Wanted - An LA movie reviewer

I'm going to try this again. I have been invited to so many lovely movie screenings I can't go to because they're in Hollywood, and I'm in the North Bay. My awesome little cousin is down there, but always has class schedule conflicts. How dare she go off and get an education! ;)

It's an easy job. You just show up, watch the screening, sometimes there's a meet the director or QandA. Then take notes like mad immediately afterward while it's all fresh (or during for the non-movie portions) and then write up a review of why you thought the movie was good or bad and highlight the good, the bad and the perplexing. Then send it to me before the movie premiere's. I edit it for the blog. I can't pay at the moment, but you DO get to see awesome movies before all your friends do. So, there are bragging rights.

The last screening I have been invited to is Room 237, which comes out in March. It's a doco about the many layers within Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. And I had to pass this one up Holy Motors last Fall.

If you live near Hollywood and are interested, email me with a movie review of something you've seen recently, then we'll talk. My email is kawilkes at gmail dot com.

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I've been designing new business cards. Next will be a facelift for the website and this blog. Here are my two designs. I'm leaning toward the blue one, but my peeps on facebook are pretty evenly divided. Which background looks better? Speaks more to my writing?

That second one might be a good background for my blog banner, eh?

Trailer Cache

I have been invited to a number of press screenings in LA. Unfortunately, I live in Northern California and my reviewer's schedule has prevented her from attending premieres and press screenings. So, I guess I could use an additional reviewer there. If you live in LA and want to try your hand at reviewing, drop me a line. I can't pay you, but you'll certainly have bragging rights with your friends that you saw that great sci-fi, fantasy or horror movie already while they're waiting for it to hit the theaters. Meantime, here are some trailers with you.

Here's a flick you can view now on Netflix. Gotta love those Indie filmmakers!

Acclaimed Indie Horror Parody PELT Hacks Its Way To Netflix

LOS ANGELES (September 10, 2012) – Osiris Entertainment’s award-winning horror feature PELT is now available on Netflix. Since it hit the festival circuit, PELT gained a fast following for its quick-witted parody on the “girl meets psycho” formula by bringing together an unmatched cast with an unwavering screenplay orchestrated by Prison Diaries director, Richard Swindell.

PELT introduces viewers to beautiful Jennifer and her friends as they embark on a backpacking excursion deep into the woods of Caveland Kentucky despite dire warnings from local residents. Sudden, gory death hides behind every bush when they come “chest to chest” with an evil as old as the trees.

The film stars Ashley Watkins (1000 Ways to Die) as Jennifer, while the titillating triumvirate is completed by Marie Bollinger (Hell-O-Ween) and Sara Zurell (90210, No Ordinary Family).

Winner – Outstanding Film, Audience Choice Award – Big Bear Horror Film Festival

“PELT was a wonderful film to work on and I can’t wait to share it with viewers through Netflix,” said Swindell. “I am proud of our incredibly talented cast and crew who turned this project into a one of a kind film that holds its own next to any ‘big budget’ offering.”

Listen...above the crackling of the campfire...is that the sound of a twig snapping or your best girlfriend's neck? Check out PELT on Netflix today!

Catch-up or ketchup? Offerings for all the senses.

For my Awesome Lavratt fans and fans of tongue-in-cheek space opera in general, I'd like to give you the opportunity to hear an excerpt from a new story in the Awesome Lavratt universe. Listen at Broad Universe. It's part of the August Broadpod.

Judge Dredd, baby!



Minister of Chance Episode Three rocks! If you don't know what I'm talking about, you must be new to my blog or just missed a few key posts. I LOVE Minister of Chance. If you are a Doctor Who and radio play fan, you'll LOVE it, too. It stars Jenny Agutter (Logan's Run), Lauren Crace, Paul Darrow, Beth Goddard, Tamsin Greig, Peter Guinness, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann with Julian Wadham in the title role.

Please read these posts if you missed them. You can listen to all three episodes now and you'll be transported to a world of intrigue, magic, war and impossible portals between worlds. And humor. Trust me on this one.

Episode one reviewed.

Excerpted from a previous post:
I know my loyal readers are getting sick of me going on about the abfab sci-fi radio drama The Minister of Chance, but, well, deal. I love it! Here's an interview with cast member Jenny Agutter (I remember her from Logan's Run, one of the few good sci-fi films from my youth).

And part two of the same interview is here.


RUSH fans - listen up! This from Kevin J. Anderson (Dune novels)--
Clockwork Angels: The Novel is written by Kevin J. Anderson and RUSH drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, and based on the new Rush album, it's a steampunk fantasy adventure full of exotic travel, gadgets, pirates, lost cities, and encounters with heroes and villains. The hardcover, ebook and audio all go on sale on September 1. The novel is in full color, with illustrations by Hugh Syme. Neil himself reads the unabridged audio version, and there’s a brief afterword read by me. The ebook is available for every platform.

A little late (they weren't - I was), but not if you act fast --

Phoenix Picks' Free Ebook for August 2012 is the Prometheus Award winner, Pallas by
L. Neil Smith.

The coupon code is 9991494 and will be good from August 2 through August
31. Links for downloading the book will be available, as usual, from our
online catalogue page, www.PPickings.com .
Brief description of the book:

Ex-U.S.-Senator Gibson Altman rules the prison colony where everyone is
expected to live by rules that govern every aspect of their lives.

The inhabitants of the experimental colony survive in a society plagued by
crime, corruption and despair, toiling endlessly at tasks they are
appointed to. Altman lives a life of luxury, ruling the lives of the souls
trapped within his experiment and brooking no opposition to mandate.

However, Pallas, the terraformed asteroid, is also home to Curringer, a
society in stark contrast to Altman's prison. It is a community where
individual freedoms are championed and men and women are free to live as
they please.

Emerson Ngu escapes from Altman's prison colony and becomes a hero of
Curringer. Altman is driven by a deep hatred of Emerson and his triumph
and will do anything to get his revenge on him. But in the process will he
also destroy his own daughter and even the world of Pallas?

Here's the skinny on a comic-based web series.

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 15, 2012

CALIFORNIA PICTURES INKS DEAL WITH M2 AND
GELLER ENTERTAINMENT GROUP TO
PRODUCE BOONDOCK SAINTS EPISODES


LOS ANGELES, CA – California Pictures has inked a more expanded deal with M2’s Adam Martin and Eben Matthews and their producing partner, Geller Entertainment Group's D. Matt Geller and Adam Lerner to exploit the widely-popular graphic novel property, Boondock Saints. The plan is to produce a series of motion comics for multiple platforms. Jason Leibovitch, Vice President of California Pictures, made today’s announcement.

“Boondock Saints is a multi-million dollar franchise that we’re excited to expand upon with our producing partners,” commented Steven Istock, President of California Pictures. “The property has a huge fan base and lends itself well to various platforms of release worldwide. We’re looking forward to working with M2 and Geller Entertainment Group to offer an extension of the property to fans across the globe.”

One of the biggest cult hits ever - The Boondock Saints was filmed in 1999 and completed in 2000. Blacklisted from theaters due to a backlash against violent films after the Columbine Incident, the film never received a proper theatrical release. Instead, the film found its fan base on DVD spawning an international sensation that continues to grow.

"In Nomine Patris," a six-part comic book series, was released in May 2010. The series is written by Franchise Creator/Writer/Director, Troy Duffy and Comic Scribe, J.B. Love, and focuses on the untold story of Noah MacManus - 'The Original Saint' - the Brothers' father, known as Il Duce. The Brothers MacManus are also on tap, in Boston and Ireland, doing what they do best in a series of brand new adventures. The series answers fans' long-standing questions about how the 'Saints' came to be by revealing the origins behind the 'Saints' bloodline of vengeance.

“Like so many other fans I discovered ‘The Saints’ on DVD through a friend,” commented M2‘s Eben Matthews. “The moment I saw it, I knew it should be a comic series. But the end game with this story was always to do what we do best and make it into a motion comic series. We knew that’s where this new chapter of the Boondock mythos would really come to life.”

M2’s Adam Martin added, “The films already have a tremendous following and the comics were quite successful as well. We believe that telling this story, in this way, is the perfect complement to the films and will deliver something fresh and dynamic that will absolutely delight the fans and add to the mythology of the franchise.”

For local horror fans or fans of spooky and haunted houses. . .

LEGENDS NEVER DIE: WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE® RESURRECTS 'FRIGHT NIGHTS 2012'
IN ADVANCE OF HALLOWEEN BEGINNING SEPTEMBER 28
Listed as the Travel Channel’s 2nd most haunted place, the Winchester Mystery House® award-winning, interactive, maze returns with new thrills and an updated flashlight tour more terrifying than ever

Pre-sale tickets now available for a limited time

SAN JOSE, CA, August 16, 2012 – Just in advance of Halloween, the award-winning Winchester Mystery House® attraction "Fright Nights" returns for a second year kicking off on Friday, September 28, 2012. The world-famous mysterious, rambling and reportedly haunted home of Sarah Winchester has more thrills and exciting additions to last year’s award-winning Maze and Mansion tour.

Throughout September and October (see complete schedule below), the grounds of the Winchester Estate will be transformed into the world’s most terrifying Halloween experience. Filled with haunted walk-through attractions, roaming scare performers, and nightmare inducing tales, “Fright Nights” will once again be an event visitors won’t want to miss.

“We are excited to bring the Winchester Mystery House® ‘Fright Nights’ back to life for a second year,” said Brett Tomberlin, President of Imagination Design Works. “To give visitors even more, we are stepping up the 40-minute maze by adding over 100 spine-chilling characters and surprises around every corner. The Mansion ‘Flashlight Tour’ is also ramped up in a way that will shock and awe visitors.”
CURSE OF SARAH WINCHESTER: THE RESURRECTION
Maze Length: 40 Minutes
Guests at Winchester Mystery House®“Fright Nights” will have the exclusive opportunity to experience the revamped “Curse of Sarah Winchester Maze” – an interactive, multi-sensory gateway between Heaven and Hell which will be opened exclusively for visitors of “Fright Nights.” Reports have said, that for a lifetime, Sarah Winchester built and rebuilt her house to avoid a treacherous curse and to escape the legacy of death. Those who perished by the Winchester rifle seek revenge and are ready to torment souls.

Visitors find themselves trapped inside an estate that is empowered by the undead as they travel through the Corn Fields of Winchester Mystery House®, into the haunted ruins of the family Graveyard and ultimately, to a showdown with Sarah herself as she presides over one of her infamous séances.

“WALK WITH THE SPIRITS” FLASHLIGHT TOUR
Tour Length: 35 Minutes
Tour the mansion as you never have before - on your own.

Since Sarah’s death, millions of people have visited her home and many have reported sighting ghosts. Do the phantoms Sarah communed with, or does perhaps Sarah herself, still lurk nightly in the maze-like corridors of the Winchester Mystery House®?

You'll tour the rambling, mysterious mansion with only the moonlight, a souvenir flashlight, and your imagination to provide illumination through the bewildering labyrinth of rooms and stairways.

EVENT DATES, TIMES, LOCATION AND ADMISSION:

WHERE: Fright Nights at Winchester Mystery House®
525 S. Winchester Blvd, San Jose, CA 95128
Phone: 408.247.2101

TICKET INFO: Pre-sale tickets from Aug. 1 – Sept. 9: $35 or $50 VIP
Two-pack tickets available at any Northern CA Costco from Sept. 10 – Oct. 31: $54.99
From Sept. 28 – Oct. 14: $40 or $55 VIP
From Oct. 15 – Nov. 3: $45 or $60 VIP
Tickets now available
http://winchestermysteryhouse.com/frightnights.cfm
*VIP tickets include front of line access – Limited quantities available
*Regular and VIP tickets include access to the Curse of Sarah Winchester Maze and Walk with the Spirits Flashlight Tour

FRIGHT NIGHTS DATES AND TIMES

September 28-29
6:30pm – 12:00am
September 30
6:30pm – 11:00pm
October 7, 29, 30
6:30Pm – 11:00pm

October 14, 18, 21, 25, 28
6:30pm – 11:30pm
October 5, 6, 31
6:30pm – 12:00am
October 12, 13, 19, 20
6:30pm – 12:30am

October 26, 27
6:30pm – 1:00am

November 2, 3
6:30pm – 12:00am

Ellen Datlow comes through again

Blood and Other Cravings

Edited by Ellen Datlow
TOR 2011

Reviewed by Deirdre Murphy

I’m a fan of fantasy of all flavors, light and dark, but horror?  Not so much. Still, Blood and Other Cravings was rarely dull, and held a number of stories that I enjoyed. 

The book starts with a breath of hope, the tale of a man who, despite all likelihood, survives a mining disaster.  He’s sure he will savor every moment of the rest of his life, and indeed, that’s how it starts.  But then he’s visited by a hungry stranger and a story that could have been uplifting turns dark.

My favorite story here is "First Breath" by Nicole J. LeBoeuf.  A teenager seeking herself, a chance encounter in a bar, a first kiss.  It is a very normal story which gracefully and inevitably turns strange and creepy.  It probably says something about me that I found the end more poignant than dreadful.

"Mrs. Jones" by Carol Emshwiller is another twisted love story.  We start with the sad tale of two spinster sisters who live together without sharing anything of significance, except a certain poverty of character. When strange noises hint that something might change, the two sisters each rise to the challenge as they perceive it; one wins the prize, if prize it is, but that’s just the beginning.

"The Third Always Beside You" by John Langan is another story of love gone wrong, of a family in the wake of an infidelity where the presence of the “third” lover colors every moment of their family’s life, becoming an obsession of the children that lasts into their adulthood, even though (as with most obsessions in horror collections) they would doubtless have been happier if they could have let it go and  focused on their own lives.

"Keeping Corky" by Melanie Tem stars a very loving mother, but things start subtly wrong and move forward inexorably to a proper Twilight Zone-style ending.

"Mulberry Boys" is creepy and disturbing and all too memorable.  I could say more, but I’d really rather not revisit that story in my mind.

                                                                                                                                                                                     

Blood and Other Cravings ends with "The Siphon" by Laird Barron.  It starts much like standard horror fare, a routine trip that turns strange and deadly, but the author has a sure touch and the story is beautifully written.  It offers more than despair and gore, though there is plenty of that too.

Overall, I was very impressed with this anthology, even though, as a general rule, I prefer happy endings. Whether you’re a die-hard horror fan or just dabble in the genre from time to time, I think you’ll enjoy this this horror anthology. 

Trailer House - Get your geek on

You've had a hard week. Look both ways, put on the head phones and get your geek on.

On the other hand, if your week's been super hard, this will definitely not cheer you up. That apocalyptic trend is still going strong.











And here's a free read:

Phoenix Pick’s free ebook for November is Paul Cook’s “The Engines of Dawn.”

The coupon code is 9991522 and will be good from November 2
through November 30. Get the e-book download at PPickings.com.

The great engines of the Enamorati have enabled humanity to travel the
stars, but at what cost? Little is known of the jealously guarded engines
while a complacent humanity slowly loses its edge and becomes increasingly
dependent on mysterious alien technologies.

However, when an engine failure strands a university ship, Professor Ben
Bennet and a group of students challenge the status quo and start
discovering hidden secrets that threaten the future of humanity itself.

“A lot of contemporary SF satisfies but doesn’t excite. Cook’s latest
delivers everything you could want”—Science Fiction Chronicle

At www.PhoneixPick.com you can also enter to win a membership to Worldcon in Chicago (Chicon 7) which includes dinner with GOH, Mike Resnick.

OryCon Blew Me Away

Con Report by Ann Wilkes

Can we do it again next weekend? I had a ball at OryCon in Portland, OR last weekend. I sat on 9 panels, did my pro bit at the writer's workshop and read at the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading (twice).

The Writer's Workshop was my first gig at 5PM on Friday. It went well, but could have used more time. We had 3 pros and 3 victims-er beginning writers. Each writer heard a critique from their peers and the pros and then had 5 mins for questions all in an hour. If you do the math, you will see that it simply does not add up. We did the best we could and handed over very detailed crits to the authors.

Who would have guessed that "To Outline or Not to Outline, that is the question" would be an animated, fun panel? We had fearless moderator, MK Hobson, who is the anal outliner, Alma Alexander whom you couldn't pay to produce an outline and Peter A. Smalley, who mostly does outline, but not in as much detail (70 pages, really? ) as Mary. I just hope we weren't having so much fun that we forgot about the audience. ;) And where do I stand? An outline? Only if I'm desperately trying to find my way out of blind alley and then only a couple sentences per chapter, no tiered structure.

"Women Role Models in Science Fiction" sort of morphed into a study of the shifts in gender roles and how both sexes are still figuring things out in the real world. The fact that a strong female role model is not a warrior with tits was only the beginning.

I moderated "That's gotta hurt!" with GOH EE Knight on my left and Rory Miller, with a gory photo album of real injuries, on my right. We went the full gamut from torturing characters with set backs, to nearly killing them, to killing everyone around them. And Rory kept it real, with real-life examples, the physical and emotional cost and what doesn't work.

Aimee Amodo and I delivered "How to give a stellar reading". Aimee talked about all the things that make writers - or anyone - afraid to speak or read before a crowd. We went on to list numerous tips to make your reading the performance it should be. Then came the fun part. I asked for volunteers (very forcefully - ;) ) to deliver readings to work on their voice inflection, volume, modulation, eye contact and body language. So they wouldn't be distracted by unfamiliar words, I had them use nursery rhymes. Imagine hearing Humpty Dumpty and Three Blind Mice as a eulogy, Mary Had a Little Lamb as a candidate speech and others as a newscast or an acceptance speech. And Aimee charmed us with one as William Shatner. Fun stuff.

I actually learned stuff on the "How to Prepare a Manuscript" panel from my fellow panelists, moderator John C Bunnell, Patrick Swenson and Camille Alexa.

Mary Robinette Kowal deftly moderated the "Alien Etiquette" panel. The discussion continued to lead back to how hard it is to come up with aliens who are more alien than some isolated tribes on our own planet. We mostly take a custom that is odd to us and push it to the extreme or invert one. And the devil's in the details. We have to come up with the cultural norms, manners and behaviors for our aliens that fit their unique setting and circumstances.

I had a ball moderating "Blah, blah blah, she said". We had five or six pros (including GOH EE Knight and William F. Nolan) who never tired of sharing dialog don'ts and giving examples of best practices.

My last panel on Saturday was a Feedback Workshop, the expected structure of which no one understood. As moderator, I sort of winged it based on who showed up and what they expected to get from it. It turned out fine and I think everyone had something to take away.

Sunday I was glad to be the traffic cop for "A Touch of Farmer, a Pinch of LeGuin" since I was the least-well-read person on the panel. Just going down the table sharing our influences took half of our time. Writers are passionate about good writing.

While reading at the Broad Universe reading, a crying baby made its entrance. I had no trouble speaking over the dear, but BU host extraordinaire, MeiLin Miranda felt bad, and since we fired a little more rapidly than expected, I was able to read a second piece that I had brought in case I couldn't shave the first one down to the required five minutes. I read an excerpt from a story I'll be sending out later this week after a few more final touches and my fractured fairy tale that always gets a roomful of laughs, "Troll Games".

Friday night after my panel marathon, I hosted a dinner with Broad Universe pals and other con friends. I should have got off my tush and taken more pics. I know Joyce took a bunch, but I don't have them yet. Here's what I do have.
Left to right - David A Levine, MeiLin Miranda, Joyce Reynolds-Ward, SA Bolich.

Even though her eyes are closed, this is great of Alma Alexander. That's Brenda Cooper to her left. On my other side were Andrea Howe and her hubby, Jeff. At the other table, besides David and MeiLin, were Mark Ferrari, Shannon Page, Camille Alexa and a couple of Mark's friends.



And across from me were Renee Stern and an unfortunately blurry Rhiannon Held.

At a room party Friday night I became fast friends with Vivian Perry, who lives in Oakland and sings Jazz. Definitely won't wait till the next con to get together with her. She gave me a CD and the girl can sing. ;) And don't you think she looks like Moriarty's girlfriend, the Duchess Bartholomew from STNG?


I also had fabulous conversations with Richard A. Lovett, G. David Nordley, Bob Brown, Amy Thompson, SA Bolich, Brenda Cooper, Alma Alexander, Joyce Reynolds-Ward and many others. After the con, I met my Aunt and cousin Richard and family for lunch. Then my cousin, JoAnn took me to the airport. When she picked me up at the hotel I still had to fetch the books that didn't sell in the dealer's room. I'm pretty sure next year I'll be staying with her and she'll be coming to the con. The dealers room alone bowled her over - yes I snuck her in. But, hey, I converted her for next year. ;)

Winchester Mystery House's Fright Nights - Not for the kiddies

I received an invitation to check out the premiere of the Winchester Mystery House's Fright Nights. I dithered for a while, then justified the expense of the trip by combining it with a trip to see the grandkids in Fremont on the way. But then, who would be my plus one who would want to make that stop on the way? Her Aunt Debbie! We got there around 6:40. Apparently there was some sort of press briefing in front of the house that we were not directed to. I only know from reading the email they sent at 10 AM the day of - over an hour after I left the house. ☹ Oh, well.

We braved the rap and hip-hop blaring in the courtyard to check in at the press/VIP table and headed into the Winchester Room for hors d'oeuvres and drinks. Fortified with Winchester wine, we joined group six for the flashlight tour of the Winchester House. I visited the Winchester House as a girl and remember seeing the brick wall behind the door and the door that led to a two-story drop to the garden below. I didn't see the brick wall Friday night and only saw the closed door to nowhere. I so wanted to see where all the doors led and see the secret passageways. But that apparently wasn't part of the tour.

If you go on the flashlight tour, be sure not to go with a migraine. Imagine being in a dark room with 30 people all shining flashlights everywhere, including, occasionally in your light-sensitive eyes. I didn't have a migraine when I left Sonoma County that afternoon. It came on just in time for the flashlights. ☹

For those unfamiliar with the Winchester story, Sarah Winchester was the widow of William Wirt Winchester, the maker of the Winchester repeating rifle - a revolutionary design. They had one child who died at about 6 months old. After her husband died of TB, the grieving Sarah visited a psychic in Boston. According to legend, the psychic convinced her that the spirits of the people killed by Winchester rifles sought their revenge upon her and her family. The psychic advised her to construct a home, but never stop construction lest the spirits overtake her. She moved west and bought an eight-room, unfinished farmhouse near San Jose.

The Winchester Mystery House, at its height before the 1906 quake, had seven stories of labyrinthine craziness. Her 24/7 construction project transformed the farmhouse into a sprawling 160-room mansion with 10,000 windows, 2,000 doors, 47 fireplaces, 40 staircases, 13 bathrooms, 2 basements, three elevators and six kitchens over the course of 38 years.

Tour guides matter. They really do. Make sure you aren't led by the strapping young Joe. He was unenthusiastic, uninformed and unenergized. And on about four occasions, I asked him a question. The answer was always a variation of "I don't know." I just read a SF Gate blog in which my counterpart had a similarly unfortunate tour guide. Hers was all gush and no substance.

Here's a video if you can't make it to the mansion yourself. These Weird US guys got a better, more inclusive tour.



The rushed tour of the house didn't frighten, but the maze surely made up for that. It was a screamfest. I screamed my fool head off, to the point of hurting my throat. The last good haunted house I'd been through was when I was probably 12 or 13. I don't remember the ghouls jumping directly in front of us or being free to get right in our face. It seemed they could lunge, but not trespass onto our designated path. They could scare you, but not "get you".

Such is not the case on Fright Night. Beware the ghouls that can jump out at you from around any corner or from behind, and totally violate your personal space. Several even followed me down the path for a while. The Curse of Sarah Winchester Maze: Legends Never Die is not recommended for children under 13.

My nerves got so frayed that I told Debbie it was her turn to be in front and be the early warning system when we were about half-way through.

Our Town - with zombies - live in NY

How the Day Runs Down
by John Langan
Nicu's Spoon Theatre

Reviewed by Clare Deming

Visitors, commuters, and inhabitants of New York City should watch out for zombies on their streets this month. How the Day Runs Down, written by John Langan, opened last weekend at Nicu's Spoon Theatre on W 38th Street. Langan's fiction has previously appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 2, and his collection, Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters (Prime Books, 2008). "How the Day Runs Down" was first published in The Living Dead (Night Shade Books, 2008), edited by John Joseph Adams, and was written as a play. Described by the theatre as "Our Town" but with zombies, this production takes the source material and makes very few changes in the transition to the stage.

Blood-streaked walls and haunting music greeted me in the tiny theatre. The Stage Manager (Mark Armstrong) narrates the story of the town of Goodhope Crossing amid a zombie incursion. Within commuting distance of New York City, Goodhope Crossing is full of "normal" people and the plot examines how they react when faced with the supernatural threat. In the early scenes, a churchgoer tries to halt the advance of his zombified pastor, and two siblings hope to prevent their grandmother from rising out of the earth. In the most chilling and longest section, Elizabeth A. Bell plays a housewife and relates the events of the day that the zombies invaded her quiet street. The kids watch a DVD in the next room while she boils water for mac and cheese and reminisces about good-natured squabbles with her husband. Elizabeth A. Bell's performance was perfect and allowed me to achieve the suspension of disbelief necessary to the experience. By evoking these details of everyday life the horror of the later events is amplified. If this could happen in such a normal suburb to such a real person, then surely it must be true. And if the events are all true, then I am genuinely horrified by what happens.


The sound effects consisted mainly of screams and were jarring and loud. However, that is appropriate for a scream, I believe. The set was sparse and dark, with few props to distract from the actors - just some headstones, rifles, and a pot for boiling water. The lighting was also simple, but most of the show involved one or two speaking actors with zombies lurking at the periphery, so this was suitable. The zombie actors held vacant stares amazingly well and I don't know how they managed to avoid blinking for so long. I enjoyed the costumes - my favorite zombies were Jon Rios as the Skateboard Zombie and Sammy Mena as Ms. No-Face. Gore was minimal other than some blood-stained clothing and Ms. No-Face's mess of a face.

The show ran for ninety minutes with no intermission. Cold soda and water were available for purchase. The only problem that detracted from my enjoyment was that the seating was uncomfortable - plain straight backed chairs that could have used more padding. If you're a zombie fan I would definitely recommend this show, and for non-fans, I think it would still provide a good evening of entertainment.

How the Day Runs Down is playing Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 2:00 pm through July 24. Tickets are available at: http://spoontheater.org.

ISFDB – A Cool Sci-Fi Resource

I was looking around the net the other day, hoping to find a reference on an old science fiction story I remembered reading years ago, when I came across an interesting resource, the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (http://www.isfdb.org/).

I won’t do yet another Doug list here, I promise, but there is a lot to explore on the site. One of my favorite features, and the one that triggered my Google hunt hit in the first place, was the Author Directory (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/directory.cgi). Accessible via a straightforward graphical alpha index, the directory contains hundreds of names, with links to detailed entries for some of my favorites, and skeletal ones for others.

Additional features include publisher lists, links to recent and upcoming books, and magazine lists. By looking over their author birthday listing, I even discovered that Alice Cooper, one of my favorite rockers, is also a speculative fiction author. Who knew?

What pushed me over the edge to near worship was the ISFDB’s own page of lists (http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB_Lists), with topics like these:

• Annual Page Views
• Most Reviewed Books
• Author Communities
• Awards

What’s more, on their page of lists is a link to a list of Top 100 Lists (http://www.isfdb.org/top100.html). Yes, it is a list of lists of lists! With this much list candy, I could well become a Listopheliac.

All this content is wonderful, but the site is still a Wiki. I say “but” and "still" only to emphasize that as a Wiki, it is fed, clothed, and supported by speculative fiction lovers like you. Wikis have their gaps, their inaccuracies, and their broken links, and the ISFDB is no exception. But Wikis are wondrous information organisms. I find this site especially wondrous, devoted as it is to the genres, with so many people working together to preserve their history and promote their future.

Go check it out. And if you have a useful tidbit of information to add or see a data gap you can fill, you might even consider lending a hand. No marathon PBS-style bid for pledges here, just a bit of gentle encouragement for you to contribute content or support at some point in the future. The science fiction history you help to preserve may be your own.

D. E. Helbling

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Indie Film Friday - IFC Midnight - BOO!

IFC Midnight features genre films. They sent me some trailers for films that are upcoming or available on-demand now. The trailer for The Human Centipede II was just the creator walking in a parking garage with his voice narrating rather than him actually talking. Not much to see or hear, but from the interview that follows, it sounds pretty gross: a mad doctor sews people together head to but - twelve of them. I can most definitely live without it.

The other movies are all edge of your seat horror. I wish they'd actually include science fiction like they say they do, but these start with a standard plot - young men and women trapped in the wilderness with "it" or young outcast gets powers and must save the world, but can't save his soul - but they go way beyond the formulas and the acting, from what I can tell on the trailers, is not bad at all. These are all available On Demand right now as part of IFC's fantasticfest.



HEARTLESS is the tale of a man with a birthmark across his face. For a chance to have a normal face, and what he thinks will be a normal life to follow, he makes a deal that he soon regrets. Neighborhood thugs are not human and only he can see them for what they truly are. He is called upon to kill. His happy-ever-after turns into a nightmare. Sneak Preview is available now on-demand. It hits theaters in November.

PRIMAL begins with a group of young people exploring ancient places in a remote area of Australia. Something finds them before they find it, transforming them one by one into vicious killers with lots of pointy teeth.



In HIGH LANE, a group of young hikers unknowingly encroaches on a killer's territory.



RED, WHITE & BLUE features Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Amanda Fuller who plays an emotionally wounded nymphomaniac who meets a mysterious Iraq Vet who doesn't want to immediately jump in bed with her. When one of her past lovers comes back things go as far south as they can get. This is by far the goriest.

Kij Johnson - author, teacher and rock climber

(photo by Beth Gwinn)
Kij Johnson is one busy author. Busy following her passions. I'm so thrilled that she took the time to talk to me (and by extension, all of you). She's an award winning spec-fic author, writing teacher, rock climber and student. Her thesis, of course, is a novel.

AW: I'm guessing you have been writing since you were knee-high to a grasshopper. Has it always been science fiction?

KJ: Nope. I didn’t start writing fiction until I was 25, when I took a Continuing Ed class to fill some free time. I did read with the obsessive focus only young people can have, a book or more a day for years that led into decades. I read every genre (except mundane realism, which I could never see the appeal of), but my first stories were mostly horror. Who knew? I kept diaries with the same obsessiveness, but they really were mundane, mostly pining over boys.

AW: Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when you won your first award?

KJ: That would be the Theodore Sturgeon Award, from the Center for the Study of Science Fiction in 1994. The award is given at the Campbell Conference, held at the University of Kansas each July. Winners are brought in for the Conference, so they – almost -- always know ahead of time. I was in Lawrence in 1994, sitting in for the first time on James Gunn’s science fiction workshop as suggested by someone I had worked with at Tor. My plan was to fly out on Friday night, after the workshop ended and just as the conference started. I mentioned this after one of the classes to Jim, who was also the award administrator. He invited me to his office and urged me to stay, making a convincing pitch for how good the conference would be, but I stayed firm: I already had the plane tickets and couldn’t afford to change them. After half an hour, he sighed slightly and said, “Well, I was hoping not to tell you until the banquet Friday night. I would like you to stay because you have won this year’s Sturgeon Award.”

I stayed. It’s a good thing that I heard about it ahead of time in any case. I had very low blood pressure, and if they had surprised me, I would have leapt up and in all likelihood fallen over in a dead faint.

AW: You write, teach and have been in various editing positions. How does each of those jobs compliment one another and what do you enjoy most about each?

KJ: At their best: Writing is being clever in front of a page. Teaching is being clever in front of people. Editing is helping other people look clever. I teeter between extrovert and introvert, and teaching and writing teeter there with me. If I can’t teach, I find it harder to write.

AW: What was the most serendipitous thing that's happened to you in your writing career?

KJ: At Clarion West in 1987, I struck up a friendship with one of the other students, Gordon Van Gelder, at that point a mere undergraduate student. I called Gordon when I moved to New York City a few years later and asked if he knew of any jobs in publishing. He was at St. Martin’s Press by then: yes, there was a position as assistant managing editor at Tor Books. A month later, after a series of unlikely events, I was managing editor for one of the major science-fiction houses. I had already sold a fair number of short stories, so I presume I would have had a writing career anyway, but Tor led to my jobs at Dark Horse Comics and Wizards of the Coast/TSR, and my work on the Microsoft Reader. It also led to my meeting James Gunn, which led to my teaching and many other wonderful things in my life.

Hanging out with a soon-to-be-important editor when he’s just a fellow student at your Clarion West is not a universally applicable strategy.

AW: How does your writing career differ from what you imagined it to be ten years ago?

KJ: That would be 2000. The Fox Woman had just come out, and it had just won the IAFA’s Crawford Award for best first fantasy novel. I was in transition from full-time jobs that I loved (and which therefore took all my time) to taking some time off to write. I thought then that writing full-time was worth exploring, and in the long run I suppose it was, since that’s how I finished Fudoki.

I didn’t have a strategic plan, except to write more short stories, and to finish three books set in Heian Japan (or thereabouts). Like everyone, I wanted to be critically acclaimed and win awards and get rich, but that’s not exactly a plan, to my mind.

At that point, I had no idea that teaching would become as important to me as it is. I had taught a couple of writing classes at Louisiana State University in 1994-1995, but the novel workshop, my teaching at KU, and grad school were all unimagined then.

AW: Do deadlines energize you or fill you with dread?

KJ: Deadlines are a spur if they’re attainable, but so much depends on my state at the moment. If I have energy, I love them because they keep me writing instead of doing all the other cool things that having energy permits.

AW: What are you working on now?

KJ: I am now in grad school, so I am working on all sorts of very quirky things. At the moment? A blank-verse Canterbury Tale, more or less in a medieval voice. This is kicking my butt and it will never, ever sell, but I can’t stop working on it. I’ll have to put it up on my webpage, next to the equally pointless but fun-to-write Tristram Shandy story I did a few years ago. Some day I will have an entire collection of pointless period pieces.

More generally, a novel and a couple of short stories.


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Editor Ellen Datlow, Anthology Queen

As promised, meet Ellen Datlow, editor of numerous anthologies, winner of almost as many awards and champion of excellent speculative fiction in all its various genres. Last weekend, she won --and not for the first time -- a Hugo for Best Editor - Short Fiction.

AW: You are, without a doubt, the Anthology Queen. How many have you edited now? What do you think is the secret to your success?

ED: I’ve lost count, but I’ve edited 21 YBFH [Year's Best Fantasy and Horror] and two Best Horror reprint anthologies so that’s 23 right there. I only propose anthologies on themes in which I have an interest. If I don’t feel strongly about something I’m editing I couldn’t do a good job. As an editor I buy the stories that I love—I entertain myself first and hopefully my taste coincides with the readers’. Some of my anthologies sell better than others. I don’t believe it’s a difference in quality but what hits the zeitgeist at the right time. I’ve anthologies about which I felt very strongly that sold terribly but I’m still glad I was able to sell and edit them (although the publishers might not have felt that way).

AW: SciFiction was a treasure trove. Do you see yourself ever getting involved with an online magazine again? What were the greatest challenges?

ED: Thanks. Sure, if I was offered a job. However, the weekly aspect of online webzines is exhausting and I’d hope that if I worked on a webzine again I’d have a managing editor and someone to assist me more. Buying and editing the fiction, doing all the administration, working with the copy editor and proofreader and the in-house production department is a lot for one person.

AW: You are tied, with co-editor Terri Windling, as the recipient of the most World Fantasy Awards in the organization's history. Your list of horror awards is becoming equally impressive. And more recently, you won, once again, the Hugo for Best Editor - Short Fiction. You seem at home in all three genres. Which is your favorite and why?

ED: I love all three equally. In fact, I’d love to sell more mixed-genre anthologies like The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy—I love working on more than one project at a time—often in different genres—I can refresh my palate by spending a certain amount of time reading submissions in sf/fantasy, or horror.

AW: Which of your anthologies is nearest and dearest to your heart and why?

ED: That would be like picking one favorite child over another, although I probably love my solo anthologies more than my collaborations as they’re exclusively my taste—no compromise.

AW: How does your career differ from what you imagined it would be going in? If you had your own personal time machine, would you go back and change anything?

ED: I had no idea how much I would enjoy my career. I feel lucky to have fallen into the best job in the world, doing exactly what I love doing. I would change nothing.

AW: What are your three biggest pet peeves regarding short fiction writing?

ED: Sloppy writing will stop me dead. I don’t think of this as a pet peeve but a judgment call. If a sentence in a story (or novel) stops me dead because its meaning is unclear and/or it stops the flow of the story, to me that’s sloppy. (This goes for experimental as well as non-experimental styles.) The job of the writer is to communicate with her reader.

Writers who send out obvious first drafts.

Writers who think writing good short stories are easy and don’t take the time to hone their craft.

A fourth: stories that are not about anything and leave me wondering, Why did the writer write this? It’s about nothing.

AW: What do you think about steampunk? Will it be a flash in the pan or a major player?

ED: I love reading it, but have been reading it for decades. Nothing particularly new about the sub-genre except that it’s hit the culture, which is fun but not especially pertinent in the long run.

AW: What's your favorite paranormal type of character and why?

ED: I have to say it's a toss up between vampires and ghosts. Both paranormal critters are so versatile that good writers can continue to make up brilliant stories using them. You know the expression "it ain't the meat, it's the motion?" Same thing with tropes and themes in fiction. It ain't the trope or theme that counts, it's what you do with it that matters. Anything old can be made new by the right writer.

AW: What are you working on now?

ED: Best Horror #3, and another YA anthology with Terri Windling. I’m hoping to sell a few more anthologies in the coming months.

AW: Tell me about the books you have coming out in 2011.

ED: In addition to the Best Horror of the Year, volume 3, I have a very big volume of all original urban fantasy stories coming out from St Martin's called Naked City: New Tales of Urban Fantasy. It's my more traditional interpretation of the sub-genre--hearkening back to what the phrase originally meant: fantasy in urban settings.

Teeth, edited by me and Terri Windling, is a YA anthology of vampire stories that will hopefully counter the sparkly vampire syndrome :-). It'll be out from HarperCollins.

Supernatural Noir (title self-explanatory, I think--although it has very few detective stories) will be coming out from Dark Horse.

Blood and Other Cravings is an adult vampirism anthology that is a kind of follow up to my earlier vampirism anthologies Blood is Not Enough and A Whisper of Blood (which are still available in a gorgeous double volume reissued by the Barnes and Noble imprint Fall River Press). B&N is also bringing out a new edition of Terri and my first adult fairy tale anthology, Snow White, Blood Red.

Read more about Ellen Datlow at www.datlow.com.

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Happy Town on ABC 4/28

Premiering Wednesday, April 28, 2010, on ABC – Happy Town



The quiet, rural town of Haplin, MN has enjoyed a respite from the annual disappearances that have plagued the town, also known as Happy Town, for years. Year after year one person would go missing – some old, some young, some affluent, some not. Local legend has it that the Magic Man is responsible. But no one knows who or what this Magic Man is.

Young Henley Boone moves to town, so viewers get the grand tour as given to her by her real estate agent. On the drive to the boarding house with the realtor, Henley notices a question mark with a halo depicted in graffiti all over town. The boarding house is also home to Mr. Merritt Grieves and four widows. Grieves is played by Sam Neil who does a very convincing impression of Vincent Price's trademark creepy serial killer character. He even owns a memorabilia shop called The House of Usher.

The landlady tells Henley that the third floor is off-limits. You know she's gonna risk eviction and go up there to investigate.

Happy Town's happiness is shattered when a man is murdered in an ice-fishing shack on the frozen pond. Murder, in that rural town is unheard of, let alone the bizarre method used in this case. I don't want to give too much away, here. Many people, you'll find out, have a hidden side, deliciously pregnant with secrets or mayhem.

Adding color to the whole small town atmosphere are the quaint little sayings. Things like, "Chin to the moon, son," and "Like she'd been eatin' hornets for breakfast."

The most intriguing element in the pilot is the sheriff's lapses in which he speaks of Chloe. His son, the Deputy, asks him who Chloe is, and he says he doesn't know a Chloe. He is unaware that he's been speaking about her.

The show promises a complex plot, so far. But don't take my word for it. And who's missing this time? Maybe it's me. www.annwilkesismissing.com



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The "season" part II

Just after posting the list for all those award winners and nominees, I read on Robert Sawyer's Facebook page that FlashForward was up for a Constellation Award. Doh! Those most certainly should have been included in my list.

The Constellation Awards honors Science Fiction works on the silver screen and the plasma (or HD or whatever kind of tele you have) screen. Nominees in the various categories are voted on by the Canadian public using either a paper or online ballot.

The TCON Promotional Society, the not-for-profit corporation who organizes the annual Polaris science fiction event (formerly known as Toronto Trek) organizes the awards program and have been doing so now for four years. Winners will be honored at a ceremony at Polaris 24 in July. For more information, and especially if you're Canadian and haven't voted, visit the Constellation Awards website.

And let's not forget the Science Fiction Writers of America's Nebulas coming up next month. You can see the nominees in all categories on the SFWA site. And last month SFWA announced the winners of the 2010 Solstice Award: Tom Doherty, Terri Windling and the late Donald A. Wollheim. Solstice Awards recipients will be honored during the Nebula Award Weekend in Cocoa Beach, Fla. (May 14-16).

You can read the full press release here.

I have interviews lined up with Greg Bear, Steve Hockensmith and Laurel Ann Hill and many more. Stay tuned.

Oh, and I almost forgot. You SOOOOO have to see this show! I stumbled upon this show on IFC while channel surfing. Have you seen The IT Crowd? It's not SF, but it's a quirky British sitcom.



And of course three episodes later, it poofed. There are three seasons on DVD. It's so on my Amazon wishlist.

I'm also expecting a press package from ABC on the new horror series, Happy Town. I'll tell you all about it as soon as I get it.

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The "season" has begun!

I thought it was time for another photo. One in which I'm not hiding behind dark glasses and my hat. Photo by Patrick F. Wilkes

There is a new deal in the wind for Awesome Lavratt. More news later. It just received another excellent review at Amazon. Don't know who the reviewer is, but I'm thrilled with their review. You can read it for yourself here.


Spring has sprung, and with it we have trees and flowers in bloom, lovely pollen in the air to make us sneeze, shirt-sleeve weather, festivals and, for speculative fiction writers – awards!

Winners for the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards, the Philip K. Dick Award, the Bram Stoker Awards, Australian Shadows Awards and short lists for the David Gemmel Awards and the Arthur C. Clarke Awards and nominees for the Hugos, Campbell and Rhysling and Compton Crook and Promethius Awards.

2009 BSFA Award Winners are as follows:
Best Novel: The City and the City by China Mieville
Best Short Fiction: "The Beloved Time of Their Lives," by Ian Watson and Roberto Quaglia
Best Non-Fiction: Mutant Popcorn by Nic Lowe
Best Artwork: Cover of Desolation Road by Stephen Martiniere

Philip K Dick Award (for distinguished original science fiction paperback published for the first time during 2009 in the US):
Bitter Angels by C.L. Anderson (Ballantine Spectra)
Special citation given to Ian McDonald for Cyberabad Days (Pyr)

HWA and Bram Stoker Awards

• Lifetime Achievement Awards: Brian Lumley and William F. Nolan
  
• The World Horror Convention also awarded a lifetime achievement award. There's went to Basil Cooper.
  
• The Richard Layman President's Award: Vince Liaguno
  
• Silver Hammer Award (for volunteer work on behalf of the Horror Writers' Association: Kathy Ptacek (She's a Broad Universe member! Go Kathy!)
  
• Specialty Press Award: Tartarus Press (Ray Russell and Rosalie Parker)
  
• Bram Stoker Awards for
  
  • Best Novel: Audrey's Door by Sarah Langan (Harper)
    
  • Best First Novel: Damnable by Hank Schwaeble (Jove)
    
  • Best Long Fiction: The Lucid Dreaming by Lisa Morton (Bad Moon Books)
    
  • Best Short Fiction: "In the Porches of My Ears," by Norman Prentiss (PS Publishing)
    
  • Best Anthology: He is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson edited by Christopher Conlon (Gauntlet Press)
    
  • Best Collection: A Taste of Tenderloin by Gene O'Neill (Apex Book Co.)
    
  • Best Non-Fiction: Writers Workshop of Horror by Michael Knost (Woodland Press)
    
  • Best Poetry: "Chimeric Machines" by Lucy A. Snyder (Creeative Guy Publishing)

Australian Shadows Awards:
Long Fiction: Slights by Kaaron Warren (Angry Robot)
Edited Publication: Grants Pass edited by Jennifer Brozek and Amanda Pillar (Morigan Books) Jennifer is another Broad! :)
Short Fiction: "Six Suicides," by Deborah Biancotti (A Book of Endings)

Congratulate all the award winners, better still, buy their works.

And good luck to the nominees for the other awards mentioned above. If you're eligible to vote for any of them, please do so post haste.



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Jack Skillingstead on writing and evolving

I met Jack Skillingstead in the pages of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. His story so impressed me that I dropped him a note to tell him. I don't do that very often. Now it is my pleasure to not only interview Jack, but to review his first two books. Jack's frighteningly raw and gritty prose holds nothing back. He delves far into the future and deep into the human psyche.

When you're finished reading the following interview, don't miss the reviews of Harbinger and Are You There and Other Stories at Mostly Fiction later today.


AW: How long have you been writing speculative fiction?

JS: I knew beyond a doubt that I wanted to be a writer since the age of twelve. Nevertheless, I didn't complete a story until I was fourteen or so. And it wasn't until I was in my mid-twenties that I really dug in. It was always a fraught situation with me, and it seemed to take forever to achieve publication.

AW: How did you come up with the incredible scenario of human evolution in Harbinger?

JS: All I can say is one thing led to another. The book started out as a look into a troubled mind forced to interpret incredible experiences. As far as consciousness evolution goes, the idea doesn't strike me as too far-fetched. There are zillions of sf writers who seem to believe our computing machines will one day attain "singularity" and leap ahead of us. Why isn't it equally plausible to consider human consciousness on the verge of sudden expansion? I wouldn't be the first one to posit such a scenario. My starting point with the idea, as I've mentioned elsewhere, was Colin Wilson's new existentialism and his "outsider" cycle of books, beginning with The Outsider and continuing through Religion And The Rebel and so on. Later Wilson refined some of his ideas of consciousness and even concocted an ascending scale. He was, and remains, a born optimist, though, while I am not so much so.

AW: Do you always start your stories with a "what if"? Or do some begin with worlds or characters?

JS: Virtually none of my stories began with a "what if." No, wait, I think there's one, but I can't recall which. Mostly they've started in all sorts of ways. A persistent or otherwise intriguing image. Some small idea, like the Fairy light flirts in "The Chimera Transit." I once misheard a radio weatherman say we were due for a "human day." Of course, he said "humid." I got a whole story out of those two words. But however they begin, if I don't find a personal connection to the story pretty early on I almost always drop it.

AW: What sorts of writers groups do you belong to?

JS: I have never belonged to a writer's group. Back in college a friend and I used to trade manuscripts once in a while. He was very good. I was lousy. There was nothing in the way of critiquing going on. Eventually we stopped, because he was so much better than I was and I found that depressing.

AW: Can you tell me about your journey to that first published book, the process of finding an agent and or publisher?

JS: I was at Worldcon in Boston some years ago and Alex Irving and I were sitting at the Dell Magazines table, putting our hour in. We fell into conversation about publishing, of course, and Alex invited me to join him and his editor, Jim Minz, for lunch. We picked up a few more people on the way to the restaurant. One of them was Christine Cohen. At lunch the subject of agents came up, and I asked Chris if she was looking for one, to which she replied, " I am one." Later in the SFWA suite she found me and we talked about the novel I'd just finished. Eventually she became my representative at the Virginia Kidd Agency and she wound up doing the contract for my collection as well as four graphic novel scripts I wrote for the now defunct Realbuzz Studios.

AW: The stories in your Are You There And Other Stories anthology run very dark. Is this representative of most of your fiction? If so, why do you like writing about the dark side?

JS: It isn't so much a matter of liking the dark side. When I wrote most of those stories my interior life was dark, and so the stories reflected that. I was always interested in discovering some personal truths in my writing. My models for this were Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison and a few others. I was, and continue to be, enamored of the idea that the ideal writer's voice is one that is instantly identifiable and inextricable from the writer's real life. Such a voice requires an unabashed commitment to telling the up-close truth about how you perceive the world -- a willingness to say anything so long as it is an authentic representation of who you are. People will say "I love Bradbury." Meaning they love his voice on the page, whatever he happens to be writing. They don't love him because he wrote dark stories earlier in his career, or science fiction stories later on, or Irish stories after he worked with John Huston, or whatever. Not that I'm comparing my own feeble efforts with Bradbury's incredible oeuvre. I'm just saying it's not a matter of writing "dark" stories or "sense of wonder" stories or whatever. It's about finding your own most authentic language during any given season of your creative life.

AW: What do you do when you're stuck on a plot point? Or when you find a character isn't working?

JS: Plot points are the worst. I don't like the hard thinking that sometimes goes into fixing a broken plot. And in fact too much thinking can just totally derail the thing past recovery. Usually it's better to sort out exactly what the difficulty is, you know: state the problem. Then try to forget about it for a day or two. If you've presented your unconscious with the proper question it will give you a response you can use. The unconscious is almost like a separate entity. Most good writers recognize this and learn to work in partnership with their unconscious. Damon Knight called his unconscious mind "Fred." Bradbury, again, is famous for his "don't think" approach. The literary writer John Gardner talked about it, as did Nabokov and any number of others. So you see, I'm absolutely not crazy.

AW: Do you do all of your writing at a computer? If not, what's the strangest thing you've written a story or story idea on.

JS: I alternate between the computer and notebooks. When it's notebooks I prefer a fine tipped black ink pen. The strangest thing I've written an idea on? You have to go back a ways. Two AM in a rented room in Portland, Maine. Howling winter outside. I was lying in bed when suddenly struck with an idea I needed to get down immediately -- and there was no paper! Except in the bathroom. So I did my own version of Kerouac's scroll, only mine was two ply. It ripped a lot, as you might expect.

AW: What are you working on now?

JS: Fourth draft of a novel based on my short story "Life on The Preservation." I know I've been talking about this thing for years. But I really am working on it, and it really is getting close to finished. At long last.


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Telling on my friends

Emilie Bush's Chenda and the Airship Brofman is a quarter-finalist in the
Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Competition! Of the 5000 entered in its
category, hers is in the top 250.

Lancer Kind's story, "KanjiKiss", was translated and published in the biggest sf mag on the planet. Bet you don't know which magazine that is.

Seanan McGuire's Late Eclipses and The Brightest Fell (Toby Daye books four and five) have officially been acquired by DAW Books.

Robert Sawyer reports: "Still too soon to announce which property, but had an amazing meeting today with the director, the screenwriter, the star, and two of the executive producers for an adaptation of one of my novels ... "

Finally, though I refuse to twitter, I know others thrive on it. And I love lists.
100 Fun Twitter Feeds for Serious Sci-Fi Geeks





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Hump day haps and Radcon

Here's SF news for this last hump day of January.

My friend, Kim Richards of Damnation books reports:

Damnation Books, LLC acquires Eternal Press

Santa Rosa, Calif., Jan. 21, 2010 -- On January 1st, 2010 Damnation Books, LLC took the reins of Eternal Press, moving the previously Canadian based publisher to the United States. Both companies specialize in ebooks and also paperback editions of their fiction. Read press release.

This isn't science fiction, but it used to be. It's that computer that you've seen on your favortie SF shows. It's real. But it has a much-maligned name. There is all kinds of snarking going on on in cyberspace over the iPad. But first watch the video. Here's a Washington Post article focusing on the name. It's snarky, too.

iPulpFiction has a short story by Ben Bova. Read "Bloodless Victory" on March 1st at www.iPulpFiction.com. Bova, one of my favorite SF authors, is a championship fencer. In "Bloodless Victory," he explores the "what if" of dueling as the method of legal justice.

I got my itinerary for Radcon. I'm so jazzed. Check it out:
Writing non-human protagonists (and Larry Niven is also on this one!)
Short story markets
Writers vs. artists Pictionary
Characters
Compartmentalized characters
Trek memories
John Pitts birthday party
Bartending for Renovations 2011 party
Is it sci-fi, fantasy or horror?
Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading
Book signing

Super panels and most excellent people to share them with!

I'm also going on a tour of Hanford Nuclear Facility. It will be a great field trip for one of my novels. Radcon rocks!

Look for my interview with author Gail Carriger here on Friday, to coincide with my review of Soulless on Mostly Fiction.



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A SF welcome to the New Year

Happy 2010! And to begin the year on the proper Science Fiction footing...

Patrick Stewart has been knighted! Congrats to Sir Patrick!

And it's now Sir Peter Jackson as well. Sir Peter is the acclaimed film writer/director of Lord of the Rings fame.

I was sent this by a co-worker this week and it blew my socks off. 50 examples of masterful CGI.

I neglected to mention regarding District 9: Beware of the F-Bombs. It's the most frequently used word in the film besides articles. Would have enjoyed it more without them, personally.

For my writer readers, here's a blog entry on rookie mistakes sending ARCs for review. Thanks to Jason Sanford, for sharing it on Facebook and Matt Staggs for composing it.

Here's a sneak peak at the new Doctor for Doctor Who.

Not to be a downer. I just happened to run across this on my Facebook wall as well and thought I'd share. For my horror fan readers, here are the 2009 Horror Obits.

If anyone has a similar list for science fiction, do share. I'm sure someone has already compiled such a thing somewhere. I know we lost many greats last year.

My review of Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde has the honor of being the first review posted at Mostly Fiction Book Reviews. Don't forget to read my interview with Fforde as well, if you haven't already.

Also posted this week on Mostly Fiction is my review of Immortality Factor by Ben Bova. It was first entitled Brothers and was re-released as a contemporary novel.

I'm fully immersed in Soulless by Gail Carriger. It's a real page-turner. Review to follow. It's the cover and tag line that sold me on this book. Soulless: A novel of vampires, werewolves and parasols.

It's the parasol that cinched it.



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Jennifer Brozek, dark speculative fiction writer /editor

I met Jennifer at BayCon. We were instant friends when we shared a panel. Cons are like that. And Jennifer has so many interesting, helpful things to say, I asked her for an interview.

She also has a book, Grants Pass, a post-apocalyptic anthology that came out this year. I read it and reviewed it over on SFReader. I gave it the glowing review it fully deserved. The wide range of foible-ridden characters represented in the stories made it very compelling. Those characters could have made a trip to the grocery store (pre-apocalypse) riveting.

AW: What attracted you to editing anthologies?

JB: It wasn't something I decided on specifically. I never thought, "I want to edit an anthology now." My first anthology, Grants Pass, was simply a project I wanted to do that happened to be an anthology and I needed to be the editor of it. I went into the project blind and learned a lot along the way. After doing the first one, I got bit by the bug of what an anthology is and could be. I got hooked. I enjoy creating something that is more than the sum of its parts—which is what an anthology is.

AW: Do you consider yourself foremost an editor or a writer?

JB: Definitely a writer first (at least at this point in my career) and an editor second. Most of my projects are writing based. Actually, now that I think about it, about 60% of my projects are writing based with the other 40% in the editing, proofing and publishing category. I still have stories I want to tell. I still enjoy writing fiction and RPG worlds.

AW: How has editing helped your writing and vise verse?

JB: Editing out the same mistakes over and over again has taught me to not make the same mistakes in my own writing. Reading stories I know I will have to edit later has taught me to use "active voice" much more often than "passive voice." At the same time, writing has helped my editing by allowing me to recognize my past mistakes that much quicker in someone else's work.

I really believe that doing more than one job in the writing industry improves all of a professional's skills. Writing improves editing and slush reading. Editing improves writing and slush reading and slush reading does amazing things for writing and will give an editor an idea of how much work is involved in editing/copy editing a story.

AW: How much work goes into shaping a cohesive anthology after the stories are chosen?

JB: It is a huge amount of work. After the stories are chosen, there is a series of back and forth that goes on between the editor and author for edits (rewrite requests) and copy editing (technical corrections). For my anthologies, I like to have an afterward from each of the authors about the story itself and, of course, a biography. Getting a single story in shape for an anthology takes hours of work and coordination between the editor and the author.

After that is a series of processes – story order, book layout, getting ARCs out to reviewers in order to get the needed book blurbs for the cover of the book, getting the cover to approve, proofing the ARCs for any stupid spelling error and the list goes on. You must be very detailed oriented: who owes you what, who do you owe something to, when is your deadline and a thousand other details. Finally, you need to give your publisher a completed product for production and hope you didn't forget something silly like your own bio or the introduction.

AW: I know you write role-playing games by day. Most recently you had a writing contract with NC Soft for Aion. What did you like most about writing for it?

JB: It is an amazing experience to be in a room with a dozen highly creative writers all working on the same product. You have some area experts and some jacks-of-all-trades that you can talk with. I spent about half of my time just editing another author's work and the other half writing original content. Everyone writes. Everyone edits. Everyone needs the edits. It is this fabulous gestalt of creative writing. If you have a question about something, you can easily call it out and someone will answer you. The best part about it was being able to really dive in and create something new for a game that millions of people will eventually play.

AW: Are you an avid gamer yourself?

JB: I am a gamer. I don't know if I can say "avid" because I tend to stick to a single video game for a long time until I'm done playing with it and then I'm done-done. No more. I do spend my Saturday nights pretending to be a bloodsucking creature of the night at a local LARP. When I'm not running that LARP, I tend to have one tabletop game a week as well. I guess I'm a well rounded gamer – tabletop, video games and LARPing. My newest video game addiction is Aion. But I need to be careful because if I'm playing the game, I'm not writing.

AW: What's the story you've written that you are most fond of? Why?

JB: That is an evil question. It's almost like asking "Which one is your favorite child?" I'll break it out. Grants Pass is my favorite anthology because it was my first and I would not let it die. Five years from conception to publication—it was the little anthology that could. Regresser's Evolution is my favorite novel because it is the first novel I completed that I was willing to show anyone else. It is about to be completely rewritten as a serial for a possible upcoming project. It really does need to be rewritten. So, whether or not the project pans out, it will still be for the best. Finally, my current favorite short story is "Eulogy for Muffin" because it's about kids running a Wild Hunt with their family pets and what's not to love about that? It also had the best reaction from all of my 1st Round Readers.

AW: Can you tell us about the new anthology you're working on?

JB: The newest anthology I'm working on is called Close Encounters of the Urban Kind. It has already been sold to the Apex Book Company and is due out in the Spring or Summer of 2010. It is a mash up of urban legends and alien encounters. Some urban legends caused by alien encounters. Some urban legends used by aliens in an encounter and some alien encounters based around urban legends retold. I'm very excited about this anthology. I have a fabulous set of authors for it. The author list will be posted in October on the Apex Book Company website. I am in the final stages of story selection and I can see just how good this anthology is going to be. Scary, too, as I have a preference for the darker side of life.

AW: What are you writing now?

JB: Right now, I am working on a new PDF setting for Colonial Gothic – a horror RPG based in 1776 – called Colonial Gothic: Plymouth Rock. This should be out in time for Thanksgiving. I have a new website fiction project for Colonial Gothic that should go live at the beginning of 2010.

AW: What do you mean when you say PDF setting?

JB: It is a PDF only release of a product that describes a location setting in the RPG world. It describes the location layout, major features, canon people/places/events/mysteries. Then in a Gamemaster section, all of the location's secrets are discussed for use in an RPG campaign.

I have also just agreed to a monthly project involving the Pathfinder RPG as well as agreed to be the lead writer on a new Talisman Studios product set in the Suzerain universe. In my spare time (hah!) I intend to start the rewrite of Regresser's Evolution. My writing cup is full and this makes me very happy.

Read more about Jennifer on her website.



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