Ellen Datlow's Blog, page 44

Photos from Portland, Oregon

These are mostly from the reception Dark Horse threw for Lovecraft Unbound. I think I was burned out after the 1000+ photos I took in Australia and Florida.

New Documentary 'Of Dolls & Murder' Explores Macabre in Miniature

First go to The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death
and then to Documentary 'Of Dolls & Murder' --I can hardly wait for the documentary.
John Waters narrates.

Thanks to Rick Bowes

my contacts and emails are BACK!

This is the most excitement I've experienced in awhile. I never realized I could be so grateful for such seemingly trivial things but my contacts--all 700 plus (if I recall when Matt asked if that could be the file) plus my 40,000 plus emails have been retrieved and are now on my new computer. I've been working half blind since I returned home September 18th.

I thank my friend Melody's husband profusely (in fact I gave him a bottle of excellent single malt as a thank you).

I thank my friend Matt for installing everything on my new computer plus the old emails and contact db, and fixing the glitches.

My emails are automatically being forwarded to gmail, my files/photos/contacts and emails are also being backed up by backblaze. So I hope this will never happen again.
Thank everyone for your suggestions, sympathy, and moral support.

Watching a miracle

I hadn't paid all that much attention to the plight of the Chilean miners trapped in a mine for over 68 days but I was aware of them. I cannot imagine working in a mine at all and the idea of being trapped in one, not knowing if you'll ever get out alive is beyond my comprehension.

But now, having watched the first one brought up safely (and hopefully healthy)I was moved to tears. I'd stay up and watch them all brought out (2nd I missed) but can't stay up all night. It looks like it will take about 33+ hours to get them all out. I'm not religious but I hope that they all make it out and that nothing goes wrong over these next hours. I hope they never have to work again--that the mining company will do the right thing and take care of all of them for life. And that they get the psychological help they'll probably need. (I know they're supposed to get it but for how long?)

Photos of Australia

New computer means new photo software and glitches. But these photos from Australia are sooo delayed that I just wanted to put them up. I edited them last night with Picasa but I don't think ANY of my cropping took. No time to redo so here they are. These are from September 20th (see airport) to October 1st or so, when we reached Melbourne.

On Kangaroo Island Kate and Robert and I went to a honey farm and to the Remarkables, a gorgeous rock formation.

In SA, in addition to hitting some excellent wineries, we stopped at the rock formation known as the 12 Apostles (although there were never that many). Several of them have eroded and fallen into the sea, but the remaining ones still look great. (not as wonderful as the Remarkables, in my opinion).

The first set are of my stop in Sydney with Garth Nix and his family and then on to Kangaroo Island with Kate Eltham and Robert Hoge then on to the wine country of SA with Kate, Robert, Kirstyn McDermott, Jason Nahrung, and their friend Mark

More photos to come of Southern Florida after my dad's funeral and visiting the gorgeous Japanese Gardens of Morikami and some more from my trip to Portland, Oregon.

Hail in NYC

Yup. There was a hailstorm about an hour ago. I closed all my blinds in case the windows were hit hard enough to crack em. I couldn't see the hailstones in the dark but they sounded large and scared poor Sophie. Now it's just thunder and rain and presumably lightning.

And the KGB raffle BEGINS--store open a little early

Come one, come all to the KGB Fantastic Fiction store. Boy, do I wish I could buy raffle tix to some of these items...Pay $1, take a chance...

movies! Tv series!

One disc of the fourth season of Dexter this weekend--nice start to the new season. Flirting With Disaster--meh. I really don't like Ben Stiller very much but it had its fun moments. Schlub decides to find his birth parents and is taken on a road trip with wife (Patricia Arquette), child, and adoption agency nut (Tea Leoni)with mishaps on the way.

Today I saw Howl, a wonderful movie about the obscenity trial of Allen Ginsberg's poetic masterpiece. Fantastic cast including James Franco ( Oscar nomination should be in his future), David Stratharn, Treat Williams, Jon Hamm, Bob Balaban, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeff Daniels, and some gorgeous hunks playing the young Neal Cassady, Jack Kerouac, and Peter Orlofsky. Excellent acting throughout. Terrific animation by Eric Drooker. A lot of recitation of the poem, interviews with Franco as Ginsberg taken from reality, etc. Go and see it!

Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy

Here's the cover for Naked City, which will be out from St. Martin's in hc and trade paperback in July.
The TOC is (which I've posted earlier). I would ordinarily email this to all the contributors before posting here but don't have a lot of emails on-hand (see earlier post--dead computer).

 
Curses                                                              Jim Butcher                               

How the Pooka Came To New York City        Delia Sherman                           

On the Slide                                                     Richard Bowes              

The Duke of Riverside                          Ellen Kushner                          

Oblivion by Calvin Klein                                   Christopher Fowler                  

Fairy Gifts                                                        Patricia Briggs  

Picking up the Pieces                                        Pat Cadigan                               

Underbridge                                                     Peter S. Beagle              

Priced To Sell                                                   Naomi Novik                            

The Bricks of Gelecek                          Matthew Kressel                       

Weston Walks                                                  Kit Reed                                 

The Projected Girl                                            Lavie Tidhar                            

The Way Station                                               Nathan Ballingrud        

Guns for the Dead                                            Melissa Marr     

And Go Like This                                             John Crowley                            

Noble Rot                                                        Holly Black                 

Daddy Long Legs of the Evening                       Jeffrey Ford                               

The Skinny Girl                                     Lucius Shepard              

The Colliers’ Venus                                          Caitlín R. Kiernan                      

King Pole, Gallows Pole, Bottle Tree    Elizabeth Bear                         

 

 

 

home and swamped

I got home from Portland late Wednesday night and now am attempting to dig my way out of the mess that is my apartment. (I started this yesterday and gave up).

I had a ball, in Portland, thanks to those in charge and those attending the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival/Cthulhucon. Thank you both Andrews and Greg. Lovely to get to hang out and talk. I got to watch one set of short films that were very very good. Also, Dark Horse threw a wonderful reception (with delicious food and drink) in honor of Lovecraft Unbound and my editor Rachel took me on a tour of the DH offices. Thank you Kari (the publicist who organized the reception).

After the festival, I spent a couple of days with friends and visited Lucius Shepard for a couple of hours where I tortured him into making a short video for Teeth and had dinner and Irish whiskeys with some of the Portland writing community.

I have photos from Australia to edit and post and then photos from Portland. I've got new reviews I'd like to post too.

An attempt to retrieve my contact file from my fried hard drive has succeeded. Wednesday we'll see if the file can successfully be loaded into the new computer. No word yet about the emails. But the contact list will be an important start.