Me, I’m going to be flailing around at 9pm EST in Second life for a Copper Robot interview.

I’d also like to alert you to the publication of Real Unreal: Best American Fantasy, guest edited by Kevin Brockmeier. This is the third installment of the best-of anthology Ann and I founded with help from Sean Wallace. Underland Press is doing a lovely job publishing it, and Kevin, with the help of volume 3’s series editor Matthew Cheney, has found some amazing stories. BAF is the only series with revolving guest editors, allowing readers to get a different point of view on the field every year. Volume 4’s guest editor will be the remarkable Minister Faust. If you want to support eclectic and diverse views of the field, please buy this book. It needs your support.

Meanwhile, the TOC for BAF3 is below the cut.

Even more meanwhile, I’m buried in deadlines the rest of the week and unlikely to post more, so please do entertain me with stories of what you’ve been up to. Plug stuff. Tell me harrowing anecdotes. Ask silly questions. Whatever you like.

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(More on these three old anthos later in the week.)

Yes, this is that inevitable, unavoidable post about deadlines. First off, our deadline for sending in reprint submissions for our Steampunk anthology is today. Which means, if you want to have a story submitted, we need to get it by midnight tonight EST. If you’re an hour or so off, no problem, but we will cut things off after that point. If you have sent in a story and haven’t heard back yet, you will hear from us by Friday at the latest.

Second, March 1st is the deadline for applications to attend the Clarion Writer’s Workshop in San Diego this summer. The instructors for the first four weeks are Delia Sherman, George R.R. Martin, Dale Bailey, and Samuel R. Delany. Ann and I are teaching the last two weeks.

If you’re hesitating about the time commitment, I’d just say that in my experience that, all things being equal, there’s no good time to go to the workshop–which is to say, there will always be reasons to talk yourself out of applying. And that if you write SF/fantasy/horror of any kind, this year is a great year to apply. I don’t think you’d find more diverse approaches to fiction.

Ann and I will be there to help you through the last two weeks, when students are usually tired, and keep you focused. We love all kinds of fiction and want to help you realize your vision. (There may also be water pistol fights.) We’ll also help you with strategies for emerging from the workshop back into “real life”. Basically, we’re there for you 24-7. In addition, Tachyon Publications has kindly pledged to provide free copies of my writing book Booklife to all students, and in the evenings we can discuss aspects of the book relevant to the workshop. Ann will also be able to share her perspective as an editor. An additional bonus for those who want it will be discussion of novel structure and approaches–outside of the context of the morning sessions.

We might even cook you dinner, although considering my record as a chef, you might prefer otherwise…

Finally, I just posted about one of the most remarkable publishers out there, Centipede Press, run by Jerad Walter, and his latest astounding book–Knowing Darkness: Art Inspired by Stephen King. It’s a huge and weighty book, and amazing. Here’s a sample from the interior…

I thought I’d just re-post the Steampunk Reloaded anthology guidelines below. We’ve had a really good response so far and have taken several reprint stories submitted during this open reading period. But there’re only a few days left. Please note that it’s probably a little too late to send us a snail mail submission–would rather see only e-submissions at this point.

Ann and I are both excited about the stories we’ve taken, and about the anthology as a whole.

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Just a fraction of our library of strange short fiction–there’re another ten to fifteen shelves not shown. Ann and I are beginning to read for a “big book of weird” we’re editing for Grove Atlantic. It’ll be 750,000 words, covering 100 years. To be published in November.

In a few minutes I’ll post the next installment of the 60 in 60—covering the Penguin Great Ideas series—after a delay of almost a year. The project, looking back at it now, was insane. I was going to read one of 60 small books a day for 60 days and blog about one each day for 60 straight days. It didn’t quite work out that way. First, I faltered by allowing myself weekends free. Then it got off schedule in more significant ways, before grinding to a halt.

I’m glad it ground to a halt. It had become one of many brain-numbing tasks, and the initial rather stupid thrill of “how long can I keep juggling all of this” had faded into a dull ache of “why am I doing all of this?”

Now, today, I’m engaging the 60 in 60 for a different reason: because I want to slow down. I want to reconnect with reading books, after so many months of being involved with the process of having my own books brought out into the world.

I stopped writing on this blog and logged out of facebook in part to find the time to think about things, but also to read—and to read books not slated for formal review somewhere. I re-read Roberto Bolano’s 2666, not in the kind of ridiculous skimming speed read filled with interruptions and gaps that marked the first time, but taking a couple of days off just to read it for many hours in a row. What a novel idea.

The fact is, if I have the choice, I would much rather spend the majority of my time in the real world than in the virtual world. The virtual world, if I spend too much time there, irritates me almost pathologically, saps my strength, and stresses me out. It can make me someone I don’t like very much. So, once again, I’m trying hard to rearrange my life so that most of what I do gives me and my loved ones a sense of peace and of happiness.

Spending time with Ann makes me happy. Writing stories and books makes me happy. Editing projects and collaborations make me happy. Oddly enough, resurrecting the 60 in 60 also makes me happy. A lot of the rest of it doesn’t make me happy at all. So I’m going to try not to do it.

Part of this recalibrating means you may see slightly fewer posts on this blog, but what you do find will hopefully be more personal or more interesting and involving. Or silly, or fun—who knows?—but far fewer “Hey–here’s mah book, lookit this!” posts.

I’m also going to be reading this book, and writing about it here every once in awhile, because it fits nicely with 2666, and, well, I feel like it…

JAN. 25, 2010—Wildside Press, publisher of the Hugo Award-winning Weird Tales magazine, today announced the promotion of fiction editor Ann VanderMeer to the position of editor in chief.

“Ann has done an outstanding job since joining the Weird Tales editorial team three years ago,” said publisher John Betancourt. “For two decades she’s been one of the most talented, cutting-edge editors in the business, so we’ve been thrilled to see her finally burst onto SF’s center stage, both with Weird Tales and with her recent run of high-profile anthologies. We could not be more pleased to have Ann representing the proud tradition of the world’s oldest fantasy magazine.”

Editorial and creative director Stephen H. Segal, who has collaborated with VanderMeer for the past three years in leading the 21st-century revamp of Weird Tales, will remain a valuable part of the team as the magazine’s senior contributing editor. He is stepping away from the magazine’s day-to-day operations to accept a new full-time position as acquisitions editor for Quirk Books, publisher of the 2009 international bestseller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

The Weird Tales masthead will be rounded out by two new, though very familiar, additions to the management team serving under VanderMeer.
Campbell Award-winning author, artist, designer and performer Mary Robinette Kowal will serve as the magazine’s new art director. And two-time Stoker Award nonfiction winner Paula Guran, editor of the Pocket Juno fantasy imprint, will serve as Weird Tales’s new nonfiction editor.

“It makes me very happy that three of the most creative, insightful and hard-working people I know in the fantasy world will be shepherding Weird Tales into the future,” said Segal. “I’ve loved every minute of working on the magazine, and I’m terribly glad that Ann, Mary and Paula want me to stay onboard as a regular contributor.”

“Stephen’s been a trusted and brilliant co-conspirator on Weird Tales,”
said VanderMeer, “and I’m happy that he has such a great opportunity ahead of him. Meanwhile, I’m very excited about the addition of Paula Guran and Mary Robinette Kowal to the magazine team. Thanks to our subscribers for their support; thanks to everyone who submits their writing and art to Weird Tales; and thanks to John Betancourt for his belief in the magazine and in me personally. We’re looking forward to a great future for Weird Tales, and we invite everyone to be part of that experience.”

Weird Tales has an active 2010 calendar lined up, starting with two major event sponsorhips in conjunction with its special spring steampunk issue (forthcoming in March): the Friday night festivities at Norwescon, the Seattle area’s leading science fiction convention, taking place the weekend of April 1; and the literary lineup at the Steampunk World’s Fair, a new multi-arts festival taking place in central New Jersey the weekend of May 14.

For more information, contact editor in chief Ann VanderMeer at weirdtales@gmail.com.

In part due to developments I’ve just set forth on Facebook and in part because I need a break–fragmentation is not conducisive to good writing or doing good work on any creative project–I’m going to be absent from this blog through the first week in February. Come back around February 5th or so. (Any prior guest bloggers who still remember their logins and passwords should feel free to post if they’d like to.)

Booklifenow.com will continue to run content during this time, including a guest blogging stint by Shared Worlds founder Jeremy Jones, and you’ll find a few posts from me over at Omnivoracious.

Before I go, a few things I wanted to talk about but won’t have time to.

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Kage Baker has been a favorite writer of mine for a long time, and she was a marvelous contributor to both our pirate anthology and to The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases. Her entry in that book is one of my favorites. Her Company stories are wonderful, and in her humorous stories she has one of the best senses of comic timing I’ve seen in fiction. When she participated in the video for our pirate anthology, she had a real parrot on her shoulder!

In the last couple of days, she’s finally made public her battle with cancer, which is in a critical stage. All of the information here, but below are the snail mail and email addresses at which you can reach her.

She’s a great person, a great writer. Drop her a line. Please. She could do with something silly, something fun, something that shows you care.

Emails of support: materkb@gmail.com

Letters, notes, cards and anything else you can think of can be sent to her home:

Kage Baker
331 Stimson, Apt. B,
Pismo Beach CA 93449

I don’t have a new novel out in 2010—I haven’t even really thought about writing the next one yet—but Ann and I have a bunch of books coming out in 2010-2011. Not on this list is a book version of “The Three Quests of the Wizard Sarnod,” since the details on that are still iffy. (Breaking news: “new” Gormenghast novel!)

February 2010
The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals (Tachyon Publications) – Ann and I wrote this together, and the book also includes Ann’s interview with Duff Goldman from Ace of Cakes. It’s the perfect little hardcover gift book for fantasy lovers, Jews with a sense of humor (there are many), those who love off-beat books about food/cooking, and general readers as well. Jewcy.com and Forward have both done preview features on the book.

Best American Fantasy 3: Real Unreal, guest edited by Kevin Brockmeier (Underland Press) – We really didn’t have anything to do with putting this volume together (thank Kevin and then-series editor Matt Cheney), but as founders of the series we will be involved in getting the word out. With stories by established writers, such as Peter S. Beagle, Laura Kasischke, Jeffrey Ford, and Lisa Goldstein, alongside tales by brilliant newcomers like Kellie Wells, Thomas Glave, Ryan Boudinot, and Rebecca Makkai, Real Unreal delivers a richly diverse experience of contemporary fiction.

May 2010
The Third Bear (Tachyon Publications) – My second major short story collection features the title story along with all of my best fiction from the past five years, including a new story, “The Quickening.” (Possible this is actually coming out in July.)

June 2010
Monstrous Creatures (Guide Dog Press) – My second major nonfiction collection, with reviews, essays, and articles, pulled from my work for Omnivoracious, the New York Times, Washington Post, etc. (Assuming I turn the darn thing in on time.)

The Leonardo Variations (Ministry of Whimsy) – With any luck, we’ll finally get this charity anthology for Clarion San Diego published. It features student writing and nonfiction from instructors. We planned to do it last year but found that doing two charity anthos in one year was beyond us time-wise and financially, given I live off of the writing and editing.

July 2010
Booklife (A&C Black) – The UK edition of Booklife will be released over the summer.

The Situation Web Comic (Tor.com) – Okay, so this collaboration with artist Eric Orchard isn’t technically a book, but it’s a substantial project and should be up on the Tor site by the summer.

August 2010
Finch (Grove Atlantic) – The UK edition of the novel that made the year’s best lists of the Washington Post, Barnes & Noble Review, Wall Street Journal, etc., will appear in August. New blurbs from Lev Grossman and Warren Ellis, too.

September 2010
Steampunk Reloaded (Tachyon Publications) – The “sequel” to the first Steampunk reprint anthology, but primarily focusing on the last decade. Contents are shaping up nicely, and include work by Cherie Priest, Catherynne M. Valente, Daniel Abraham, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Margo Lanagan, Gail Carriger, Jake von Slatt, etc. Plenty of surprises here, so stay tuned.

November 2010
XXXXXX????? (Grove Atlantic) – A project we’ll formally announce in the next couple of weeks.

Spring 2011
The Steampunk Bible (Abrams Image) – This amazing 7 x 10 coffee table book will be a definitive overview of Steampunk in image and text. Ably assisted by S.J. Chambers on this one.

Best American Fantasy 4: Invisible Borders (Underland Press) – Guest-edited by Minister Faust and with series editor Larry Nolen and Latin American consultant Fabio Fernandes on board, BAF will soldier on. Ann and I will be serving in an administrative and

Summer 2011
The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities (HarperCollins) – Edited by Ann and me, this follow-up to The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases will feature, among others, Mike Mignola, Alan Moore, China Mieville, Cherie Priest, and Naomi Novik. A more integrated combination of text and image than even the fake disease guide, this new anthology will combine the quirkiness of the original with actual full-on short stories.

One thing about my recent five-week book tour behind Finch and Booklife that I particularly loved was getting to read in so many great independent bookstores. Indies are extremely important to the well-being of book culture and often serve as strongholds for author events. This month, Indiebound has listed Finch as one of its Indie Notables, something I’m very proud of. This comes on the heels of tons of national media attention and praise for the novel–the novel has significant legs.

You can find some longer descriptions of indies in my book tour reports for Omnivoracious, but below the cut I’ve written downpersonal impressions of the indie bookstores I visited during the tour–including some little-known facts about each. A huge thanks to each and every one of them.

I’m also rolling out the new Finch negative campaign ad video (see above). Friends and fans from all over the world contributed to the video. After some bugs in moviemaker, Matt Staggs stepped in to finish it, including doing the voice-over. If you like the book, please feel free to post the video and a link to Indiebound this month, along with your own praise of the indies. Thanks.

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