Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 41
November 4, 2011
Weird Fiction Review with Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, Webcomics, and More!
Well, we've completed our first week over at Weirdfictionreview.com and Ann has some thoughts in her editorial. I'd say it was an unqualified success, as noted in this post by Ann. If you haven't checked out this source for all things weird, take a look. Luis Rodrigues, who build this blog, did a great job with it—love the image slider. The site has a donation button, which is important.
Ann's editorial goes into what's planned for next week. All I have to add is that before the end of the year you'll see more on international weird over there, more translations, interviews with the likes of Liz Williams, Michal Ajvaz, Tanith Lee, Lucius Shepard, and Gio Clairval, some great old classic weird articles, a 101 Weird Writers ongoing feature, the continuation of Leah Thomas's webcomic, and some other cool stuff we can't mention yet.
Also, of course, the site supports the launch of our The Weird: A Compendium of Strange & Dark Stories from Atlantic/Corvus, with media coverage beginning for the most part next week. You can check out the contents and all 116 first lines here and here.
Weird Fiction Review with Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, Webcomics, and More! originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on November 4, 2011.
October 31, 2011
Halloween: The Weird Coverage…
(Will the real Beak Doctor step forward? Oh, he will. Soon enough…he will.)
Happy Halloween, although it's coming a little late for me as I've spent my day in the commencement of harrowing dental adventures (but not yet dentures).
Some coverage for our The Weird antho (750,000 words covering a century) beginning to appear as the monster lurches into bookstores between now and November 10.
—Starshipsofa Interview wherein Ann and I talk about people in comas, Mexican circuses, and being asked to pay 60,000 pounds for a 3,000 word short story…along with all things Weird, and about Weird Tales.
—Forbidden Planet behind-the-scenes Director's Cut feature about putting together The Weird, just posted.
—Forbidden Planet blog exclusive featuring the original webcomic Leah Thomas is doing for our weirdfictionreview site that launches tomorrow. It's called "Reading the Weird" and is basically this talented young creator's reaction to encountering the anthology, put through the frame of a journey by two quirky characters.
And remember, as Halloween winds down, this is your brain on Halloween (via The Psychologist–thanks Nick Wood.)
Halloween: The Weird Coverage… originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on October 31, 2011.
Ninni Aalto's Mechanical Rabbit!
Our Finnish friend Ninni Aalto is a wonderful artist, writer, and graphic designer–you may remember her Tallahassee Tentacles hockey shirts. Now she has a new book out, Sähköjänis, which translates (we are told) as Mechanical Rabbit (electric?). Ninni has a real rabbit named Schopenhauer, and a cartoon version of this bunny appears (prominently) in the book. (Check out the website.)
Sähköjänis is autobiographical, with Aalto or her alter-ego appearing in it. Some of the comics are about coffee or about her life as a graphic designer with ideas coming out of her faster than she can keep up with them. There are day-in-the-life comics and others featuring cats. It's really quite cool.
Here are the great endpapers, and a few of the interior pages…
Ninni Aalto's Mechanical Rabbit! originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on October 31, 2011.
Ninni Alto's Mechanical Rabbit!
Our Finnish friend Ninni Alto is a wonderful artist, writer, and graphic designer–you may remember her Tallahassee Tentacles hockey shirts. Now she has a new book out, Sähköjänis, which translates (we are told) as Mechanical Rabbit (electric?). Ninni has a real rabbit named Schopenhauer, and a cartoon version of this bunny appears (prominently) in the book. (Check out the website.)
Sähköjänis is autobiographical, with Aalto or her alter-ego appearing in it. Some of the comics are about coffee or about her life as a graphic designer with ideas coming out of her faster than she can keep up with them. There are day-in-the-life comics and others featuring cats. It's really quite cool.
Here are the great endpapers, and a few of the interior pages…
Ninni Alto's Mechanical Rabbit! originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on October 31, 2011.
The Journals of Doctor Mormeck's Avatar–Entry #18
Note: Been reading this serialized novel, which now has topped 46,000 words, for long? Please support a full-time writer. Paypal to vanderworld at hotmail.com—much appreciated! Donations above $21 will entitle you to a free copy of initial stand-alone book appearance.
Living on a far-distant planet, Doctor Mormeck works for strange beings that might or might not be angels by conducting surveillance across a hundred thousand alt-Earths. Complicating things are a transdimensional race of intelligent komodos wreaking chaos throughout the worlds. When an avatar of Mormeck is sent to a war-torn winter city to investigate a mysterious Presence, the doctor will become embroiled an ever-widening conflict.
Archive is here, Journals of Mormeck, and first entry is here. A full-on 34,000 recap is compiled in one place, here with the entries since easily found in the archive.
You can lose yourself in certain types of spaces, at a certain time. I discover this every day as I pass further into the East. In becoming a shadow, in needing to hide, to avoid, to make myself invisible, I have begun to experience the strange sensation of no longer existing, of floating, even though most days I am an enormous komodo dragon.
The paths here are easier to discern, the map in my head comfortingly similar to what lies ahead of me. And yet there's no accounting on that map for human traffic. On this alt-Earth, the border with China is more secure and the Nazi threat worse, so that in the East the Soviet presence is slightly more relaxed, slightly lessened. Because of this, there is more chaos to navigate: long lines of refugees, wary of any stranger, trying to find their way home in this space, this corridor, between types of authority. You can see it on their faces, the dearly held memory of where they came from before their relocation, some of the children barely old enough to remember the places moved to, but trudging along beside or staring from wagons pulled by oxen. They are marching into a situation less certain than where they came from, but, then, so am I.
The Remnant voice in my head has become as insistent and inescapable as a tooth-ache, and like a tooth-ache I find I can ignore it the busier I am, the more attuned to my environment. I still feel the pain but I am able to distance it.
Thrice I have been attacked, once by brigands and twice by deserters from Trotsky's armies. I don't know what they thought they were attacking, if they saw me as food or simply so strange that they had only one choice, and that was to attack. But each time, I discovered at the end I was alone in the middle of a circle of blood and gore….and realized that although I can stop the Remnant from pushing me to commit an act I have not already envisioned, that when I do engage in violence, its influence takes me to a level of bloodthirstiness that can be rationalized as self-defense but only just. And just, too, the suggestion that perhaps if I cannot rid myself of the Remnant, then I will take it out on my pursuers.
You have more potential than this, the Remnant told me after one such event, as I came out of my blitzkrieg of a rage. You could lead men. You could become a despot and then something more than a despot. You could cultivate charisma. You could be a stronger man than even Trotsky.
I almost laughed at the miscalculation from this Remnant, and this sign of his misunderstanding made me more optimistic about one day being free of such influence. What does a mountain care about becoming a despot? Why would a komodo, agent of chaos, stand still long enough to form a government? Still, it put the seed in my head, an inkling of one path once I reached my destination, confirmed the signs that meant one day a portal would exist there.
Then, too, the sudden reappearance of angels put the Remnant in perspective. I saw them only from afar, and only when I became invisible to evade human beings. It was as if they could not see me visible, but something in my emanations invisible gave off an indicator. Angels solemn on a hilltop, heads tilted toward the sky, channelling…something. Angels sitting in small, sullen pubs in backwater towns so shoddy and withdrawn that life there had gone on undisturbed by all of the turmoil beyond. Angels posing as the dispossessed, trudging along in mimicry of human distress. The ones who walked among human beings were subdued and almost faded, as if in trying to fit in they had inadvertently dimmed themselves so much that now they had become part of the background, of the setting. A smudge on a window. A reflection in a puddle. But the ones in wilderness—they flourished in a kind of glow that sucked light to them. Seeing one above me as I waited silent in underbrush, I felt a kind of pull, as if the angel were a kind of demonic lighthouse, drawing me to it. Only the gnawing of the Remnant at the edges of my mind kept me from giving in to that influence. Although the thought has come to me that perhaps they're looking only for the Remnant, that without the Remnant I would be free of the angels too.
We are close now. The landscape has become both more and less barren and in the distance between the trees I see a kind of wall of dark green that means we are about to enter deep forests.
Yesterday, I came to my senses facing a trail of blood through the snow and the Remnant giggling in my ear. I think he meant me to follow the blood, but instead I went the other way.
Dear Pavlov: I have met up with some of your comrades, although I do not think they were your friends. Although we had some disagreements, it worked out all right in the end. I know you said you have relatives out this way. It makes me wonder if you have visited out this far. If so, you understand the way the landscape eats the roads and how the beauty of it comes with a certain watchfulness…I've certainly seen my share of sentinels. I think of you sometimes, defending your position, and wonder if this place is what you dream of as the opposite of where you are, a place you would rather be. Whereas I now think back to the winter city with a kind of perverse fondness. There is something to be said for having a purpose, even a narrow one, and when that is taken away, when your goal is thousands of miles and years from where you are, it feels like drifting. It feels like the middle of something you can't see the shape of yet. – Your Friend, K
The Journals of Doctor Mormeck's Avatar–Entry #18 originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on October 31, 2011.
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October 30, 2011
Nnedi Okorafor Wins the World Fantasy Award–Full List of Winners
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor has won the World Fantasy Award–I've posted a profile of her and the book, along with a list of the other winners at Omnivoracious.
Nnedi Okorafor Wins the World Fantasy Award–Full List of Winners originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on October 30, 2011.
The Steampunk Bible: Featured on the CBS Morning Show
Today the CBS Morning Show did a feature on Steampunk hosted by Mo Rocca. It focused on a steampunk convention and featured, among others, Jake von Slatt. The piece also nicely spotlighted the Steampunk Bible, showcasing several pages from the book. It's not online yet, but you can go to the preview page for links to the material featured in the bit (scroll down).
You can also visit the Steampunk Bible site for S.J. Chambers' reportage on her European tour for the book.
The Steampunk Bible: Featured on the CBS Morning Show originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on October 30, 2011.
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October 29, 2011
Check Out J.M. McDermott's Women and Monsters
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J.M. McDermott recently released an ebook of his interconnected collection Women and Monsters. Now he's also got a site for the book where he's posting individual stories in return for donations or buying the ebook. I haven't had a chance to read the entire book, but I think it's a fascinating and unique collection and McDermott is one of our most original writers. Check it out.
Check Out J.M. McDermott's Women and Monsters originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on October 29, 2011.
Memories of the Silly Season
Matt Cheney writes about current awards-complaining in the context of just being named a judge himself.
It brought back memories of being a World Fantasy Award judge. I still remember when they announced our consensus winner, Murakami's Kafka on the Shore I was sitting in the banquet room with a prominent NY editor for a genre imprint right in my line of sight. As Murakami's name was announced her face twisted into a mask of anger and disbelief. Which along with some general muttering made me worry about getting out of the room unscathed.
Later, another editor generously tried to rationalize the decision by finding six degrees of separation between Murakami and the genre subculture, as if membership in that subculture was a prerequisite for receiving the award. Someone else told me it wasn't right the award had gone to someone who wasn't one of us—again, referring to the subculture. I then had to sit through a lecture from a fellow writer about how Kafka on the Shore wasn't the best Murakami, and ergo wasn't worthy of the win…despite the fact at the time I'd read everything Murakami had ever written and thus could at least be said to have some perspective on it all…and definitely not in need of the lecture. Later still, some stuck the "blame" for that choice on me, even though it had been a book put forward by another judge and the decision had been unanimous.
All I know is…that year we read thousands and thousands of pages of material and also exchanged over 5,000 emails as judges. We gave it all our undivided attention and debated all of it, and dealt with it all honestly.
There is always plenty of room for debate and for honest differences of opinions, and it's important when looking at finalist lists and the winner lists that for judged awards most of the time the judges spend hundreds of hours reading and re-reading and agonizing. And there's no way to get it completely right. But for most judges, the process is one that creates a further love for fantastical literature and a determination to be as fair as possible.
Memories of the Silly Season originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on October 29, 2011.
October 27, 2011
Mormeck Interlude: "Dear Pavlov…Your Friend, Komodo"
(Sketch of Komodo avatar confronting little girl; this is why I don't illustrate my own books…)
As I mentioned in a prior post, I made some changes to the Remnant gobbet stuck in our friend, Mormeck's Avatar. Well, just now I also added text to the end of both Entry #16 and Entry #17 because I'd totally forgotten the idea I'd planned to implement once the avatar was traveling—to write letters back to his friend Pavlov. Even if he never posts them, the avatar gets a kind of comfort from the bond created by writing them…and in terms of the narrative, it means there's not only someone the avatar needs to communicate with, but the way the avatar glosses over some events and outright lies about others is a nice counterpoint to the rest of those entries. It also gives the reader some relief from the nastiness of the Remnant bit.
But just so you don't have to keep going back if you've already read those entries, the letter text is also reproduced below.
Entry #16:
Dear Pavlov: I don't know when I will post these letters, or if I will ever be able to, but I have decided to write them anyway…I am well on my way to the Far East and all is well. I had a bit of trouble today when I almost lost my head, but reason prevailed and despite an unexpected encounter with a disagreeable fellow traveler, I am doing well. I hope that you are also well. – Your Friend, K
Entry #17:
Dear Pavlov: I must admit to being more lost than I had expected; this is strange country and although I feel I am making progress, I am also wandering a bit. That fellow traveler I mentioned has been shadowing me and tries to get the locals to blame me for things that he has done. I am not quite sure what to do about him. But, I have still managed to stay clear of soldiers and of anyone else who might not understand me. Today, despite the trouble, I had a moment of absolute clarity when I saw a strange blueish bird rise suddenly from a branch full into the blaze of the sun, and something about it made me unbearably happy. Then it was as before…I hope that you are still holding out, my friend. You must say hello to your bodyguards from me. I still think of them fondly, if for no other reason than their talent at banter. I am writing this by moonlight from high in a tree. I can see for miles from here—I can almost see all the way to the frozen rim of the world. Your friend, K
Mormeck Interlude: "Dear Pavlov…Your Friend, Komodo" originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on October 27, 2011.
