Monthly Archives: December 2007
A Month of Writers, Day Twenty: Chris Roberson
Posted on December 26, 2007 2 Comments
Chris Roberson is a triple threat: He’s a writer, he’s an editor and he’s a publisher — and he’s good enough at each that he’s been nominated for a World Fantasy Award for each of these talent. He’s also been nominated for the Campbell and Sidewise awards, twice each, and won the latter in 2004. […]
My Christmas Suspicions
Posted on December 25, 2007 74 Comments
Here are mine: 1. I don’t believe that Jose Feliciano really wants to wish me a merry Christmas. 2. If you dashed through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh, laughing all the way, you’d probably end up with a frozen windpipe. 3. If you asked the other reindeer, they’d tell you they didn’t let […]
A Month of Writers Returns December 26
Posted on December 24, 2007 11 Comments
Because nothing goes better with Boxing Day than writers!
Whatever Best of 2007
Posted on December 24, 2007 14 Comments
2007 was a very messy year for the Whatever, thanks to various horrible technical difficulties that more or less wiped most of August and September off the map, in terms of entries. Be that as it may, I still managed to get off some pretty good pieces this year. Here are some of my favorites […]
Memories For Sale
Posted on December 23, 2007 18 Comments
Don’t ask me how I got there, because it’s not actually an interesting story, but I was on a site looking at California home values and as a curiosity I looked to see if one of the houses I grew up in might be listed. Sure enough it was: 1144 W. Edna Place in Covina, […]
A Month of Writers, Day Nineteen: David Lubar
Posted on December 23, 2007 3 Comments
In honor of Athena’s birthday, today’s Month of Writers contributor is one of her favorite writers, David Lubar, the author of the wildly popular “Weenies” series, of which The Curse of the Campfire Weenies is the latest addition. They’re collections of funny and spooky stories, which appeal to Athena because she’s got that gothy, attitudinous […]
Nine
Posted on December 23, 2007 46 Comments
My daughter’s nine today. And packin’ tude. So watch out.
A Month of Writers, Day Eighteen: Elizabeth Bear
Posted on December 22, 2007 14 Comments
I’ve been holding off on airing Elizabeth Bear’s contribution to the Month of Writers feature for the simple and practical fact that her latest book, Dust, officially comes out on December 26, and I wanted all y’all to be able to find it in your bookstores. However, on a recent trip to my local bookstore, […]
All Hail Michael Z Williamson: A Last-Minute Christmas Pimping Thread
Posted on December 22, 2007 44 Comments
You know, twice in the last week Michael Z Williamson has sent me stuff to use to promote his latest book Better to Beg Forgiveness in the “Big Idea” feature over at Ficlets, and twice I’ve apparently seem to have lost that information out of my e-mail queue. Which leads me to two conclusions: 1. […]
To Head it Off at the Pass
Posted on December 21, 2007 33 Comments
Yes, I’ve seen this. Also this. And to repeat, while I surely appreciate the enthusiasm, it’s not necessary to e-mail me about every thing on the Internet involving bacon. I think the idea that I respond to bacon as Sonny the Cuckoo Bird responds to Coco Puffs is one I’d like to move away from.
A Month of Writers, Day Seventeen: Jay Lake
Posted on December 21, 2007 12 Comments
If you laughed uproariously and pointed when I wore the Campbell Tiara a year and a half ago, one of the people to blame (or praise, since it was a lovely tiara) for that is Jay Lake, who with fellow Campbell Award alum Elizabeth Bear decided the Campbell awardees needed something more than the cheeseboard-like […]
Suggestion Box
Posted on December 20, 2007 75 Comments
As most of you know (because I told you), 2008 for me will be mostly given over to writing books, because one must make hay while the sun shines, mustn’t one. This means among other things that my almost ridiculously spread-out online footprint will contract down to this single site. Which suggests to me that […]
A Month of Writers, Day Sixteen: Sarah Monette
Posted on December 20, 2007 22 Comments
Sarah Monette and I were nominated for the Campbell Award at the same time, which is why one day we ended up having a sack race down the hall of one of the better hotels in Madison, Wisconsin. Oh, don’t look at me like that. It made perfect sense at the time. And we tied, […]
Because CNN Asked
Posted on December 19, 2007 112 Comments
CNN.com’s lead story at the moment is demanding to know how I would talk to my child about Jamie Lynn Spears’ pregnancy. This is how: I raced down the stairs, confronted my child as she was consuming a bagel dog, and uttered the following words: “Young’n! That there Jamie Lynn Spears from Zoey 101 done […]
A Month of Writers, Day Fifteen: David Louis Edelman
Posted on December 19, 2007 73 Comments
I have a funny story about meeting David Louis Edelman. Before I met him, I interviewed him for my AOL site, as he did his first round of interview for his then newly-released (and eventually Campbell Award-nominated) book Infoquake, and as a matter of course was sent both an image of the book and a […]
You Don’t Look Like Your Head’s Exploded Yet Today
Posted on December 18, 2007 108 Comments
So here you go. Gacked from here.
Mail Hole
Posted on December 18, 2007
Just as a head’s up to folks: I’m getting quite a bit of mail in the last several days, much of which I’m not responding to immediately (or sometimes at all) simply because I’m grinding through work. Suffice to say if you’ve sent me mail in the last few days, I’ve gotten it even if […]
The Sound of a Million Elves Celebrating
Posted on December 18, 2007 94 Comments
To my surprise, I find I’m on New Line Cinema’s PR list, so let me pass on this bit of news: Peter Jackson’s gonna make two films from The Hobbitt: Los Angeles, CA (Tuesday, December 18, 2007) Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson; Harry Sloan, Chairman and CEO, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM); Bob Shaye and Michael […]
A Month of Writers, Day Fourteen: Catherynne M. Valente
Posted on December 18, 2007 27 Comments
Catherynne Valente is having a pretty good year: Her novel The Orphan’s Tales Vol I: In the Night Garden was nominated for the World Fantasy Award and won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and its follow on, The Orphan’s Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice, is getting rapturous praise as well (“a thought-provoking […]
A Month of Writers, Day Thirteen: Nick Mamatas
Posted on December 17, 2007 19 Comments
Nick Mamatas wrote one of my favorite young adult novels this year, called Under My Roof, because how can you not like a story about a family that becomes its own micronation when it straps a nuclear device to garden gnome? I mean, that’s every boy’s dream (since Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying