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[24 Dec 2009|06:57pm] |
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| BFS COMPETITION: Win True Blood Books - BFS Members Only |
[24 Dec 2009|06:21pm] |
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BritishFantasySocietyNews/~3/P7n7tObQg-c/index.php We're offering BFS members the chance to win one of 3 copies of the Sookie Stackhouse Box Set from author Charlaine Harris and publisher Gollancz.  Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in a little bar in Bon Temps, a small town deep in Louisiana. She's funny and pretty and well-mannered, but she doesn't have that many close friends - mind you, that's not so surprising when you consider how few people can appreciate her abilities as a mind-reader.
It's not a quality that has the guys beating down her door - well, unless they're vampires or werewolves or the like ...but they're not just supernatural freaks, some of them are friends, even family ... The box contains: Dead Until Dark, Living Dead in Dallas, Club Dead, Dead to the World, Dead as a Doornail, Definitely Dead, All Together Dead, From Dead to Worse. Simply add TRUE BLOOD to the subject field of your e-mail along with your name, address and your BFS member number and send to events@britishfantasysociety.org to be entered into a draw. Closing Date: 31st December 2009
With special thanks to Jo Fletcher! 
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| Merry Christmas, Senators |
[24 Dec 2009|01:09pm] |
It wasn't easy, and there has been and will continue to be much criticism of the insurance company giveaways, the inevitable watering down of key provisions in the name of compromise, and the lack of leadership. But you passed the bill. One step closer.
And of course the Republican Senators did what they always do: walk in lockstep opposition to anything that will help the American people. What a bunch of hacks. I hope every sensible moderate Republican (like President Obama) is ashamed of their deplorable lack of service to their constituents.
And speaking of the Prez, Dem Senators should be just skippy that now that the hard work is done, Mr. Obama has pledged to roll up his sleeves and get involved in merging the Senate and House bills. How hunky dory that he will now try to take credit for the hard work of so many others, most notably Nanci Pelosi and Harry Reid.
60 of you done good.
38 of you deserve to burn in that mythological ot spot called hell.
Merry Christmas.
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| I be highbrow horror, it's true |
[24 Dec 2009|11:17am] |
I made a discovery recently. I was looking into the mirror and saw something. That something was my brow. I think it's a little higher, now. I'm not talking about my hairline (though if I was talking about my hairline, I'd be freaking out, because, if I'm allowed a shred of vanity, or anti-vanity, I'd be the ugliest bald man alive, I need my hair, oh please, I need it). I pulled out a handy-dandy tape measurer and discovered, yes, my brow is indeed high. A highbrow, as it were.
What am I talking about? Within the horror small press community you hear talk of the highbrows vs the lowbrows.
While I've been aware of recent squabbles about pay rate in the SF/F community (and I do hope to add my two cents to that next week), I tend to pay more attention to horror's own dysfunctional band. And it's the frankly childish (to be kind) highbrow/lowbrow complaint from the self-described lowbrows that never fails to make me want to pull out my own precious, precious hair.
A few examples I've recently stumbled upon:
1) This from a book that I enjoyed and would recommend. From Rocky Wood's and Justin Brook's impressive compendium of Stephen King's non-fiction, was their wildly misplaced and misguided commentary on a critic of King's Dance Macabre, of whom the editors said, "Perhaps feeling she should look down, high browed upon the best selling upstart, she continued..."
At the root of most HBvLB comments seems to be the knee-jerk sting of criticism. If an editor/reviewer/reader criticized my work (or what I like) and therefore they, like the giant mutant ants THEY!(um...I know the giant mutant ants are THEM!, but I wanted to work that in there somehow, all right?), are the highbrows, the elite, looking down upon the dirty genre work, holding me down, etc.
Okay, I'll bite. Hey LBs out there. You need to learn how to deal with criticism better. Okay? It'll make you happier. I promise. Even us HBs get bad reviews (usually from the LBs...I'm kidding, I'm kidding!). Believe me, I've had plenty of bad reviews and rejections. I, as a higbrow, have even been trumped in highbrowness! An editor at one of the big houses told my agent that The Little Sleep was "too much Chandler, not enough Lethem" (insinuating the book wasn't literary enough). Of course another house told me my book was "too literary for their line." So I got it from both sides. Hey, now.
2) From blog post written by Kurt Newton:
If you read horror message boards (please don't) regularly you see this language cropping up all the time. All. The. Time. Wine and cheese, snobs, look down their nose, references to effete NYC editors/critics who aren't, you know, male and horror-tough, or you even get called a 'beret wearing faggot' as Nick Mamatas was once (and there's the origin of his beret LJ icon for those who didn't know). Invariably, the self-defined LBs react to criticism and advice from other writers (usually...oh no, another HB term coming...professional writers) by stomping feet and lobbing insults.
Translation: The Elite Horror Cabal is holding the masses down. And, really, what previously denied population has had its publishing fortunes changed by desktop publishing? Do you mean middle and upper-class Americans who can afford computers, printers, and the Lulu.com publishing fees? Thank goodness that they can publish now and stick it to the man.
I do agree with Kurt (who is a good fiction writer, though his stake the HBvLB baffles me to no end) that defining "literary horror" can be slippery. I tried to tread carefully on a brief attempt at a definition for the PHANTOM anthology (boiled down: lit horror does not fail as art). If I failed miserably in my attempt at definition, I apologize.
What I won't apologize for is wanting more than boobs and blood in horror fiction. I won't apologize for criticizing misogynistic, torture porn crap that comprises way too much horror. I won't apologize for hating the zombie mashup crap. I won't apologize for vomiting into my own mouth when I see what non-Stephen King horror books are stocked in Borders. I won't apologize for telling new writers not to go the Lulu or Publish America route. I won't apologize for pointing out the irony (oh now, gone all HB again) of the chest-thumping, macho, too-brutal-for-your-grandma writers who throw tantrums when criticized and scream and wail about the mean old HBs holding them down. And! And! (more irony) These are the same people who will complain that horror has been ghettoized an they aren't taken seriously as writers.
Finally, I won't apologize for daring to read horror fiction critically, or discuss it...gasp...intellectually.
If that makes me a highbrow, then, bring it on. And make me a hat that accentuates my highbrow, please.
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| So what are you hoping to get for Christmas? |
[24 Dec 2009|08:31am] |
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I already know most of what I'm getting for Christmas. I'm particularly looking forward to unwrapping Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals and listening to Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds on CD (something I haven't heard in over twenty years).
How about you?
What are you getting (or hoping to get) for Christmas?
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| HAPPY MERRY JOYOUS! |
[23 Dec 2009|02:17pm] |
Wishing everyone the merry holiday of their choosing. Here's to a happy, top drawer, captain's table, splendid, magnificent, wondrous, schweppervescent New Year, because '09 embodied all that is suck, and I'm happy to see it fade into history.
Be warm and safe and enjoy those close to you.
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| Happy Holidays! |
[23 Dec 2009|01:21pm] |
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Wanted to wish you folks Happy Holidays. To family and friends, I love you. To acquaintances and colleagues, I’m glad for you. To readers and fans, I’m thankful to you. To those I’ve just must, I’m excited to know you. To those who are lost to me now, and those lost to me forever, I remember and miss you.
Originally published at Mary SanGiovanni. You can comment here or there.
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| "I still live!" - John Carter, Gentleman from Virginia |
[23 Dec 2009|11:23am] |
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Well, my ass - and the asses of my wife and daughter - are out of the fire, but our tushes are still dangling over the flames like marshmellows. I turned to my SCM investors and told them about my situation, and a handful of them are in essence buying a portion of my interest in the film to cover the cost overruns I put on my card. This will allow us to make slightly more than minimum payments through May, and during that time we'll see if we can switch our card to "low/no interest" cards for six months to get the principle down. I'm also going to look at the possibility of extending our home equity line of credit so we can make a significant payment, and see if family can help. Along the way, I've got a book advance and a tax refund to look forward to. This is going to be a HARD fucking year, and we're going to be boiling most of our food, but at least we have a chance. There's a lot more at stake here than our credit; creditors would have seized ALL income from all of my existing projects, and I just can't let that happen without a fight. If I add up all the time I spent making and promoting those 4 films, 4 novels and 1 nonfiction book, it's probably a quarter of my life. Can't allow that to happen.
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is rushed off his tiny feet looking for presents. And the snow up to his middle is not helping. It appears his friends and family are getting snow sculptures for Christmas 
, which at the time was a good idea, but as the weather has changed to rain
, and the snow has started to melt they are now more like puddles. But I am sure Rabbit, JockGnome and others will appreciate the thought and the effort!
