…and would like to read or re-read but can’t because you’ve got to read weird short fiction…and pretend to be a Mecha-Ostrich…and things of that nature… (Wild Women has a great great story by Nadine Gordimer in the form of a letter to Kafka from his father; great William Trevor story in the Manguel antho.)
Dear Diary: Today encountered 77th supposedly classic iteration of the formula in which, on the very last page, the supernatural makes its entrance on the wings of the following: “Why, I was delighted to meet and have a splendid conversation with your mother/ father/ wife/ son/ daughter/ brother/ sister/ gardener/ plumber/ consierge/ frog the other […]
That thar is the catalog image for the big book of weird fiction Ann and I are putting together for Atlantic/Corvus, to be turned in around May 1st and published in November. It may turn out to be a placeholder, but I find it oddly comforting and comfortable. Heh. The catalog page has us both […]
I don’t believe I’ve ever met Joe Gordon, the chief mastermind behind the Forbidden planet blog. We correspond via email, though, and I know when I do finally meet him it’ll be like meeting an old friend. And now that old friend’s blog has turned five! Joe’s written over 5,000 posts in the last five […]
There’s nothing like a bagel from friendly people who have the normal number of heads. I also am very fond of the temperature in the store. The fact that there are lights makes the place cheery and also not dark. I like to be able to see my hands when I enter a place and […]
(Rough of the cover) Without further pomp or ceremony, we present our latest anthology’s full contents. We’re both extremely happy with how it turned out–including materials original to the book and some great reprints at its heart. UPDATE: Can now confirm that Jacques Barcia’s story from a Brazilian steampunk antho last year, translated from the […]
While Ann and I work on this insanely huge book of weird fiction, covering a century, I thought it might be fun to ask a targeted question: What are the top five short stories you love but that you don’t think get nearly enough respect? Why should they be reconsidered? It doesn’t have to be […]
Margaret Atwood came to Tallahassee last night to read and answer questions. I’ve written up an account for Omnivoracious. I thought she was quite wonderful. In answering questions and talking about her books, she was happy to use terms like “speculative fiction” and refer to classics familiar within the genre like We. It became clear […]
The TOC to The Third Bear, my first major story collection since Secret Life in 2004, has been finalized…finally. This includes the 9,000-word story “The Quickening,” which is original to the book, and which I turned in this morning. I’ll be writing some end matter and someone’s doing an introduction. Another new story, “Komodo,” has […]
Among the frustrations that balance the many pleasures of having so many projects due in May is not being able to write about movies. This short post won’t really help alleviate that frustration, but…