River Flows In Future India
SCI FI Wire published a piece I wrote about Ian McDonald’s novel River of Gods, which makes its US debut this month.
Alpha, the SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers
If you’re a young’un and you write SF/fantasy, check this out:
Alpha, the SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers (http://alpha.spellcaster.org), is a one-of-a-kind residency workshop for teens who write genre fiction. The application deadline is coming soon–at the end of March. The best twenty writers (14 to 19 years of age) who submit original science fiction, fantasy or horror stories will be accepted. For ten days in July, the students will stay at the University of Pittsburgh branch campus in Greensburg, PA. They’ll learn how to write from authors Timothy Zahn, Tamora Pierce, Dora Goss, Wen Spencer and others.
This is Alpha’s fifth year. Former Alpha students have sold stories to prominent publications including Boys’ Life, Realms of Fantasy, Writers of The Future, Fantasy Magazine, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Fantastic Stories, Corpse Blossoms, Aberrant Dreams, and Fantastical Visions.
Don’t Quote Me On This
I was just reading a book review in the New York Times, and I was going to post and say “Why the hell does the NYT put book titles in quotes instead of italics? Don’t they have an AP Style Guide?” It turns out, however, that putting quotes around book titles is the correct procedure according to AP Style. What’s up with that? No other style guide does that, why does the AP? It’s actually kind of stupid, if you think about it, since using italics to denote book titles and quotation marks to denote shorter works is a convenient short-hand way of differentiating between the two forms in a review. Do quotation marks have more journalistic integrity than italics?
On another note, this review is by the Times’s new SF reviewer, DAVE ITZKOFF, who is a former editor of Spin and Maxim. I know what you’re thinking: yes, those are the perfect qualifications to review SF for one of the most respected review venues in the world.
Now to be fair, I don’t know much about the guy–I didn’t know who he was until I googled him, but he says things in his review that make me scratch my head. First, he starts off with “Why does contemporary science fiction have to be so geeky?” and goes on to refer to the genre as “sci-fi” several times. He also says that, though he enjoyed Counting Heads very much, “[he] cannot [recommend the book to Kite Runner readers, friends, or anyone] in good conscience because if you were to immerse yourself in most of the sci-fi being published these days, you would probably enjoy it as much as one enjoys reading a biology textbook or a stereo manual.”
And this is the guy who the NYT decided would be the best person to review genre books for them?
CBS Award Nominations
Everyone likes to nominate things for awards, right? Well, have you nominated stuff for this one yet? They extended the deadline just for you.
The Carl Brandon Society has extended the deadline for nominating works for the Carl Brandon Parallax Award and the Carl Brandon Kindred Award; two juried awards recognizing excellence in speculative fiction by or about people of colour. Each award comes with a $1,000 prize. The awards will be presented at Wiscon 30, to be held May 26-29, 2006 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
The CBS Parallax Award will go to a work of speculative fiction in English, written by a person of colour. Nominees may be asked to provide a brief statement self-identifying as a person of colour. Statements should be sent to the awards administrator. CBS Parallax Award Jury: Celu Amberstone; Steven Barnes; MJ Hardman; Karin Lowachee; Jennifer Stevenson
New deadline for nominations: March 15, 2006
For more information, visit the Carl Brandon Society website.
LibraryThing
Today I discovered a wonderful way to waste time: LibraryThing.
LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. Because everyone catalogs together, you can also use LibraryThing to find people with similar libraries, get suggestions from people with your tastes and so forth.
Here’s my LibraryThing profile: http://www.librarything.com/profile/slushgod
And here’s my LibraryThing catalog: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/slushgod
It’s got sortable ratings and lets you link to your own reviews (or publish your own reviews). So, if you’re curious about my likes and dislikes, you can browse through my library by rating, either going to the top for good stuff, or going to the bottom for stuff to avoid. My library’s not complete by a long shot, but there’s a good sampling there. I mostly started with stuff I’ve reviewed.
Check it out!
Small Beer Press Super Sale
Small Beer Press is having a huge sale.
March is Small Press Month and it’s time to move some books and make space for the new titles. (Must make warehouse space, must pay printers!)
There are only so many of these deals available, so get them while they’re hot and all that. Good reading at unbeatable prices.
Go buy. There’s lots of good stuff. May I recommend the “Get a Massive Box of Books” option? It includes: The Mount, Carmen Dog, Report to the Men’s Club, Travel Light, Mockingbird, Perfect Circle, Trampoline: an anthology, Kalpa Imperial, Meet Me in the Moon Room–9 good books: Only $59.
IGMS #2
Issue 2 of Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show is now available!
Stories include:
In the Eyes of the Empress’s Cat by Brad Beaulieu
The Yazoo Queen by Orson Scott Card
Salt of Judas by Eric James Stone
The Mooncalfe by David Farland
Audience by Ty Franck
I Am the Queen by William Saxton
Zoo by Al Sarrantonio
Audio Bonus: Middle Woman by Orson Scott Card – Read by Mary Robinette Kowal
Special Software Bonus:
I-Wei’s Amazing Clocks
PLUS – COMING SOON TO THIS ISSUE:
From the Ender Saga – Pretty Boy – The story of Bonito Madrid by Orson Scott Card
DVD Column: Title Found! (Again!)
Turns out my previous announcement was somewhat premature. Laird Barron piped up in the comments to that post and suggested the title “Camera Obscura,” and I’ve decided to go with that instead of “Laterna Magica.”
Thanks Laird!
Feb. 2006 Acquisitions
New this month: a tale of religious fervor by Daryl Gregory; two pieces on luck from two Michaels: one from Kandel, the other from Libling; a stunning Cambodian modern day fantasy from Geoff Ryman; post-apocalyptica from Carol Emshwiller; some ghostly Hollywood humor from Ron Goulart; and John Morressy revisits the O’Farrisseys.
Slush Annoyance of the Day: 2/28/06
I just witnessed the most obnoxious slush submission EVER. Someone sent us a letter informing us of the impending arrival of his brilliant new story, along with a bunch of quotes from people he knows that say how good it is. But the best (or worst) part about the submission is that it was full of red, white, and blue stars, which got all over the place when I opened the envelope. And to make things worse, they’re made of some material that’s very static-clingy, so they’re very difficult to pick up and/or brush off your hands.
Advice: DON’T DO THIS.