Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 46

What Are Your Favorite SF/Fantasy Story or Novel Beginnings?

I'm currently working on a creative writing book for Abrams and writing the Beginnings chapter. I've got my own ideas about some of the best story or novel openings in the history of SF/Fantasy, but I'm curious about yours—and to make sure I don't miss anything great.

So: opening sentence or sentences to a story or novel that you found particularly effective? Please include the quote and also tell us why you found it effective.

I'll assume you don't mind being quoted in the book if you comment.

What Are Your Favorite SF/Fantasy Story or Novel Beginnings? originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on September 12, 2011.

The Situation, Art by Eric Orchard: Closer to Completion

For those of you wondering whatever happened to the Situation comic commissioned by Tor.com and based on my novelette of the same name…it's inching closer to completion. Eric Orchard has finished revisions to some images and speech bubbles, and it's gone on to the letterer. So we expect it will be ready fairly soon, and should go live on Tor.com by the end of the year or early next year, at the latest.

Here are a few screen captures from the almost-final PDF, without text of course.

The Situation, Art by Eric Orchard: Closer to Completion originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on September 9, 2011.

Book Midden Friday

One cool thing about the drive home from DragonCon this past weekend was stopping to visit with a friend of ours who has acquired a used bookstore. As you can see from the photo above that means he has the (to us) amazingly pleasurable job of going through the inventory not already on the shelves. Lucky bastard!

Here are a few of the books we picked up. We've been focusing on anthologies and collections to flesh out our selection of short stories. At the moment, I think we have close to 1,500 anthos and story collections in the house.

Book Midden Friday originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on September 9, 2011.

Black Clock #14 Available–Featuring Borne, My New Novel

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I'm really thrilled that a fairly self-contained portion of the beginning of my novel-in-progress Borne is appearing in the just-released latest issue of Steve Erickson's awesome magazine Black Clock. I'm even more thrilled to find out the loose theme: "Both in its contributors and subject matter, this new Black Clock finds women on the verge: of revelation, euphoria, madness and history." And further thrilled to see that my friend the dynamic and awesome Katherine Min is included in this issue. I'm also very much looking forward to reading the work of the other contributors, including Sarah Vap, Jazmin Aminian Jordan, Geoff Dyer, Marisa Crawford, Kate Wolf, Rick Moody, Scott Bradfield, Samantha Cohen, and more.

You can buy the magazine here, and I highly recommend that you do. (Also, Borne the novel won't be finished until December, and might not be published for another year, so…)

Below you'll find a short teaser from the section of Borne running in Black Clock. It's set in a somewhat Kafkaesque ruined, nameless city after a partial Collapse. An anonymous Company still creates bioneered creatures and sends them to places not yet Collapsed. Mord, a giant bear who used to be human, terrorizes the city. The main character came from far away—in my mind she's Fijian, but that isn't specified on the page.

***

There is no other way to say this: Wick was a drug dealer when I met him, and the drug he pushed was terrible and beautiful and sad and sweet and like life itself. The beetles Wick made from materials he'd stolen from the Company didn't just teach when shoved into your ear, they also could get rid of memories and add memories. People who couldn't face the present shoved them into their ears so they could experience someone else's happier memories from long ago and places that didn't exist anymore. Many of his clients blissfully starved to death while in the grip of another person's life. That was the first thing Wick offered me when I met him, and the first thing I refused, seeing it for the trap it was—sensing a trap even when it seemed like an escape.

I set the sea anemone on a rickety table between our chairs on one of the rotting balconies that inspired me to name our refuge Balcony Cliffs. Behind us the buried hotel, and in front of us, veiled by the protective skein Wick had created to shield us from unwelcome eyes, the steep rock face at the bottom of which seethed a poisonous river: a stew of heavy metals and oil that generated a toxic mist.

"What is it?" I asked Wick. It pulsed there on the table, looking as harmless, as functional, as a lamp.

He smiled, a thin smile for a thin man. In the two years since his firing from the Company, Wick had lost any remaining fat. His handsome face, lantern chin and high cheekbones, had begun to eat themselves the way a candle is eaten by flame. He had shadows under the eyes, a tremor at the mouth, and yet this only made his gaze more piercing, the purity of his features more arresting and intense. Those hazel-green eyes now seemed larger, more empathic in the shrunken face, and they saw everything—except, perhaps, how I saw him.

"What isn't it, we should ask first, perhaps," he replied. A sense of distance or a lecture-y quality often created a wall between us when discussing finds. It emphasized the conflict that might one day overtake our relationship. He was self-sufficient and self-contained. So was I. Or so we both thought.

Meanwhile the thing just lay there on the table, pulsing and strobing in a way I found comforting. The strobing made it look bigger. Or perhaps it had already started growing.

"But I know what it isn't," said Wick, responding to my silence, "it isn't Mord-made, like his proxies. Nor is it necessarily Company made."

"How can you tell?" I asked. "And where did Mord pick it up if not from the Company?"

Wick shrugged, as if to say how can anyone be certain of anything? "The Company is too big to keep track of itself. So let's find out." He passed his hand over the object so that the crimson worms that lived inside of his wrist could leap out briefly to analyze it before retracting into his skin. "Surprising. It is from the Company," Wick said. "Created inside the Company, at least."

"But not by the Company?"

Wick's smile became a tight frown. "It has the economy of design usually achieved only by committees of one."

This answer exasperated me. When Wick didn't know, when he couldn't make sense of the senseless, he would dance around a subject and I would become nervous. The world was already too uncertain.

"Do you think it's a mistake?" I asked. "An afterthought? Something put out in the trash that got tangled up in Mord's fur?"

Wick shook his head. "It's too perfect."

"Then what?"

Wick folded his arms, turning that green-gold gaze upon me. "It could be almost anything, but it isn't random. It could be a beacon. It could be a cry for help by someone inside the Company. It could be a bomb."

So Wick really didn't know. "What do we do with it? Eat it?"

He laughed like I was a child, ruining the architectural lines of his face. The laughter didn't bother me. Not then, at least. "I wouldn't eat it. At least not until we know its purpose. Much worse to eat a bomb than a beacon." He leaned forward and I took such pleasure from staring at his face that I thought he had to notice. "If you give it to me, I could break it down into its component parts, repurpose it through my beetles. It might even make good spare parts."

I had let Wick into the Balcony Cliffs. My domain. I told myself I let him stay now for my own protection and called him my boss because I scavenged for him, but as I've said the relationship was more complex. I didn't have to give him the sea anemone, although he could always take it while I slept—but this was always the test of our relationship. Were we symbiotic or parasitic?

I looked at it, lying there on the table, and suddenly I felt possessive. I shouldn't have, and yet I did.

"I think I'll keep it for awhile," I said.

Black Clock #14 Available–Featuring Borne, My New Novel originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on September 8, 2011.

Decatur Book Festival: Needed a VanderMeer Book Signed?

We had a busy weekend, bouncing back and forth between DragonCon and the Decatur Book Festival. DragonCon was fun although chaotic and hectic, and the Decatur Book Festival was an absolute delight. One of the best-run, best-thought-out book festivals we've encountered. Great staff, great organization, imaginative panels, engaged readers attending, and they took good care of us. We'd go back in a heartbeat—might even just drive up to take it in as a reader, too.

However, one consequence of the double-booking—something that happens fairly regularly with Decatur/DragonCon–we were unable to attend the autograph session following Ann and my participation on the Pairs with Pens panel, as I had to rush across town for my DragonCon reading.

As a result, we left some readers in the lurch, something that has never happened in twenty years of signing books. We're abjectly sorry for this turn of events and would like to say that if you were seeking our signatures on books at the Decatur Book Festival, please send us said books to POB 4248, Tallahassee, FL 32315 with instructions on how you want them personalized and we'll absorb the shipping costs to send them back to you. In addition, I know we hurriedly signed but did not personalize a few books as we got into the taxi. If you want these fully personalized to you, you can send them as well.

Further, if you want additional copies of the Lambshead Cabinet or Steampunk Bible sent to friends or family, we'll give them to you at cover price, shipping free. Just email us at vanderworld at hotmail.com for this offer.

Again, we highly recommend the Decatur Book Festival—a wonderful event.

Decatur Book Festival: Needed a VanderMeer Book Signed? originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on September 6, 2011.

DragonCon and Decatur Book Festival Schedule–Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

Right. So. We're double-booked for the Decatur Book Festival and DragonCon. Below find our full schedule. It's a rather insane back-and-forth on Saturday. I don't really know how it's going to pan out. If you're going to be at either and want to meet, it's best to come to one of the events, especially one where we or I clearly have nothing happening right afterwards, according to the schedule below. Otherwise, I will be shoving you out of the way to get to the exit to run to the next event… :)

I will be updating on facebook as the weekend progresses, and you can always shoot me a facebook message during the weekend as I get that directly on my phone instantaneously.

Some events Ann and I are doing separately, as indicated. The DragonCon panels have other panelists, but you'll have to look in the program book for them.

FRIDAY

7:00 p.m.–DragonCon: The Process (Ann VanderMeer)

Description: Editors discuss what happens to your manuscript when it arrives at the publishing house. Time: Fri 07:00 pm Location: Manila / Singapore / Hong Kong – Hyatt

8:30pm – DragonCon: New and Next Weird (Ann & Jeff)

Description: New weird, mash-up, slipstream, interstitial, crossover… what does the future of "genre" hold, especially for the darker fringes of fantasy? Location: Cairo – Hyatt

–After 9:30, hanging out at various DragonCon parties, etc.

SATURDAY

1:00pm – DragonCon: Steampunk Art & Fiction with the VanderMeersDescription: Multi-media show and Q&A on The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, The Steampunk Bible, & Steampunk Reloaded. Location: International C – Westin

1:45pm Decatur Book Festival: The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities: Exhibits, Oddities, Images, and Stories from Top Authors and Artists. Powerpoint, also including the Steampunk Bible. Location: The Old Courthouse

4:15pm Decatur Book Festival: Pairs with Pens, Location: Decatur Presbyterian Sanctuary Stage

5:30pm DragonCon: Jeff reading Marietta room at the Hyatt (excerpt from my new novel, Borne)

7:00pm DragonCon: Writing Short Fiction (Ann VanderMeer): Maybe novel-length fiction isn't for you. Try the short story market. Location: Manila / Singapore / Hong Kong – Hyatt

SUNDAY

10:00am DragonCon: Autograph session Ann & Jeff (not sure where this is—check the DragonCon program book)

1:00pm DragonCon: The Steampunk Exhibition (Ann & Jeff–with books AND a Jake Von Slatt contraption!): Makers, builders and creators of steampunk props, weapons, costumes and contraptions display them in an up-close and personal format. Location: Atlanta EFGH – Westin (Length: 2.5 Hours)

4:00pm DragonCon: Signing at the Missing Volume (Ann & Jeff) (booth numbers 614, 615), Marquis level in the Marquis ballroom along the back wall.

7:00pm DragonCon: Drawing Plans Against Us: War of the Worlds (Ann VanderMeer): The War of The Worlds is arguably the most influential science fiction novel of all time. The cultural impact of this Wells work is far reaching, Hanover C – E – Hyatt

DragonCon and Decatur Book Festival Schedule–Ann & Jeff VanderMeer originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on September 1, 2011.

The Weird: Magazine and Anthology Sources

Busy prepping for DragonCon, but here's a breakdown of the magazine and anthology sources for the stories in The Weird, leaving out for now author collections, in case anyone was interested. We'll post the full publication information for all of the stories closer to the publication date, for those who are curious.

If an anthology, the editor or editors have been listed after the title. For non-UK/US mags, the country of publication has been listed. If more than one story came from a single source, the number of stories is listed in parentheses after the title of the publication. It's worth noting that Ellen Datlow may be the editor connected to the most number of reprints in the book, given her involvement in OMNI and Event Horizon, as well as the anthology Inferno—although we'd have to research the editors at Weird Tales and Mag of F & SF during the time of publication of those reprints to make sure.

Album Zutique #1 (edited by Jeff VanderMeer)

All-Story Weekly

Astonishing Stories

Book of Wonder

Borderlands 1 (edited by Tom Monteleone)

Borderlands 4 (edited by Thomas F. Monteleone and Elizabeth E. Monteleone)

Brutarian

Bungakukai (Japan)

Cern Zoo: Nemonymous 9 (edited by D.F. Lewis)

Chicago Review

Children of Cthulhu (edited by John Pelan and Benjamin Adams)

Collier's Magazine

Conjunctions (2 stories)

Dark Forces (edited by Kirby McCauley)

El Siglo (Chile)

Elsewhere (edited by Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold)

Event Horizon

Fantasy Magazine

Frights (edited by Kirby McCauley)

Full Spectrum 2 (edited by Lou Aronica, Patrick LoBrutto, Shawna McCarthy, and Amy Stout)

Giornale Illustrato dei Viaggi e delle Avventure di Terra e di Mare (Italy)

Illustrated Weekly of India

Imagination

In The Field Of Fire (edited by Jeanne Van Buren Dann and Jack Dann)

Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, 2007 (edited by Ellen Datlow)

Interzone (2 stories)

Iron Horse Literary Review

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (2 stories)

Keep Out the Night (edited by Stephen Jones)

La Croisière des Ombres (French?)

Le Bien Public (French?)

Leviathan 3, 2002 (edited by Forrest Aguirre and Jeff VanderMeer)

Liaison d'un été

Lock and Key Library

London Mercury

Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (6 stories)

Masques: All New Works of Horror and the Supernatural (edited by J.N. Williamson)

Metahorror (edited by Dennis Etchison)

Midnight Graffiti

Návrat Starého Varana (Czech)

Nekomachi (Japan)

New Dimensions 6, edited by Robert Silverberg

New Yorker (2 stories)

October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween (edited by Richard Chizmar and Robert Morrish)

OMNI (3 stories)

Osaka Mainichi (Japan)

Other Edens (edited by Christopher Evans and Robert Holdstock)

People's Favorite Magazine

Playboy

Rogue Magazine

Science Fantasy

Shadows 4 (edited by Charles L. Grant)

Slowo Polskie (Poland)

Space and Time

Star Science Fiction Stories

Strange Horizons

Sur (Argentina)

The Silver Web

Unknown Worlds

View

Weird Tales (7 stories)

Winter Tales Magazine

Xero Magazine

The Weird: Magazine and Anthology Sources originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on August 31, 2011.

Table of Contents: The Weird, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

(rough of the cover; also see Ann's parallel post on the Weird Tales blog)

THE WEIRD: A Compendium of Dark & Strange Stories

Edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

Pub Date: Mid-October; Publisher: Atlantic, Corvus imprint (UK edition)

Foreword: Michael Moorcock

Introduction by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

Afterword: China Mieville

Over one hundred years of weird fiction collected in a single volume of 750,000 words. Over 20 nationalities are represented and seven new translations were commissioned for the book, most notably definitive translations of Julio Cortazar's "Axolotl" and Michel Bernanos' short novel "The Other Side of the Mountain" (the first translations of these classics in many decades). Other highlights include the short novels / long novellas "The Beak Doctor" by Eric Basso, "Tainaron" by Leena Krohn, and "The Brotherhood of Mutilation" by Brian Evenson. This is among the largest collections of weird fiction ever housed between the covers of one book.

Strands of The Weird represented include classic and mainstream weird tales, weird SF, weird ritual, international weird, and offshoots of the weird influenced by Surrealism, Symbolism, the Gothic, and the Decadent movement. (A discussion of weird modes of fiction can be found in the introduction.)

A compendium is neither as complete as an encyclopedia nor as baggy as a treasury. Although the backbone of the book reflects the immense influence of both Kafka and Lovecraft, we have ventured out from that basic focus to provide different traditions of weird fiction and outliers that are perhaps open to debate. The anthology is meant to be both an interrogation of weird fiction and a conversation with it. We hope that readers will be delighted by the classics included and by the unexpected discoveries found within its pages.

Also, in support of both the anthology and weird fiction, we will be launching http://www.weirdfictionreview.com in October.

Table of Contents

Story order is chronological except for a couple of exceptions transposed for thematic reasons. Stories translated into English are largely positioned by date of first publication in their original language. Authors are North American or from the United Kingdom unless otherwise indicated.

Alfred Kubin, "The Other Side" (excerpt), 1908 (translation, Austria)

F. Marion Crawford, "The Screaming Skull," 1908

Algernon Blackwood, "The Willows," 1907

Saki, "Sredni Vashtar," 1910

M.R. James, "Casting the Runes," 1911

Lord Dunsany, "How Nuth Would Have Practiced his Art," 1912

Gustav Meyrink, "The Man in the Bottle," 1912 (translation, Austria)

Georg Heym, "The Dissection," 1913 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Germany)

Hanns Heinz Ewers, "The Spider," 1915 (translation, Germany)

Rabindranath Tagore, "The Hungry Stones," 1916 (India)

Luigi Ugolini, "The Vegetable Man," 1917 (new translation by Anna and Brendan Connell, Italy; first-ever translation into English)

A. Merritt, "The People of the Pit," 1918

Ryunosuke Akutagawa, "The Hell Screen," 1918 (new translation, Japan)

Francis Stevens (Gertrude Barrows Bennett), "Unseen—Unfeared," 1919

Franz Kafka, "In the Penal Colony," 1919 (translation, German/Czech)

Stefan Grabinski, "The White Weyrak," 1921 (translation, Poland)

H.F. Arnold, "The Night Wire," 1926

H.P. Lovecraft, "The Dunwich Horror," 1929

Margaret Irwin, "The Book," 1930

Jean Ray, "The Mainz Psalter," 1930 (translation, Belgium)

Jean Ray, "The Shadowy Street," 1931 (translation, Belgium)

Clark Ashton Smith, "Genius Loci," 1933

Hagiwara Sakutoro, "The Town of Cats," 1935 (translation, Japan)

Hugh Walpole, "The Tarn," 1936

Bruno Schulz, "Sanatorium at the Sign of the Hourglass," 1937 (translation, Poland)

Robert Barbour Johnson, "Far Below," 1939

Fritz Leiber, "Smoke Ghost," 1941

Leonora Carrington, "White Rabbits," 1941

Donald Wollheim, "Mimic," 1942

Ray Bradbury, "The Crowd," 1943

William Sansom, "The Long Sheet," 1944

Jorge Luis Borges, "The Aleph," 1945 (translation, Argentina)

Olympe Bhely-Quenum, "A Child in the Bush of Ghosts," 1949 (Benin)

Shirley Jackson, "The Summer People," 1950

Margaret St. Clair, "The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles," 1951

Robert Bloch, "The Hungry House," 1951

Augusto Monterroso, "Mister Taylor," 1952 (new translation by Larry Nolen, Guatemala)

Amos Tutuola, "The Complete Gentleman," 1952 (Nigeria)

Jerome Bixby, "It's a Good Life," 1953

Julio Cortazar, "Axolotl," 1956 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Argentina)

William Sansom, "A Woman Seldom Found," 1956

Charles Beaumont, "The Howling Man," 1959

Mervyn Peake, "Same Time, Same Place," 1963

Dino Buzzati, "The Colomber," 1966 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Italy)

Michel Bernanos, "The Other Side of the Mountain," 1967 (new translation by Gio Clairval, France)

Merce Rodoreda, "The Salamander," 1967 (translation, Catalan)

Claude Seignolle, "The Ghoulbird," 1967 (new translation by Gio Clairval, France)

Gahan Wilson, "The Sea Was Wet As Wet Could Be," 1967

Daphne Du Maurier, "Don't Look Now," 1971

Robert Aickman, "The Hospice," 1975

Dennis Etchison, "It Only Comes Out at Night," 1976

James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon), "The Psychologist Who Wouldn't Do Terrible Things to Rats," 1976

Eric Basso, "The Beak Doctor," 1977

Jamaica Kincaid, "Mother," 1978 (Antigua and Barbuda/US)

George R.R. Martin, "Sandkings," 1979

Bob Leman, "Window," 1980

Ramsey Campbell, "The Brood," 1980

Michael Shea, "The Autopsy," 1980

William Gibson/John Shirley, "The Belonging Kind," 1981

M. John Harrison, "Egnaro," 1981

Joanna Russ, "The Little Dirty Girl," 1982

M. John Harrison, "The New Rays," 1982

Premendra Mitra, "The Discovery of Telenapota," 1984 (translation, India)

F. Paul Wilson, "Soft," 1984

Octavia Butler, "Bloodchild," 1984

Clive Barker, "In the Hills, the Cities," 1984

Leena Krohn, "Tainaron," 1985 (translation, Finland)

Garry Kilworth, "Hogfoot Right and Bird-hands," 1987

Lucius Shepard, "Shades," 1987

Harlan Ellison, "The Function of Dream Sleep," 1988

Ben Okri, "Worlds That Flourish," 1988 (Nigeria)

Elizabeth Hand, "The Boy in the Tree," 1989

Joyce Carol Oates, "Family," 1989

Poppy Z Brite, "His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood," 1990

Michal Ajvaz, "The End of the Garden," 1991 (translation, Czech)

Karen Joy Fowler, "The Dark," 1991

Kathe Koja, "Angels in Love," 1991

Haruki Murakami, "The Ice Man," 1991 (translation, Japan)

Lisa Tuttle, "Replacements," 1992

Marc Laidlaw, "The Diane Arbus Suicide Portfolio," 1993

Steven Utley, "The Country Doctor," 1993

William Browning Spenser, "The Ocean and All Its Devices," 1994

Jeffrey Ford, "The Delicate," 1994

Martin Simpson, "Last Rites and Resurrections," 1994

Stephen King, "The Man in the Black Suit," 1994

Angela Carter, "The Snow Pavilion," 1995

Craig Padawer, "The Meat Garden," 1996

Stepan Chapman, "The Stiff and the Stile," 1997

Tanith Lee, "Yellow and Red," 1998

Kelly Link, "The Specialist's Hat," 1998

Caitlin R. Kiernan, "A Redress for Andromeda," 2000

Michael Chabon, "The God of Dark Laughter," 2001

China Mieville, "Details," 2002

Michael Cisco, "The Genius of Assassins," 2002

Neil Gaiman, "Feeders and Eaters," 2002

Jeff VanderMeer, "The Cage," 2002

Jeffrey Ford, "The Beautiful Gelreesh," 2003

Thomas Ligotti, "The Town Manager," 2003

Brian Evenson, "The Brotherhood of Mutilation," 2003

Mark Samuels, "The White Hands," 2003

Daniel Abraham, "Flat Diana," 2004

Margo Lanagan, "Singing My Sister Down," 2005 (Australia)

T.M. Wright, "The People on the Island," 2005

Laird Barron, "The Forest," 2007

Liz Williams, "The Hide," 2007

Reza Negarestani, "The Dust Enforcer," 2008 (Iran)

Micaela Morrissette, "The Familiars," 2009

Steve Duffy, "In the Lion's Den," 2009

Stephen Graham Jones, "Little Lambs," 2009

K.J. Bishop, "Saving the Gleeful Horse," 2010 (Australia)

Table of Contents: The Weird, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on August 30, 2011.

S.J. Chambers and the Steampunk Bible–in England and France!

My co-author is going to London and Paris! Details below. -jv

After completing a highly successful fortnight tour throughout New England last May, Steampunk Bible co-author S. J. Chambers is jumping on a steamer and heading across the Atlantic. She will be making two appearances, one in London and one in Paris, accompanied by various contributors from the book.

September 6, (Tuesday), London, U.K.—Viktor Wynd's Little Shop of Horrors/The Last Tuesday Society, 11 Mare Street, doors open at 6 pm, show begins at 7 pm—Part of the Hendricks lecture series; co-author S. J. Chambers invites you to the official U.K. celebration of the her book The Steampunk Bible (Abrams Image). Part lecture, part signing, and part entertainment, S. J. will be accompanied by contributors Jema Hewitt (author of Steampunk Emporium ) and Sydney Padua (Lovelace & Babbage) for a discussion of the movement, followed by a special performance by Victorian monster hunter, Major Jack Union. Tickets can be purchased here.

September 16 (Friday), Paris, France—Librairie L'Antre Monde, 142, rue du chemin vert, 6 pm–The French Steampunks' present Tea Time with S. J. Chambers (coauthor of The Steampunk Bible) and Etienne Barillier (author of Steampunk! and a prominent French Steampunk member) for an evening of discussion, signing, and tasty treats. For more information, please visit:

About the Author: In addition to co-authoring The Steampunk Bible (Abrams Image) with Jeff VanderMeer, S. J. Chambers also edits The Steampunk Bible, Volume 2.0, the website companion to the book. She is the Articles Senior Editor for Strange Horizons magazine, and a regular contributor to Bookslut and Tor.com. Her writing has appeared in a diverse array of publications including The Baltimore Sun's Read Street blog, Yankee Pot Roast, New Myths, Fantasy, Mungbeing, and in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's latest anthology Thackery T. Lambshead's Cabinet of Curiosities. She is a devout Poepathist and has devoted a great portion of her career to emphasizing Poe's importance to genre, including a lecture for the Library of Congress' "What If…SF" series. You can find out more about S. J., including her pronom, over at www.sjchambers.org

S.J. Chambers and the Steampunk Bible–in England and France! originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on August 30, 2011.

Shared Worlds: Student Bestiaries, 2012-13 Guests, Essay Contest, World SF Fund Donation, and More!

Hot on the heels of the Amazon.com grant we received last year, a lot of cool things are happening around Shared Worlds, the teen SF/f writing camp I help run along with founder Jeremy L.C. Jones.

First, check out this Amazon feature on the camp that includes some samples of the students' bestiary entries, like this one!

Jada Thomas: With small kitten ears and a matching soft voice, this creature is known for its warming kindness and shy personality. It lives in the blazing heat and despises chilly winter nights. It is always seen creating something wonderful. This sweet creature is called a Shima. When you meet a Shima, you won't forget it.

That's the result of a writing exercise where they wrote about themselves as if they were fantastical beasts; we're using those pieces as author notes in the back of the Shared Worlds student writing book, which they'll be receiving in a few weeks. (We may actually also offer it for sale as a fund-raiser.)

Second, the Amazon feature reveals our list of guests for 2012, as well as noting that Holly Black, Karen Lord, Lev Grossman, and Nathan Ballingrud will all be guests in upcoming years. We'll have an official press release out next week, but our 2012 guests are: Julianna Baggott, Tobias Buckell, Will Hindmarch, Karin Lowachee, Naomi Novik, and Ann VanderMeer. I will also be at the camp both weeks.

Third, Shared Worlds recently gave a donation of $250 to the World SF Travel Fund—in fact, our donation is the one that put them over the top for their original goal of $6,000. We strongly support this effort, and hope you will support it, too, since they're now trying for additional funding.

Fourth, Shared Worlds will be partnering with Underland Press to sponsor a writing contest for teenagers. I am currently working on a nonfiction book entitled If You Lived Here: The Top 30 Fantasy & SF Worlds for Underland. Two winning essays submitted by readers about their favorite worlds will be included in the book: one in the under 18 category and one in a adult category. In addition, Shared Worlds will contribute the $500 prize for the winning teen entry and Underland will contribute $500 for the winning adult entry. More details on that in the next couple of weeks.

Fifth, you'll soon be able to donate to Shared Worlds to help make sur we can meet financial need of applicants. The Amazon grant was wonderful because it allowed us to offer scholarships to 19 students, but we always want to make sure that talented teens who want to come to the camp are able to do so. For some, it is a defining experience that literally means the world.

For more information on the camp, read this Strange Horizons article.

Shared Worlds: Student Bestiaries, 2012-13 Guests, Essay Contest, World SF Fund Donation, and More! originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on August 27, 2011.