The photo above is of two pages of my personal copy of Booklife, which I’ve been having everyone I meet sign. It’s got everyone from the cabby who drove me into NYC to Lev Grossman to Robert Fisher from Willard Grant Conpiracy to Colleen Lindsay to Matt Cheney to Ekaterina Sedia to most of the attendees at the various events. It’s especially gratifying to get readers’ signatures, and to see their surprise and often their delight at getting to sign my “yearbook” of my five-week tour. It’s already one of my prized possessions, and I hope that those of you attending the last events will also sign it.

I’ve had an incredible three-and-a-half weeks, and although at times I have felt the strain of all this time on the road, for the most part it’s been a glorious adventure (chronicled on Facebook). Here are the remaining events. I hope I see some of this blog’s readers at them. We’ve been averaging a healthy forty to fifty per event and it would be great to end strong–and, frankly, cheering me on is gonna help keep me energized. (And, anyone in Atlanta–that last gig is totally a huge party.)

Also note the full interview that was excerpted on national NPR. Also, there is an LA Times review but it is full of spoilers, starting in the first para. If you haven’t read the book you must avoid this review at all costs.

WOFFORD COLLEGE (Spartanburg, SC) – Dec. 3, 7:30 p.m.
429 North Church Street, Olin Theater
Reading/Signing

MALAPROPS BOOKSTORE (Asheville, NC) – Dec. 5, 3pm to 5pm
55 Haywood Street
Kaaffeklatch and Signing

BARNES & NOBLE (Burlington, NC) – Dec. 6, 2pm
3125 Waltham Blvd
Reading/Signing

FOUNTAIN BOOKSTORE (Richmond, VA) – Dec. 8, 6:00pm
1312 E Cary St.
Holiday party special guest, with reading and signing (6:45pm)

CHAPEL HILL COMICS (Chapel Hill, NC) – Dec. 10, 7pm to 8:30pm
316 W Franklin St
Reading/Signing/Group Story, with Mur Lafferty and special guest Natania Barron

MANUEL’S BAR (Atlanta, GA) – Dec. 11, 8pm
(602 N. Highland Ave, North Avenue Room)
Reading/Signing with Will Hindmarch and special guest J.M. McDermott

It’s Holiday Season. We all know what that means – several radio stations switch to All-Holiday-Music-All-The-Time, commercials start running their annoying versions of carols, and everyone walks around with mind-numbing earworms of truly hideous songs like that terrible one about shoes (CRAP. Now it’s in my head.). Now, don’t get me wrong. I like quite a few holiday tunes – like that one by that guy. You know, with the snow in it. Okay, so I’m lying. I really don’t like holiday music. All that canned sentiment gets to me. Sorry, Internet.

But, to be fair, very little about holiday music bothers me. It’s largely inoffensive, it captures the sentiment of the season relatively well and, at the risk of sounding uncharacteristically cheery, it makes people happy.

Generally speaking, that is. (more…)

Gio Clairval is an Italian born speculative fiction writer who commutes between Paris and the Lake of Como.

—-
Gio: Lately, I’ve been writing Science Fantasy.
Felicino: And what the heck is that?
Gio: No one knows exactly.
Felicino: Cool.
Gio: I mean that writers and critics haven’t come up with an universally accepted definition but, as I’ve been writing Science Fantasy, I could try to define it.
Felicino: I thought writers were the least reliable guys when it comes to define what they’re writing. And most of them don’t really care.
Gio: Well, as a reader and a writer, I care. Let’s see what they say out there. You know the famous definition: “Science Fiction makes the improbable possible while Fantasy makes the implausible probable.”
Felicino: You don’t even have it right, it’s “Science Fiction makes—
Gio: Whatever. What I wanted to say is that Science Fantasy makes the impossible probable and plausible. Hey, why are you making faces?
I mean that Science Fiction describes improbable things that may happen in certain circumstances, while Science Fantasy gives a sense of reality to things that could never happen in the world as we know it, not even if certain conditions should come true.
If this definition (minted by Rod Sterling) is correct, several Science Fiction authors, particularly the ancestors, are Science Fantasy authors in reality.
Felicino: You’re thinking of H.G. Wells’ THE WORLD SET FREE…
Gio: And Jules Verne’s FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON. Problem is a few scientific ideas tackled in XIX and XX century novels are now reality (improbable things have become possible)—
Felicino: Which means that new technology (something that looks like magic to me when the book comes out) is not enough to class a novel among science fantasy?
Gio: Exactly.
Felicino: Then I’m afraid the definition you just suggested—
Gio: —doesn’t hold water, I know. But, do you remember Arthur C. Clark’s Third Law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”? Well, Science Fantasy uses both, science and magic. So I can (triumphantly) say that when you write a combination of technology and magic, you write Science Fantasy.
Felicino: It still seems a contradiction in terms to me.
Gio: Ah, these Hard SF fans! No one ever told you that everything is in the execution? You need to be subtle, to pull it off. Now, if you stop twittering and start listening, I bet I can demonstrate that you love Science Fantasy authors, too.
Felicino: Names!
Gio: The Master, forex.
Felicino: (…)
Gio: The Great, Inimitable Roger Zelazny! Besides the cycle of Amber, about which we can discuss at length—SF, Fantasy?
Felicino: Fantasy.
Gio: I guess I agree. Almost all the rest is Science Fantasy. Take LORD OF LIGHT. It’s the story of space colonists that developed a resurrecting technology complete with the download of a personality into a brand-new body, but there are demons, too. And LORD DEMON, a posthumous novel completed by Jane Lindskold, about demons who are in fact aliens—inspiration to SUSHI FOR DEMONS, which I wrote and which you’ll be reading as soon as—
Felicino: And other authors Anne McCaffrey with her dragons, Robert A. Heinlein (MAGIC, INC.), Leigh Brackett.
Gio: Jack Vance (DYING EARTH), Frank Herbert (DUNE)—
Felicino: Do you know that DUNE is the best selling science fiction book in the world even now? Twelve million copies sold!
Gio: I didn’t know, but it’s not science fiction. Come on, those guys who gobble down spice and become interstellar navigators capable of folding space, the body transformations that make Paul’s son a human worm—
Felicino: If one listened to you, China Miéville, with his ‘remade’ people in PERDIDO STREET STATION—
Gio: —is writing pure science fantasy, yes.
Felicino: Get out of here! What about Jeff VanderMeer?
Gio: His fruiting characters transforming into sapient mushroom are suspicious.
Felicino: Shhh…He can hear us.
Gio: Oh, sorry, I got carried away. But I haven’t finished with the oldies: Andre Norton (WITCH WORLD). And the founders, Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore?
Felicino: Henry Kuttner (1914 — 1958) and C.L. Moore (1911 — 1987).
Gio: They were married, and they collaborated.
Felicino: It never got ugly, really?
Gio: Shut up. Those two, they only wrote Science Fantasy, even when it wasn’t trendy at all because guys like you wanted to read about ‘serious’ science.
Felicino: I wasn’t even born.
Gio: And they inspired Marrion Zimmer Bradley. The Darkover cycle is a perfect example of Science Fantasy.
Felicino: Too romance-ey for me.
Gio: We’re meta-talking here. No reader’s reactions, please. Besides, I read it all and I liked it when I read it (a long time ago). Anyway, MZB took her inspiration from THE DARK WORLD of Henry Kuttner, 1946.
Felicino: I remember Kuttner because of the kuttnering thing. You know, the writing technique consisting in inserting unobtrusive splotches of infodump, as opposed to the heinleining, which consists in weaving information into the plot—
Gio: I was saying these two guys, Moore and Kuttner, published their first stories almost at the same time on Startling Stories and Weird Tales.
Moore began with her short stories “Shambleau”, 1933, “Black God’s Kiss”, 1934 and “Black God’s Shadow”, 1934, and Kuttner, a bit later, followed with stories that were still science-fiction-ey, but with fantasy and horror elements (“The Black Kiss” 1937 and “Quest of the Starstone”,1937). In their first collaborative novel, EARTH’s LAST CITADEL (1943), we can see the genre beginning to blossom, but it’s THE DARK WORLD that confirms the mix of technology and magic, defining the genre. It’s the story of a man that changes the worlds.
Here’s the e-text:

http://arthursclassicnovels.com/arthurs/kuttner/darkworld10.html

Anyway, Kuttner inspired lots of people. The Master—
Felicino: Stop calling Zelazny ‘The Master.’ You sound like a cult—
Gio: And Matheson dedicated I AM LEGEND to Kuttner. Bradbury has referred to Kuttner as a neglected master and a “pomegranate writer: popping with seeds — full of ideas.
As for Moore, she wrote (for Weird Tales) the stories of Northwest Smith, the guy with ice-eyes and a debatable past. For example, Northwest Smith flees from a fortress in which a black larva lives by vampirizing the most perfect beauty it can create (in “The Black Thirst”). I think Zelazny was inspired by Northwest when he created Corwin of Amber.
I will never stress enough the importance of characterization in Moore’s work. Do you remember Jirel of Joiry? The female warrior who seeks love or revenge in strange worlds? The universe she evolves in is techno-magical. Science Fantasy, pal, pure Science Fantasy. Jirel is the archetype of our contemporary heroines. She’s strong and ruthless, but also fragile, sensual but sensitive…
So, magic and transition to other dimensions, plus technology are the elements defining the genre.
Felicino: I’m sorry. I see no magic in the NEW WEIRD novels I know about.
Gio: Well, but other people think that Science Fantasy is just Science Fiction with elements of the fantastic. I’m also thinking of Gaiman’s ANANSI BOYS, with the illusions spun by Spider…
In other words, the frame of a Science Fantasy story is the ordinary world (even if it’s a city that doesn’t exist), and the fantastic element (take Miéville’s winged creatures that hypnotize and lobotomize people) is, however extraordinary, an accepted part of the ordinary world. There is NO extraordinary world, only a world in which strange things happen.
Felicino: Like in Magic Realism.
Gio: You could say so. But I introduce the idea that even when magic is absent, and all that rests is a fantastic element that isn’t explained—all this bathing in some new technology—you have Science Fantasy. In this case, the definition applies to our New Weird friends, the Remade, the Worms that dream—and the fruiting Mushroom.
Felicino: Nah!
Gio: Why do you think they call it ‘weird’, then? Since when Science is weird?

More discussion about Science Fantasy:
• 1980 G. Wolfe What Do They Mean, SF? Writer (Aug.) â„– 13/1: Like fantasy, science fantasy rests upon, and often abounds with, “impossible” creatures and objects — girls asleep for centuries, one-eyed giants, weapons that can speak and may rebel. But it uses the methodology of science fiction to show that these things are not only possible but probable.
• 2001 M. Moorcock R. Klaw Geek Confidential (2003) № 194: Whereas I grew up reading science fantasy, Leigh Brackett and stuff like that, which, to me, is the perfect combination. You can have magic and science, throw it all in.

BLOGPOST posted by Gio Clairval: http://gioclairval.blogspot.com/

Guest blogger Jason Sanford often rants on his website at www.jasonsanford.com. His fiction has been published in Interzone, Year’s Best SF 14, Analog, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Pindeldyboz, and other places, and has won the 2008 Interzone Readers’ Poll and a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship.

So a month back I wrote a snitty little post on why I wouldn’t read And Another Thing… by Eoin Colfer, which is the newly authorized sequel to Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I mean, dammit, I love Adam’s trilogy. I think the first three books are as near to perfect as fiction writing can be.

Then Colleen Lindsay offered to send me a copy of the book to read. When the book arrived yesterday, I opened it and read a bit and found myself laughing. Which is deeply disturbing. I mean, if I like the book does that mean individual authors and their particular creative visions no longer matter for crap?

Okay, maybe that’s a bit melodramatic. And I must finish reading Colfer’s book before I can say if it is good or not. But this has made me wonder. Are we entering a world where fanfic—i.e., diving into the imaginary worlds of others—is the new norm among writers?

(more…)

Guest blogger Felix Gilman is the author of the novels Thunderer and Gears of the City, and A History of the Half-Made World, coming next year from Tor.

Dying Earth, you say? I got yer Dying Earth right here.

These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. . . These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.

Photographs here.   Warning: gross, and unbearably sad.

Apart from the unbearable sadness, what struck me about these things is how reminiscent they are of Mike Libby’s steampunk insects  (which may be familiar to you from the cover of Ann and Jeff’s New Weird anthology).   Like nightmare inversions of Libby’s creations: ugly plastic trash instead of glittering elegant clockwork. Except of course that these things are the things that are actually real, not Libby’s. So it goes.

Thesis: the big appeal of steampunk is that it puts an attractive shiny brass-toned gloss on the increasingly inescapable fact that our bodies and our world are being replaced, inside and out, by non-functional obsolete industrial byproducts.

Did you survive Black Friday?  Did you venture out into the chaotic mayhem and brave the bloodthirsty retail workers or stay at home with windows barred and doors double bolted?  For shop-weary folks on both sides of the dead/undead spectrum, lemme offer a couple suggestions that even unbeating hearts can feel warm about giving.  And you can procure both from the safety of your computer chair.

Mansfield Park and Mummies: Monster Mayhem, Matrimony, Ancient Curses, True Love, and Other Dire Delights by Jane Austen and Vera Nazarian

Ancient Egypt infiltrates Regency England in this “comedy of monsters and manners,” including fake footnotes that hilariously harangue the reader about morality and impure thoughts and appendices, afterwords, and illustrations drawn by Vera. And, of course, mummies! (Excerpts and more information available at Norilana Books’ website.)

As many folks are aware, Vera is the owner and publisher of Norilana Books and is in dire financial trouble, including an unresolved mortgage loan modification and near-foreclosure, exacerbated by health issues. Successful sales of Mansfield Park and Mummies will be a lifesaver for her and for Norilana Books.

Lord Dickens’s Declaration by Lawrence Santoro

This Wednesday (Dec. 2), Lawrence’s novella, Lord Dickens’s Declaration, will begin a three-part free podcast at StarShipSofa.com, with parts two and three to be podcast on December 9th and 16th, respectively. Simultaneously, the StarShip will release an illustrated download of Lord Dickens’s Declaration with artwork by Skeet Scienski.

Proceeds from sales will go to benefit science fiction authors Spider and Jeanne Robinson. Jeanne is suffering from cancer and the illness has largely sapped the Robinson finances.

As I always tell my friends and family, “Books make great gifts!”

Guest blogger Eugie Foster calls home a mildly haunted, fey-infested house in metro Atlanta that she shares with her husband, Matthew, and her pet skunk, Hobkin.  Her publication credits number over 100 and include stories in Realms of Fantasy, Interzone, Cricket, OSC’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, Fantasy Magazine, and anthologies Best New Fantasy (Prime Books), Heroes in Training (DAW Books), and Best New Romantic Fantasy 2 (Juno Books).  Her short story collection, Returning My Sister’s Face: And Other Far Eastern Tales of Whimsy and Malice, is now out from Norilana Books.  Visit her at EugieFoster.com.

CHAPEL HILL COMICS (316 W Franklin St, Chapel Hill, NC) – Thursday, Dec. 10, 7pm to 8:30pm

Some Assembly Required! A night of readings and dangerous spontaneous storytelling with critically acclaimed novelist Jeff VanderMeer, noted podcaster and writer Mur Lafferty, and special guest Natania Barron, creator of the Aldersgate Cycle. Buy VanderMeer’s novel Finch and get a free copy of rock band Murder by Death’s soundtrack for the book (while supplies last). Afterwards, join Jeff, Mur, and Natania at the bar across the street for a less spontaneous libation.

Booklife
Finch

FOUNTAIN BOOKSTORE - Tuesday, Dec. 8, 6:45pm
1312 E. Cary St., Guest of Honor, the annual holiday party, which starts at 6:00.

BOOKWORK FOR A BOOKLIFE: Talk, Discussion, and Signing with Award-Winning Author Jeff VanderMeer

Part of a five-week national book tour, Jeff VanderMeer’s in-store talk and Q&A coincides with the release of his new Booklife: Strategies & Survival Tips for the 21st-Century Writer, the first book to blend traditional career and creativity advice with the best ways to thrive in our new internet-based world without losing your mind. Funny, blunt, practical, and humane, Booklife is the perfect gift for you or the writer in your life. “A frank, revealing manual not simply on how to be a better wordsmith, but on how to be a better human being.” – Minister Faust

VanderMeer will share often outrageous details of working on successful, complex book projects, along with sustainable career and creativity advice for this new media age. His talk will be followed by a Q&A with the audience and a take-away of exercises and prompts aimed at enhancing your creativity and honing your career focus. In addition to writing for the New York Times Book Review, LA Times, Washington Post, and Miami Herald, he is the best-selling author of the cult classic City of Saints & Madmen, with books published in 20 languages. Jeff’s new novel is Finch, a noir fantasy thriller that has received rave reviews from the likes of NYT Bestsellers Stephen R. Donaldson and Tad Williams. Free Finch CD soundtrack by critically acclaimed rock band Murder by Death with purchase of the novel, while supplies last.

Booklife
Finch

I’ll be appearing at the Burlington Barnes & Noble to do a short reading from Finch, followed by Q&A and a signing.

“VanderMeer’s stark tone is brutally powerful at times, and his deft mix of genre-blurring style with a layered plot make this a joy to read.” – Publishers Weekly

Booklife
Finch

I frankly love doing gigs in bars, and Manuel’s is an Atlanta institution. Will Hindmarch is the genius behind this event, and we’ll be doing short readings, taking questions, drinking and generally having a great time. Including special guest J.M. McDermott, author of Last Dragon. Come join us.

I’ll be reading from my novel Finch.

Description: An exciting noir thriller set in a fantastical city. The final, stand-alone installment of the critically acclaimed Ambergris Cycle: “Tasked with solving an impossible double murder, detective John Finch searches for the truth among the rubble of the once mighty city of Ambergris, a metropolis unlike any other in or out of history. Under the rule of the gray cap masters, Ambergris is crumbling into anarchy and rebellion. The remnants of a rebel force are demoralized and dispersed. Partials—human traitors transformed by the gray caps—walk the streets brutalizing the city’s human inhabitants. In this powerful and poignant novel, the past and the future, the cosmic and the gritty, collide. What will happen if Finch uncovers the truth? What will happen if he doesn’t? And will Ambergris ever be the same?”

Booklife
Finch

Praise:

“A clear signal, if one were ever needed, that he remains one of modern fantasy’s most original and fearless pioneers.” – Arthur C. Clarke Award winner Richard K. Morgan

“I can’t remember ever reading a book like “Finch”. Audacious in technique, and extravagant in imagination, it has the rare quality of making the macabre poignant. In the midst of a disturbed and disturbing narrative landscape, Jeff VanderMeer gives us deeply sympathetic characters–especially Finch himself–who inspire us to care about their flawed and tyrannized world. I’m impressed.” – Stephen R. Donaldson

“FINCH just blew me to hell and gone. I would have sworn you can’t unite noir and fantasy, and oh how gloriously wrong Jeff VanderMeer proved me to be. Finch is a detective unlike any you’ve encountered and is utterly compelling. He is faced with a double murder that you shake your head, go….you’re done Finch. Not quite. I loved the meeting of the grime and the sublime and oh so beautifully crafted. Rarely has a novel got it all. Think Cormac McCarthy, via David Goodis, with an amazing nod to Lovecraft and still that doesn’t quite capture the spell this novel casts from the off. Me, I loved the Heretic. That’s a hint.” – Ken Bruen