Eisbrecher is one of those bands I just never get tired of listening to. Thankfully, they are still coming out with music! Their sound blends the heavy, Eastern European dance with classical influences, fantastic voice, and quite a bit of intensity. Lyrics are in German.

Books:

Sixty-One Nails, by Mike Shevdon
# ISBN-10: 0857660284, # ISBN-13: 978-0857660282

Sixty-one Nails is a lovely book from Angry Robot, an urban fantasy about one man who gets on the wrong side of the Fae. Suffering a heart attack on his way to work, Niall…touches something. He’s rescued by a mysterious old woman, who warns him that he is now being hunted. And thus his adventure begins, an adventure that will threaten all of England.

While I have an issue or two with the female main character, this is, overall, a delicious book. Dark, nasty, entrenched in good research.

*

Working For the Devil, by Lillith Saintcrow
# ISBN-10: 9780316003131, # ISBN-13: 978-0316003131

I feel like I’m batting for Orbit’s team here, with yet another book from them! I do like my Urban Fantasy, a girl needs *some* fun reading, and this provides it: tough-as-nails female mercenary necromancer. Hell. Sucker-punches. A nice mythology. A lovely blend of magic and futuristic technology. I’ll be picking up more Dante Valentine books.

Books:

Sea, Swallow me, by Craig Lawrence Gidney
# ISBN-10: 9781590210666, # ISBN-13: 978-1590210666

From Lethe Press, Sea, Swallow Me is a haunting, heart-breaking and lush collection of short stories. Gidney explores the trials of being African-American, of being gay, of being human. His language is beautiful, his themes are unique, and again, mythology threads beautifully through very modern stories. I don’t think I’ve seen a more lovely blend of old and new.

*

Brave New Worlds, edited by John Joseph Adams
# ISBN-10: 9781597802215, # ISBN-13: 978-1597802215

It’s an anthology from John Joseph Adams, featuring the iconic likes of Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury and Ursula K. Le Guin, as well newer voices like Paolo Bacigalupi and Genevieve Valentine. Why are you still reading? I don’t need to tell you how good this is.

(Synesthesia)
Watch this video closely, without trying to analyze it. Best representation of Synesthesia I’ve ever seen.

Books:

What else could I pair with this, but The New Weird, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer?
# ISBN-10: 1892391554
# ISBN-13: 978-1892391551

If you’ve been wondering what the hell ‘New Weird’ means, if you’re a fan of the sub-genre, or you just like absolutely unique, beautiful stories, this is one not to be missed. Koja, Ligotti, Moorcock, Barker, Mieville, Duncan and many more. Like many of the VanderMeers’ ‘genre bibles’, this one is a mix of stories (both genre-founding and newly iconic) and non-fiction musings on the nature and history of the genre.

And it’s an introduction to the following 2 authors, if you’ve never read them…

*

Viriconium, by M. John Harrison
# ISBN-10: 0553383159
# ISBN-13: 978-0553383157

Viriconium is a collection of Harrison’s shorter pieces defining the titular city. I looked him up after he was used as an example of superlative world-building, and he does not disappoint. Be warned, however: the book is dense. Given the number of times I’ve read The Silmarillion, this is clearly a plus for me, but it is not a light read and will demand time and attention. Plan accordingly.

I would, however, say that this should be required reading for fantasy writers.

*

Vellum, by Hal Duncan
# ISBN-10: 0345487311
# ISBN-13: 978-0345487315

Like Viriconium, Vellum is just a lovely book to look at and read: rough-cut pages, beautiful cover design, delicious words. I’m still reading this, albeit slowly and thoughtfully, but it has already impressed me with its ambition, originality and sheer audacity. Again, read *slowly*. Savor. Enjoy.

(Oomph!)
I’ve already linked to Oomph!’s Alice-in-Wonderland interpretation on here. Oomph! is another German band that combines talent, intensity and story-telling into a product I can listen to again and again.

Books:

The Secret History of Moscow, by Ekaterina Sedia
# ISBN-10: 9781607012290
# ISBN-13: 978-1607012290

One of the first things I did, as a wet-behind-the-ears newbie to the genre business, was edit and format an interview on culture and fantasy with Justine Larbalestier and Ekaterina Sedia, for Fantasy Magazine. I finally picked up Secret History earlier this year. I think I read it in under two hours.

I’ve got to say, Neil Gaiman’s cover blurb says it all: “A lovely, disconcerting book that does for Moscow what I hope my own Neverwhere may have done to London.”

Don’t miss this one. Seriously.

*

Norse Code, by Greg van Eekhout
# ISBN-10: 0553592130
# ISBN-13: 978-0553592139

Norse mythology is one of my squee’s. Eekhout’s managed to combine it with a future Ice and Southern California culture. Seriously, how fun can you get? Excellent Urban Fantasy addition!

(And One)

White Cat and Red Glove, by Holly Black
White Cat: # ISBN-10: 1416963979, # ISBN-13: 978-1416963974
Red Glove: # ISBN-10: 9781442403390, # ISBN-13: 978-1442403390

Noir thriller, YA, romance…these books are a lovely blend. Red Glove, in particular, makes me happy because Black is so damn cruel to her characters. Yes, it’s a character flaw.

(Death in Vegas)

Mr. Shivers, by Robert Jackson Bennett
ISBN: 978-0-316-05469-0

Mr. Shivers isn’t a popcorn read, not something to read if its gray outside or you’ve had a bad day, because it is that gray day. It’s dark and sinister, bitter and violent and oddly touching. Bennett doesn’t shy away from the realities of Depression-era America, nor from the sort of people that era bred. It’s also a remarkable look at the power of human will and love.

*

The Broken Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemison

# ISBN-10: 0316043966
# ISBN-13: 978-0316043960

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was excellent, but I feel Jemison has stepped up her game with the second book. Then again, I have a thing for gods as characters, and Jemison writes them beautifully. A wonderfully fresh take on world-building.

(Faith and the Muse)

Tiffany Aching series, by Terry Pratchett
A Hat Full of Sky: # ISBN-10: 0060586621, # ISBN-13: 978-0060586621
I Shall Wear Midnight: # ISBN-10: 9780061433047, # ISBN-13: 978-0061433047

I’m an unashamed Pratchett worshiper. I feel that he is vastly underrated, and given the number of books the man has sold, that’s saying something. He’s hilarious, certainly, but that sells short his wit and wisdom. He wraps serious observations and a keen understanding of human nature in a funny package.

F/SF has all sorts of girl-empowerment stories running around right now. Tiffany Aching is a story about a girl who faces hellish challenges, and comes out on top. But no fairy godmother is bailing her out, no Prince Charming is riding up on his white horse, and crying is just going to make matters worse. Tiffany is smart, intelligent and insightful, but more than anything else, she is tough as nails, sympathetic and honest.
The Tiffany Aching books are something I will buy in bulk and give to my friends’ daughters. I wish I’d had something like this as a teenager, I really do.

You’ve survived! You made it to the end! Congrats. Have a bonus song from a band Single Cell has done a lot of work with.

]]> http://wingsliftingwide.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/books-and-music-junejuly-2011/feed/ 0 mornara http://wingsliftingwide.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/in-which-google-is-cool-and-con-schedules-are-posted/ http://wingsliftingwide.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/in-which-google-is-cool-and-con-schedules-are-posted/#comments Thu, 30 Jun 2011 08:51:17 +0000 Jaym Gates http://wingsliftingwide.wordpress.com/?p=216 ]]> Yep, Google+ will probably end up stealing me from Facebook. From a personal standpoint, the security is better. From a publicist’s standpoint…wow, it’s nice to be able to organize and group like this. I’m a systems nut, so any time I get a new and improved system to play with, I’m happy. And, to add to that, it’s still in beta, and I’ve had fun participating and brainstorming. If it continues on this path, I am guessing that it will be to Facebook what Facebook was to MySpace. I would, however, like to see Google organize a little more and make everything work together a little more. Labels, homepages, etc. I’m also a fan of the stated privacy policies, and hope that nothing like Buzz ever shows its face again!

Now, about that convention this weekend…(WesterCon)

I’m on a ton of panels. 5, to be precise, and moderating 3. That adds up to over 7 hours of talking, with the way these are set up.

Schedule

Friday

Body Mods: Expanding the Senses: 1-2:30 pm

It’s already possible to alter human senses with gadgets and implants: a magnet under the skin on your fingertip lets you sense magnetic fields; divers can have orientation sensors send data via their tongues. Will new modes of sensory input be the killer app for body modification?
Bobbie DuFault (M), Jaym Gates, Brad Templeton

Your Local Library: Fortress of Solitude or Last Best Hope?: 4-5:30pm

The role of libraries in fostering YA fantasy and science fiction is essential.
But in these days of cost-cutting, are libraries still able to help in the way they were when we were kids? If not, what can we do to help raise the next generation of fan readers?
Jaym Gates, Jay Hartlove (M), Randy Smith

Sunday

How to Promote Yourself as a Writer Without Being Obnoxious: 10-11:30 (I’m dying here, people!)

Not all promotion is good promotion. Where does one draw the line between constructive and destructive promotion?
Valerie E. Frankel, Jaym Gates (M), Erin Hoffman, Karen Williams

Will the Anthology Market Come Back?: 4-5:30 pm

Anthologies have been difficult for publishers for decades. There was a time when they were more consistent sellers, but these days they rarely earn out their advances. What does the future hold for the anthology market?
Jaym Gates, Marty Halpern (M), Deborah Ross, Rachel Swirsky, Karen Williams
(Due to scheduling conflicts, I will actually be moderating this in Marty’s place.

Monday

Art Forms for Other Senses: 1-2:30pm

What sort of art would be made by species whose senses differ from our own? Imagine scent-paintings, sonic tapestries, symphonies of electromagnetic radiation, and sculptures of pressure and convection currents in a fluid medium….
Jaym Gates (M), Chelsea Kalenda, Kate Morgenstern, Juliette Wade

Saturday night, I met with Mary Robinette Kowal at BayCon, and finalized a new arrangement. I will now be the official publicist for SFWA. One of the tasks is to promote and help with a new reading series in the Northwest. After running the events with Sam Montgomery Blinn for a year, I’m looking forward to doing this, and to setting up similar events in Austin, a project I’d started before I knew SFWA was working on the Northwest series. Stay tuned on that, we’re going to be doing a lot with this idea, it looks like.

I also picked up a couple more clients for the freelance side, so finding a job ASAP is suddenly behind ‘update the website’ on the ‘must do’ list. Not a bad position to be in.

As usual, I skipped the panels and the con proper and just parked myself at a table in the bar with Emily Jiang and Morgan Dempsey. Over the course of the evening, the table became The Place To Be. Jacob and Rina Weisman, Gail Carriger, Jeremy Lassen, John Picacio, Mary Robinette Kowal, Sandra Taylor, Marty Halpern, Fran Myman (who has the most amazing dresses), Dani and Eytan Kollin and Dan Sawyer all stopped by for at least a few minutes.

Today, my grandmother drove down from Placerville in her Mazda Miata, and let me drive all the way back with the top down. Tomorrow, my desk goes back to San Jose, and I can really get to working, before my clients start threatening me.

As an aside, after 10 years of ownership, my 4 beloved horses are going to be renamed. Captain is now Rambo, the Attack!Stallion (a retired harness racer with a dozen dogs, multiple horses, many trees, a half-dozen men and a cougar on his list of vanquished foes); Doc is now Chewtoy, because he meanders through the world in a daze and is only happy if he has a bit of Rambo, human or other critter in his teeth; Blaze is Romeo; and Beau is Juggernaut (this is the gorgeous, stupid, loving Paint colt who mowed me down from behind when he was 1 year old and nearly crippled me).

All 4 of them come running when I whistle, and will follow me around the pasture without any incentive. If I stop, they cuddle up and lip at my clothes or rest their muzzles on my shoulder and huff in my ear or face.

These critters were my best friends and security blankets for 10 years. Beau and Blaze came to me as 4 month old hellions, the closest thing to kids I’ll ever have. Neither have ever had another trainer, after the 1 trainer we tried dared to punish Blaze for her own incompetence. I can lead any one of them to a bank and hop onto their back and just sit there without bridle or halter or any rope. They are good for the heart and soul, and being able to see them regularly is the best stress-relief I’ve got.

I missed my boys. It’s good to be home.

It really, REALLY sucks to get sick away from home. Especially when you’re at a con where you intended to network and meet people and HAVE FUN. I will always feel that Peche’s Juniper Creme Brulee is my White Whale, the thing that got away from me.

Er, anyways. Nasty as it is, this weekend did teach me a couple of good things about how to handle such a situation.

1.) Don’t drink the hotel water if you can possibly help it. My tastebuds were, of course, completely whacked, so I didn’t notice the chlorine until too late, which didn’t help anything.

2.) DO stock up on bottled water. Even though I couldn’t keep it down, I was significantly less dehydrated by the end, and I didn’t have the awful effects of dry heaves/stomach acid or a nasty taste in my mouth.

3.) WHISKEY DOES HELP. I have to thank Torch for this one. Not only during the problem, but after. It helps kill whatever triggered the reaction, and it settled my stomach/strengthened me up. I barely made it out of bed both Sunday and Monday mornings, but just a sip of the whiskey made a noticeable difference. There’s a reason they used this stuff in the old days!

4.) Coconut water or green tea are excellent choices for things to be drinking, if you can. Gen Mai Cha is a neutral enough taste that it doesn’t…taste…coming back up. It also has antioxidants. Coconut water can be a bit tricky, taste-wise, for some people, but it has electrolytes, and doesn’t taste as bad as Pediasure or whatever. It’s also shelf-stable, so it’s not a bad idea to have some with you.

5.) Ginger helps settle the stomach, too. Asian food is typically a good thing to eat after food poisoning. Light broths especially.

This is easily the most miserable convention EVER, but hey, I learned some things!

Message:

Dear folk,

As some of you might be aware, the illustrious and renowned Ann and Jeff VanderMeer were invited to be the guests at an event known, most mysteriously, as FogCon. To be sure, at first glance, we were not sure if this was a weather event, a swindle or a trap for Jeff’s terrible floating bear companion, Mord.

A bit of research from the parties involved ascertained that no danger was to be found in the invitation itself. Indeed, we decided to send a bevy of Jeff’s beloved Monstrous Creatures along with him! Not only were collectors howling for the release of these mythical beasts, but Jennifer Barnes, Overlord of Raw Dog Screaming Press, needed a vacation!

Of course, when one sends a herd of the wild and wooly, a wrangler is needed, so I was booked on a covert flight to the fog-bound coastal city. I was instructed to lie low in the wilds of Northern California for a few days to make sure I hadn’t been followed, and to foil any GPS trackers* attached.

Certain that I wasn’t being followed **, I stormed the city early Friday morning to meet up with the VanderMeers, Bay-Area friends and my long-suffering fellow editor, Erika Holt.

The weekend promised to be a whirlwind. The theme was ‘The City in SF’. Due to a mix-up of names and resumes, I was asked to be on a panel about segregation in SFNal cities, with the illustrious experts Mary Ann Mohanraj, Eric Fischer and Marie Brennan. Due to long experience in dissembling and a top-level degree in BS, I managed not to sound too incompetent! Much fun was had at the expense of Morgan Dempsey, our Token Pole***.

Whisked away by said Token Pole and Token POC Emily Jiang, we whisked off to scout out the local coffeeshop where Jeff and Ann were scheduled to share their secrets about maintaining a top-level booklife, an event that demanded the utmost security and secrecy.

Unfortunately, Morgan was suffering from a deathly vapor in the lungs, a disease which can be multiplied in deadly fashion on the hills of San Francisco. Clinging to her bottle of what appeared to be radioactive dragon pee, she soldiered bravely to Contraband Coffee.

The site was perfect, manned by The Disenfranchised Hipster of Tea, a noble position if ever there was one. Bearded, scruffy, and dressed in plaid, he was as shining an example of his species if ever there was one. When we asked–in code–about the plans for the next day, he denied all knowledge of any events to come. Even under Tea Timer Torture, he maintained his silence, whispering some gibberish about ‘the method is key! Chai must be made by the method! Everyone screws it up!”* ***

By this point, Emily and I had costumed up while Morgan collected a fourth member for our brave party–the talented singer Monica Toth–and we whisked off to karaoke, followed by Emily’s reading, where she bribed us with cookies!

After that, our Urban Survival and Cocktail Expert Andy Romine–recently minted as one of Ellen Datlow’s ‘Best Horror of the Year, Honorable Mention’ authors–led us to the Sasquatch Lodge. A goodly collection of the Bay Area’s finest***** gathered in the shadow of the looming monster****** to catch up.
We shall leave those dark hours unremarked upon, mostly because I have pictures to chortle over when life becomes too bleak.

*Seriously, if anyone invents a signal that can escape El Dorado county’s canyons, they will be hailed as the innovator of the year. Cell phones go dead about 5 minutes off of the freeway.
**These Creatures are very rare, and many hunters have sought their hides for years, according to local lore.
***Er, Pole as in Polish. I’m already in enough trouble…
* *** At our latest communication, it is uncertain if he was brainwashed prior to our visit, or had just watched too much Dune.
***** Cliff Winnig, Shannon Page, Andy Romine, Erika Holt, Justin Whitney, Monica Toth, Rachel Silber, Emily Jiang.
*****Sasquatch is actually a lovely pub with a faux-backwoods décor, stuffed racoons and excellent bartenders. The drinks-including Toasted Marshmallow and Thin Mint-are excellent, but totally overshadowed by the official drink: Whiskey, ginger ale and bitters.

Jeff and Ann VanderMeer talk about keeping a healthy Booklife, care and feeding of your Monstrous Creature, and creating a really Weird Tale. Jeff and Ann will lead off with a bit of discussion, and then take questions dealing with your specific experiences and needs. Bring thick skin, a notebook, an open mind and curiosity.

Event will be held at 11am Saturday at Contraband Coffee, which is a couple of blocks from the hotel, in easy walking distance. There are only 15 spots, due to seating and the need for a good discussion. First-come, first serve. Please email publicity (at) rawdogscreaming.com if you are interested. No cost to attend!

I’ll have a print-out of directions with me, and I’ll send the directions to everyone who comes. This is a great opportunity for a serious writer or one who is just starting out and needs a solid foundation.

YA first!

Demon King, by Cinda Williams Chima
Ok, love love love. This one was recommended to me as someone to study up on if I was interested in YA. I’m glad I did. I love these books.

It’s a series of 7, I believe. Demon King is the first one. Former streetlord Han, Spirit-Clan member Dancer and Princess Raisa stumble across evidence that the ancient peace between wizards and Clan is in danger of breaking. Each of them lands in their own danger and suffers the consequences of standing up to the Bayars, who have a new order in mind.

This is classic fantasy, through and through. But the details make it unique: a solid street-slang, a world based more on–from what I can tell-on the Western US (does skunk cabbage GROW anywhere else?) than on Europe, and a mix of cultures and religious.

The characters are solid and believable, the voice is easy to read without being ‘prose lite’, and the pace is consistent. I’m a nut for details, and Chima delves deeply into the nitty-gritty without losing the reader. I’m about 2/3s of the way through the 2nd one, Exiled Queen, and already plotting to pick up the rest very, very soon. It’s a good read, and shows no sign of bogging down. Definitely recommend.

Eon, by Allison Goodman

It’s a book about DRAGONS. Do you really expect me to be objective? REALLY?
Ok. Right.

Eon is a girl pretending to be a boy so she can become a DragonEye. There are, of course, many, many dangers inherent in this, and I’m pretty sure she stumbles into every possible one.

Anyways, Eon and its sequel, Eona, are huge books. Seriously. Very thick. There are a few places where I feel the thickness wasn’t necessarily needed, but it wasn’t enough to bother me. I’ve been told this might be because there are DRAGONS. (Yes, Erika has to deal with this regularly.)

The culture in the series is based on traditional Chinese myth and culture. The world is beautiful. Again, the details are amazing. What’s more, the details themselves, the ones Goodman has chosen to include, lend to the flavor of the setting. Example: the Story Robe ‘A Summer Waterfall Brings Harmony to the Soul’. Such flavors are unique in fantasy, although I would be happy to see them become more common.

I only had one major quarrel: I figured out the twist a long, LONG time before the main character did. So I sat there and repeatedly ~facepalmed~ with the ‘c’mon, you should KNOW this!’. However, I’m known for knowing a little bit about DRAGONS! and a decent amount about Chinese myth, so perhaps not everyone would recognize the big signs.

Did I like it? I read it in one day, if that tells you anything. And it really is a big book. So yeah. I like! (DRAGONS.)
(Hi Erika…)

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

Note to self: do not take YA books for your sole reading material on long flights. You read too fast.

Our heroine in Graceling is Gifted with the ability to kill better than anyone else. Feared and shunned by her countrymen, she must stand up to her abusive uncle and move on to find her own feet.

Graceling was fun. The magic in it really felt new and very, very cool. The consequences of having power were well-played, too. The voice is beautiful.

My issue comes with the surly girl finding her soul mate. I’m *sorry*, but I’m tired of this. I want books where the girl isn’t ‘tamed’ by some pretty man with amazing powers of empathy. Maybe my cynicism is showing through again. But this is part of what I loved about Eon and Demon King: sure, there’s romance. But there isn’t A Romance. I’m tired of romances being in my books. I want girls who kick ass WITHOUT a guy. Or what about 2 girls? It just felt like the romance overwhelmed what would have been a journey I could deeply identify with.

Overall, I liked this enough that I’d do it all over again, but it isn’t a favorite. What? I *really* don’t like romance.

Silver Phoenix, by Cindy Pon

The titular character flees home to escape an older man who is pressuring her to marry him. Targeted by monsters of all sorts, she winds up traveling with two brothers. Her mission is to bring her father home from court and help her companion find his history. Her destiny is something much, much more.

Also beautifully written. And she knows her food. Hello, foodie here! I think this was the simplest of the books I’m reviewing here. It is self-contained, always moving forward, and doesn’t meander into lots of side-plots. For some reason, this seemed like it would have been a lovely graphic novel. There’s a lot of imagination here, and things like the chariot and the celestial kingdoms are simply begging for illustration.

It is, however, also the lightest read of the ones here. I found myself wishing there was a bit more meat on the bone. I’ll pick up the sequel though, because I’m hoping she goes out into the wide world and finds more monsters!

The Good Neighbors, by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh

I ‘met’ Naifeh a few years ago at Dragon*Con. I hadn’t heard of him before, and I’d been wanting to find some of his work. When Barry gave me this book, it was perfect!

Naifeh’s art is incredible. He has a great eye for detail, and a lush, intricate style, perfectly suited to Black’s writing.

And need we say anything at all about Holly Black’s ability to tell a story? No, we don’t. Just go find the book.

Troll’s Eye View, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

A sweet little anthology of YA stories from Nix, Gaiman, Link, Yolen, Beagle, Cadnum, Kushner and more. It takes traditional fairy tales and focuses on the monsters and villains. Clever, wicked and sweet, this is probably my favorite twisted fairytale anthology to date. It was also an introduction to several wonderful authors I hadn’t encountered before.

Going Bovine, by Libba Bray

When you’re dying of a weird illness, why not take the punk angel up on her offer? Might as well save the world, right? What else have you got to do? And Viking gods turned into lawn gnomes are only one of the more normal things along the way.

Disclosure: I’d never have picked this book up off of a shelf. It just doesn’t look like my type of thing. So when Barry gave it to me, I wasn’t sure. The description sounded interesting, but would it pan out?

Ohhhh yes. There’s a reason this author is a NY Times bestseller. A while back, I discussed how often ‘adult’ speculative fiction seems to lack the heart that YA can have. I believe I was referring specifically to BORDERTOWN at the time. Going Bovine is all heart. Not in a sappy, cheesy way. But for all the humor, crazy hijinks and surrealism, this is one of the most down-to-earth, honest things I’ve read. Libba doesn’t preach and she doesn’t paint youth with nostalgia or sugar-coat it. Being a high schooler sucks. Dying sucks. The end of the world sucks. Reality sucks. It’s also the most amazing, breath-taking ride in the world.

I’m not going to give you more than that, because I think books like this tell each person a different story, and you should go find your own.

And that’s all I’m up for tonight, folks. Hey, look, I’ve read 18 books in the last 40-ish days and I’ve had 3 hours of sleep and a stressful day. Cut me some slack!

Coming soon, Mini!Reviews on:

Firefly Rain, by Richard Dansky
2-4 issues of Electric Velocipede, edited by John Klima
The Adamantine Palace, by Stephen Deas
Wizards anthology

Anyways, I sent him a bit of advice on dealing with first projects, and thought I’d share it here, since we all have been/are going through first projects. (Yes, it was a zombie film!)

“No matter what it is, the first time is, most likely, the absolute worst you can do. You don’t know the rules or how to break them, you’ve not learned to wrangle your fictional cast yet, and you don’t have experience to trust. It’s guts and garters. It’s true all the way through, from first project to last. Always a crapshoot. Eventually though, you hit magic, and all that guts and garters turns into zombie haute couture. “

In March, we’ll have the Shimmer Magazine staff as our guests.

In April, Zinechat will switch to a format that worked well for us in January’s trial run. Instead of individual guests and a Q&A format, I’m going to be pulling panels of people together for discussion. Each month will have a theme. Rose Lemberg will be joining me in the summer to help moderate, since these will be a lot more intense than our current system, both for preparation and moderation.

Themes

April: Horror (World Horror Convention is at the end of the month, so it seems fitting!)
May: Podcasting and New Media
June: LGBTQA authors, characters and organizations (Assuming Rose is done enough with the school year to help moderate…’cause this will be messy!)
July: Young Adult
August: Women in Speculative Fiction
September: Politics and Speculative Fiction (Hoooboy.)
October: Characters and Authors of Color
November: Writing and Gaming, and Writing for Gaming!
December: Editorial Roundtable
January: Poetry

Let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions! As always, a huge ‘thank you’ to Casey Seda and Sarah Hendrix for hosting and posting the archives, and to Rose for moderating a great chat last month.

I’m also bad about keeping books for sentimental value, and getting excess books to the used bookstore. (In my defense, the big used bookstore is across the bloody city.)

The books below are ones I won’t read again, I won’t loan out, and I just don’t want to store any more. Most of them are from my teen years, when every genre book was a best friend (wasn’t allowed to read fantasy!), so I’ve kept them for sentimental value. There are also a lot of paranormal romances. Yes, this is largely stuff I wouldn’t be caught dead with these days! No more, no more!

RULES:
I’m giving books to 5 people. After that, shipping becomes an issue. So, comment below on which ones you want. Limit: 1 collection/author, or three books. Anything not claimed goes to the library or the used book store. This is first-come, first-serve, but if there’s a book you want, and you’ll pay $2 for shipping, I’ll work with that. Books will probably ship next week.

All books are used. Some are well-used, but all are intact.

Old Stuff

Piers Anthony (There are racial/gender issues with these books. I can’t stand reading them any more. But he can be amusing, otherwise.)

Incarnations of Immortality series (6 books): For Love of Evil, On a Pale Horse, Wielding a Red Sword, Bearing an Hourglass, Being a Green Mother, With a Tangled Skein. (These should go as a set, please.)
Golem in the Gears
Mercycle
Orn
Ogre, Ogre

Robert Heinlein
Friday
Stranger in a Strange Land

Terry Brooks
Three Shannara books: Morgawr, The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara.

Terry Goodkind
Chainfire
Phantom

Paranormal….Stuff

Dates From Hell anthology: Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Kelley Armstrong, Lori Handeland
Seraphim, by Michele Hauf
2 Laurell K. Hamilton books (I know, I know, but I didn’t know any better!): Cerulean Sins, Burnt Offerings
The Penwyth Curse, by Catharine Coulter
Highborn, by Yvonne Navarro (I got this from WFC. I couldn’t read it. If you pick it up, I want to know what you think after reading it!)
Castles in the Mist, by Josie Litton

Misc. Good Books That I Don’t Have Room For
Godslayer, by Jacqueline Carey. (Wasn’t able to finish this, either. Liked the concept, but…never could ‘buy’ it.)
Misspelled anthology, edited by Julie Czerneda (This one was fun!)
Secret History of Vampires anthology, edited by Darrel Schweitzer
The Speed of Dark, by Elizabeth Moon
The Singing Sword, by Jack Whyte (Arthurian)
Ships of Merior, by Janny Wurts (part of culling books the ex gave me.)
Infected, by Scott Sigler (Good, just not my kind of horror.)
Rage of the Behemoth, a Heroic Adventure anthology by Rogue Blades Entertainment (Love it, but I have a couple of copies, so I’m sharing the love.)