Magic for Beginners

I'm late to the party, but at least I didn't miss the party altogether. I've just finished reading Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners, and I've been walking around the house today thinking about rabbits and zombies and icebergs, wondering if I'll open my refrigerator, maybe, and not recognize anything inside, even though I bought those groceries yesterday. There used to be a jar of olives in there. Now I'm not sure. Next on the list from Kelly Link, of course is Stranger Things Happen.

"A Secret Life of Gluttony" in Talebones

The short story, "A Secret Life of Gluttony" will appear in a future issue of Talebones.

In Springdale Town

This book is one of my purchases from Readercon 18 last weekend. I'm pleased to report that it was quiet and lovely, yet deliciously disturbing. Two men find themselves In Springdale Town, and their combined presence causes a disturbance in the fabric of reality that leads them into hidden territories--an endless cornfield, a vat of pink transdimensional jelly, a train station at the edge of the world. You may want to purchase a copy of this beautiful book before the limited print run is sold out.

Next on my list from Mr. Wexler will be The Circus of the Grand Design, which I wasn't bright enough to pick up for a remarkably low price while I was at Readercon. Live and learn.

Interfictions Reviewed by Venuszine

J. Neil Otte of Venuszine has reviewed Interfictions. You can read the entire review here. Below is a call-out for "Pallas at Noon."

The stories in this collection mix fantasy, biography, myth, horror, fairy tale, and children’s fiction into highly imaginative yarns, whose beginnings are often unusual and whose ends are wildly unpredictable. Two easy examples of this are Matthew Cheney’s funny and ominous story, “A Map of Everywhere,” and Joy Marchand’s frightening “Pallas at Noon.” Cheney’s protagonist, Albert, wanders unhappily from job to job, only to find short-lived solace via his dream-inducing work in the sewer fields, sifting for valuables in a sea of fecal sludge. Marchand’s heroine, Chloe, finds herself in even worse straits: a stuttering poet in a compromised marriage, her debilitating agoraphobia coupled with acute anxiety keeps her prisoner in a dusty attic. Cheney’s casual, even prose contrasts starkly with the steely, exacting phrases of Marchand, yet both stories, like all those in this collection, remain unpredictable to the end.

Readercon 18: Con Report & Link Salad

This is the first convention at which I met so many authors I'm afraid I'll forget someone. Of extra special particular splendiferous significance is James Maxey the author of Bitterwood. James spoke well on the panel "Writing and the Rest of Life" and very kindly introduced me to Christian Dunn and George Mann of Solaris Books. Their encyclopedic knowledge of science fiction books, television, and comics made spending time with these three fellows very entertaining indeed. Bitterwood sequels, airships, and octomonkeys, oh my!



On Friday, Interfictions authors and members of the Interstitial Arts Foundation met for dinner, prior to the Interfictions panel during which
K. Tempest Bradford, Vandana Singh, Theodora Goss, Catherynne Valente, Michael J. DeLuca and I discussed the creation of Interfictions and interstitial art in general. After introductions and a short discussion of Interfictions, panelists and audience members spent a pleasant half hour further struggling to define the indefinable, and Dora Goss encouraged us to think of "interstitial" as an adjective that describes a work that is difficult to categorize, rather than a genre in and of itself. If a work defies categorization, she suggested, perhaps it's interstitial.


Stephen Segal, Joy Marchand, and K. Tempest Bradford.


Theodora Goss, Michael J. DeLuca, and Catherynne Valente.

On Saturday, members of Codex (my online writing group) met at the hotel bar for lunch and discussion of current projects. Pictured here (starting bottom right, moving counter-clockwise): Pat Esden, Lon Prater, Danielle Friedman, Jenny Rae Rappaport, Eric James Stone, Mary Robinette Kowal, Doug Cohen, Joy Marchand, James Maxey and Kennedy Brandt. We all agree that there wasn't nearly enough time for socializing.



The dealer's room at Readercon 18 was well stocked, and I particularly enjoyed the Clarkesworld table, where I picked up copies of Prime Codex by members of the Codex online writing community, Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link, Move Under Ground by Nick Mamatas, and of special interest to this reader, a limited paperback edition of In Springdale Town by Robert Freeman Wexler (one of the most pleasant and charming gentlemen I met all weekend). Though I've included links to amazon.com, please check Clarkesworld first if you intend to make a purchase. It was wonderful fun buying the books and then hunting down the authors for autographs.

At the Friday night "Meet the Prose" party, I had the pleasure of meeting many people, but the author I was most pleased to shake hands with for the first time was Paul Witcover, who wrote one of the fiercest, most breathtakingly beautiful books on my crowded shelf, Waking Beauty. Please, if you're reading this blog, buy Paul's books (lots and lots of copies) so he'll write lots and lots more of them.

"Clementine" in Apex Digest

The short story "Clementine" will appear in an upcoming issue of Apex Science Fiction & Horror Digest.