And another B'town plug...

Ellen Kushner herself has blogged about what is now officially The Giving Of The Book (at least, in Matt's world, that's what I'm calling it). Read about it HERE.

.

Another Bordertown teaser...

For anyone who might not have seen it, my last post on Bordertown has already generated a comment from one of the new series writers, Annette Curtis Klause. She's blogged about the series and her participation in the new volume on her blog site HERE. Annette wrote the story "Elf Blood" in the upcoming collection.

She's also (if I may be so bold as to rip directly from her Wikipedia entry), published four novels for young adults: The Silver Kiss (1990, Delacorte), Alien Secrets (1993, Delacorte), Blood and Chocolate (1997, Delacorte), and Freaks: Alive on the Inside (2006, Margaret K. McElderry). From 1982 through 1994, she contributed book reviews to the School Library Journal.

Thanks, Annette!

The triumphant return of BORDERTOWN!!

The best news of World Fantasy, hands-down, was the announcement by Holly Black and Ellen Kusher of a brand new Bordertown anthology, titled Welcome to Bordertown.

For those who may be reading this who haven't heard of them: Bordertown was a shared-world series created in 1985 by Terri Windling and Mark Arnold. This was the true precursor of the "Urban Fantasy" movement, a literary sub-genre where the familiar tropes of the fantasy story - elves, magic, glamours, and the power of love and music - intersected with a tough, gritty urban setting and fully developed, three-dimensional characters. They were also, interestingly, consciously targeted at both adult readers as well as what we'd now call "Young Adult" readers, all in a time well before the emergence of Harry Potter and the like, making the series doubly ground-breaking. As Holly Black eloquently said in a panel (and which I'm paraphrasing here): "...everyone writing Urban Fantasy owes a word of thanks to the Bordertown series".

I wholeheartedly agree.

My own history with Bordertown is very personal (buy me a few drinks at a conference sometime and I'm sure you can pry the whole, sordid story out of me), but suffice to say that I'm excited almost beyond the capacity for words that Ellen and Holly have somehow managed to rejuvenate the Bordertown franchise. I was lucky enough to get my grubby mitts on an advance reader copy of the collection (thank you, Holly!), and was thrilled to see stories from such B'town alum as Charles de Lint, Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Jane Yolen and Terri Windling herself mixed with the work of amazing new writers who came after the series went dormant almost 13 years ago: Corey Doctorow; Catherynne M. Valente; Janni Lee Simner; Christopher Barzak; and others.

I’m reading the book now and will put up a review soon – check back here in a week or so. In the meantime, mark your calendars to remind yourself to look for Welcome to Bordertown in May of 2011 from Random House!

World Fantasy, 2010!

I spent the weekend attending the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus. This annual event is held for publishing professionals from all over the globe, and is where deals in Fantasy and Horror publishing are made for the upcoming year. Oh, and for fans (who can afford the hefty membership price, that is...) and fellow writers, it’s also a wonderful opportunity to meet legendary contributors in the field and to hear them talk about all the basic fundamentals of writing.

As an event, it’s quite frankly wonderful: this year, I was able to meet and talk with authors Walter Jon Williams, Mike Stackpole, Delia Sherman, L.E. Modessitt, Gene Wolfe, Steve Donaldson, Holly Black and a host of others. I also got to meet (or to meet again) editor and publisher luminaries like Ellen Kushner, Gordon Van Gelder, Gardner Dozois, Ellen Datlow, and Tom Doherty. There were also plenty of new and fresh faces, all belonging to writers and editors I’ve never met before, who I won’t list in details here (suffice to say, thanks to you all for your witty conversation and your many, many tips on the craft and business of writing). Truly, there isn’t a better place for any serious author of Horror or Fantasy literature than this gathering.

That said, just as in previous years I’ve attended WFC, I did get somewhat overwhelmed halfway through the event. There’s just something… intimidating… something humbling in the primal sense of the word by the act of walking through rooms populated by such talent. It can (and does) take the breath away.

Bottom line: World Fantasy ain't a place for the faint-of-heart.. YES everyone's wonderful and YES they're encouraging, but... damn. It's just difficult to talk to an author with 25+ novels under their belt, books I've literally grown up reading and not ask yourself tough questions like "What the hell am I doing, thinking I can write this shit?" I did finally get my head together in time to attend some great panels on Sunday, but apologies to anyone I may have been speaking with on Saturday afternoon, particularly, if I looked distracted or scatterbrained – it wasn’t you; it was just my brain melting, and I really did enjoy meeting you all.

Why strong female characters are bad for women...

Just ran across an interesting article over on Overthinking It titled "Why Strong Female Characters Are Bad For Women". It's got some interesting points, particularly for you writerly types who, I know, are always on the hunt for interesting characters. His thesis, and I agree with it, is that what the world needs is not more "strong" (as in man-like) female characters, but rather more "weak" (as in flawed) ones. Here's a quote:

"This Super Strong Female Character is almost like a Mary Sue, except instead of being perfect in every way because she’s a stand-in for the author, she’s perfect in every way so the male audience will want to bang her and so the female audience won’t be able to say, “Tsk tsk, what a weak female character!” It’s a win-win situation.

Except no."

Read more HERE....

"The Shoe Factory" to appear in Interzone!

I just got good news from Andrew Cox, the editor over at Interzone Magazine: my short story, "The Shoe Factory", will appear in an upcoming issue! Details on recent acceptances can be found here.

No details yet on which issue it will appear in, but it should be coming soon - I'll be sure to drop notice when I know more.

Over the years, Interzone (a British Science Fiction bi-monthly published by TTA Press) has published works from top-notch writers such as William Gibson, Stephen Baxter, J.G. Ballard, Alastair Reynolds, Terry Pratchett and Jason Sanford. Interzone has also been nominated 25 consecutive times times for the Hugo Award for best semiprozine, winning the award in 1995. It has also published several works which have won the British Science Fiction Award.

Having a piece accepted by such a prestigious magazine is indeed an honor, and I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to proofread the story and offer me comments and suggestions, including: Amy Szabo, Jason Sanford, Sherrian Gildemeister and the members of Columbus Writeshop (the best damn writer's group in the Known Universe) - my work, as always, is worlds better for your help and involvement.

.

Another black-out - so sorry...

Yes, I know... It's been weeks since my last update - my sincere apologies. The simple fact is that I've had nothing new to report or really talk about for a while, and blogging about the hours I put in at my day job and my hobbies is just a *wee* narcissistic I think . I don't know how it is with anyone else, but when I find myself uninspired, just putting in my hours to pay the bills, I chose to save every last iota of creative energy for my daily writing. That means that blogging comes last.

In this age of constant contact I know that statement is tantamount to heresy, but it's just how I operate. If you just can't get enough of me (um... right), I still post on Facebook - please feel free to look me up there if you feel so inclined. In that much more casual environment I post mainly fun links and other distractions, but this space I save for other things.

I'm posting here now because I *do* have an announcement coming - I'll post it in a separate thread. This space I wanted to reserve for an apology for my absence, as well as a continued nod of thanks and gratitude for all of you who, through your messages and emails, keep me enthusiastic about this craft called writing. So: danke, gratze, gratias agimus, obrigado, tack, diakuiu, gracias, arigato and do jeh!

.