Good news! I’ve been asked to attend Context 26, in Worthington, OH (just outside Columbus), as their editor guest of honor. Context 26 will be held Sept. 27-29, 2013. Other guests TBD.
This is in addition to me serving as editor guest of honor at this year’s World Horror Convention. Huzzah!
I was tagged by Charles Tan to take part in The Next Big Thing meme, which basically asks writers (and editors) to answer the same set of questions and hops from blog to blog.
What is the title of your next book?
That depends on what is meant by “next.” The next book I have that’s coming out is The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination (Feb. 19, 2013). That’ll be followed shortly thereafter by Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond (Feb. 26, 2013), which I co-edited with Douglas Cohen. And just recently released were Epic: Legends of Fantasy (Nov. 6, 2012) and the revised and expanded second edition of my anthology Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories (Dec. 4, 2012). If “next” means the next book that I’m working on now, then that’s Wastelands, Vol. II: More Stories of the Apocalypse (Summer 2013).
For purposes of the meme here, since I have to pick one, I’ll go with the mad scientist anthology.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
I was listening to the Escape Pod episode featuring Jeremiah Tolbert’s story “Instead of a Loving Heart” (which I ended up including as one of two reprints in the anthology), which I loved, and I thought, “Hey, you know what I like? Mad scientists. Someone should do a mad scientist anthology.” And, being a mad scientist an anthologist myself, I decided to be the one to do it. Then, fortuitously, Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible came along, and made a mad scientist anthology super-viable.
What genre does your book fall under?
It’s an anthology of stories about mad scientists and evil geniuses, so it’s mostly science fiction, with some fantasy and a liberal dose of humor in many cases.
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
I don’t care but I would like—nay, DEMAND—it be directed by Christopher Nolan. Or, given the humorous slant of most of the book, maybe Edgar Wright.
What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
Evil geniuses are always so keen on telling captured heroes all their fiendish plans; isn’t it about time someone gave them a platform such as this one to reach the masses with their messages of hope death and prosperity destruction?
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
It will be published by Tor Books (Feb. 19, 2013). I’m represented by Joe Monti of Barry Goldblatt Literary.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
It took about six or nine months or so to assemble the anthology, I guess, if you count all the time I gave the authors to write their stories.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
It is beyond compare. If any dare to even stand in its shadow, they will be utterly and mercilessly destroyed.
Well, actually…I suppose there’s the Dr. Horrible comics, and any superhero anthologies, such as Lou Anders’s Masked.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
World domination. Editing the anthology was actually an integral part of my own evil plan for taking over the world. See, I just got some of the greatest creative minds of our time to dream up various world domination scenarios under the guise of fiction, which I will of course exploit myself.
First order of business: owning and reading The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination will be mandatory!
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
As research for the anthology, I had to do a lot of scouting to find the right Pacific island to build my evil lair. An evil lair has to be on an island, of course, and it requires a certain level of shark-infestation in the waters, so it can be difficult to find just the right spot, especially with all the mad scientist competition for lair real estate. (Plus, you can’t use any of the ones the government tested nukes on…well, actually, I can see that being of use to SOME people, but it’s not my thing.)
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I’m told tradition dictates, I’m to tag five people, and thus urge them to participate. They will or they won’t! (I am a benevolent dictator!) Hope you check out their blogs next week:
Jonathan Strahan
Hugh Howey
Steven Gould
William Alexander
Molly Tanzer
You may have noticed that Lightspeed’s subscription price went up recently, from $1.99 an issue to $2.99 an issue (e.g., from $23.88 to $35.88 annually). I just wanted to briefly explain why. A version of this note is going to run in the December editorial, but I wanted to post about it sooner rather than later.
As many of you know, Lightspeed has been available as a subscription via Amazon.com’s Periodicals program since late 2011. What you may not have known is that Amazon actually sets the price on those subscriptions. When Lightspeed first launched as an Amazon subscription, it was before the Lightspeed–Fantasy merger, at which point the issues were about 30,000-35,000 words long. At that time, we sold individual issues for $2.99 and Amazon priced Lightspeed at $1.99 a month for subscribers.
Post-merger, we doubled our amount of fiction content by merging Fantasy Magazine into Lightspeed, and then also added in the novella reprints to each ebook issue as well, taking each ebook issue to around 80,000-85,000 words total. We raised our cover price to $3.99, but Amazon kept our subscription price at $1.99 per issue; Amazon reviews periodicals pricing on their own schedule—regardless of what the publisher may prefer—so it wasn’t until the past couple of weeks that they reviewed the pricing for Lightspeed. After their review, they adjusted the subscription price up to $2.99, due, we assume, to the fact that each issue of the magazine is now much longer. Our individual issue price remains at $3.99 an issue, so subscribers will still be saving a dollar an issue by subscribing (or about 25% off the cover price).
So, the price increase is not something that was under our control, but we feel like it is a fair price for the magazine, and we hope you’ll agree and continue to subscribe. Rest assured, we’re not going to take this newfound income and spend it frivolously; indeed, we plan to take it and invest it back into Lightspeed, to make it the best magazine it can be.
Assuming the Frankenstorm doesn’t derail everything, I’ll be at the World Fantasy Convention Nov. 1-4. Here’s where you can find me at the convention:
Group Reading/Discussion: Epic
Friday, November 2 – 1:00-3:00pm
Sheraton/ Vice President Suite #1073
Group reading for the new anthology Epic: Legends of Fantasy edited by John Joseph Adams. Contributors Aliette de Bodard, Mary Robinette Kowal, Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson will read from their stories in the anthology. Event will also include Q&A/discussion led by editor John Joseph Adams.
Autograph Reception
Friday, November 2 – 8:00-10:30pm
Sheraton / Grand York Ballroom
Mass autographing session featuring most of the convention participants.
Reading: The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination
Saturday, November 3 – 11:30am-12:00pm
Sheraton / King
Editor John Joseph Adams will read a story from his anthology The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination (Pubdate: February 2013).
Group Reading: Lightspeed
Saturday, November 3 – 2:00-3:00pm
Sheraton/ Vice President Suite #1073
Group reading for the science fiction/fantasy magazine Lightspeed edited by John Joseph Adams. Contributors Matthew Kressel (“The Sounds of Old Earth,” Lightspeed, January 2013) and Andrew Penn Romine (“The Parting Glass,” Lightspeed, December 2011) will read their stories from the magazine.
Group Reading: Nightmare
Saturday, November 3 – 3:00-4:00pm
Sheraton/ Vice President Suite #1073
Group reading for the new horror magazine Nightmare edited by John Joseph Adams. Contributors Genevieve Valentine (“Good Fences,” Nightmare, October 2012), Joe Haldeman (“Graves,” Nightmare, November 2012), and Desirina Boskovich (“Construction Project,” Nightmare, November 2012) will read their stories from the magazine. (Note: Desirina will not be at the convention, so her story will be read by Christie Yant.)
I recently sold a new anthology that I’m now free to announce: OZ REIMAGINED, which I’m co-editing with Douglas Cohen (formerly of Realms of Fantasy). Pop over to io9 to read the press release about the anthology. Below is the work-in-progress cover by artist Galen Dara, who will also be illustrating every story in the anthology. It contains “reimaginings” of L. Frank Baum’s Oz by a variety of authors, including: Orson Scott Card, Tad Williams, Jane Yolen, Seanan McGuire, Jonathan Maberry, Simon R. Green, David Farland, and many others–plus a foreword by Gregory Maguire, the renowned author of Wicked.
Good news, post-apocalyptic fiction fans: And no, I don’t mean the new TV show, Revolution. Even better: I’m going to be doing a follow up volume to my critically-acclaimed anthology, Wastelands, which will be called, at least for now, Wastelands 2.
As I’ve done with most of my other anthologies, I’d like to solicit recommendations, so if you have any outstanding examples of post-apocalyptic fiction you’d like to point out to me, please feel free to let me know about them by entering them into my post-apocalyptic fiction database.
As I did with my previous sequel anthology, The Living Dead 2, for Wastelands 2, I will likely be focusing on very new material, primarily stories published since Wastelands (Vol. 1) was assembled. The first volume was published in January 2008, but since it was mostly edited the year before, basically I’ll primarily be looking for material published from 2007-Present.
Since this is an anthology, obviously I’m primarily interested in short fiction, but if you want to recommend novels or novel series, that is welcome too, as I may include a “for further reading” list in the anthology. Note, however, that there is an extensive list of novels in Wastelands (Vol. 1), so again this would primarily be of interest for material published 2007-Present.
If you are a writer and would like to recommend your own short fiction, that is quite welcome. If you’d like to send me your story for consideration, please use my online submission system. If you’re submitting your own story for consideration, there is no need to also enter it into the database (but there’s no harm done if you do).
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ETA, to answer some questions that have come up:
Night Shade Books announced a new revised and expanded edition of my anthology Brave New Worlds today, which is coming out in December:
SAN FRANCISCO (August 25, 2012) — Night Shade Books are delighted to announce the release of a revised and expanded edition of the critically acclaimed anthology Brave New Worlds, edited by Hugo-nominated editor John Joseph Adams.
An engaging collection of thirty-six of the best dystopian short stories, Brave New Worlds is a shining example of fiction from today’s most visionary writers. To celebrate this rerelease, the new edition not only includes three additional fantastic stories but also an updated recommended reading list and a study guide written by renowned scholar and critic Gary K. Wolfe designed to help book clubs and classrooms discuss the stories in more detail.
Editor John Joseph Adams says, “Dystopian fiction has long been one of my favorite subgenres, and Brave New Worlds has been near and dear to me from the moment I started working on it. So it’s a great pleasure to be able to return to work on it once again, and to have it find new life in the marketplace so new readers can discover it for the first time.”
Editor in Chief Jeremy Lassen commented, “The many anthologies Adams has edited have helped redefine the boundaries of various SF/Fantasy subgenres. Brave New Worlds is an import book, and an important part of this genre conversation.”
With new stories from Ken Liu, Jennifer Pelland and Robert Reed added to an already exemplary list of authors including Neil Gaiman, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Ursula K. Le Guin, this is an anthology not to be missed.
Brave New Worlds is due for release December 4th 2012. For more information about this edition of Brave New Worlds, please visit our website at http://www.nightshadebooks.com/, or contact us at publicity@nightshadebooks.com.
August 30 through September 3, I’ll be attending Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention (more commonly known as “Worldcon”). Last year at Worldcon, I got married and lost two Hugos. This year, I’m still married, and again have the opportunity to lose two Hugos.
Here’s my itinerary for the convention:
Reading: John Joseph Adams
Fri Aug 31 1:30pm – Fri Aug 31 3:00pm – Haymarket
John Joseph Adams, Carrie Vaughn, Christie Yant
Readings from the magazines Nightmare and Lightspeed, and anthologies Armored and Epic, all edited by John Joseph Adams.
Filling the Magazines
Fri Aug 31 3:00pm – Fri Aug 31 4:30pm – Crystal A
Ellen Datlow, Gordon Van Gelder, Jason Sizemore, John Joseph Adams, Neil Clarke, Stanley Schmidt
Current and former magazine editors discuss how to be an effective magazine editor, and how the job has been changing as dead-tree magazines give way to web-based electron-based venues. And why can’t an e-zine have as many stories as they want since there isn’t a page count?
Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic or Both?
Fri Aug 31 6:00pm – Fri Aug 31 7:30pm – Buckingham
Alaya Dawn Johnson, Heather Urbanski, Hugh Howey, John Joseph Adams, Marie Bilodeau
This panel will examine novels like the Hunger Games trilogy that have elements of both dystopian writing and the post-apocalyptic tradition and explore what those distinctions may mean.
Creating Exciting Anthologies
Sat Sep 1 10:30am – Sat Sep 1 12:00pm – Crystal C
Ellen Datlow, Jennifer Brozek, Joan Spicci Saberhagen, John Helfers, John Joseph Adams, Richard Gilliam
We’re in a golden age of science fiction and fantasy anthologies with clever new ideas coming out monthly from major and minor publishers. But where do they come from? How do editors interest publishers and writers in their ideas? How do you make the hard decisions between great stories and great writing (when you can’t have both)?
Hugo Award Ceremony
Sun Sep 2 8:00pm – Sun Sep 2 10:00pm – Grand Ballroom
John Scalzi and other presenters
That thing where they give out the Hugo Awards, duh!
I’m honored to announce that I’m once again nominated for the World Fantasy Award (the “special award” for professionals working in the fantasy field). Thanks to all who thought I was deserving of this honor, and congratulations to all the other nominees. [World Fantasy Award nominees]
Next week, I’m off to Pittsburgh to teach at the Alpha SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers, and then I’ll be attending Confluence, the Pittsburgh-area science fiction convention next weekend (July 27-29).
Also, on Tuesday, July 24, Kij Johnson, Catherynne M. Valente, Tamora Pierce, and I will be doing a reading at the Greensburg Barnes & Noble at 7PM.
For those of you attending Confluence, here’s my schedule of events during the convention:
Fri 5:00 pm | Oak
Are You a Member Here?
The question is whether we, as a group of readers (bunch of geeks, tribe of SF/F/H fans) and writers have gotten too exclusive–with tropes, words and shorthand universes–and if there is new stuff being written that would be accessible to Joe and Jill Common-Person. Would they have as much fun reading “A Game of Thrones” or “We Can Remember if for You Wholesale” as watching it?
Panelists: Steve Ramey, Lawrence Connolly, John Joseph Adams, Sarah Goslee
Fri 10:00 pm | Consuite
Kaffeeklatsch
An informal group discussion over coffee. Note: You typically must sign up for Kaffeeklatsches in advance, and I believe that is the case at Confluence as well.
Participants: Jonathan Maberry, John Joseph Adams
Sat 10:00 am | Main Lobby
Autographing
Participants: John Joseph Adams, James Daniel Ross
Sat 4:00 pm | Oak
Editors: What Do They Really Want?
Good question–here are a few, what do they have to say?
Participants: John Joseph Adams, Jeff Young, Eric Beebe, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Sara Goslee
Sat 6:00 pm | Oak
Can’t we Just Get Along?
Stories, books, songs. With so many creative things to do, it’s only natural that sometimes we work together to create something beyond the scope and abilities of just one person. What are the good things and bad things about collaboration? Can compromise actually lead to a better result? Lyrics and music, Editors and writers ,the perils and perks of working together. Whether it be authors with authors, authors with songwriters, songwriters with songwriters, good results will always speak for themselves.
Participants: Jonah Knight, Rand Bellavia, John Joseph Adams, Christopher J Pisano
Sat 9:00 pm | Sycamore
Reading: The Living Dead 2
Short readings from the anthology The Living Dead 2, by several of the authors.
Participants: John Joseph Adams, Gary Braunbeck, Jonathan Maberry, David Barr Kirtley, Jamie Lackey