Bantam is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its SF/Fantasy imprint, Spectra, and I got a nice surprise when they made SPIN STATE one of the featured titles for 2003. They asked me to write something about the experience of writing the book, or writing in general, or SF in general. So being the indecisive type I picked all of the above....
Here's a link to the page on SPIN STATE. And here's a link to the main list, which makes for fun reading. Surprising how many of my favorite books these guys turn out to have published....
Another thing you'll notice is how many of the writers talk about working with Anne Groell, the senior editor at Spectra. Anne is one of the great unsung heroes of SF. She has worked with many of the top writers in the business, from Kim Stanley Robinson and David Brin to George R. R. Martin and Robin Hobb. In fact, Anne is the person who believed in Robin Hobb enough to give her a second chance when a string of badly handled books had ruined her sales numbers and most publishers had decided she was washed up as a writer. We all know how that turned out. And it was characteristic of Anne's steadfast belief that if you just keep putting really good books out there readers will find them.
One of the funny and endearing things about working with Anne is that, as Lynn Flewelling mentioned, she draws smiley faces on her manuscripts every time she likes something. So even if you get back a manuscript covered with red ink, there somehow seems to be at least one smiley face for every question, comment or correction. You wouldn't think it would matter. I mean we're all grownups and professionals, right? We ought to be able to take our medicine. Can you imagine the members of your average writing group drawing smiley faces all over each others' drafts? Heavens, no! And yet ... somehow Anne's smiley faces are like Mary Poppin's spoonful of sugar. They really do help the medicine go down. Though the slog from manuscript to publication can be long, when you are working with Anne it never gets discouraging. This ability to critique without crushing is part of her great talent as an editor -- and one reason why she has inspired so many writers to deliver of their best work for her.
Blueprints for Life
I recently learned that Dianna Wynne Jones is terminally ill. I'm sure this news is as sad for many of you as it is for me. She is one of the most cherished writers of my childhood and is largely responsible for my surviving middle school without loosing my sanity. If you want to send an email of appreciation to Dianna that her friends will read to her you can do so here.
Here's a link to an essay of hers about all the odd questions people ask her about writing children's fantasy. I've read and reread this essay many times with great enjoyment, and my favorite passage is the one where she explains that every good children's book is "a blueprint for dealing with life." I'd go further and say that every good novel is a blueprint for dealing with life. If it isn't that's only because grownup readers have gotten too ossified to learn from novels -- or because grownup writers have gotten too wrapped up in their own cleverness to remember why they started writing in the first place.
Thank you, Dianna, for some of the best Blueprints for Life I've ever read. I am so grateful that I got to read your books. And I so look forward to sharing them with my children and my grandchildren.
Here's a link to an essay of hers about all the odd questions people ask her about writing children's fantasy. I've read and reread this essay many times with great enjoyment, and my favorite passage is the one where she explains that every good children's book is "a blueprint for dealing with life." I'd go further and say that every good novel is a blueprint for dealing with life. If it isn't that's only because grownup readers have gotten too ossified to learn from novels -- or because grownup writers have gotten too wrapped up in their own cleverness to remember why they started writing in the first place.
Thank you, Dianna, for some of the best Blueprints for Life I've ever read. I am so grateful that I got to read your books. And I so look forward to sharing them with my children and my grandchildren.
F&SF REVIEWS
Well, I have been remiss. Again. I should probably stop apologizing for it. And I should certainly stop sounding surprised about it, as I think we are all coming to realize that I am remiss by nature.
Here is a link to my review column in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I have reviewing books there for just shy of two years now, with a special brief to focus on Hard SF. I truly enjoy this work. Actually, I can hardly call it work with a straight face. Large boxes of free books arrive on my doorstep on a regular basis. An amazing number of them are really good. And an amazing number of the really good ones are first novels, which are especially fun. I get to read and think and write about whichever ones I want. The hardest part of the job is deciding which two or three books I can actually give review space to out of the great multitude of books that deserve it.
Here's a list of what I've reviewed so far (and promise I'll try to be better about posting links to current columns in the future...):
August 2008:
Pebble in the Sky, Isaac Asimov.
The Null-A Continuum, by John C. Wright.
Lorelei of the Red Mist, by Leigh Brackett..
The Secret of Sinharat and People of the Talisman, by Leigh Brackett.
The Martian General's Daughter, by Theodore Judson.
January 2009:
Saturn's Children, by Charles Stross.
Singularity's Ring, by Paul Melko.
Earth Ascendant, by Sean Williams.
June/July 2009:
Ink and Steel: A Novel of the Promethean Age, by Elizabeth Bear.
Hell and Earth: A Novel of the Promethean Age, by Elizabeth Bear.
Watermind, by M. M. Buckner.
January 2010:
Shambling Towards Hiroshima, by James Morrow.
How to Make Friends with Demons, by Graham Joyce.
The Last Theorem, by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl.
City at the End of Time, by Greg Bear.
Implied Spaces, by Walter Jon Williams, Night Shade Books.
June/July 2010:
Regenesis. C. J. Cheryhh
Up Jim River, Michael Flynn.
The Hengis Hapthorn Chronicles, Matthew Hughes.
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