Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 104
February 16, 2010
Steampunk Reading Almost Done
Well, it's been fun, but it's almost over. As indicated in the previous post, our deadline for submissions to the Steampunk Reloaded anthology has come and gone. Ann and I are still looking through one last batch of submissions, but otherwise we're done. And I never have to read another steampunk story again. This isn't a complaint about steampunk so much as the fatigue you always get when mining out a particular subgenre. That said, I'm really excited about this anthology because we found...
February 15, 2010
When the Weird Gets Punch-drunk
Selected excerpts from readings…
"Hmmm, yes," he muttered, "sponges did occupy my thoughts for several hours. But so what, damn it?" he suddenly yelled out. "This still doesn't make sense!"
***
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Godziemba.
"Hi, hi, hi!" seconded the woman.
"He, he, he!" responded the engineer.
And, from other reading…
"Bassett Morgan is known to Weird Tales aficionados as the writer obsessed with brain transplants, the theme of nearly half of her thirteen contributions to the magazine…"
Clarion and Steampunk Deadlines–and Artists Inspired by Stephen King
(More on these three old anthos later in the week.)
Yes, this is that inevitable, unavoidable post about deadlines. First off, our deadline for sending in reprint submissions for our Steampunk anthology is today. Which means, if you want to have a story submitted, we need to get it by midnight tonight EST. If you're an hour or so off, no problem, but we will cut things off after that point. If you have sent in a story and haven't heard back yet, you will hear from us by Friday at the latest.
S...
February 14, 2010
New Worlds of Fantasy! From 1967!
We didn't really buy this book (at Chamblin's Bookmine) because we thought it would be of use for our book of weird reading. We bought it because…how can you resist that cover art?
Little did we know the treasures we'd find inside.
Like…a rather badly illustrated Borges story, with a fun little intro: "Borges is so In right now he had three stories in one issue of the New Yorker."
Or this title page with the odd illo.
Or the facing page, the end of Ray Russell's "Comet Wine," wherein a prior...
February 13, 2010
Cramming Weird
There are about 300 more weird apartments pets beaches bars castles ruins highways houses outdoor theaters cars dirt roads nights professors writers painters musicians lovers enemies creatures farms dungeons catacombs books janitors fisherfolk faces eyeballs spinal cords things in bottles clocks knives mental hospitals etc in mah brains now than 48 hours ago.
February 12, 2010
Possible Impossible: Best-of Book Lists
It's raining here in Tallahassee, and it's cold–in a word, narsty. Bearlike and grumbly, I'm about to go back into my hidey-hole soon and resume reading for our collosus of a weird fiction anthology for Grove Atlantic, soon to disembowel or set aside for snacking later many dozens of stories—and likely still grumbly. Picking the best meals from so many world-class cooks is almost an overload to the senses.
Meanwhile, though, a few notes on recent best-of lists of mine that've run on...
February 11, 2010
Monstrous Creatures
I'm finally getting a handle on my nonfiction collection, which I turn in about a week from now. The contents have begun to make some sense, thanks in large part to comments from Matt Cheney about the order. This isn't final, but it's getting close. All text that's previously published has been edited and perfected, some of it radically. The idea of focusing on the theme of monsters and the monstrous has meant leaving out some worthy material but what's gained by that is a more interesting...
A Dark Matter/Skylark Review at B&N Review
(No, this post is not about the song, although the song kicks ass.)
The Barnes & Noble Review has posted my piece on Peter Straub's A Dark Matter. Originally, the review focused more equally on both the Doubleday version of the novel and Subterranean Press's version (titled The Skylark), but for space reasons and the fact that The Skylark is not available to most readers the published review focuses on The Skylark only inasmuch as it provides insight into A Dark Matter. There are some...
February 10, 2010
Mah Eyes, Mah Eyes
My left eye has gone blind from reading steampunk stories.
My right eye has gone blind from reading weird fiction.
Thankfully, Ann's not gone blind yet–and my third eye decided to open up right as the other two were going blind, and now I'm reading something composed on its thorax and cinderhausenblickblick by a multi-dimensional thing out of Alpha Centauri. But, the tale's not quite right, and now I'm going to have to reject the story…and this thing has got tentacles in twelve dimensions, and ...
February 9, 2010
Lovecraft's War Against the Ravens
Hmmm. So the story I'm writing and posting in bits on facebook, using photos of the text, is getting a bit straaaange.
Haven't seen these bits on facebook? That's because I'm writing from the future. These bits won't appear there for a couple of days. Bwaaahahahaha.
(For more on the notebook I'm writing in, click here.)
