Jason Sanford is the most recent writer to post about the general uproar over small press publisher, Night Shade Books. http://www.jasonsanford.com/jason/2010/07/genre-gossip.html What I found interesting about his post is that it's not a slam against the publisher but an interesting look at the information we genre writers don't share for fear of loosing outlets for our work in both novel and short story markets. And let's face it, there's just as many short story markets taking advantage of writers as there are novel publishers. But we tend not to speak up for fear of being boycotted by other markets in the same genre.
Mr. Sanford, in another post, also pointed out Tin House Publishing's new submission policy. http://www.tinhouse.com/all_news.htm Yep, in order to submit to either the zine or their publishing house you have to include a receipt from a local book store showing that you've purchased a book. Sounds nice, but as Mr. Sanford pointed out, not everyone has a local bookstore and a great many people are purchasing and reading books with all those new devices.
Elizabeth Zelvin has a great post over at Poe's Deadly Daughters today about writing short stories. She's new to the form and gives her take on how to write a short story. http://poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/2010/07/writing-short.html
And here are some new zine issues out on the virtual streets
The July issue of The Gumshoe Review http://www.gumshoereview.com/
Pine Tree Mysteries is back with their new issue and explains that their disappearing act was due to a server problem. http://www.pinetreemysteries.com
And the July issue of Thieves Jargon http://www.thievesjargon.com
And a question - Is there some unwritten rule that all Apocalypse stories have to include either zombies, vampires or cannibalism? And does the dress code always have to include Mohawk hairstyles, tattoos and scantily dressed women? Just curious.
15 comments:
Yes on the scantily dressed women and Sandra, let us stick to that! Ok?
Mr. Sandford's post was interesting.
And now off to read Ms. Zelvin's post. She is one of my new favorites.
You mean you missed it when Moses brought those rules down from the mountain.
Yes I did, Patti, but apparently all the film makers out there didn't!
Okay, David, I'll have to strip my poor character out of her mukluks and bearskin coat, though I'm sure all those men breathing on her will keep her warm. :)
I think the rules of dress started with THE ROAD WARRIOR.
You're probably right, Bill! It seems like every movie since has the same dress code. But who decided that we should all turn into zombies and cannibals? Vampires I attribute to Matheson's "I Am Legend"
I know this clothing discussion is all in good fun, but for a solid "end times" read, check out Cormac McCarthey's THE ROAD. I thought it was quite good. I haven't seen the movie yet, so can't comment on that translation to the screen. It's next in my Netflix queue.
I haven't read or seen "The Road", Frank but I read a review piece that said they'd left the part about roasting babies out of the movie. So even McCarthy went down the cannibalism road.
What I'm wondering is why writers think that an appocalyse is automatically going to turn the human race into a bunch of animals. Is it just that they believe the worse side of our nature will take over and that any humanity we feel will be lost in an effort to survive? I can't imagine a world where people won't help each other in desperate times. Maybe I'm just naive.
Actually, Sandra, that is part of what THE ROAD examines. I think you'd like it. It is novella length, too. Re behavior in such a time, I believe people would experience the good and bad that we've witnessed through out history. Some sink to the low end, others rise.
Thanks for that explanation, Frank. I've been afraid to try the book because I'm not fond of cannibalism in stories. Not that it doesn't work at times, its just not my personal preferance for reading.
And for those of us who are in very bad binds and trying to survive, buying books to satisfy Tin House is impossible. If it wasn't for my local library to supplement what I get by mail from authors, publicists and publishers, I would have nothing to read.
Kevin
Disaster research shows, if I remember this correctly, that people do tend to behave more altruistically after a disaster. At least for a time. It's apparently embedded in the DNA.
When chaos erupts after not guilty rulings, when sports championship celebrations, cause looting and burning, etc. I think if catastrophic disaster struck, all you know what would strike and humanity would become savage very quickly. It does not take much.
Yes, Kevin, there is that, too! Not everyone has the extra money to buy new books.
That's what I was thinking, Ron. whenever disaster strikes our first impulse is to help. It strikes me odd that we could go from helping each other to killing. But then I suppose at some point our greed and lust for power would kick in and someone would decide they had to be the leader. That too, is in our DNA.
I think riots like you mention, Kevin are a whole different thing. That's just people acting out. A world disaster shouldn't cause people to riot, but then I suppose the urge to grab everything you can before someone else gets it could lead to riots.
Sigh - human nature is a fickle thing. And if you didn't have conflict there'd be no story.
Update on Night Shade Books: http://www.sfwa.org/2010/07/a-note-to-sfwa-members-regarding-night-shade-books/
Thanks for the update, Michael, its nice to see an organization supporting the authors. Hopefully things will work out.
Small presses scare me because these days it's so easy to start one and once they're started some of them have no clue how to conduct business.
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