Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 54
July 2, 2011
Rikki Ducornet: Great Writer. Full Stop.
I just wrote a short review of Rikki Ducornet's new novel Netsuke for Omni. It's a disturbing novel, in the best way, and pushes against what's moral or decent. I don't doubt it will be polarizing, and there's something very compelling about the fact that even though Ducornet has had a long and distinguished career she's not interested in being content or complacent in her fiction.
For those of you who must have this kind of information, the novel doesn't have a speculative element but Ducornet is at heart a surrealist and any novel by her is fantastical at the level of metaphor—more so than a lot of "pure" fantasists. Simply put Ducornet sees the phantasmagorical in the mundane, in our reality. That's one way you know you're reading someone with a unique view of the world: it permeates all of their texts, regardless of the subject matter through the emissary that is their style.
If you're unfamiliar with Ducornet—and she's far from unknown in the "literary mainstream"—here's a selection
of her novels and story collections to choose from. You can also read her Wiki, check her website, or read this interview She frequently does write fiction that includes some fantastical element. She has also illustrated books by Robert Coover and Jorge Luis Borges.
Evil Monkey: JRP?
Jeff: SOP
Rikki Ducornet: Great Writer. Full Stop. originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on July 2, 2011.
July 1, 2011
Write Emperor Rick Scott, Supreme Ruler of All the Floridas, a Letter!
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
Recently, Stephen Colbert pointed out that our emperor…I mean, our governor here in Florida, Rick Scott—or as he's known in our household, "Rick with a silent 'p'"—has been encouraging his supporters to copy a form letter, intended for media outlets and created by the governor's office, that praises his many accomplishment(s). Colbert has countered with his own letter for Floridians to send in:
Dear Editor,
It is my strong belief that Rick Scott is a(n) [adjective] governor. His letter praising himself makes me want to [verb] up. I [adverb] [verb] this great nation, and everyone should [verb] Rick Scott with a [noun] for a(n) [interjection ]full-body shave like a naked mole rat.
Sincerely,
[Name], [City]
I suggest we all do this.
Rick Scott has no accomplishments. On ideological grounds he rejected high-speed rail and the many jobs it represented, he has slashed state government to the bone as if those were not real jobs, and touted small gains of jobs coming to state as proof of his vision while the full tally is in the negative due to his efforts. Slashing education, slashing the safety net for those in our society who need it most. The cruelty is unbelievable. He seems set to put paid to what remains of our beautiful environment here, and in his remarks to African American legislators he proved himself to be an ass—at best. These are just a few of the ways in which he is probably the worst governor of Florida in the modern era. Unbelievably terrible. The capper is that he is one of those kind of people who cannot admit to mistakes, cannot apologize. Blech. This guy needs to be recalled.
Write Emperor Rick Scott, Supreme Ruler of All the Floridas, a Letter! originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on July 1, 2011.
Monstrous Creatures: E-Book Out (plus review)
[image error]
My nonfiction collection Monstrous Creatures: Explorations of Fantasy through Essays, Articles and Reviews
is now available as a Kindle e-book for those who are interested. All royalties I receive go to fund the international translations component of our forthcoming Leviathan 5 anthology.
A new review of the collection, by Martin Lewis, just appeared on SF Site, under the ominous title of "Monstrous Creatures Jar Jar Binks Must Die" on my google feed. Thankfully, it just means Lewis is reviewing two books at once–indeed, he cheerfully chainsaws off a monstrous arm from my book so he can beat the other author over the head with it at one point. I can't deny the arm he uses wasn't intended in part for that purpose, though.
I think Lewis does a good job—not because he has significant praise for Monstrous Creatures but because he identifies both strengths and weaknesses. He also takes me to task over something related to New Weird, and I can't really disagree with him.
My publisher, Guide Dog, will probably be happy to have this to quote: "VanderMeer's love of the written word is obvious…This love and perspective translates into a fire; from the outset his views are unmistakably his own and no-one else's…VanderMeer is one of the best writers currently working in the fantasy genre and what Monstrous Creatures makes clear is that being a critic is an integral part of this. We are lucky to have his words."
Monstrous Creatures: E-Book Out (plus review) originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on July 1, 2011.
June 30, 2011
Cheeky Frawg's 2011 E-Book Schedule…It's Cheek-a-licious!
Major thanks to Jeremy Zerfoss for his amazing covers and to Neil Clarke for doing our e-book interiors.
—Cheeky Frawg blog page
—Weightless Books Secret Lives offer
My wife Ann VanderMeer and I have finally, after a few delays, finalized the 2011 schedule for our e-books imprint Cheeky Frawg. We think it's a potent mix of eclectic titles bound together by fierce imagination, great writing, and a love for fiction tending toward the fantastical. Some of the translations will be bringing new work to English-language readers, and e-books of nonfiction titles like the wonderful science exposes by John Grant just round out a great line-up. We also have several titles to add to the 2012 schedule, but can't announce just yet. We hope you enjoy this preview of the cornucopia of delights to come. Website and videos coming soon. – Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
ALREADY PUBLISHED
Balzac's War by Jeff VanderMeer
The Compass of his Bones by Jeff VanderMeer
The Infernal Desire Machines of Angela Carter by Jeff VanderMeer
Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
Secret Lives by Jeff VanderMeer
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011
The Troika by Stepan Chapman —A joint Cheeky Frawg/Wyrm Publishing e-book of the PKD Award winning novel. A phantasmagorical look at the future that mixes vivid psychological portrayals of three wounded souls with glimpses of "advancements" at times reminiscent of Clockwork Orange. Three travelers are crossing a desert under the glare of three purple suns: Alex, who wants to be a machine; Naomi, a cryogenically frozen soldier now trapped in the body of a brontosaurus; and Eva, an old Mexican woman who has escaped being a sacrifice in an alternate reality. The novel follows their attempts to find out why they are now crossing a desert with no memory of how they got there, and delves into each character's past in beautifully written flashbacks that feed back into solving the central mystery.
The Honey Month by Amal El-Mohtar—This beautifully written volume of short fictions and poems takes as its inspiration the author's tasting of 28 different kinds of honey, one per day. Each tasting leads to a different literary creation, with each entry also describing the honey in terms that will make you crave it. The perfect gift book.
Women of the Supernatural: A Tartarus Press Sampler edited by Ray Russell—The first in a line of Tartarus Press samplers, partial TOC here, drawing on Tartarus Press's exceptional record of publishing some of the best uncanny and supernatural fiction from the past and present.
The Toy Fixer by Yasumi Kobayashi—The first translation, by Gregor Hartmann, of this award-winning long story about a very stranger tinker…
Tainaron: Mail from Another City by Leena Krohn - The Finnish classic of Kafkaesque beauty. An unnamed narrator in a far-off city populated by talking insects. One of the best weird fictions of the 20th century, and a World Fantasy Award finalist.
Flying Fish "Prometheus": A Fantasy of the Future by Vilhelm Bergsøe—Translation by Dwight Decker, with commentary, of a progressive Danish Steampunk novelette from the 1860s.
OCTOBER 2011
ODD? edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer (full TOC here)—Neither strange nor weird, but simply odd, these stories exemplify the unclassifiable while asking the question "Is it odd or are you too normal?" Featuring Amos Tutuola, Karin Tidbeck, Leena Krohn, Hiromi Goto, Jeffrey Ford, Rikki Ducornet, Caitlin R. Kiernan. A mix of previously unpublished material, reprints, obscure reprints, and new translations of classic stories. Look for the amazing animated vid by Gregory Bossert, featuring original music by Danny Fontaine. Not to mention the action figure based on the original Myster Odd character created by Jeremy Zerfoss!
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011
It Came From the North: Finnish Weird Fiction, vol. 1 edited by Jukka Halme and Tero Ykspetäjä —A sampler celebrating the great Finnish weird fiction, the first in a three-volume set.
Discarded Science: Ideas that Sounded Good at the Time; Corrupted Science: Fraud, Ideology, and Politics in Science; Bogus Science: Or, Some People Really Believe These Things by John Grant—The exclusive e-books of the critically acclaimed nonfiction series that's at times disturbing, hilarious, and always important for the times in which we live. All three titles will be e-published simultaneously just in time for the holiday season.
Yes, you say, that's all well and good, but what do we have to look forward to in 2012 from Cheeky Frawg? In addition to an as-yet-untitled collection from Amos Tutuola and a previously untranslated Leena Krohn novel, here's a preview of just a few titles. We have a lot more surprises up our sleeves, though…
Men Without Bones: The Collected Stories by Gerald Kersh—The classic stories from a half-forgotten author, ironic and funny and darkly fantastical, now available in an edition that won't bankrupt you.
Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck (stories)—The first collection of a mega-talented Swedish writer of weird fiction. Including the critically acclaimed stories that have appeared in Weird Tales.
The Divinity Student, The Golem, The Tyrant, The Traitorby Michael Cisco—Four cult classic New Weird/Old Weird novels reissued in e-book form with new introductions and afterwords, as well as action figures, including the mighty orchid whale.
The Encyclopedia of Victoriana by Jess Nevins—The classic and definitive guide first published by Monkey Brain is resurrected as an innovative and easy-to-search e-book.
Anthologies…
To Heck & Back: Classic Ghost Stories,/em>edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer—Blood-curdling blood-letting and ghastly hauntings. Is it the devil or "just" a bunch of ghosts? Read to find out.
Squidpunk: The Early Years, edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer—Chart the course of squid-related horror and fantasy through the early parts of the 20th century, in preparation for volume 2, Squidpunk: Feeding Frenzy, to be released in 2013.
Love Drunk Book Heads: Interviews About Books edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer—In a cascading torrent of irony, writers talk about their fascination with physical books…in an e-book!
Album Zutique edited by Jeff VanderMeer–An anthology of decadent/surreal stories originally published in 2003 and featuring Elizabeth Hand, Rhys Hughes, Ursula Pflug, Stepan Chapman, and more.
Fiction from Jeff VanderMeer….
Flesh—A 15,000-word horror-in-space story involving cannibalism, meerkats, and a mysterious planet, a radical revision of a 5,000-word story first published in the 1980s.
Select Fire: Collected Stories—The definitive e-book selection of VanderMeer short fiction, including some oddities.
(Rough drafts of covers for the Finnish series.)
Cheeky Frawg's 2011 E-Book Schedule…It's Cheek-a-licious! originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 30, 2011.
June 29, 2011
Writer, Confess Thy Eccentricities!
Just about all writers have some kind of eccentricity to their work habits, I believe—some quirk that works for them. Mine is that I have to more or less fill up every surface of the folder holding the print-out of my novel-in-progress with words. In the photo above, it's the folder for Borne, bowed under the weight and confusion of notes. There's no logic to writing them down on the folder, except that there's this mental construct in my mind. The work must be surrounded by related thoughts and ideas scrawled in a kind of protective spell. These words keep the work safe—keep bad influences out and let the work marinate and reach maturity under that protection of that binding. It makes no sense at all, but it's the only magic I engage in, and a blank folder surface fills me with a feeling of unease.
So, tell me, writers reading this…what're your eccentricities?
Writer, Confess Thy Eccentricities! originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 29, 2011.
Shared Worlds Teaser
Just a little something Jeremy Zerfoss is working on for Shared Worlds teen writing camp this year. The students will get visits from guest writers Nnedi Okorafor, Minister Faust, Ekaterina Sedia, Will Hindmarch, and myself, along with editorial guest Ann VanderMeer.
Shh. Top secret.
Shared Worlds Teaser originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 29, 2011.
June 28, 2011
Preview: The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities
(Contributors: you will have your copy in the next couple weeks, and an email next week about when to blog, etc.)
Next week is the official release of our new anthology, The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities from HarperVoyager in North America. We're bursting with pride over this one, as it turned into a showcase for the imaginations and storytelling talent for some of our most talented fantasy writers as well as a smorgasbord of amazing images from the likes of Mike Mignola, Jan Svankmajer, Yishan Li, Greg Broadmore, Rikki Ducornet, and more. It's already made the LA Times' recommended summer reading list and gotten raves from Bookgasm and from Paul Goat Allen at the Barnes & Noble book club.
The antho includes some great stuff from established writers like Holly Black, Naomi Novik, China Mieville, Alan Moore, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Garth Nix, Jeffrey Ford, Michael Moorcock, Carrie Vaughn, Lev Grossman, Cherie Priest, and more. But I also wanted to point out that we showcase the work of many amazing new writers, including Kelly Barnhill, Amal El-Mohtar, N.K. Jemisin, Reza Negarestani, and Charles Yu—not to mention the micro-fictions section in the back, which includes several first sales. My own contribution includes the introduction, developed with Ann, which weaves Lambshead into the history of the twentieth century.
The anthology has a special dedication page, for someone who had contributed to the first volume and planned to contribute to this one: "Dedicated to the memory of Kage Baker, a wonderful writer and a good friend of Dr. Lambshead. You are not forgotten."
We've just received a couple of finished copies from HarperVoyager, and they're absolutely beautiful, with the cover printed right on the boards.
I'll have a whole week of blogging about this anthology next week, including some cool exclusives, but for now I've got a preview of some pages, along with a couple comparisons between the advance reader copy and the final. Many thanks to the cover designer James Iacobelli and interior designer Paula Russell Szafranski, along with John Coulthart, who served as an image consultant and provided interior images himself, including some amazing title pages…
***
John Coulthart has another six or seven section title pages in the book.
This page from the intro features Jan Svankmajer and one of Jake von Slatt's pieces. (The grainy quality is just a pecularity of the photo.)
A page from the antho-ending "A Catalog of Further Items", featuring images of A Much Smaller Cabinet and von Slatt's Mooney & Finch Somnotrope.
One obvious change between the ARC and the final version was the replacing a few thumbnails, in this case for one of Mike Mignola's original pieces, which inspired Lev Grossman's "Sir Ranulph Wykeham-Rackham, GBE, a.k.a. Roboticus the All-Knowing".
In other cases, we had a chance between the time the ARCs went out and the antho going to the printers to add enhancements due to John Coulthart's swiftness and brilliance—in this case replacing the text for an advert with an image including the text.
HarperVoyager has been incredibly supportive of the entire project, from start to finish, and gave us the space to play around with ideas and in general make the book as good as it possibly could be.
Preview: The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 28, 2011.
The Journals of Doctor Mormeck (Mountain)–Entry #11
Note: Like this serialized long story/novella? Paypal to vanderworld at hotmail.com. Donations above $21 will entitle you to a free copy of initial anthology or stand-alone book appearance. Context:
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. 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. Note: In the last Mountain entry, I've tweaked the description of the tech level of the world described below, necessary for the story going forward.
It has been five days since my last entry.
The lighthouse keeper is a woman named Marty, seemingly made of granite, with a square, open face and broad shoulders, who leans into every ill-wind that blew around that desolate place, who trudges from the well and back even in the middle of storms, a gale no more to her than a tickling breeze.
Of course I loved her as soon as I saw her, for she was like a mountain in some ways, just like me. I didn't have straggly blonde hair like her, and I didn't tend a garden—although I was a kind of garden—and I didn't sometimes put on lipstick and go into the nearby village for a Friday dance. But I am quite sure that I could match her pint for pint at the local pub. A mountain can drink anyone under the table. Of course, a mountain can't fit itself into a pub, so I had to content myself with the images and sound coming back from my moths hovering at the greasy windows.
Marty McBratney is her full name. Her brother, who visited once, called her "Bratty McBratty" but that just made her laugh, and made me envision a willful, powerful teenager striking out over moor and bracken, singing all the while of the injustice of the world. But I think I was just remembering a commercial I saw on a TV during one of the other surveillance missions.
Marty led a solitary life at the lighthouse, although she wasn't dour. She had taken to her job with enthusiasm, and this was evident in her constant maintenance of the lighthouse and her diligence in making sure she properly guided ships safely to shore. From my research I would have said that in every particular she seemed an excellent lighthouse keeper. Except for one mystery.
Each of the past five days, at dusk, a figure had come out of the bushes behind the lighthouse and met Marty there. Three times a man, twice a woman.
Without words, without preamble, they would bring their mouths together for a long, deep, passionate kiss. Marty was so tall she would usually be leaning down for this ritual. In one ridiculous instance involving a short, wiry man, she bent her knees and, holding the man's shoulders in a vice, practically pulled him off his feet so that the mouth-docking could occur.
Disengaging, the stranger would retreat into the bushes. Marty would run to the front of the lighthouse, and then clamber up the revolving stairwell to the very top, taking the metal steps two at a time and making the whole structure reverberate with the echo of her tread. As soon as she had reached the top, the beacon that had been merely glowing would burn with a white light, cutting through the gloom, almost as if powered by the energy of the kiss. A few minutes later, she would slowly descend and walk out onto the front steps, light a cigarette, take three puffs, drop it, and extinguish it with her shoe. She would look out into the darkness in these moments, as if searching for something, and I liked to imagined she was staring straight at me. She would then retreat to her rooms in the cottage next to the lighthouse.
In summary:
Stranger.
Kiss.
Run.
Frenzied climb.
Beam of light.
Leisurely descent.
Cigarette.
What did it mean? What could it possibly signify?
I felt more adrift in my observations of human behavior than ever before.
The Journals of Doctor Mormeck (Mountain)–Entry #11 originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 28, 2011.
June 27, 2011
Secret Lives E-book at Weightless–Win a Free Limited Edition
Weightless Books has just started carrying Cheeky Frawg's titles, including my just-released e-book Secret Lives, which was previously only available as a signed, limited edition for $35. Now you can get it from Weightless for $2.99—and possibly win a copy of the original limited edition. You can find Secret Lives exclusively at Weightless this week, only appearing elsewhere in July.
Weightless is also carrying the rest of Cheeky Frawg's current titles:
The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals (cowritten with my wife Ann)
The Compass of His Bones and Other Stories
The Infernal Desire Machines of Angela Carter
And, coming soon, a Cheeky Frawg website to replace our, well, our placeholder here, and a full list of our titles for 2012.
Secret Lives E-book at Weightless–Win a Free Limited Edition originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 27, 2011.
June 26, 2011
The Journals of Doctor Mormeck's Avatar–Entry #4
(Pavlov's House)
Note: Like this serialized long story/novella? Paypal to vanderworld at hotmail.com. Donations above $21 will entitle you to a free copy of initial anthology or stand-alone book appearance. Context:
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. 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.
So I sat there with Sergeant Pavlov, defender of Pavlov's House in the center of war-torn Stalingrad, drinking "homemade rot-gut" as he called it.
"Your accent is dog crap," Pavlov said as he lit a cigarette. "Where do you come from?"
His lack of fear perplexed me; it worried at me so much I could not leave it alone.
"Have you seen my kind before?" I asked him.
"Yes," he replied, downing a shot and grinning from the burn of it. "You're not going to tell me where you come from."
"Where did you see another of…me?"
He could not know that I wasn't really a Komodo but merely a mountain made an avatar and then made a komodo, sent by angels. I downed my own shot. It stung for me too, but my new metabolism burned off the alcohol in a matter of seconds. I had another, which made Pavlov's eyebrows rise for the first time.
Pavlov thought about my question for a second and, fixing me with his stare, said, "I will only tell you if I know I am not going to die tonight."
"That I have no control over," the green dragon said, "but if you do it won't be by my hand." Pavlov gave my razor-clawed paw with strange hooked thumb a rueful look. "You are safe from me," I added, to be clear.
He nodded to show he understood, took another drag on his cigarette. "One night, I went to relieve a sentry…"
This was before he occupied Pavlov's House. The Germans had cut off his platoon from the main force and they were so depleted that even sergeants stood watch. They'd taken up positions inside an abandoned hotel. The far wall from the sentry's position had been shorn away by a bombing attack. Bombs had also blown off the roof above the sentry's position.
"So I would be standing behind one wall, looking out through a puncture in the concrete from tank fire, and the far end of the corridor behind me ended in a doorway of snow, while snow fell on me from above."
The sentry wasn't there. He had vanished. Then what was falling began to seem dark, almost purple, and when he looked up, he saw the sentry's body, head torn off, seeming to float in mid-air just over the lip of an exposed floor above. But the falling snow revealed a shape like a monstrous lizard head and reptilian arms holding the body as fangs tore into it.
"I didn't think. I ran away and ordered my men out of the hotel."
"Then why didn't you run just now?"
Pavlov shrugged. "Where would I run to? I'll live or die in this place. We are not to give up one inch of ground according to orders." This time he took just a sip of the amber rot-gut. "Are you on their side?"
Meaning the Germans. I ignored him. "Do your men know…about creatures like me?"
"No."
"Other officers?"
"Some. Maybe. We don't talk about it. They probably want to think it's dragons from myth or some witch's curse, but as we all know there are no dragons or witches in the Soviet Union."
Or alternative universes where Lenin was captured, put on trial by Tsar or Duma, and executed.
"As for whose side I'm on," I said, "I have a deal for you." I had no real experience with any of this, just mimicry of things I had seen while conducting surveillance.
Pavlov chuckled a bit at that, almost a sign of nervousness. "A deal? Why should I make deals with dragons when I spend day and night trying not be killed by a whole army of Germans?"
"Don't you want to break the stalemate here? Don't you want to be the one to break it?" In almost every scenario, the Germans lost eventually, but for Pavlov, in this month, this week, this moment, victory must look like a dim and distant thing.
The sergeant considered that for a moment. "So you are offering me something…in return for what?"
"I'll perform reconnaissance for you and I will help you defend this place in return for the information I need."
"Which is?"
"There is another…presence in the city besides my kind and besides you or the Germans. I want you to arrange for certain patrols throughout the city to be on the look-out for this presence, and to report on it."
"And what are the characteristics of this…presence? What are we looking for?"
"Anything unusual," I said.
This time Pavlov actually laughed, which made me feel out of my depth. "Anything unusual? We have starlings that sound like mortar fire. We have creatures like you biting the heads off of sentries. We recently found a clandestine mental hospital full of corpses and people's ashes. Just last month, before more rations arrived, my men were making soup out of their belts and happy for it. You may need to be more specific."
"I can give you a short list. Is it possible?"
"What would you do if I said it were impossible?"
"Are you going to say it is impossible?"
"No."
We talked and drank for a few minutes more, and then Pavlov held out his hand with only slight hesitation. I took it as gently as I could in mine, his clammy palm lost in the heat of my scales and claws.
"Here is to…unusual events," Pavlov said, and I could not help but laugh, startling myself, as even a quiet chuckle in a King Komodo very much mimics a man being noisily strangled.
Thus was the great Komodo-Soviet alliance born, known only to me and a future war hero.
The Journals of Doctor Mormeck's Avatar–Entry #4 originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 26, 2011.
