Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 103
February 24, 2010
Filling Out the Comments Section, Local Bagel Store Survey
There's nothing like a bagel from friendly people who have the normal number of heads. I also am very fond of the temperature in the store. The fact that there are lights makes the place cheery and also not dark. I like to be able to see my hands when I enter a place and not have to light a candle to see the menu. There were chairs with all of the tables, and tables with all of the chairs. I also appreciated that there were no flying creatures in the store, like in some Long John Silver's. I ...
Steampunk Reloaded–Table of Contents
(Rough of the cover)
Without further pomp or ceremony, we present our latest anthology's full contents. We're both extremely happy with how it turned out–including materials original to the book and some great reprints at its heart. We may add one comic and have a web exclusive, but more on that later. – Ann & Jeff
STEAMPUNK RELOADED: Steampunk 2
Edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, from Tachyon Publications, Oct. 2010
Interior design by John Coulthart, the genius behind The Thackery T. Lambshead...
February 23, 2010
What're Your Top Five Under-rated Short Stories of All Time?
While Ann and I work on this insanely huge book of weird fiction, covering a century, I thought it might be fun to ask a targeted question:
What are the top five short stories you love but that you don't think get nearly enough respect? Why should they be reconsidered?
It doesn't have to be fantastical fiction–anything you like. If you can only think of two or three, that's just fine.
Margaret Atwood in Tallahassee
Margaret Atwood came to Tallahassee last night to read and answer questions. I've written up an account for Omnivoracious.
I thought she was quite wonderful. In answering questions and talking about her books, she was happy to use terms like "speculative fiction" and refer to classics familiar within the genre like We. It became clear from her interactions with the audience that use or non-use of the term "science fiction" didn't matter in the least. More importantly, given the environmental m...
February 22, 2010
The Third Bear–Final TOC
The TOC to The Third Bear, my first major story collection since Secret Life in 2004, has been finalized…finally. This includes the 9,000-word story "The Quickening," which is original to the book, and which I turned in this morning. I'll be writing some end matter and someone's doing an introduction. Another new story, "Komodo," has been dropped from the TOC because it's still in progress and it might top out at thirty or forty thousand words. Not sure yet.
The Third Bear
The Quickening
Watching Che and the Baader Meinhof Complex
Among the frustrations that balance the many pleasures of having so many projects due in May is not being able to write about movies. This short post won't really help alleviate that frustration, but…
The Baader Meinhof Complex provides a compelling, even exciting, view of the infamous German terrorist group, from the early days to the long, drawn-out forced march of the trial for some of the members. It's a remarkably balanced and subtle treatment for a movie that often has the pacing of a...
February 20, 2010
Evil Monkey Encounters The Weird
(Weirdest thing of all? Both Jeff and Evil Monkey have agreed to learn to cook using this arcane and insane book as a reward to Ann for all of the many, many hours of reading she is doing for the big book of weird project, on top of Weird Tales and everything else…)
Evil Monkey:
"This concerns someone called Beaver Toadstone."
Jeff:
"Doc Blaine ejaculated incoherently. I wheeled."
Evil Monkey:
"Here I was ready to accept his offer of a good job as his secretary, and I had to go and pull a...
February 19, 2010
Finch is a Nebula Award Finalist
The Nebula Award finalists have been announced, and my novel Finch is up in the best novel category. To be honest, when I got the call Wednesday it was a complete shock. I was in the middle of reading for the big book of weird fiction and my first response was something along the lines of "this is a joke, right?" followed by "are you sure they got the votes right?" I don't lobby for or even mildly suggest people nominate me for awards, don't belong to SFWA, and had no idea I was even in the r...
Losing the Thread on a Friday: Humor Will Pull You Through
I have to admit to being a little exhausted from all of the reading for weird. About time for a break.
But I did want to share a couple of wickedly funny things that I encountered, kind of peripheral to the weird reading. They're funny in part because they're also serious.
The first are these great opening and closing lines to Binyavanga Wainaina's essay "How to Write About Africa" from Granta:
Opening: Always use the word "Africa" or "Darkness" or "Safari" in your title. Subtitles may include...
February 17, 2010
But Enough About Me–What's Up With You?
Me, I'm going to be flailing around at 9pm EST in Second life for a Copper Robot interview.
I'd also like to alert you to the publication of Real Unreal: Best American Fantasy, guest edited by Kevin Brockmeier. This is the third installment of the best-of anthology Ann and I founded with help from Sean Wallace. Underland Press is doing a lovely job publishing it, and Kevin, with the help of volume 3's series editor Matthew Cheney, has found some amazing stories. BAF is the only series with...
