I’ve had a very productive week thus far, with “The Quickening” appearing out of nowhere fully formed and now nearing the completion of a good working draft of “The Three Quests of the Wizard Sarnod (some frags of hook below, which may change all unrecognizable before the end…).

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An interesting review. I think in translating the idea of “a single with B-sides and rareties” from music to books, we probably should have just said that overtly. Basically, the book is The Surgeon’s Tale and the rest is, of course, lesser. Live and learn!

Bob Lock, who is getting a Steampunk advance copy to photo next to some old stuff, sends us this video of a steampunk Star Wars gizmo.

And the website of his brother-in-law, who makes some steampunk stuff.

Jeff

In addition to a Situation review at Revolution SF, Damien G. Walter at the Guardian blog talks about not giving up on hardbacks.

Also, one of the most thoughtful reviews of Shriek I’ve read. Sometimes you read a positive review and you just sigh and say “they totally missed the point.” Not so here.

I’m all for this kind of transparency and for conscious and unconscious biases against certain categories of writers–whether it be women or whatever–not being perpetuated. The post is in response to this post, but doesn’t in any way mention some of the stats mentioned there about the percentages in prior Talebones issues.

But I also have to say that the statistics cited in Tempest’s post mean absolutely nothing without (1) knowing how many women versus men submitted to these publications and (2) what the quality of those rejected submissions was (by some objective criteria that weeds out the obviously unpublishable). The same for the Talebones stats.

If you really wanted to be attentive to detail, you’d also break down those stories as to which perpetuate gender stereotypes and cliches, and then which of those types of stories are by men or by women. (But that would be madness, because a certain level of subjectiveness enters into all of this.)

Otherwise, again, those numbers mean nothing. I know Ann, for example, who is definitely left-leaning and feminist, is publishing more stories by men than by women in Weird Tales. What exactly does this tell us? What should it tell us? Does it mean anything at all?

And: What would happen if most magazines had writers submit their stories blind through some submission form, where the editors wouldn’t know the gender of the person submitting? It’d be interesting, that’s for sure. In addition to possible changes in the gender percentages of published stories, you would MOST DEFINITELY see a rise in the rate of rejected submissions by “established” writers.

Please note that the post includes this “stabilizing” statement, although I’m not sure who the “we” is since as far as I know the person posting is not speaking in any formal sense for any particular organization or group: “(And let me point out again: we have not asked them to publish stories JUST because they were written by women, or to not publish stories JUST because they were written by men.)”

So let me include this “stabilizing” statement, purely on my own behalf: posting questions about this issue does not in any way indicate I’m unsympathetic to a level playing field or think in any way that this is not a serious issue.

Jeff

I’ve sold a how-to book to Tachyon with a working title of How to Write a Novel in Two Months and Other Practical Advice for Twenty-First Century Writers. It’s a working title because I don’t like the clang of “write”/”writers”. For publication sometime in 2009. I’ve been thinking about my various writing book ideas and I realize they were actually two or maybe even three books, but the basic delineation is between my knowledge about technique, craft, and approaches to the fiction itself and my knowledge from 20 years of being a published writer. The latter is what this book is about.

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Bookgasm interviews us about the Steampunk antho.

Jeff

Some wonderful stories are being written using what’s basically archaic science or abandoned paths of technology from our past. There’s a kind of playfulness and fun to the stuff that’s addictive. But a story like Paul Di Filippo’s “Victoria,” with its rampant sexual humor, goes
well beyond anything Wells or Verne would have thought acceptable for civilized society.

For anyone who recognizes that there’s a wealth of really great horror being written, despite the naysayers (who tend to mistake a narrowness in their taste for a fault in a genre), this news of Virgin’s new line of horror books is very welcome. (Thanks to Kelly Shaw for the news.)

The Grin of the Dark by Ramsey Campbell (May 08)
The Unblemished by Conrad Williams (June08)
Banquet for the Damned by Adam Nevill (Aug 08)
Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti (Sep 08)
The Perils and Dangers of This Night by Stephen Gregory (Oct08)

Yep, what he said.

I’ve got one Steampunk advance copy left and an insatiable curiosity to see it in a steampunk-appropriate place. I’ll send it to you if you can convince you can know of the right place, can get there easily, and take a photo you promise to send to me. (Because otherwise, a 15-ton clock will fall on you when you least expect it…) We’ll sign the ARC. Just put your pitch in the comments.

Jeff