Progress proceeds on my collaboration with Zach Taylor on the Torture Squid comic. Zach’s set up a dedicated page to the project and posted a slideshow of images. I hope to return to this project writing-wise in March. Meanwhile, Zach is fleshing out some more images.
You may have noticed an interruption in this blog being available. Apparently, the server was heating up and they had to cool it down. Everything should be fine going forward.
My powers do not include keeping servers cool. Nor do they cover this query that came in through my hotmail:
I am wondering whether or not you offer full novel writing services, where I send you the information and you write the novel. If so, please get back with me.
Alas, I am not Isaac Asimov…
…a book I’ve been looking forward to for awhile now. It’s beautifully designed.
When you factor in some other releases this year, it’s got to be considered an intriguing year for cross-genre noir/detective fiction. These books are all different, and yet all have some aspect of noir with urban settings.
You must understand: they never do this. They generally tolerate each other, but cannot stand to share the same surface. And yet, every once in a long while, they congregate to form the magic triangle–for what purpose, we know not.
This blog post is part of my ongoing “60 Books in 60 Days” encounter with the Penguin Great Ideas series–the Guardian’s book site of the week and mentioned on the Penguin blog. (Their latest post comments on the first 20.) From mid-December to mid-February, I will read one book in the series each night and post a blog entry about it the next morning. For more on this beautifully designed series, visit Penguin’s page about the books.
On Suicide
by David Hume (1711 to 1776)
Memorable Line
“…the lives of men depend upon the same laws as the lives of all other animals; and these are subjected to the general laws of matter and motion. The fall of a tower, or the infusion of a poison, will destroy a man equally with the meanest creature; an inundation sweeps away every thing without distinction that comes within the reach of its fury. ”
As Jay’s mentioned on his blog, he and I are collaborating on a novel with a working title of The Heart of the Beast. Jay’s a writing machine, uses several different styles, and has mad talent. He’s also one of the nicest, most interesting people I know, with a healthy sense of curiosity. These elements may seem irrelevant, and they’re certainly secondary, but they help a lot in a collaboration.
We’ve discussed
The Top Five Things Writers Hate About (Editors)
The Top Five Things Editors Hate About (Writers)
Now, Evil Monkey has decided it’d be best to just have a cage match of all against all–in a friendly, we’re-all-in-it-together family kinda way.
So:
writers vs editors
editors vs writers
writers vs reviewers
reviewers vs writers
writers vs writers
publicists vs writers
writers vs publicists
reviewers vs publicists
publicists vs reviewers
reviewers vs readers
readers vs writers
readers vs readers
publicists vs readers
editors vs readers
books vs television
evil monkey vs asparagus
brussel sprouts vs evil monkey
anybody vs anybody i left out
etc.
What do YOU, Spatula, hate about Collander? So to speak, and in a book / writer / reviewer / editor / etc. context…
UPDATE: Livia Llewellyn has thoughtfully provided the following additional death matches in the comments section:
An excerpt of a scene featuring a character excised, for a variety of reasons, from my Songs of the Dying Earth story, “The Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod.” The Subterranean edition is out in August, with stories by Neil Gaiman, Dan Simmons, et al. Grod may be resurrected for the version in my short story collection in 2010.
Georgio MacFarland expounds on the emerging “Space Bird Robot Animal” subgenre.
A new internet flame war over whether SF is better than F, and if poetry is better than both.
FANtasticy reviews book twelve of the Dracgtorne trilogy.
Sally Buckforth releases her 2008 online novel Starsmackers as a free PDF download.
Sci Fi Wire interviews a small pebble they found outside their offices and speculates whether it might be a singularity.
This blog post is part of my ongoing “60 Books in 60 Days” encounter with the Penguin Great Ideas series–the Guardian’s book site of the week and mentioned on the Penguin blog. (Their latest post comments on the first 20.) From mid-December to mid-February, I will read one book in the series each night and post a blog entry about it the next morning. For more on this beautifully designed series, visit Penguin’s page about the books.
Miracles and Idolatry
by Voltaire (1694 to 1778)
Memorable Line
“I have spoken of love. It is hard to pass from people who embrace each other to people who eat each other. ”
Jeff VanderMeer is a two-time winner, 12-time finalist for the World Fantasy Award as a fiction writer, editor, and publisher. The final novel in his Ambergris Cycle, Finch,was published in 2009 and was a finalist for the Locus Award, Nebula Award, and World Fantasy Award. The Steampunk Bible came out in 2011. Recent books coedited with his wife Ann include The Weird and The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities. His writer guide Booklife and associated Booklifenow website focus on sustainable creativity and he his currently working on a unique illustrated guide to writing entitled Wonderbook. His short fiction has appeared in Conjunctions, Library of America's American Fantastic Tales, and several year's best anthologies. He writes nonfiction for The Washington Post Book World, Omnivoracious, The New York Times Book Review, the B&N Review, the LA Times, The Guardian, and many others. He has lectured at MIT and the Library of Congress and helps run the Shared Worlds teen SF/Fantasy writing camp out of Wofford College. VanderMeer recently completed the first novel in the Southern Reach series, titled Annihilation. More...
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