Shaken & Stirred

Monday Hangovers

• Save Ohio Libraries.
• John Green ponders different possibilities for advance and royalty structures.
• Villains gloat.
• Teens still watch plenty of TV.
• Michael Chabon has a dead interesting essay in the New York Review of Books: "Manhood for Amateurs: The Wilderness of Childhood."
• Another Boston Globe review may have been more talked about over the weekend, but Liz Rosenberg's consideration of some new paranormal titles for teens makes some intriguing assertions about why teenagers dig the supernatural. Arguments, comments, etc.?
• Sarah Dunant on historical fiction, and the Guardian on upstart historians.
• Laurel Snyder wonders about the differences between (and is looking for examples of) episodic rather than epic fantasy. Some of you more theory-oriented types can undoubtedly shine the light here. 
• A discussion at the Enchanted Inkpot about fantasy tropes and whether they can be escaped.

The Glove Is Off

Some of you who've been reading this blog so long you recall its previous homes on blogspot and journalscape might also remember a great number of "Glove Monster" posts during a certain time period. I find it hard to mourn such a problematic personality, but I certainly mourn the kid who gave us some great music, and then grew up too damaged and famous to quite be a whole person. 

Here's the longest post I ever did about MJ (that I can remember) from 2003, oddly and creepily about how he'd never believe he could die*, and here's my favorite related video:

 

R.I.P., kid. 

*Yes, I know. I used to be a much better blogger type. If only there'd been tags back then, it'd be a lot easier to find old posts.

Wednesday Hangovers

• Actual posts on hold until draft is finished. In the meantime:
• Some chatter about first-person, present tense. I do love some point of view chatter.
• Andrea Seigel got a truck, and it's way fancier than Janet Reno's.
• "The Lie that is Bookscan."
• Alan's fantasy world-building guide: "7. Are feelings considered to be insects or mammals?"
• Colleen's latest "What a Girl Wants" finds several authors considering the girl detective. Well worth a read.
• Maud posts some delightful snippets of her exchange with Alexander Chee about Ford Maddox Ford and Jean Rhys' blood-letting in print after their affair.
• Laura Miller makes some recommendations for Buffy fans in need of a fix from the current urban fantasy explosion. It's nice to see someone outside the field write about the newer iteration of the urban fantasy subgenre without bashing it, and noting some of its most interesting characteristics--the coupling of contemporary fantasy with the hard-boiled PI voice and the prevalence of blue collar heroines in it, for instance. Particularly happy to see the Kate Daniels' series get namechecked.

Thursday Hangovers

• I'm sure you've seen this elsewhere, but just in case--Jeff VanderMeer has tons of good stuff up about the Shared Worlds summer camp for teens to learn about writing SFF. Jeff also asked some Shared Worlds faculty about real cities they think have a fantasy/SF quality. Great program, great read.
• Steve Berman of Lethe Press fame wrote with an exciting announcement, the launch of a new quarterly magazine called Icarus bringing together his two great literary loves, speculative fiction and gay-themed stories. The first issue is now available.
• Speaking of gay issues, YA author Sara Ryan has a great post about cynical optimism in an age where teens are still getting beat up for admitting they're gay, but are also organizing amazing things like the Anti-Prom too. 
• Midori offers a strong recommendation for Téa Obreht's debut story, "The Tiger's Wife," in the fiction ish of the New Yorker (June 8).
• An update on the Library of Congress project that's digitizing newspapers from circa the 1900s--the project has surpassed a million pages. Great research treasure trove for those of you working on historical projects (Scott, Justine). (Via Ron Charles on twitter.)
• Speaking of Scott, here's a thorough report about the panel on alternate history in YA that he, Holly and Cassie did at BEA.
• Brandon Sanderson on "The YA Invasion." He makes an interesting suggestion about how the popularity of SFF YA might have influenced the epic or high fantasy section of the field: "I think it made the genre better. I think we've had to look at our sluggish beginnings in epic, and realize that two hundred pages of wandering around a castle before conflict appears may not be the best way to begin a story. We've had to become more creative in our worldbuilding, partially (I think) to compete with the elegance of YA competition. Probably, most epic authors don't even think about this, though I bet many of them have read Potter and the others.  You can't help but react to, incorporate, and learn from what you read." (Hat tip to Stacy Whitman, also on twitter.)
• Roger Sutton has been posting on lots of hot topics of late, resulting in some very interesting discussions in the comments section. See "Blogs and Buzz,"  "Publishers and Bloggers," and "The fanboys can be merciless," for starters.
• Free Arts and Crafts label music sampler on Amazon. Some good stuff on there. (Via largehearted boy.)
• Finally, early reports on Salinger vs. Colting seem to indicate that the judge is thinking along the same lines as Chris Barzak. You should still read what Chris has to say, though, as an author who wrote a book in direct conversation with Catcher.

Oversaturated With Meaning

Errol Morris responds to some of the letters he received about his characteristically excellent seven-part piece "Bamboozling Ourselves" (scroll to the bottom to start at the beginning), about the Vermeer forgeries of Han van Meegeren during the World War II era. The whole thing is full of provocative ideas and well worth your time, but this caught my eye:

I was standing in the Mauritshuis on a visit to The Hague. And there it is, hanging on the wall, one of the most famous paintings in the world, "The Girl with the Pearl Earring." O.K. It was something of a letdown. (I had a similar response to the Mona Lisa and the Botticelli Venus.) It was actually – at least for me – impossible to look at the painting as a painting. Clearly, it has been singled out for a reason, but I am no longer sure of what that reason might be. It is such an iconic image – reproduced hundreds of thousands, if not millions of times – that it is unclear what I am responding to. Is it its transcendent fame; its ubiquity – to the point of kitschiness; its real or imagined value, $100 million, $200 million? Or its provenance? The feeling that I am in the presence of Vermeer. But one thing I know for sure: it is impossible to respond to it as just another painting.

Who hasn't had this reaction before one famous piece of art or another?

In Which A Girl Goes On A Journey

I'm sure you're aware of the launch of Catherynne Valente's magnificent new project, a YA-in-progress called The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, which is mentioned and quoted from in her most recent novel for adults, Palimpsest. When I say in progress, I mean that it's being posted as she writes it, with a new chapter up each Monday. If you've been under a dark cloud and haven't heard the reasons why, here's the back story. The story story began today, and I'm very much excited to follow it.(There's even audio of her reading it.)

If you feel likewise, donate what you can, and do spread the word.

Monday Hangovers

• An interview with China Mieville kicks off his guest-blogging stint at Omnivoracious.
• Kevin Brockmeier's 50 favorite short stories in the Oxford American--several of my own favorites are included. (I do love Terry Bisson's "Bears Discover Fire," but "The Two Janets" is actually my fave from that collection. And, yay, the whole collection is on google books here, and I've handily bookmarked the Janets page for you. It starts: "I'm not one of those people who thinks you have to read a book to get something out of it. You can learn a lot about a book by picking it up, turning it over, rubbing the cover, riffling the pages open and shut. Especially if it's been read enough times before, it'll speak to you." Also, happy to see stories by Dora Goss and Kelly on there.)
• New Megan Whalen Turner book, A Conspiracy of Kings, coming in April 2010. Yay! (Via Monica.)
• Over at NPR, some indie booksellers offer summer reading recs and Eduardo Galeano's Mirrors is one of them. All this newfound Galeano discussion is such a wonderful thing. AND NPR also has a piece on a the Dictionary of American Regional English, including a fabulous list of terms. (Last link via Maud.)
• Jeff Ford's "How They Tried to Make Me Hate Reading" goes in the short list of posts that will always make me happy, from now until the end of time. You must read it. Of Silas Marner in the sixth grade: "If Rumsfeld had known of it, they seriously would have put this to use at Guantanamo." Hee.
• The new issue of Conjunctions, "Impossible Realism," edited by Brian Evenson and Bradford Morrow, looks great. There's a new Liz Hand story in it, "Hungerford Bridge," which is one of a handful that are up online. To my knowledge, the term "New Wave Fabulists" only became common after Peter Straub's guest-edited Conjunctions in Fall 2002, but definitely took on a life of its own. I would be kind of joyous if "Impossible Realists" catches on.
• Finally, let the excellence of these proposed films wash over you.

The Written Word

1. In almost all cases, we want the reader to be wondering what happens next, not what is happening.

2. You ever get one of those vertigo moments when you're working, the sudden realization that, "Holy s$#*, now there is a story where before there was nothing"? That's a nice feeling, with side helpings of dizzying and scary.

(C leaves for a different set of mountains for another week of workshopping tomorrow morning. My intent is to bang and bash away on the new book, and get as close to finishing the current draft as I can. And to watch lots of bad television, of course. I suspect there will also be a slew of forlorn tweets. And you never know, I might starve to death.)

Nostalgic Futures

Charlie Jane has a fun piece at i09 called "4 Writers We Wish Would Return to Science Fiction," including two of my favorite writers of all time, Nicola Griffith and Karen Joy Fowler. (I cop to not having read nearly enough Mary Doria Russell or Samuel Delany, though I enjoyed what I have read by each of them a great deal.) You should really go read the whole piece, but here's a snippet from Karen:

One final point. In the last couple of weeks I've read about toxoplasma — the parasite that alters our behavior until we're simply pawns in the paws of housepet cats; a woman in India found guilty of murdering her fiance based on her brain scan; a site on the internet where for a monthly fee a computer will pray for you ceaselessly. Stan Robinson says we all live in a science fiction novel now and it's clearly true. So I truly believe that science fiction is realism now and literary realism is a nostalgic literature about a place where we once lived, but no longer do.

For the record, I'll read anything either of these ladies write. Also, I got to read the new story K references at the workshop in the mountains last week, and it is fabulous.

Wild Huh?

Why couldn't they just publish the screenplay? Although I completely think Erin should make good on her abbreviated Heartbreaking Work. Preorder! I feel like this is all a hallucination. 

Three Things

1. Home. Oh, but I do miss the mountains and the excellent company.

2. Possibly nursing a case of mini-hamthrax, even with the Tamiflu. Or maybe it's just a garden-variety cold.

3. Kage Baker has written a middle grade novel, The Hotel Under the Sand. WANT. (Via Colleen.)

Sunday Hangovers

Closing tabs before heading to the airport:

• A podcast of my favorite Greg van Eekhout story "Will You Be An Astronaut" at Escape Pod.
• "The Meadows Museum of the Invisible."  
• People can smell/taste/etc words. 
• A fascinating post from the cinetrix about A.O. Scott's subtly brutal review of the Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida-written Away We Go. (Note: I am not an Eggers/Vida hater, but the review is worth reading.) 
• All right, off to finish packing and drive three hours to the Albuquerque airport. Thus endeth Rio Hondo 2009.  

Random Hangovers

• Jeff Ford gets a personal letter and free product from Fluff. Now that's customer service.
• Sarah Prineas reflects on the year since her first book was published. 
• An excellent essay by Sarah Waters on the inspiration for her new novel and including a bonus list of her favorite ghost stories. 
• Also in the Guardian, Ian MacKenzie's top 10 artworks in novels. 
• Errol Morris on The Uncanny Valley. 
• Stephany gets all up in the vampire house with a Twilight binge.  
• Sarah has a link to China Mieville on crime fiction, and offers some thoughts of her own. 
• Last night we had the world's most fabulous mole over polenta (which I also had for post-critique lunch today, yay!), and tonight Christopher's cooking pad thai (which never disappoints). A girl could get used to this. Now I will write the fiction for a bit.