WriteSF.com
SCI FI Wire published today a news story I wrote about SF author Jeffrey A. Carver’s new writing site, WriteSF.com.
A Confluence of Chairs
So, last week, my computer chair at home broke, *and* the computer chair at work broke. As it happens, they’re both the same model chair, and I think I’m going to be able to scavenge parts from one to fix the other, but if we cobble together a frankenchair out of my base and the seat from the office chair, who does the chair belong to, me or the office?
But anyway, I thought my chair breaking days were over when I lost all that weight. Yet now here I am breaking two chairs in the same week.
Death to Cliches!
More newsy goodness:
SCI FI Wire published today a news story I wrote about the Spring 2006 issue of Subterranean Magazine, which will be guest-edited by SF author John Scalzi, and will focus on reinventing genre cliches.
Fantasy Magazine
SCI FI Wire published today a news story I wrote about Prime Books’s new magazine, Fantasy Magazine.
Writing Video Games
I was just perusing Bioware’s website and noted that they’re currently looking for video game writers. Since many of my readers are writers, I thought it might be of interest. The position is on-site, in Canada, and requires the writer have previously published a novel or have had two television or movie scripts produced.
Publishing Horror Story
SCI FI Wire just published a news story I wrote about Cherie Priest’s experience getting her first novel, Four and Twenty Blackbirds, published.
Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
My review of Peeps by Scott Westerfeld was just published in Strange Horizons today. Go read the review! Go buy the book!
“…an infectious and clever reinvention of the vampire novel…[Westerfeld] is a natural storyteller…”
Grade: A
Intergalactic Review Column
For everyone who likes my reviews, good news: I’m going to have my own review column in Orson Scott Card’s new webzine, Intergalactic Medicine Show. I’m going to be covering both books and audiobooks, and the column will appear monthly.
So, if you’re an author, publicist, or publisher, and you’d like to send me books for review in Intergalactic Medicine Show, see my Review Books page for details.
The Bestseller Awards
On Thursday last week, I attended the first annual Book Summit put on by The Book Standard. At the event, publishing professionals congregated to discuss trends in publishing and strategies for the future. Think of it as a con for booksellers and publishers. I went on the off chance that there’d be something of interest to genre fans, and proposed to Patrick Lee of SCI FI Wire that I cover the event. That got me in for free, so that was nice, but there was nary a mention of genre, so there was little to cover. However, at the end of the evening, The Book Standard’s Bestseller Awards were announced, several of which went to genre titles. As a result, I was able to write up a summary of the winners for SCI FI Wire, which you can now read here.
Carol Pinchefsky, the F&SF Humor Competition editor, and Douglas E. Cohen, the assistant editor at Realms of Fantasy, joined me at the event, Doug as my guest, and Carol was theoretically there to cover the event for UrbanDaddy.com (she also freelances for SCI FI Wire, but I beat her to the punch on this pitch).
Market Forces by Richard K. Morgan
A brilliant and brutal near-future SF satire about businessmen who manage wars (backing the side who they think will earn them the most profit if victorious) and climb the corporate ladder by killing off their competition in gladiatorial car duels; reads as if it were written by Harlan Ellison channeling Chuck Palaniuk, and ranks with the best of what either of those two have written.
Grade: A+