Category Archives: Uncategorized

We finished watching (via DVD rentals from Netflix) the first season of Desperate Housewives last night, and I have to say, it’s several kinds of brilliant. It’s far, far from the prototypical TV sitcom (which I read a while back described as unpleasant people saying sarcastic things to each other — as in, e.g., the Emmy winner, Everybody Loves Raymond), and as much drama as comedy. In particular, it’s an almost David Lynchian expose behind an apparently perfect upper-class suburban street, involving the mystery behind a suicide that occurs in the first moments of the first episode, and which is not fully explained until the last episode of the season, in such a way that clearly benefits from the writers having planned the story arc in advance… as opposed to making it up as they went along, stretching it out as the ratings permitted. (Which isn’t to say they haven’t planted the seeds of some intriguing developments; I’m especially interested to see what happens to the Evil Pharmacist.) The writing is sharp, the plot surprises frequent but not arbitrary, the acting first-rate. The closing montages of most episodes, narrated by the suicidee of the first episode, in a manner both ironic and compassionate, are at turns philosophical and heart-wrenching. TV was never like this when I was growing up.

Entreaties to Norton have gone unreplied.

Terrible news about SciFiction, though perhaps not totally surprising, since the site was always (presumably) a non-profit-earning prestige corner of the cable channel’s online presence. Still, a shock.

Next round of books — notable small press items seen at World Fantasy Con.

I’ve spent most of this evening trying, again unsuccessfully, to install an update to my Norton Antivirus software; I first tried a week and a half ago, on the weekend before World Fantasy Con, and ended up then submitting a support request to Norton. Now that my Antivirus software has expired, I tried again this evening to install the update, per the response from Norton; again it didn’t work, the install program hanging, the removal program provided by Norton apparently ineffectual. As of this moment I have no antivirus software installed on this computer at all; I’m living dangerously.

I mention this, despite my promise a while back not to whine in this blog about computer problems, only as an explanation for the 100+ emails still in my inbox, and the tardiness of the next ‘new books’ page. Everything is in work, time, and mundane constraints, permitting.

I forgot to mention the other day that the day I left Los Angeles, there were copies of George R.R. Martin’s A FEAST FOR CROWS in a bookshop in Terminal 7 at LAX… five days before the official lay-down date of Tuesday, November 8th (i.e. the date before which booksellers, including Amazon, are not supposed to sell the book). I suspect the reason is simply that airport bookshops are not as careful about these things as are the large chains, and/or that the diligence with which publishers chase down such infractions varies from case to case…

Today I had breakfast with Mark Budz and Marina Fitch in the hotel coffee shop, then perused the dealers room one last time before its closing later in the afternoon. I had a nice chat with Carol Emshwiller, and also met Michael Blumlein (a person I’d never even seen a photo of), Lois Tilton, and Brandon Sanderson. And I bought a couple last books. Doors to the banquet hall opened at 12:30 and people slowly drifted in, found seats, and settled. I sat between Gary Wolfe and Amelia Beamer at a table just behind the HarperCollins table. The food was marginal — dry chicken or dry pork, covered in either case by a gluey cherry sauce.

The awards ceremony was spirited and efficient. Toastmaster Peter Straub gave a genial introduction that included tantalizing hints about the kind of secret knowledge possessed by people of increasing fame, with examples serving to illustrate how far down Straub is in the fame chain. The other guests of honor — Graham Joyce, Bob Weinberg, Terry Windling, Kinuko Y. Craft, and April Derleth & Walter Derleth for Arkham House — made brief statements that varied in polish and tone but which were all sincere expressions of thanks and appreciation for the convention’s invitation and the community’s support.

Then came the announcements of the awards themselves, notable first in that only two of the winners were not present, and remarkable second for comprising a set of acceptance speeches of almost uniform eloquence, some short and some long, but none veering into incoherence or rambling asides. Of them the highlights were surely John Picacio’s impassioned and moving tribute first to the other artists nominated in his category and then to his parents, who were present and stood up for applause, and at the very end Tom Doherty’s generous reflection on the people who helped at various steps of a long career that has led to Tor Books.

The photo session went quickly and smoothly, except that I discovered when I returned to my room that only a single photo of those I’d taken was usable, apparently due to a flash malfunction or missetting. (A cute pic of Susanna Clarke holding her award with Colin Greenland’s cap perched on top was too blurry to post.) After the photos I hung around to attend the Judges’ Panel, with Jeffrey Ford, Kate Elliott, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Tim Lebbon, and Jessica Amanda Salmonson debriefing the process that led to their decisions. Key points: there was no controversy, no e-violence this year; no feuds or resignations. They saw over 300 books total, and there were only about 75 reader ballots in the first round that determined two finalists in each category (which is why John Douglas always urges members to join next year’s con and nominate!). Ford created a ranking scheme that combined preferences from each judge into a single combined list in each category to determine both the shortlist and winner, though along the way discussion among the judges caused some of them to reconsider works they’d previously dismissed. And in the ‘special’ categories, while they made a point of confirming that candidates had eligible work in the award year, they also took into consideration the quality of their long-term work.

After that I trekked back to my hotel to post the winners and salvage what I could from my digital photos, and while I was at it post a few ‘blinks’ from the day’s email.

Then back to the con hotel, where I joined a group in the bar that included Ellen Datlow, Chris Lotts, Ted Chiang, and Paolo Bacigalupi (whom I’d not previously met). Dinner groups were reportedly forming in the lobby to trek to one eating destination or another, but since we missed the early group we ordered a snack and had another drink and chatted. Finally an enormous group gathered in the lobby (the five of us; Walter and Hal and Graham and Jay; Kelly and Gavin; John P and Chris R and Lou A; Mark and Martha, and another dozen at least) and headed out into the chilly evening, along mostly deserted streets and around the capital to a pub called the Great Dane, where tables were reserved for us downstairs. We ordered various shades of ale and pub food, burgers, fish and chips, brats and mash, etc., and at my table compared impressions of Lost, of Battlestar Galactica, of Alias and Doctor Who. Then back out into the night, to the hotel, the group dispersing quickly… some to the dead dog parties; I to my hotel, to update the ‘future history’ pages on the site (and add one more bit of awards news), and write this blog entry. End of convention… tomorrow morning I drive to O’Hare and then fly home.

I attended two panels today, the first about the ‘Art of Review and Criticism’, with Paula Guran lobbing a series of questions to panelists Gary K. Wolfe, Russell Letson, Michael Levy, and William Gagliani: what can a writer do to get a fair review? (Not a lot, but don’t be a jerk.) What’s the state of the art of reviewing? (There are a lot more reviews than criticism; a lot of online stuff is awful, but so was a lot of mimeo’d fanzine stuff.) Cheryl Morgan joined the panel to describe her current experience writing reviews (she’s getting more PDF files now instead of ARCs), and the group went on to discuss how reviews in different venues differ (those in PW [some written by Paula and Michael] are short, anonymous, and designed for the general reader; those in Locus assume a familiarity with the genre). It’s not true, said Gary, that Locus has a policy against running negative reviews; it’s that reviewers are allowed to select what to cover, and often choose not to bother to finish reading a book they don’t like. Cheryl disagreed with this approach, citing Dave Langford’s expertise in writing effective negative reviews, and she claimed that in her case she makes a point of finishing every book she reads.

A later panel was about “The Reader: Foundation of Fantasy”, which despite its complementary theme had a relatively light attendance. Ann VanderMeer posed a series of prepared questions and quotes (from Sartre, Delany, Scholes) to panelists Jay Lake, Mary Rosenblum, Hal Duncan, Matt Cheney, and (Tor editor) Liz Gorinsky. How important is the reader? If a story is never read, is it still a work of art? If a reader gets it wrong, whose fault is it? Hal Duncan, in thick Glaswegian accent, answered aggressively: the story is all-important, not the writer and not the reader. Jay Lake was more practical; Matt Cheney good-naturedly theoretical, undermining the questions by focusing on definitions (what is a work of art?). Does it take skill to read properly? Duncan cited Mervyn Peake’s as books that taught him how to read them; similarly Cheney cited Absalom, Absalom. What does the writer owe the reader? To make the story work as well as it possibly can; or, said Gorinsky, it’s not about what anyone owes, it’s about trust. What should a perfect reader bring to a book? Tolerance; a love of words; curiosity.

In between the panels I circuited the dealers room, chatting with C.E. Petit, meeting Carrie Vaughn, catching up with John O’Neill (who thinks I should be more aggressive about promoting myself on Locus Online). And bought some books, and took notes on others. Then there was a Scotch Tasting Party thrown by the good folks at Borderlands Books in San Francisco; I sipped Balvenie, noshed crackers and smoked salmon, and chatted with Amelia and Gary and Jonathan and Justin. Then downstairs to meet Diana Gill and Charles Brown for drinks, to chat about publishing industry gossip, what we’ve read lately, what’s coming up.

Yesterday’s nice weather gave way to overcast today and then chilly rain. I hooked up with Jennifer Hall and Cheryl Morgan for dinner down the street at casual Italian place, and returned to the con hotel as the evening’s artists’ reception began. Taking more time than I did yesterday, and perhaps because some of the artwork hadn’t been put up yesterday when I went through the room, I saw more interesting stuff than I noted then — by Terri Windling, Kinuko Y. Craft, Mael Nohara, Caniglia, Randy Broecker, Alan Servoss, Charles Vess, Hicaru Tanaka, Paul Bielaczyc. Then I ducked in and out of a couple more panels (still going at 9 and 10 in the evening) and cycled among the several 6th floor parties and huddling spots in the lobby and bar for a while, before heading back a little earlier than usual to my room, via a con-provided taxi voucher.

Tomorrow is the banquet and the World Fantasy Awards, and given the distance back to my hotel (especially if it’s raining) I’m not sure how quickly I’ll be posting the results on Locus Online. Cheryl Morgan, however, plans to post the winners to her blog from the room as they’re announced…

I flew into Chicago yesterday and drove a rental car to Madison, escaping the tangle of outbound city traffic for the periodic tolls and occasional lane closures of the open road. After only one or two missed turns I found my way to my hotel, checked in, and had a late dinner in the hotel cafe… One of the penalties of making late arrangements is that I’m not at the convention hotel, the Concourse, but at the Doubletree, a few blocks away. (It’s not a fancy hotel, but it does excel in two ways– first, I can open the window, and second, the wifi is free and immediate. I turned on my laptop and poof it was there, no fuss.)

It was this morning before I was able to register over at the con hotel. As a non-pre-registrant, I was given a blank badge and directed to a table of colored pens and decals for the opportunity to complete it myself. I was tempted to write ‘Greg Egan’ on my badge and walk around the con to see what reaction I got. But I didn’t.

First thing this morning was the more-or-less-annual Locus Foundation meeting, this year attended by Charles Brown, Jonathan Strahan, Gary Wolfe, Peter Straub, and me, as well as Liza Groen Trombi, who in short order was nominated to be a board member in replacement of Jennifer Hall, who has of course left the magazine. One of the themes of this year’s meeting was succession planning, and I had to admit that, as the administrator of Locus Online, I have absolutely no succession plan in place at all. I get hit by the proverbial bus, and Locus Online instantly becomes a static site. (Actually, Bill Contento has access to the site, since he routinely updates his Locus Index pages, but I don’t believe anyone in the Locus Magazines offices knows how to access or update the site.) I agreed to create what in my day-job we call a ‘desk instruction’, a list of steps for how to go about updating the site, at least the homepage. (Full details about how to run all the databases that underlie the site would require considerably more documentation, but I suppose I should do that too, sometime.)

After that meeting, I toured the dealer room — a bit cramped, but packed with book dealers — and the art show — some nice Picacios and Dringenbergs, but otherwise not a lot that grabbed my attention — then headed back to my hotel, to drop off the books from the freebie bag that I wanted to keep and check on e-mail. A notice about the death of Michael Coney demanded immediate attention, so I posted that announcement on the website, and while I was at it, posted the ‘new magazines’ page I’d all but finished on Tuesday before I left. For that I missed the Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror panel back at the con hotel, so by the time I got back there, I had a sandwich in the hotel bar and then ducked in and out of other panels.

The most interesting panel was ‘Fantasy in Unexpected Places’, i.e. fringe fantasy, with moderator Jeff VanderMeer and panelists Patrick O’Leary, Graham Joyce, Matthew Cheney, and Kelly Link… Carol Emshwiller showed up late, and though charming, didn’t have much to contribute. Jeff V posed a series of well planned questions — first, what is the ‘center’ of fantasy?; what makes your work at the ‘edge’?; what do you look for as a reader?; is your work a *reaction* to the center?; and so on — which brought substantive responses from the panelists (answers: Tolkien and descendants unto Rowling are the ‘center’; what they look for is the strange, the mood, the unique worldview; the ambition is to react against the standards, to try to do better, to disobey the rules), as well as the standard litany of recommendations of books they’ve liked (by Saramago, Lanagan, Millet, Bender, Butler, Krohn).

Later at the invitation of Jeff VanderMeer I joined a group of about 15 for a walking tour of downtown Madison led by Forrest Aguirre, who lives here and has apparently done such tours numerous times before (since the annual WisCons are held at the very same hotel). We circled the capitol building, explored the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Monona Terrace Convention Center (though only from landside; we didn’t see the lakeside view shown on the linked site), then walked past State Street’s shops and cafes to the University, where from the student union we looked out at Madison’s other big lake, Mendola. Along the way I actually met Matt Cheney for the first time, and chatted with the Australian contingent behind next year’s Conflux. And we all had dinner at a State St cafe that serves Mediterranean, Italian, and Mexican food, as well as burgers and salads… but was quite good, and cheap.

Then it was back to the con hotel for the Friday evening autograph sessions, with dozens of writers (perhaps over a hundred) sitting at tables ready to sign books, many of them trying to look pleasant while sitting relatively unnoticed next to the huge lines formed for the likes of Gene Wolfe and Charles de Lint. At 10 p.m. the parties started, all conveniently located on the 6th floor. Tor’s party; the con suite; an Indie Press party; a Fedogan & Bremer party. All quickly packed and noisy, but among them well-stocked, with enough cold-cuts and cheese and candy and cake to subsist on if one hadn’t actually had dinner, not to mention sodas and beer and wine and even a Highland Park single malt in the con suite (!). I chatted with Russell and Cezarija, Jenni, Ted C and John JA and John P and Paula G and Cheryl M, and met Dora G and Lou A and Chris R and no doubt others whose names have already slipped my mind. By about midnight I decided to make the hike back to my hotel, post the IHG winners (not a big chore since their site has the list itself!), and write this blog entry. (If I don’t do it tonight, I never will.)

The new November issue of Locus Magazine has arrived, and I find myself boldfaced in the Milestones section of the People & Publishing column for something I didn’t actually do, other than exist near a recent newsworthy event, i.e. the wildfires of just over a month ago that burned in the hills to the west of me. Actually the item features Laura Brodian Freas, who apparently lives even closer to those hills, and who (like me!) had fire ash settle on the streets and plants and cars. (Though living nearby, I’ve never met Laura Brodian, who hosts a local classical music radio program, or the late Kelly Freas, though I did see them once, several years ago, at a local restaurant…)

New Books posted today, with more piling up; five review copies arrived today, including four from Robert J. Sawyer Books in Canada, with several nominally November books already seen in stores and deferred until next post. I’m keeping up, mostly, though I fear to think what would happen if I actively solicited new books from publishers. Which I don’t.

Interesting: Blogger now requires members to key in the letters displayed in a graphic before letting you post. Have they been having problems with spammers, or robots..?

Caught up on the Blink backlog today, in between unsuccessful tries to install an update to my Norton Antivirus software; the install program kept hanging. Resorted to querying tech support, though finding the link to submit a query took a goodly amount of time itself; they don’t make it easy. But they did response — at length. It shouldn’t be this hard.

Still reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s Fifty Degrees Below, whose content is difficult to keep separate from recent headlines. More comment when I finish.

Heading for a neighbor’s pre-Halloween party later this evening. It was 2 years ago when I watched the fires 50 miles eastward (in Gary Westfahl’s neighborhood) flickering in the distance, from their balcony. Now it’s dark, chill, and calm.

I’m back from my business trip to within the beltway, catching up on news and posting pages for the new issue, which was scheduled to have been mailed yesterday. Still have numerous ‘blinks’ to post.

It’s a busy season for new books, and I saw a bunch more on my weekly (or so) bookstore visit today. For a couple months now there have been 20 or more new books to list each week, more than the typical 10 or 12 average in slower parts of the year. And I ordered that new Bruce Sterling, which has arrived. There will be one more new books page, sometime early next week, before I’m off to World Fantasy Con on Thursday.

And now we’re watching ‘Desperate Housewives’… on DVD… and I’m impressed and involved despite initial skepticism. It’s the ongoing story, the introduction of a mystery (why did one of the housewives commit suicide?) in the first episode, making it a developing story analogous to Lost‘s, and the arch voice-over narration (by the woman who committed suicide) that makes it considerably more than any standard sitcom. So far; I’ve seen the disappointed buzz about the current season, which we aren’t watching. It seems to be suffering the sophomore year slump even worse than Lost‘s.

And the news about George Takei? Please. I met his partner at an event 15 years ago…

From a couple books I’ve been re/reading, passages that struck me.

Joan Didion on Doris Lessing:

Imagine an interplanetary conference, convened on Venus to discuss once again the problem of the self-destructive planet Earth. (The fancy that extraterrestrial life is by definition of a higher order than our own is one that soothes all children, and many writers.)

From one of Time Magazine’s 100 all-time novels (written in English and published since 1923):

On the trip back to the Western Hemisphere he had decided which of their ads he liked the most. “You know that recent Supreme Court ruling where a husband can legally murder his wife if he can prove she wouldn’t under any circumstances give him a divorce?”