Blog - Page 74 of 227

Friday Hangovers

Hangovers / By Gwenda / February 13, 2009

I've just attempted a Great Inbox Catch-Up, so if you sent me an e-mail and haven't gotten a response, then re-send. I vow to keep up on a weekly basis (mostly) from this point forward.
Betsy gives some love to Kekla Magoon's The Rock and the River, which I've heard nothing but good things about.
So Lance Armstrong won't have the most stringent drug testing protocols ever. Not sure what this means.
A new fantasy-focused news and reviews and other stuff site, The Torch, has launched. Author Brent Hartinger is writing a great deal of the content so far.
The Interfictions 2 line-up is amazing, and what a good idea to have additional stories in an online annex. Can't wait.
TV Show Music catalogues the tunes on various shows. No more fruitless rewinding to try and hear lyrics and then googling for half an hour. Yay.
The Shirley Jackson Awards are holding a lottery to raise funds. At Readoncon, I saw one of the rocks given to nominees, which, in my humble opinion, is the coolest thing ever.
An excellent interview with Lew Shiner about Black & White and various other topics. A snippet: "I've always felt that any individual book of mine is going to have more in common with my other books than with other books in the same "genre." I think the emphasis on genre comes more from publishers than readers. The readers I talk to just want to read a good book (whatever that means). It's the big conglomerate publishers who want to turn books into predictable commodities so they can sell the largest number of units each of the smallest number of titles. That doesn't serve writers or readers, it just serves the publishers — and them only in the short term."
Jincy Willett has launched an online workshop.
Paul Di Filippo writes about several new anthologies and the state of short fiction over at the B&N Review.
New fantasy group blog starting up, The Magic District, and the members include Tim Pratt and Greg van Eekhout, so I'll be reading it. (Greg has the best novel title ever — Norse Code. I have title envy.)
Also, note that the link to Greg's book is to IndieBound. I'm hoping to switch all my links over to Indiebound. (Except the ones in the sidebars, which self-generate to Amazon through Typepad's system. But I hold out hope that there will one day be code that enables me to do that too.)

I Command Thee

2 Comments / Uncategorized / By Gwenda / February 11, 2009

Of course, in a nice way, to go read Melissa Moorer's short story "A Theory of Lightning and Green" over at the still-brand-spanking-new-but-earning-a-reputation-fast Northville Review.

Melissa is an elite member of Write Club (aka our little teensy writing group here, which currently consists entirely of Melissa, Christopher and me), and I count reading her stuff as one of my great privileges. I always knew this story would find a good home.

I Command Thee Read More »

Wilding Redux

1 Comment / Books / By Gwenda / February 10, 2009

Interesting thoughts about fantasy and its cultural necessity from Tiffany Trent in a post today:

To my mind, fantasy is more necessary than ever. It seeks to cure an incurable loneliness. Our cities are empty, devoid of all but ourselves, starlings, and the occasional opossum. Our suburbs are rapidly becoming the same. When I read urban fantasy, I can’t help but smile a little, because the former eco-lit student in me reads it ultimately as an attempt at re-wilding. We miss the people and creatures we once believed shared this world with us. We long for the numinous, the inexplicable. We would like to think that we have more important things to do than get to work on time and make endless copies. While our ancestors may have longed for escape from deadly fairies and things that go bump in the night, I think we crave them. We want companionship and heroics, but more deeply, we long for meaning.

Fantasy offers us that. It’s a way of making sense. It’s a way of re-wilding our cities and suburbs, our monocultured forests, with the beautiful and terrible visions of our past. It’s a way of making ourselves feel part of a greater order and asserting our place in it, all at once. It’s a bridge over sometimes vast cultural and mythic divides. And it’s a chance, a very important chance, to dream.

I really like the term "re-wilding."

Wilding Redux Read More »

Tuesday Hangovers

1 Comment / Hangovers / By Gwenda / February 10, 2009

Dept. of Not Again: HarperCollins lay-offs happening today. Updated: More info on the bad news.
Check out Forgotten Books, which connects users to either the full text online and/or sources to buy really old, really cool books. (Via Jeff Ford.)
Fabulous writer and fabulous illustrator and fabulous person Gene Brenek interviewed over at Cyn's place. Gene did all those excellent logos for various places/things in the Tantalize/Eternal universe. And he's one of my fellow Revisionistas.
At the Daily Beast, Maud recommends that before Kate Christensen's latest novel, Trouble, comes out in June, you check out her backlist. See also: Maud's excellent piece about her father in Granta.
Laurel Snyder has written the introduction for a new edition of E. Nesbit's Five Children and It, clearly excellent news. Can't wait to read her forthcoming novel, Any Which Wall.
Why do I never buy the specimen collection of Alfred Russel Wallace by accident?
Going back to the old school New Mutants. Interesting. (Via Dave.)
Lisa Madigan imagines a visit to the writer's workstation by Tim Gunn. God, I love this.
An in-depth post on the concept of high concept.

Tuesday Hangovers Read More »

Disappearing Girl

2 Comments / Excuses, Excuses / By Gwenda / February 9, 2009

Just popping in to say I'll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, go over to Ari Berk's and tell a ghost story, or alternately just selfishly read all the amazing ones in the comments. Which is what I did–but I will add one! It's just hard to choose from so many!* (Via Holly.)

And someday I'll do that 25 things meme too, only is that finally over? I haven't been tagged** in the last 24 hours…

*Remember, I'm southern. I spent half my misspent teen years chasing down ghost stories, like an episode of Random Ghost-Hunting Show with really bad hair.
**Not in any way, shape or form an invitation.

Disappearing Girl Read More »

Idealology

2 Comments / Nattering / By Gwenda / February 8, 2009

This has been exactly the weekend I've needed for a few weeks now (at least two), and I greatly appreciate the universe finally getting its act together and cooperating. (Has Mercury been in retrograde or something? Not that I believe in that. Just that I like to have something concrete TO BLAME.)

I never thought I'd have a lovely dinner that involved Ruby Tuesday's, but we drove up to Elizabethtown on Friday evening to see the one and only Kathi Appelt, who was in Kentucky for a few days doing various book events, and did just that. Not finding anything online that comforted me about dinner at a local establishment, we chose to play it safe. I also managed to successfully lure the fabulous Jess Leader (whose debut novel Nice and Mean will be out next year from Simon and Schuster, and I can vouch for the awesome quotient because I read it in manuscript) and her fiance Adrien out to meet us as well. Much Vermont College gossip and other writing talk ensued, and we got to toast Kathi's much-deserved success this year for her instant classic, The Underneath. AND discovered she'll be in Taos at the same time we are, for a different workshop/retreat, and so we get to see her again relatively soon. This makes me happy.

I slept in shamefully late on Saturday, then spent most of the day reading the new Mercy Thompson novel. Don't judge or start arguing with me about these, or I will have to whap you. The world-building, especially where the fae are concerned, just makes these utterly cracktastic. Not perfect, but CRACKtastic. Briggs can plot like nobody's business. And we finally got around to watching Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, which I hearted almost as much as the book. Mainly, it made me want to reread said book, and also construct a YouTube Theatre Production where drunken Caroline wanders into The Thin Man and everyone is all, "Oh, she's in color! Is she magic?" and then they're all, "But she's just as drunk as we are. Give the little birdie a cocktail!"

All this, of course, setting the stage for Actual Productivity today. I've worked diligently on le novel since this morning AND don't want to stab myself in the eye. (If only you knew the amount of private whining over how little time I've had to work lately. Shameful, really. Send condolence cards to Mr. Rowe. Who made me lentil soup and fresh bread earlier. YUM.) The weather is springlike and the dogs are barking with great feeling at imaginary dogs on the end of a Korcani Orkestar remix.

Anyway, everything seems back on track. I'm going to do a bit more, and knock off. E-mail catch-up tomorrow? There is much TV awaiting on the DVR and I need to finish watching Let the Right One In, since I no longer have to be paranoid about the power going off during the middle again.

Hope y'all had nice weekends, too.

Idealology Read More »

Thursday Hangovers

5 Comments / Hangovers / By Gwenda / February 5, 2009

No time for anything but hangovers this week. No time to do much of anything. WHIIIINE.
The last Balanchine ballerina retires.
An interesting SLJ piece making the rounds about the kind of censorship that doesn't make headlines, but is far more pervasive.
I miss Sara Nelson already, and I hope she does end up hanging around the book biz.
I need to read more Elizabeth Wein, as these books sound fabulous. And, apparently, some of them are being reissued and need title assistance. Help out.
A video that I haven't had time to watch yet making the rounds all over so it must be good — Book By Book: The Making of a Monkey Man.
John Green on quantifying reader appeal. See also: Karen Healey expressing delight while reading Let It Snow.
Maureen on healthier ways of eating, and the karma of vegetables.
Ellen Kushner has the deets on efforts to save Realms of Fantasy.
Perhaps the book with the best title of the year is The Forest of Hands and Teeth (and it's about zombies!), and it just garnered a starred review from PW. I absolutely cannot wait to read this book.
Cynthia Leitich Smith is the mistress of cool and apparently of excellent book trailers too. The Eternal trailer is shiny, oh so shiny.
This is a new way to dump your online weirdo stalker.
The KidLitosphere has a spiffy new coordinated home page. Makes sense and it's pretty. How can you beat that?

Thursday Hangovers Read More »

Puppy Bowl Champ

2 Comments / Cat and Dog Theater / By Gwenda / February 1, 2009

Puppy Bowl Champ Read More »

WANT

Books / By Gwenda / February 1, 2009

Margo Lanagan posts about Sideshow: Ten Original Tales of Freaks, Illusionists, and Other Matters Odd and Magical, a forthcoming, drool-inducing anthology edited by Deborah Noyes (I'd read anything edited or written by Deborah Noyes, actually, but this just sounds too good). Sayeth Margo:

…The real thing won't be out until mid-July, but get ready for it. My story is about anthropological exhibits, and is called 'Living Curiosities'; the other stories are by Aimee Bender, Vivian Vande Velde, Danica Novgorodoff, Annette Curtis Klause, David Almond, Shawn Cheng, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Cecil Castellucci and Matt Phelan.

Again: WANT.

And now, after a brunch of beignets and good conversation at Doodles, an afternoon of work before the Puppy Bowl.

WANT Read More »

Go See

7 Comments / Books / By Gwenda / January 31, 2009

Inkheart is SOOOO good. Best movie I've seen in ages. Only movie I've seen in ages I want to buy on DVD when it comes out so I can own it. Unexpectedly good on all counts.

Go. Go. Go.

It is made for book people.

WTF Update: I really and truly don't get this Rotten Tomatoes ranking–this is a really fine movie. I just really and truly don't get it. I hope the word of mouth does what it should.

So, the main complaint seems to be that it's occasionally "complicated" and "hard to follow" — um, no. Yes, it's an unusual movie, particularly in terms of questions like who the protagonist is, but it's very classically structured and anyone who Pays Attention will appreciate that every little thing isn't explained to death. I want to see it again, because it feels like a movie that will reward multiple watchings. Great cast, too, and some truly memorable insults from the fabulous Helen Mirren. It's almost as if even the critics giving favorable reviews were a) too lazy to pay attention and b) afraid to admit they liked it.