Bibliophile Stalker

Interview: K.J. Bishop

2009-11-24T05:27:00.011+08:00

Every Tuesday, I'll have an interview posted.

K.J. Bishop is the author of the novel The Etched City and has won awards such as the Ditmar Award for Best Novel and Best New Talent.

Hi! Thanks for agreeing to do the interview. First off, what is it about speculative fiction that interests you?

I seem to be reading more real-world fiction these days. But when I write, my mind seems to want to be fantastical. It's hard to say why, because it isn't a conscious choice. I suspect a taste for the sensational is part of it. It might be that fantastical elements help me to organise my thoughts, by acting as archetypal or mythical magnets around which emotional and cognitive material can accrue. There's also the surreal factor. The mind is a strange place, and I like to express that strangeness directly, which produces oddness in my writing -- like taking my brain out of my head and making a sort of potato-print with it on the paper.

In several interviews, you mentioned that you started writing in your 20's. What initially made you decide to foray into fiction, and what motivated you to keep at it?

Gwynn, who became the main character in The Etched City, had been in my mind for a long time, in various guises, and I'd occasionally written fragments about him, just for the idle pleasure of it. When I started surfing the web I found this picture, which is Sidney Sime's illustration for Lord Dunsany's story How One Came As Foretold to the City of Never, and that was it. I think the picture somehow pulled together influences from books I'd been reading around that time -- Viriconium, A Rebours, various Decadent writings -- and I saw this strange city on top of a huge cliff, with Gwynn there in an opium den with two lesbian swordswomen, and I wrote "The Art of Dying" about the three of them. The Australian speculative fiction magazine Aurealis published the story, and the next one I wrote, which encouraged me to think that perhaps I could write something longer. I was curious about Gwynn's backstory, so I started exploring it, and that became The Etched City. (I've just read the Dunsany story for the first time now, and I think it's funny that it starts off describing a kid in the English countryside who ends up in a world of wonder, because I think of Gwynn as being, underneath his layers of gunslinger and dandy and warrior from Ultima Thule, a schoolboy who dreamed of wild adventures and got them.)

As for keeping at it, I almost didn't. I didn't have any other books bursting to come out. But it was either go back to university and upgrade my qualifications, or try to do something more with writing. But I discovered that I couldn't just sit down and make more novels come, and I also discovered that the solitude of attempted full-time writing drove me crazy, so now I teach English as a foreign language and write in my spare time. I keep writing because characters still come into my head and prompt me to blacken paper on their behalf, and every now and then I actually finish something to their satisfaction and mine. If they stop turning up, I'll stop writing.

What was the most difficult hurdle you had to overcome before getting published?

Finishing a book! Seriously. On the story side of things, I sold "The Art of Dying" on the first go -- which was an unusual piece of good luck for a first-time writer. With The Etched City, I was again lucky in how soon the book found a publisher, and in the kindness of people who helped get it there. I first tried to sell it back in, I think, 2000, but not very seriously -- I only tried a couple of publishers. Geoff Maloney critiqued the book thoroughly, stopped me taking it down a path that wouldn't have worked, and recommended Prime Books, who gave me a contract and the luxury of rewriting for about a year with Trent Jamieson as editor. After Prime published it, Jeff VanderMeer and Jeff Ford were kind enough to show it to their agent, who then sold it to Bantam and Tor UK. A funny thing is, while I was writing the book, a psychic told me that she was hearing the name "Geoff /Jeff" in my future. On my own, I think I would have given up far too soon. I didn't know how to go about looking for agents, for starters. But the Internet is much bigger now, and we're all better connected. Selling your work might not have gotten any easier, but at least it should be easier to do reconnaissance about who to try to sell it to.

You're a widely-traveled person. How has your travels affected your writing?

Travelling gives me ideas for locations, and sometimes for characters and situations. A less than fabulous holiday in Morocco provided a fair bit of material for The Etched City (cloud and silver lining, there you go), and the experience of wandering in Cairo inspired "We the Enclosed", my story in Leviathan 4.

Where is home for you? (And this doesn't have to be a geographical place.)

Morningtown, many miles away ;-)

Some of your fiction, including your novel The Etched City, revolves around cities. What is it about them that fascinate you?

I don't know that cities per se fascinate me, but I could hardly help being inspired by places like Rome and Cairo and Fez when I was a tourist in them. And Melbourne, where I grew up, is another inspiring city. Not so old, of course, but it has wonderfully extravagant Victorian bits and good little poky alleys. But lately my imagination has been more interested in small towns and rural settings. And seaside resorts. I'd love to write something in a seaside town.

Since you're also an artist, is there a creative overlap between writing and drawing for you?

A bit. When I'm interested in a character, I often want to draw them. And I think I think like a person who draws a lot. I've always drawn pictures; it's a lifelong hobby and a means of self-soothing. Unlike words, pictures lack the dimension of time; its all there at once. Of course, you can take time to look at it; but the viewer brings the element of time, it isn't in the work. And when I write, I'm happiest writing with the "time" channel turned off. I'm drawn to slowness, pages where nothing happens, and then I'll make a jump to the next scenic point (where I might force something to happen, even if I'd rather just write about the sky or people's clothing). I don't always write like that, but it's what I enjoy doing.

What kind of satisfaction do you get from fiction that you can't get from art? How about vice versa?

With fiction, you can create virtual people. You can conjure the semblance of personality. I find that very satisfying, once the thing's actually working. And I enjoy discovering a work as I write it (if I discover it; I make a lot of forays that go nowhere). But I find the process of art much more immediately satisfying. The body and the mind are involved together, which is pleasant, and can be meditative. And I don't judge my art the way I judge my writing. I tend to enjoy looking at pictures I've made whether they're any good or not, whereas I'm very critical of my own writing. I think my drawing mind is still well connected to the memory of childhood pleasure, whereas my writing mind grew out of the world of school and work and takes its attitudes from there.

What does it feel like to have your novel translated in many languages?

Awesome. It feels like a great privilege, and I've been fortunate to have some very dedicated translators. From things a couple of overseas readers have said, I suspect some of the translations are better than the original.

I hear you're working on a short story collection. Can you tell us more about it?

It's all spec fic, of assorted sorts, mainly fantasy, with a fair dollop of surreal, and there are a few poems that I'd also like to include. At the moment I'm revising the work and knocking it into shape. Most of the tidying of older material isn't giving me too much trouble, except for "The Art of Dying", which has about 7 versions, and I'm not completely pleased with any of them. I'll probably be fiddling with that one till the day I die! Since nearly all the material I want to include as been published before I also want to write a couple of new stories specifically for the collection.

How did you decide which stories will be included in your upcoming short story collection?

I haven't decided yet. It'll depend on how the new stories turn out, and I expect the publisher will have some input too.

Since you had to edit The Etched City and some of your short stories more than once, what's the process like, editing work that's previously been published? Are there any trepidations?

There's no trepidation. I actually quite like giving old work a new coat of paint. The re-editing of The Etched City didn't come all that long after the first edit -- I think it was only a year or eighteen months -- so it was still quite fresh in my mind, and I welcomed the opportunity to polish it up. But a lot more time has gone past since I wrote some of these stories, and my tastes have changed. I've gotten less gothic, so I have to balance the urge to turn down the dial of portentousness with realistic acceptance of how far a story can be bent before it turns into something else.

Which is more comfortable for you: novel-length fiction or short stories?

I'd have to say short stories, since I've only managed novel-length fiction once so far. But I'm working on another novel with another writer, Preston Grassmann, and the partnership has made the going easier -- not to mention that when there's two of you, you can't say, 'Hey, let's go back home.'

Have you ever considered doing a comic or a graphic novel?

I've written 60-something pages of a very daft doujinshi (autodoujinshi?) called Ecchi no City.
As anyone looking at the art and layout will note, I'm not remotely up to doing a proper piece of visual storytelling! But if I ever level up enough, sure, I'd definitely consider doing something with pictures.

How has the Internet affected your life creativity-wise?

Well, research is a lot easier now. So is procrastination. I like to think I've come out about even. I also like to think I'm a tall, rich, gorgeous rock star with a pet leopard.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Look after your physical, mental and financial health, because the writing life can be bad for all three. Or just accept that you're going to be mad, poor and sick -- whichever works for you!

Advice for aspiring artists?

I was a web designer for a while and I've done the odd book cover, but I wouldn't call myself an artist and I'm not really in a position to give advice. Better ask Leonardo da Vinci.

Anything else you want to plug?

Last Drink Bird Head, a fabulous anthology of flash fiction for literacy charities, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. I'm a dim light in the galaxy of contributors. I'd also like to mention Halo Evolutions, an anthology of tales from the Halo Universe, which features a collaboration between VanderMeer and Australian writer Tessa Kum, whose short fiction I've been enjoying for years. And slated to be published early next year is Baggage, an Australian speculative fiction anthology from Eneit Press, to which Tessa and I are both contributors. Quoting the editor, Gillian Polack, "It's all about the stuff we carry with us, inside us, especially that which we brought with us to Australia." I think it's a fascinating project, something well out of the ordinary. I also have a couple of stories coming out next year, one in Subterranean Magazine ("The Heart of a Mouse") and one in Fantasy Magazine ("Saving the Gleeful Horse").

November 23, 2009 Links and Plugs

2009-11-23T06:32:00.059+08:00

Feel burnt out over the weekend (was working at the office).

Anyway, for your enjoyment, here's the Top 10 Scariest Filipino Monsters.

Interviews

Hour of the Wolf interviews Ellen Datlow and Richard Bowes (podcast).
The Agony Column has a recording of the World Fantasy Convention Panel Podcast : Invention Versus Tradition.
SciFiGuy.ca interviews Deborah Cooke/Claire Delacroix. (via Tor Books)
Suvudu has videos of a Brandon Sanderson event.
Straylight Magazine interviews Cory Doctorow (podcast).
MediaBerkman interviews Cory Doctorow (podcast).

Advice/Articles

Damien G Walter on Name the best science fiction titles. (via Jay Lake)
Charlie Jane Anders on Independent Publishers Who Are Reinventing The Future.
Jim C. Hines on Blurb Ethics.
PC Pro on The sci-fi legends who shaped today's tech.
Mur Lafferty on In Defense of Censorship.
Crossed Genres on Running an SF/F magazine: the most pleasant part?
Jason Sanford on Circulation of Online Genre Magazines. (via John Ottinger)
Missions Unknown on Hey, SA: Your Most Memorable SF/F Book Covers?
Tim Hamilton on Strange Adventures.
Rachel Aaron on Never assume you know your readers.
Vandana Singh on The Great Betrayal.
Madeleine E. Robins on Playing With Someone Else’s Toys: Control.
Gordon Aalborg on Writing Rights.
Kim Malo on Whatcha readin'?
Justine Musk on “genre vs literary” in the days of the Technorenaissance.
David Anthony Durham on Lost in Translation?
Mark C Newton on Things I Don’t Like About Writing.

News

Wheatland Press is asking for your help.
Paul Di Filippo reviews The Black Hole War.
Year’s Best Fantasy 9, now in bite-size chunks for your downloading pleasure.

Harlequin Horizons-related Articles

Marie Brennan on Since people appear to be confused...
Jennifer Jackson has some quick definitions.
Nick Kauffman on Well, That Was Quick.
Small Beer Press on Small Beer Press... Horizons!
Victoria Strauss on Harlequin Horizons: Another Major Publisher Adds A Self-Publishing Division.
MWA Weighs In On Harlequin Horizons.
SFWA Statement on Harlequin’s vanity press imprint.
Sarah Zettel on Harlequin Horizons, or All Is Vanity.
Follow the Reader on Publishers: As Harlequin is Finding Out – Sometimes You Can’t Win For Losing.
Editorial Anonymous on Definitions for the Perplexed: Self Publishing.
Janet Reid on C'mon Harlequin, don't try to blow smoke up our asterisk.
Juno Books on Harlequin’s Ethical Ick.
Rachelle Gardner on Self-Publishing: A Rant and a Q4U and My Final Comments on Self-Pub.
John Scalzi on Writers’ Organizations to Harlequin: If You’re Not Going to Act Like a Real Publisher, We’re Not Going to Treat You Like One.

And from Vera Nazarian:

Mansfield Park and Mummies by Jane Austen and Vera Nazarian

Book/Magazine Review: The Opposite of Life by Narrelle M. Harris

2009-11-23T06:16:00.000+08:00

Every Monday, I'll be doing bite-sized book/magazine reviews.

Disclosure: The publisher sent a review copy for the purposes of this review.

At first glance, the protagonist of The Opposite of Life seems indulgent. She is a bibliophile and a geek, most likely someone readers of these books can relate with as she is a reflection of themselves--at least this was the case with myself. I couldn't help but wonder whether the author was projecting herself as her main character is front-loaded with telling details. Not that this is a bad thing, mind you. For once, it's a nice change of pace to have a main character in a paranormal romance who's the opposite of the Anita Blake fare: they're not pretty nor are they kick-ass, but rather common people who are utterly defenseless against the supernatural. But continuing through the book, I began to realize that my generalizations aren't accurate.

Remember how I mentioned this is a paranormal romance? Well, despite the packaging, it's not. A more accurate term would be urban fantasy (yes, I know how confusing the paranormal romance vs. urban fantasy argument can be but suffice to say, there is no romance in the book to be found). Or, as I prefer to interpret it, this is an anti-paranormal romance novel. Narrelle M. Harris follows all the tropes of the genre, everything from a possible love interest, the involvement of the sensual supernatural, and a mystery to be solved. But the author subverts all these expectations. The heroine's partner in the book for example is Gary and he is anything but sexy; socially awkward, unfashionable and more on the over-weight side. And that's just the tip of the iceberg in which the book strips away many of the romantic aspects of vampires.

While it's possible for a book to simply exist on the metafictional level, that isn't the case here as there is a solid story supporting this subversion. Harris provides motivation and direction for the protagonist to be deeply involved in this adventure. One of the author's strengths is her gift of digging deep into a character's history, such as how they developed this and that nickname, which fleshes them out. And while the pace isn't fast, it's not dragging either and moves at a steady pace--fitting considering this isn't aiming to be an adrenaline-pumping read. This is more of a Ms. Marple in the modern world solving an extraordinary case, with pop culture references thrown in for good measure.

Harris however is not without flaws. The setting is set in Melbourne but unfortunately, it fails to be anything but a generic city. The character is also prone to lots of introspective moments and at times, it crosses the line of feeding the reader too much information instead of allowing them to draw their own conclusions. In fact, this is my problem with the ending as Harris flatly restates the recurring theme of the book, as if the title (or the rest of the book) wasn't a giveaway.

Still, while not being the tightest novel, it works for its purpose. Harris delivers unexpected surprises for readers and the characters feel genuinely vulnerable. There's also the entire metaphor The Opposite of Life represents while still working within the constraints of the genre.

Book/Magazine Review: Lovecraft Unbound edited by Ellen Datlow

2009-11-23T06:14:00.000+08:00

Every Monday, I'll be doing bite-sized book/magazine reviews.

Disclosure: The publisher sent a review copy for the purposes of this review.

H.P. Lovecraft's fiction easily falls under the category that Lourd de Veyra labels as "Books That’s Everybody’s Read So It’s As If You Had Read Them, Too" to the point that when I got to actually read his writings, it was a disappointment from all the hype (if more than half a century's word-of-mouth could be called hype). It's not that Lovecraft isn't praise-worthy, but to the modern reader, there are gaping flaws in his fiction, from the monotonous tone to the misogyny. And then there are all the tributes that followed and while there is some innovation in that particular sub-genre (in the same way that Tolkienesque fiction has become a sub-genre of fantasy), the signal to noise ratio is high.

Enter Lovecraft Unbound. Now what's remarkable with Ellen Datlow's two tribute anthologies this year--the other being Poe--is the editorial mandate not to be simply pastiches of the author. It's not about omitting references to the Mythos or Mi-Go's, but about venturing into new territories, while still being faithful to the themes of Lovecraft. In that vein, I think the anthology is a success, especially to readers like me who is either unfamiliar with Lovecraft or jaded with his clones.

Not that all of these stories are devoid of Lovecraft references. One of the stronger pieces in the anthology, "Leng" by Marc Laidlaw, does make a reference from the title alone. However, Laidlaw infuses his narrative with original yet familiar elements--instead of an isolated town in rural America, we have one set in China; cultists and fish-men are placed with monks and mushroom spores. And just when you think the story is predictable, the author creates a scene which utterly disarms you because it debunks the stereotype, such as the protagonist actually meeting one of the missing people he's searching for instead of finding a raving lunatic.

Another example is "Mongoose" by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear, a story set in their famous "Boojum" cosmology. At first, the story seems out of place (despite the Lovecraft references at the beginning), as it feels more at home in a space opera anthology. However, by the time you reach the last scene, Monette and Bear succeed in convincing the reader that this piece fits in the book. The pair riff on Lewis Caroll and throws in some science fiction elements as well, making this not only a unique Lovcraftian tale, but is in many ways tighter and more enjoyable than "Boojum".

As for the general direction of the anthology, there's a lot of enjoyable stories here, good enough to leave an impression on the reader by the time you've putting down the book. "The Crevasse" by Dan Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud, "Sight Unseen" by Joel Lane, "Come Lurk with Me and Be My Love" by William Browning Spencer, and "Catch Hell" by Laird Barron are examples of these.

There's a few stories which are just decent and nothing spectacular. "The Tenderness of Jackals" by Amanda Downum for example was ample and there's some surprising twists, but I wouldn't call it a powerful piece. "Vernon, Driving" by Simon Kurt Unsworth, on the other hand, is what I feel is the weakest story in the book. While I can appreciate the emotional drama, the horrific element seems too abrupt, and honestly could have been further expanded.

Having said that, Lovecraft Unbound has a few favorites. "Sincerely, Petrified" by Anna Tambour feels like a horror story clothed in mundane science fiction. The build-up is obvious, but the way Tambour tackles it feels fresh with the discourse on the psychology of horror. Combine it with detailed and holistic characters, and you have a well-written story that feels Lovecraftian without making any references.

Two out of the four reprints particularly stand out to me. I can easily imagine "In the Black Mill" by Michael Chabon serving as inspiration for the concept of the anthology--a story that's Lovecraftian without being a pastiche, a pattern that Laidlaw and various contributors follow. Chabon hits all the right beats, whether it's characterization, atmosphere, a sense of dread, and the eventual revelation. Formulaic on a certain level, but it's well-written formula.

And then there's "Commencement" by Joyce Carol Oates which is the complete opposite of Chabon. Whereas Lovecraft's influence is evident in Chabon's story, everything goes completely south when you read Oates. There's no trace of Lovecraft here as the author charts his own unique and unexpected path. But at the end of the day, you end up saying that this is a powerful, chilling piece, and that is perhaps Lovecraft's legacy--to deliver a genuinely horrific tale.

At the end of each story is an afterword by the author. Thankfully, for the most part, it doesn't sound like an argument for the inclusion of their story in this book, but more of what part of Lovecraft's fiction appeals to them. It's short and succinct and apt.

Overall, Lovecraft Unbound is an entertaining anthology, and doesn't succumb to the fate of some Lovecraft tributes.

November 20, 2009 Links and Plugs

2009-11-20T06:26:00.049+08:00

Apparently, I have an impromptu book launch in a few weeks for creative nonfiction I wrote back in 2003 (eeep, I've forgotten what I've actually written!). Here's the surprise email:

In Their Own Voice, the published collection of works written in your creative writing class with Dr. Emy Liwag and myself, will be launched on Wednesday, 9 December, 3:30 pm, at the Concourse of the New Rizal Library of the Ateneo at Loyola Heights. Emy and I hope that you can come.

See you there!

-Rofel

Drop by if you can. We need to sell books. =)

P.S. All hail Chooklit.

Interviews

Fantasy Magazine interviews K.D. Wentworth and Christie Skipper Richotte.
Grasping for the Wind interviews J.C. Hutchins.
The Sword and Laser interviews Brandon Sanderson (podcast).
Jonathan Moeller interviews Michael Spence & Elisabeth Waters.
Omnivoracious interviews Jeff VanderMeer.
Tor.com interviews Ray Bradbury (video).

Advice/Articles

Rich Horton's Summary: Postscripts, 2009.
S. Boyd Taylor on Time Management Blues -- Finding the Time and Will to Write.
C.L. Anderson on The Writing Life: The Downside of the Revolution.
Jo Walton on Noodles, self-help groups and airplane parts: things to avoid when making up fantasy names.
Ying Compestine on A Bird Out of the Cage.
Nancy Jane Moore on The Way of the Warrior: Gender Matters.
Alison Janssen on Another reason you should have an agent.
Jackie Kessler on Harlequin Horizons versus RWA. (via Janet Reid)
Juno Books on Advice to Writers: A Rant.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch on The Freelancer’s Survival Guide: Flexibility.
Juliette Wade on Hiding Information in Plain Sight.
SciFi Scanner on Education Is Not the Answer for Star Trek's Bad Science.
Paul G. Tremblay on Re: Medium Hopping.
David Anthony Durham on Re: Re: Medium Hopping.
Fantasy Book Critic on Liviu's Top Novels of the 00's Decade.
Alan Rinzler on 9 tips for successful author appearances.

News

It's shipping!

A Working Writer’s Daily Planner 2010

November 19, 2009 Links and Plugs

2009-11-19T06:32:00.043+08:00

I'm generally pleased that local author Dean Francis Alfar gets mentioned in io9 (and my own website, the Philippine Speculative Fiction Sampler, gets a couple of hits; but do check it out because I like the stories there).

In the meantime, I gush over one of my favorite international authors, Zoran Živković, over at SF Signal. Sorry folks, that's all the interviews we have for The Apex Book of World SF.

And over at BSC Review, my column is up: Hardcover Madness.

And from Nick Kauffman:

Interviews

Mihai Adascalitei interviews Sebastian A. Corn.
The Library of America interviews Peter Straub (PDF).
New The Business of Writing video series with Tad Williams (The Writer's Journey, Why Did You Become a Writer?). (via Cheryl K. Morgan)
The Dragon Page interviews J.C. Hutchins (podcast).
Larry Nolen interviews David Anthony Durham.
The Link interviews Cory Doctorow.
Dead Robots Society interviews J.C. Hutchins (podcast).

Advice/Articles

SF Signal's Mind Meld: Most Memorable SF/F Book Covers.
The World SF News Blog on Where is the World in the World Fantasy Awards? (also be sure to read the comments by Cheryl K. Morgan).
Tobias Buckell on The hard truths of freelancing/writing.
Jason Sanford on How did you come to the SF genres?
Kurt Vonnegut letter on his capture & survival in a repatriation camp. (via Juliet Ulman)
Jonathan Strahan on Becoming a better editor, or me and the Best of the Year.
J.C. Hutchins on Why SF fans (and authors) can benefit from reading other genres.
Megan Crewe on Young Adult Fantasy: A Reading Guide.
Jeff VanderMeer on Envy for a Cheery Wednesday.
Janet Reid on You're abrogating the social contract we have. Knock it off.
Justine Larbalestier on Blank Page Heroine.
Robert Freeman Wexler on Fountain Pens.
Rachelle Gardner on Finances of Publishing.
Stroppy Author on Why books are not videos or music.
Nicola Morgan on A Dilemma of Agents.
Mark Charan Newton On Artwork.

News

And from one of my favorite editors (and publishers):

Unplugged: The Web's Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy, 2008 Download edited by Rich Horton

November 18, 2009 Links and Plugs

2009-11-18T05:18:00.045+08:00

My second-to-the-last interview over at SF Signal is with Nir Yaniv.

*sigh* Not enough time to read all the books...

Interviews

Innsmouth Free Press interviews Tanith Lee.
Shrink Geek interviews Jay Lake and Elizabeth Bear.
The Interstitial Arts Foundation interviews Jeffrey Ford.
Book Babble interviews Brian Evenson (podcast).
The Agony Column has a recording of the World Fantasy Convention Podcast : Poetry of the Fantastic.
Omnivoracious interviews Jeff VanderMeer (video).
io9 interviews Michael Chabon. (via Matt Staggs)
Suvudu chat with Naomi Novik and Scott Westerfeld.

ActuSF Interviews

Advice/Articles

Rich Horton's Summary: Not One Of Us, 2009.
Nancy Fulda on Why Host Writing Contest?
Satellite Internet on 15 Inventions Inspired By Science Fiction.
Grasping for the Wind on Inside the Blogosphere: Worst Endings in SF/F/H.
The Shine Anthology Blog on Kindred Spirits, part 9.
Genreville on There Are Grey Areas Here.
Victoria Strauss on Agent Inbox.
Nick Kauffman on What Happens When Dying Publishing Houses Need to Make Money Fast.
Ying Compestine on Every Word Counts.
Edward M. Lerner on Back to the Future.
Deborah J. Ross on Zen Yoga Writing practice?
Editorial Ass on What's the difference between earning out my advance and making a profit for my publisher?
Rachelle Gardner on (Possibly) Bad Advice I’ve Heard Lately.
Bev Vincent on Location, Location, Location.
David Anthony Durham on Lots of Hopping.
Jason Sanford on Why is World Fantasy Convention 2010 avoiding the 21st Century?
The Intern on A completely unscientific look at book-buying, part 2.

News

Because Angela Slatter is using *cough* extortion:

The Opposite of Life by Narelle M Harris

Guest Post: HED: Must-Study Sci-Fi: The Battle at Carkoon (Return of the Jedi) by JC Hutchins

2009-11-18T04:52:00.004+08:00

JC Hutchins, author of 7th Son: Descent, will be guest blogging for today. He sent clones of Boba Fett to take over.

Hi there. I'm J.C. Hutchins, a sci-fi novelist and unapologetic Star Wars geek. I'm obnoxiously old school in my love for the franchise: I barely tolerate the Special Editions, I believe that bounty hunter Boba Fett is deader than disco (gobbled by the mighty Sarlacc, and not a "survivor" as the post-trilogy books claim), that Han most definitely shot first, that CGI Jabbas are buzz-killing bad juju, and that midichlorians are a mighty peculiar way to measure the power of the Force.

And for the love of Palpatine, lightsabers come in only three colors: blue, green and red. Purple? Bah!

I love the original trilogy. As a storyteller, I study the original trilogy. I think George Lucas and the original series' writers did a masterful job of first building a solid stand-alone narrative in A New Hope, and then figured out a clever way to extend the series into a trilogy, with compelling character arcs for several of its characters. Star Wars is certainly science fiction, but in many ways it doesn't feel like SF ... mostly because nearly every aspect of the tale has a familiar present-day analog. Religion, swords, fascism, fighter planes, lovable rogues, surly sidekicks -- it goes on and on. If only all sci-fi could be so accessible to the masses!

As a novelist, I watch for how other tale-tellers excel. In the case of Lucas and Star Wars, it's in three key areas: effectively using an ensemble cast, telling subplot-powered parallel tales with that cast, and pacing. This may be best represented in the showdown on the desert planet of Tatooine in Return of the Jedi, as Luke Skywalker and friends fight above the Sarlacc pit, a hole that likes to eat people.

If you're a writer, there's lots to learn from in that scene. I know my use of ensemble cast, pacing and action in my human cloning thriller 7th Son: Descent is highly influenced by lessons learned from this bit in the flick. I dare not do a shot-by-shot breakdown (though I've studied it that closely), but I'll share some relevant beats within the sequence so you might glean some wordsmithy value from it, or appreciate it a bit more as a viewer.

We'll start with a conversation between Han and Luke, who are held prisoner aboard a spiffy air-speedboat, traveling to their doom. Han, fresh from his carbonite block, says that his temporary blindness seems to be ebbing. Luke says he has a plan. Foreshadowing.

Meanwhile on his pleasure barge, sluggy gangster Jabba the Hutt is flirting with Princess Leia, who's chained to his throne (much to the chagrin of feminists everywhere, including myself). We've seen him give that chain a good yank or two before this sequence, so we're clearly aware that it's there. Boba Fett is presumably nearby, looking cool.

Cut to droids C-3P0 and R2-D2. Threepio, ever the selfish diva, frets that he and Artoo might be destroyed after Luke and friends are executed. Artoo replies with a series of confident bleeps: he's certain things will work out. That's more economical foreshadowing -- and the viewer doesn't pay it much mind, as the tease hails from a chirping trash can.

Finally, the air skiffs carrying Luke, Han, Chewbacca and an incognito Lando pull into position above the Sarlacc. Luke warns Jabba to free them, or else. (He's done this several times before this scene, in fact.) The villain gives a predictable chuckle, and tells his toadies to kill the prisoners. All hope is lost.

At this point, we've got three parallel stories happening here: the droids, Leia and Jabba, and Luke and friends. We don't know it yet, but the foundations of what's to come have already been built. From a craft perspective, it's all over but the shoutin'.

Tubas blare. Luke gives R2 a salute from the air skiff's plank. He performs a Force-fueled backflip, and -- boom goes the dynamite! -- R2 launches a lightsaber, which Luke catches. Plot point payoff! Luke slices and dices, and frees his comrades.

Of course, fatty Jabba won't stand for this. He belches orders to take out the air skiff. Cannons fire, and Lando finds himself swinging above the Sarlacc, screaming for help. Ever-cool Boba Fett soars to the skiff. Luke is off to take care of another threat -- a second air skiff filled with Jabba flunkies.

The scene has now diverged into four parallel stories: the droids, Leia and Jabba, Luke on the second skiff, and Han, Chewy and Lando.

Han takes out Boba Fett by accident. (I know Fett fans wail at this -- an undignified death! -- but I've always been cool with it.) We cut to Jabba, who's wigging out, blubbering like a baby. In the confusion, Leia uses the slave chain to strangle the gangster. Pow! Another plot point payoff! A death rattle for the ages!

Back to the outside battle: Things just got worse for our heroes, thanks to cannon-fire hailing from the floating barge. Lando's slipping closer to the hungry Sarlacc's maw. Han is dangling upside-down from his skiff's edge. Chewie, the ever-faithful sidekick, is saving Han's bacon by clutching to his feet. Luke leaps from the second skiff to the barge, to take out that troublesome cannon.

Luke eliminates the cannon threat. Lando is nearly gobbled by the Sarlacc, but Han -- with some much-needed humor -- rescues him. Pow! His eyesight was getting better! The tide is turning, because the music tells us so.

Now we start to see the storylines coalesce: Artoo has met up with Leia, and frees her from her chain. Threepio, whose eye was being eaten by a muppet, is also rescued by Artoo. The trio make their way to the sundeck of the barge, where Luke is still duking it out.

Within seconds, we've gone from four parallel stories to two. Pretty cool.

In one of the few weaknesses of the sequence, Luke tells Leia to aim the barge's supercannon at the deck itself. (I consider this a weakness since this laser-howitzer, while visible during the action, wasn't sufficiently foreshadowed.)

But wait! The droids fall off the barge, into the sand below. Up to three parallel stories again!

The cannon fires, Luke and Leia swing to the air skiff via a magically-appearing rope (another weakness, but if we can buy into a talking slug, I guess we'll buy this), where they meet up with Lando, Han and Chewie. Back to two parallel stories. They pick up the droids as they flee the flaming barge, which brings the team back together into one unified narrative.

And then -- in what I consider the coolest explosion in the entire Star Wars series -- the big barge goes kablooey. The second act of the movie begins.

See what Lucas & Co. did in that scene? They gave several protagonists something to do -- or something to react to -- split them up, efficiently foreshadowed the plot twists, effectively cut to each unfolding narrative to remind the audience "what" was happening "where," and then brought the characters back together through well-established character behavior (and some fortuitous circumstances). And it ends with a big fireball, as all great stories should.

Oscar-winning writing, it ain't ... but it's a damned good representation of how writers can deftly juggle multiple storylines, build conflict, and keep characters faithful to their established behaviors. If you're a storyteller yourself, check the Battle of Carkoon sequence when you're struggling with narrative. There's some spiffy lessons to be learned in those six-and-a-half minutes....

November 17, 2009 Links and Plugs

2009-11-17T06:18:00.024+08:00

My interview with Jamil Nasir is now up.

Back to scheduled programming.

Interviews

ActuSF interviews Peter Watts.
SciFi Scanner interviews Cory Doctorow.
Strange Horizons interviews Jesse Bullington.
Adventures in SciFi Publishing interviews agent Eddie Schneider (podcast).
BSC Review interviews Ken Scholes.
Veslebror Serdeg interviews Cory Doctorow (video).

Advice/Articles

Angry Robot Books on Pitch Perfect.
Suvudu on Questioning the Future (With Zombies).
Megam Messinger on My Least Favorite Plots.
Booksquare on Digital Rights Management — A Wrinkle or An Opportunity.
Janet Reid on How to get no more rejections, EVER!
Rachelle Gardner on Sell-in, Sell-through, and Earn-out.
Marie Brennan on A woman’s place is not in the refrigerator.
Thomas Sullivan on "He Stopped Loving Her Today..." or Murdering Your Muse.
Paul G Tremblay on In (brief!) defense of genre mixing. Related: Borders Sci-Fi on Genre Hopping.
J.C. Hutchins on Where Have all the SF Movie Maestros Gone?
Nathan Bransford on What I Learned About Writing While Watching Reality Television.
Pimp My Novel on Nothing To Do With Fourth-Grade Math.
Ehud Maimon on A Convention Coming of Age?

And because Angela Slatter is blackmailing me:

Strange Tales III edited by Rosalie Parker

Interview: Adam Golaski

2009-11-17T05:07:00.014+08:00

Every Tuesday, I'll have an interview posted.

Adam Golaski's latest short story collection is Worse Than Myself. His translation of Sir Gawain & the Green Knight—"Green"—appears in installments on the critical site Open Letters. His poetry, fiction (horror and otherwise), and non-fiction has appeared in journals such as: word for/word, Supernatural Tales, McSweeney's, Sleepingfish, Conjunctions, and All Hallows. He is currently editing selected poetry of Paul Hannigan for Pressed Wafer, and co-edited for Flim Forum Press two anthologies of experimental poetry, Oh One Arrow (2007) and A Sing Economy (2008). Adam edits and publishes New Genre, a journal of horror and science fiction, now in its seventh year.

Hi! Thanks for agreeing to do the interview. First off, when did you know you wanted to become a writer/poet?

Writing was a fear-filled school requirement, its mechanisms a totally mystery to me, until I was twelve. I wrote a short story and showed it to a classmate and he liked it and passed it along to other classmates who also liked it. I've identified myself as a writer ever since.

What is it about horror that appeals to you? How about speculative fiction?

In my household, horror and science fiction were presented to me with all other types of literature, with no caveats made about their worth. So I read in a very catholic manner, genre and non.

What's the appeal of horror? Mystery. Mystery that isn't inevitably spoiled by a rational explanation. Conversely, the explanations in science fiction are as wondrous as the mysteries they undo. Both of these answers are so cute they can't possibly be good.

In terms of fiction, what made you decide to write horror and speculative fiction?

I was in my early twenties when I sat down to deliberately write a horror story and that story was “Back Home” (which is included in Worse Than Myself). I was already editing New Genre, and I was reading and rereading a lot of horror in order to teach myself about the genre--trying to understand what the parameters were, etc. I did write horror stories before then, but I didn't know it at the time. I just thought of them as stories. The same can be said for speculative fiction, though I've written very little (intentionally).

A lot of your output has been short stories. What is it about the form that makes you suited to it? What are your experiences with novel-length fiction?

I've written three novels. I'm revising the third now and have a fourth in the works. There's no form of writing that doesn't interest me, and I really mean that. I do love the short story--as a reader, especially--I prefer collections to novels as a rule. If the form does indeed suit me--and I take you question as a compliment, thank you--then it's because I usually start (prose) from a single strong image, and the story radiates from that. So, maybe (maybe!) single images are more likely to produce short work?

What would you say was the biggest hurdle you had to overcome in order to break into the industry?

I would say that I have yet to “break into the industry.” I may be on the cusp of a breakthrough, but then again maybe not. In terms of being published, the biggest hurdle was finding editors who like my work for what it is and not for what it might be molded into. I've been lucky to find more than a few. These editors ask smart and challenging questions, but they don't think the best way to edit is to Gordon Lish the hell out of everything.

In your short story collection Worse Than Myself, a lot of the pieces have a gothic atmosphere to them. Was this a conscious decision?

Atmosphere is very important to me. I reject (as editor of New Genre) solid horror stories that lack atmosphere, because without it they're only functional. When I wrote the stories collected in Worse Than Myself, I wasn't thinking Gothic, per se, but Gothic is such a part of the language of horror it's probably as apt a description as any.

Could you tell us something more about your upcoming collection, Color Plates?

Color Plates is a museum, alive in the now crystallized brain of a sort-of Mary Cassatt. Four rooms of Mary's museum are open to the public, and they are named Éduoard Manet, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Mary Cassatt. Each room exhibits little stories--plates--drawn from real paintings by the painters who are the rooms' namesakes.

Though I'd not read these books when I began, Color Plates bears a passing resemblance to Baudelaire's Paris Spleen and to Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics. I've been told it's a bit like some of Gilbert Sorrentino's fictions. I think Rose Metal Press is publishing this on a dare.

A lot of my writing is generated by systems I create. In this case, I developed a few rules, most of which I broke when I needed to. The rules are: 1. each story corresponds with a painting, 2. the stories are set in the present (not in the 19th century), 3. at some point, the characters in the story must arrange themselves into the scene the painting depicts (this was tricky for Déjeuner sur l'herbe!), 4. there must be a character or narrator who is outside said scene--someone who takes the role the painter took, the roles of the observer, 5. none of the characters are to be named, 6. the stories are not to be (overtly) about painting, and, um, I think there are more rules but I can't remember.

It's pretty weird.

How did Raw Dog Screaming Press end up publishing your collection? Rose Metal Press for Color Plates?

I handed Raw Dog a big sloppy mess of a ms., untitled, with unfinished stories and stories I'd later cut, coffee rings on the cover, pages stuck together with honey and God knows what else. Jennifer responded in an email, “Overall I think this is possibly one of the weirdest collections I've read. It's quite rare to read something that is actually disturbing in a really-not-sure-what-to-make-of-it kind of way”--and agreed to publish it, with the caveats that I would finish the unfinished stories and email the finished ms. so she could print a clean copy. Jeremy Lassen, who was booked solid and so never even read the ms., recommended I try Raw Dog.

When I had a mostly complete draft I sent Color Plates to maybe half-a-dozen small presses I considered to be likely publishers and Rose Metal Press was one. Rose Metal Press specializes “in the publication of short short, flash, and micro-fiction; prose poetry; novels-in-verse or book-length linked narrative poems; and other literary works that move beyond the traditional genres of poetry, fiction, and essay to find new forms of expression”--all of which pretty much describes Color Plates. John Cotter, the editor of Open Letters (a journal to which I contribute), suggested I try them. And for that one good suggestion, I apparently have to keep buying him drinks, for, like, ever.

How did you get involved with New Genre Magazine?

How did I get involved with New Genre? I love that question. “Involved” is a funny way to put it. It's more like “married to.”

Just out of college and with a tiny bit of saved money my then-roommate (Jeff Paris) and I decided to publish a magazine that would present horror and science fiction in a way that, up to that point, only non-genre fiction was being presented: in the form of a literary journal, with no traditional genre imagery whatsoever. The idea was to attract readers who were put off by the way the genres are typically presented, but who were smart enough to recognize good fiction when they read it, regardless of genre, while also appealing to genre readers by publishing real horror and real science fiction. This is tricky.

That's what I did instead of backpacking through Europe. After the publication of issue number five, Jeff retired for a quiet life on the small island of Amity, where he is their chief of police.

What do you look for in a horror story as editor of New Genre?

I look for good language. I read lots and lots of submissions that are good, that will find homes in other magazines, but that forego interesting prose for the sake of plot. These stories bore me. Cliché--even little clichés, such as describing the sky as looking like a bruise, or comparing a road to an “endless ribbon”--will put me off a story (clichés are usually flags that the author isn't paying enough attention). After language I look for lasting images.

What's one of the more challenging aspects working with New Genre? Most rewarding?

I'll start with rewarding. The opportunity to publish really beautiful work unlikely to find a home any where else: Jaime Corbacho's “Honeymoon” (from #5), Jan Wildt's “Bink is Luv” (#4), Thomas Dunford's “Inside Everything is an Engine” and Cheryl Smith's “Two Birds” (#3). Matthew Pendleton's “I Am Antenna / Antennae” (#6). Back when the we first started New Genre, I used to telephone the authors whose stories I wanted to publish. One call stands out in my memory. I reached the author's wife and left the message with her--she was amazed. She asked, “So he's really a good writer?” That made me feel good. It's rewarding to work with Jeremy Withers, who designs our brilliant covers (since issue #4). He's a childhood friend; we used to make magazines together with notebook paper and staples. Now we're all grown up. What's challenging? Absolutely everything else. Selling copies!

With regards to poetry, what aspect of it that tickles your fancy that fiction cannot satiate?

I don't know that fiction couldn't be made to satiate what poetry does, but it doesn't, you're right. The latter strongly informs the former, and not the other way around, so that's important. When I write poetry the approach and the process is very different from fiction and very exciting to me. You've asked a big, complicated question! My poetry is as important to me as my fiction.

What made you decide to start Flim Forum?

Starting Flim Forum Press was Matthew Klane's idea, but we both consider the press to be an extension of what we're doing as poets.

What are the challenges you face in the poetry scene?

Within the small poetry community I'm directly a part of, my work is well-received, my editing is appreciated, and my criticism responded to thoughtfully. It's a community of weirdoes, but they're generous, talented, and sincere weirdoes. So my biggest challenges are entirely my own. Where am I headed with certain devices I've invented for myself? How can I get to Buffalo, New York? When can I devote myself to corrupting the sonnet? Today I worried over the incompleteness of my poetry ms., and considered for it new directions. [I touch on challenges for poets and short story writers in my introduction to issue #6 of New Genre. If anyone wants a copy of my introduction, I'd be more than happy to email it to them; make email requests through the New Genre site. (Of course, you can buy the issue, too!).]

Have you thought of contributing to the speculative poetry scene, or do you find such distinctions/labels confining when it comes to poetry?

Poems about fantastical beings are the foundation of all literature. I published a series of poems inspired by murderers (Laura Sims' brilliant “Murder Poems” in A Sing Economy). So I'm not ignorant to the fact that poems about the future, about monsters, etc., can be as good as poems about anything else.

That said, I've never read any poetry that identifies itself as “speculative” or horror, or science fiction that was especially good. Perhaps the label causes the authors problems, and I assume the editors who publish these poems don't read enough poetry to know what good poetry looks like.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Stop thinking of yourself as “aspiring.” By the phrase “aspiring writers” we usually mean writers who have yet to be published, but it's a mistake to confuse writing with publishing. There are published writers and unpublished writers. Being published hardly means being good.

So, to unpublished authors, take yourselves seriously, use rejection as a motivation to do more work, and look for models worth imitating.

Of course, if you're only thinking about writing, then you really only are aspiring, and I don't know what to suggest for you other than don't wait for inspiration, don't wait for the right moment, just get to work.

Advice for aspiring publishers?

Love your authors. Don't be the publisher notorious for the harsh “honesty” of your rejection letters (tact is not dishonest, kindness is not weakness). Don't act like a bouncer at an exclusive club. When you publish, you're part of a literary community, doing work for that community: be glad you're so lucky. And please, stop complaining about slush piles every damn chance you get. You sound like geezers moaning about their sore knees.

Anything else you want to plug?

Nope. Thank you for asking such good questions. I hope you'll have me over again sometime.

November 16, 2009 Links and Plugs

2009-11-16T06:46:00.051+08:00

There's three more The Apex Book of World SF interviews to be posted at SF Signal so stay tuned. In the meantime, here are the interviews from the previous week:

And those curious about the upcoming Lightspeed magazine should listen to the Sofanauts with editors John Joseph Adams and Andrea Kail. I also get plugged. =)

And currently getting a barrage of hits from a combination of Andrew Wheeler, James Nicoll, and Jay Lake. (Thanks guys!)

Interviews

SFF Audio interviews Robert J. Sawyer (podcast).
Sci-Fi Fan Letter interviews Mark Teppo.
Writerscast interviews Richard Nash (podcast).
The Wall Street Journal interviews Cormac McCarthy. (via Nadia Bulkin)
Michael A. Ventrella interviews Jay Lake.
MakerCulture interviews Cory Doctorow (video).
The Author Hour interviews Anne Rice, Ursula K. Le Guin, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, Orson Scott Card (podcast).
Betrayals interviews Lilith Saintcrow.
Globo TV interviews Catherine Asaro (video -- starts at 3:25).
Oprah interviews Stephenie Meyer (video).
TVO interviews Cory Doctorow (video).
Fantasy Book Critic interviews James Barclay.

Advice/Articles

Shweta Narayan on Geekery (babbling about the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis).
Genreville on In Defense of Dystopia.
SciFi Scanner on The Five Most Common Mistakes When Adaptating Children's Fantasy.
Nadia Bulkin on How women turn to misogyny.
Damien G. Walter on Bookshops are not Churches. But.
The Onion on Alternate-Universe Sci-Fi Channel Show Asks What Would Happen If Germany Lost War.
Odyssey Workshop on Writing Question: When to get a critique.
Victoria Strauss on Wanna Be a Virtual Author’s Assistant?…Maybe Not.
Jason Sanford on How cover art influences book sales (at least, for one picky reader).
Kameron Hurley on 100 Words.
C.L. Anderson on The Writing Life: The Grind.
Jo Walton on What Is It With Coffee?
Edward M. Lerner on Of Sequels and Series.
Rachel Aaron on A consumer’s take on why ebook readers still have a long way to go.
Editorial Ass on Women never write anything important or spectacular anyway.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch on The Freelancer’s Survival Guide: Burnout.
S.C. Butler on The Future of Bookstores?
Juliette Wade on The Inciting Event and Your World - Revisited.
Jeff VanderMeer on Where Does Inspiration Come From?
John Ottinger III On the Opinion that Authors Should Not Respond to Reviews.
The Intern on NaNoReVisMo #4: Tales from the Dumpster.

News

Sybil’s Garage Opening to Submissions on January 15, 2010.
Sarah Monette gets a new publisher and a new name.
Jonathan Strahan has a Call for Stories: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy: Volume Five.
Nebula Nomination Period has opened.

And if you haven't bought it yet, buy yourself a copy now (with new art!):

The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia

Book/Magazine Review: Usok #1

2009-11-16T06:37:00.005+08:00

Every Monday, I'll be doing bite-sized book/magazine reviews.

Paolo Chikiamco told me months before that he would be launching a speculative fiction web magazine featuring Filipino authors. In many ways, Chikiamco is trying to replicate the efforts of indie publishers such as Jason Sizemore of the Apex Book Company in being a one-man outfit. Honestly, a big part of me is skeptical of his efforts but hey, he has several opportunities to prove me wrong. His first issue, Usok #1, however, doesn't really dissuade my doubts. Just looking at the layout, there are minor complaints: there's no direct "table of contents" link, save for clicking on the banner; "Past Issues" should really be labeled as "Links" since that's what it basically provides; it's unclear as to the frequency of the magazine, although in the "Submit" page you find out that the next issue will be released in February 2010. While the illustration for the cover itself is fine, the way it's laid out, such as the typography and the information presented, leaves much to be desired.

But let's get to the meat of the magazine, namely the fiction. There are five stories in this issue, two of which are reprints.

The opening piece is "The Startbox" by Crystal Koo. It starts out as a nostalgic childhood story that later employs fantastical elements to enhance the mood. The narrative technique isn't revolutionary, but execution is what matters and the story could have really stood out. This is actually written competently and Koo hits the right beats when it comes to characterization and development. This is also a period piece and the author didn't need to mention a specific date because the clues are all in the story. What needs improvement--and could have elevated this story to greatness--are the telling details. There are enough descriptions as it is but it could have gone to the next level had it included specifics in various scenes. Again, this could have been tighter, and while the potential is there, as it is, it barely straddles the line between mediocrity and good enough.

I've read "The Saint of Elsewhere: A Mystery" by Chiles Samaniego a few years back when it was first published and was unimpressed back then. Unfortunately, that's still the case now. Samaniego succeeds in developing a particular atmosphere for his story. Unfortunately, this is also achieved by his style, which deals in in the abstract (no characters are named for example) and largely focused on dictation (the showing vs. telling argument), which isn't to my taste. There are authors who do get away with telling instead of showing but Samaniego isn't one of them. The reading experience was decent initially, and there is a different beat to the first half of the story as opposed to the second, but when we get to the trite explanation at the end, it feels condescending in the same way the narrator indulges the old man. There's a solid, central idea here but not much else to tether the reader. The author's style can be polarizing and I tend to lean more on the dislike side.

"Mouths to Speak, Voices to Sing" by Kenneth Yu is upbeat and includes the right amount of details and characterization needed to make this story effective. It's not a heavy piece, although one wouldn't label it as light either. Instead, it's an easy-to-read narrative sprinkled with cultural references and hooks readers with the initial premise that's originally bizarre. A point of complaint might be the ending, and whether all this buildup is worth it, but for me, it works and is foreshadowed. It's not a story with gravity, but it wasn't aiming to be one either.

My reaction to "The Coming of the Anak-Araw" by Celestine Trinidad is complex. For the first three quarters of the story, it's effective save for some minor complaints. When it comes to the praises, Trinidad writes an accessible story filled with local color and mythology. As for the minor complaints, there is the issue of using italicized words (not the words in Filipino) as a crutch, and while the presentation of a Filipino glossary is beautiful, one must question its necessity (shouldn't the meaning of the words be conveyed in the writing and in context clues?). My complaint however stems from the ending: the revelation is abrupt and not elegantly seeded. Sure, there are clues here and there, but it's as subtle as a Scooby Doo episode that the reader feels cheated. The crimes of the foreign interloper for example isn't foreshadowed, nor does the author play up the scene where the protagonist discovers the ruse. To Trinidad's credit, Filipino readers do get an inkling of the situation because of the stereotypical anti-colonial slant of the story which I find too orthodox. All it takes to make this story flow more smoothly would have been to add one more scene before the finale, tying up the loose ends and making the climax seem more organic. Sadly, it's absent and ruined what would otherwise have been one of the strongest original pieces in the magazine.

The second reprint in the magazine is "The Child Abandoned" by Yvette Tan. It's a solid choice, especially from veteran writer Tan. The author excels in developing her narrative through plot, description, and character. Her setting comes alive, the people in the story feel genuine, and there is something both horrific and fantastical that occurs. My problem with Tan's fiction is that it tends to start slow although patient readers are eventually rewarded.

Overall, while it's nice to have another venue for Filipino writers, Usok is quite rough. The talent's there but definitely needs refining, especially when it comes to the original fiction.

Book/Magazine Review: Roadkill/Siren Beat by Robert Shearman/Tansy Rayner Roberts

2009-11-16T06:06:00.000+08:00

Every Monday, I'll be doing bite-sized book/magazine reviews.

Disclosure: The publisher sent a review copy for the purposes of this review.

Don't judge a book by its cover? Or better yet, do judge a book by its cover. This book is so retro I originally mistook it for one of our local romance paperbacks instead of an Australian import. And of course, it piqued my curiosity. How could you not read such a book?

This is, in fact, a back-to-back novelette from Twelfth Planet Press. Peculiar and risky, I'm sure, but you have to admit it, it reeks both of cheesiness and awesomeness. In terms of design, the book is divided into two parts, each novelette on the reverse side of the other. Robert Shearman gets a lengthy introduction while Tansy Rayner Roberts the copyright page. Both are labeled as urban fantasy although each one tackles a different facet of the sub-genre.

Roadkill has a literary quality to it as most of the conflict stems from the relationship of the two protagonists. In fact, the fantasy aspect is negligible and could be interpreted as a metaphor. The strength of this piece however is Shearman's handle on dialogue: not only is it authentic and upbeat, it conveys so much action without the author needing to directly narrate the events that transpire. Another commendable aspect is how the entire story switches between the present and the past, both events parallels of each other and contributing to the overall theme. Even Shearman's introduction is clever. Because of the second to the last paragraph, your attention is diverted and focused on the other character, when that shouldn't be the case. This is a very powerful piece, layered with complexity and depth. Roadkill breaks the stereotype of the urban fantasy genre, and delivers a story with gravity.

If Roadkill is the deviant of the urban fantasy label, Siren Beat feels right at home with the paranormal romance genre it's usually mistaken for. Roberts follows the tropes of the sub-genre: the angsty heroine, seemingly unbeatable odds, and tantalizing sex. Siren Beat is all about kicking ass and teasing you with sensuality, make no mistake about that. What makes this piece unique is its length--other writers might need a novel to draw out their entire story but Roberts accomplish everything and much more in the span of a novelette. Is this a groundbreaking piece? Hell no. But it accomplishes what it sets out to do, without milking readers for all their time and money.

Roadkill/Siren Beat makes me wonder why the publisher paired up these two. Is it to cast a wide a net as possible because of its polarized demographic? Or is it a sly attempt to subvert the urban fantasy genre, getting Roadkill readers to read Siren Beat and vice versa? Either way, this is a very tempting book, and it's not everyday that you witness a publisher risk their reputation on, of all things, a pair of novelettes (ha!). Depth and compression--these are the assets of the stories, and it doesn't hurt that the book has a gimmicky but ingenious book design.

November 13, 2009 Links and Plugs

2009-11-13T05:04:00.031+08:00

Hope you all have a good week.

And from Tarie's blog, Publishing Giant Acquires Giant Novel - Written by a Filipina!

If you missed the Apex Magazine interview, here's the SF Signal copy: Tunku Halim.

Interviews

A Dribble of Ink interviews Blake Charlton.
Tor.com interviews Ray Bradbury (video).
Vandana Singh interviews Anil Menon.

Advice/Articles

McSweeney's on Selections from the Glossary tot he 1911 Writer's Market (Bierce, Ed.). (via Angela Slatter)
The Guardian reviews The Tin Drum by Günter Grass.
List of authors/editors/etc. on Livejournal (A-M) (N-Z).
Eden Robins on How I learned to stop worrying and tolerate the day job.
Caren Gussoff on What Editors Want.
Jo Walton on Like swords, but awesomer: Made up words in science fiction and fantasy.
Dystel & Goderich Literary Management on Who needs an agent? You do. (via Booksquare)
Nancy Jane Moore on This Post Is Not About Political Correctness.
Angie Ledbetter on Writerly Ailments and Hazards (WAAH).
Juliette Wade on First Things First.
Nicola Morgan on A Perfect Scene Through Dirty Windows.
Nathan Bransford on Moving the Needle.
Pimp My Novel on The Times, They Are A-Changin'.
Charlie Stross on Designing society for posterity.

News

AP: Guenter Grass Surprised by "Tin Drum" Success.
Brian W. Aldiss's Indoors With Delilah. (via The Inferior 4)
Cover mockup for The Hugo Award Winners, 2010 Edition edited by Mary Robinette Kowal.

Lavie's away so will plug his work for him:

Interzone #225

November 12, 2009 Links and Plugs

2009-11-12T05:37:00.033+08:00

I continue my SF Signal onslaught with my Dean Francis Alfar interview.

Rocket Kapre launches its first webzine, Usok.

Interviews

Fantasy Magazine interviews Jesse Bullington.
The Agony Column interviews Michael Swanwick.
The Agony Column has a recording of the World Fantasy Convention: The Google Books Settlement (podcast).
The Creative Penn interviews Philippa Ballantine, Chris Lester and J. Daniel Sawyer (podcast).
Genre fiction and Tie-in Fiction – a conversation between Mark Charan Newton and Dan Abnett.
SciFi Wire interviews Cory Doctorow.

Advice/Articles

Kristine Kathryn Rusch on Smart Bitches, Guilty Pleasures.
Eric Brown's Ten Tips for Aspiring Writers.
Rachelle Gardner on Is Your Book Worth It?
Rich Horton's Summary: Realms of Fantasy, 2009.
The Huffington Post on Making an Author Video. (via Genreville)
The Wertzone on The Worlds of D&D: Dragonlance. (via Matt Staggs)
Katherine Kerr on Creating the Magic of Deverry.
Jeff VanderMeer on Reporting from the Road: 28 Events in 35 Days, The Blur, and Tio's Tacos.
Booksquare on Managing Digital Rights, Part 2.
Jeff VanderMeer on Revitalizing Creativity in Your Private Booklife.
Jeff VanderMeer on Do You Notice When There’s Reality in Your Fantasy?
Annalee Newitz on Cover Cliches.
The Intern on NaNoReVisMo #3: the transformers are coming.

News

Matthew Hughes is awesome. That is all.

Hespira by Matthew Hughes

November 11, 2009 Links and Plugs

2009-11-11T06:31:00.039+08:00

Paul Witcover has a terrific review (the review's terrific, not necessarily the book) of The Secret History of Science Fiction that it shows me how far I still have to go as a reviewer. (My only consolation is that I read Gene Wolf's "The Ziggurat" the same way he did.)

While we're on the subject of the inferior 4+1, Paul di Filippo's fiction "Plumage from Pegasus" is up at Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Anyway, here's my interview with Anil Menon.

Interviews

Newsarama interviews Lev Grossman.
Genreville TV interviews John Langan and Michael Cisco at KGB Fantastic Fiction (video).
Margo Lanagan's 2009 Printz Speech (video).
SF Crowsnest interviews Ron Livingston.
Butterfly Book Reviews interviews Lilith Saintcrow.
The IAF has a Q&A with Cecil Castellucci.
Jonathan Moeller interviews Teresa Howard.
Into the Wardrobe interviews Sang Pak.
John Scalzi profiles Scott Westerfeld.

Advice/Articles

Rich Horton's Summary: Abyss & Apex, 2009.
OF Blog of the Fallen's Best of 2009: The (Tentative) Longlist.
The Week on Best books ... chosen by Lev Grossman. (via Small Beer Press)
John C. Wright on A single note of defiance.
Eugie Foster on Niches, Typecasting, and Stereotypes.
Edward M. Lerner on When enough is(n't) enough.
Ryan Harvey on Write-or-Die Spreads Fear Toxin from Your Desktop.
Huffington Post on Top Authors, and Editor, in NYT Book Review Ethics Dispute. (via Booksquare)
Deborah J. Ross on The challenge of compassion.
Brad R. Torgersen on BRT Success – A Definition.
Rachelle Gardner on How Book Royalties Work.
Jeanie Franz Ransom on What I Learned From Blogging About the Kindle.
Juliette Wade on Many paths to a writing career.
Janice Hardy on It Doesn't Always Suck.
John Scalzi on Writers and Financial Woes: What’s Going On.
Nicola Morgan on Killing Your Darlings - Self-Editing for Softies.
Nathan Bransford on Get the Big Stuff Right.
Pimp My Novel on Fun Fact: The MTI Bump.

News

Free Kindle Application for the PC.

Order this book, before it's too late!

Scenting the Dark by Mary Robinette Kowal

Essay: The Dilemma of the Term "World SF"

2009-11-11T05:58:00.001+08:00

Every Wednesday, I have an essay or feature article on any topic that catches my fancy!

When I signed up for the World SF News Blog, I didn't know what I was getting into, not in terms of workload, but what exactly is the scope of the term. If we were to take the term literally, that would entail covering SF all over the world (including America)--and that's a daunting task indeed. But that's honestly not what people think when we mention the term "World SF". Instead, it's a term that usually refers to minorities. The fact that we're using English already says something (despite the plurality of languages and dialects all over the world). Not that I begrudge English, mind you, and there's no other language that immediately comes to mind which is as prevalent as English (sorry Firefly fans, I don't think Mandarin cuts it--at least not at this point in time).

When we speak of World SF, our target audience tends to be Westerners (or Anglophonic readers, depending on your definition). Why is this the case? Well, again, the very language we use is English. Another factor is their monopoly of the traditional publishing industry. For example, a lot of countries will have access to books publish in either America or Europe, but those same countries won't have convenient access to each others books. Except in rare occasions, you won't see books published in the Philippines, Singapore, or India at your local bookstore. Basically, if anyone can tap into the resources of the big Western publishers, they'll have access to most of the world.

And then we come to the actual ambiguity: What is World SF? Lavie Tidhar and I have different definitions of the term. To some, this is defined as non-Anglo Saxon writers (yes, Anglo Saxons are also part of the world but this is a movement reacting against them being the center) but to me, that sounds very vague. Does that exclude English-speaking European countries? Australia? Canada? (And while Australia and Canada are better off compared to some third-world countries, they still need promoting.)

Let's say we narrow it down to a specific countries such as the USA. Do we exclude all of its writers, even the ones who've migrated there from other countries: Vera Nazarian, Ekaterina Sedia, Vandana Singh? Or how about writers of color born in the US but are ethnically non-Anglophonic such as Nnedi Okorafor? Are they included or excluded?

How about Anglophone writers who moved to other countries such as Richard Calder and Benjamin Rosenbaum? Or Anglophone authors who write about other cultures such as Ian McDonald and Geoff Ryman?

Do we use nationality or ethnicity as a basis? Lauren Beukes for example has European ancestry but she's African through and through. And personally, I'm pure Chinese but consider myself Filipino, both in nationality and culture. Where does that put me, if the question was geared more towards Philippine SF as opposed to World SF?

There are no right or wrong answers here. But each person will have a different stance in this. Yes in one question, no in another. For example, I know Indians who'd welcome Ian McDonald with open arms for writing about India convincingly. I also know others who'll take offense. (Similarly, some Filipinos like Starship Troopers because Robert Heinlein's protagonist was Filipino. Me, a bit ambivalent, especially since Rico didn't really have anything particularly Filipino to set him apart from other white heroes.) Some people will consider the Carl Brandon Society as World SF, others not. It's a complex check-list and the nuances actually matter.

The only thing I'm certain is that World SF needs to be promoted, and I try to accommodate that.

November 10, 2009 Links and Plugs

2009-11-10T07:57:00.042+08:00

There's never enough time!

On a side note, the Apex Book of World SF interview series continues with Aleksandar Žiljak. And I post my Best of 2009 Short List over at Jeff VanderMeer's blog. (It's just my short list! I still have other books to read before the year ends! And then the stories have to engage in Mortal Kombat before I pick a winner.)

Interviews

Diana Rowland interviews agent Lindsay Ribar.
The Electric Playground interviews John Scalzi (video).

Advice/Articles

Greg van Eekhout on Hard work + talent = awesome.
Steven Harper Piziks on What Happens in Group, Stays in Group.
Rachelle Gardner on Giving Your Characters Life.
Diabolical Plots on The Best of Pseudopod.
Monica Valentinelli on Do You Know How to Sell Your Sword?
The Huffington Post on Want To Sell Books? Start Gathering Fans. (via Pablo Defendini)
Rachel Swirsky on Self-promoting like a self-promoter.
Jim C. Hines on Top 10 Books of 2009 (Girls Need Not Apply).
Nicholas Kaufmann on The Genre on the Doorstep Dead Air 2.
Cheryl K Morgan on A Specialist Market?
Jeff VanderMeer on Book Promotion: The Value of Acknowledging Constraints.
The Book Publicity Blog on How to save time in book publicity.
Janice Hardy on Golden Oldies: Ten Things to Remember if You Want to Be a Published Writer.
The Intern on zen and the art of self-publishing.

News

And this just arrived in the mail: (it's just one book, double covers)

Roadkill by Robert Shearman and Sirenbeat by Tansy Rayner Roberts

Interview: Jeremiah Tolbert

2009-11-10T07:17:00.007+08:00

Every Tuesday, I'll have an interview posted.

Jeremiah Tolbert’s fiction has appeared in Fantasy Magazine, Black Gate, Interzone, Ideomancer, and Shimmer, as well as in the anthologies Seeds of Change, Polyphony 4, and All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories. He is also the editor of Escape Pod.

Hi Jeremy! Thanks for agreeing to do the interview. First off, what's the appeal of science fiction for you?

Well, I'm a nerd and a geek, and thus I have a genetic predisposition to anything vaguely science-y. I'm told that when I was asked what I wanted to be when I was 3 years old, I calmly sat aside my plastic dinosaurs and explained that the only logical path for me was to be a mad scientist. Science was always my favorite subject, particularly biology (which is not easy to maintain when you grow up in Kansas surrounded by fundamentalist creationists). I majored in biology in college, and it wasn't until I saw the balance on my student loans that I even considered a different professional field. I still sometimes consider going back for a Masters or PhD--my focus was originally in evolution and ecology, but I'm growing ever more fascinated by the advanced in molecular biology and genetics. I think that's the mad scientist in me. I can't wait until I can have my own genetics kit at home and build my own home-brew insects and other creatures. My natural tendency to rush forward to the implications of an idea or technology leads to the appeal of science fiction.

All the sorts of speculative fiction appeal to me because they stretch a particular portion of my brain that I like to have stretched. I've always been more interested in what's possible than what's actually happened. I didn't even really understand the appeal of history and historical fiction until I was in my late 20s. Yes, science fiction is about looking at today's world through a lens of speculation, and is not about predicting the future. But it's serious explanation of technology, and what it means to be human, are big questions that I love seeing answered, even if sometimes the answers are uncomfortable.

What made you decide to become a writer?

Well, I had all this paper sitting around with no words on it. Also, a delusion that I might actually be good at it. I've been struggling with that delusion for about seven years now, but it seems that like with some delusions, the longer you hold onto them, the more likely they are to become true. I'm not quite there, but I think I might be some day. Also, it's easier than digging ditches or trapping and tagging prairie rodents.

I think a good chunk of the people who enjoy reading science fiction are interested in writing it. If we enjoy the kind of thought games that SF puts us through, we probably also enjoy creating them ourselves. Many young SF writers are initially drawn to science fiction because they think they have a cool idea for a story, by which I mean a SFnal idea or premise. I know it's what got me started anyway. It's only after you start taking the idea of publishing seriously and start collecting your rejections that you learn SF fiction is about a hell of a lot more than just cool ideas--it's also about the art of the story. In retrospect, I probably should have taken a few less science classes and a few more creative writing and english courses.

I think the reason I've kept being a writer is that it's really, really hard for me, but I still sometimes feel like I'm making progress at understanding it. I write quickly, but that's only a virtue in the sense that it allows me to fail a little more quickly to make up for my sucking. If I had found writing something exceedingly easy to do, or far too difficult, I would have given it up after my first few rejections or sales.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome before breaking into the industry?

I wasn't aware that I had broken into the industry. Shouldn't they send you a welcome basket or something?

The biggest barrier I had to overcome to improving my work was my own ridiculous notion that science fiction was only about the ideas, and good characterization and nice prose were unimportant. It might have been the case in the 1940s, although I'm not sure I would even say that.

I had to learn to see the stereotypes in my characters. I've always been less interested in the inner workings of people than, say, the ecological dynamics in a rain forest. People are messy and their lives often lack the elegance I see in nature. But that's part of what makes them so great, and once I found that I could enjoy that, I started exploring the lives of fictional people more, and my work began to sell a little.

The truth is, despite some pretty good credits, I don't have a single sale that in the eyes of SFWA qualify as a "pro sale." I've been paid pro rates many times, but for whatever reason, probably print runs, SFWA hasn't acknowledged my markets. Until I sell something that meets their definition, I think I will always question whether I have "broken in" or not. I may never, given how small the number of publications is that qualify anymore, and in that case I guess I'll have to change my definition of "breaking in." I had a better chance 5 years ago than today, just looking at the markets left standing right now.

You're a triple-threat in the sense that you're a writer, a photographer, and a programmer. How do all three satiate your creative urges, and how does each one affect the other?

Well, one minor point to correct--I am not a programmer. I can't program my way out of paper bag. I am a web designer, which is a very different thing. I deal with information architecture, with design, and with HTML and CSS (which are markup, not coding) but when it comes to the programming aspects, I use off-the-shelf parts. I have an understanding of how things work that lets me tinker and modify, but I couldn't sit down and build you an application from scratch. Nor would I want to. I'm a big fan of not reinventing the wheel.

As to how these things satiate my creative urges? Writing stretches my intellect. Photography exercises my ability to see things in a new way. And the design work pays the bills. Okay, design is also very satisfying in that it often allows me to combine all of my interests at once, like with my Dr. Roundbottom project.

My writing affects my photography, in that I sometimes get the urge to photograph the kinds of things I want to write about. That sensawunda that everyone's always talking about--I want my photography to evoke that, and I think is most successful when it does. Photography affects my writing in a lot of nebulous ways, but one of the things its helped with is my patience. I'm more willing to wait for the writing to come to me these days. Web design exists in kind of a separate world, although my photography and writing skills get brought into it from time to time.

You're the go-to guy in terms of web design for certain authors. Do you think this has had an impact on your writing career, or simply another method of potentially earning income?

Well, there's simply no way in this day and age I could make a comfortable living as a writer of SF short fiction, so I will always have to do something to earn money. When I had a full time job and was doing author sites on the side, that definitely negatively impacted my writing. Right now, due to the economy, I'm freelancing exclusively, so if anything, it's giving me a lot more time to write. It's less about the job and about the time it takes to do that job.

Being a writer has definitely helped me build my niche in the web design market. I understand the needs of writers on the web better than a more generalized web designer. Unfortunately, writers aren't the wealthiest people. In retrospect, I probably should have cultivated yacht owners as my niche. I bet there are a lot of yacht owners who want websites for their boats, right?

How did you become the editor of Escape Pod?

Steve Eley, faced with increasing day job responsibilities and a little bit of burnout, decided he needed to bring someone else in to handle story selection. He knew that I had some experience in podcasting from some other projects of mine, and he had run two or three of my stories on Escape Pod and really enjoyed them. For whatever reason, I think I was the first person he asked? I'm not sure about that, but given that you'd have to be a fool to turn it down, I think I was. I've been very excited about the potential of podcasting to bring new people to SF, so I jumped at the chance. I don't regret it.

What are the difficulties in being an editor?

Wanting to like every story that comes across your virtual desk, and failing to. I wish that I could publish every author with aspirations and dedication, and maybe with enough dedication, I will one day publish them. I don't like writing rejection letters. I don't enjoy having to take apart a story and explain why it didn't work for me, so I tend to use standard rejection letters instead.

Dealing with community feedback can be a bit of a bear. You have to keep in mind that not everyone will like every story you select, but I figure if 30% of my audience is happy with a story, I've done my job. People are just too different in their tastes to hope for much more than that. There are probably some very rare instances where that ratio climbs higher, and those are the true bullseye for Escape Pod. I don't think I've published one of those yet, but I hope to soon.

Anyway, it's only speculation as to what portion of our audience likes something. There's no true mechanism in place to know in a statistically satisfactory manner. Forum and the soon-to-be-gone blog comments are not a good measure of that, because people who like something are generally less likely to make a point of saying so than people who really dislike something. A topic I blogged about recently.

How are podcasts--especially fiction podcasts--changing the speculative fiction scene?

Escape Pod has over 20,000 listeners, and they are not what you would call traditional SF fandom. They're a new audience, and a different one. A lot of them are people who don't have time to read, but have time to listen to audio on their commute to work. They are, perhaps, a much harder-to-please audience and are sometimes listening to a story in less-than-ideal circumstances. But I feel like working at Escape Pod gives me a chance to show what's going on inside the bubble of the SF community to people outside of it.

Judging from the people who submit to me, I would say that much of the old guard has not caught onto us. I'm not sure why I don't see every name in the business in my inbox. We're a reprint market that pays pretty well and we don't require any kind of exclusivity. But we also release our productions under the Creative Commons, so I think that scares some who want to have a very tight control over their work. I can respect that, but any control they think they have is an illusion thanks to our friend the Internet. I can go online right now and find torrents with literally thousands of SF novels if I was inclined to do so (I'm not. I like paying for what I read). Escape Artists releasing our productions under the Creative Commons is an acknowledgment of the reality of the matter. If it means I'll never get to run a Neil Gaiman or any number of authors who have passed on and have literary estates, then so be it. There are plenty of young authors who get what we're doing and see the value of it.

What are some of the problems you see in the stories submitted to Escape Pod?

They're the same problems you see in any slush pile. 70% of it is by writers who are just too green and haven't mastered telling a story yet, or at least not consistently. A lot of them haven't moved past the cliche-ridden part of their writing paths. 20% of it is stuff that's good, but too similar to something else I've run recently, or not really a story that grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me, or maybe just about a topic that I think we've played out. 5% I buy. Roughly, I haven't done the math.

I don't see nearly enough reprints. I see too many original stories and as a general rule of thumb, they aren't good enough for me to publish. I'm not sure if writers are trying to send their work elsewhere first, and having it rejected, or if they are just sending it to us first because Escape Pod is what inspired them to write. In either case, I think writers are better served by selling to a print market first, and then offering us reprint rights. More money, and more exposure.

One unique problem we deal with when we're running work from the Hugo nominees is a story that was specifically written for the page, using some kind of typographic convention that can't be conveyed in audio very well. I think people who come in via submission and not solicitation recognize that their stories need to be read out loud though, so it's not a major issue.

For you, what constitutes a good podcast, both in terms of content and performance?

The story has to have a good through-line that's easy to follow in audio. It's language should sound fairly natural when read aloud. The narrator should be able to distinguish the voices of disparate characters well, and otherwise have a voice that is not intrusive on the story, but they should definitely inject feeling and a performance of their own into the work.

Also, good recording quality, something we've been struggling with lately.

What made you decide to create Dr. Roundbottom?

Dr. Roundbottom grew out of a desire to synthesize my three main interests into a single project. I was doing a lot of macro photography at the time, and I started to think about a character who was the kind of scientist I wanted to be when I was a kid--but the last time naturalists were true professionals was the Victorian period. The steampunk elements crept in because of that.

What's the appeal of Steampunk for you?

Primarily, style. The Victorians and steampunkers have a lot of style, and that looks good on camera. I also like big, clunky machines and clockwork bits. I look at my iPhone and there's nothing about the device that expresses what it's capable of. In steampunk, a device's purpose is inherent in its design. Guns look like guns, and so on.

My particular form of steampunk is a mix of fantasy and SF. I really enjoy mixing up genres. I love science in my fantasy. It's one of the reasons Perdido Street Station by China Mieville is one of my favorite books.

What were the difficulties in maintaining Dr. Roundbottom?

It makes me very little money, so I can't devote as much time to it as I would have liked. I had higher expectations for growing the audience, and they just weren't there, or at least, I didn't find them. Also, creating the shoots were often expensive--buying props and the like. I don't like doing any more photoshopping than necessary, so I try to use real world objects as much as possible.

I also probably set a far too ambitious update schedule of once a week as well, but anything less than that doesn't do a good job of drawing repeat visitors.

In my dreams, someone pays me to do Roundbottom, or I land some kind of publisher/sponsor. I think Roundbottom could very easily be turned into an annual print book as a revenue stream if I was able to afford the time to work on it.

Unfortunately, being a fulltime freelancer means I have to carefully consider how I use my time, and I spend a lot more time thinking about the monetary side of things than I would like as an artist.

Still, I have many more ideas for Roundbottom, some of them even written and ready for me to photograph when I can find the time.

In your opinion, barring the Internet, what's the most innovative technology that's making a big impact on the publishing industry?

You'd probably expect me to say podcasting here, but I don't think anyone has really figured out how that can work for the publishing industry instead of alongside it. No, right now I think the biggest shift is that eInk readers have finally turned the public on to the notion of reading on a digital device. We're going to see a huge shift in how publishing works as this technology matures, and the price point gets lower.

I don't own a Kindle, but I do read on my iPhone. I'm still waiting for the right eInk reader for me.

More on your opinions, what's perhaps a practice in the industry that you find ultimately stifling and stagnant?

Resisting the fact that the Internet has changed everything. Print publications like Asimov's and F&SF not accepting electronic submissions is a good example of this. That these magazines have websites that look like they were designed in 1996 is not helping them either.

I do think the book publishers are catching on quicker. But in fairness, their model has been less threatened by the internet than magazines have.

Why are vampires your weakness?

A weakness? When did I say that? Hmm. I think this might in reference to my unabashed love of the TV series True Blood. Any show with a supernatural element will catch my attention, just as it is with SF elements. I grew up playing role-playing games, and a very formative game for me was Vampire: The Masquerade. So I will always have a soft spot for them, especially when they resemble the vampires of the game I spent so much time playing in high school and college.

I am not much of a fan of vampires in stories, although I have a really fun SF vampire story by Garth Nix scheduled for October [Ed Note: this interview was conducted before November] this year at Escape Pod.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Develop discipline in your writing habits. As true as it is in any other field, practice will improve your work. Read so much you can barely stand looking at words, and read widely. Don't just read what you want to write, although I think you should keep up on what's going on in your field. You should read the classics. You should read the Bible, even if you're not religious like me. There are works of literature that are cultural touchstones in the West, and being familiar with them will only enrich your work.

Remember that when you become a writer, you become an information sponge. Everything that has ever happened to you and ever will is potential material. Writing will teach you to be an observer in your own life, and of the lives of others. You'll find yourself trying to get into the heads of other people more often, sometimes asking questions that make people uncomfortable, but are necessary for bettering your understanding of people.

Finally, realize that you're playing this game for peanuts. You almost certainly will not get rich writing this stuff. You make pennies a word for the most part, whether your write novels or short stories. That means you don't stand much to gain, and you don't stand much to lose. So do what you really want to do. If there's a market for it, you'll find it in time. If there's not, well, you'll do it anyway, right? True greatness is something we mostly measure ourselves. It can't be measured in terms of audience size or financial success. So, throw out your caution and write what you really want to write. Your passion is one of your greatest assets, no matter what your skill level is.

Advice for aspiring editors?

Watch what John Joseph Adams does and emulate it. He's establishing the path for young genre editors today. It may not work for everyone, but it's working very well for him. I'm just a part-time editor. He's the real deal.

Anything else you want to plug?

I have a story in the latest issue of Interzone, #224 I think it is. It's the result of my challenge to myself to try to invent an alien species and culture that's truly alien, but not so alien that we can't relate to them somehow. It's also about whale falls, a biological phenomenon that fascinates me.

November 9, 2009 Links and Plugs

2009-11-09T06:21:00.059+08:00

The Apex Book of World SF interviews over at SF Signal is still moving along. Last Friday's was with the awesome Kaaron Warren.

On non-personal plugs, everyone should read this nonfiction piece by writer/rockstar Lourd de Veyra about the experience of losing books to the recent typhoons.

After the long, grueling days of cleaning up after September 26, I came up with my own: Books That Are Too Important To Throw Away So You Hold On To Them Even If They Smell Like Shit, Books That You Never Even Thought You Owned, Books You Hail As Masterpieces But Can’t Even Remember A Single Passage, Books That Have Water Lilies Between Pages How The Hell Did They Get There?, Books So Unbelievably Moldy They Should Be Donated To A Bio Lab, and Books So Filthy You Get Sick Just By Looking At Them.

And from the Behance Network:

Interviews

The Agony Column has a recording of 2009 World Fantasy Convention Panel Podcast with Danel Paul Olson (moderator), J. Kathleen Cheney, Laura Anne Gilman, Thomas S. Roche, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.
Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs interviews J.C. Hutchins.
The Creative Penn interviews J.C. Hutchins (podcast).
Realm Lovejoy interviews agent Diana Fox.
The Sofanauts episode with Peter Watts and Paul di Filippo (podcast).
My Favourite Books interviews Lou Anders.
ActuSF has interviews from video interviews from Utopiales 2009 including Hal Duncan.
The Dragon Page interviews Cherie Priest (podcast).
Off the Hook interviews Cory Doctorow (podcast).
Odyssey Workshop interviews Gregory Frost.
Missions Unknown interviews Jason Limon.
Shareable interviews Kim Stanley Robinson. (via Locus Magazine)
Tor.Com interviews Professor Kelly Joyce (Part 2).
Storytellers Unplugged Q&A with Sarah Monette.

Advice/Articles

Politics Daily on Same Old Story: Best-Books Lists Snub Women Writers. Related: Matthew Cheney on Jury, Meet Peers.
Rich Horton's Summary: Shadow Unit, 2009.
Hal Duncan on Notes from New Sodom: On Blood, Bad Boys and Bottoms.
Sean Wallace on Slushreading and Slushreading Systems.
Kameron Hurley on Surviving the Book Contract that Wasn’t.
Tobias Buckell on The finances of freelancing: some gritty systems details for the geeky. (via Matt Staggs)
The New York Times on Field Guides to Fairies.
Mary Robinette Kowal on The Eight Worst Anachronisms in Fantasy.
Damien G. Walter on Serious Fantasy.
Cory Doctorow on Teen Sex.
Rima Abunasser on A Day in the Life of a Literature Professor, or Why I Do What I Do.
Jim C. Hines SF/F Humor Roundup: 2009.
Victoria Strauss on Rights and Copyright.
T.J. McIntyre on About Writing.
Jason Sanford on The Interzone Sampler.
Graham Sleight on Tipping-Point.
Shawn Speakman on Discovering the Title.
Editorial Anonymous on Fragile: Contains Dreams. Please Do Not Bend, Fold, or Crush.
Juno Books on Will Closing Waldenbooks, etc. Really Hurt?
Juliette Wade on Measures of Intelligence.

News

Plug, plug!

Diving Into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Book/Magazine Review: Interfictions 2: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman and Christopher Barzak

2009-11-09T05:36:00.002+08:00

Every Monday, I'll be doing bite-sized book/magazine reviews.

Disclosure: The publisher sent a review copy for the purposes of this review.

It seems only fitting that an anthology such as Interfictions 2: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing has an online supplement over at the IAF Annex. And yet the title is also apropos: this isn't a true collection of interstitial writing in the sense that it only focuses on fiction, as opposed to an anthology that includes comics, art, and other mediums. But as far as stories go, this book does skirt the boundaries and has a unique feel.

I'm not really familiar with the term interstitial fiction as I should be but the introduction by Henry Jenkins does a great job of explaining it that it seems like the most creative genre (or non-genre as the case may be). Also noteworthy is the interview with Delia Sherman and Christopher Barzak by Colleen Mondor at the end of the book. If Jenkins's essay is a primer on the interstitial arts, this interview breaks it wide open and posits possibilities, while admitting that interstitial fiction is a product of its time and what we might consider interstitial today might not be the case tomorrow.

Which perhaps brings me to this conclusion: I'm really an interstitial reader. I don't perceive the stories included in this anthology to be interstitial stories as much as stories, period (and perhaps "speculative fiction"). It takes a conscious effort to trace the boundaries (although no doubt, they are there) and how the various fictions included transcend the said borders. Maybe because interstitial fiction is already included in various publications that I read, whether it's literary venues or fantasy or science fiction or -insert genre here-. Having said that, the works featured here have a unique voice and tone, and a lot certainly deviate from what most people would label a conventional story. There's an experimentation in style and technique, and while not all of them are original, there is a visible effort in the attempt (and actually succeeding).

Of course I don't read interstitial fiction for interstiality's sake. At the end of the day, I ask, did I enjoy this story, and did the form suit the function? In the case of Interfictions 2: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing, it's a resounding yes. There's no bad story here, and only a few are what I consider barely above mediocre. A lot are standouts and favorites (although not the "best of the best") such as "The War Between Heaven and Hell Wallpaper" by Jeffrey Ford, "The Beautiful Feast" by M. Rickert, "The Two of Me" by Ray Vukcevich, "Black Dog: A Biography" by Peter M. Ball, "Child-Empress of Mars" by Theodora Goss, and various other authors that I've never heard of (making this a doubly pleasant read). And when it comes to agenda, as Jetse de Vries pointed out, there's a couple of "international writers" (whether by descent or actual nationality) in this book and one only needs to read their stories to affirm how richer the book is for their inclusion, as opposed to simply being a token presence. (The Anglophone presence is also great.)

There are two stories I want to specifically tackle here because they're undeniable favorites. "The Assimilated Cuban's Guide to Quantum Santeria" by Carlos Hernandez and "Count Poniatowski and the Beautiful Chicken" by Elizabeth Ziemska are brilliant pieces. Now this is actually the first time that I've read Hernandez (or remember doing so), and Ziemska is someone whom I feel is an underappreciated author. Both deliver stories with a lot of emotional resonance, and while they employ fairly standard narrative techniques, both also cross genre lines from fantasy to science fiction to fiction, keeping readers on their toes and making the most out of the tropes of the said genres. The said pieces are so good that I'm perfectly content buying the book and reading just these two.

On a less optimistic note, and this could swing in either direction, but at the end of each piece, the authors talk about their story. While this is an insightful read in some cases, adding new layers to the narrative, it sometimes becomes a defensive explanation of why the included fiction is considered interstitial. Here, the author's confidence and motives become transparent, and while it certainly enhances some stories, it can be disappointing in others.

Lastly, another strength of this anthology is that it has an agenda behind it. I mean I loved Eclipse Three by Jonathan Strahan, and in a certain sense, some stories published there would fit perfectly here (and vice versa), but one also has to take into consideration the long-term plans of the editor(s). Not that unthemed genre anthologies is a less-worthy cause (and in fact is more important nowadays with the discontinuation of such anthologies), but when it comes to Interfictions 2: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing, there's a definite goal that's transparent to readers. For me, Sherman and Barzak succeed in delivering quality stories that follow their agenda, and this book is testament to what they're trying to accomplish.

Book/Magazine Review: Dark Delicacies III: Haunted edited by Del Howison & Jeff Gelb

2009-11-09T05:25:00.002+08:00

Every Monday, I'll be doing bite-sized book/magazine reviews.

Dark Delicacies III: Haunted is in a strange position. On one hand, you have a lot of decent stories: nothing outright horrible, and definitely an entertaining read, but they're not particularly striking. There are exemptions, of course, but for the most part, the shape of this anthology is that it barely hovers above mediocrity. Take for example "Resurrection Man" by Axelle Carolyn: It starts out with a compelling style and while predictability isn't exactly something that does discredit to the story (it's foreshadowed after all), it lacks a particular ooomph that sets it apart from other morality tales. The same might be said for "A Nasty Way to Go" by Ardath Mayhar which has a faithful and unique tone and an otherwise decent narrative but nothing else that makes it memorable. And the problem is a good chunk of the stories here fall under this category.

Not that the book is devoid of other criticisms or praises. When it comes to the former, "In the Mix" by Eric Red feels like it uses too many stereotypes and delivers nothing but gore. "Food of the Gods" by Simon R. Green comes across as too flat and readers can surmise what's coming way too early.

Having said that, there are some brilliant pieces here that unfortunately fall short. "Mist on the Bayou" by Heather Graham has atmosphere and character and while that will probably lump it in the competent category, what caught my attention was the twist she includes in the story which makes this an unconventional haunting story. It's not what I'd necessarily call terrific, but it jumps out from what is an otherwise unremarkable anthology.

"Tyler's Third Act" by Mick Garris really comes close to greatness. For three fourths of the story, it hits all the right beats: a unique voice, engaging conflict, visceral descriptions, a sympathetic character, etc. It even doubles as a commentary for today's media. Unfortunately, while Garris sets up big expectations for the reader, he simply fumbles it when it comes to the ending. Not that it whimpers, but it fails to live up to expectations and quite frankly feels abrupt. This isn't a bad story and far from it in fact, but I can imagine that this could have been one of the best stories for the year had it gone that extra mile.

With no reservations, a sophisticated piece is "The Architecture of Snow" by David Morrell. It doesn't immediately jump out as "Tyler's Third Act" but the author takes his time to build up the narrative. I could jibe at how this is a horror story for those working in the publishing industry, and to a certain extent, the ending is a bit indulgent when it comes to that particular facet, but Morrell works this piece by using good old fashioned characterization. At the end of the day, it leaves readers with an emotional resonance that's both heartwarming and heartbreaking.

There are definitely less enjoyable anthologies out in the market but if you have modest tastes, Dark Delicacies III: Haunted is a good distraction.

November 6, 2009 Links and Plugs

2009-11-06T07:06:00.041+08:00

Panic? No one's panicking. Everything's all swell. Really. Why would I lie to you?

Oh, and check out my interview with the awesome Melanie Fazi.

RIP Louise Cooper.

Interviews

Jonathan Moeller interviews Dave Smeds.
The Agony Column interviews Kim Stanley Robinson (podcast).
The Creative Penn interviews Mur Lafferty (podcast).
Lark Neville interviews Amy Grech.
Fantasy Magazine interviews Garth Nix (video).
Tor.com interviews Ray Bradbury (video).
John Scalzi profiles Jeff VanderMeer.
Fantasy Book Critic interviews Gary A. Ballard.

Advice/Articles

Rich Horton's Summary: Interzone, 2009.
Lavie Tidhar on To Asimov's or not to Asimov's?
The New Yorker on Bolano Backlash? (via Matt Staggs)
Writer Unboxed on Old Bones, New Flesh: Building a novel from a fairy tale concept. (via Matt Staggs)
Suvudu on Visiting Random House.
Megan Crewe on Story Psych: A Question of Character.
LJNDawson.com on Mythbusting the ISBN. (via Booksquare)
Joel Friedlander on Book Design: Beauty in the Details.
Editorial Ass on Writer Question: How Do I Cut Text from My Novel and Not Lose My Soul?!
Kristine Kathryn Rusch on The Freelancer’s Survival Guide: Success Part Five.
Mike Brotherton on Scientists, Sagan, Sincerity.
Alma Alexander on What do we know and when do we want to know it?
Alan Russell on When I Wish I Wasn't a Writer.
Juliette Wade on Layers of Language.
Shine Anthology on Kindred Spirits Part 8.

News

Soon, my pretties, soon...

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

November 5, 2009 Links and Plugs

2009-11-05T06:27:00.064+08:00

When it rains, it pours: continuing the Apex Book of World SF interviews, the latest one is with Jetse de Vries. My BSC Review essay is up, Gender, Minorities, and International SF. And there's my guest post over at Jeff VanderMeer's blog, A Pre-Summation of Philippine Speculative Fiction 2009.

And Golden Gryphon Press (an excellent publisher) currently has a two-for-one sale.

Also should have plugged this sooner. Odyssey 2009 graduate Lisa Poh is looking for other Singaporean writers. Anyone want to help her out?

Interviews

SF Signal Mind Meld: Speculative Fiction Books That Should Be Assigned in School.
A Writer Goes on a Journey interviews Alan Baxter. (via Aurealis Xpess)
The Agony Column interviews Eric Simons (podcast).
Marshall Payne interviews Angela Slatter.
Odyssey Workshop has a recording of Patricia Bray's lecture.
San Antonio Current interviews Jeff VanderMeer. (via Locus Online)
Tor.Com interviews Professor Kelly Joyce (Part 1).
Dead Robots Society interviews Philippa Ballantine and Dan Sawyer (podcast).

Advice/Articles

Will Hindmarch on Eldritch Visions of Cthalloween.
Mark C Newton on Thoughts on the Dying Earth genre.
Caren Gussoff on The next big punking.
Stomping on Yeti on The Next Big Thing? The FuturePast.
Jennifer Jackson on unsolicited manuscripts.
Guy Hasson on Making His Feature Film Debut (part two).
Cory Doctorow on Radical Presentism. (via Locus Online)
GeekDad on 2009 Holiday Gift Guide #1: Books. (via Locus Online)
Jason Denzel on The Duel, part 1: Help Me Defeat Brandon Sanderson.
Lou Anders on The First Lady of Fantasy.
Megan Crewe on The Sequel Question.
Margaret Ronald on The Book as an Object.
Emma Newman on The Savvy Author’s Guide to Podcasting.
Aprilynne Pike on Firsts. (via Editorial Ass)
Lynne Patrick on Ten reasons publishers don't offer feedback on submissions.
Justine Larbalestier on NaNo Tip no. 4: Word Count is Not Everything.
Dean Wesley Smith on Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing: Self Promotion. (via Kristine Kathryn Rusch)
Mike Brotherton on Smarts, Sponteniety, Science, and Science Fiction.
Rachelle Gardner on How To Avoid Getting an Agent.
Janice Hardy on What I Learned at World Fantasy Week: Double Jeopardy.
The Intern on NaNoReVisMo #2: two flavors of facts.

News

Barnes and Noble Review reviews Finch.
Warren Ellis releases Shivering Sands. (via David J. Schwartz)
Borders offers free shipping on out-of-stock items. (via Booksquare)
Barnes & Noble Sued Over Nook Design. (via Booksquare)
Amazon.com's Twitter Program Generates Controversy.

Go buy:

House of Windows by John Langan

November 4, 2009 Links and Plugs

2009-11-04T06:51:00.044+08:00

Couple of news that's not exactly genre news per se, but is important and concerns the community. First, Vylar Kaftan has a Letter to the San Jose police. This relates to an incident that happened in or near the San Jose Fairmont Hotel (where World Fantasy Con took place).

The second item is author Catherynne M. Valente is stranded in Germany and is nearly out of funds. You can donate to Fairyland. Or check out the HELP CAT VALENTE AND DMITRI ZAGIDULIN Facebook page.

In personal plugs, my interview with Aliette de Bodard is up at SF Signal. The Apex "World SF" issue is up and includes my interview with Tunku Halim. (Stay tuned to SF Signal this week and next as more interviews go up.)

Expanded Horizons also has a new issue out, with two stories from Filipino authors.

Interviews

The Agony Column has a recording of the SF in SF Panel Discussion Featuring Eric Simons, Kim Stanley Robinson and Terry Bisson on October 17, 2009 (podcast).
TV Guide has 5 Questions with V's Scott Wolf.
New York Post profiles Jonathan Lethem.
The Guardian profiles Margo Lanagan.
Blog Critics interviews John Brown. (via Tor Books)
Genreville interviews Anton Strout.
John Scalzi profiles Steven R. Boyett.

Advice/Articles

Jeff VanderMeer on My Endurance Tour–and Book Tours in the Modern Era and Is it a Book Tour or a War of Attrition or Some Kind of Literary Circus?
Rich Horton's Summary: F&SF, 2009.
Joshua Palmatier on Writing: Exposition.
Amazon's Top 10 Books: Science Fiction & Fantasy.
io9 has The Experts' Picks for Notable Books of the Year at World Fantasy Con. (via Locus Magazine)
Cherie Priest on “Why I destroyed Seattle for the sake of Steampunk”.
Keith McGowan on Letters from Abroad: Sociology and History of Science.
Edward M. Lerner on Alien aliens.
Rachelle Gardner on Foreshadowing vs. Telegraphing.
Janice Hardy on What I Learned at World Fantasy Week: Changing Scale.
Nicola Morgan on Myths About Writing.
The Rejectionist on Chérie Has A Special Form Letter For You To Send Your Friends and Family.

News

Lots of fun stuff over at the Finch Readers Page.
The Fix is back.
Paul S. Kemp will not write Forgotten Realms novel Godborn.
Secret copyright treaty leaks. It's bad. Very bad. (via Eric Reynolds)
Get Ready for the “Why I Write” Contest.

Just got my review copy and it's awesome awesome awesome so far (alas, still half-blind so not much reading for me this week):

Interfictions 2 edited by Delia Sherman & Christopher Barzak