Matt Ruff's Blog, page 45
November 22, 2011
The Mirage gets a starred Publishers Weekly review
We're still two and a half months from publication, but Publishers Weekly has already posted its starred review of The Mirage. (Note that the review contains minor spoilers.)
Money quote: "[The Mirage] is both entertaining and provocative, exactly what the best popular fiction should be."
Thanks, P.W.!
November 18, 2011
NEA Prose Fellowships announced
The National Endowment for the Arts has just announced the recipients of the 2012 NEA Prose Fellowships. I had the honor of serving on this year's selection panel, so I'm particularly excited to see the winners' list posted. The 40 finalists were chosen from a field of over 1200 applicants—which is to say, they're all really, really good writers. I do have my favorites, and may talk about them in a later post, but having been on the jury I have to say the blind submission process has a lot to recommend it. So if you're looking for someone new to read, do yourself a favor and take a chance: Pick a few names off the winners' list at random, and head for your nearest library, independent bookstore, or e-reader. They won't all be to your taste, but I guarantee at least one of them will be an author you'll be glad to get to know, who you would never have even heard of otherwise. And that's your tax dollars at work, right there.
Many thanks to my fellow panelists, who were as civil as they were passionate about their likes and dislikes, and to the NEA staff, who took great care of us, kept things running smoothly, and, oh yeah, have the coolest headquarters of any federal agency:
And to the new Fellows themselves: Congratulations! Discovering your work and getting to share it with other people is both a pleasure and a privilege.
November 14, 2011
Not to be used as a flotation device
Lisa and I are big fans of the Jeff Hertzberg/Zoë François line of bread-baking books, and we just got their latest one, which is devoted to pizzas and flatbreads. Over the weekend I decided to try the recipe for "Turkish Pita Boats":
This is a spelt-flour dough shell wrapped around grilled marinated chicken, onions, yellow peppers, cherry tomatoes, and feta. You grill the filling separately, let it cool a bit, then roll a few ounces of dough into a thin, rough oval, pile filling in the middle, wrap up the sides and pinch the ends, and bake at 500° F for eight minutes. The baked dough is firm enough that you can pick up the whole thing in your hand, like so:
Now that I've got the basic proof of concept down, the next step will be trying different fillings (lamb, for sure) and doughs.
November 11, 2011
New Mirage cover
FYI, The Mirage has a new cover. I just got the final art:
If you're one of the folks who got an ARC with the green-and-pink "flipped cities" cover, you are now in possession of an artifact from an alternate reality.
November 8, 2011
Old habits
Now I know I'm almost ready to start working on a new book. I just spent the past three hours weeding bookshelves, cleaning my office, and doing various other household chores.
Instead of, you know, actually writing.
November 7, 2011
Wanted: a Lovecraftian time & space travel superhero drama with a side of Borges
So I've been tracking the results of last Wednesday's poll about what genre you'd like to see me tackle next. "Lovecraftian horror" took a surprise early lead, but "SF involving space travel" has since caught up, "Time travel" and "People with superpowers" have both surged ahead, and "Forking paths story" is running a close fifth. Meanwhile, in comments, I'm getting a definite "See how many of these you can pack into one novel" vibe.
Less popular: "Romantic comedy," "Royal/political intrigue," and "Young adult." I'm guessing part of the problem with the latter is that it's not specific enough: "YA about what, Matt?" As for royal intrigue, I blame David Lynch* for the poor showing.
*Lynch's Dune was on cable over the weekend, and while I have an unkillable nostalgic fondness for it, it feels cheesier with every passing year.
November 2, 2011
What genre should my next novel be in?
One of my goals between now and The Mirage's publication is to figure out what novel I want to write next. I've got some specific ideas I'll be blogging about, but first, a more general question. Mostly by chance, I've developed a reputation for never writing in the same genre twice, and I'd like to continue that if I can. So here's a list of possibilities I'm considering. Pick your favorite (or two if you like):
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
*A "forking paths story" is one that contains a crucial branching point—where the protagonist does or does not catch a bus, calls heads or tails, decides to turn east, north, or west—after which the narrative splits to show the consequences of each of the different branches. Examples include Carol Anshaw's novel Aquamarine and the movie Sliding Doors.
October 25, 2011
The Mirage book tour, part the first
My HarperCollins publicist has confirmed the first batch of Mirage reading and signing events:
Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012, 7:00 PM — Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 Tenth Ave., Seattle, WA
Saturday, Feb. 11, 1:00 PM — Ballard Public Library (sponsored by Secret Garden Bookshop), 5614 22nd Ave. NW, Seattle, WA
Sunday, Feb. 12, 7:30 PM — Powell's City of Books, 1005 W. Burnside, Portland, OR
Tuesday, Feb. 14, 6:00 PM — Sunriver Books & Music, Sunriver Village, OR
Thursday, Feb. 16, 7:00 PM — University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, Seattle, WA
Friday, Feb. 17, 6:30 PM — Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park, WA
Sunday, Feb. 19, 3:00 PM — Eagle Harbor Book Co., 157 Winslow Way, Bainbridge Island, WA
Tuesday, Feb. 28, 6:00 PM — Queen Anne Books, 1811 Queen Anne Ave. N, Seattle, WA
Saturday, March 3, 2:00 PM — Tumwater Timberland Regional Library, 7023 New Market St., Tumwater, WA
…we're still working on additional dates/cities. See the appearances page for the most up-to-date schedule.
October 21, 2011
News grab bag
…aka, A Bunch of Stuff I Meant to Post About Earlier, but I'm out of Practice with This Whole Blogging Thing, aka, Twitter is Bad For Discipline.
• Last Friday I was in Portland, Oregon for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers' annual Feast of Authors. This is a banquet/speed-dating event in which each of twenty authors is assigned to a table of local independent booksellers. You get fifteen minutes to pitch and answer questions about your latest work. Then a bell rings, and you change tables and do it again, and again, and again, visiting seven tables in all. It's a bit daunting at first, especially if you've just spent the last several years alone in a room talking to yourself, but the PNBA are a friendly bunch and by the third or fourth table the only issue is a powerful sense of déjà vu.
As a bonus for participating, you get a take-home swag bag filled with signed copies of your fellow authors' books:
• While I was in Portland, I also stopped into Powell's City of Books and signed stock, including a first edition Sewer, Gas & Electric and several copies of the British paperback edition of Bad Monkeys with the cool Alice-in-Wonderland cover. If you're in town and looking to expand your Matt Ruff collection, now's your chance.
• Sdera (הוצאת שדרה), the Israeli publishing house that was planning to bring out a Hebrew-language translation of Bad Monkeys, has gone out of business. It's too bad—I was really looking forward to scoring a new alphabet. Also, according to Google Translate, "sdera" means (among other things) "spine," so this would have been the spinal edition.
• The Mirage book tour is starting to come together. I want to wait for a few more confirmations before I start posting dates on the web site, but the launch event will be February 9 at the Elliott Bay Book Company.
October 13, 2011
New Matt Ruff website and blog
As part of the site update, I've started a new blog, here. I'll be keeping this LiveJournal account for archival purposes, and may still post occasional announcements here, but if you want to continue following me you should subscribe to my new blog's RSS feed and/or my new Twitter account.
