Ellen Datlow's Blog, page 19

Katherine Vaz and Geoff Ryman read wonderfully at KGB tonight.

Blogger Erin Underwood is helping me out by running the second Supernatural Noir book giveaway here.

I'm bad at con reports, which is why I'm more comfortable just posting the photos (which I did previously). I didn't attend any panels or events but my own (except for Howard Waldrop's reading) mostly because I had a lot going on and too many people to hang out with. I was baaaaad.


But I had meals with good friends, the two Readercon group readings went very well, my autographing was great (I sold the several OP titles I brought with me), panels were interesting: one on urban fantasy. The panel and audience queries made it clear how fluid the term is right now; one on the short fiction of 2010 (with some in 2011), and for me the most fun/interesting was about anthologies and how editors decide what kinds of stories are to go in them.


Hung out with GOH Gardner Dozois and the wonderful Susan Casper, and gave the other GOH, Geoff Ryman a big hug (hope to talk to him more Wednesday evening at the KGB reading)and I met the charming Victor LaValle (author of last year's Shirley Jackson Award- winning novel Big Machine) at the meet the pros party and overall spent a lot time in the lobby or bar with various folk socializing.


And I gave blood Saturday afternoon, which knocked me out (almost literally- I always seem to get dizzy after giving blood and did so this time so had to spend another half an hour in the blood mobile with cold wet compresses on neck, head, and ankles).

The Jackson awards on Sunday morning were fast-moving, smart, and enjoyable, with Victor as MC. I was delighted that Laird Barron won for both the novella "Mysterium Tremendum" and his brilliant collection Occultation.


Next year's GOH are Peter Straub and Caitlin R. Kiernan. Memorial GOH is Shirley Jackson.

Not too many this year-I was too distracted after the first day ;-)
http://tinyurl.com/43vn7nu

I'm going to be giving away copies of Supernatural Noir. The first Supernatural Noir giveaway competition is aimed at artists: Choose a title from the TOC & interpret visually: http://t.co/kfToNLB

You've got till Wednesday midnight ET (I hadn't specified time before).

FANTASTIC FICTION at KGB reading series, hosts

Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel

present:

Katherine Vaz has been a Fellow in Fiction at Harvard University and has published two novels, Saudade and Mariana, translated into six languages and selected by the Library of Congress as one of the Top 30 International Books of 1998. Her collection Fado & Other Stories won the Drue Heinz Literature Prize and Our Lady of the Artichokes won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize. She's a Radcliffe Fellow and recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Award and has published short fiction in numerous magazines.

&

Geoff Ryman's new collection of short stories Paradise Tales has recently been published by Small Beer. A new long short story 'What We Found' is due out soon in Fantasy and Science Fiction. His stories, novels and anthologies have won 14 awards including the Arthur C Clarke Award, the John W Campbell Memorial Award, the Tiptree and the Dick awards. His novels include The Child Garden and Was both to be re-issued in new editions by Small Beer Press.

Books will be for sale by Bluestockings

Wednesday July 20, 7pm at
KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street (just off 2nd Ave, upstairs.)
www.kgbfantasticfiction.org
Subscribe to our mailing list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kgbfantasticfiction/
Readings are free
Forward to friends at your own discretion.

Sponsored in part by Cemetery Dance Publications

Editor Ellen Datlow on Two New Summer Anthologies: Naked City and Supernatural Noir.


Thank you, Jeff.

Today is my first day in a over a month not wearing the boot on my left foot. I went out for an errand this morning without it and it felt good. No pain. But I know I've got to get used to actually walking on the foot. Plus I'm hoping my left hip will quickly get used to the idea that both legs are now even (I never could find a right shoe whose height matched the boot's. The top of my foot still hurts a bit, but nothing too bad. (the surgeon goes in through the top). When I stretch my foot and toes I get occasional weird twinges that I hope will go away. The lower parts of my second and third toes are numb-that might be permanent. I've no idea. But if it is, that's a small price to pay for no foot pain.

Tomorrow I go to Readercon. I may bring the boot with me, just in case. (also I may feel less nervous about the status of the toe/foot mixing with large groups of people)

One change. My autographing has moved to two hours later (see below).

There's one other change (not to my schedule per se but to one of my panels). Paula Guran will be joining Kathryn Cramer, Gardner Dozois, and I to discuss short fiction of the year (2010)

Thursday, July 14th
7pm the reading/signing of Naked City at Porter Square Books in Cambridge with me introducing Matthew Kressel, Jeffrey Ford, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Kit Reed, John Crowley, and Ellen Kushner.

Friday 12-1pm Kaffeeklatsch in Vinyard

Friday 3-4 autographing Salon E

Friday 5pm Salon G
De Gustibus Est Disputandum When Editing Anthologies
Adams, Datlow, Dozois, Kessel, Waldrop


While any anthology has its no-brainer must-include great stories, the anthologist usually needs to flesh it out with selections from a broader pool of merely good stories. When should an editor choose their personal favorites from that pool, giving the anthology more of a coherent flavor but possibly limiting its audience, and when should they make a conscious effort to choose stories that will appeal to a wide variety of readers, so that there is "something for everyone"? How do the rules change when one is editing a themed anthology or a Year's Best, or pitching to a larger or smaller publisher?

Friday 6-7 NH/MA
Group reading from Teeth
Kaaron Warren, Delia Sherman, Steve Berman, Suzy McKee Charnas


Saturday 12-1pm RI
The Year in Short Fiction
We will discuss the short fiction published since last Readercon.
Cramer, Datlow, Dozois, Guran

Saturday 1-2pm Salon F
Urban (Fantasy) Renewal
Bobet, Clute, Datlow, Gidney, Kelner

The term "urban fantasy" has encompassed the work of Charles Williams, a contemporary of Tolkien who sometimes situated his fantasy in London or suburban settings as opposed to a pastoral secondary world; the novels and short stories of Charles de Lint, Emma Bull, or Robin Hobb (as Megan Lindholm); the phantasmagoric cities of China Miéville or Jeff VanderMeer; and most recently, the magical noir of Jim Butcher and Charlaine Harris. Is it possible to reclaim "urban fantasy" as useful critical term? Rather than wring our hands at how it no longer means what it did, can we use it to examine what these very different writers have in common, and to what degree they reflect different eras' anxieties around and interests in the urban?

Saturday 9-10 pm NH / MA
Group reading from Supernatural Noir
Caitlin R. Kiernan, Paul G. Tremblay, John Langan

Sunday 11-noon The Shirley Jackson Awards

I'll be bringing a few of my OP anthologies to sell at my autographing so if you have any specific requests I can see if I have them around.

Although it was raining when I left, I found a taxi pretty quickly. This, for anyone living in NYC knows what a piece of luck this is. I headed down to Warren street for the Mysterious Bookstore Thrillerfest party and even though it was crowded, I'm glad I went. Alice Turner and I were to meet there but I go there first, was greeted by storeowner-host Otto Penzler and grabbed some wine, looking to see if I recognized anyone. I didn't really expect to as it's not my crowd--mystery/crime and thriller writers and fans. Alice showed up soon after I got there so I didn't feel like an outsider for too long.

We grabbed seats on the couch, as I wasn't eager to stand around in my boot with my cane plus my carryall slung over my shoulder for a couple of hours. Most of the writers who were signing books there wore name tags and I recognized a few, even though I don't know them personally. But then I ran into Robert Crais and we had a very nice catchup chat. And Paul Wilson and Kelly Laymon also came--I hugged them, we exchanged a few words, and then I never saw them again. Larry Block was also there and came over to say hi (he lives a few blocks from me and is a good friend of Alice's). Met a few new writers and some fans who I hope will show up at KGB some time. (they said they like sf/f/h as well as mystery).
It was still raining as we left so we went into the nearest restaurant we could find--it was a tiny sushi place on Hudson street and was good-and cheap.
Then Alice took the subway and I found a cab going uptown.

Home in time to catch up on movie night!! I haven't watched any DVDs for several weeks because I've been traveling weekends the past month. First up was Chopper, an Australian movie I'd been hearing about for years and was recommended by ...someone, I really don't recall who. I loathed it and made it through about half an hour and decided I didn't want to waste any more time on it. Eric Bana is terrific as the nutjob nicknamed "Chopper," a violent thug who apparently became a kind of folk hero for his multiple murders and the 9 or so books he wrote about them, mixing fact and fiction. I think it's billed as a comedy, but you sure could have fooled me. Piece of crap.

To cleanse my palate I re-watched the brilliant Steven Soderburgh adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Out of Sight starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez (when she started out and could actually act). Clooney is a career bank robber who never carries a gun, Lopez a Federal Marshall who he meets "cute" --breaking out of prison. Although there's violence and menace (in the person of the excellent Don Cheadle as the head of a Detroit gang)there's a lot of comedic, romantic pleasure in the movie. It's as good as I remembered it being.