The Weeks that Were, Causing Pandemonium and Kitschiesness
Sunday, November 11, 2012
First up - just one week from today: Invisible Cities at Foyles. With Kate Griffin, Tom Pollock and Mark Charan Newton. Ms. Griffin's written a cracking guest post for London Calling to get the ball rolling. We can't wait for this event!
On the Pandemonium front, we're creeping closer and closer to our launch dates for Thy Kingdom Come and A Town Called Pandemonium. 1853 is wrapping up as well, and we're even - knock on wood - looking ahead to next year. (Plus, the first two reviews of Lost Souls have been great. Whew.)
Quickly rounding up the last month's reviews:
- Joe Abercrombe's Red Country (2012) (and on being Western)
- Peter O'Donnell's A Taste for Death (1969) (and the burden of being exceptional)
- Daniel Polansky's Tomorrow, The Killing (2012) (and Hammett goes Lynch by way of Sassoon)
- Molly Tanzer's A Pretty Mouth (2012) (and Wodehouse and Lovecraft and Victorian porn and monsters and the best collection I've read all year, and then some)
- Brent Weeks' The Black Prism (2010) and The Blinding Knife (2012) (and the full spectrum of awsum)
- The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 23 (and soapboxes)
- Five completely random movie reviews, from X-Men: First Class to Tremors
- Anne on James Bond
And guests:
- Charlie Human on memes that should be immortalised in fiction
- Lou Morgan on writing "At the Sign of the Black Dove"
- Den Patrick on "The End of the World"
- Sam Wilson's personal apocalypses
There's been a shocking lack of book porn lately. The deadline for The Kitschies is approaching (hint), so there's not been a lot of purchasing. If I even think about bringing home something that's not a submission, the pile looms at me. Very scary.
That said, picked up one new (Kitschies-related) prize - a signed copy of Among Thieves. Thanks to Douglas Hulick and Arin and Rich of Starfarer's Despatch for magically making this happen!
Finally, we've made some fun cameo appearances around the Internet:
The first is in the revival of The Hub, an SF-focused digital magazine with rather nifty content. Their recent issue is focused on Eric Brown and has our review of The Kings of Eternity in it.
The other (and I'm incredibly proud of this) is on the excellent John D. MacDonald Covers blog. Apparently the Icelandic Purple is a bit of a rarity. I'm glad I was able to contribute in some small way to the editor's Herculean efforts to catalog every variation of JDM's covers. This is one of my favourite sites, so woo!
Meanwhile, Anne's popping up in the Mail & Guardian. She wins.