Two little things to draw your attention to, if I may be so bold:
A new(ish) review of The Edinburgh Dead for your reading pleasure at The Bookbag (“As good as I found Ruckley’s fantasy writings, his crime writing is even better. A master of all trades indeed.” !)
Secondly, Speculative Horizons, the cool anthology edited by Pat St-Denis to which I contributed a fantastical story of Stone Age shamanism, has sold very respectably, and stocks are now running low. To celebrate (and publicize, of course!), Pat’s running a giveaway where you can snag a free copy of this worthy book.
And if you don’t win, or can’t wait, you can pop over to the Subterranean Press website to order a copy, or get it from your preferred internet bookseller (e.g.), and enjoy the creative output from me, Tobias Buckell, Hal Duncan, L E Modesitt and C S Friedman. It’s a fundraiser for cancer research as well as an enjoyable little story collection, so all in a good cause!
Thought I’d resurrect an old tradition around here – not that something that’s only happened once before, long ago, really qualifies as a tradition – and provide a randomish smorgasbord of odds and ends to mark the festive season. So, without further ado:
For Movie Fans (and Superhero Fans), the trailer for one of the latest in the apparently endless sequence of movies based on comic books. Thor, which I confidently predict will be the highest grossing superhero-fantasy-Norse mythology mash-up of 2011:
Considerably more promising than I thought it might be when I first heard it was in the pipeline, but I’m saying that from a position of low, low expectations. Vastly more promising, in my humble yet obviously expert opinion, than the other big budget superhero trailer doing the rounds at the moment: Green Lantern. Still, trailers are only trailers; who knows how the final products will measure up.
For Book Fans, and in a somewhat self-serving spirit entirely out of tune with the season, my author copies of the Subterranean Press Speculative Horizons anthology edited by Patrick St-Denis turned up the other day, and things of compact but considerable beauty they are too.
The limited edition signed copies are very pleasing, with a whole page of signatures bound into the book. Enough to make a chap giddy, to be keeping such august authorial company:
For Podcast Fans, I offer a couple of the more unusual items from the long list of stuff I’m subscribed to, in case there’s someone out there who shares my peculiar combination of interests.
The Norman Centuries. An excellent, straightforward narrative history of the Normans. For fans of medieval history, this is rich pickings. Most folk – round here anyway – know the Normans as the conquerors of England, but less generally known is their habit of conquering all sorts of other folks, wherever they went: the French, the Italians, the Byzantines, the Sicilian Muslims. Just about everyone they came across, really.
The Ink Panthers Show. Exactly the kind of thing, in many ways, podcasting was invented for. Two guys, with occasional semi-random guests, talk to each other about … well, about almost anything they feel like talking about, really. They’re both comics creators, so that comes up now and again, but a lot of it is just about what’s going on in their lives and families. I find them pretty personable, articulate and funny. Once – if – you get on their wavelength, it’s a pleasant listen. It’s mostly quite family-friendly, but sometimes strays into slightly more adult or non-PC areas, so consider yourself so advised.
For Fans of Ye Olde Classical Music … well, this (in case any overseas visitors don’t know, by the way, the chap introducing things is Matt Lucas, one of the current movers and shakers of British comedy):
You can only wonder what the neighbours thought …
And, come to think of it, I’m going to repost the musical clip from that long ago first iteration of the Christmas Miscellany, just because I still think, as I did then, that it’s one of the nicer sounds on the web and sounds to me suitably restful, reflective and contented for the holiday season. How’s that for keeping a tradition going?
And For Everyone Else: well, just my best wishes for the festive season, however you choose to spend it, or celebrate it, or ignore it. I’ll be back and blogging once the inevitable gluttony-induced lethargy and inertia wear off. Happy Christmas!
Climbing back into the blogging saddle after a bit of a late summer break. And … er … early autumn too, I guess. Amazing how time flies when you’re not paying attention.
Two public service announcements:
For those involved in the publishing lark, a starred review in Publishers Weekly is an object of very sincere desire. So congratulations to Patrick St Denis, Subterranean Press, me, C S Friedman, Tobias Buckell, L E Modesitt Jnr and Hal Duncan: Pat’s Speculative Horizon anthology joins the ranks of books to have snared one. Kewl. I call this a public service announcement because, of course, having been informed of the independently verified quality of the product you’ll be curious about how one might partake and I can provide the answer.
And for those involved in the eating lark, an update on what I’ve had for dinner recently. I’m sorry about this – I’m not really given to inflicting this microscopically self-absorbed sort of thing on blog visitors – but I can’t help myself. Had haggis a couple of nights ago and it was - as it almost always is – jolly nice; but it was but a dim little twinkle of tastiness compared to the novel experience I had the evening before. This is going to sound ridiculous, but: I ate me some roasted pork belly* for the first time in my life, and it was meltingly delicious, with crackling to die for. I’m giving it a starred review, right here and right now. So as a public service, I have this suggestion for all the carnivores out there who have yet to sample this delight: go buy yourself some pork belly and get roasting. You can thank me some other time. (And I promise to refrain from further discussing my dietary habits here until a decent period of time has elapsed).
*I cannot hear or write, or even think, the phrase ‘pork belly’ without thinking of this film. The two concepts are inextricably and permanently bonded in my head. And I’m not the only one: the connection’s acknowledged in an article Google uncovered for me, which has the tantalising, delightful aim of providing ‘a brief overview of the pork belly market and what you need to know to get started trading in it‘. Apparently the correct full title is Frozen Pork Belly Futures. Isn’t capitalism amazing?
Three unrelated items, except that they’re all very loosely about writing, I guess. Sort of.
First, a wise and insightful (by which I mean complimnetary about my work, obviously) review of Speculative Horizons, Patrick’s St Denis’ anthology coming from Subterranean Press in a couple of months or so. Apparently orders made through the Subterranean Press website get priority, so that should probably be your first port of call if interested, but it does seem to now be avilable for pre-order through the usual online channels (such as here and here) and they should be able to fill your order assuming it doesn’t sell out elsewhere first. Either way, get your orders in! Buy, buy buy! Or not. No pressure.
Second, one of the things I like listening to on my tiny little mp3 player: recordings of convention panels. Yeah, I know. Most folks like up to the minute tunes from popular musical combos; I like convention panels. What can I say? (In fact, the truth is, to my knowledge there is not one single piece of music on my mp3 player. Not a one. It’s podcasts from top to bottom. Weird, huh?) Anyway: panels. You never quite know what you’re going to get with them, but that’s part of the fun. Wordpunk radio has put out a few recordings from the recent Alt.Fiction event in Derby (which I’d recommend, by the way: I was at the 2008 version, and it was good fun.). Here they are:
It’s just like you were there yourself! Virtual conventioneering! There might be more to come for all I know, but those are the ones they’ve released so far.
Third and finally, I wasted a good two minutes with the entirely pointless I Write Like gizmo. Here’s the verdicts:
First chapter of Winterbirth: I write like Margaret Mitchell.
Second chapter of The Edinburgh Dead: I write like James Joyce.
The blog post preceding this one: I write like Dan Brown.
So there you have it … wait, What? Winterbirth is stylistically indistinguishable from Gone With the Wind? Holy cow. And as one of the legions of well-intentioned folk who’ve started but never finished Ulysses (and I even quite liked the bits of it I read, just couldn’t bring myself to see it through to the end, and my attention span’s much, much too short these days to launch another attempt on it – in fact, come to think of it, there’s a blog post somewhere in the category: ‘books I really quite like, but despite that never finished’) … anyway, I promise – promise – you The Edinburgh Dead is not remotely Joyceian. Not remotely. And surely if my blog posts were Dan Brown duplicates, I’d have an awful lot more readers, wouldn’t I? And a bigger house, come to that.
So, as mentioned a few posts back, I’ve got a story in Speculative Horizons, an upcoming anthology from Subterranean Press. It’s edited by Patrick ‘Fantasy Hotlist‘ St Denis, and he’s using it in part to raise some funds for the American Cancer Society. Which is A Good Thing.
Sub Press are donating 10% of the cover price of all pre-orders to the ACS, and they’ve now extended the period for which that condition applies until the end of June 11th, i.e. if you place a pre-ordervia this link before close of play Friday, you’ll get not only the book but also the warm glow of supporting a good cause. And behold, there’s some good stuff in there, as the blurb makes clear:
Speculative fiction is wide in scope and styles, and Speculative Horizons showcases the talent and storytelling skills of five of the genre’s most imaginative voices:
In C. S. Friedman’s “Soul Mate,” it’s love at first sight for Josie at the arts and crafts festival when she meets the handsome Stephan Mayeaux. It all sounds too good to be true until her newfound boyfriend starts to act strangely and unexplained occurrences begin to take place around her.
In Tobias S. Buckell’s “The Eve of the Fall of Habesh,” contragnartii Jazim must carry out one final assignment before the armies of the Sea People lay waste to the city he loves.
L. E. Modesitt, Jr. returns to the universe of his bestselling Recluce saga in “The Stranger.” A young herder’s existence will be forever changed by the unexpected arrival of the black-clad man recounting tales of angels living on the summit of the Roof of the World.
In “Flint,” Brian Ruckley introduces us to a young and inexperienced shaman who must venture into the spirit world to discover the source of the sickness which afflicts his tribe before they are all wiped out.
Talk to any cop working for Homicide, Narcotics, or Vice, and they’ll tell you that they get the worst cases imaginable. But in Hal Duncan’s “The Death of a Love,” you realize that they have nothing on Erocide
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