Weekdays are for Predator, weekends are for “Borne”. Another (rough) excerpt after the cut.

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OTHER EARTHS, edited by Nick Gevers & Jay Lake (DAW)

This Peaceable Land, or, The Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Robert Charles Wilson

The Goat Variations, Jeff VanderMeer

The Unblinking Eye, Stephen Baxter

Csilla’s Story, Theodora Goss

Winterborn, Liz Williams

Donovan Sent Us, Gene Wolfe

The Holy City and Em’s Reptile Farm, Greg van Eekhout

The Receivers, Alastair Reynolds

A Family History, Paul Park

Dog-Eared Paperback of My Life, Lucius Shepard

Nine Alternate Alternate Histories, Benjamin Rosenbaum

Hedgehogs who have a cleaning brush mamma.

(Thanks, Luis)

Another short excerpt from Finch. Previous excerpt here.

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We’ve now sold over 800 books, but that just means there’re about 500 still waiting for a good home at our Hoegbotton Book Sale. We’ve reduced a few prices here and there, consolidated, deleted all sold books from the record, added a couple of things (like a copy of Conrad Williams’ The Unblemished in hc, under Signed/mostly limited in Oddities), and we’ve also finally gotten a handle on all the orders. The last of them should ship by Monday–of what we’ve gotten through this morning.

One special deal: take all the sensationalist/true crime mass markets off our hands for only $12. That’s about $1 a book.

Also remember that Vander Oddities includes books I’ve published like Stepan Chapman’s The Troika and Jeffrey Thomas’ Punktown.

Anyway, although sections like graphic novels are quite depleted, many Oddity sections are still going strong, as are categories like trade paperback fiction and nonfiction, hardcover fiction and nonfiction, mysteries, coffee table books, etc.

Enjoy!

Jeff

A short news item by John Joseph Adams on Best American Fantasy, for SF Wire.

If you want to try something different, pick up a copy. We highly recommend it as the interesting “visiting second cousin” that you wind up falling in love with after you’ve visited Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror’s house.

Most books on writing allude to the wonderful aspects of fame and fortune that some day await the budding writer. Fewer (okay, none) address the sordid truth about readings, signings, and other appearances. The fact is, one day you will be confronted–on several days, actually–by the resident curmudgeon, the resident insane person, or the resident weirdo. It doesn’t matter than 99 percent of the people you meet will be kind, nice, and interesting. You must prepare yourself for the one percent who are demonic, life-force-sucking, and horrific.

Thus:

The Writer’s Top Five Defense Mechanisms When Cornered by a Psychotic Person

#1 – EXPELL ALL INTERNAL ORGANS (a good writer can easily regrow all internal organs, and this action tends to distract the person long enough for escape to occur)

#2 – STAB ONESELF WITH A PROP KNIFE (self-stabbings with a retractable plastic blade not only tend to confuse the person long enough for escape to occur but are generally good for the circulation; only in extremities of distress should you stab yourself for real, as writers are unable to spontaneously generate quarts of blood)

#3 – BUILD A HOT AIR BALLOON AND ESCAPE THROUGH A PRE-ARRANGED HOLE IN THE CEILING (sure, this takes planning and forethought, but it has a grand eloquence to it that speaks volumes)

#4 – STUFF A LIVE WEASEL DOWN YOUR PANTS (this usually doesn’t work, but it feels oh so good)

#5 – REPEAT THE PHRASE “I KILLED THE RABBITS BECAUSE THEIR HEADS WERE SO JUICY” (can take awhile to be effective)

I defy other writers to come up with five as or more effective strategies.

My interview with M. John Harrison.

Amazon.com: You’ve returned to the same setting as Light with Nova Swing, but Nova Swing isn’t really a sequel, right?
M. John Harrison: It’s a kind of companion piece. It’s less sprawling than Light. It could be read independently but there’s some interplay, which you would miss if you hadn’t read the other book. I wanted to revisit the genetically-modified servants and entertainers–the prostitutes, gladiators, rickshaw girls and gun-kiddies–and show them as more human than some of the human beings. A key element I wanted to extend from the first book was the idea of human behaviour as code, further undermining conventional ideas we have of personality, character and consciousness.

Some days, I agree with this opinion. Some days, I’m more optimistic. But, as to a coup having occurred…it has in terms of the way in which the balance of power between judicial, executive, and legislative branches has gotten so weighted down to the advantage of the executive branch.

The problem is the all-out attack on citizens from all corners: environmental, cultural, social, economic, etc. It freezes you. You don’t know where to put your efforts, what to fight first, and where to fight it.

My only thought is that the US is too big and diverse for Bush and his cronies to ruin or rule all of it.

Jeff

Look, don’t get me wrong–the cover’s pretty and all, but looking at it, you wouldn’t know this novel was different and very cool. I mean, you might know that from the cover, but you might not.

But it is fresh and different–and you should preorder and check it out now. Felix Gilman’s a great writer. (Also in the New Weird antho.)

Here’s my prior interview with Felix, and the spiel from Bantam:

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