, so I ended up wandering up to a bar called The Big Four and having a beer (an Anchor Steam, for those keeping track) with a young writer from Tijuana named Xavier. We talked about graphic novels, literary influences (like me, Xavier is a big fan of William S. Burroughs), and how growing up along an international border--an Interzone, if you will--is, in itself, a science-fictional reality.
Then, I joined in the "Ask a Pro" session, holding court at a table, taking authors' questions and listening to pitches. One subject that came up was "Imposter Syndrome," something I suffer from on a regular basis. Imposter Syndrome is the anxious opposite side of the coin that reads, "fake it till you make it." It's the fear that someone's going to call you out, expose you as someone unqualified to belong to the fraternity of creative professionals. It's the phenomena that causes you to question whether you belong, to wonder what it is that qualifies you to be a part of the community of writers and editors, and whether you have that quality, or if you're simply faking it.
I've known writers and editors at all stages of their careers to exhibit signs of Imposter Syndrome, from first-time authors afraid the other shoe is about to drop to wizened writers uncertain how to navigate the damnable Retail Death Spiral. Writing is a solitary pursuit, wherein an investment of weeks, months, and years can be damned to failure by the whims of a fickle marketplace and the indifference of uninformed and brutal self-appointed critics. Rejection is such a soul-crushing force that even the threat of rejection can stifle the creative imagination and stay the hand that holds the pen. Even success is no guarantee, as writers are constantly faced with friends and family members who either don't read, or (worse) only read bestsellers, or ask the inevitable question, "You sold a book (or a short story), does that mean you're as rich as J. K. Rowling or Stephen King?"
As I said, I suffer from Imposter Syndrome myself, even though I've worked on hundreds of books, including a few major award winners, over the last five years. How do I fight it? How do I get through? I simply remind myself:
1) My anthology, The Book of Cthulhu not only made it onto the Locus Magazine Recommended Reading List this year, but it's also made it onto the Locus Awards ballot in the Best Anthology category. (Pssst... You don't have to be a Locus subscriber to vote, though subscriber votes count double, so if you want to make a difference and show your support for independent genre fiction, drop by the Locus website and vote!)
2) Also on the Locus Recommended Reading List and Locus Awards ballot are a number of other titles I worked on in some capacity, including Greg Egan's The Clockwork Rocket, Michael Swanwick's Dancing with Bears, Catherynne M. Valente's The Folded World, Kameron Hurley's God's War, Stina Leicht's Of Blood and Honey, Will McIntosh's Soft Apocalypse, Rob Ziegler's Seed (which I edited), Jonathan Strahan's Eclipse Four and The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Five, John Klima's Happily Ever After, and Ellen Datlow's The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Three.
3) Two novels I edited, John Hornor Jacobs' Southern Gods and Thomas S. Roche's The Panama Laugh, are Best First Novel nominees on this year's Stoker Awards ballot.
4) I'm doing a job I love, and having a great time doing it, so I must be doing something right.
After the "Ask a Pro" panel, I took off my nametag, enjoying the sudden anonymity as I walked back to the parking garage, retrieved my car, and drove home to Petaluma, stopping to pick up a burritos from La Azteca before I got to the house. Once home, I cracked open a Victory Brewing Hop Wallop, purchased as much for the cartoonish prospector on its label as for the promise of a DIPA.
Hop Wallop pours a clear golden with a two-finger head, not much retention, but plenty of sticky, foamy lacing. Biscuity and floral on the nose, with tropical notes of pineapple and grapefruit contrasting against piney hops and toasted grains. Citrus and pine on the tongue; aggressively bitter, but with candied malt tempering the harsh edges and warm alcohol burn. Nicely balanced. Lightweight mouthfeel, tongue-tingling carbonation, and a sweet, citrusy finish. Comparable to Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA, but with a little more octane and kick. Worth sampling.
February 18, 2012
Adult Beverage: Racer X Double IPA
"Got a big white X / On the top of his car / Rex keeps his speed / In a little glass jar..."
--Big Black, "Racer X"
I am unabashedly a fan of Speed Racer (Mach GoGoGo), the late 1960s anime series focusing on the adventures of race-car driver Gō Mifune (AKA Speed Racer, voiced in English by Peter Fernandez) and his hard-driving family, including his incognito older brother Rex, better known as the masked Racer X. And while drinking and driving definitely don't mix, there is a certain appeal to knocking back a cold one while enjoying the vicarious thrills of fast cars, intrigue, sabotage, and a pretty girl with her own helicopter.
So tonight, I'm cracking open a Racer X Double IPA, just released by Healdsburg, CA's Bear Republic Brewing (and, I understand, a little hard to find... unless you shop at Petaluma Market), which promises to "put a California twist on English brewing traditions by adding an assertive hop aroma and bitterness that compliments the firm malt backbone." Bear Republic already produces one Speed Racer-inspired IPA, the very tasty Racer 5, so this NoCal Adult Beverage holds plenty of promise.
Racer X pours bright, clear orange, with a pronounced, two-finger head and plenty of striated lacing. Hoppy, tropical nose: citrus, mango, and pine, with a warm alcohol undertone. Taste is malt sugar and pine, with a boozy kick and notes of honey, pine resin, and toffee. Very nicely balanced; smooth, heavy body and aggressive carbonation. Dry finish, with bready, malty aftertaste. Racer X is obviously Racer 5's harder-driving big brother, even if it is going to take him a few seasons to figure it out.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
February 11, 2012
Adult Beverage: XXXX IPA
Another crazy week. Not only did my anthology, The Book of Cthulhu, make it onto the Locus Magazine 2011 Recommended Reading List (Anthologies, Reprint), but it also got onto the 42nd Annual Locus Awards Ballot (Best Anthology).
Best part: You don't have to be a Locus subscriber to vote (though subscriber votes count double), all you gotta do to vote is drop by the web page and fill out a ballot.
So tonight I'm pouring a celebratory Shipyard Brewing Company Pugsley's Signature Series XXXX IPA. "a non-traditional American IPA" that is "best drunk at 55 degrees Fahrenheit." And let's face it, there's always something fun about Portland vs. Portland.
XXXX Pours pale amber with a few-millimeter-thick white-orange head. Cloud animals and dragons frolic in the lacing. Hoppy on the nose: herbed, buttered biscuits and blood orange marmalade. Bitter on the tongue: sour malt, toasted hops, and cherry brandy. Piney middle, tough and bitter against the back of one's throat. Alcohol poorly hides behind a velvet curtain; big bulge, shoes visible. Medium body and carbonation. Florals and perfumes emerge as it warms. Raisins, resin, and dry, bitter orange finish. Tempting to treat it like a session beer, but packs a wallop (wrapped in an orange peel).
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
January 29, 2012
Adult Beverage: Vertical Epic Ale 11-11-11
It's been a wonderful Saturday, starting with a drive (down to The Country Vet, but you take what you get) with Jennifer and Maddie, moving from there to a bit of shopping (although the lamp I bought didn't work), then to a little bit of work (more corrections), followed by a Maddie-led walk downtown (Straight to Petaluma Pie and Copperfield's Books... what a dog!), and ending up in my reading a few stories, including the impressively chilling tales by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. and Genevieve Valentine from the inaugural issue of Phantasmagorium. And, rumor has it, there still may be a slice of Maddie-versary sweet potato pie for dessert.
Beyond that, I'm having and (finally) reviewing Stone Vertical Epic Ale 11-11-11, which has been available for a couple of months now. I know what you're wondering, "how's it stack up?" First, a little backstory...
For the last decade and a dime, Escondido's Stone Brewing has been producing annual Vertical Epic Ales, released on those days when all the numbers on the calendar line up (01-01-01, 02-02-02, and so on, the series culminating with this year's 12-12-12). Last year's offering, 11-11-11, is an "Ale Brewed With Anaheim Chilies & Cinnamon." I'm a little late, but how is it?
11-11-11 pours a rich, chestnut brown, with a thin, tannish, quick-falling head. Cascading lacing and noteworthy viscosity. Green chilies, cloves, and cinnamon on the nose, with strong suggestions of malt sugar, banana, pear, and Belgian yeast. Tongue follows taste: cinnamon and cloves, then warm, sweet chilies, nutty grains, and a bitter, spicy, dry finish. Lightweight mouthfeel, like thin syrup with active carbonation working overtime to spread the flavors around. Nicely complex, with plenty of bite.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
