09-04-09: F&SF 60 Years: The Interview Marathon, Part Three: Gordon Van Gelder, Ellen Klages, Gene Wolfe, Charles de Lint
And thus, we get to the nub of the matter. Gordon Van Gelder, the current editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, speaks to the 60-year legacy he did not just inherit — he bought the magazine. It was something of a revelation.
And not just Gordon Van Gelder, but Ellen Klages, one of those writers whose careers materialized in the pages of F&SF; Gene Wolfge, a legend in any evaluation of the written word and Charles de Lint, who provides the perspective of not just a fiction writer, but also as a critic for the magazine. This was a wonderful experience, and I send my thanks to all involved, particularly Tachyon Publications, Jacob and Rina Weisman, and again, to Jill Roberts. The final file can be fond at this link.
09-03-09: F&SF 60 Years: The Interview Marathon, Part Two: Jeffrey Ford, John Kessel and Delia Sherman
Setting up a series of interviews to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is easier said than done. In order to make this happen, in a single three-hour stretch, I was fortunate to have the help of Jill Roberts, of Tachyon Publications. Frankly, I was harried enough just trying to get through the three-hour stretch. Jill took care of all the details, the administrivia that is anything but trivial.
It's not easy to get together this sort of schedule set up. Eleven interviewees, spread across the nation make for a difficult maze. Time zones and daylight savings time start to seem pretty random once you get outside your own. My late morning is someone ele's late afternoon. But in the end, Jill did manage to get me set up with all the writers. And even if the questions are programmed, the responses certainly aren't. You can hear my interview with Jeffrey Ford, John Kessel and Delia Sherman by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
09-02-09: F&SF 60 Years: The Interview Marathon, Part One : Peter S. Beagle, Karen Joy Fowler, Michael Swanwick, and M. Rickert
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is celebrating its 60th Anniversary this year. This is something that not just noteworthy in the genre. I suspect this may be the longest running fiction magazine period — if not, it's damn close. In any event, it is certainly worth celebrating.
How do you celebrate 60 years of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. There's a book involved, but we'll get to that on Friday. Today, we're going to talk about my marathon interview schedule, wherein on a single day, I did eleven interviews? I'll have to count 'em as I podcast them. The format was simple; I called up a variety of writers who had been published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction over the years, and asked them a small slate of questions. If it sounds easy, it isn't. I've got just about an hour and half of audio, so you can hook up with the first part here. This part includes interviews with Peter S. Beagle, Karen Joy Fowler, Michael Swanwick, and M. Rickert.
Sam Farr
09-01-09: A Conversation with Congressman Sam Farr, (D-Carmel, CA) :
The Health Care Customer's Bill of Rights
"I'm for the single payer." —Congressman Sam Farr
It's pretty amazing what you can do in this country, if you set your mind to it.You can take a 40-minute drive from your home, drop in on your Congressman (or Congresswoman), and have a chat about health care reform.
Of course, I was a lucky guy in this regard. My Congressman is Sam Farr, a veteran of the contentious California legislature who has been in the United States House of Representatives since 1993. He makes himself available to citizens, in the usual town hall meetings and in other situations as well. While I was waiting in his office, I overheard calls from his constituents, who asked about home loans, and one who visited getting some forms signed. These were not the hoi polloi. They were average folks like myself.
Before I sat down to talk with Farr, I went through the document on his website that his very helpful DC minder pointed out, a section by section analysis of the America's Affordable Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200) (link to full 1,000-page document, surprisingly fast). Given all that I've heard about the bill, this document was a real eye-opener. It is indeed, pretty much in plain language and relatively comprehensible. And when you read through it, you'll find that it is not a plan for socialist revolution, but rather a series of regulations for an industry that is currently under-regulated and understandably wishes to stay that way.
Congressman Farr broke it all down with me in simple language that revealed this to be a Health Care Customer's Bill of Rights. That's it in a nutshell. Farr is a smart man who is doing the right thing as a member of Congress. You can hear just how smart he is by following this link to the MP3 audio file of our conversation.
08-31-09: A 2009 Interview With Lev Grossman
"... it was all about reading to me; it was about that moment when you're sitting in your room and you open a book and suddenly, you're not in your room anymore." — Lev Grossman
Lev Grossman is a tried and true reader. Not surprising, since he's the book reviewer for Time Magazine. But there are readers — and there are readers who take the act of reading seriously, deeply, immersively. Grossman is the latter, and he's a man who takes his fantasy literature seriously, seriously enough to write 'The Magicians,' a fantasy novel about fantasy literature; a ripping yarn with a meta-fictional backbeat. It's now a national bestseller. Congratulations!
Lev Grossman
I like a writer who takes his fantasy literature seriously, and Grossman had a lot to say about both the fantasy foreground and the metafictional backbeat when we talked in hotel room while he was here in San Francisco to promote the novel. If you get a chance to see him, do so. levgrossman.com He's an omnivorous reader who knows that the reading experience is much more powerful than is often presumed. He thinks about reading, and that made our conversation particularly rewarding.
Grossman also takes his fantasy fiction seriously, and we had a delightful conversation about C. S. Lewis and the Narnia books. And we also talked about his work for Time Magazine, where he managed to foist off George R. R. Martin and video games onto a corporate culture that approximated mainstream American culture circa 1972. I'll let Lev Grossman tell his own story, which you can hear by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
New to the Agony Column
07-30-10: Commentary : Subterranean Press and Robert R. McCammon Wake at 'The Wolf's Hour' : The Time Before Cheese
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books with Alan Cheus : Allegra Goodman, 'The Cookbook Collector,' Noam Shpancer's 'The Good Psychologist' and Elie Wiesel 'The Sonderberg Case'
07-28-10: Commentary : Rule Britannia, In Space 2 : En Route, RJ Frith and Peter F. Hamilton
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Brian and Wendy Froud at SF in SF on Monday, July 19, 2010: Q & A : "The people you deal with at the publishers ... if they last the end of the week, you're lucky."
07-27-10: Commentary : Rule Britannia, In Space : UK Space Opera Demonstrates Excess is Not Enough (Part one, the Arrived)
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Brian and Wendy Froud at SF in SF on Monday, July 19, 2010 : "Well, I thought if I do faeries then nobody's going to say that I've got it wrong."
07-26-10: Commentary : Brian and Wendy Froud Seek 'The Heart of Faerie Oracle' : Cards, Books and a New Perspective
07-20-10: Commentary : Adam Elenbaas is Caught by 'Fishers of Men' : The Gospel of an Ayahuasca Vision Quest
Agony Column Podcast News Report : The Agony Column Live, July 10, 2010 : Alan Cheuse and Peter S. Beagle : "There are certain phrases I'm leery of using; one's "the creative process" and the other is "inspiration." ” Peter S. Beagle "Habit is the best thing for you if you're trying to write prose." ” Alan Cheuse
07-19-10: Commentary : Phil Cousineau is the 'Wordcatcher' : A Selectionary for Curious Mind
07-09-10: Commentary : Harlan Ellison's 'Deathbird Stories' : Back from the Dead and Ready to Party
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books With Alan Cheuse : Everything by Kevin Canty, The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson by Kim Stanley Robinson, and Glorious by Bernice McFadden
07-07-10: Commentary : Kitchen Testing 'The New Vegetarian Epicure' and 'Get Cooking' : Lentil Power
Agony Column Podcast News Report : The Agony Column Live, June 26, 2010 : Mollie Katzen and Anna Thomas, Part Two : "'You should really write a cookbook,' and I thought, 'Yeah, that's a good idea...'"
07-06-10: Commentary : Anna Thomas Cooks Up 'Love Soup' : Recipes, Menus and Meals
Agony Column Podcast News Report : The Agony Column Live, June 26, 2010 : Mollie Katzen and Anna Thomas, Part One : Time to Get Cooking Because You Love Soup : "It makes a huge difference really, really, it does, to completely clean up when you're done."
07-05-10: Commentary : Abraham Verghese Will Not Be 'Cutting for Stone' : Stories of Spirit and Words of Comfort
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Abraham Verghese : "Literature has a wonderful ability to restore your imagination for the suffering of others."
07-02-10: Commentary : Sloane Crosley Asks 'How Did Get This Number' : Excellent Essays for the Short of Temper
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Live Interview With Sloane Crosley : We Did Not Mention the Title of Her Essay 'Fuck You, Columbus'
06-30-10: Commentary : Mark Charan Newton Enters 'City of Ruin' : Inspector Jeryd Rides Again
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Panel Discussion at SF in SF on June 12, 2010, with Seanan McGuire, Deborah Grabien and Terry Bisson : "Coke Black was just a horrible thing unleashed on an unsuspecting world."
06-29-10: Commentary : 'Twelve,' 'Thirteen,' Tongues of Serpents,' and 'The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack' : Historical SF & Horror Makes Rousing Summer Reading
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Seanan McGuire Interviewed at SF in SF, June 12, 2010 : "If I have my unbreakables, I can set my conditionals."
06-28-10: Commentary : Jennifer Egan Gets 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' : Revisiting the Novel Genre
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Conversation with Jennifer Egan : "The characters and the action led the way... I was led into the future not so much because I was thinking, 'I want to write about the future,' but more because I wanted to re-visit this particular person."
06-23-10: Commentary : Adam Langer Corrals 'The Thieves of Manhattan' : Lies, Balderdash and the Absolute, Unvarnished Truth
06-21-10: Commentary : Linda Greenlaw is 'Seaworthy' : Back to the Grand Banks in Not-So-Grand Style
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Linda Greenlaw : "Well, I call him up and tell him I'm going to the Grand Banks and he pretty much signs himself right up."
06-17-10: Commentary : Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud Lives 'A Life on Paper' : Translating the Ineffable
06-15-10: Commentary : Donald R. Burleson Whispers 'Wait for the Thunder' : Stories for a Stormy Night
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books With Alan Cheuse : Lucyby Laurence Gonzalez, Spies of the Balkansby Alan Furst, A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
06-14-10: Commentary : James P. Othmer Drinks the 'Holy Water' : Backing Into the Future
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2009 Interview with Juliet Schor : "...We need to move to much more open, collaborative, sharing knowledge systems."
06-10-10: Commentary : Brett Easton Ellis Peers Inside 'Imperial Bedrooms' : Panic After the Year Zero
06-09-10: Commentary : Dan Dion and Paul Provenza Free the '!Satiristas!' : Bleeding the Comedians
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Conversation with Paul Provenza and Dan Dion : "I was raised to respect the printed word so much, when I was in school, I couldn't highlight books..."
06-08-10: Commentary : China Miéville Unleashes 'Kraken' : Comedy of Tentacles
06-03-10: Commentary : Justin Cronin Enters 'The Passage' : A girl who saves the world
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books With Alan Cheuse : The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson, The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer, The Passage by Justin Cronin
06-02-10: Commentary : 'Animythical Tales' by Sarah Totton and 'Metrophilias' by Brendan Connell : Better Seeds
06-01-10: Commentary : The Return of The Agony Column : Logic, License and Habit
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Karl Marlantes : "..these are common human foibles and failings, it's just that they get magnified in a combat, war situation..."
