Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 106
January 29, 2010
60 in 60: #38 – Thorstein Veblen's Conspicuous Consumption (Penguin's Great Ideas Series)
This blog post is part of my ongoing "60 Books in 60 DaysYears" encounter with the Penguin Great Ideas series–the Guardian's book site of the week and mentioned on the Penguin blog a couple of times.
The plan was to read one book in the series each night and post a blog entry about it the next morning, although this plan got derailed–first by deadlines and teaching, then by having fallen out of the rhythm, despite my best efforts–including a photo-essay on Thoreau (#37). My new plan is to...
Recalibrating, Resurrecting…60 in 60 Resumes
In a few minutes I'll post the next installment of the 60 in 60—covering the Penguin Great Ideas series—after a delay of almost a year. The project, looking back at it now, was insane. I was going to read one of 60 small books a day for 60 days and blog about one each day for 60 straight days. It didn't quite work out that way. First, I faltered by allowing myself weekends free. Then it got off schedule in more significant ways, before grinding to a halt.
I'm glad it ground to a halt. It had b...
January 27, 2010
Rachel Swirsky's Short Story Nomination & Recommendation List for the 2009 Nebula Awards
Rachel Swirsky here again with another guest post.
I recently blitzed through a number of short stories so that I could finalize the short story portion of my Nebula ballot. I wanted to post about the ones I decided to nominate, and also some of the other excellent ones I encountered in my reading. I hope people will check out these stories, possibly for award consideration, but mostly because they're cool.
First, methodology for creating my reading list: I had a few short stories from my...
Kage Baker
Green Man Review has posted the following update on Kage Baker's condition.
Kage's doctor has informed us she has reached the end of useful treatment. The cancer has slowed, but not stopped. It has continued to spread at an unnatural speed through her brain, her lungs and – now – reappeared in her abdomen. It is probably a matter of a few weeks, at most. Kage has fought very hard, but this is just too aggressive and mean. She's very, very tired now, and ready for her Long Sleep. She's not...
January 25, 2010
Breaking News: Weird Tales Announcement!!
JAN. 25, 2010—Wildside Press, publisher of the Hugo Award-winning Weird Tales magazine, today announced the promotion of fiction editor Ann VanderMeer to the position of editor in chief.
"Ann has done an outstanding job since joining the Weird Tales editorial team three years ago," said publisher John Betancourt. "For two decades she's been one of the most talented, cutting-edge editors in the business, so we've been thrilled to see her finally burst onto SF's center stage, both with Weird...
Genres of Fiction, and Why They Aren't Discrete Entities
While the Jeff's away, the guests will play — I thought I'd take up his offer of guest posting to promote an interesting conversation about genre that's happening at one of the other blogs I write for, Big Other.
A. D. Jameson writes:
I love genre, because genres are basically conventions. They're expectations that both authors and readers (and editors, and sales people) bring to a text—suggestions as to what should be inside, and how it should be arranged. And I dearly love conventions...
January 17, 2010
Short Hiatus
In part due to developments I've just set forth on Facebook and in part because I need a break–fragmentation is not conducisive to good writing or doing good work on any creative project–I'm going to be absent from this blog through the first week in February. Come back around February 5th or so. (Any prior guest bloggers who still remember their logins and passwords should feel free to post if they'd like to.)
Booklifenow.com will continue to run content during this time, including a guest b...
January 16, 2010
Kage Baker–Terrific Writer, Needs Your Support
Kage Baker has been a favorite writer of mine for a long time, and she was a marvelous contributor to both our pirate anthology and to The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases. Her entry in that book is one of my favorites. Her Company stories are wonderful, and in her humorous stories she has one of the best senses of comic timing I've seen in fiction. When she participated in the video for our pirate anthology, she had a real parrot on her shoulder!
In the l...
January 15, 2010
Story for Haiti Donations: Bats
Per Jay Lake's post (and Cheryl Morgan), if you're entertained by the previously unpublished kid's fiction vignette posted below—one of the only things I have that's unpublished and therefore exclusive—consider making a donation to Haitian disaster relief. Jay has more details here.
THE GREAT LOST BAT EXPEDITION
1
The Great Bat Expedition from Camp Crystal Lakes started out well enough. Nick, his sister Nikki, and their best friend Tom gathered outside Nick's tent in the mid-afternoon.
One by o...
Friday Night "Coulda Been" Frag: Bats
THE GREAT LOST BAT EXPEDITION
1
The Great Bat Expedition from Camp Crystal Lakes started out well enough. Nick, his sister Nikki, and their best friend Tom gathered outside Nick's tent in the mid-afternoon.
One by one they went through their list.
"Flashlight?" Nikki asked. She always kept the lists.
"Check," said Nick. It was one of his favorite words. Sometimes he would say it all day long. Those were the days Nikki and Tom would try to avoid him.
"Insect repellent?"
"Check."
"Bottles of...
