comes in at Number 5. Note also the honorable mention for Ian McDonald's Cyberabad Days,
that all three "anticipated" 2010 titles are from Pyr (Geosynchron,
Desolation Road,
& Ghosts of Manhattan),
and the "hypothetical 'Books of the Decade'" that would include Brasyl
and River of Gods.
Nice!
and Swords & Dark Magic.
We also talk about a lot of forthcoming Pyr titles, including the much-anticipated Shadows of the Apt series from Adrian Tchaikovsky (which begins with Empire in Black and Gold
) as well as the bittersweetness of concluding two series with Kay Kenyon's Prince of Storms
and Mike Resnick's Starship: Flagship
. I'm a long time listener, but this is my first time on this particular podcast. 'Twas fun.
.jpg)
whereas my own anthology, Fast Forward 2,
claims the #12 slot. Nice way to start the day.
Anders: Maybe, but maybe not. Remember the quote by John Schaar: "The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created—created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination."I think he's misremembering when I quoted something I got from Robert Anton Wilson: "The future begins first in imagination, then in will, then in reality." But I like this quote above, and now I've seen myself "say" it, I'll start using it more, retroactively authenticating this usage here. (Nice one that, huh?)
SFcrowsnest has released their "top one hundred SFF novels of 2009" as voted for by SFcrowsnest.com's readers. As of this post:
 |
Artist Dave Seely at Illuxcon II |
"Crane then wondered what would happen if intelligent civilisations could make black holes. This would mean that life in these universes played a key role in the proliferation of baby universes.... He believes we are seeing Darwinian selection operating on the largest possible scale: only universes that contain life can make black holes and then go on to give birth to other universes, while the lifeless universes are an evolutionary dead end."
"Dear Trade Publisher or Small Press publisher:
Please do not print trade paperback large format books with flat glossy covers anymore.
As a bookseller, I watch what people pick up and put down. I listen to their comments on covers and cover art (and blurbs; those are sometimes funny, and yes, I know full well that the authors don't write them).She then singled out our own recent release, Diving Into the Wreck, specifically, saying:
One thing that I've noticed happening more and more often in the store when people are browsing and chatting in front of the New Release Trade paperback shelf is that a customer will point at a specific book and say:
"Is this self-published?"
or
"Wow, there are a lot of self-published books here."
In fact, none of the books at which they're pointing are self-published"
"The British trades are frequently bound with glossy stock. This week, there were two novels by relatively unknown names -- and the new Pyr title by Kristine Kathryn Rusch -- which were pointed out, and which were instantly classified as "self-published" (the latter, I've had four people ask about in the last two weeks)."
"Let me be even clearer:
I admire Pyr and its publication choices greatly. I think some of the best, if not the best, SF being published in North America is being published by Pyr books. I am not in any way saying the books look or are unprofessional to me.Now, let me say right off the bat that I'm not upset about the first post, I appreciate the spirit in which it is offered as well as the information it contains, and I certainly appreciate the nice things she says in the second one. Furthermore, this is feedback, this is a data point, and as someone who wants to connect the most books with the most readers, I am happy to and obligated to consider all data points. Anything that gets more books into your hands is a good thing. Any potential impediment to that must be considered and evaluated.
I'm saying that the cover-stock, which is in some ways more durable than other finishes ... is causing consumer confusion in my experience."
"What bothers me about this is that you're asking professional publishers to limit their options....The 'tells' I generally see to distinguish self-published from professional books aren't the glossiness of the cover stock. Poor cover art, and clunky typography and layout are a much greater factor. They're not always 'bad,' but they're almost always 'off.'"Now, another interesting factor. It was quickly pointed out that the author of the post is Canadian, and that, due to the generous subsidies and grants that the Canadian government provides for writers (and that I wish the US government would too) there are a lot of self published books in bookstores in Canada due to big government artist subsidies. While this particularly bookseller stressed their store did not stock vanity press titles, it may nonetheless be that there is a particular suspicion of and sensitivity towards self-publishing among Canadian shoppers.
"If someone thinks McDonald's burgers are the best burgers ever, and the way burgers should be made, and then they go to Peter Lugar's in NYC, and hate the gourmet burgers because they aren't like the 'major chain,' then does that mean Peter Lugar's should make their burgers like McDonald's?"Hell no. So there's a very real degree to which I am unwilling to make our books look cheaper, less durable, and, well, uglier if that's what it takes to "blend in." When I select a manuscript for a Pyr book, I want it to be something you will love, and want to read over and over, and I want it packaged beautifully in something that will last.
has been announced. It's another "major" event novel in the Star Wars univeerse, a tie-in MMORG, The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance,
which will be coming out July '10.
has as well for Best SF Novel.
I knocked out a sword & sorcery story after being inspired by my forthcoming anthology
(just for myself, you understand, though I "have plans" for both it and sequels). I even managed to complete 50,000 words of NaNoWriMo, and then, there's this:
is interviewed tdoay on The Mad Hatter's Bookshelf & Book Review. Here's a taste: MH: In an article a few months back I lamented my dearth of Science Fiction reading and the fact I felt it has lost its specialness over the years due to fact so much technology has come to fruition. Do you think the mystery is going out of Sci-Fi as we advance technologically?
KKR: No, not at all. Recently I read that we’re all living in someone else’s future. When JFK became president, all that anti-Catholic stuff that stopped the careers of so many politicians went away. We don’t even think of it any more. When I worry that tech is going to ruin SF, I only have to think of my grandmother, who also lived an sf life. She was born in the 1890s and died in the 1990s. She could remember life without toasters(!)
I wrote essays about why sf lost its specialness, most recently in my Internet Review of Science Fiction columns and also in a column for Asimov’s called "Barbarian Confessions." There’s more because I think sf wrapped itself into a tight bubble and stopped writing sensawonder stuff. If we go back to that, sf will grow again. So in some ways, “Diving” is me putting my money where my mouth is.
An Aside: It was only on the way out of Lloyd Center, reflecting on the skating rink there and wishing my family had been able to come with me, that I found myself signing "Standard Bitter Love Song # 8" by the Mountain Goats, and realized the connection that my brain had already made. The song in question begins, "I went down to Lloyd center looking for you. / but a mouth full of anger blocked my view. / He took your hand there in the skating the rink. / God will give him blood to drink." 
Afterwards, Dean Wesley Smith and Kris Rusch took me to Hunan Restaurant, where Garrett and his girlfriend Helen joined us. Great dinner, followed by a trip to the main Powell's so I could see it in all its glorious enormity. There were an impressive number of Pyr titles there (could always be more!), and I'm glad I've seen one of the world's largest bookstores firsthand. Then home, to one final beer waiting in the refrigerator, a few final bits of chocolate, and a quiet evening before a very long day traveling back. It was hard to be away from my family on Thanksgiving weekend, very hard, but the staff, attendees, guests, and friends old and new made this a weekend I'll never forget. Meanwhile, I am still suffering DeeAnn withdrawal. Where's my latte?
The space itself is a gorgeous gallery, adjacent to a student center (where the panels and demos were held), and diagonal from a Bistro that very kindly opened its doors to host the portfolio reviews and be a general meeting destination throughout the weekend. There's not much else around, and the con is hampered by not having a hotel in the area, so there is a lot of shuttling back and forth and grumbling over same. But what it results in is an intimate weekend that is really a tremendous experience.
During the weekend, I got to hang out with some of the greatest living fantasy artists, participate in an art director panel with folks from Wizards of the Coast, Blizzard and elsewhere, and spent about eight hours doing portfolio reviews. It was an exhausting weekend, but one of the most rewarding con experiences of my career to date. Spending a weekend entirely in the company of artists taught me how much I enjoy artists' company, and really reinforced in a way I'd never quite considered just how fulfilling the "art director" part of my job at Pyr is to me. And being forced to quantify my opinions in the portfolio reviews taught me a lot about my own preferences. I get multiple portfolio submissions a week at Pyr, but am never called upon to say much more than "thank you, but this doesn't fit the style of our line." Having to quantify and articulate my response to students who had paid good money to attend the show and were expecting helpful feedback forced me to examine what I know intuitively in ways I hadn't done before. I think I learned a great deal and only hope the students did.
Meanwhile, as to the artists themselves... In addition to talking to childhood heroes Michael Whelan and Boris Vallejo, and spending real time with old friends John Picacio and Dave Seeley, it was wonderful to be in the company of such stellar talents as Caniglia, Dan Dos Santos, Vincent Villafranca, Bob Eggleton, Eric Fortune, Bruce Jensen, Daren Bader, Donato Giancola, Julie Bell, John Jude Palencar, Brom, Justin Gerard, Justin Sweet, Lucas Graciano, Michael Hayes, Scott Altmann, and many more.
