Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 87

The Final Stretch of Shared Worlds

A whole week at Shared Worlds and I took exactly zero photos. What's wrong with me?

(Not that it matters, but my soundtrack for this week has consisted mostly of the newest Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach ("Empire Ants" is going right now), supplemented by the vocal stylings of Shared Worlds director, Jeremy Jones.)

I've got my CD with the students' stories, though, as well as books by visiting lecturers, readers, and critique experts: Michael Bishop and Marly Youmans. They are honed and cunning ...

On Enthusiastic Consent

Sometime back my brother went for holiday in Phuket (not so extraordinary, I'm afraid, since Thailand's right next door to Malaysia), and he told me he was hoping to put the moves on a woman he found attractive.

"You got condoms?" I asked.

"Yep."

"Don't forget to get consent."

"Of course!" said he, indignant that I could think otherwise.

"Enthusiastic consent."

"Oh yes yes yes," he replied eagerly.

"Actually, one-up that: enthusiastic participation."

"Hmmmm…" he turned thoughtful, as if it was a...

Them Reviewers, They're Some Sick Bastards

(Thanks to all of the guest bloggers for the great ongoing posts!)

So Finch is out in the UK early next month, and so far it's gotten a great review in Interzone and on Strange Horizons to go with raves in the Washington Post, B&N Review, LA Times, and lots of other places for the US edition, as well being a Nebula finalist and Locus Award finalist.

And then there's the one that made me really laugh. The one where the reviewer seems to have been writing while he had a lemon stuck very high up ...

Lightness: Italo Calvino's hope for the future of literature

Gio Clairval is an Italian-born refugee who lives in Paris and writes in English, also translating stories from several languages she has forgotten to a language (this one) she has never really known. She's published here and there and can be spotted, when she thinks you're not looking, at www.gioclairval.blogspot.com, first place in the internets (evar) to showcase Umberto Eco's "rules for writing well" in the tongue Inglès. Being late at the wake is considered chic where she comes from.

T...

Why Do You People Still Need All that Black Stuff?

Maurice Broaddus is the author of the novel series, The Knights of Breton Court (Angry Robot).  His dark fiction has been published in numerous magazines, anthologies, and web sites, most recently including Dark Dreams II & III, Apex Magazine, Black Static, and Weird Tales Magazine.  He is the co-editor of the Dark Faith anthology (Apex Books).   Read his blog where he often opines on issues of race, religion, writing, and pop culture and learn more about him at...

Advice for Writers

Some useful advice for writers

Change your underwear, at least once a week (whether you need to or don't).Drink beer.Never refer to a writing group as a "circle jerk", in public.If you think cocaine is the drug of choice for writers, then you have unrealistic expectations of financial returns.Never drink wine at a book launch.Open your own fan page on Facebook and invite everyone to become your fan. Do not be offended if they all think you're a jerk.If you really have nothing to say, write an...

Intermittent Transmissions from the Diaspora

I am a Filipina writer living in The Netherlands. If you wish to know more about me, please feel free to visit my website.

An anecdote

Not so long ago, I was walking through the supermarket when a familiar tune sounded through the loudspeakers. I stopped and listened and sure enough, the song they were playing was Anak by Freddie Aguilar**.  For a moment, I felt as if I were back home again, and I had a sudden urge to grab someone by the elbow and say: "Listen, that's Anak. You know that...

Mysterious Galaxy (and a MindMeld for Shared Worlds)

If you're in the general San Diego area, consider dropping by Mysterious Galaxy bookstore Wednesday (that's today) at 7pm, when Ann and I will be talking about the Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals and I will be reading from Third Bear. It's part of the Clarion reading series.

Also, SF Signal just posted a MindMeld for Shared Worlds, the teen writing camp, with great advice from Karen Lord, Holly Black, and many others. Check it out.

Frogs… and what they say about talent.

Eden Robins writes what she has just decided to call "quirky fantasy" or "quirkrock". She also edits Brain Harvest and lives in Chicago, where she is currently trying to do too many things at once.

So check this out, you guys:

It's an anthropomorphic frog. I drew it. It only took me about two hours. I know, right? How did I draw something so awesome in only two hours?

For me, drawing is an excruciating process. Brain-hurty, frustrating, tedious and ultimately disappointing. My artistic talent...

Writing Fighting

I originally posted this on my blog, The Gist, several months back, but I thought it might be of interest to you Ecstatic Days readers, too, and I wanted to chip in over here while I could.

For a week or so, I plugged the "ask me anything" feature on my tumblelog, hoping to get some fodder for blog posts. The last question to come in was this one: "Any tips on writing fight scenes in fiction?"

Tips I don't know, but I have some personal tastes that I try to serve when I write action. The thing...