(Short DIY vid shot by guest writer Ekaterina Sedia)

I’ll have much more info and news from this year’s SW teen writing camp, including the reveal of next year’s guest writers, but for now here’s a short informal video shot by guest writer Ekaterina Sedia of some of the students from Shared Worlds browsing for their free books.

Shared Worlds is located at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Publishers who sent free books this year included HarperVoyager, Tor, Pyr, Tachyon, White Wolf, Penguin (Firebird), Weird Tales, Angry Robot, Small Beer, Del Rey, Bull Spec, and Orbit.

SW is partially sponsored by a grant from Amazon.com. The camp was founded by Jeremy LC Jones and I serve as assistant director. The full writer/editor staff for 2011 included me, Ann VanderMeer, Nnedi Okorafor, Ekaterina Sedia, Will Hindmarch, Rob Rhodes, Jeremy Jones, and Minister Faust.

In case anyone was wondering, Cheeky Frawg will be releasing ODD?, our new antho of reprints and originals in October. The ultra-talented Gregory Norman Bossert—great writer and visual artist—has been working on the short film to accompany the release. It features an original song by Danny Fontaine based on lyrics I wrote (and he added to). The images are based on Jeremy Zerfoss‘s conceptualization of Myster Odd for the e-book’s cover:

Here are a few more stills from the animated film, which is shaping up beautifully…

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(No Jake von Slatt artifact was harmed during the events described in this blog post.)

Ever since Ann and I returned from the Carolinas with Jake von Slatt’s Bassington & Smith Brain, featured in the The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities it’s been nothing but trouble. Our cats will have nothing to do with it. It emits strange sounds and odors in the middle of the night. Flashes of electricity have appeared under the bell jar, appearing to reveal rips in the very fabric of space and time.

Even worse, the ongoing conflict between Moomins and Totoros previously detailed in this post has been brought into the house because of the presence of the Bassington & Smith Brain. It has quickly become the flashpoint for an ongoing, smoldering battle…as this series of still photographs demonstrates…

The Moomins and what temporary allies they could find within the house chose the high ground within the psychotronic field of the Jake von Slatt Bassington & Smith Brain, the emanations temporarily hiding their presence from the adorable enemy.

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(Ann bought me the sea slime book as a b-day present…)

During two readings at the Hub City Bookstore in Spartanburg, the Shared Worlds teen writing camp students bought a ton of books—just like last year, when Hub had only been open a few weeks. It’s just an amazingly good bookstore, mostly because the staff does such a great job of selecting the right books. When I walk in there it’s almost as if they’ve been reading my mind.

And now comes the news via Publishers Weekly that they’ve outstripped projected first-year sales by quite a sum. Nice job. Such a great place for a reading, too, and such a great resource for the students.

So the students weren’t the only ones to come away with a book haul. Here’s what I bought, with a few books thrown in that came from the Blue Bicycle in Charleston.

Which ones should I read first? Which have you read and recommend?

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