(art from the cover of the limited edition of my novel shriek)

Silvia Moreno-Garcia and her co-editor Orrin Grey are still reading for their Fungi anthology, details here. As she noted in a post recently, they’d like to see more settings outside of the U.S. and more submissions from women and international writers. So get those stories in! (Looks like reprints are welcome from the guidelines, in addition to originals.)

I’m planning on doing my best to get a mushroom story in, possibly even an Ambergris story.

Thanks to Whitney Matheson at Pop Candy and Brad Moon at GeekDad/Wired for giving The Situation web comic some love.

The entire 63 pages are now up at Tor.com (the link now starts you at part 3), and I’m kinda thrilled about it. A lot of hard work on the part of the artist and the editor (Liz Gorinsky). I just love all of the images of Mord. It’s also kind of cool that the posting of the web comic coincides with Trinity Prep School students reading the short story it’s based on before our visit there in February—they get to see the comics version, too.

If Mord seems familiar from more than just “The Situation”, it’s because he also appears in much altered form in “The Third Bear,” which is reprinted along with “The Situation” story in my collection The Third Bearfrom Tachyon. Consider picking it up, as it’s earned out its advance and is still selling steadily and providing me with a little extra money, which always helps our less commercial projects.

I should note that Mord makes an appearance, along with Wick, in the novel I’m working on entitled “Borne”–same milieu as “The Situation”–and also many doppelganger appearances in “The Journals of Doctor Mormeck,” which I serialized part of right here at Ecstatic Days.

On Monday, I’ll post excerpts of “The Situation” side-by-side with part of the comics script and the relevant parts of the comic itself, to show the transformation.

Uri Kurlianchik is raising money for his story cycle about the “holy land,” using IndieGoGo. Looks to be an interesting project. Go check it out and donate!

Part 1 of the web comic version of my story The Situation, with art by Eric Orchard, is now up on Tor.com! Go read it, and come back tomorrow and Friday for the concluding chapters.

A special thank you to editor Liz Gorinsky, who evidenced amazing patience and kindness while we worked on this thing.

You can read the story the comic is based on at GeekDad.

The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories is now available a a North American ebook from all major retailers, including Amazon.com. The North American print version comes out in May. The publisher is Tor, and our editor there is Liz Gorinsky. The anthology, which is almost 1,200 pages and includes over 750,000 words of weird fiction, including a couple of short novels, is already being taught at several universities. Here’s some of the UK praise for the antho….

‘The definitive collection of weird fiction… its success lies in its ability to lend coherence to a great number of stories that are so remarkably different and yet share the same theme’?–?Times Literary Supplement

‘Studded with literary gems, it’s a hefty, diligently assembled survey of a genre that manages to be at once unsettling, disorientating and bracing in its variety.’ – James Lovegrove, Financial Times

‘It’s a tremendous experience to go through its 1,126 pages… there are so many delights in this that any reader will find something truly memorable’ – Scotland on Sunday

‘Readers eager to explore a world beyond the ordinary need look no further’ – Time Out

‘An anthology of writing so powerful it will leave your reality utterly shredded…Give yourself to the weird! Open the pages of the new gospel of The Weird.’ – Guardian.co.uk

Our new site/magazine Weirdfictionreview.com is made possible by the research we did for The Weird, and you can find this antho-related content there, in addition to over 90 other posts about weird fiction, including lots of stories, essays, and interviews.

Uncanny paragraphs from The Weird

A Century of First Lines from the stories in The Weird

The Weird table of contents, also reproduced below the cut. Please note that for the North American e-book only the Buzzatti stories has been dropped and J. Robert Lennon’s “Portal” (2010) added.

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If you head on over to our Weirdfictionreview.com, you’ll find the first official publication of the new John Curran Davis translation of Polish genius Bruno Schulz’s “The Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass,” as well as a wonderful, fascinating interview with the translator about Schulz. We’re also running an intro to Schulz’s life and work, and my own short editorial on the “unfilmability” of Schulz. We will continue to bring you “firsts” at WFR.com, just as we did when we brought you Jean Ray fiction and several of the other pieces we’ve run. Go check it out.

This morning we’re also running a feature on Julio Cortazar…not too shabby…

Ann and I will be conducting workshops, lecturing, and meeting with the students at Trinity Prep School in Orlando as part of their visiting writer series in early February.

On January 9th we’ll be doing a reading/presentation that’s open to the general public. I’ll probably read from my novel-in-progress, “Borne” and Ann will present a powerpoint of great images and insight from various editorial projects. Might even be some Steampunk Bible bling and special surprises. Kathmandu Books will be supplying the books for sale.

The event is February 9, a Thursday, starting at 7pm at Trinity Prep School, in the Kelly Kranze Room, 5700 Trinity Prep Lane, Winter Park, Florida. For directions, visit http://www.trinityprep.org

Looking forward to meeting the students, seeing old friends, and meeting some of our readers.

Ann and I will be conducting workshops, lecturing, and meeting with the students at Trinity Prep School in Orlando as part of their visiting writer series in early February.

On January 9th we’ll be doing a reading/presentation that’s open to the general public. I’ll probably read from my novel-in-progress, “Borne” and Ann will present a powerpoint of great images and insight from various editorial projects. Might even be some Steampunk Bible bling and special surprises. Kathmandu Books will be supplying the books for sale.

The event is February 9, a Thursday, starting at 7pm at Trinity Prep School, in the Kelly Kranze Room, 5700 Trinity Prep Lane, Winter Park, Florida. For directions, visit http://www.trinityprep.org

Looking forward to meeting the students, seeing old friends, and meeting some of our readers.

Woodchuck Groundhog target paper—the blank side–is great for writing longhand. The grain of the paper is just right to catch and hold the pen and the ink without being either too smooth or too rough. The pads hinge on the right, so it’s also perfect for left-handers like myself.

The Squirrel target paper appears identical, but isn’t as classy.

Enjoy your Friday!

(This image of the editor at a burnt-out desk in a quarry may not accurately portray his critique style…)

I’m extending my critique service for a bit. Just email me at vanderworld at hotmail.com for details. In addition to my writing career, I have 25 years of experience as an editor and have won several awards for it, including the World Fantasy Award. I’ve also taught workshops all over the world, worked for publishers, run a publishing company, been an agent, etc. Stories, novellas, and novels in just about every category (no Westerns) welcome. The unique rate system and form-fitting approach to your particular manuscript are meant to give the most useful feedback.

You can also now buy a critique for the writer in your life–for no extra charge I will send a hand-written card, illustrated, with certificate for critique. A few people have asked for this, and it’s gone over well, so I’ve decided to offer it publicly.

As you may know, we fund a lot of fiction translations and other efforts with a risky rate of return. Critique work helps to offset the risk. Thanks!