Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 152

Cultpop TV on Predator, Shriek, Weird Tales, Pirates, Steampunk, Evil Monkey

Cult Pop has just put up the video of their interview with me and Ann. Click on episode #28. Recorded very early this year, I think. The alien baby, a Romanian spaceship, and other props make an appearance. Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, the interviewer never asked us what that crazy stuff was, even after he saw our half of the video…er, and must remember to look at camera more.

Backstory:

(1) We both took a shot of whisky before the interview. SOP for video interviews.
(2) I’d f—ed up my

Shared Worlds 2009–Teens Can Apply Now

(Me, nattering on…)

Shared Worlds 2 has been finalized, and you can find the information about the camp below. I’ll be there for two weeks and Ann for one week. The plan is for Tobias Buckell to helm a creative writing track in week two, but the final distribution of tasks/teaching responsibilities depends at least in part on the final head count. Holly Black will be coming in for a couple of days. Will Hindmarch will also be there for the second week, workin’ his magic.

This is a pretty unique

Dear Drunk Girl on Germ of a New Insanity

I’m so stupid I either didn’t realize or had temp-forgotten one of my friends in NYC has a blog, and right now it’s featuring something called Germ of a New Insanity.

Random: My Ride Is Here?

Um, this just pulled up across the street. Maybe they’re here for Irmalinda Pitkaginkel, the crazy shut-in or maybe they know something I don’t and they’re here for me. In any event, probably a good idea to hurry up and post this pretty random post…

John Coulthart done got himself interviewed.

Matt “Write You Under the Table” Bell has done got a chapbook coming out.

StarShipSofa podcasted all of the Nebula nominees for short story.

BookSpotCentral picks up the Conversations with the Bookless series

“The Situation” and Fast Ships Finalists for the Shirley Jackson Award

I’m thrilled that “The Situation” is a finalist for a Shirley Jackson Award. You can read the novelette on GeekDad/Wired and you can still buy the PS Publishing book of it in the 500-copy version, I believe.

Congrats to Ann for Fast Ships, Black Sails being up in the anthology category–she did most of the reading on that one! Congrats to Conrad Williams for his story from the pirate antho also being up. Congrats, in fact, to all of the nominees. Some really cool stuff on there.

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(Full cover art by

Philip K. Dick Award Feature on Omnivoracious

I just posted a PKD Award feature on Omnivoracious, Amazon’s book blog.

David Walton: Nerve-wracking at first, and then euphoric! I could barely eat anything, and of course they design the ceremony to drag out the suspense. I was chatting with Gordon Van Gelder before the ceremony started, and naturally he knew that Terminal Mind had won, but he didn’t give me so much as a clue.

I’ll post an interview with the other winner, Adam-Troy Castro later in the week.

Meanwhile, here are some answers from

American Scary

Scary cool.

Trailers.

What Have You Sacrificed for Your Writing?

I was talking with a writing friend who pointed to Delany’s writing book, where in part Delany talks about “everything he’s had to sacrifice to become the writer that he is: wealth, health, friends, lovers, etc.” I’m thinking about inserting a little bit about this subject into Booklife while I do the final round of substantial edits this week.

What is sacrifice in this context? What is it you’ve given up? Do you regret giving it up? What won’t you give up for your writing? What have others given

Monstrous Creatures Cover

Eric Orchard’s cover art for my nonfiction collection, Monstrous Creatures from Raw Dog/Guide Dog Books. The book will be about 75,000 words, culled from the last five years of nonfiction. Which means rooting around through over 250,000 words of material that might be worthy. I want this book to be airtight.

The idea behind the cover is not just to illustrate the title but to mirror my fiction collection, The Third Bear, coming out next year as well. Monstrous Creatures will include “The Third Be

Books

(growing a beard is easy, except for those not trying hard enough)

(Polish Playboy harmless for its type–more like Men’s Health mixed with EW mixed with, er, Playboy.)

(someone doesn’t belong)