Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 142

To Read or Not to Read? Surely…Read? (June 10th Facebook Discussion)

I posted the following status message on my Facebook profile page…

Jeff VanderMeer: Writers who don’t read a lot are like musicians who never listen to music. Don’t care how busy you are, you’re stunting your professional development.

…and then this interesting conversation broke out, offered up to all you blog readers not on Facebook. I was going to edit the entries but decided with fact-checking and all…I didn’t have the time. Beside, they read just fine. So here they are in the raw, with just a

Facebook Statuses You Might’ve “Missed” If You’re Not My Facebook Friend

See. See what yer missing, from just the last day, over at Facebook? (Or not)

- Repubs–stop talking about government “interference” in health care. We’re already being held hostage by insurance companies. And ya know what–*preventative* medicine makes sense. We live in a crazy world when idiotic ideas can get any traction. It’s like Alice in Wonderland with thirty mad hatters.

- To the two naked weirdoes getting it on in the ridiculous heat of San Luis park in the dirt: thank you for completely di

Veniss Underground in Poland: Google Says “Hallucinogens Not Needed”

Veniss Underground comes out in Poland in July, apparently–looks like a lovely edition! I believe that Shriek: An Afterword comes out later, if I am remembering correctly what my agent told me. Here’s some of the Google translation of the description from that page, just to show you how Google can give you the gist but still be silly. Alas, I don’t know Polish. Do hope to visit in the next year or two.

“The underground venisse to dark beauty and a true story koszmarna, winning fantastic land assa

Last Drink Bird Head: An October Surprise

Cover design by Jacob McMurray, art by Scott Eagle, the devilish surrealist. The first release from my newly woken Ministry of Whimsy Press, with information up soon on the site of our new protector, Wyrm Publishing. A planned October release in a limited hardcover edition.

Contributors include Michael Bishop, Gene Wolfe, Tanith Lee, Peter Straub, Stephen R. Donaldson, Michael Swanwick, Henry Kaiser, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Bruce Holland Rogers, Conrad Williams, Daniel Abraham, Ellen Kushner, Holly P

The Situation: Eric Orchard’s Thumbnails

Er, of his art, that is. Eric’s just about done with the rough sketches that match up to the script I wrote and turned in to him last week. After this phase, once it’s all been gone over and approved, Eric will begin inking for real. (Here’s more info on the project, which is for Tor.com, and Eric’s blog.)

Here are four samples, with the text that roughly corresponds to the image. I really love the looseness of these drawings. Also note that the story itself has changed quite a bit in dramatizing

Rachel Pollack in Poetry and Prose (from Prague)

(Prague is crazy, man.)

I was surprised a couple weeks ago to open my post office box and find a sharp-looking little package from Prague. Immediately all of the rich, fantastical memories of visiting that city flooded back–from an art exhibit with a huge wicker chair to a row of neon-glowing penguins, to alcoves and cafes set into gardens and courtyards. There’s a richness to the city that’s inexhaustible and charged with a mischievous imagination, and so it’s no surprise I suppose that a book

Would You Buy a Beer from These Bastards? Yes. Because. They’re Stone. Cold. Thirteen-Year-Old. Geniuses.

(Mitch Steele, John Egan, and Tom Garcia with Stone 13th Anniversary Ale)

Mitch Steele at the amazing Stone Brewery in San Diego (home of my favorite beer, Arrogant Bastard) emails to say “That’s right, Stone 13th Anniversary Ale is coming out on June 29th, and it’s big, it’s hoppy, and it’s going to blow your mind. ”

- Stone 13th Anniversary Ale has 4.5 lbs of hops per barrel—more hops per barrel than any beer they’ve ever brewed (Stone 10th Anniversary Ale, revered by many as the quintessentia

Ethics and Enthusiasm

Hal Duncan wears me out with his long blog posts–here’s to rumors of a book of his entries so I can enjoy them in a less frenetic context–but you should definitely check out his latest, entitled “Ethics and Enthusiasm,” which analyzes the whole bruhaha re the SFFE group and touches on the same things mentioned by Evil Monkey in this post.

One thing I found interesting was his point about a writer correcting a reviewer on a point of fact. I talk about this in Booklife–as the only time a writer sh

VanderWorld Creative: Honest, Fun, Imaginative

I just got around to doing a partial rewrite of the Services section of this blog, updating it to include my wife, Ann, and a more complete list of what it is we do under the moniker of VanderWorld Creative–everything from creativity workshops to fan dancing. Okay, no dancing, but we’ve developed a pretty extensive resume when it comes to teaching, speaking engagements, and individual critiquing. Among other services. This is stuff we love to do, and we’ve gotten very good at it.

Later this week,

Help Tempest Help Clarion West Help Beginning Writers Help Themselves

Today, K. Tempest Bradford is starting her write-a-thon on behalf of Clarion West. As a graduate of Clarion and an instructor at both Clarion and Clarion South, I can tell you that all three versions of the workshop offer an invaluable service to SF/F writers. It’s not just the workshop–although that’s paramount–it’s also about the value to the community, something that I think manifests itself most strongly at Clarion West because of their location in Seattle.

I’m sponsoring Tempest to the tune