Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 138
June 26, 2009
Cat Texture (provided by Jackson)
Some relaxing cat texture for your Friday. Thank you, and good night. I must gets off the intratubes.
Catching Up: Capybaras, Book Tour Schedule, and Linkage
(Taken from Giant Hamster. A photo of Melanie Typaldos and her capybara Caplin Rous. Who knew capybaras were so popular? The interview with Melanie just downstream not only is one of the most-visited posts in the history of Ecstatic Days but has possibly elicited the most diverse response, from ex-American Idol contestants to members of Geiger Counter societies.)
Who knew it would be capybaras, not Shared Worlds or linkage to a China Mieville guest-blogging week, that truly defined this blog in
June 24, 2009
The Fantastical Capybara: An Interview with Melanie Typaldos About Her Caplin Rous
My first encounter with a capybara was sad and strange: I saw one in a cramped cage at a county fair as a teenager. In amongst the rides, the shooting galleries, and the weird food, just this tiny cage and this incredibly peculiar creature that I’d never seen before, or even imagined existed. It had unbelievably beautiful eyes. Ever since then, I’ve been fascinated with capybaras because they seem so fantastical and they also have this gruffly wise look to them. (I only wish I had found some way
First and Short: Horn by Peter M. Ball
“First and Short” is a new Ecstatic Days feature that reviews first books that happen to be novellas. Since books fitting this definition are usually published by indie presses, this feature serves the dual purpose of highlighting new authors and unique publishers. It in effect replaces the “Conversations with the Bookless” interviews that have now migrated to BookSpotCentral. Please send materials for consideration to POB 4248, Tallahassee, FL 32315 USA, marked “for First and Short”. Thanks–and
Moomin: Building a Steampunk Maker Time Machine in Ten Easy Steps
(If you’re unfamiliar with Moomin, check out the official site and the wiki)
Drawn & Quarterly has just released the fourth reprint volume of the Moomin cartoon series by the amazing Tove Jansson–and it starts out with a classic step-by-step introduction to the Steampunk Maker process. Note that Moomin papa is even wearing a Steampunk-appropriate hat. Truly, Jansson was ahead of her time…
#1 – Assemble your parts from the guts of other, broken machines.
#2 – Allow yourself a discovery phase based
June 23, 2009
Booklife/Finch Fall Book Tour Update
In the ongoing seek-and-acquire that is the book tour for Finch/Booklife in the fall, it’s now looking both more manageable and more specific. Because of Booklife, some events may be workshops or presentations. I’m flexible.
West Coast
Oct. 28-Nov. 2 – World Fantasy con events (including a book release party after the opening ceremonies that Thursday).
Nov. 4-15 (Seattle down to San Fran/possibly LA) – Since most or all of this will be by car, and include Portland among others, I’m open to suggest
Elevation: Raise Yer Game, Internets, for I Am Giving Away Hooks
Dear Intertubes:
I was scrolling through yer bountiful pleasures the other day and came across things that made me want to write a blog post, because I’m totally reactive that way.
First off, ———-, stop posting this on twitter over and over again because it’s f-cking with my ability to find real information about myself, and we all know how important that is: “My books have been blurbed by writers such as Piers Anthony, Jack Ketchum, Jeff Strand, Jeff VanderMeer, John Skipp, Gary Braunbeck.” Stop
Let Me, Jeff VanderMeer, Harvest Your Brain (please? with sugar on top?)
(Me, dignified, somewhat somber, wearing the Brain Harvest hand-made moustache they sent me. I requested a Dali moustache to cover my own prodigious lip hair, and, in yarn, this is a very close approximation.)
Brain Harvest is having a micro fiction contest, and I am the final decisioning-maker on it. What do you win?
The winning entry will receive $100, publication in Brain Harvest, a hand-knitted mustache, 1 Fresh Eyes crit (up to 10,000 words) to be used on the piece of their choice, and the a
June 22, 2009
The Tyranny of Genre: Books That Will Never Be Together
Erm, so okay, these last two sets might well have a conversation every once in a while.
June 21, 2009
Are You Meandering Around a Castle for 200 Pages? Well, Stop That, Suckah!
I find this Brandon Sanderson quote from Shaken and Stirred’s Thursday Hangovers somewhat fascinating, about “how SFF YA might have influenced epic or high fantasy”:
“I think it made the genre better. I think we’ve had to look at our sluggish beginnings in epic, and realize that two hundred pages of wandering around a castle before conflict appears may not be the best way to begin a story. We’ve had to become more creative in our worldbuilding, partially (I think) to compete with the elegance of
