Jeff VanderMeer’s Shadow Cabinet – BSC Flashback!
Wanted to bring back the Sunday BSC Flashback, but this time point to one of our other projects within the BSC Empire – Heliotrope. In our e-zine, Jeff VanderMeer was kind enough to contribute 2 pieces for “The Shadow Cabinet”, one focusing on Dedalus books (from our fourth issue), the other on John Calvin Batchelor’s [...]
Finch Insurgency!
The latest from the author behind some of my favorite books, like City of Saints and Madmen, Veniss Underground, Shriek: An Afterword is taking over the world in November! Finch has both been reviewed at BSC and appeared on Tomio’s Want List. BSC has secured pamphlets “supposedly created by the rebels to track down the discredited puppet government in Ambergris.” Note the blank space, your card can be pulled at any moment!
Finch by Jeff VanderMeer – review
So you don’t read fantasy. You heart mystery and crime fiction but haven’t touched a fantasy book since that one summer when you devoured Lord of the Rings. Well, let me tell you that things have changed since then. The SF/F genre has a long history of crossing genre borders, and right here, right now, in 2009, people are starting to notice. Earlier in the year China Mieville wrote a cool police procedural fantasy (The City and The City), and Richard Kadrey wrote a hardboiled fantasy called Sandman Slim that would make even the most wild-eyed of the basement noir crazies stand up and take notice. Jeff VanderMeer closes out the year with a secondary world fantasy, filtered through noir sensibilities, that is, hands down, the best of the bunch.
Read the full review after the jump…
BSC Flashback – Synergy II & VanderMeer’s Building a Fantastical City
The day after Halloween, and it’s time for some BSC flashbacks. Since Synergy returned yesterday, I thought we’d highlight a previous edition – “The Love (stories) of our Lives?”. Also, since Jeff VanderMeer’s Finch is out (see review) and about now (bordering on officially/unofficially & reality/fiction) I thought we’d rerun an article BSC republished and now hosts by the author, “Ambergris: Building a Fantastical City”.
More after the jump…
Jeff VanderMeer and Sandra Ruttan Event – Dead Men Do Talk Back
Yeah, we already had a Jeff VandeMeer related post today, but at BSC we have no quotas on awesome, and we even raise the stakes with a little Sandra Ruttan! If you follow Jeff (which is a lot of walking, let me tell you) you know that he’s embarking on a massive tour soon, and one of those spots is in Baltimore, where he’ll team-up with Sandra (who has a new book out) on “Dead Men Do Talk Back”.
Get the details after the jump…
Jeff VanderMeer – more ‘Finch’ & ‘Last Drink Bird Head’
A couple of recent items over at Jeff VanderMeer’s site caught my eye. They involve two projects we’ve talked about at BSC previously (and will do so again in the future). We mentioned Last Drink Bird Head last month, the return of the Ministry of Whimsy featuring over 70 top writers with benefits going to ProLiteracy. Way back in May we also briefly touched on VanderMeer’s Finch in an edition of Tomio’s Want List. Jeff has now posted a couple of new looks at both projects, and at BSC we like stacks of books (we only deal in bulk at the Empire).
Check them out after the jump…
A Last Drink Bird Head for Charity
Jeff VanderMeer has announced Last Drink Bird Head, a book full of flash fiction by some authors I dig (over 80 of them all told), with proceeds going to charity, namely ProLiteracy.
More after the jump…
Inside Jeff VanderMeer’s Shriek
A couple of days ago Jeff VanderMeer posted some of his research for his Shriek: an Afterword (a novel I loved). I asked him if I could repost it here at BSC, mostly so that I can play out my hatred for not enough spacing. I love this type of stuff. and in our dialogue I told him this type of material falls into the same category as my love form material like Tolkien’s History of Middle-Earth, or other such notes, letters, or reference material. I know a lot of people find this boring at best, but I’m the guy who looks at each and ever Erikson novel’s dramatis personae for even the slightest of changes, or a single sentence describing a new locale and buys stupid gaming manuals related to novels or series I like just to see the word “Targaryen” more times.
It should be noted that if you haven’t read the novel, spoilers lurk below, but if you have, or (for some reason) aren’t going to anyway, I think it’s interesting to see part of the thought process that goes behind the endeavor or writing a (great) novel.
Get it after the jump…
Jan-Ken-Pon – Tomio’s Want List: VanderMeer’s Finch and Murakami’s 1Q84
Two more books for the Tomio Want List – Jeff VanderMeer’s return and exit from Ambergris, Finch, and Haruki Murakami’s G-14 classified 1Q84.
More after the jump . . .
Have you won Secret Lives?
The entries are in, and with many augmented by using the new hot way to increase your chances of winning, a winner of our contest for a signed copy of Jeff VanderMeer’s Secret Lives has been named!
See if you are the winner after the jump . . .
Contest – signed copy of Jeff VanderMeer’s Secret Lives
Before reading on, check out the new ways to get ahead in BSC contests. After you’ve done that, check out this sweet opportunity to walk away with a signed copy of Jeff VanderMeer’s Secret Lives.
Take the jump for more details . . .
Shared Worlds workshop
A day or two late getting this up, but this a press release about the Shared Worlds Creative Writing Camp. This year the camp’s instructors include people like Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer, Holly Black, and Tobias Buckell.
Get more info after the jump . . .
