My take on Marc Laidlaw's "Jane"

My appreciation of Marc Laidlaw's Jane is up at the EDSF Project. Give it a read and, more importantly, read the original story. And while you're at it, there's some other great appreciations like Matt Cheney on "High Weir" or Mike Morrow on "The Transcendent Tigers, and plenty of others.
Also, the Project is still looking for people to sign up for stories. There's more than 300 stories, many of which are science fiction classics, so pick out a story and write something about it.

Nanowrimo, Day 24 through 28

Well, it was the Thanksgiving weekend but I still managed to get a lot of writing done. And then I took a day off Sunday, which was nice. Today, I got back to things and wrote another 3,000 words, the most I've done in one day. I'm trying to wrap things up and I'm at 49,820 words now. I'll definitely be done tomorrow.
My novel seems to be an "And Plot" type of story, as recorded in the Turkey City Lexicon:

And plot
Picaresque plot in which this happens, and then that happens, and then something else happens, and it all adds up to nothing in particular.

I think this is probably endemic to Nanowrimo. If you don't decide what the story is about at the beginning, you end up sending characters to one place, then another and they get in trouble and they get out of trouble and they never seem to go anywhere. That is definitely my problem. I got all tangled up at one point and the plot just sort of circled around a couple of things that don't much matter to the characters interior lives.
Anyway, that's what it is and I'm still very happy with having returned to Nanowrimo this year.
Hope everyone else is doing well and nearing the finish line.

Changes

The links bar to the right may look a little odd for a while. I'm going to make some changes to it, make it more useful. Currently, I've added categories Authors, Online Fiction, and Random. There will be more categories to come and links will be sorted out. Some links will be removed, many will be added. It could take a while though. If you have any suggestions or other changes you'd like to see on this blog, use that button labeled comments below (or e-mail me at w3irdwrit3r at yahoo.com).

Nanowrimo, Day 23: Sad chapter

My characters are dealing with the death of that main character from two chapters ago. All rather sad, but necessary. I wrote another 1,700 words today.
I find it interesting that I write almost the exact same way everday. I wake up, avoid writing for about an hour. Then I write about 400 words in one big gulp. Then, I go do something else (laundry, dishes, reading, whatever) and waste another hour avoiding the story. Then I go back and do another 400 to 600 words. And then on and off for the next hour I write a paragraph here, a paragraph there, until I manage to get over 1,666. I almost always end over 1,700 words. This pattern continues almost every single day. Is my brain just geared to writing a certain number of words before a distraction is required? I remember reading that A.E. Van Vogt always wrote in 800 word chunks. He would work his characters into a problem in that many words, then go relax and think about the situation until he found a way out. I wonder if this kind of thing is common among all writers?
I'm up to 40,938, about a day and a half worth of writing ahead of where I have to be. I still would like to add some more to that, but tomorrow it's going to be hard to do that. And since I don't know if I'll be posting again, I'll just say happy Thanksgiving to all you Americans out there, and to everyone else, have a happy Nov. 24.

Nanowrimo, Day 22: Action!

I'm still a little worried that killing off that character yesterday may have been a bad move. He may have been an emotional center of the novel, although I'm not sure I ever pulled that aspect off. So instead, today's writing, all 1,800 words of it, was all action. People on motorbikes duking it out try to deliver a message. Fun stuff. Belongs, at best, to the pulps. Still, nothing wrong with that. The novel is now at 39,165 words. Just another 11,000 or so to go. I'm wondering if I can wrap this novel up in 50,000 words. If I don't, I guess it's not a problem, I'll just have to keep writing into December. I would hate to just drop the thing.

Jeff Ford posts "Bright Morning"

Jeffrey Ford has posted his short story "Bright Morning" at 14theditch. The story is one of the best (although its so hard to pick a "best" one) stories from The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories. It's such a terrific collection, if you haven't picked it up by now, do it! It'll be the best thing you've done for yourself in years. (By the way, Matt Cheney was inspired by Ford's story post to put up a portion of the interview he did with Ford in Fantasy Magazine.)
I'm waiting now for The Empire of Ice Cream, Ford's next collection.
In other news, I got my copy of "The Cosmology of the Wider World" from Shocklines. I can't wait to read it, but I've kept away from fiction while I'm doing Nanowrimo. I'm sure I'll write more about it in December.
And one more thing, there are appreciations of Ford's "Empire of Ice Cream" and "The Scribble Mind," as well as Ford's own appreciation of Gardner Dozois' "Fairy Tale," up at the EDSF Project. Check them out, and while you're there, sign up for a story to appreciate. I should be sending my appreciation out in the next day or so.

Nanowrimo, Day 21: Darkness

Today I actually killed off a main character. I can't decide if it was a good idea or not. Too late now, I've got to plunge ahead with Nanowrimo. I'm up to 37,350 words, which is about a day ahead of where I need to be. I would like to gain a little more than that, because Thanksgiving weekend may be tough. We'll have to see if I can pad up the next few chapters.

Nanowrimo, Day 19: Cliffhangers!

Have a few minutes to blog this weekend. I just completed Chapter 19, I'm now at 34,117 words. I am being so consistent, it's thrilling. My chapters all seem to naturally end at around the 1,700 word mark. The process feels great and even some of the chapters don't feel as lousy as they once did.
I've been taking to cliffhangers. Actually, every time I've done Nanowrimo, cliffhangers have inserted themselves into my work. I think it comes with working without a net. You just naturally lead your characters into some kind of trouble and the next day you try to figure out how to get them out. In my case, I've put three sets of characters into cliffhangers. Now I have to figure how to get each one of them out, keep the overarching plot moving and bring these three groups back together again. And I'm looking forward to it.

Prisoner remake

Cheryl Morgan says she has a bad feeling about an attempt to remake The Prisoner. Here's what SciFi Wire says:

Damien Timmer, who has been lined up to executive-produce the show for Granada, told Broadcast the new series would take "liberties with the original" and would not retain its arty feel.

Well, of course its going to take liberties, but any creator saying it won't "retain its arty feel" worries me. Plus, there really is no need to remake the show. It's one of the few classics television has produced.

Nanowrimo, Day 17

Not much to say about Nanowrimo today either. I did another 1,700 or so words. That seems to be my usual amount. I'm up to 32,374. Moving right along.
I do wonder how I can resolve my plot. I have plenty of action and things happening, but there's no overarching theme or story for the whole thing. I guess that's what happens when you don't plan out far enough and you're writing as fast as you can. Ah well, it's all grist for the mill. I'm sure I can use some of this stuff after I rewrite.

The geek novels

At Morrow Planet, Mike starts a new meme, based on this article. So show your geek cred and bold the novels you've read:

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick
5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson
6. Dune -- Frank Herbert
7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov
8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett
10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson
12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein
16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham

12 out of 20, not too bad. Do I lose geek cred if I say I'd never heard of No. 20? I have read some of Wyndham's other work however.

Nanowrimo, Day 17, also SciFiction

Wrote another 1,748 words, bringing me up to 30,657. Not too shabby I think.
I don't have much more to say about that, so let's talk a little about SciFiction and the EDSF Project. First off, more than a hundred people have signed up to the Project. That's great! But there's still hundreds more stories to be appreciated, so if you haven't already, go sign up to write about a story!
While you're there, check out some of the appreciations that have already gone up. (For instance, Jeffrey Ford's appreciation of Gardner Dozois' "Fairy Tale.")
In other places, La Gringa called Ellen Datlow, the editor of SciFiction, and checked on her well being. Gringa says:

Anyway, it was nice to talk to Ellen. She sounds upbeat and positive about the whole situation, and is looking toward projects for the future. She said that she's been overwhelmed by the kindness and grace flowing in her direction out of the skiffy community the past few days.

Well, my dear Miz Datlow, on behalf of the skiffy community at large, may I just say this?

You have earned this community's respect.

I would like to add my own voice to that. She most certainly has. Datlow's work has been a presence in my life for as long as I can remember reading science fiction, fantasy and horror, starting way back with Omni magazine and through her many anthologies and right up to her Year's Best work and SciFiction. And then there's the influence she's had on the field. She has brought so many great writers in and (from accounts I've read) has had a terrific influence on their writing. Ellen Datlow deserves a magazine created just for her editing, and it should be done immediately. Anybody got tens of thousands of dollars to spare to create a good magazine? It would be worth it.

Elsewhere, Charles Coleman Finlay looks at how online fiction is surviving and urges everyone to contribute to Strange Horizons. He also mentions some of the other great online fiction markets that deserve money and attention: Ideomancer, Infinite Matrix and Fortean Bureau. I would also add ChiZine to his list. And I'm sure there's more. Do what you can for them.

SciFiction: What you can do

With the death of SciFiction, people are looking for what they can do. Well, I offer two things.
First, write to feedback@scifi.com and tell them how you feel about SciFiction. Don't be insulting and don't slam the SciFi Channel. Instead, tell SciFi Channel why SciFiction is great and why you are disappointed in seeing it go and ask them to reconsider their decision. Who knows, if enough people do this maybe they will actually think about it.
Second, check out The ED SF Project. (I believe that stands for the Ellen Datlow SciFiction Project, but I haven't seen it spelled out.) It's a blog put together by Dave Schwartz to show appreciation for the five and a half years of great stories SciFiction has put up.

Here's my idea.

By my count there are 320+ stories archived at the site. I'm willing to bet that there are that many SF writers/critics/fans/what have you who have some sort of presence on the web. So I'm thinking, let's all of us write an appreciation of one of the stories.

Here's the list. There are plenty of stories left to be chosen. I encourage everyone to pick one and write something about it. I've picked Marc Laidlaw's "Jane."
With all the attention this thing is getting (its been linked to from Bookslut and BoingBoing as well as every science fiction blogger in the universe), I must say I'm slightly intimidated. Not to mention I'll be writing an appreciation alongside people like Jeffrey Ford, Jeff Vandermeer, Ted Chiang and god knows who else. But it's a great idea and I think everyone who loved SciFiction should get involved and pick out a story.
Don't know which story to write about? Go to the SciFiction archive and start reading. Everything there is good.

Nanowrimo, Day 16: The plot thickens

Today I wrote 1,700 words on my Nanowrimo novel (still without a title by the way). I wrote from a different character's perspective and I think the interaction between him and a military man was written pretty well. I think I captured the ego one-upmanship between them. I'll have to wait to re-read it before I can decide how well it turned out. As always, I'm doubtful of my own abilities. Tomorrow's chapter will head back to character viewpoints I've been writing from all along.

Nanowrimo, Day 15: The halfway point

I've reached the halfway point in Nanowrimo and I'm up to 27,199 words. Today started out slow. I found myself unable to avoid my Avoidance Techniques (patent pending) and slowly worked my way toward the novel. However, once I got started the plot rolled right along. I split a few characters up, brought a couple of them together and headed towards some confrontations. There was even an action scene today. Not bad for one set of 1,900 or so words. I'm feeling pretty good heading into the second half of November.
Mike at Morrow Planet is trying to catch up. He's currently at 20,023 words. But his dedication to writing has even inspired his daughter to say her first sentence. Congratulations Mike.

HBO: Rome renewed

According to Rome's official Web site, the HBO show is coming back for a second season. This pleases me. I've been watching it all season long and was getting a bit worried about the show. There doesn't seem to be a lot of talk about it out there. This weekend's episode was particularly good with an extraordinarily bloody fight scene at the end.
The show isn't up to the quality of the Sopranos, but it's still one of the best things on TV right now. Anybody else watching this show? Like it or hate it, tell me what you think.

SciFiction has been cancelled

By now you've all heard the terrible news. SciFiction will be no more thanks to decisions made by the SciFi Channel. Here's Ellen Datlow's message about it. And there has already been some great commentary on this. And all of the links I've mentioned so far were really easy to find. I imagine there's a lot more people out there talking about this.
There's also Datlow's message board as well. Here's where they are discussing the loss. Of course, this means Datlow needs a job. Someone out there must be smart enough to create a magazine for her, or install her in one already in existence. She really is one of the best editors in the science fiction, fantasy, horror genres there is. This is the woman who discovered William Gibson. She has published all of the big names. I really hope she gets something new soon. In the meantime, check out her own Web site at Datlow.com.
This is a huge blow to the Internet science fiction community, as well as the science fiction community in general. SciFi channel is making a big mistake. How much could this be costing them? Certainly less than those crappy movies they make. And it adds prestige and, oh yeah, actual good science fiction to their channel. But prestige doesn't make you money.
There are other markets of course, but it's just sad to see. Take a look through the SciFiction archive and read some of the great stories available before the SciFi Channel takes them down.
UPDATE: You know, I'm starting to rethink some of my more sarcastic comments about SciFi Channel. I still think it's stupid for them to cancel SciFiction. However, I would like to note that it has been wonderful of them to put this up in the first place and to keep it running longer than most people thought it would. So, SciFi channel, thanks for what you have done for us, some of it has been really great. Now what are you going to do?

Nanowrimo, Days 11 to 14

I do indeed fall behind on Nanowrimo on the weekends. I wrote every day, but each day was just short of the 1,666 minimum I need. I was ahead of the game before the weekend began and I wrote about 1,800 words today, so I'm probably still ahead of where I need to be. In fact, my word count is now over 25,000 words, so I'm more than half way there. And tomorrow is the half-way date. But each day does drag a little. As long as I don't try to overwrite (push myself too far beyond the 2,000 word a day goal) I seem to be OK.
At Fast Fiction, Cybele is only on her fourth writing day and she has more than 16,000 words. She says she's behind where she wants to be, but I can't see her not making it at this point.
Not too much other Nanowrimo news out there. Hope everybody's keeping their word counts up.

Nanowrimo, Day 9

Not much to say really. Day 9 took slightly longer to get rolling, but still didn't take all that long in the end. I did about 1,800 words, which is not bad.
On the Web, well I haven't seen much actually. Mehitobel Wilson (who wrote a great horror story, The Mannerly Man," in The Darker Side) started up Nanowrimo only to be derailed by an actual writing contract. Can't blame her there. Also specficrider is up to 10,000 words.

Looking back on Babylon 5

Abigail Nussbaum at Asking the Wrong Questions has a great look at what was right and wrong with Babylon 5. My feelings on the show are very close to hers, except I don't have the excuse of being 15 when I first watched it.

Nanowrimo Day 8, still amazed at my good fortune

I've completed another 1,800 words today. My plot has moved along and some new complications have occurred to me. This is all to the good. I'm really happy with how easy this has been so far for me.
In the past, I've always met resistance pretty early and get behind. This year I'm ahead. My chapter process is working well. Part of the reason I believe that's helping me is that I don't try to do too much. I work on my idea and get it finished in 2,000 words (or thereabouts) and I don't try to move onto the next thing in the same day. Instead, I let my subconscious stew over the plot and characters and usually by the next morning I have somewhere to go with it all.
Anyway, I think that's why it's working. Who knows, maybe tomorrow I won't be able to write more than 100 words.
As for Nanowrimo on the Web, one thing everyone must check out is the blog Paperback Writer. In just the past few days, she has had Ten things for writers that cost nothing, 12 step editing and 10 things for Nanowrimo'ers. I'm going to be checking this blog out more and more often.
Found through Paperback Writer, Wired News has an article on Nanowrimo.
And that's it writing wise for me today. Good luck writing.

Nanowrimo, Days 5-7

Well, I've made it through the weekend intact. I've written three more chapters, each over the 1,666 words and one over 2,000. I've got a total of 13,529 words now.
Things are going exceedingly well with Nanowrimo this year. Well, the writing sucks, so exceedingly might be an overstatement. But I'm not feeling stymied, it just seems to flow from me. Characters get deeper as I go, action develops and plot moves on.
Unfortunately, I still don't know where I'm going with all of this. I need to think further down the line and where all these characters are going to end up and what they are going to achieve. All in its good time though. In the meantime, I'm just glad things are working.
I see there is another blogger (and speculative fiction writer) who is doing Nanowrimo. Good luck Ruth Nestvold.

10 scary scenes

My friend, Millie, has posted a little article I wrote on 10 scary movie scenes. Check it out, and check the rest of the site out. She's got some interesting reviews of scary movies at FearScene.

Nanowrimo, Day 4, moving right along

Another day complete. I wrote 1,919 words. Pretty good, best day since the first day. And it moved along well, no slow searching for where to go like yesterday. All well and good. But tomorrow begins the real test. It's the weekend. Normally, I'm not online (so don't expect much in the way of updates until Monday) and try to spend as much time with my fiancee as possible. Squeezing in some writing may be difficult. I know I can take out my AlphaSmart Neo in the morning and get some writing done while she watches her Food Channel shows. Unless of course we have some errands we have to do. An obstacle to be overcome.
In fact, this is where my chapter plan may run into problems. In past years, I could get a lot more words in ahead of time and not struggle the next day. (Although, I'd then end up struggling somewhere else down the line.) But with the chapters, I like to end one chapter and then spend one night thinking about the next. This way I come to it fresh and ready to go. But if I fall behind, making that up will be tough. Well, I'll report back on Monday and tell you how it all turned out.
Meanwhile, there's been some more writing about Nanowrimo.
At Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, the contest inspires Sarah to write about first novels, deadlines and rewriting.
At Return of the Reluctant, Edward Champion offers the writing advice of Jack Bunyan. It's not pretty.
Writer Jim Winter is using Nanowrimo to write his novel Road Rules, here's the category that has all the entries about it.
Paperback Writer offers ten things for Nanowrimo'ers.
And through that same Web site, I found a link to this piece of advice:

I am so insanely tired of all the nanowrimo idiots who post about their characters and how they have a journal and what they had for lunch... STFU about your novel. No one cares. STFU about your characters. You are an attention-starved moron.

And I've always been one to take good advice when I hear it, so good night and good luck for the weekend. See you for more of my attention-starved twitterings on Monday.

Lemmy before Welsh assembly: Legalize heroin

Lemmy, mastermind of Motorhead, appeared before the Welsh assembly and called for the legalization of heroin. Here's some quotes:

[Heroin] turns them into thieves and liars.
It removes them from the social circle. All they are thinking about is junk.
They will do anything. They will sell everything they've got and steal yours and sell that.

You can't keep people from doing what makes them feel good. The reason they do heroin in the first place is because of the oblivion it gives them.

Lemmy's presentation wasn't light hearted. He meant it. Here's part of his motivation:

He met junkies on the music scene and described how one woman he lived with tried the drug "to see what it was like". She died within three years, and was one of many people he said he had known killed by heroin.
He explained how his hatred of the drug was so strong he once turned in a dealer to the police, who then went to jail. But he said the dealer was freed in about six months.

In another story, Lemmy's quoted on why the drug war doesn't work:

If you send a young heroin user to prison he will “certainly be a criminal when he comes out“.

“Probably, they will also be brutally sodomised by long-term prisoners and polarised against society in general, and force of law in particular.”

Reading from a pre-written speech, he went on: “You have tried heavier and heavier policing – it hasn’t worked has it?

“Know why? It’s because you cannot keep people from doing what makes them feel good.

“If a junkie has a regular supply of heroin, most are quite able to do a job.

“They will never rehabilitate until somebody – you – gives them a chance to.”

All this just makes me like Lemmy all the more. I saw Motorhead in concert back in the late '80s and they were terrific. Lemmy was practically a stand-up comedian on stage. And, of course, the music blew me away.
A few months back, I picked up Lemmy's autobiography "White Line Fever." This just makes me want to take it off the shelf and read it all the more.
And if you want more of Lemmy's sage advice, check out the Motorhead Speaks section of their Web site, where Lemmy answers questions like:

Q: Hi this is for Lemmy.

I am Oliver and I am starting a band. Do you have any tips and can you think of some band names for me? I have been a big Motorhead fan for years and I still am. I also came to see your concert at Apollo.

Lemmy: (1) Don't get any married men or men w/live-in girldfriends in the band! Names? Ripsaw/Stranglefoot - I dunno!! Good luck.

Nanowrimo Day 3, the first slog

So, I've completed another 1,800 words today. It took me longer this time and I found myself easily distracted. However, my chapter idea still seems to work. I am usually able to round out an idea in at least 1,666 words. Still, I've yet to write anything I feel good about. This is to be expected from Nanowrimo, its purpose is just to cause writing, not to make it good. That's for later. But if one good sentence happened to pop out, it certainly would make me a tad happier.
There's been some interesting commentary about Nanowrimo online. CAAF of Tingle Alley has begun the event and finds herself already behind. Don't worry, you'll catch up. Just look at Cybele's stats from last year, and she made it.
Meanwhile, Meg Mccarron has some thoughts about the event:

NaNoWriMo annoys me for reasons I can't totally explain, and I suspect has something to do with snobbery, as much as it has something to with my (I think) more valid annoyance with the "No Plot? No Problem!" dictum and the Mo's popularization of wordcount bars. I can write 3,000 words of crap no problem. But then I have to delete them all. Because I had no plot. And that was a problem.

While she's grumpy about the whole thing, she is vaguely supportive of at least some people doing it. She elaborates in her comments section. It's certainly worth a read.
This in turn prompted David Moles to consider easy writing vs. hard writing. It's only slightly related to Nanowrimo, but is fascinating nonetheless.
Meanwhile, on the Morrow Planet, Mike blogs about the issues he's facing achieving 50,000. He also has a neat widget up showing his progress. I should get one for my site, but I'm just not sure I want to spend the time.
If you're looking for more wrimo antics, check out this Live Journal community.
So all in all, Nanowrimo is keeping the blogosphere busy. It's certainly giving me something to write about.

Nanowrimo Day 2, still chuggling on

My Nanowrimo novel continues. I've written another 1,700 words. So far so good.
In writing this year's novel, I tried a new approach. Instead of just writing my 1,666 words a day, no matter where it leads me, I structure my writing around chapters. Each day brings a new movement to the story. So if I make it through Nov. 30, I will have 30 chapters. I decided to do this because in the past I would find myself hung up, unable to move away from the setting, character or idea I was working on. How do I make the transition to the next one? If I had lots of time, I could have just worked over what I'd already written and see where it should go. Doing things by chapters, I'm forced to work on a new thought each day and each day complete that thought.
So today's chapter was the world's largest infodump. It was 1,700 words on the back story of a giant monster crossing America. My characters live in the after-effects of that crossing. If I revise this novel, this chapter would be the first thing to be edited out. I would much rather have the background exposed naturally through the course of the novel. But in doing this, it helped me get a stronger notion of what has happened and how I shall proceed from here.
Tomorrow, it's back to my main characters, including introducing a new one.

Nanowrimo begins

Well, my first day's work is complete. I've written 2,305 words, about 300 more than my goal and about 700 words more than what I usually get done. This could be my best start yet (although, unlike Cybele, I don't keep track of my progress each year.) The writing has started out very clunky, but that's how these things usually proceed. I'm not going to worry about that until it's all over.
I've already introduced a monster, mutants and a bit of background on my giant monster. So it should be at least some fun.
How's everybody else doing?

Happy Halloween

It is that most wonderful of holidays filled with goblins and ghouls and ghastly things. And where will I be for all this dark tomfoolery? At work. As usual. Working for a daily newspaper can be frustrating. But for all you trick-or-treaters and costumed partiers, I'll be with you in spirit.
Most of today, however, is consumed with National Novel Writing Month and my preparations. I really shouldn't have waited to the last minute to create characters and plot this thing, but that seems to be my modus operandi. It will be interesting attempting this again after last year's break. Can I do 2,000 words a day? Will I be frustrated with myself? Will I reach new levels of joy in my writing? All will be answered in the next 30 days. Same weird time, same weird channel.
I do know that my novel will focus a giant monster, mutations and a quest. There also might be a tired, cynical adventurer in there as well. I hope I can pull it all together and make it fun.
For all of you other Nanowrimers out there, good luck and I'll see you at the finish line.

On the Blindside by Sonya Taaffe

I've just read Sonya Taaffe's story On the Blindside over at Anna Tambour's Web site. (I like that she's been reprinting stories, I'm going to keep a closer watch on her Web site.)
The story is a look at the intersection of the mundane life with the fantastic and its long-term effects. As I read it, it seemed to me an alternate take on Caitlin R. Kiernan's concept in her story "Onion" (which is one of my favorite short stories). After reading Taaffe's journal, I see she notes that Kiernan's "Murder of Angels" covers similar material (I'm so far behind in reading Kiernan's books.) In Taaffe's discussion of the story, she looks for other works that cover similar territory, mentioning things like "Lud-in-the-Mist" and "Moonwise."
Check out the story and then read Taaffe journal entry, it's worth your time if you're interested in literature of the fantastic.

SuicideGirls interview Jim Woodring

Suicide Girls have an interview with artist Jim Woodring. (Suicide Girls is a porn site, so there may be not safe for work content there.) He's got a new book out called "Seeing Things." I love Woodring's art, it's so fantastic and playful, yet disturbing at the same time. Pick up one of his books if you've got the chance. Here's an excerpt:

DRE: You’ve been working with Fantagraphics for so long and they really seem to treat you and your work with the respect it totally deserves. Are you able to feel artistically satisfied with the work you do?

JW: Oh sometimes. There are fleeting moments of satisfaction but those are short-lived. I generally feel spurred on by anxiety and a sense that I hadn’t achieved anything. I used to have this really infantile attitude that one day I would create a picture that was so good that would absolve me from all human responsibilities. I always thought that if you were a really great artist or a cartoonist that you didn’t have to worry about anything anymore. You could knock on any door and say, “I’m Jack Davis and I’m hungry and I need a place to sleep” and they’d go, “Jack Davis! Come in.” Or that the government would say, “I was looking at Jack Davis’ income tax return. He’s not doing that well, I think we ought to lower his taxes.” I just had this feeling that if you were a success as an artist that your future would be made. I don’t know why I thought that, like I said, it’s an infantile notion. But that feeling took a long time to fade out. It took me a long time to grasp the fact that people can do work that’s as good as they can possibly do and still end in squalor and despair."

Night of the Hunter stuff

Metafilter has an interesting post on Night of the Hunter, one of my favorite movies and perfect for this time of year. It's not explicitly a horror movie, but it might as well be. The Metafilter post includes a bunch of good links about the movie, definitely check it out.
I'm hoping to someday read the book by Davis Grubb that the film is based on.

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

Robert Charles Wilson's "Spin" is the best kind of hard science fiction. While there are plenty of infodumps, great depictions of future science and fantastic happenings, the focus remains on the characters.
I got the novel from a publicist, but I must say I probably would have picked it up eventually on my own.
This is the second Wilson book I've read. The first was "The Chronoliths," which was fantastic in much the same way. It has a slight edge on "Spin" because the main character of that book was more proactive. In "Spin," the main character is so tied in with the people at the center of the phenomenon that he doesn't seem to have his own story. He's merely a window between the reader and what is happening to the other characters.
The book runs two parallel tracks. It starts with the narrator, Tyler Dupree, in Padang with his girlfriend Diane. He's in hiding and he's taking a drug for some unnamed purpose. Then we get into his childhood on the day the stars went out in the sky. We quickly find out that the Earth is caught up in a temporal shield. The Earth's time proceeds slowly while hundreds of thousands of years continue outside the Spin. Once science finds out the Spin is permeable, many avenues for science open. But the realization that at these speeds, the sun will swallow the Earth in only 50 years. Tyler is experiencing this with his friends, twins Jason and Diane. Jason is a scientist through and through. Diane, frightened by the spin, turns to religion.
And there is the basic conflict of the whole book. Jason keeps moving ahead, trying desperately to find out more about the spin and save the Earth. Diane, meanwhile, gets married to a religious zealot and is outside the narrative of most of the novel. But the subject of religion vs. science is always central to what is going on.
That's also something both the Chronoliths and Spin share. In both books, people scared into desperation turn to religion and strange cults. In both books, the main character must save a loved on from these cults. Wilson clearly sends an anti-organized religion message.
Wilson's book clearly cares about humanity and how it reacts to disaster. It's certainly a relevant subject to these times.

Shaken & Stirred meme via John Scalzi

Gwenda Bond has started a new meme based on John Scalzi's science fiction film canon from his new book The Rough Guide to Science Fiction. Ms. Bond lists the films and bolds the ones she has seen. (I'm surprised she hasn't seen "Godzilla" but totally agree with her that "Them" deserves to be here.)

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension!
Akira
Alien
Aliens
Alphaville
Back to the Future
Blade Runner
Brazil
Bride of Frankenstein
Brother From Another Planet
A Clockwork Orange
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Contact
The Damned
Destination Moon
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Delicatessen
Escape From New York
ET: The Extraterrestrial
Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers (serial) (I'm not sure whether I saw this. I saw a lot of these serials when I was a kid and didn't pay too much attention to the titles.)
The Fly (1985 version)
Forbidden Planet (This is a sad hole in my viewing, I know.)
Ghost in the Shell
Gojira/Godzilla
The Incredibles
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 version)
Jurassic Park
Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior
The Matrix
Metropolis
On the Beach
Planet of the Apes (1968 version)
Robocop
Sleeper
Solaris (1972 version)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
The Stepford Wives
Superman
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
The Thing From Another World
Things to Come
Tron
12 Monkeys
28 Days Later
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
2001: A Space Odyssey
La Voyage Dans la Lune
War of the Worlds (1953 version)

There's some great films on that list. I may have to pick up Scalzi's book to see what he has to say about it.

Beatrice and Joe Bob Briggs

Ron Hogan announced he will interview Joe Bob Briggs in New York in November. I'm hoping he's writing a transcript of this.
I've always found Joe Bob entertaining, ever since I watched his show when it was on Showtime. (It later moved to TNT and suffered from a lesser selection of movies. I'm not sure it's on at all anymore.) That's where I first saw "The Warriors" and "Basket Case III." Classic. I used to subscribe to his newsletter, which kept me up on the film career of Shannon Tweed and other such luminaries.
I also enjoyed his men's movement parody "Iron Joe Bob." Briggs has got a new book out called Profoundly Erotic: Sexy Movies That Changed History, which is what Hogan will talk to him about.
Coincidentally, I was just thinking about Joe Bob today when I was writing about King of Kong Island (on my Giant Monster Blog). Joe Bob used to always use the phrase "too much plot getting in the way of the story." And that's almost the perfect way to describe "Kong Island."

Return to Nanowrimo

Well, it's that Nanowrimo time of year again. This will be the fourth time I've participated. The first two years, I succeeded in writing crappy novels, neither of which have I gone back to. Last year, I failed miserably. There was a lot going on, my girlfriend (now fiancee) was moving in, and my time was seriously curtailed.
This year I expect to get back on track and write another crappy novel. Usually, I start off with a general idea, maybe a character and a scene, and then ramble on in any direction I choose. This year, I may take this guy's advice and take a more planned out approach. We'll see.
I'll try to keep some kind of updates about it here, but probably nothing very in depth. Anybody else participating? (Link found at Morrow Planet.)

SciFi Weekly interviews Jeffrey Ford

Science Fiction Weekly has an interview with Jeffrey Ford. It's a good interview that goes over "The Girl in the Glass", "The Cosmology of the Wider World", and stories from his upcoming collection "The Empire of Ice Cream." The discussions of the individual short stories was very good and gave me a whole new perspective on "A Man of Light."

Live giant squid photos!

The first live photos of a giant squid! (As seen on BoingBoing.)

New horror anthology

Bookgasm (which is a great new blog by the way) posts about the new horror best of anthology. It's edited by John Betancourt, who has a hand in Weird Tales, Wildside Press, the new tales of Amber, and various other things.
The Bookgasm post says he has wondered about best ofs: “Why in the hell don’t they do one of these for horror?” Off the top of my head, I can think of two: The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (the horror section of which is edited by Ellen Datlow) and The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror (edited by Stephen Jones). Maybe the Mammoth collection doesn't count because it's British (though I don't think that's a good reason) but why exclude The Year's Best?
Anyway, I'm excited to see a new horror collection as well. It will be released in February 2006. I can't find a content list yet, though the cover of the book mentions Neil Gaiman, Gene Wolfe and Michael Swanwick.

A must read LiveJournal post

Jeffrey Ford has posted "Present from the Past" a beautiful, sad story about his mother's death. If there are any anthologies of great blog writing, this story deserves to be part of it. In fact, Jeff probably should have sold it to the New Yorker or something. All I can say is, don't miss this entry. It's the best thing you'll read all day (if not much, much longer.)

Shaken & Stirred on Jeff Ford

Gwenda Bond loves The Girl in the Glass. She also quotes a conversation between Antony and Diego from near the end of the book, which reminds me how much I enjoyed those two characters talks throughout the book. Characters and dialogue are two things Ford does so well. You can feel how close these guys are just from their words to each other. Wonderful stuff.

Dark was the night, cold was the ground

Metafilter has a fascinating post on "Dark Was The Night--Cold Was The Ground" by Blind Willie Johnson and its connections to ancient hymns, the gospels and an Italian movie.

Great ideas that never were: Dungeons & Dragons on TV

BoingBoing explores the concept of a celebrity D&D TV show. This seems like such a natural (as long as the players can avoid becoming embroiled in rule arguments). Apparently, Will Wheaton and members of the Upright Citizen's Brigade (one of the funniest sketch shows ever!) came up with this concept a while back and even presented a pilot to Comedy Central. Wheaton says it was terrific, but the channel didn't pick it up. I want to see this!

Liberal comedian sues blogger

I just want to help MNSpeak drum up some support after Garrison Keillor sent him a cease & desist letter for a T-shirt that says "Prairie Ho Companion." As the blogger rightfully points out, the T-shirt is parody and Keillor has no legal grounds to sue him. However, Keillor could bring it to court and make the blogger spend mucho dollars trying to defend himself. Eventually, Keillor would lose, but the blogger would be left with huge lawyer bills. Welcome to American justice. Keillor should get over himself. (Link found at Bookslut.) There's also a discussion of the case at Metafilter.

Jeffrey Ford, "The Girl in the Glass"

Jeffrey Ford's new novel, "The Girl in the Glass," is a story of a Mexican boy, Diego, growing up as an apprentice con artist on Long Island in the 1930s. Diego later becomes a writer. It's a great story filled with wonderful characters, many of them "freaks" from Coney Island: a dog boy, a strong man, a rubber woman and a knife thrower. It also has wonderful period details, including one about racism on the Island that will later propel the plot.
I love Ford's stories and novels and this one is no exception. Yet, I find this one harder to fall in love with than earlier novels like "The Physiognomy" and "The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque." Part of this, I think, is because the second half of the book seems to click into a mystery plot and follows it through to the climax. It even includes a sneering villain who spells out his plans to Diego.
But the pleasures of this novel far exceed any of my reservations about the plot. Besides the characters, the early chapters about the seances and the first explorations of the mystery behind the girl in the glass are beautiful, funny and exciting.
Here are some reviews of "The Girl in the Glass": John Clute, Cheryl Morgan and The New York Times.
In other Jeffrey Ford news, he's posted a review of Anna Tambour's "Spotted Lilly" at his livejournal. Ford is really good at recommending great fiction. Check out his column "The Virtual Anthology" at Fantastic Metropolis. I'm thankful that he talked about Akutagawa's "Hell Screen," which is a great story. Pick it up if you can find it.

The process of writing a novel

Justine Larbalestier answers a reader's question about how long it take to write a novel. The answer is interesting for those of us curious about how writers perform their craft. It also helps that she's funny. Worth checking out.
In a similar vein, Elizabeth Bear posts about How to become a mid-list writer.

Checking out the LibraryThings

I'm trying out this new Internet device called LibraryThing. It allows you to catalog your library and show what other people have as well. One of the "widgets" they offer is what you see to the right, a list of my most recently added books. I wish they gave you a way to show which book you're currently reading. (Right now it's "The Girl in the Glass.") But, right now it just shows what you've most recently added. So you may see that sidebar change quite a bit as I play with the service and add the many books sitting around my house.
At any time, feel free to comment on what I've got up there. I'd be interest to hear what you have to say.
While I'm thinking of books, be sure to check out Jeffrey Ford's latest post about Kelly Link's "Magic for Beginners."

Book on Japan

I don't know all that much about this, but being a Japan-o-phile (Nippon-phile?), the book Kuhaku & other accounts from Japan from Chin Music Press looks fascinating. And the book itself looks beautiful. I'm going to have to buy this soon. Apparently, they are working on a similar book about New Orleans. (Link found via Bookslut.)

Nowhere Man coming out on DVD

Finally Nowhere Man is coming out on DVD. Most of you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. "Nowhere Man" was one of UPN's first shows. It lasted only one season, scheduled right before the abysmal "Star Trek: Voyager."
The show was a combination of "The Prisoner" and "The Fugitive" combined with the fear of identity theft. As the show begins, photographer Thomas Veil is happy with his wife and job. Then he's kidnapped. He escapes only to find that no one remembers him and on paper he officially doesn't exist. All he has to go on is a set of photos that the people who kidnapped him want. So from week to week, Veil travels the country trying to find out who did this to him, without being caught by those same people.
Watching the show on DVD will be frustrating for two reasons:
1. There won't be anymore episodes.
2. It ended on a wild cliff hanger.
Still, I can't wait to get it and see it again. There were some really great surreal episodes in there. There will also be commentaries and deleted scenes on the DVDs, so hopefully some answers will be revealed.

George Saunders on writing and compassion

Over at Maud Newton's blog there's an interview with George Saunders. It's a fascinating talk that focuses on how Saunders goes about his writing as well as the need for compassion in writing.

I think we can make this desire to be compassionate and tender more practical. It seems to me that if a writer 1) pays attention and 2) tries to keep the mind free of preconceptions about what he wants the story to be about (or wants a character to do, etc.) — then he will automatically move towards a story which is richer, more full-hearted, etc. In this model, compassion just means keeping yourself open to the possibilities of the story, which, in turn, means keeping oneself open to the possibilities of the world — what’s actually there, rather than what you want to be there.

Between this and Saunders's story CommComm in a recent New Yorker, I'm getting really interested in his fiction. He apparently has a novel coming out called The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil. But I'll probably start with one of his short story collections.

Jeffrey Ford posts a story

Jeffrey Ford is posting his story "Giant Land" at 14theditch, but he's only leaving it up until Wednesday. So go read it now, and then buy JPPN #2 at Project Pulp. It's got the Ford story and quite a few others that are worth your time.

New Orleans

I haven't been posting much this week and that's directly related to the tragedy going on in New Orleans. I really don't have much to add about the sinking of a great American city and figure it's best to keep my mouth shut while blogs like BoingBoing, Kathryn Cramer, Whatever and many others do great work about the disaster. I only would like to add my plea to the many voices asking you to donate to the Red Cross or whatever organization you think will be able to help the people affected by this tragedy.

Stephen Bissette blogs

Wow, this is great news, comics great Stephen Bissette has a blog, called Myrant. So far he has written about teaching comics, 24-hour comics, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, dinosaurs and a new book he has coming out called "S.R. Bissette's Blur," which is a collection of columns about movies.

Welcome to Myrant, the Bissette blog. It'll be anything goes, day to day, but out of this will emerge a chronology of my current adventures -- as a writer, as a cartoonist, as a teacher. As of September, I will starting a new adventure, teaching at James Sturm and Michelle Ollie's amazing new Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, VT.

Check it out.

On being a copy editor

Lucy Snyder talks about what it's like to be a copy editor and what you have to do.

Newspapers often have a hard time retaining copy editors, which doesn't surprise me given my own experience. The pay was practically nil, you got little appreciation from the other staff when you did your job properly, but if you messed up and overlooked something, you got your butt chewed out.

Welcome to my life. Actually, it's not so bad and I usually thrive on deadline pressure. Give me too much time and I waste it. Still, any 9 to 5 jobs open and I'm listening.

Brothers Grimm

Gwenda Bond calls Brothers Grimm a "terror of mediocrity." That's too bad, I disagree. I thought it was fun and exciting and filled with interesting turns on Grimm fairy tales. It also had the single creepiest scene having to do with the gingerbread man I've ever seen.
In her defense, the movie did have a near-Hollywood ending and was nowhere near the brilliance of Terry Gilliam's best films (Brazil, Twelve Monkeys), but that in no way means this was a bad film. I had a great time.
The movie gets a rotten rating of 38 percent at Rotten Tomatoes. So more than a few people agree with Ms. Bond. Although, I might note that most of the bad reviews still say nice things about the movie. For instance, here's Roger Ebert:

Terry Gilliam's "The Brothers Grimm" is a work of limitless invention, but it is invention without pattern, chasing itself around the screen without finding a plot. Watching it is a little exhausting. If the images in the movie had been put to the service of a story we could care about, he might have had something. But the movie seems like a style in search of a purpose.

My recommendation is go see it for yourself. But maybe read a few reviews first to decide if it's your type of film.

Fatness in fiction

Interesting post at Emerald City about using fatness as shorthand for evil in stories. Being a person of somewhat larger than average size (how's that for a euphemism), this concerns me a little when I read a story.
As Cheryl Morgan points out, fatness used to be an easy way to show a character was rich and a boil on society. Today, such a rich person -- say, Paris Hilton -- would most likely be rail thin and carved to "perfection" with plastic surgery.
I couldn't name any recent fiction that featured a main character who was both overweight and heroic in some manner. (I don't mean the traditional sense of daring-do hero, I just mean a character who tries to do the honest, right things.) I'm sure there's some out there, just not many.
Why hasn't this idea changed?

Personal news

There is only one piece of news that I care about right now -- I'm getting married! I proposed to my girlfriend on Saturday and she said yes. I'm a very lucky and happy man. We're planning a November wedding next year.

Finishing Touches by Thomas Tessier

Thomas Tessier has a short column about horror and why he wrote "Finishing Touches," his new book from Leisure, but a book originally released in 1986. Nick Mamatas has reviewed the book. Here's how he sums it up:

At $6.99, and including as a back-up feature the novella "Father Panic's Opera Macabre", Finishing Touches deserves a place atop your commode in the bathroom, if not exactly on the shelf of the best books of the year.

Bookgasm likes it with some reservations:

Tessier’s TOUCHES is a disturbing work and not a predictable one. It will keep you reading, even if the third act is quite anticlimactic and the ending an illogical jumble. The first-person narrative is unremarkable, but that just makes the twists all the more shocking. And the man clearly knows how to write a sex scene, as demonstrated every few pages.

Editor Ellen Datlow has "Finishing Touches" on her Scary Books List (a list, she points out, which needs to be updated.)

Rambles also reviewed "Father Panic's Opera Macabre" in its original incarnation (it is included in the Leisure version of "Finishing Touches.)

Father Panic's Opera Macabre is my first exposure to Tessier's writing and, based on the strength of his build-up and the dramatic execution of his prose, I'm sure I'd like to see more. But Opera Macabre, unfortunately, rushes to the final page and skips whole chapters in the process.

I've only read Tessier's novel "Fogheart" and feel about it the way Mamatas does about "Finishing Touches," it's a good novel, but probably not a great one.

Go read

There's good fiction out there on the Web:

M Rickert's new story Anyway is up at the always reliable SciFiction. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but it's getting rave reviews and I've enjoyed her many stories in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. But don't take my word for it, read what Matt Cheney has to say about her story Cold Fires. You can also read an interview with M. Rickert at Ideomancer.

Also online is "The Language of Moths" by Christopher Barzak. It's a touching story about growing up, autism and talking with insects. (Found via Jeff Ford's blog.) I read the story when it first appeared in Realms of Fantasy magazine, which doesn't get enough acknowledgement for the good work it does. Realms was where I first read authors like Tim Pratt and Jay Lake. Also, Gahan Wilson's column introduced me to many of my favorite writers, including Jeff Vandermeer.

Novelini

Jonathan Strahan has answered my question: What is a novelini?

Apparently some guy, Adam Engel, has decided to create 20-page novels and call 'em 'novelini'. I love it. It sounds like a cool new marketing term for 'short story', and I hereby dub it so.

Here is an Adam Engel novelini, Man in the Black Suit. And here is Adam Engel's Web site, where he spells it novilini.

Jeffrey Ford blogging

Jeffrey Ford now has a blog called 14theditch on LiveJournal. It already has great stuff on it like a short story What's Sure to Come and his thoughts about Rudyard Kipling. I can't wait to read "The Girl in the Glass," but "The Sunlight Dialogues" seems to be taking up my whole life.

Amazon sells short stories

Amazon's new "innovation" is fascinating. They are going to be selling short stories for 49 cents each. Authors already involved include F. Paul Wilson, Jack Dann, Gardner Dozois, Joe Haldeman, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lucius Shepard, Robert Silverberg, and Michael Swanwick, and those are just the ones I'm interested in. I must admit though, Amazon Shorts is a stupid name. Also, can anyone tell me what a "novelini" is, because I've never heard of it. Get your shorts here.

Link on writing

At Maud Newton's blog, Stephany Aulenback interviews Kelly Link. Link's interviews are always interesting and this one is great, filled with lots of details about her writing life.

Writing is a conversation. (I’ll probably say this again at some point.) I need to be reading in order to be writing. This year I’ve typed out a couple of stories by other writers, partly for work-related reasons, but also so that I could get a closer look at how other writers put sentences together. How they structure a plot. I was typing out stories by writers who write very differently from me, and I loved doing this. I’d never looked at other people’s work so closely, or had so much admiration for how a sentence or a paragraph or a scene is constructed. It was a way to slow down my reading speed, and I also found that after I’d been typing out someone else’s story, it felt as if there was less of a barrier when I sat down to do my own work.

Everything the woman does, from her short story collections to her editing work to Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet are great. If you haven't gotten into this stuff, you should.

Review of The Girl in the Glass

January Magazine reviews Jeffrey Ford's "The Girl in the Glass."

As the mystery twists through Schell's investigations, Ford develops a version of the Frankenstein myth. What he shows is that every generation remakes the monster, playing both with a physical construction and a mental one.

Related: Barnes & Noble is sending my copy of the book now. So I guess there wasn't any delay. All the better. But it makes me wonder what Ford is working on now that's keeping him off his message board.

Captain Beefheart, horror movies, Buckethead and the kitchen sink

I really do love it when my weird, obscure obsessions come together. First, today, I find out that Gary Lucas has a blog. For those of you who haven't hear of Lucas, he was a guitarist in Captain Beefheart's Magic Band in its last version, the one that recorded classics like "Doc at the Radar Station" and "Ice Cream for Crow." He has since had a career playing guitar solo and with people like John Zorn and Jeff Buckley.
Then I find on his blog that Lucas was friends with Bill Moseley. Moseley is a horror film actor who first came to my attention as Chop Top in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2." His latest film is "The Devil's Rejects," which is directed by Rob Zombie. Lucas's blog item is basically a review of that film (he didn't like it much.) He also talks about how he and Moseley ran a horror film society called Things That Go Bump in the Night at Yale in the early 1970s.
Two other interesting things about Moseley, he's a Connecticut native (just like me!) and he has worked with guitarist Buckethead (not like me). Buckethead (yes, the guy in the KFC bucket who was in Guns N Roses for a short time) is also a favorite guitarist of mine. You can also check out Moseley's truly bizarre Web site, Chop Top's BBQ.

Remember, no matter where you go... there you are

If there are any Buckaroo Banzai fans out there, you should know that Moonstone Books is planning a Banzai comic book. You can see a preview of the artwork here.

"No Frills" generic books

At Look What I Found In My Brain!, Lucy Snyder remembers generic books.

Fewer people remember that, for a very brief period of time in the white-label heyday of the early 1980s, someone attempted to market generic genre books.

Yes, completely generic paperback books. They had a plain white cover with just the title in black block lettering: ROMANCE or SCIENCE FICTION or HORROR or WESTERN.

The funny thing is I do remember these. I never saw them in a store, but I remember a TV news show doing a feature on the books. I must have been 10 years old. Even then, I asked myself "how can a book be generic?" Of course, I know better now. There's many ways books can be generic. But to sell them as such is a bit much.
I remember this particular news show because I remember visiting my father in Long Island. His house was filled with "No Frills" items. I'd go in the bathroom and there would be a white tube with a blue line that said "Toothpaste" and somewhere along the side "No Frills." Items like that seemed to be from another universe. My house was filled with frilly items like Crest and Scope. So when I saw the TV story, I paid attention.
The only reference I can find to the books is a cached page from Kathmandu Books:

The ''No Frills'' series was a collection of generic books issued in a plain white cover with black writing. The series was put together by Terry Bisson, and this particular volume was written by John Silbersack. A near fine copy in wraps with a short closed tear and corner crease on the back cover.

I don't know anything about Silbersack. A Google search shows him to have been an editor and to also have written a few media tie-ins, including "Buck Rogers: Rogers Rangers." Terry Bisson, on the other hand, is a well known science fiction writer. His Web site mentions that he created the "No Frills" line in 1981, but gives no further information.
Does anybody know anything more about these books? I'd love to have an image of one.

Science fiction lists

I don't know much about this Phobos Entertainment, but I enjoyed looking over their 100 Science Fiction Books you just have to read! list. Mostly because I read many of the books here (although I don't agree with the placement.) Here's their top 10:

1. Childhood's End Written by Arthur C. Clarke
2. Foundation Written by Isaac Asimov
3. Dune Written by Frank Herbert
4. Man in the High Castle Written by Philip K. Dick
5. Starship Troopers Written by Robert A. Heinlein
6. Valis Written by Philip K. Dick
7. Frankenstein Written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
8. Gateway Written by Frederick Pohl
9. Space Merchants Written by C.M. Kornbluth & Frederick Pohl
10. Earth Abides Written by George R. Stewart

They have descriptions with each book. Here's the one for Childhood's End:

Before you praise Independence Day for menacing Earth with city-sized flying saucers, credit Clarke’s Overlords for paving the way in Childhood’s End. This meditative novel is somewhat short on space battles and malevolent aliens, but makes up for it in the end when mankind takes that final, staggering evolutionary leap. An amazing read.

They also have a list of 50 science fiction films you just have to see. The top 10 there are:

1. Star Wars Directed by George Lucas
2. Metropolis Directed by Fritz Lang
3. Forbidden Planet Directed by Fred M. Wilcox
4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers Directed by Don Siegel
5. The Fly Directed by David Cronenberg
6. The Thing Directed by Howard Hawkes & Christian Nyby
7. The Thing Directed by John Carpenter
8. The Empire Strikes Back Directed by Irvin Kershner
9. The Matrix Directed by Andy & Larry Wachowski
10. Godzilla Directed by Inshiro Honda

While I would quibble with some of the placement of movies, they do have many movies I enjoy (and I do appreciate Godzilla being in the top 10.)
Anyway, these lists are good fun if you're bored and want to argue with someone about why your favorite book/film wasn't included.

Links

Here's some links of interest:

• John Clute reads Jeffrey Ford's "Girl in the Glass. Clute says, "...at the best, The Girl in the Glass is magic."


• Kelly Link is interviewed at Jeff Vandermeer's Vanderworld blog. Also, Claude LaLumiere talks about Link's story "The Faery Handbag" in her new collection "Magic for Beginners." (That story can also be found in "The Faery Reel" and Fantasy: Best of 2004.) Also Link's story "Magic for Beginners" is in the September issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine. There's also another short interview with Link at One Story. UPDATE: I just saw Link's home page thanks to Shaken & Stirred and note that "The Faery Handbag" is free online, along with a few other stories. Enjoy.


• Apparently Peter Berg will try to bring Bran Mak Morn to the screen. Bran Mak Morn is a character from Robert E. Howard short stories (not novels, as the link suggests). Maybe they'll do a Howard character correctly, although I'm not holding my breath. The Conan movies were fun, but they don't capture the true character. (Link found at SciFi Daily.)


• The Hugo awards were announced. Among the winners, "The Faery Handbag" (mentioned above) for best novelette and the Battlestar Galactica episode "33" for dramatic presentation short form. They have also announced that the best editor award will be broken in two. Next year, there will be best magazine editor and best book editor awards. Patrick Nielsen Hayden talks about that decision here.

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture"

Edward Champion takes a look at the 33 1/3 series of books about great rock and roll albums. I previously read two of the books, "Piper At the Gates of Dawn" and "Forever Changes." The first looks at every detail of the album's recording. The second put the album in a social and literary context. I liked the second one better.
Looking over Ed's reviews, I would be interested in reading "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" (mainly because it's such a great, weird album) and "Born in the USA" (based more on what Ed says about it.)
I would have been interested in "Music From Big Pink" until I read the excerpt. It's a novella in which Big Pink plays an important role, but the writing didn't grab me. Besides, if I want to read about the Band, I can always go re-read Mystery Train.

SciFi, Battlestar Galactic and respect

Interesting article from Newsday about science fiction looking for respect on television. Here's the lead:

Rodney Dangerfield was wrong. It's sci-fi TV that don't get no respect.

Case in point: A vice president in the TV industry recently asked me what TV shows I watch for enjoyment. I mentioned my favorite is "Battlestar Galactica" on Sci Fi Channel. She laughed. I asked if she'd seen it. No, she said, and laughed again. Did she know, I asked, that it's a gritty adult drama of family members and colleagues in deep-rooted conflict not unlike that of "The Sopranos"? That they're part of a civilization struggling not only to survive but to define itself amid messy terrorist warfare? That it explores the values of competing societies that demonize each other's spiritual beliefs? That it's full of gutsy acting by the likes of Edward James Olmos and sophisticated allegory mirroring today's global politics?

She laughed again.

The article then goes on to say how good, how deep SciFi's "Battlestar Galactica" is. And I would certainly agree with that. The show is fighting to get respect among Emmy nominators.
It's a good article, but this annoys me:

"There is this horrible misconception that science fiction is for somebody else, not for me," says Bonnie Hammer, president of Sci Fi Channel and USA, who campaigns daily to convince skeptics that today's TV genre encompasses more than space and special effects. "It's speculative fiction, it's the imagination, it's anything outside what we know to be true, it's the not-quantifiable," she says. In her seven years overseeing Sci Fi programming, its series have been repositioned not as fantastic adventures but relatably soul-driven dramas.

OK, Hammer deserves some respect because at some point she approved "Battlestar Galactica" and "Farscape" (although she also took it off the air). However, this is also the woman who has approved filling up the channel with films like "Boa vs. Python" and "Bloodsuckers," the woman who tries to move the channel away from science fiction much of the time. Maybe if she wants more respect for the genre, she can start seeking out some of the better science fiction movies that are rarely, if ever, shown on TV. Maybe she can commission good scripts for small movies.

Anyway, "Battlestar Galactica" is pretty great. Let's hope it wins some awards. (Link from SciFi Daily.)

Amazing steampunk invention

This thing, Daddy Longlegs, is probably the coolest historical item I've heard of in a year or more. It's a pier that walks on stilts from one place to another at 2mph. It ran from 1896 to 1901. It's the kind of thing I'm amazed was ever created (and worked!) and even more amazed that anyone let it close. I mean, this is an incredible tourist attraction. I wonder what it sounded like? (Link found at BoingBoing.)

Skeptic's encyclopedia

The James Randi Educational Foundation has put Randi's An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural up on the Web. It gives definitions, explanations and sarcasm about everything from Abaris ("Abaris is said to have lived without eating or drinking. This, coupled with the fact that his pupil Pythagoras is supposed to have stolen his golden arrow, must have resulted in a certain dissatisfaction with his life.") to zombie ("The fact that the idea of real zombies has been taken seriously in Haiti can be seen in their old penal code, where it is stated that “the use of substances whereby a person is not killed but reduced to a state of lethargy, more or less prolonged,” falls under the category of “intention to kill by poisoning.” ").
I find the site to be a bit slow loading, but seems plenty useful nonetheless. (Link seen earlier at Beatrice and BoingBoing.)

George Saunders story

I've been hearing about George Saunders and how good his mainstream/slipstream/fantasy stories are for quite a while. Well, I just finished reading "CommComm" in the New Yorker and it fulfills all I've heard about the author. It's a wonderful, tragical, fantastical story. Here's an excerpt:

I go to my room, watch some World Series, practice my PIDS in front of the mirror.

What'’s going on down there I don'’t watch anymore: Mom'’s on the landing in her pajamas, calling Dad'’s name, a little testy. Then she takes a bullet in the neck, her hands fly up, she rolls the rest of the way down, my poor round Ma. Dad comes up from the basement in his gimpy comic trot, concerned, takes a bullet in the chest, drops to his knees, takes one in the head, and that's that.

Then they do it again, over and over, all night long.

Finally it'’s morning. I go down, have a bagel.

Go read it now.

Girl in the Glass delayed

According to a Barnes & Noble e-mail I received today, Jeffrey Ford's new novel "Girl in the Glass" has been delayed and a new release date hasn't been set. (However, the link at the site still shows it will be published Aug. 16.) At the same time, Ford has suspended his message board at Night Shade Books. Originally, there was a note on the boards saying he needed time to work on a novel. That note has since been removed.
I don't think this is that unusual in publishing (I have little to no inside information on the publishing industry, so this is all speculation), but I find it interesting. Will the novel now be significantly different than the one reviewed by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and Emerald City? Either way, I just can't wait to have this book in my hands. I'm also patiently awaiting "Cosmology of the Wider World," (review here). Ford had mentioned that won't be coming out before September.

Can I have too many books?

I have thousands of books. I've got eight bookcases overflowing with books and I have books lined up across the top of all eight. I fill paperback shelves two books deep and top to bottom. And I'm still buying books.
This isn't really a problem. I love having books around, I love having many choices when I want to read something. But lately, a fear has gripped me. Can I possibly read all the books in my collection, let alone all the new books and old classics I don't own that I want to read?
The fear hit me recently when I started reading "The Sunlight Dialogues," a nearly 800-page book by John Gardner. As much as I like a book like this, there is a dread I have when I first pick up these large tomes. How long is this going to take me? How many short novels, never mind short stories, could I have read in the time it takes me to read this book? Eventually I get over it, but it's got me thinking about all these novels around me.
The other reason for this anxiety, as I get older I find myself wanting to re-read books. For many years, I just read through one book after another, never turning back. Now I read and enjoy books more slowly and I appreciate the good ones more. I want to spend time with books I consider classics. But it's hard to do that when there's five books my girlfriend gave me for my birthday to read. And five more books I didn't read from my Christmas presents. Plus there's a new Jeffrey Ford novel on the way. And I just got "Spin."
And sometime in the near future, I'll be moving. Do I want to lug all these books around with me?
Sooner or later, I'll recover from this fear and realize it doesn't matter if I read all these books. And if I want to re-read something, go ahead. Everything will happen in its own good time.
In the meantime, I look longingly at all the books I want to read...

Robert Charles Wilson

One of the things I want to do more of is post about fiction, authors and writing. A publicist contacted me a week or two ago and asked if I'd like to have a copy of Robert Charles Wilson's new book "Spin." I jumped at the chance.
I had read "The Chronoliths" and thought it was fantastic. I'm not sure why I picked up the book, maybe it was a review I had read or it was just a whim at the bookstore, but whatever the reason, it was worth it. The book was great, more focused on character than the fascinating ideas that make up the plot. I still feel for characters in that book and the things the appearance of massive statues from the future cause to happen to them.
Since reading that book, I've wanted to read more Wilson novels. I hear "Darwinia" is very good. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to it. That will be changed soon. I plan to read "Spin" in the next few weeks and I'll post a few thoughts about it.
In the meantime, here are some related links:
Reviews of "Spin" by: the Agony Column; SF Signal; The Slush God; Science Fiction Weekly; and Bookslut
Interviews at Science Fiction Weekly; Locus and Challenging Destiny.
A Wikipedia entry on Wilson.

A return?

Well, things have been more than a little quiet here over the past year. All those of you still checking in, keeping me on your blogrolls or just occasionally thinking of me -- thank you! All those of you who have totally forgotten about me and my blog, well, I can't blame you.
My absence is the fault of my life going really well. I have a wonderful girlfriend who lives with me, I got promoted at my job and I've been doing more and more fiction writing. (The fiction writing is still not where I want it to be, but I continue to hack away at it and hopefully continue to improve.)
(I haven't been totally away, however. For those who are interested in that sort of thing, I have written a couple of posts on my Giant Monster Blog.)
But now I plan to make a return. I don't think I'll post as often as I once did, maybe once a day if I'm feeling productive. But I hope I can make this more interesting this time around. We'll see. I would suggest using the XML link to the right if you have a newsreader, or My Yahoo!, that way you'll know when I have a new post up without wasting time checking my site.
And for old time's sake, here's a set of photos of store front display of giant squid stuffed dolls.