I had to wonder as I walked around the Book Passage 2009 Mystery Conference — who was that guy wearing the shirt featuring the Orbit Theater from a Joe R. Lansdale novel? It was some kind of impressive. I wanted one!
Turned out it was author Tim Maleeny, and once I sussed that, I made sure to interview him. And for that I have to apologize to my podcast listeners, because once you hear him talk, you're going to want to add his books to your ever growing to-be-read stack. There's a reason he was wearing that ultimately cool shirt, which is because he's a Lansdale fan, and you hear him talk about his latest novel, 'Jump', youére going to quickly understand why it jumped into the San Francisco Chronicle's Fiction Bestsellers list the week it arrived. Smart, funny, dark, and even sort of sweet, in a nasty way. You can hear this conversation that will send you to the bookstore yet again by following this link to the MP3 Audio file.
09-10-09: SF in SF Panel Featuring Elizabeth Lynn, Marta Randall and Terry Bisson:
"We all did Chelsea House!"
Funny what comes out when you put three speculative fiction writers behind a table and ask them to talk about writing. Sure, theyére going to talk about genre, and about the history of the genre, especially when, as it happens here, all three are integral parts of that history.
But for all the in-group jokes and asides, all the genre fiction tweedly-bits, all the knowledge and experience in the world of science fiction, it helps to remember that these folks are not just writers, but working writers. They have jobs to do, just like the rest of us, only they involve authoring books. Now for all we love science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery and literary fiction, sometimes our favorite SF writers write well outside the genre for pay. It's not like they're offering up six-figure salaries for full-time writers of paperback genre fiction. Thus, in our panel on August 22, we had three writers who discovered that they had all worked for the same non-genre fiction publisher, Chelsea House — among many other things they talked about. To hear their discussion, follow the link to the MP3 audio file.
09-09-09: Elizabeth Lynn Interviewed at SF in SF on August 22, 2009
"Usually what happens for me is that a character appears in my psyche." —Elizabeth Lynn
I trust that listeners got an earful of Elizabeth Lynn's dynamic reading of 'Dragon's Treasure' at SF in SF, when I podcast it back on August 26. If so, then you'll definitely want to hear her interview. If not, check the reading out, then return here, and proceed to our interview.
Elizabeth Lynn is every bit as intelligent and fascinating as you might guess from her reading. The author of the classic 'A Different Light' talked to me about her work from the 1970's to the present. We talked about how she creates characters who live in unreal worlds that seem so much like people who live in this world. You can hear our conversation by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
09-08-09: Marta Randall Interviewed at SF in SF on August 22, 2009
"The dynamic tension between the two edges of the field made for a fascinating time to get into the field." —Marta Randall
It was a heady time for science fiction — the New Wave. Everything was changing and everything was being challenged. The rebellion at the heart of rock and roll had made its way into the once cordoned-off world of science fiction. Sex and drugs found their way into the worlds that writers created. Experimentation, already at the core of the genre, took on a distinctly literary form. Science fiction entered New Dimensions.
Marta Randall was at the helm of New Dimensions, along with Robert Silverberg. She co-edited three of the most influential anthologies of the time, and indeed, perhaps of all science fiction. I spoke with Randall at SF in SF on August 22, 2009, and heard her story of going through the slushpile at New Dimensions, which might have something well ... not so good, and might yield up a story by Michael Swanwick or Howard Waldrop. Here's a link to our conversation.
Fran Gage
09-07-09: A 2009 Interview with Fran Gage
"All olive oil should have three things; it should be fruity...and it should have some bitterness and some pungency." — Fran Gage
Gage has owned restaurants and even a bakery. She knows her olive oil the ay you want an expert to know it; from the historical, scientific, and production aspects to the practical world of using the oil in recipes. Rest assured, in this conversation, you will walk away with enough information to intelligently choose a good brand of olive oil. Gage also gives you enough details on the theory, so that you'll understand why a good olive oil is in fact good. And you'll hear enough about the book and the recipes in the book to make your mouth water for both.
New to the Agony Column
09-01-10: Commentary : Tim Pratt Finds 'Sympathy for the Devil' : "...Hell for the company..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Dan Basta at the Blue Ocean Film Festival : "Experiential learning is the way we learn best."
08-31-10: Commentary : Peter S. Beagle Reveals 'The Secret History of Fantasy' : : Telling Lies for a Living
08-30-10: Commentary : David Doubilet Captures 'Water Time Light' : Painting with Pixels
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes : "Everything people have always feared about photography comes true underwater."
08-25-10: Commentary : Vendela Vida 'The Lovers' : Reading and Revelation
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A Live Reading and Interview with Vendela Vida At Bookshop Santa Cruz : "...there was an owl that came into this place we were renting one day..."
08-24-10: Commentary : Jeff VanderMeer and 'The Third Bear' : Absurd Is as Absurd Does
08-20-10: Commentary : Joe R. Lansdale Takes 'Deadman's Road' : Deader Than Thou
Agony Column Podcast News Report : On the Phone with Vendela Vida : "You do all this background information, most of which never makes it into the book."
08-19-10: Commentary : Gary Shteyngart Tells a 'Super Sad True Love Story' : Retro-Prescience
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Gary Shteyngart Live Reading and Interview at Bookshop Santa Cruz : "...please like me, this will make up for Hebrew school if all of you like me.."
08-18-10: Commentary : Mark Pilkington Unleashes Weapons of Mass Deception : "ECM+CIA=UFO"
Agony Column Podcast News Report : David Corbett and Barry Eisler for The Agony Column Live at Capitola Book Café, August 7, 2010 Q and A : "This is NewSpeak."
08-16-10: Commentary : Howard Norman Asks 'What is Left the Daughter' : The Past Always Rises
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Howard Norman : "I'd wanted to write from the beginning an epistolary novel; this is just an epistolary novel that's consisting of one letter."
08-12-10: Commentary : James O'Neal Copies 'The Double Human' : Proceeding into the Future
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Barry Eisler and David Corbett Live at Capitola Book Café on August 7, 2010 : "If anyone thinks it's absurd that the government might assassinate the founder of WikiLeaks, it's quite a bit less absurd than I wish it were".... — Barry Eisler
08-11-10: Commentary : Joe R. Lansdale Takes Huck Finn to 'Dread Island' : "Classics Mutilated"
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Barry Eisler Reads at The Agony Column Live on August 7, 2010 : "...they'll pick up that angle and run interference for us..."
08-10-10: Commentary : David Corbett Asks 'Do They Know I'm Running?' : Crossing Borders
Agony Column Podcast News Report : David Corbett Reads at The Agony Column Live on August 7, 2010 : "These Families are making incredible sacrifices..."
08-09-10: Commentary : David Mitchell and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet : The World is Ever the World
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with David Mitchell : "The periodic table of the human heart is still the same now as it was then."
08-06-10: Commentary : Tim Powers Sails 'On Stranger Tides' : History, Fantasy and the Reality of Reading
08-03-10: Commentary : Robert M. Price Spins 'The Tindalos Cycle' : Terrorize, Horrify, Repeat
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A Short Chat with Gary Shteyngart : "...the technology is outpacing our ability to absorb what it is doing to us..."
08-02-10: Commentary : A Second Tour Through 'The Passage' : Sending Characters into Time
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 Cheuse : 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
