Underland sent me a few copies of the uncorrected proofs sent to potential blurbers. Darn purty, although I’m running out of worms to feed them. Advance reading copies for reviewers should go to the printer shortly, too.

Hey–no, Jango, no, get out of that nest of Finches!

Hot, muggy, and no matter where you park around our house, this happens. If we lived in Nawlins and it was Mardi Gras time, I might get away with driving around like that. As it is, the local bagel place employees looked askance at the vehicle. Like somehow it meant I was living in it.

Some more random photos for your Saturday, while I work away on BookFinch and Finchlife stuff.

Oh–and the “endurance book tour” behind Booklife and Finch, for November-December, will be fleshed out by the end of the month. If you’re affiliated with a university, a writers workshop, or a bookstore that might be interested, or you’re aware of possible venues, drop me a line at vanderworld at hotmail.com. I’m starting in Seattle, driving down the West Coast, then heading inland through Arizona, coming up through Colorado toward the Great Lakes area and then through the Northeast and down the East Coast.

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(Jackson the Clown Cat guards the Zafon advance reader copy with a kind of lazy incompetence.)

So much for work. I did twelve hours yesterday, and I’m learning that in this new paradigm where my brain blows circuits a little more easily I should’ve realized it would be ridiculous to do anything like that today.

Instead, how about a variation on a books received post? Only this time I’ll post a paragraph-long excerpt picked randomly from each book, which I’ve selected to represent the variety of the ridiculous number of books received this week. If you want to play the guessing game, you should be able to try to match the excerpt to the book before you see the cover as you scroll down. I can’t vouch for the excerpts below being PG-13 or lower since I’m doing this completely at random–except that if I happen on a page of pure dialog I’ll pick another page that has more description, and use X and Y for character names if it might give away the answer.

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So, a few people asked me what was up with the hat, and where the heck the photo was taken. Ann took it in St. Augustine, and it’s made from some poor dead animal. This shop was full of somewhat interesting stuff. For your Friday bemusement, some of the shiny below the cut.

Also, I’m working here just about all day with constant rain and Black Motor Cycle Club’s Howl playing in the background. You gots a question for me, the hat, or Evil Monkey, lay it on me. I need the breaks. And if you’ve got no questions, just look at the purty pictures.

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NO YOU ARE NOT SEEING DOUBLE. I AM WEARING THE SAME HAT AS IN THE LAST POST.

BUT NOW IT IS AS YOUR LATE-NIGHT LINKSMONGER (morning/mid-afternoon for peoples in other places) MORNING LINKS-MONGER (evening/mid-afternoon for peoples in other places). GOT NO PLACE TO GO? TRAPPED UNTIL MORNING? HANG OUT WITH ME AND THE LINKS…

First off, the debate over the existence of dragons continues unabated over at Omnivoracious, with kids still posting comments on my piece from March 2008 on How to Raise and Keep a Dragon, including:
“does anybody know blake baker?????? i’m toatly in love with him. he reminds me of a dragon but i can’t pcture what kind. post back if you know him.” And: “Me and my friend olivia sent a letter to the seller of the mushussu dragon about the price on them!! olivia’s mom might let her buy one!!!!!! how much were the dragons you bought? Me and olivia are dieing to get a letter back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” (Believe it or not, I left off some exclamation marks.)

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HELLO, I AM STANDING HERE IN A FUNNY HAT TO TELL YOU ABOUT HOW YOU CAN WIN A GRENADE. AND A BERET VERY MUCH UNLIKE THIS FUNNY HAT…

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(Born on a South Florida TV news show.)

I just interviewed James O. Born for Omnivoracious. He’s a gritty crime novelist who’s just had his first SF novel published by Tor–under the name James O’Neal. We’ve seen lots of fantasy/SF writers deploy detectives in their fiction, but fewer crime novelists turn to SF, so it’s interesting to see how that alchemy works.

The Human Disguise is a fast-paced thriller set twenty years in the future. The SF elements are what make the book really interesting, though. Are they completely believable? I’m not entirely sure I care one way or another, because it’s all a lot of fun, frankly. It’s an entertaining novel, and one that should satisfy a lot of readers. Good summer reading.

(Image courtesy of The Crotchety Old Fan…)

Evil Monkey:
Are you a mofo?

Jeff:
What? OW!! You hit me with that hammer. Right in the knee!

Evil Monkey:
You didn’t answer quick enuf. I thought you might be ethically challenged.

Jeff:
What in the hell are you talking about?

Evil Monkey:
I am a member of the People for the Ethical Treatment of SF. I go around hitting m@therf*ckers with hammers.

Jeff:
Back the hell up. What the hell is…PETSF?

Evil Monkey:
I dunno but we support nice stuff and I get to go around hitting mofos with hammers. Splinter group of this. It was more interesting at SFFE before somebody I think called Andy Remic deleted his post about mofos. There’s mofos out there. [scroll down to Andy Remic. kthanxbai.]

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I’m busy on a dozen things this week–Last Drink Bird Head, Booklife ARCs, Shared Worlds business, fall book tour schedule, a book review for B&N, an antho proposal, and a book proposal–so bloggin’ will be light. But I thought I’d give you another Booklife excerpt today. I just got the PDF of John Coulthart’s layout, and this will be one writing book that doesn’t just have a functional and useful interior but also a beautiful one.

Oh, and advance blurbage is beginning to come in, like this one from Minister Faust: “Jeff VanderMeer’s Booklife is a frank, revealing, riveting manual by a writer for writers, not simply on how to be a better wordsmith, but on how to be a better human being. I’ll be recommending it to all my writing students. I don’t know how to praise a book more sincerely than that.”

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Since it’s on Boing Boing, I hardly think you haven’t heard about it already, but PS Publishing wants everyone to know they have this awesome-looking 600-page bibiography of Tim Powers coming out, and they’re offering a free high-res PDF excerpt. Me, I’m internet poisoned at the moment and so going offline to remember what sunlight looks like, but go check it out on Boing Boing.