Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 108

Finch: A Primer on Novel Openings (Please Chime In)

>>This is the second post in a continuing series on craft centered around discussion of my novel, Finch.

Sometimes the most complex effects rely on simple decisions. If you don't put thought and effort into such decisions, the foundation of your novel is flawed and nothing you build on that foundation will be truly sound. (See Vladimir Nabokov's Cornell lectures, which discuss things like the floorplan of a house in Jane Austen's work, for example.)

In Finch, I had several decisions on how to b...

Best American Fantasy 4 Now Reading: Guest Editor, Award-Winner Minister Faust

(Cover by John Coulthart)

Feel free to spread these guidelines far and wide…

BEST AMERICAN FANTASY #4 NOW READING

The Best American Fantasy series (Underland Press) founded by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer is now reading fantasy short stories up to 10,000 words published or to be published from May 1, 2009 through May 31, 2010 for volume 4.

Stories must be by Latin American or North American residents and published in Latin American or North American publications (or magazine websites) during the...

On Joanna Russ and The Secret Feminist Cabal

On the Amazon book blog, I just posted an interview Graham Sleight did with Farah Mendlesohn about a book she edited titled On Joanna Russ. It's a fascinating book and an equally fascinating interview, and I highly recommend you check it out.

Among other things, Farah points out the potential problems of the old boys' club as typified by guys hanging out with guys at cons. Inasmuch as conventions are business opportunities–work-related–she has a good point, although I wonder if this is more...

Spore Score, Spore More, Bookspore, Linkspore?

Cynthia Hawkins has an interview with Murder by Death, about the Finch soundtrack, up at InDigest, under the title "Spore Score" as well as an interview with me at Strange Horizons. (Phone interview from World Fantasy, with me somewhat breathless and using the word "stuff" too much.)

Futurismic has a nice Booklife review, and I've just posted a cleaned up version of a long comment I wrote awhile back about the whole publication payment issue.

Boston's The Edge has an intriguing list of books...

The Decade of the Aughts: Genre Fiction

Much happened outside of the world of genre fiction in the early part of this century that might give further context to it, but for purposes of a focused overview, I have eschewed both general History and the Personal in terms of my intimate relationship to all I set out below.

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The publication of Kimber Adla's Abasi Forgives You All in 2000 by a small press out of Long Island, New York, will prove to be the seminal genre fiction event of the 21st Century, but this fact has not yet leaked ...

Scott Eagle: Art Is Life, Life Is Art

(Scott Eagle, in his studio, which is in a lower level of his house.)

My wife Ann has just posted a gallery of Scott Eagle's art as part of her regular feature on io9. Ann first published Scott's art in the 1990s in her magazine The Silver Web; here's the cover of the last issue of that magazine, by Scott.

It's through Ann that I first experienced Scott's amazing art. When it came time to think about cover art for City of Saints and Madmen, I recommended Scott, and he did an amazing original, ...

Our Life in Books: The Decade in Review (and thanks)

(Our ketubah, or marriage contract, from 2002, with a border created by Scott Eagle, who has contributed art to several of our covers.)

Despite having been very active in the 1990s, it's in the 2000s that Ann and I came into our own as a creative partnership, and I reached what one might call mid-career (I'm now 41). We had many, many opportunities, were tendered many kindnesses by people too many to mention for fear of leaving someone out, and, throughout the decade, put our all into every p...

Mirror Image and Blast from Past

Doing some organizing and came across Dradin and its Eastern European twin, as well as two 1990s issues of The Silver Web, the mag Ann founded and edited. Oh, the old days.

Booklifenow: TIME's Lev Grossman, WaPo's Ron Charles, SF Chronicle's Michael Berry, Chicago Tribune's Amy Guth on Submitting Books for Review

Matt Staggs has a great post at Booklifenow about avoiding rookie mistakes when books are submitted to reviewers or review editors, featuring four high-powered interviewees.

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities

Cabinets of curiosities (also known as Wunderkammer, Cabinets of Wonder, or Wonder-rooms) were encyclopedic collections of types of objects whose categorical boundaries were various. Modern terminology would categorize the objects included as belonging to natural history (sometimes faked), geology, ethnography, archaeology, religious or historical relics, works of art (including cabinet paintings) and antiquities. — From Wikipedia

I haven't had a chance to do more than mention in passing...