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| Monday, May 12th, 2008 |
ellen_kushner
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6:01p |
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frostokovich
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8:25a |
Jason Van Hollander dips into Classic Imagery to Illustrate Attack of the Jazz Giants Jason Van Hollander dips into Classic Imagery to Illustrate Attack of the Jazz Giants 
Golden Gryphon Press chose the cover artist for Attack of the Jazz Giants, and in "Six-Degrees of Separation" event, they selected Jason Van Hollander, a multiple World Fantasy Award winning artist who also happens to live a block from me.
I live in an artistic community, though you wouldn't know it if you came to visit. On the surface, everything appears to be normal here, the way it would be if we'd all been taken over by pods from outer space. My next door neighbor, Bryan Willette, is a stained glass artist. Up the street is carpenter, and next to him a guy who builds movie sets. Across the street from Jason, a photographer. Behind us, a guitar virtuoso. A few blocks away, a children's book illustrator/writer.
This communal spirit created a rare collaborative bond between us. Not only was Jason showing me sketches for the cover, he was also proposing to include interior illustrations for the stories.
 I printed out the stories that we'd selected for the collection and he read them. He asked questions about them. He followed me home in the dark. (You, you foolish people, you think I'm kidding.)We spent time in a few libraries, researching source material. I hunted up images of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope for him, while he invaded the stacks on a quest for odd Russian iconography for another set of drawings. He threw himself into the creation of the book, vanishing for days, weeks, at a time, only to turn up with another weird piece of carefully stippled illustration--of Elvis nailed up as Jesus, of a drug-warped head of Edgar Allan Poe topping the body of the Conqueror Worm, of the Virgin Mary reflected in the protective goggles of a face that looks remarkably like his own.
All of this time and effort he put into the project was out of pure love for it, because the publisher couldn't pay for interiors. They were getting them because he was compelled to create them.
Only two artists I've ever worked with have solicited opinions from me about the artwork they proposed to put on my books: Thomas Thiemeyer, who painted the magnificent covers for the Shadowbridge books; and Jason Van Hollander, whose strange and grotesque artwork is the personification of Arkham House the way it used to be--the distorted, twisted architecture of Innsmouth and a dozen other Lovecraftian landscapes.
Derangement turned inside out. And yet, like a diseased mirror, his work reflects the range of dark fantasy and horror and, yes, humor that lies between the covers of Attack of the Jazz Giants & Other Stories. I can't imagine these stories of mine now without the accompanying illustrations. And in the process I gained a mordant, talented, remarkable friend.
So long as his sly wit graces the neighborhood, I'll know that we've not yet been taken over completely by the pod people.
gf (with assistance from Don Lafferty) Current Mood: warm & fuzzyCurrent Music: "On the Road to Recovery" |
| Sunday, May 11th, 2008 |
ellen_kushner
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7:53p |
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mallory_blog
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4:05p |
w00t!! I just learned that my short story "Rapunsilk" just won the James C. and Clara Hall Cortage Scholarship Award (for being funny)!!!! Me jazzed!!! Current Mood:  pleased |
ellen_kushner
|
2:59p |
KRIJTJES I bet you didn't know that there were this many varieties of licorice in Holland alone . . . .! -- found while looking for a source for my favorites - I'm down to the last few in my little bag of "Oudhollands" brand from De Tuinen (hoarder? me? just because these are from, um, the same bag that got me through our move, which I am carefully eking out until...); I feel that they are inadequately described on the site as "Krijtjes drop white licorice pastilles" and "Krijtjesdrop (licorice crayons): peppermint shell with a licorice paste inside. Taste: sweet, peppermint." - to me, they're more like a salty licorice with a streak of menthol. ?? I'll give you the powdered white outsides, though - they look a bit like giant white pencil erasers. I guess. |
redcrowkater
|
11:28a |
Play in a Day Part 2 Our plays were shown last night, and between staying up all night Friday to write it, and staying up all night Saturday to drive back to Tempe, I'm a tired little writer. We were partnered up randomly, and given three props (a green koosh ball, a pair of leather saddlebags, and a child's baton) to use, along with the line of dialogue: "People like you are the reason people like me take medication." My partner was Je Moore, who was a good fit for me because our play was about young people, and he has a good grasp on their vocabulary since he's a teacher. I told him that no matter what, I wanted to have a play in which someone killed someone else on stage, because in most plays there isn't enough action. I also wanted something dark and scary, because that's also not often done in one act plays. We wrote a play called 'Jessica's Problems' (below). When they got up to announce the plays, the director had a caveat that "One of the plays has some adult content." Hmm.. Could that be our drinking, drug use, murder, and nonconsensual teenage sex? Yeah, that was ours. We didn't win, but our play was entertaining, and the actors loved it, and I was really happy with the job they did. If I'm invited next year, I'll bring a lot of friends, because the audience award was judged primarily on who got the most people to clap for them. Both awards went to Kolby's play again, who was lucky enough to get paired with John Vornholt. Their play really deserved the awards. Our play was good, but not as creative as a play about two bowling pins and their arch nemesis the bowling ball. Most of the other plays were, unfortunately, PLAYS in which the writers strove for deep meaning and symbolism and a poignant remark on the human condition. Think literary short fiction on a stage. Call me a philistine, but if I'm not entertained, I consider the play/movie/short story/novel a failure. Forgive the bad punctuation and improper play format. It was three am. |
| Saturday, May 10th, 2008 |
ellen_kushner
|
8:39p |
My Wiscon Schedule ( Ellen's Embarrassingly Lengthy Schedule of Wiscon Panels, Readings & Presentations. )I'll also be at the Gathering on Friday helping people find their True Clothes at the Swap (which Delia & I originated when we were GoHs - so glad it's continued thanks to other folks' enthusiasm & energy!) . . . and interested parties are invited to an Interstitial Arts introductory get-together on Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m. (place To Be Determined, probably Michelangelo's). . . . And, Yes, you can buy me a drink. Indeed, I insist. |
frostokovich
|
4:44p |
A Day at the Poe House I visited the Edgar Allan Poe house (yes, yes, I was in the Poe house...so don't make that joke, I already did) this afternoon to hear a lecture by Edward Pettit, a local (Philadelphia) Poe expert. The subject of the talk, however, was author George Lippard, who was a good friend of Poe's--one of the few who stayed a friend of his to the very end. Lippard was, in his day, a huge best-selling writer with his novel The Quaker City or The Monks of Monk Hall. It was, as Pettit informed us, a kitchen sink of a novel, filled with endless acts of depravity, nightmarish hallucinations, an evil cabal of the wealthiest men in the city, premonitory visions of the decayed Philadelphia of 1950, and, lest that fail to do you in, necrophilia. No wonder it was so popular.
Lippard was a novelist, editor, publisher, and a proto-Marxist who campaigned for the rights of the downtrodden. His output was prodigious--approximately a million words a year for the ten years he wrote before his untimely death from consumption. He is all but forgotten now (in fact he was referred to as a forgotten author by the 1870s), but Pettit and others are attempting to rescue from obscurity this gothic novelist of grotesque and noir sensibilities. And while we're at it, the same for Charles Brockden Brown!
If any of that sounds like fun, go to http://omnigatherum.com/blog.html
where you can read pieces of Lippard's work; or to Pettit's Ed and Edgar blog at http://bibliothecary.squarespace.com/
gf out Current Mood:  chipperCurrent Music: Dr. Tarr & Professor Fether |
ellen_kushner
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2:39p |
more PASSING STRANGE Fingers crossed for Passing Strange to win lots of Tony Awards on June 15th! If the Interstitial Arts Foundation had an award for Interstitial Theater, I'd vote for it. NYTimes review uses classic "if only the word 'interstitial' were in common use for arts reviewers" language: “Call it a rock concert with a story to tell, trimmed with a lot of great jokes. Or call it a sprawling work of performance art, complete with angry rants and scary drag queens. Call it whatever you want, really. I’ll just call it wonderful….The story of a young man achingly out of place in the world, trying on poses and assuming new guises in his quest for an identity that, as he will ultimately learn, many artists can only find in their art.”
Kinda like Bordertown, actually. Maybe that's why I love it so much! Discount tix are available at TDF, BroadwayBox.com and day-of-show for Under 25's. The website has cool stuff, including some of the music. And there's an album coming eventually.... |
mallory_blog
|
10:37a |
bumps and skid marks... I am in the final desperate dash for grades as the semester winds down over the next 10 days or so... Today I am trying to get caught up on my Excel and I need to get this darn printer to work again. Basically I switched from a desktop to laptop and the computer can't see the printer :( I need my printer darn it - I've been saving a ton of things as pdf's. The good news is that my hair isn't falling out... I also got my Bio (surprise) essay done with only the graph to redraw and one paragraph to add - that is WHY I rushed so that the teacher could ding me before I turn it in - I think she isn't capable of returning something to students without red marks on it. :::counting days on my fingers::: I think I have 3 tests left... Current Mood:  busy |
julieandrews
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12:56p |
Stupid Yahoo!
I know there are other free web-based Email providers I could be using, but Yahoo! (classic) tends to work well for me. Except when it dumps things into the Bulk folder that it shouldn't! I received a reply to a query and only thought to check the Bulk folder today. I had a response in there since Monday! Grrr.
Not sure of my chances on this submission, as it's not exactly filling a niche that's not filled in the anthology already. But it's a story I'd already written, so it's not like I can turn the vampire into a zombie. Vampires are sexy. Zombies are gross. :)
Current Mood: growly |
| Friday, May 9th, 2008 |
ellen_kushner
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8:29p |
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| Thursday, May 8th, 2008 |
karinotvery
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12:48p |
a public post. Originally published at wish you were here. You can comment here or there. I have a couple of posts in mind, one a writing one, and one about something cool I got last weekend (an object, not a disease, you gross-ass people).
I thought about making a single post about tagging along with Jeff to a Guerilla Poetry session down on the Strip last Saturday, but this might just have to be it. This video from my cel phone pretty much sums it up.
And posting this makes me think about posting my own videos. Like, doing the occasional video blog. Dunno. Just something to think about.
I’m back down to running 3 days a week, only 3 miles at a stretch, which makes me feel lazy and fat, but my energy’s been so tanked the past month and a half, it’s been hard to get motivated. I’ve been taking B-Complex to try and get myself going during the day, and I have a hard time getting to sleep at night. And I’m not even stressed out about anything. I’m getting there.
But it’s been a good writing week. I’m working on a new story that I’d gotten the idea for while I was hanging out with my brother during the winter. It’s been rolling along nicely, but it feels like it’ll never get done. It will though. One of these days this month, it will.
Which means the novel’s kind of on hiatus while I get these short story things sorted out. It sucks, but I think it’s better to switch that priority right now. I’m going to be sending things out soon.
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julieandrews
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3:34p |
Oh, So That's Steampunk ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) nojojojo points us to a New York Times article in the Fashion section that discusses steampunk. She noticed that in the included photos, there's a better than average proportion of people of color and women. Firstly, I had to look up what steampunk was. I'd heard the term, but was a lazybutt and never did try to figure out what it was referring to. Wikipedia enlightened me. Obviously I'd been watching and even reading steampunk without realizing that's what it was! The word 'steampunk' had turned me off. It just didn't sound interesting. Looking at the full slideshow of photos, I can get into that fashion. I'm not so sure about it as a home decorating style, though. And I don't know about the goggles, the coolness of Miyazaki and Amelia Earhart notwithstanding. I wonder if the presence of the black men in particular can be credited, at least partially, to Will Smith in Wild, Wild West. Will Smith can make any outfit look good. And I like that the women aren't limited to dresses and skirts. Current Mood: enlightened |
julieandrews
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2:42p |
Popular Science, Stross, Doctorow, and The Singularity I was Googling the Interwebs and found this 3-page article in Popular Science. It's a couple of years old, but I found it both interesting and helpful. It discusses the Singularity, science fiction, and the future of science fiction, and the writer talks with Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow. I'm thinking I need to read more Stross. Is Science Fiction About to Go Blind?
This new brand of science fiction, I realize, like all the best SF before it, is not just about predicting the future or pushing an agenda or even plain old entertaining techno-fun. It is all that, but it’s also about expanding the boundaries of the possible, building far-out worlds and then populating them with characters who bring the big ideas down to Earth. “That’s what you’re supposed to do in science fiction,” Abarbanel tells me. “You make a leap that’s 10 orders of magnitude beyond what we can actually do. If they don’t do that, then we don’t get there.”
Lately I've felt like science fiction had been moving on without me, while I was reading fantasy, space opera, and slightly older sf/f. And I think it was hindering me from fully appreciating (and even actually enjoying) the fiction being published in magazines like Fantasy & Science Fiction. You know how most science fiction requires that you know how to read science fiction to really get into it? I think I hadn't kept up and was reading with the science fiction reading level of a junior high school student. Which means some of the recent stuff was perfectly accessible to me, but some had aspects that were going over my head. I wasn't getting it, without quite knowing why I wasn't getting it. But I'm catching up. Current Mood:  geeky |
deliasherman
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1:46p |
Calling All Garden Staters!
This Saturday, May 10, I'm going to be speaking to the Garden State Horror Writers at 12 noon. We'll be meeting at the Monmouth County Library Headquarters 125 Symmes Road, Manalapan, NJ. I'll be talking about the use of History and Folklore in speculative fiction of all kinds.
The whole thing lasts about an hour, so come on down. Or up, as the case may be. And please identify yourself as an LJ person. I love meeting people who read my blog. |
| Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 |
julieandrews
|
4:57p |
More on YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Since I got thanked for posting links about this subject, here's some more links. :) John Scalzi posted again: "Who Lost Scott Westerfeld?". Where he counters the argument that one more sf/f writer writing ya is one less sf/f writer writing adult, which is a sad loss to the adult sf/f market. This post, like Scalzi's first one, has a lengthy comment thread that's worth perusing. I have no idea who Raph Koster is, but his post is entitled "YA SF/F is rockin'". (Which would look better as a title if you turned off smartquotes in WordPress. Just sayin'.) He gives us some authors and titles to look out for. If you were looking to add to your reading list. The Website at the End of the Universe has a good roundup of recent blog posts in "Explore the strange new world of YA science fiction". Which also mentions OSC's homophobic, sexist rant at J. K. Rowling. Don't think I linked to that earlier, so here is Feminist SF - The Blog!'s take on it. "Orson Scott Card is a misogynistic homophobic wanker". And Googling also dug up this interesting post: "Do teens really prefer their books without eyeballs?". If you usually browse with images off (as all the coolest people do), then turn them on for this one. Current Mood: collating |
mallory_blog
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10:41a |
Genetics I just finished my Biology Genetics test and I felt pretty well prepared for it. I know I missed a few things but most of the test I felt strong. I am fatigued, just in general, with this class. Our teacher is in overkill mode and throwing the kettle and pot after us (she manages to add in two extra class periods each week) - I'm pretty done! I have lab next - which is okay - but it is 3 more hours with the same teacher :sigh: My son is in a bit of a jam so if you have any spare good thoughts - please send them in his direction for tomorrow. He has Saturn squatting over him which basically means he has to toe the line really hard or he gets smacked really hard. I went through one of those periods several years ago and it was so hard. We humans do not learn easily but Saturn is a relentless teacher. Current Mood:  dour |
julieandrews
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7:29a |
Open Question Wednesday #4
Out of the books you've read in the last year, what's your favorite one?
Any genre, even nonfiction, is okay for this one.
Current Mood: questioning |
| Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 |
ellen_kushner
|
4:59p |
more INTERFICTIONS jewelry posted! Previews of upcoming auction items to whet your appetite. I am especially excited about the pieces by the authors of the actual stories - how interstitial is that?! And how Very, Very Collectible . . . . ADDED - Like this piece from Auction organizer K. Tempest Bradford, which she so craftily snuck into her blog . . . .
(and I just want to tell Elise, Mia, Kris & Deborah that your pieces have arrived safely. Thanks for the fabulous packaging jobs!) |
mallory_blog
|
12:16p |
ooops - grrrr I just discovered that I'm in something of an unpleasant mood... I'm not sure why although I feel pummeled by my biology class - turns out I aced that quiz though (not sure how I did that) and today I did good on my geology test last week - the thing is though that it is hard to comprehend how I'm doing in the class because the theoretical score she posts for our composite grade apparently includes an expected 0 on one test which artificially lowers the actual grade - it's all so confusing - I think I am in A territory but uneasy about it - I do have in the top 5 overall scores but pfffft... Tomorrow is our genetics test in Biology but the class I am fretting over is Excel - I can do the Excel but I'm slow because I use a MAC and some things are work-around issues - so the teacher and I are trying to work out a final test that gives me more time to compensate for the computer issues. My hope is to practice every day for the next 10 days since that is how I get smooth on my computer skill problems. But I'm so frelling done for the semester already :sigh: I did assist my son with his presentation today - my first ever power point presentation. I couldn't figure out how to save you-tube files and how to insert them (bummer) but the rest worked fine in the template and it was rather fun too. I also assisted my son with fixing a paragraph in his dance essay. This is the weirdness of having a son ahead of you in university :) he is already a Junior while I am just becoming one :) Current Mood: bitchy |
julieandrews
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1:28p |
Trolling the YA section
In the comments, particularly on the John Scalzi post that I linked to in my previous post, some men are chiming in with a reason they don't go to the YA section of bookstores.
They feel that if they go there, they'll be seen as creepy sexual perverts or predators. They don't seem worried so much that they'll be chased out, but that people will look at them funny or think it.
I won't go so far as to say it's an invalid feeling. The media is at least partly to blame here (aren't they usually?) as you hear and see this sort of thing in the news and on crime dramas. And sitcoms don't help when they decide it's a funny situation to have a guy or guys hanging out around kids and doing creepy things that aren't intended to be creepy. Then isn't it hilarious when the mothers yell at them or the police show up?
It's probably made parents and caretakers of children hyperaware of the potential for danger. And it's also made at least some adult men hyperaware of doing something that might be seen as creepy.
But I don't see it as a valid reason to avoid the YA section of libraries and bookstores.
So let me try to alleviate some of your fears here and dispell some of the beliefs you may have about the YA section.
Firstly, YA means 'Young Adults' also called 'Teens'. You might find 9 year olds reading this sort of stuff, but it's not for young kids. It may be adjacent to or near the children's section of the bookstore or library, but it's quite likely its own section. Many stores have it separated by a row of shelves or a wall or the full distance of the store. Libraries may have it on an entirely different floor. In other words, you won't necessarily be going anywhere near where the little kids and their parents hang out.
Secondly, you're there to browse for books, aren't you? That means you'll be looking at the shelves and the displays. Why should anyone think it's creepy that you're looking at books in a place full of books?
Don't feel you need to bring a beard with you in the form of your 11-year old nephew. You're allowed to shop by yourself!
I hope you don't feel so self-conscious that you make a special effort to only go to these venues when school is in session. Or that you need to have an offhand comment ready that may or may not be true: I'm looking for something for my granddaughter.
Don't be timid about picking up a book that features a young girl on the cover, even if she has her arms wrapped around the cutest wittle pony ever. Chances are the person who'll help you check out won't even comment on it. If they do, it'll probably be to say they really like that book or they were considering reading that book or you should try such and such book which is like that book. Those are the only comments I ever recall receiving, no matter what I was buying/borrowing. And heck, some stores and libraries have self-checkout if you feel like avoiding the encounter entirely.
So walk into the YA section with pride and browse to your heart's content.
If anyone starts watching you suspiciously, rest easy. Maybe they've just decided you're a shoplifter.
Current Mood: helpful |
| Monday, May 5th, 2008 |
astrobolism
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7:02p |
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ellen_kushner
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6:09p |
INTERFICTIONS Jewelry Auction has begun! Go right now to the Interfictions/IAF Auction page to see beautiful things and to sign up for the RSS (or LJ) feed to find out when new stuff goes up. Go here to read Gavin's fine description on the Small Beer Press "Not a Journal." And here are sneak previews of upcoming pieces. (Because I have Minions....)If all this doesn't make you want to read Interfictions, well, I just give up; as the poet says: Who loves not original one-of-a-kind jewelry, stories that fall between the cracks of recognized genres, women, wine and song,
Remains a fool his whole life long. |
julieandrews
|
4:50p |
Tween Cooties! I have to admit I was Googling again! (Just so you know, I was a Google early adopter. So, y'know, I'm way cooler than the average public who only picked it up in the last five years. In case you were wondering.) I found this post on Ann Halam's Young Adult SF. It mentions Siberia, which I actually thought of in relation to science fiction for girls. I totally didn't realize (or it didn't stick in my head very long) that Ann Halam is Gwyneth Jones. Duh. And it turns out she has some other YA I now need to check out. The post references John Scalzi's take on YA. He points out that that's where the best-selling SF/F is, so you'd better not ignore it. He mentions Scott Westerfeld in particular, who I actually hadn't heard of until Clarion. Which is pretty sad and pathetic. I just don't know if it's pathetic of me, or a sad state of affairs that the world was conspiring to make me oblivious. And that post in turn referenced Cory's BoingBoing post: A Parallel Universe of Little-Regarded Awesomeness. (And, btw, Cory, I would've copied and pasted the entire title, but BoingBoing doesn't let you -- easily -- so I didn't, so I was lazy and didn't type the entire title. BoingBoing also makes my browser slow, but this post isn't about that.) In which he points out that if you're looking for his new book Little Brother, it's probably in the YA section, not the adult SF section. I'm not an alien to the YA section. There's cool stuff in there. I'll even venture into the children's section and not be embarassed to be seen reading the stuff. I've grabbed manga from the YA room. I've read A Series of Unfortunate Events, a whole bunch of Diana Wynne Jones, most of Diane Duane's Wizardry series, Harry Potter of course, Luna, some Nancy Garden. I've read some of the classics, back when I actually was YA myself and later. I started reading Stephenie Meyer after her book got a(n error-filled) mention on Stephen Colbert. But almost all of those are mainstream or fantasy... though I did call the Wizardry series science fiction in a previous post. It took actual questioning and searching for me to find the new YA science fiction that might be good. Why is that? I thought maybe I'd blame Amazon, but when I go to My Recommendations -> Books -> Teens -> Science Fiction and Fantasy -> Science Fiction, it does show me a fair number of them. Though I really have no clue what definition of 'science fiction' they're operating with. They almost all look like fantasy or mythology to me. I'd have to do my own sorting, apparently. So maybe I will blame them after all. It doesn't seem to have that problem so much in the Adult recommendations. (And is pretty insistent today that I read more Connie Willis and Octavia Butler. Which I really should.) Granted I have not been reading as much science fiction lately as I did as a teenager. Maybe it's just science fiction ignorance rather than YA ignorance. If I get bored at some point, I'll categorize my read lists and figure out how much I've read of what in the last 5+ years. See if I can spot any trends. In summary, go read all of the YA authors I just mentioned. And please recommend more to me! Current Mood:  contemplative |
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