Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 123

Last Drink Bird Head Song and Poster

(Last Drink Bird Head World Fantasy Con party poster, design by John Coulthart; larger version here)

John Anealio has written a very cool Last Drink Bird Head song, called, naturally, Last Drink Bird Head.

You can still preorder the Last Drink antho here.

(The sheet music for the Last Drink song; larger image here.)

Brain Harvest Contest Winners: Brian Francis Slattery and William T. Vandemark

Brain Harvest has now announced their first-place winner, as chosen by me, in their latest contest. I judged the contest with the writers' names taken off, from the top 15 entries as picked by BH's excellent editors…which just goes to show I must really like Brian Francis Slattery's fiction whether I know it's by him or not. As for what I meant by the melted clock comment–no way to easily compare and contrast for judging purposes the first and eventual second place winners. Anyway, some cool ...

District 9–Some Questions

I meant to post this awhile back, forgot about it, and then read this wonderful analysis by Nnedi on her blog. In addition to the stuff about Nigerians, this really resonated in her complaints about the movie: "It bothers me that this film has gotten such stellar reviews. But I guess that just shows how low people's standards for Hollywood films are. The problem with setting your standards low so you can enjoy movies is that it allows them to get away with some serious irresponsible rubbish...

Sunday Miscellany: Books, Crutches, Mantels

(The FTC can stick this where the sun don't shine. This caption would've been more effective a couple days ago.)

Interiors from the Centipede Press edition. You want a full blog post on this book, no?

A new book by one of our Clarion students (he sold it before Clarion) and, er, the infamous antho arrived.

Deluxe Lenore…

Glad to see the horror half of The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror still alive. Not so happy to see Ellen Datlow's sloppy reading of New Weird in her summary of the year, citing...

Murder by Death Finch CD in the House

Yep, it's in the house–my copies, and the extra copies I'm taking on the road for the book tour. It's simple but very nicely put together. And, of course, the music is awesome.

Below the break all the mundane details about ordering it or Finch or both.

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—Listen to the Murder by Death soundtrack or buy it. "

—Finch excerpt

—Finch from Amazon

—Finch from Indiebound

—Finch limited editions (Rebel Samizdat / Heretic), with MBD soundtrack

—Finch press kit

Mash-Up Novel Bridget Jones's Naked Lunch Sold to Major New Imprint

(This is just a very rough draft of the cover from CCC's designer–the art will probably change)

I'm very happy to announce I've sold the novel mash-up Bridget Jones's Naked Lunch to new imprint Cool Classy Classics.

Here's an excerpt. I plan to finish it next month and it'll be published by February of next year. More details when I have them.

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January: An Exceptionally Bad Start

Sunday 1 January

Food consumed for lunch:

2 pkts heroin
14 cold new potatoes
2 Bloody Scaries (count as food...

Event Updates: Portland, Richmond

(Will Hindmarch's awesome poster for the Atlanta event)

I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be the writer guest for Fountain Bookstore's holiday party December 8th in Richmond, Virginia. The party will start at 6pm and my event will start at 6:45. Fountain Bookstore is absolutely awesome and I am really looking forward to this event. (Thanks to Tom Dehaven and J.T. Glover for their help.)

I also have more information on the party sponsored by Underland Press in Portland (Friday, Nov. 6...

An Embarrassment of Riches: Booklife's Here

Well, a box of them reached my house, at least. I don't know if the book will be in stores by October 14, but I would imagine within the next two weeks. You can also, of course, always order it from either Amazon or Indiebound.

It's perhaps some indication of just how busy I am that my first reaction on opening the box was, "yep, that's it all right–why isn't it gold-plated?", and then I went back to this playlist feature I'm writing for Large Hearted Boy.

Took me a few minutes to circle back ...

Thought for a Thursday: Is It Really "Entertainment" That Needs Defending?

Great authors are not to blame for your lack of education., June 17, 1999 By A Customer:

For God's sake— why do so many people write these idiotic reviews, these reviews that are nothing so much as confessions of stupidity? Why do people believe that the primary aim of all art, even that of fictive prose, is absolute simplistic clarity? These are the same chuckleheads who fail to understand impressionism and cubism; they are the people who fail to recognize that distortions of photographic...

Thought for a Wednesday: It's Not "Entertainment" That Needs Defending

Great authors are not to blame for your lack of education., June 17, 1999 By A Customer:

For God's sake— why do so many people write these idiotic reviews, these reviews that are nothing so much as confessions of stupidity? Why do people believe that the primary aim of all art, even that of fictive prose, is absolute simplistic clarity? These are the same chuckleheads who fail to understand impressionism and cubism; they are the people who fail to recognize that distortions of photographic...