11-20-09: World Fantasy Convention Panel Podcast : Invention Versus Tradition
Panels at these conventions can really turn your head with regards to an author. You can really get a good idea of who you are dealing with and whether or not you’d like their fiction. So at the "Invention Versus Tradition" panel at the recent world Fantasy Convention, a couple of writers got themselves high on my radar.
Here's what the pamphlet (what a lovely word!) had to say about this panel:
"1:00 PM Gold Room Invention vs. Tradition
Readers like original stories that surprise them. Readers like comfortable formulas that fulfill their expectations. What are the ways authors and editors deal with these two competing impulses?
Delia Sherman (moderator), John Kessel, Richard Lupoff, Beth Meacham, Daniel Waters"
Now of course, Richard Lupoff and Beth Meacham were already high on my radar; I've spoken with Lupoff many times and every time come away a better person, and Beth Meacham is the famed editor over at Tor, and responsible of much of the great fiction over the last (more years than I know). But Delia Sherman I didn't know until I heard her on the panel, and was vastly impressed by her smart, trans-literary approach. Now she show's up editing 'Interfictions 2,' with Christopher Barzak, for the ultra-cool and hip Small Beer Press. Needless to say, it goes to the stop of my buy list. Daniel Waters, the author of 'Generation Dead' had never blipped into my attention, but now he and his (sound familiar?) YA-zombie novel are yet another notch in my reading stack. And finally, there's John Kessel, whose work I'm familiar with, but damn, what a guy on stage. He's unabashedly strange, and he maks it work and work and work. This panel will make you think about what you read shortly before you go our to buy more books for your stack. That's really what I'm here for and what this link to the MP3 audio file is here for as well.
11-19-09: Scott Browne Reads at SF in SF : "If you've never..."
I love Scott Browne's smart, witty work. He manages to be bother very funny and very dry. He doesn't tell jokes. He excavates them from the rotting earth and tosses the carcasses in front of the reader. Laugh at this. Soon enough, you'll be food for something.
There's a particular construction that Browne uses in his novel 'Breathers' that is really quite funny, and you'll get at least one fine example of it in this reading. It actually duplicates parts of what I podcast before, in our interview and in the NPR piece I did on zombies that featured Browne and his work. But I think one of Browne's talents is as a reader of his own work. He really hits his stride in this reading at SF in SF, and he selects a variety of material that will take listeners farther through the work. You can find out just how far in time for the holidays by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
11-18-09: "Noird" : A 2009 Report on Crime Fiction in Imaginary Cities
It's really too bad that Jeff VanderMeer's 'Finch' had not come out when I was putting this report together. It's such a perfect fit for the subject, and such a nice match for both China Miéville's 'The City & the City' and Jedediah Berry's 'The Manual of Detection.' All three are wonderful noir detective stories with settings in imaginary cities.
While "noird," as China Miéville calls it, may not be all that new — Fritz Leiber was writing stuff like this back in the day — the current set of writers working in this genre are really focusing on creating solid, imaginary cities that are analogues of twentieth century metropolises — and also, working them with very straightforward protagonists who might have wandered in out of a Raymond Chandler novel. I'm hoping to work on more pieces in this vein, so if readers have suggestions, they can email me. I've already got a couple of more in the hopper, but until then, here's a link to the MP3 audio file of my report on hardboiled deteective novels set in imaginary cities.
11-17-09: World Fantasy Convention Podcast : Poetry of the Fantastic
Rain Graves (moderator), Donald Sidney-Fryer, David Lunde, and Michael Allen Shea
Now here's what the flyer says: Imaginative poetry from antiquity through modern times. The participants will discuss some of the notable authors and works as well as reading short selections. Rain Graves (moderator), Donald Sidney-Fryer, David Lunde, and Michael Allen Shea
Here's what I say: FANTASTIC!!!!
This panel totally rocks!
I have to say that I'm really taken with these poets of the fantastic, every one of 'em. This panel was really wonderful; these writers are old-fashioned rebels, proud throwbacks and forward-looking fearless artists who know how to entertain the hell out of an audience.
Now, look, yes, I know — fantasy poetry, it's sort of redundant in a way. All poetry is by definition (pretty much) fantasy. But these writers harken back to and are intimately familiar with a group of past poets whose work is now considered by most modern "Mainstream" poetry quaint. It has rhyme and regular meters. It's the kind of poetry we grow up think of as "poetry" until we get hit in the face with the sort of poetry that can make your brain hurt. But no matter what your poetic, or fictional tastes, this reading and discussion featuring Rain Graves (moderator), Donald Sidney-Fryer David Lunde, Michael Allen ("The Autopsy"!!!) Shea, is nothing less than thrilling fun. You are in for a treat the likes of which you might never have thought you'd hear when you follow this link to the MP3 audio file. Do not miss this wonderful podcast poetry discussion!
11-16-09: A 2009 Interview With Kamala Harris : Smart on Crime
Kamala Harris was a woman in motion. First the interview was going to be in her office; then it was moved, and moved again. But when I found perfect street parking right in front of the building with 45 minutes still on the meter; I thought, it can't be too bad. And I was right. Kamala Harris has a great story, a great job, and she is navigating some seriously difficult political waters with a great deal of aplomb.
When I finally caught up with Harris, I was told I had exactly thirty minutes, and I kept my eye on the recording time — not just because I was at a one-hour meter. I knew pretty quickly that I could easily spend a couple of hours talking to Harris about the thoughts behind her book 'Smart on Crime,' which I think has lots of interesting perceptions of and prescriptions for fighting crime here in the US of A. But I didn't have time to do that, and I had to focus on what was at the core of the book, and keep my concerns to well, adversarial questions I had about what she'd written. She writes a bit about the Internet and frankly, she's a bit ambiguous, so I sought to clarify her ideas. She mentioned new laws, and I began to think she might be interested in the music and movies industries' concept of "three strikes;" that is, if the companies accuse you, just accuse of illegal sharing three times, you lose the Internet forever. It's an insane and unenforceable idea, but that's never stopped American industry in the past.
But Harris was not in the least bit interested in turning the DA's office into a means of collecting income for Music & Movies. Her worries about the Internet were concerned with those who defraud the elderly, not some three strikes inanity. Of course, I had another concern; the so-called "real" three-strikes law, which is its own form of inanity. I liked her current position the law, one she's able to enforce from her office as DA. She's got a great rap, a lot of innovative ideas focusing on prevention and rehabilitation and even cracking down on elementary school truancy. Here's a link to a conversation with a woman who's out to be a game changer — and has the ideas to back it up.
New to the Agony Column
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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
