Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 97

Evil Monkey Cares Not

Evil Monkey:

I care not.

Jeff:

Why not?

Evil Monkey:

I don't care if SF is dying. Everything's dying. Everything's decaying and coming back. Sometimes it comes back as a ghost, but even a ghost has a story to tell.

Jeff:

It does seem as if this rant comes up all the time. It made me want to vomit.

Evil Monkey:

Because it upset you so?

Jeff:

Because it was like chewing old cardboard reading it. I couldn't keep it down it was so familiar.

Evil Monkey:

That just means you're old.

Jeff:
That just means I...

Romanian Predator Novel Surfaces–If You See It, Snag Me a Copy

There it is! Beside a couple of innocent bystanders. It's been out more than a year, the Romanian translation of my Predator novel. Despite promises of "copies in the mail" from my editor and friend (?) Horia Ursu, I haven't seen hide nor hair of it. If you see a copy somewhere, send me one. It'd sure be nice to have one on the bookshelf. I assume DH got paid their licensing fee, too.

Okay, back to the salt mines, with a little bit of a growl.

What're You Up To? (And Thirdbearblurbage)

(Cover by Jacob McMurray)

I'm out the full week on deadlines, so please share what you've been up to since I can't. Also, my story collection The Third Bear is scheduled to come out in August from Tachyon, and some very nice people have read it in advance and offered some words. I feel very blessed.

Jeff

"Cunningly crafted stories full of wonder and intelligence…VanderMeer proves again why he is so essential and why everybody should be reading him."
—Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ...

Michael Moorcock Nonfiction From Savoy

John Coulthart just posted some amazing photos of the collected nonfiction of Michael Moorcock, from Savoy. I think Coulthart might've outdone himself here.

Psst, Between You, Me, and the Wall: Kosher Guide Limited Edition…Very Limited

See that thar limited right below this post–the Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals? Tachyon's selling it. They're only ever gonna be 34 copies, one for each animal. So they're all individualized. Go forth and plunder.

Third Bear ARC, Kosher Guide Limited

A couple of cool things (from my POV) in the mail today–the ARC of my Third Bear story collection and the limited of the Kosher Guide.

*Diving back into deadlines…*

What's the Weirdest Experience of Your Life?

Over the past few weeks I've posted a bit about fictional "weird" in the context of the anthology we're editing. But how about the real "weird"–instances of the inexplicable or of odd epiphany or reverie or absurdity in your lives that you can't quite shake or rationalize?

Let's run this for the next week, through Friday night. I'm counting on you to use the honor system and not make anything up. If a lot of people decide to share, we might just gift a couple of people with some free books.

Coulthart's Finch Cover Wins Spinetingler Award

I'm ecstatic that the amazing John Coulthart has won the Spinetingler Award for his amazing cove for Finch. Votes in that category totaled 806–about the same as the Hugos, no?–and all of the winners will be announced tonight.

Living With the Weird

Editing an anthology as large as this book of weird we're doing is a bit like fighting a war or running some kind of multi-threaded private political campaign. Attrition. Battles won. Others to fight. Some things seen clearly. Some hazy as we feel our way through a dark forest. Others beckoning on the horizon. True light or false? Recalibrating. Secure that flank. Fall back over here. Rally again at this point. Hold the line right here no matter what…and it's also like living in a cell of...

Books That Make Me Happy

I love the cover of Stories–just makes me smile. The new Dungeon in English translation is wonderful! And I just did an interview with Ajvaz about his new novel, The Golden Age. Check it out and spread the link–he deserves more recognition.

Work on the book of weird progresses. Although we're not really disclosing the contents just yet, I can confirm that we will include a new translation by Gio Clairval of Michel Bernanos' cult classic short novel "The Other Side of the Mountain". This story ...