Open Road Media and Genre-Bending Novels (and a Book Sale)

Open Road Media is running a sort of awareness campaign / sale for novels which essentially defy categorization.  There are quite a few interesting books on the list, so in case you're interested in that sort of thing, here are the details:

Jonathan Carroll. Edward Whittemore. Robert R. McCammon. James Morrow. All of these authors have written novels that defy our understanding of conventional genres. More than just literary fiction, these novels rejoice in the fantastic and the sublime.

Since their initial publication, many of these stories have been categorized as science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, and “other.”

This week, Open Road Media is celebrating these tales of the in-between. Novels that, for one reason or another, refuse to be categorized.

We encourage you to take a look at the ten ebooks we’ve selected and expand your conception of genre fiction. The titles with the asterisk* will be on sale for $3.99 or less until August 20th.

1. The Summer Isles* by Ian R. MacLeod
2. From the Teeth of Angels by Jonathan Carroll
3. Black Light by Elizabeth Hand
4. Sinai Tapestry* by Edward Whittemore
5. The Eighth Square* by Herbert Lieberman
6. Expiration Date* by Tim Powers
7. Mine by Robert R. McCammon
8. The Broken Land* by Ian McDonald
9. The Only Begotten Daughter by James Morrow
10. The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti by Stephen Graham Jones

Cross genre boundaries and join the conversation this week. Feel free to share your thoughts on your site, or contribute to ours. Even our authors are speaking out. “The real reason I write across genre lines,” explains Stephen Graham Jones,” “is because I want to see cool stuff.”

You can find details about the books on sale here.

There's an interesting question behind all of this:  what are some of your favorite genre-bending stories?  And so that's the question I'll leave you all with:

What are some of your favorite genre-bending novels, short stories, or films?

Week of Joy (Day Six): Heart of Fire by J. Damask (A Mini Interview)

J. Damask (a.k.a. Joyce Chng) was kind enough to answer a few questions about her new book, Heart of Fire, which hits digital shelves in September.  The book comes from Masque Books, a digital-only division of Prime Books, a notable small press genre publisher (notable most recently for releasing the absolutely amazing Yoon Ha Lee collection, Conservation of Shadows -- check out the Skiffy and Fanty interview here).  In other words, Heart of Fire is sure to be damned good!  Though you'll have to wait for a little while, you should bookmark this page and remember to buy it in a couple months!

Now for the mini interview:

2012 Nebula Awards Winners (w/ Brief Thoughts)

Last night, the SFWA folks hosted the 2012 Nebula Awards.  I didn't get to watch the live stream because I was trying to recover from the episode we recorded for The Skiffy and Fanty Show on Friday night (I'm still sort of recovering).  However, now that the awards have been announced, I see fit to talk about the winners.

Here they are:

Hugo Awards Finalists (Plus Preliminary Commentary)

I'm too lazy to offer a proper introduction, so I'm just going to dive in (give me a break; I walked over five miles today).  The only thing I will say is that most of these are preliminary, most-likely-haven't-read-it thoughts.  For the most part, I will have nothing to say about a work except why I didn't pick it up during hte year.  The sad truth is that most of the stuff I nominated this year (my first nominating year) didn't make it.

Here goes (Hugos):

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes Sells Film Rights

I just broke the news over at The Skiffy and Fanty Show, but I figure you all should know about it too!

Lauren Beukes, South African author of Moxyland and Zoo City, has sold the film rights to her Arthur C. Clarke winning novel, Zoo City to Helena Spring, a renowned South African filmmaker.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Helena Spring, widely regarded as one of South Africa’s most accomplished motion picture producers, has just been awarded the highly sought-after film rights to Zoo City, the Sci-Fi thriller penned by South African author Lauren Beukes – who garnered the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award for best Science Fiction novel. In the wake of whopping sales figures, multiple awards and critical acclaim Beukes’ book generated fierce interest from numerous bidders in the entertainment industry, putting Spring alongside major US and UK producers eager to tell Beukes’ unique tale. 

And:

Spring’s career in the entertainment industry spans nearly three decades, during which time she has produced over twenty motion pictures – including the first ever South African film to receive recognition at the Academy Awards®: Darrell Roodt’s Yesterday earned a Best Foreign Picture nomination in 2004. 

Spring, who has worked with some of the foremost filmmakers in the world – such as Paul Greengrass who helmed the box office smash hits The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, and Academy Award® winner, Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech), will soon be putting the project out to a select party of directors, while Beukes has first look as screenwriter to adapt her novel for the screen. “Lauren is perfectly placed to do this. The characters are alive inside her,” says Spring.

This is huge news!  Congrats, Lauren!

You can read my review of Zoo City here and the Skiffy and Fanty interview with Lauren here.

RIP: Anne McCaffrey

It seems that Anne McCaffrey, one of the great science fiction writers, has passed away.

Needless to say, the genre community has suffered some big losses in the last few years.  McCaffrey will be remembered for a long time to come, if not for being a great writer (she was), then certainly for helping shape genre fiction (she did).  She'll be placed along side E. E. "Doc" Smith, Isaac Asimov, Octavia Butler, Robert Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Joanna Russ, and many more.

We'll miss you, Anne.

Weird Tales: The Editorial Fiasco

There's something troublesome about what is going on with Weird Tales.  Yesterday, Ann VanderMeer, the current-(no-longer)-editor of the magazine posted an announcement that she would not longer be editor.  More disturbing was the news that Weird Tales had been sold to another editor who seems to have purchased it in order to edit it himself (this fellow being Marvin Kaye).  The entire staff has been dropped, without much in the way of warning or transition.  Poof.  Done.  Over.  I'm sure there was something going on behind the scenes that we don't know, but it doesn't seem all that relevant when you consider the lack of professionalism going on here.

To add insult to injury, apparently the first thing Kaye intends to do is launch a Cthulu-themed issue of Weird Tales, taking the magazine backwards many decades.  It's almost as if they don't care what Ann did for Weird Tales -- dragging it out of the shadows of its past.  To be honest, I find myself agreeing with much of what Jason Sanford has already said on this issue:

An Anthology Idea: Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories About Homophobia

In the last twenty-four hours, I have been having a very interesting discussion with Fabio Ferndandes, Charles Tan, and others on the subject of homophobia and science fiction.  Our talk stems from a post I wrote a few days ago on that very subject and has sparked serious consideration of queer-related anthologies (at the time of this post, many were discussing the possibility of a queer military SF anthology, of which I would love to be a part).  I suggested early on that it would be interesting to see an anthology of SF/F stories which deal with homophobia.  A number of people thought that was a good idea too, and so I am writing this post as a way to further test the waters (and have something concrete on "paper").

The anthology would obviously serve a social/political purpose:  to help spread knowledge about the issue of homophobia, discrimination against LGBT people, and so on within the SF/F community.  How could it not have a purpose if it is on that very subject?  I think an anthology dealing directly with these issues would have an impact on the SF/F community (and, perhaps, outside of it).

In terms of the actual theme, it has occurred to me that diversity in content is essential.  Nobody wants to read a collection in which every story is about a gay man or gay woman being treated like garbage by

Literary vs. Genre Fiction: The Line? (Part Three)

[And now for part three. You can read parts one and two here and here.]

3. What are some common myths people have about fantasy and/or science fiction?

The interesting thing about Delmater's response is that she offers a myth held by genre readers as a myth held by general readers. She says that the reason few people come to science fiction is because they assume it is "very hard to understand—too scientific—or that it is all about robots and ray-guns, and that it is best suited for children or the simple-minded." There are a lot of problems here (other than the odd contradiction).

Brief Thoughts on The Apex Book of World SF 2 (Table of Contents)

The fine folks over at Apex recently released the table of contents for their upcoming second book in the Apex Book of World SF series.  Before I throw in my thoughts, here is the list:

A Scifi Strange Anthology? Publishers, Pay Attention!

Jason Sanford recently posted the table of contents for a dream anthology of scifi strange stories that you all need to see.  The list mostly contains stories available online (primarily because Sanford is calling it an online anthology) and is perhaps one of the most comprehensive and diverse ToCs I have seen in a while.  It includes stories by Rachel Swirsky, Eugie Foster, Nnedi Okorafor, Ted Chiang, Jason Sanford, and many more.  You should definitely check out the post to see what he's picked, and if any publishers are paying attention out there, you should consider publishing this anthology!  Seriously.

If you're unfamiliar with scifi strange, then you should check out Sanford's two posts on the subject:  here and here.  Sanford also has a list of links to other places where the term has been discussed.

Now I need to do some reading...

Lightspeed Magazine is Live!

The news is circulating around the interwebs that Lightspeed Magazine, edited by John Joseph Adams, has launched. This is, of course, very good news indeed for anyone who loves science fiction and wants there to be more pro-paying avenues out there for those who write it.

Here are the details (after the fold):

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: publicity@lightspeedmagazine.com

ROCKVILLE, MD, JUNE 1 — Lightspeed (www.lightspeedmagazine.com), the new online science fiction magazine published by the award-winning independent press Prime Books, launches today with the publication of “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan.

Lightspeed is edited by John Joseph Adams (Fiction Editor), the bestselling editor of anthologies such as Wastelands and The Living Dead, and Andrea Kail (Nonfiction Editor), a writer, critic, and television producer who worked for thirteen years on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Lightspeed’s focus is exclusively on science fiction. It features all types of sf, from near-future, sociological soft sf, to far-future, star-spanning hard sf, and anything and everything in between. No subject is considered off-limits, and Lightspeed writers are encouraged to take chances with their fiction and push the envelope.

Each month at Lightspeed, you will find a mix of original and reprint fiction, and featuring a variety of authors—from the bestsellers and award-winners you already know to the best new voices you haven’t heard of yet. When you read Lightspeed, it is our hope that you’ll see where science fiction comes from, where it is now, and where it’s going.

Lightspeed also features a variety of nonfiction features, fiction podcasts, and Q&As with our authors that go behind-the-scenes of their stories.

Lightspeed’s regular publication schedule each month includes two pieces of original fiction and two fiction reprints, along with four nonfiction articles. Fiction posts on Tuesdays, nonfiction on Thursdays. Additionally, award-winning audiobook producer Stefan Rudnicki, will be producing the Lightspeed Magazine story podcast, which will feature audio adaptations of two Lightspeed stories every month.

Lightspeed’s debut issue features four all-new, never-before-published stories: from newcomer Vylar Kaftan, an interstellar love story dealing with the perils of communication and time-dilation; from bestselling, award-winning author Jack McDevitt, a tale about Earth’s moon and the mysteries it might still possess; from David Barr Kirtley, an adventure of a young catman who must face the last of the dogmen and something else entirely unexpected; and from bestselling author Carrie Vaughn, a cautionary tale of the near future that shows some of the extremes we might be pushed to if we don’t start implementing now the seeds for a sustainable future.

Additional features include an article about relativity and the speed of light by astronomer/author Mike Brotherton; a list of the top ten reasons why genetically-engineered animals won’t make good pets by humorist Carol Pinchefsky; a profile of astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, by Genevieve Valentine; and a primer for sustainable living by ecologist Amanda Rose Levy.

As a special feature of the debut issue, in conjunction with the popular podcasts Escape Pod and Hugo Award nominee Starship Sofa, Lightspeed will present two bonus podcasts: “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan will appear on Escape Pod on June 1 and “Cats in Victory” by David Barr Kirtley will appear on Starship Sofa on June 15. This is in addition to the Lightspeed Magazine story podcast’s offerings, which will present “The Cassandra Project” by Jack McDevitt and “Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn.

Future issues of Lightspeed will include fiction by the likes of George R. R. Martin, Joe Haldeman, Ursula K. Le Guin, Carol Emshwiller, Catherynne M. Valene, Tobias S. Buckell, Tananarive Due, Yoon Ha Lee, Cat Rambo, and Adam-Troy Castro, as well as from newcomers such as Genevieve Valentine, Alice Sola Kim, David Tallerman, John R. Fultz, and Corey Joshua Mariani.

Lightspeed held a launch event at the science fiction convention Wiscon, in Madison, WI on Memorial Day weekend. Limited edition Lightspeed Magazine samplers in digest magazine format were made available for free to all members of the convention. This special hardcopy edition of Lightspeed features “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan, “Is There Anybody Out There That Wants to Go Fast” by Mike Brotherton, “Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn, and an Author Spotlight on Carrie Vaughn. The launch event included readings from Vylar Kaftan, Alice Sola Kim, Cat Rambo, and Genevieve Valentine.

About John Joseph Adams (Fiction Editor)

John Joseph Adams (www.johnjosephadams.com) is the bestselling editor of many anthologies, such as Wastelands, The Living Dead (a World Fantasy Award finalist), By Blood We Live, Federations, and The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Barnes & Noble.com named him “the reigning king of the anthology world,” and his books have been named to numerous best of the year lists. Prior to taking on the role of fiction editor of Lightspeed, John worked for nearly nine years in the editorial department of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. In addition to his editorial work, John is also the co-host of Tor.com’s Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast.

About Andrea Kail (Nonfiction Editor)

Andrea Kail (www.andreakail.com) is a graduate of the Dramatic Writing Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and has spent the last two decades working from one end of New York’s television spectrum to the other: HBO, MTV, A&E, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, as well as thirteen years at NBC’s Emmy Award-winning Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Her fiction has appeared in Fantasy Magazine, and her novella, “The Sun God at Dawn, Rising from a Lotus Blossom,” was a first-place winner in the Writers of the Future contest and appeared in Writers of the Future Vol. XXIII. Since 2005, Andrea has also been writing lively film criticism for such venues as Paradox Magazine and CinemaSpy.

About Stefan Rudnicki (Audio Editor)

Stefan Rudnicki is an independent director, producer, narrator, and publisher of audiobooks. He has received more than a dozen Audie Awards from the Audio Publishers Association, a Ray Bradbury Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a GRAMMY Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for The Children’s Shakespeare. Outside of the audiobook industry, he’s probably best known for the dozen books he’s written or edited, from actor’s resource anthologies to a best-selling adaptation of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. He is also president of Skyboat Road Company, Inc. (www.skyboatroad.com), the most respected independent audio production team on the West Coast.

About Prime Books

Prime Books (www.prime-books.com), edited and published by Hugo Award-nominee and World Fantasy Award-winner Sean Wallace, is an award-winning independent publishing house specializing in a mix of anthologies, collections, novels, and magazines. Some of its established and new authors/editors include John Joseph Adams, KJ Bishop, Philip K. Dick, Theodora Goss, Rich Horton, Nick Mamatas, Sarah Monette, Holly Phillips, Tim Pratt, Ekaterina Sedia, Catherynne M. Valente, and Jeff VanderMeer.

Contacts

Sean Wallace, publisher, sean@lightspeedmagazine.com
John Joseph Adams, fiction editor, john@lightspeedmagazine.com
Andrea Kail, non-fiction editor, andrea@lightspeedmagazine.com

Lightspeed’s complete posting schedule for June 2010 follows:

June 1

Fiction: “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan
Author Spotlight: Vylar Kaftan
Podcast: “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan (on Escape Pod)
Editorial by John Joseph Adams

June 3

Nonfiction: “Is There Anybody Out There That Wants to Go Fast” by Mike Brotherton

June 8

Fiction: “The Cassandra Project” by Jack McDevitt
Author Spotlight: Jack McDevitt
Podcast: “The Cassandra Project” by Jack McDevitt, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki

June 10

Nonfiction: “The High Untresspassed Sanctity of Space: Seven True Stories about Eugene Cernan” by Genevieve Valentine

June 15

Fiction: “Cats in Victory” by David Barr Kirtley
Author Spotlight: David Barr Kirtley
Podcast: “Cats in Victory” by David Barr Kirtley (on Starship Sofa)

June 17

Nonfiction: “Top Ten Reasons Why Uplifted Animals Don’t Make Good Pets” by Carol Pinchefsky

June 22

Fiction: “Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn
Author Spotlight: Carrie Vaughn
Podcast: “Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki

June 24

Nonfiction: “Every Step We Take” by Amanda Rose Levy

Interesting lineup, don't you think?

New Weird/Bizarro Summer Reading: Want to join me?

Over the next two months I will be researching and reading for an essay I am writing on the New Weird and Bizarro subgenres and their influence on SF/F in the last ten years. The list isn't terribly long, and does include some older titles for historical reference, but I thought I would see if some of you wanted to read along with me. Perhaps we can have some discussions here about whatever happens to strike our fancy. So, my reading list is as follows:

--The New Weird edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
--City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer
--The Year of Our War by Steph Swainston
--Foop! by Chris Genoa
--Natural History by Justina Robson
--The Etched City by KJ Bishop
--Doctor Identity, or Farewell to Plaquedemia by D. Harlan Wilson
--Veniss Undeground by Jeff VanderMeer
--Angel Dust Apocalypse by Jeremy Robert Johnson
--Wanderers and Islanders by Steve Cockayne
--The Accord by Keith Brooke
--Viriconium by M. John Harrison
--Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
--The Bizarro Starter Kit (orange) and (blue)

I'll also be reading numerous short stories by Jason Sanford and others. I can provide a short list of those if anyone wants to know.

I'm pretty certain that I am starting with Perdido Street Station on Monday, which is probably the easiest of the titles on this list to get. That said, if anyone wants to join me, let me know in the comments. I'm already doing about half of these with a friend, and I've love to have the additional company. It would be interesting to get a bunch of people talking about the same book on here.

Alright, off to reading for me!

Amazon (Retailer) vs. Macmillan (Publisher): Epic Battle or Silly Mistake? (Update)

(Some new links and stuff have been added on the bottom.)

The short version: Amazon pulled all of Macmillan's titles (print and otherwise) from their website due, apparently, to the publisher's desire to raise ebook prices. Speculation says this is because Amazon wants people to buy the Kindle, making higher prices for ebooks bad news when it's a big publisher pushing the price game. But there are also speculations that this is in response to Macmillan's deals with Apple, about which Amazon is not at all happy.

The long version: I'll send you to others for that, because I don't want to simply repeat what has already been said. There's Scalzi's three posts on the subject, then Writtenwyrdd's take, and Tobias S. Buckell's take.

My take: I can't help feeling like this is going to end up poorly for Amazon. Yes, playing hardball seems like it would work in principle, but I don't think Amazon has seriously considered the competition coming their way via the Nook, Apple's iPad (a minor nuisance right now), and the dozens of other companies pushing the ePub format. It could go bad for the publishers too, I suppose, but Amazon is the one that really should be rethinking its business model right now. Because if the Nook and the other ePub format folks take off, then Amazon will be unable to compete or negotiate because the publishers will no longer want to work with them on electronic format (or print format even, since B&N does both, and generally at the same prices as Amazon). Amazon will have to consider pushing other media over books.

But what do you think?

(An even more detailed analysis of what is going on can be found here at Tobias S. Buckell's blog and at Jay Lake's blog. You can read Macmillan's response here.)

One More For the Crazy: How To Ruin Your Career

This will be brief, folks, because you should be reading this post and following the links to the incident rather than wasting time seeing what I have to say. I'm not even the first one to get to this, obviously.

The short of it is this:
Candace Sams, author of some book whose title sounds idiotic to me, developed a particularly nasty case of complete nutjobbery. Some Amazon person gave a negative review of her book, and she decided to comment, only not in the way anyone with a brain might. There are, as of this moment, twenty-seven pages, some of them hers and a lot of them from people trying to fan the flames. Around page 15 or 16 is where she starts claiming that she is getting the FBI involved, but really, the whole thread is a enjoyable foray into one author's psychological downfall.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with responding to a review, per se. Sometimes authors want to get a bit more information or clarify a point, or something. But Nutty Sams has done exactly what no author should do: gone off on a wild tear on the reviewer and anyone else that isn't on her side. The good news is that Nutty Sams has received a lot of free press for this, the kind of press that most writers can only dream of getting (she's apparently been Gaiman-ized). The bad news is that this may very well be the end of her career. At least she gave everyone a bit of fun on her way down.

That is all.

Update: The Guardian talks about this incident here.

Thoughts On Taking Criticism

These last few days have put a lot of interesting thoughts into my head, particularly on the issue of how to take criticism. I consider this to be a writer's best skill aside from talent, because how you react to what others say about you or your writing will have an influence on how you are perceived by others, and will say a lot about who you are as a writer. Take my recent discussion and criticism of self-publishing and the dozens of responses there (some of which have been removed by one of the authors, which I have saved primarily because they were interesting, particularly in this discussion here).

What is interesting about that particular post are the kinds of reactions taken against what I wrote: some were relatively calm and collected and were more interested in debating the issue, some were vehemently opposed, so much so as to make personal attacks, and then there were some who seemed to be unclear on how they wanted to react, deleting posts or generally making rude comments and then attempting more rational discussions elsewhere (and these are general observations, not hints at particular individuals)

There is only one individual who has had any useful impact on me in this discussion. This person has acted in a way that I think should be a model for people in that particular industry (with some minor exceptions, which are mostly irrelevant). Instead of attacking me personally for my criticisms of an industry s/he ardently supports, s/he debated me on it, seemingly attempting to get at the crux of the issue. To be fair, I find myself agreeing very much with this individual on many points, and disagreeing with her/him on others, and s/he seems more like the kind of person that could change my mind on the issue of self-publishing than many of the others that have been a part of the discussion. Why? The mostly level-headed approach and the ability to tackle the issue without resorting to reducing discussions to the I'm-high-and-mighty form, or feeling the need to make unsubstantiated claims of validation, etc.

And this is interesting, because it says a lot about how this individual was able to take the criticism, and how writers should take criticism in general. The reality is that no matter what kind of writer you are, you are going to get criticized. Even great writers get hit with negative comments. They either shrug them off, get irritated and blast the critic, or let it consume them from the inside out. And published, successful writers have exhibited all of those reactions; some of them get away with the more nasty comments, and others don't.

Those that react negatively, who attack or let criticism consume them, are those who probably shouldn't be attempting to write publicly in the first place. It hints at an insecurity, a deep fissure within the self that suggests how mutable an individual can be in the face of a negative comment. And reactions do have weight on how one is perceived. I think, here, of the Cole A. Adams story, in which an author got so upset about being criticized that he basically goaded the critic into committing suicide. Obviously that hasn't happened here, but there certainly have been some bitter, angry individuals who have seen fit to make personal attacks instead of either ignoring the criticism or tackling it in a more level-headed manner. And like Mr. Adams, these aren't people I could see myself ever working with, even if I were more interested in the industry they support.

But I don't suspect most of them care about that, much like Mr. Adams probably doesn't care that a lot of people no longer want to work with him (or maybe he does). The point is that criticism doesn't go away because you get upset about it; it remains, always. But if you can't take the criticism, why be in a particular industry at all, whether it be music, acting, or writing? You can't avoid it unless you keep yourself private and never let your work be viewed by people who may potentially criticize you for it.

But maybe it's just me. Maybe it's okay to react in the way that some authors have in the past. What do you all think? Where do you draw the line between acceptable behavior and acting childishly?

GRRM: Tired of Your Crap

...and for good reason. This was brought to my attention by a friend (whose blog I would mention here, except I'm not sure he or she would like me to for very complicated reasons):
Apparently GRRM is pretty much sick and tired of all of you out there yelling at him about the lateness of his next book. In fact, what I thought were a few fan complaints here or there are actually massive whiny fits by people who a) don't know what it's like to be a writer, and b) are selfish, rude jackasses. In GRRM's words:

Some of you hate my other projects. You don't want me co-editing WARRIORS or the Vance anthology or STAR-CROSSED LOVERS or any of the other projects I'm doing with my old friend Gardner Dozois, and you get angry when I post about them here. For reasons I don't quite comprehend, the people who hate those projects seem to hate WILD CARDS even more. You really don't want me working on that, "wasting time" on that, and posting about it here.

Some of you don't want me attending conventions, teaching workshops, touring and doing promo, or visiting places like Spain and Portugal (last year) or Finland (this year). More wasting time, when I should be home working on A DANCE WITH DRAGONS.

There's plenty more at the link I listed above, but these are good examples of the kinds of crap GRRM is dealing with in comments, at message boards, and in emails, the latter of which, to me, seems exceedingly rude. His response was basically a friendly way of saying "f*ck off," showing us that GRRM loves his fans more than they seem to love him (or are those folks who are ripping on him really his fans?).

My response to all this is somewhat less friendly: STFU. That stands for "shut the f*ck up," in case you were unaware.

I know this may be hard for all of you out there to understand, but GRRM does have a life. He is allowed to watch football and have friendly bets with friends. He's allowed to travel, to visit his family, to hang out with his buddies, to have a few beers here or there, to go out for a smoke (or a nice waltz in the sun), and he's allowed to have marital relations (assuming he's married). And you know what? He doesn't even reserve a lot of his time for that. He spends a lot of time teaching, going to conventions to visit YOU, the fans, editing books, and writing short stories, etc. The man has a career. He doesn't owe you anything. I may not be a reader of his books, and I certainly have opinions on the whole wait thing, as outlined here, but I'm not going to get on this man's case for trying to have a life and trying to maintain a career.

Writing a book isn't easy. It's not something that takes a few months to churn out, especially not works like GRRM's, which are complex and long. It took me almost a year to write WISB, and that book is in rough shape at best (plot holes, grammar and spelling errors, etc.). And it's taken me a lot longer to get SoD written for probably the same reasons that GRRM is taking his time. Plots don't get simpler as a series progresses: they get more complicated, especially because as the series closes you are forced to begin sealing up all the holes. An author like GRRM has a lot to think about in regards to his characters, his themes, and his world. And all authors are different. Some may be able to churn out a decent book in three months; others may take a year or two. A lot of authors start off having an entire series already written. GRRM is going into this somewhat cold, I presume (well, as cold as you can be several books into a series).

And you know what? All this pressure, this pushing and prodding and bitching and fighting with him over how long it's taken him to write it: it's making it worse. He's not going to write this book faster if all you, his supposed fans, can do is bitch and moan over it. Sending him emails telling him he sucks and should stop having a life probably makes him unwilling to want to continue writing. He's already got editors breathing down his neck about this. They're not there to support him so much as push him to give them a product they can sell (he may have a good relationship with his editor/s, but that doesn't mean that the publisher isn't pushing). The last thing he needs is for the people that he cares so much about, who have made his career what it is today, to start throwing temper tantrums over his desire to maintain his sanity.

I hope this is one of those instances where karma comes into play. What goes around, comes around, right?

To conclude this rant, I'd like to reiterate: STFU. Leave him alone if all you're going to do is bitch. If you don't like waiting, then read something else. He's not the only one writing books. Jackasses.

Atwood Boycotts Dubai

Emirates Airline International Festival of Literature in Dubai will now be down one world-class author after it banned a book containing a gay character. Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale, was to be amongst over 60 prestigious authors attending the event, but since the organisers decided to ban Geraldine Bedell's The Gulf Between Us. In a calm, to-the-point letter, she explained she cannot condone censorship and therefore had to decline involvement with the festival.

I'm with Atwood on this one. Of the 5.6m inhabitants of Dubai, the majority are foreigners, and in recent years EU and US citizens have been arrested for having LGBT relationships. This book was banned under the same anti-gay laws. Whether you're pro- or anti-gay rights, there's an argument against censorship here. A book shouldn't be banned just because you don't like what it says.

The Kindle Two: Audio Controversy or Industry Stupidity?

No release of a new and improved version of an already powerful piece of technology would be as interesting without a little controversy. Apparently the Authors Guild is upset about the new Kindle's text-to-speech feature, claiming that it could "undermine the market for audio books" (Associated Press). The Wall Street Journal has a bit more to say on that:

Some publishers and agents expressed concern over a new, experimental feature that reads text aloud with a computer-generated voice.

"They don't have the right to read a book out loud," said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. "That's an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law."

Now, quite a few folks with far more authority than myself have already spoken up on the issue, including Robert J. Sawyer and Neil Gaiman. They've made some fairly good arguments about the whole thing and I'd like to toss my two cents into the game.

The problem with all this is that it is flirting dangerously close to the same line the music industry so idiotically crossed. And the music industry hasn't contracted so much as literature has. True, as I've mentioned before, readership hasn't actually drastically changed. Book sales are still high, with exception to everything following this massive recession we're so firmly stuck in, and the same amount of people, if not a little more, are reading books now as much as they were about ten years ago--not to mention that most teenagers read a lot more these days than their parents did simply because access to the written word, particularly on subjects kids are interested in, is far better thanks to the Interwebs.

What does this mean for the book industry if it crosses the line? It could spell disaster for it. The music industry was enormous when piracy first came into the public sphere. When they tried to stomp down on it by imposing harsh punishments and DRMing everything imaginable, they found that folks were far more willing to flip the bird to the big record labels and switch to the indie scene. But, the music industry didn't die. It was big enough to survive its mistakes and it has done a decent job doing so. iTunes, as much as I despise it, has helped curb the piracy empire, though it hasn't stopped. The music industry was at least smart enough to realize that it needed to begin changing its ways if it wanted to continue being profitable.

The book industry, however, could find themselves in a horrible position by trying to impose the same rules. With all these electronic reading devices out there, if the book industry isn't careful it could find that people will stop buying books entirely and use the electronic formats to get books for free. Add on to the fact that there is a thriving indie book community (podcasting, blog novels, etc.) and you can see where being music-industry-anal could spell certain doom.

Audio rights are important; I'm not going to deny that. All rights are important, but when we start talking about suing Amazon for having text-to-speech technology installed on the Kindle Two, it's like saying we're going to sue mothers for reading to their children. Why should Amazon have to pay what would likely be an absurd amount of money for a feature that isn't all that great anyway?

Yeah, okay, I get the argument that some day technology will progress enough to make text-to-speech sound like something other than a craptastic, semi-realistic, mostly-robotic, humanoid demon. But that's not happening tomorrow and it's probably not happening for years. When that happens, then start bitching. Until it does, why can't we stick with this feature? It won't influence audiobook sales because people who like audiobooks are still going to buy them. A robotic voice cannot meet the production quality of a good audiobook. Period. And the people who are likely to use this feature regularly are probably not going to be people who would have paid the somewhat high price for an audiobook in the first place.

Before we toss the almighty book of lawsuits at Amazon for adding a useful feature to their new techno-gizmo, we should consider the ramifications of that and the reality of the situation as a whole. We're treading on dangerous ground in considering using the law to thwart technological progress; we'd be one step away from suing parents for reading to their kids, or blind people using a computer to read a book to themselves (a book they already paid $14.99 for)--or people reading to blind people, perhaps. When Amazon's technology is able to actually replace audiobooks, then you can start demanding compensation. And maybe that will never happen. Maybe the next step for the Kindle (the Kindle Three, perhaps) is to make it capable of having both eBooks and audiobooks. That would make everyone happy, right? Imagine if Amazon's enormous selling engine made it easier to buy and sell audiobooks through a wireless device? Consider that before we start making rash decisions and crossing the line.

Book News: Realms of Fantasy, the Kindle Two, and Magazine Woes

Here are a few big stories for today:

Kindle 2.0
Apparently the new Kindle has been revealed (CNET has the story). The prognosis is good, but not great. While it has a lot of new features, there aren't any features, according to CNET, that make the Kindle Two more appealing to the mainstream market. I have to agree and disagree. I think the fact that both the Kindle and the Kindle Two offer an easy, modern way to read books is appealing to the mainstream, but the price tag for both ($240 and $359 respectively) will turn people off. I'm certainly not going to spend that kind of money for a reading device when the books themselves are almost the same cost as paper books. Then again, if you made it really easy to put stuff into it that isn't an eBook (.pdf, .doc, etc.) and had a way to do editing and the like inside it (maybe writing notes in the margins along with strikeouts, etc.), then I'd probably pay for it. Having a cool reading device with built in functions to make my life as a writer easier when I'm riding the bus, etc. would be great.
The good news is that the new one does look a bit better. I can't say it's beautiful, but it doesn't look like something stuck in the boxy days of handheld technology.

Realms of Fantasy Up For Sale?
SF Scope has some clarification to rumors spreading around the net that RoF is up for sale:

Hintz did say that the magazine is near and dear to Sovereign, and he expressed sorrow over its demise. While he was unwilling to comment on any specifics of a potential change in ownership, he did say a "purchase is possible." Whatever the magazine's final disposition, Hintz promised more information by early March, saying "we won't let this drag out."

Translation? It's up for sale, but they're not going to sell it for a cheap price. But that does mean that someone with some idea of what they are doing could purchase it and revitalize it. We'll see. I'm hoping it happens.

Distribution Execution (the Magazines Get Hit Again)
As if things weren't bad enough for the big three, Anderson News, the folks behind distributing F&SF and Asimov's, have ceased doing what they do (a.k.a. gone under) when publishers refused to pay an additional fee for, well, distribution. Apparently they closed down because they just couldn't afford to keep in business. Course, I suppose you can't blame them. It can't be cheap to ship stuff around.
Then again, I keep saying that all the old-format magazines should consider, you know, looking at all the newfangled methods out there. Like this thing called the Interwebs and that other thing called POD. I mean, really, let's get on the wagon of the future people. It's not 1950 anymore. If you honestly think you can survive in this business dealing primarily in ancient technology, then don't be surprised when you have to cut back on your publishing schedule...oh crap, that's already happened...
Get with the program. Short fiction doesn't have to die, but at the rate these folks are going, the big three mags are going to find themselves extinct.

And that is all!