Genreville   

Genreville is on hiatus at the moment (as you may have noticed) while I get caught up; between traveling, recently moving offices, and writing all the feature material for Monday's SF/fantasy focus issue, I've been a little busy.

I would like to break radio silence for a moment, however, in order to note that yes, I'm aware that Freda Warrington's forthcoming novel from Tor has a main character named Rose Fox; no, I had nothing to do with it and don't know her at all, and I doubt she's ever heard of me (though I am quirking a suspicious eyebrow at Jim Frenkel, her editor, who might have); yes, I think it's h...Read More

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Jim Hines gives an excellent overview of his latest contract with DAW. In the comments, Laura Anne Gilman adds some information specific to series authors and those who work in multiple genres. You should definitely read this if you're at all interested in being either an author or an agent.

An auction is starting up to provide scholarship funding for people of color who wish to attend Wiscon. Check out some of the great things on offer, from manuscript critiques to cake.

Over at the Galaxy Express, Heather Massey posts a three-...Read More

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I really need to start keeping a quotefile of some of the hilarious things my reviewers say in the post-review comments and other emails, if only so I can show it to my coworkers when they wonder why I'm cracking up laughing at my desk. Recent gems, equal parts unfiltered snark and dry understatement, with the serial numbers filed off:

"...it's rather pop-corny in nature, but it's good popcorn, not the kind you get six packs for a dollar in a little grocery where no one ever shops."

"I wasn't sure I'd like this, as the concept of Nazi vampires initially struck me as a bit over the top..."

"This is like Jack McDevitt doing a Mills &...Read More

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This story makes me incredibly sad. "Asian fantasy doesn't sell"? Tell that to Del Rey, who recently put out Daniel Fox's Dragon in Chains; or Night Shade, who publish Liz Williams's popular Detective Inspector Chen mysteries; or Tor, who just launched S.J. Day's Eve trilogy; or Subterranean, who reissued Barry Hughart's Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox to great acclaim from Hughart's many, many fans. The editor who told off Cindy...Read More

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Here's a blast from the past! A Book a Week is on hold for the next few weeks, since I have a pile of manuscripts to read for the Amazon contest that PW helps with every year, but I have a few old Nuts & Bolts interviews hanging around, and I thought I'd blow the dust off this one for you. The interviewee is Tom Lloyd, whose most recent book is The Twilight Herald. I asked him about The Stormcaller, the first book in his Twilight Reign series.

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(Apologies to anyone I earwormed with that subject line.)

A friend emailed me the following, which intrigued me so much I thought I would top-post it.

What this post actually got me thinking about is how we remember books. I know I've read this book; I even know when and where I read it (in Ireland three years ago). Until I was reading your bits of description, however, I couldn't've told you which William Gibson book I got cheap just before flying over, and I certainly couldn't've told you anything about it. Reading your post, I was continually thinking, "Oooh, right, it's that book!" and probably couldn't tell you anything now which isn't directly connected to what you mentioned. I was even reading a book on neuromarketing last week and the author's description of himself led me to think "that reminds me of a femal

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There's a fair bit of spoilery stuff in this post. Pattern Recognition is probably best approached from a position of maximum ignorance, so if you plan to read it, skip this post. Very long PW review here; wow, PW style has changed quite a lot since 2003!

Pattern Recognition is the top-rated science fiction book of the tournament. It's been a while since I read any science fiction, and it was really interesting to feel my brain shift immediately from second world analysis (what is this place like? what are the inhabitants like?) to first world analysis (when are we? where are we?). It's quite odd to read a William Gibson book set in what was then the present and is now the past, but I adapted pretty quickly. It's also a little difficult for me to read an...Read More

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Last Wednesday I went to the launch party for Catherynne M. Valente's new book, Palimpsest. I've been to some pretty great book launch parties, but this one blew them all away. At a launch party, you might expect a reading, maybe a bit of speechifying, maybe some hors d'oeuvre. Instead we were treated to music, dance, and a truly spectacular rope suspension act, all based on the book. Vendors sold jewelry, clothing, and perfume, all based on the book. One jeweler created a pendant onstage as S.J. Tucker, a fabulous musician who has written an accompanying album for each of Cat's novels since the first Orphan's Tales book, sang a song about one of the main characters of Palimpsest; the pendant was then raffled off to one of the attendees. About eighty people showed up, and were immersed in the world of this novel--which most people there hadn't read, since it o...Read More

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Usual warning: 'ware spoilers. PW's review is here.

I've always meant to read Liz Williams's books because a) I like detective stories and b) there is another Liz Williams of whom I am exceedingly fond and it tickles my fancy to see her name on a book cover. It's just been a matter of finding the time, so I'm glad the book tournament gave me a good excuse to put other things aside and pick up Snake Agent.

I really appreciate Williams's delicate handling of the parts of the story that are classic police procedural. There are so many police procedurals out there, and so many noir knockoffs, and if I see one more cigarette butt flicked into a gutter or crushed beneath the heel of a boot I will (as the cliché goes) scream. It's not that having r...Read More

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Yesterday's Wondermark is brilliant:



I see this behavior surprisingly often in writers who don't like the criticism they receive. I understand the temptation. It's hard for a writer to keep from identifying with their work, so criticism of the work feels like criticism of the writer, and that triggers defensiveness; the natural response is to not only criticize the criticism but to criticize the critic (or, as noted above, just laugh in their face).

Fortunately, we're all adults, so we can temper our natural responses with reason and kindness. On my end, the critic's end, I make every effort to explicitly criticize the work and not the writer, and to be factually accurate. Writers are responsible for taking a deep breath, stepping back, and understanding that on...Read More

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No spoilers this time, though there may be in the comments. PW's review is here. (I'm trying to remember to link them from every post, for context.)

Poppy Z. Brite's Antediluvian Tales is lovely and warm and cozy and delicious and makes me want to go out and buy everything she ever wrote. Anytime anyone ever tells you "write what you know", read this book for a good look at someone who both writes what she knows and writes what she cannot possibly know, and makes it all work. I am seriously impressed.

When I showed my husband my review of The Lies of Locke Lamora, he said, "I don't know why you read books!" Leaving aside that I do actually enjoy dissecting stories with every critical tool in my toolbox, books like this are why ...Read More

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Today's Ask a Publicist question: Is an imprint a brand?

Jill Maxick, Director of Publicity, Prometheus Books and Pyr:
This one made me smile. Not only do we think of Pyr as a brand, but we issued a press release that mentioned this. We have heard from readers, critics, chain bookstore buyers, distributors, bloggers and independent bookstores, that a Pyr brand has developed, based not on any one niche within the genre, but on the expectation of a general level of extremely high quality. We know there are Pyr fans who look for our imprint when looking for new books to read--because they’ve told us so. We have tried very hard to be consistent with the brand as a whole and to promote the imprint as a whole in addition...Read More

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