conversation Archives - Tachyon Publications

June 10, 2016

Tachyon tidbits featuring Nalo Hopkinson, Joe R. Lansdale, Ellen Datlow, and Terri Windling

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized announcement, chuma hill, conversation, elizabeth story, Ellen Datlow, falling in love with hominids, hap and leonard, hap and leonard ride again, interview, Joe R. Lansdale, lemonade award, Lit Reactor, Locus, max booth iii, nalo hopkinson, nightmares, nightmares: a new decade of modern horror, nihil, strange horizons, terri windling, wrestling

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

Nalo Hopkinson, Joe R. Lansdale (Karen Lansdale), Ellen Datlow, and Terri Windling (PreRaphaelite/Wikimedia Commons)

At WisCon 40, Nalo Hopkinson announced the creation of the Lemonade Award.

What are we doing to foster joy and welcome to this community? What are we doing to cultivate its health and vibrancy? What are we doing to create an environment in which imperfect people (as all people are) can feel encouraged and supported to take the risk of a misstep, perhaps learn from it, and come back refocussed and re-energized, eager to try again?

There are many people who do good in this field, who perform small and large actions of kindness and welcome every day. I’d like to encourage more of that.

I’m starting an award, an annual kindness award to recognize five people and groups who in the previous year have done something that makes positive change in science fiction community. It might take the form of printed certificates, awarded and announced with little pomp or ceremony; perhaps via a press release. There need not be a monetary award, but it’d be nice to give the recipients a tangible token of recognition. Should enough people commit to donating a few dollars every year, such that there is an annual pot of $2,000, that would be enough for five monetary awards of $300 each, with $500 left over for administration. $3,000 per year would be enough for each recipient to receive in addition a physical award.

When life gives us lemons, we can make lemonade. I’m calling the award the Lemonade Award, not because of Beyoncé’s excellent recent album, but as a reminder of what the spirit of the award is.

People will be able to nominate others for the Lemonade Award, but the final decisions won’t be based on numbers, but will be up to a jury that changes every year.

I just came up with the idea a few days ago, so there are details to be worked out. Sherryl Vint, my colleague in the Science Fiction and Technoculture Studies Programme at the University of California Riverside, has volunteered to manage the nomination/adjudication process. I’ll be doing fundraising, because even a non-monetary award has some costs. I figure I have enough energy to keep my part of it up for two years. If it takes off, I’ll be looking for someone else to take on that aspect of it, while I remain involved in the capacity of keeping the award to its original spirit. If you’re so moved and so able, please help in any way you can. You can email us at lemonadeaward@gmail.com. I think that we can infuse this community even more with something juicy and nourishing.

On a lighter note at LIT REACTOR, Max Booth III gives us 10 Famous Writers Reimagined as Professional Wrestlers.

04. Joe R. Lansdale

Ring Names: Champion Joe, Captains Outrageous

Theme Song: “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival

Finishing Move: Beats your face in with an actual alligator. Also, Lansdale teaches martial arts, so I assume the alligator knows karate.

Rivals: Anybody dumb enough to try to box him into a single genre. Death to the genre boxers.

The June 2016 LOCUS includes a conversation between editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Terri Windling: ‘‘The organization, including contracts.
You make the trains run on time.’’

Ellen Datlow: ‘‘But we always pick the table of contents together. Actually, you’re better at the table of contents than I am.’’

TW: ‘‘Yeah, I like that part. And you’re really good at the back-and-forth with the authors.’’

ED: ‘‘It depends on who’s worked more with the author. There were some writers I didn’t feel comfortable editing, or maybe I wasn’t wild about the story. I do most of the line editing. In terms of story order, for me the first story and the last story are the most important. You want to invite the reader in. The first story can’t be too dense. It has to be inviting, and it can’t be too weird. The last story should either be the strongest, or the next-to-last story should be the strongest – it depends. You don’t want something too long in the beginning. The rest of it, we kind of rearrange like cards.’’

TW: ‘‘I do it literally with cards. I have index cards. I write the name of every story on a card, and also whether it’s written in first person or third person. Sometimes I’ll mention the setting, or what kind of myth it’s based on, or female or male protagonist – I put down all of the identifying things. Then I spread all the cards out on the floor and move them around until the balance and flow from story to story feels right.’’

ED: ‘‘That’s a good way to do it. You can’t guarantee the reader will read it in order, but you have to assume they will, because there’s no other way to organize it. I did NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, with Tachyon, and I covered 2005-2015. I did those in the order they were published, but that’s not usually the way it’s organized.”

For more information on FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Chuma Hill

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on HAP AND LEONARD, visit the Tachyon page.

For more info about HAP AND LEONARD RIDE AGAIN, visit the Tachyon page.

Covers by Elizabeth Story

For more info on NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Nihil

Design by Elizabeth Story

July 18, 2014

Daryl Gregory and James Morrow on cinéma du sang, pop culture, PTSD, and the absurd

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized absurd, cinéma du sang, conversation, daryl gregory, elizabeth story, horror, humor, interview, James Morrow, Locus, locus roundtable, parody, pop culture, ptsd, satire, science fiction, state college pa, the madonna and the starship, we are all completely fine

Locus hosted a roundtable conversation between good friends and State College, PA denizens Daryl Gregory, author of We Are All Completely Fine, and James Morrow, most recently of The Madonna and The Starship fame. The extraordinary duo discuss not only their recent works but the newly minted cinéma du sang, pop culture, PTSD, and many absurd points in-between.

Daryl Gregory: We’re having this conversation by email, but I’m going to pretend we’re sitting in a bar. Even though we live in the same town, and not even a very big one—that’s State College, Pennsylvania, for you readers—I think we see each other more often in other cities, at cons. Is that sad, or just typically science fictional?

James Morrow: I think it’s both sad and science fictional. Writers live in their heads, don’t they?

D: My head has terrible table service. We did finally get together at our local brewpub a couple months ago to talk about free will and consciousness. That was a lot of fun, and was exactly the kind of conversation I used to imagine that science fiction writers had all the time, before I met some and realized we mostly talk about agents and publishers.

So when Alvaro said he’d give us space to talk on the Roundtable, I first thought that we could continue that conversation. But then I finished your new stand-alone novella, The Madonna and the Starship, that’s out now from Tachyon. My own novella, We Are All Completely Fine, is coming out in August. They’re really different books, but I thought we could talk about how both of them use pop culture as a main ingredient.

J: Good idea. But maybe we can sneak in some stuff about free will and its alleged sovereignty.

Read the rest of the fascinating conversation at Locus.

For more on The Madonna and the Starship, visit the Tachyon page.

For more on We Are All Completely Fine, visit the Tachyon page.

Covers and design by Elizabeth Story.