Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 140
June 18, 2009
Shared Worlds Podcast Interview at Agony Column
(Taken from The Guardian’s feature on Shared Worlds and fantastical cities–thanks, Alison Flood, for picking up the story.)
Rick Kleffel at the Agony Column just ran a podcast interview with me about the Shared World camp that pretty much gives you an overview of what it is and how it works. Great questions from Rick, one of the hardest-working people I know.
Thanks to everyone who ran the Shared Worlds story yesterday, including: Omnivoracious, Warren Ellis, io9, the LA Times blog, Boing Boing,,
June 17, 2009
China Mieville’s Five Movements to Watch Out For; Are There Only *Five*?
Because I am a smart-arse, this might be my favorite of China Mieville’s guest posts this week, although the next one contains some mighty awesome ideas.
In a nutshell, China writes that “It’s been a while since we’ve had some red-hot literary-movement action…I thought we could save a bit of time by naming a few movements in advance, then writing books to fit. That way we could start arguing about them without having to wait through those tiresome publication schedules.”
He then sets out five such
Omnivoracious Interview with Mieville
Are you sick of Mieville yet? Don’t be. In this one he talks about The City & The City with Amazon books editor Tom Nissley. Excerpt (it’s also on video):
Amazon: That brings up a good question. What’s your relationship with your readers? In the fantasy tradition there is a very strong reader-writer relationship. As someone who moves genres very activity and self consciously, do your readers follow you from genre to genre?
Miéville: It’s a good question. I don’t really know, simply. When I wrote
Shared Worlds: Real Cities That Seem Fantastical/SFnal
Shared Worlds asked Elizabeth Hand, Nalo Hopkinson, Ursula K. LeGuin, China Miéville, and Michael Moorcock:
“What’s your pick for the top real-life fantasy or science fiction city?”
“At Shared Worlds students create fantasy and science fiction worlds to fuel their art and writing projects. But even the strangest made-up place can have some real-world spark. Our own planet is often surreal, alien, and beautifully strange—and cities tend to focus our fascination with these qualities. Sometimes the
June 16, 2009
Surrealist-Expressionist Mash-Up: Alfred Kubin, Decadents, Max Brod, Franz Blei, The First Hour After Death, and Last Drink Bird Head
“The characteristic feature of this strange art is that it attempts to depict the extrasensory, to provide symbols for the mysterious forces to which we are subjected in our daily lives but which we do not know–indeed, that is revealed to us only in wild dreams and fantasies, in states of clairvoyant nervous strain….[Such art:] may be born from feelings of anxiety, of isolation, of floundering horror. With a self-tormenting love, it seeks the nocturnal sides of life; it is at home in twilight, in
“God, that’s a merciless question”: China Mieville’s Interview From Weird Tales
Last year, I interviewed China Miéville for Weird Tales’ 85th anniversary issue. Yesterday, I posted a short excerpt of the interview on Omnivoracious as part of an announcement about China blogging there. (For those of you living under rocks and on distant planets, his The City & The City was released recently.)
I’m posting the full interview now, on my blog, because I think it’s relatively unique, in that China was between books and the point of the interview was more about discussing “weird” f
Critique Service Open Again
Having begun to clear a few things from my plate, the critique service mentioned in the Services section of this site is available again. From short stories to novels and nonfiction, I have experience in just about all areas–and genres, including the amorphous literary mainstream. Any level of writing experience from beginner to advanced. Many widely published writers have benefited from this service.
If interested, inquire at vanderworld at hotmail.com. Please provide the following information:
June 15, 2009
Incoming: Stories Exterior and Interior
(Why do I have these? A–I’m a Halo addict, B–I have been hired by the competition to help create something called “Palo”, C–a legacy player who has grown bored with the game and loves my work is paying me to write Halo fan fic that involves Ambergris, or D–I might be writing a story for an antho.)
It’s time again for an incoming books post, but I thought I’d switch it up this time and add some idea of what’s going on outside the house, too, not just what’s coming into it…
Inside the house, Jeff S
The Blog & The Blogger: China Mieville on Omnivoracious
The City & The City’s China Mieville will be guest blogging on Omnivoracious, the Amazon book blog, this week. In between, I’ll be posting on a variety of loosely related topics, including Alfred Kubin, The Other City by Michal Ajvaz and Magic Prague. Check out the blog all week, as there will be new content of a surreal/fantastical nature every day.
Already posted:
Introductory post, including part of my Weird Tales interview with China:
Mieville: Our monsters are about themselves, and they can ge
