Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 131
August 16, 2009
Catching Up: Omnivoracious Features Kage Baker, Archaia
It's been a whirlwind few weeks, but just to catch up with some recent features I did for Amazon…
Kage Baker is one of my favorite writers, and she's got a new kid's book out from Tachyon, The Hotel Under the Sand. I did an interview with Baker for Amazon, about the book. Don't miss this one.
Amazon.com: What sparked The Hotel Under the Sand? Had you wanted to write a book for kids for awhile?
Baker: No…What happened was that we had a really bad year in my family and my eight-year-old niece had to
August 15, 2009
Ann's Hugo Award Is In The House….
Ann's Hugo Award, won with Stephen H. Segal for Weird Tales, came in the mail today. It's got to be at least 25 pounds, if not 30. I can totally see how Ann had trouble carrying it around. It's like carrying a 30 lb dumbbell around with you.
It also came in pieces, for those of you curious about how it's put together. At the end, we placed it on the mantel next to the World Fantasy Award (the other's in the SF Museum) and our Shirley Jackson Award stones. Honestly, if we ever have a break-in, we
August 14, 2009
Far North Review in NYTBR
The New York Times Book Review just ran my review of Marcel Theroux's Far North. It's a really interesting novel that has some flaws, but it's one of the few novels I've read this year that stuck with me, and the main character is a miraculous creation.
Doing work for the NYTBR was a very pleasant experience–in fact, the review passed through the editing process with no real changes and I should have another assignment soonish.
Here's a short excerpt:
The harrowing account of Makepeace's journey t
There's Gotta Be Ice Cream Out There Somewhere
What a writer looks like after producing 34,000 words (erm, with drafting equalling maybe another 50,000 words–kinda lost track), even with a collaborator, in basically a total of three weeks. This is me in the evening after finishing an all-day writing session, not waking up in the morning. My wrists hurt. My back isn't having much fun. My eyes really kinda feel bruised. After awhile, though, the whole thing took on a life of its own and the whole rest of the world went away. Deadline met. It w
They Are Everywhere Among Us, Their Work Not Yet Done
Incoming transmission, through the filaments…
Did you ever dream of something coming up through the ground, a spy, a periscope, a conduit? Something so mundane maybe you didn't even think of it that way. Maybe you didn't even see them. Even though they were always there.
Even when you do notice them, you don't think network, you don't think connected. But they are: sentinel towers communicating underneath the soil.
They can look almost delicate, and be misleading that way. You can forget they exist
Kristine Kathryn Rusch on the Element of Time in Freelancing
Another amazingly excellent tell-all post from Kristine Kathryn Rusch, on time usage and what time means to a writer who lives off of their writing. Rusch has also added a donation button, and I hope if you visit you will donate something, because this is invaluable information.
A side benefit of such a post for writers who don't live off of their writing to determine whether they're the personality type who can exist and thrive within that paradigm. For me, too, I have to be working on projects
August 13, 2009
Why We *Can* Have Nice Things: Ann VanderMeer on the Hugos
(Stephen H. Segal and Ann VanderMeer after the Hugo ceremony. Them things are heavy!)
Since she was, erm, sitting right there, I interviewed Ann about her experience at the Hugos, with relevant photos, for Omnivoracious. It's a fairly comprehensive piece about the ceremony.
Amazon.com: Did you think you were going to win?
Ann VanderMeer: Stephen and I were told by everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, that we would lose to Locus. The first thing you told me when I was nominated after congratulating me w
From Ballard to Moers: Books Received, Bought, and Stolen…
(Two of my favorite authors, Walter Moers and Brian Evenson, have new books out…)
Shared Worlds and deadlines have put paid to my ability to post about books received, but here are just a few choice selections for now…
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From Zeising Books, I picked up Mervyn Peake's selected poems. Peake is an underrated poet, one of my favorites. I also got Derek Raymond's memoirs/thoughts on dark fiction. Very much looking forward to both.
My contributor copy of Songs of the Dying Earth, along with the (final
Observations from the Balcony: Mystery/Noir for Non-Mystery Readers
Brian Lindemuth has an interesting blog post at Mystery BookSpot in which he quotes from my essay The Language of Defeat and then offers up this challenge:
What mystery/crime books would you recommend to a friend who doesn't read "genre" and what "non-genre" books would you recommend to a mystery/crime fic reader.
