September 2009 – John Joseph Adams

Archive for September, 2009

Anthologies are Like a Box of Chocolates, and Apparently, I’m Willy Wonka

Reviewer Paul Goat Allen seems to be my biggest fan. In his recent blog post for Barnes & Noble’s BN.com, “The Candy Man Can: Or Why John Joseph Adams is Genre Fiction’s Willy Wonka,” he said so many kind things about me and my anthologies you’d think he was on the Night Shade payroll.

Here’s a taste:

“The reigning king of the anthology world is John Joseph Adams.”
“Every anthology this guy is associated with seems to turn to gold: and by gold I mean jaw-droppingly brilliant anthologies with no weak links that I’ll not only read again and again but treasure until the day I die.”
“[Wastelands] is arguably my favorite anthology of all time – just packed with speculative masterworks.”
The Living Dead was, simply put, the best collection of zombie fiction stories ever collected. … This anthology is, like Wastelands, one of my all-time favorite short story collections. Fans of zombie fiction shouldn’t just read this anthology – they should own it.”
“By Blood We Live [is] a killer collection of simply stellar vampire stories that just floored me from beginning to end. … Yet another masterful – dare I say perfect – anthology.”

And as if that wasn’t cool enough for one day, Allen’s article also inspired some…fan art?

Way of the Wizard update

This is just a note to say that I’ve read everything submitted to The Way of the Wizard that was submitted on 9/10/09 or earlier. Submissions made during that period should have either received a rejection, or a note from me indicating that I’d like to hold onto your submission for further consideration.

I also just wanted to point out that there is no need to query me to see if your wizard story is wizardly enough for my purposes. Please just submit the story and I’ll make a judgment call when I read it. I’ve been getting a lot of queries posted to the guidelines thread, so I just wanted to clarify that there is no need to query. If you have a story that you think might qualify as a wizard story, and you’d like to submit it to the anthology, please do so.

(Don’t feel bad if you’re one of the folks who *did* query and please don’t post another comment or email me to apologize–it’s not necessary.)

The Game is Afoot!

Amazon.com is now showing stock of my new anthology The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which means the game is officially afoot!

Please note that if you’re going to go look for it in a brick & mortar store, there’s a good chance the book will be located in the mystery section, so if you don’t see it in SF/fantasy, be sure to look for it there.

If you’re on the fence about it, take a look at the anthology’s website, which features some interviews with the authors and several pieces of free fiction.