Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 135
July 13, 2009
Locked of Their Own Accord in a Sweaty Phone Booth: Scott Bakker, Hal Duncan, Nick Mamatas, & Co.
(Taken from here.)
Yes, folks, it's the thread that would not die, now well downstream: War of All Against All. A few recent highlights. Go join in and show them they're not alone, and bring some air fresheners. (It's actually very interesting.)
Hal Duncan:
Honestly? I'm just interested in it. I mean, OK, what attracted me to sf/f initially, and then to the New Wave as I realised it was there, and into experimentalism and modernism as I expanded my horizons, and genre literature, and literature in
Locus Magazine Co-Founder Charles N. Brown: 1937-2009
Charles N. Brown has died. As the co-founder and publisher of Locus Magazine, he helped to connect the genre community, especially before the advent of the internet, and to review and record the impact of SF/fantasy through its books. He will be missed.
July 12, 2009
Environmental / Human Impact of E-Readers, Books, Browsing
(Scott Eagle; saint of connectivity, holding a booklet as offering)
Friday I posted the following question on Facebook: "Has anyone studied the environmental impact of e-readers, in the context of knowing cell phones are full of all kinds of narsty things? It'd be awful to find out physical books are actually more environmentally friendly."
The resulting discussion is archived below. This is by no means a systematic analysis, but given that participants like Tom Winstead work in industries where
Top Ten Little-Known Freelance Writer Survival Tips
From talking to a lot of writers who have lived off of their fiction much longer than I have, I've gained some useful perspective on what they do when times get particularly tough. Here're what seem to be the top ten tips for survival, in case it's of use to someone. I've ranked them from most used at #1 to least used at #10.
#1 – Go outside at dawn to lap up dew from leaves after the water's been turned off. (Alternatively, scour backyard for "insect protein".)
#2 – Mug the kid of the other free
July 10, 2009
What Am I Thinking? And Plug Yer Stuff
So…here's the deal. I'm off the internets and on vacation until Sunday night. Between now and then, tell me what I'm thinking in the photo above. Winner will receive a cool book.
Or, if you'd rather, just plug yer latest creative project. Or, do both by plugging yer latest creative project by telling me what I'm thinking. Or…go home, have a nice rest and a bath, and drink a nice margarita and ferget the blogosphere even exists.
Bye.
An Interview with Minister Faust on Amazon
I've just posted an interview with Minister Faust on Omnivoracious, checking in with him between novels.
Here's a bit I wasn't able to include on Amazon.
You're a huge music junky it seems to me. What've you been listening to recently?
Indeed. I've been loving the work of Feist; she's from Calgary, our sister city. Although I'm disappointed her topics are so narrow (lust, love and heartbreak), her wordplay is excellent, among the best in pop music. She's got a lovely, under-stated voice on tracks
July 9, 2009
War of Some Against None: Thoughtful Battle Still Rages Downstream
Gawd, I cannae even fookin keep up with it all, and I'm the gatekeeper here, but Bryan Russell, Nick Mamatas, and Hal Duncan continue to type thousands of words deep into the night on the subject of mimesis, fantasy, "literary", realism, non-realism, dogs, cats, pigeons, marshmellows. It beggars the mind it does. J.M. McDermott's even dropped out. And where are the women, huh? Except for Terry Weyna, it's all a bunch of guys. C'mon, get in there and slug it out. Or tell 'em it's stupid or someth
July 8, 2009
Love Drunk Book Heads: What's Your Most Revelatory Book Experience
(Catherine Cheek's initial process of putting together books.)
Part of the increasingly insane spiral of conversation occurring downriver included a reminiscence of mine concerning a book/reading experience:
One of my best reading experiences was buying a little book with a white cover in Left Bank Books in Seattle. It had been misplaced in the magazine section. It had no title. It had no author name. It had no information about what press had published it. It existed totally by and of itself. I
West Coast Finch/Booklife Events: October-November 2009
I've added details on most of the events for the West Coast part of my tour. (Still working on the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic.) Some events will be added to Portland and to San Francisco.
Note that I will be doing a workshop on Booklife in Seattle, and still working on the details of the book release party at World Fantasy that Thursday night.
You can also find the events listed in the sidebar of this blog. More info as I have it.
July 7, 2009
Where Do You Head For in a Bookstore?
(Taken from here.)
As kind of a side discussion to the conversation about literary/genre, realism/fabulism occurring downriver here (some interesting stuff), the subject of migratory patterns in bookstores has come up, fueled by a comment from Emily Leverett. Here's what I said:
"I tend to follow this pattern, in part because I already get so many books of a genre nature for review…(1) thorough investigation of the trade paper and hardcover new book tables, (2) followed by the new mysteries secti
