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?

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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.) 

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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.

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Before the Apocalypse, There was Reggaetón

People sometimes ask me about the cover of Wastelands, wondering where they might have seen it before. Some of you may remember that when the cover (by Daniel Kvasznicza) was first revealed, I mentioned how the cover art had been previously used as a backdrop on a rap album or something. It took me a while, but I finally got more of a complete picture (so to speak) as to the history of the image.

First, it was actually first used as the backdrop for an animated film that screened in Austria in 2004. Then Sony licensed the image for use on the album King of Kings by Don Omar (actually Reggaetón, not rap). Here it is:

On the cover, it’s hardly visible at all, though on the second image, which looks to be the back of the CD case, it’s obviously much more visible.

The image has also been posted online in various venues to illustrate posts about post-apocalyptic scenarios, such as at io9.com and elsewhere.

So there you have it. The brief, sordid history behind the Wastelands cover.

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io9 Loves Federations

io9 has a rave review of Federations:

“Federations aims to be an anthology of short stories about interstellar civilizations — think Star Trek, Star Wars, or Isaac Asimov‘s Foundation series. But really, most of the stories in this collection are just classic space opera, with only a little discussion of the challenges and joys of multi-planetary collaboration. There’s quite a lot of space war, a fair bit of first contact, and a dash of deep-space exploration. And that turns out to be a more thrilling experience, in many ways, than a more tightly thematic collection of stories about deep-space alliances might have been. … Federations is definitely one of those anthologies that offers something for everyone. … Whether they’re taking us to deep-space battles, showing us uneasy collaboration between vastly different races, or satirizing the very idea of a benign interplanetary alliance, the stories in Federations mostly keep a very human perspective on the hugeness and strangeness of a galaxy teeming with life. And that’s reason enough to sign on to its galactic charter.”

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By Blood We Live: Now Available + Website Launches

My vampire anthology By Blood We Live is now on sale, and so I’m launching the anthology’s website, which features the complete text of 8 stories from the book.

Here’s the cover copy:

Vampires. They are the most elegant of monsters—ancient, seductive, doomed, deadly. They lurk in the shadows, at your window, in your dreams. They are beautiful as anything you’ve ever seen, but their flesh is cold as the grave, and their lips taste of blood. From Dracula to Twilight, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to True Blood, many have fallen under their spell. Now acclaimed editor John Joseph Adams brings you 33 of the most haunting vampire stories of the past three decades, from some of today’s most renowned authors of fantasy, science fiction, and horror.

Charming gentlemen with the manners of a prior age. Savage killing machines who surge screaming from hidden vaults. Cute little girls frozen forever in slender bodies. Long-buried loved ones who scratch at the door, begging to be let in. Nowhere is safe, not mist-shrouded Transylvania or the Italian Riviera or even a sleepy town in Maine. This is a hidden world, an eternal world, where nothing is forbidden…as long as you’re willing to pay the price.

By Blood We Live is 245,000 words of the best in vampire fiction. Thirsty? By Blood We Live will satisfy your darkest cravings…

And here’s the URL: www.johnjosephadams.com/by-blood-we-live

My next anthology, The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, is coming out in September, but I’m launching the site for that now as well:

Sherlock Holmes is back!

Sherlock Holmes, the world’s first—and most famous—consulting detective, came to the world’s attention more than 120 years ago through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels and stories. But Conan Doyle didn’t reveal all of the Great Detective’s adventures…

Here are some of the best Holmes pastiches of the last 30 years, twenty-eight tales of mystery and the imagination detailing Holmes’s further exploits, as told by many of today’s greatest storytellers, including Stephen King, Anne Perry, Anthony Burgess, Neil Gaiman, Naomi Novik, Stephen Baxter, Tanith Lee, Michael Moorcock, and many more.

These are the improbable adventures of Sherlock Holmes, where nothing is impossible, and nothing can be ruled out. In these cases, Holmes investigates ghosts, curses, aliens, dinosaurs, shapeshifters, and evil gods. But is it the supernatural, or is there a perfectly rational explanation?

You won’t be sure, and neither will Holmes and Watson as they match wits with pirates, assassins, con artists, and criminal masterminds of all stripes, including some familiar foes, such as their old nemesis, Professor Moriarty.

In these pages you’ll also find our heroes crossing paths with H. G. Wells, Lewis Carroll, and even Arthur Conan Doyle himself, and you’ll be astounded to learn the truth behind cases previously alluded to by Watson but never before documented until now. These are tales that take us from the familiar quarters at 221B Baker Street to alternate realities, from the gaslit streets of London to the far future and beyond.

Whether it’s mystery, fantasy, horror, or science fiction, no puzzle is too challenging for the Great Detective. The game is afoot!

And the URL is www.johnjosephadams.com/sherlock-holmes

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My Worldcon Schedule, or Where You Can Meet and Stalk John Joseph Adams from August 6-10

For those of my fans and/or stalkers in the Montreal area, and others planning to attend Worldcon, here’s my programming schedule:

When: Thu 12:30
Location:  P-511BE
Title:  I Read the News Today
Session ID:  176
All Participants:  Brad Templeton, julie c andrijeski, John Joseph
Adams
Moderator:  julie c andrijeski
Description:  How has the war on terror been reflected in onscreen SF?
 Do those aliens represent al-Qaeda or us?  Does SF provide a means to
discuss these matters indirectly?

Duration:  1:00 hrs:min
Language:  English
Track: Media
AV/Internet request:  None

When: Fri 10:00
Location:  P-518A
Title:  When did SF Conquer the Mainstream?
Session ID:  483
All Participants:  Daryl Gregory, Fred Lerner, Julie McGalliard, Kathy
Morrow, John Joseph Adams
Moderator:  Julie McGalliard
Description:  Once upon a time, very little science fiction was to be
found that didn’t appear either as a novel of ideas with a dash of
action (Wells, Rosny) or a juvenile yarn with a dash of ideas (Verne,
E. E. Smith).  Today, science fiction runs the entire gamut from the
pulpish to the mainstream (Chabon, McCarthy) and ideas may be served
up wholesale in many other media.

Duration:  1:00 hrs:min
Language:  English
Track: Literature in English
AV/Internet request:  None

When: Fri 14:00
Location:  P-Autographs
Title:  John Joseph Adams Signing
Session ID:  1232
All Participants:  John Joseph Adams
Moderator:  <Not Available>
Description:  John Joseph Adams Signing
Duration:  1:00 hrs:min
Language:  English
Track: Autographs
AV/Internet request:  None

When: Fri 21:00
Location:  P-513B
Title:  Vampire Rules–and How to Recognize Them Without a Mirror
Session ID:  724
All Participants:  Inanna Arthen, Jennifer Williams, Karen Dales,
Victoria Janssen, John Joseph Adams
Moderator:  Victoria Janssen
Description:  Are there vampire rules that writers MUST follow? Some
experts and enthusiasts discuss vampires, including eastern vs western
vampires.

Duration:  1:00 hrs:min
Language:  English
Track: Creative Writing
AV/Internet request:  None

When: Sat 15:30
Location:  P-513A
Title:  “Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is over.”
Session ID:  631
All Participants:  Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Kij Johnson, John Joseph
Adams, Liz Gorinsky
Moderator:  Kij Johnson
Description:  That was The Onion’s headline when George W. Bush took
office, and, in many respects, it was an accurate piece of SF-nal
prediction. What use has sf made of the George W. Bush presidency, and
the War on Terror in particular?
Duration:  1:30 hrs:min
Language:  English
Track: Literature in English
AV/Internet request:  None

When: Sun 14:00
Location:  P-516E
Title:  From A to Zombies
Session ID:  862
All Participants:  Eric Gauthier, Adeline Lamarre, John Joseph Adams
Moderator:  Eric Gauthier
Description:  Lend us your brains —  we’ll find out why zombies are so
cool.
Duration:  1:00 hrs:min
Language:  Bilingual
Track: Teen Programming
AV/Internet request:  None

When: Sun 22:00
Location:  P-511CF
Title:  The Living Dead
Session ID:  393
All Participants:  Jason Bourget, Jeanne Cavelos, Seanan McGuire, John
Joseph Adams
Moderator:  Jeanne Cavelos
Description:  Forty years after George Romero gave us “Night of the
Living Dead,” his zombies still walk among us in remakes, new films
from Romero himself, and astonishing recent movies from others ranging
from “Shaun of the Dead” to “28 Weeks Later.”  Why is this SF/horror
subgenre so enduring?  What are its classics and which are merely the
walking dead?

Duration:  1:00 hrs:min
Language:  English
Track: Media
AV/Internet request:  None

When: Mon 9:00
Location:  Outdoors
Title:  Stroll With The Stars – Monday
Session ID:  7
All Participants:  Lawrence M. Schoen, Stephen H. Segal, Stu Segal,
Frank Wu, John Joseph Adams
Moderator:  Stu Segal
Description:  A gentle, friendly 1 mile stroll with some of your
favorite Authors, Artists & Editors.  Leaving daily 9AM, from the
Riopelle Fountain outside the Palais (corner of Ave Viger & Rue de
Bleury), returning before 10AM.
Duration:  1:00 hrs:min
Language:  English
Track: The Light Programme
AV/Internet request:  None

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