Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 112

Good Boys, Adam Lambert, and S-E-X

Phew! I'm glad to blog about something that's not controversial! Gay sex!

…Wait.

I come to you bearing recommendations for excellent fiction distributed across the web. The first three things are Nebula-elligible stories by Nisi Shawl. Nisi is an amazing, Seattle-based writer who helps coordinate the Clarion West Workshop and is fun to hang out with — but what *you* need to know is that her fiction is awesome.

Last year, her short story collection,Filter House

(Aqueduct Press) won the James...

Some of the ways I decide where to submit my work.

In response to some comments on a relatively long thread at SF Signal, I tried to answer the question of how I decide where to send my work. People were curious about how people hear about magazines, how magazines gain reputations, and how some semi-pro and token-paying magazines end up being name-checked as respectable or even enviable places to get published in.

Firsts things first. This conversation only applies within the spec community. In other communities, different standards apply.

Now,...

What novels would you nominate for the Nebula Awards?

Guest blogger Jason Sanford often rants on his website at www.jasonsanford.com. His fiction has been published in Interzone, Year's Best SF 14, Analog, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Pindeldyboz, and other places, and has won the 2008 Interzone Readers' Poll and a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship.

Nominations for the 2009 Nebula Awards ballot are now coming in. Unfortunately, only members of the SFWA can nominate works for the awards. But let's throw aside the rules for a moment and...

The new urban fantasy. Same as the old urban fantasy?

N. K. Jemisin is a Brooklyn author whose first novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, is coming out from Orbit Books in February. It's fantasy, but she doesn't like calling herself a fantasist, because she thinks it makes her sound like some kind of hipster bigot.

Let's start with the premise that there are two kinds of urban fantasy. I'll call them stylistic urban fantasy and contextual urban fantasy. You've read the stylistic kind — or if you haven't, WTH are you doing here on Jeff's...

Writing from the Context of my culture

The Influence of Words

Long ago, someone said this in defense of my work: "She is writing from the context of her culture and from her own experience."

I had gone to my first ever meeting with real writers. The woman who said those words was a professor from the University of the Philippines and she said those words in response to criticism that said my work would never be good enough for a US audience.

It's funny that I should think of those words at this time when the words that chased after m...

Link to View Atop the Slushpile, and How Not to Imply You Think You Are Your D&D Character

There have been a number of posts responding to Scalzi, and responding to Ann, and responding to me. Notably, I rather liked Mamatas's contribution to the conversation. (Though, sorry, I won't shut up.)

However, in the spirit of cross-linkage, I wanted to point out this post by a Fantasy Magazine slush reader. It's a useful break-down for new writers about how to present their stories, and how that presentation is being interpreted by slush readers.

I had my own addition to Molly's list:

This...

What's In A Reading?

Will Hindmarch is a freelance writer, graphic designer, and game designer. He also blogs at Gameplaywright and The Gist.

I admit it, I'm a little nervous.

This coming Friday, at Jeff's reading-and-signing event here at Manuel's Tavern in Atlanta,  I'm reading, too, alongside Jeff and J.M. McDermott. Now, I have hundreds of thousands of words in print in game books, but these guys are novelists. They've written, you know, real books. I'm just starting out on that path. Readings aren't something ...

Review of Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight by Cat Rambo (Paper Golem Press, 2009)

In my blurb for Cat Rambo's new collection, Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight (Paper Golem Press, 2009), I wrote that reading her stories is like "reading the literature from worlds that don't exist. She writes as that world's Dickens, its Calvino, its Fredrick Douglass, its E. B. White. Rather than merely relaying the events of other realities, as some fantasy and science fiction writers might, at her best Cat Rambo acts as a literary interpreter. Within these imagined fictions —...

While my little one sleeps (or shameless self-promotion)

Rochita here, doing a bit of self-promotion. My short story, 59 Beads is now up at Apex Books. I loved writing 59 Beads, and I am glad it's found a good home. To me, 59 Beads has a particular resonance as the story finds its inspiration from what takes place in the lives of some of our migrant workers. I hope you'll enjoy the read.

My youngest son is turning three in January and demands a lot of attention during his awake time. Recently, he's decided that the computer is the enemy and Mama...

THE HOME STRETCH: Bring This Tired VanderMeer on Home with a Bang!

Hey, folks–I've been on the road since October 28th. My socks need darning. My brain is woozy, but I'm hanging in there. Help me go out with a bang and come out to one of the last three events. All three of them are awesome venues and I'm reading with some amazing people. Note–for Atlanta, there is a comics group meeting at Manuel's at six, so come out early!

Hope to see you there. I appreciate the encouragement to cross the finish line. Love, Jeff

FOUNTAIN BOOKSTORE (Richmond, VA) – Dec. 8...