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I've been really quiet, too quiet really, around here (and elsewhere) these past few weeks.  However, there are a few things I plan on having up in the next week or two that should be of interest to several here.

First, there are two interviews I'm working on now, with David Anthony Durham and Jeff VanderMeer, that should go live sometime in the next few days.  Both of the interviews are progressing nicely and I believe there will be some insights and matters of discussion that ought to appeal not just to fans of their works, but also to those who may never have read either one of these talented writers.

I reviewed Durham's latest book, The Other Lands, last month.  This week (maybe as soon as tonight, but likely Monday or even Tuesday), I'm going to review two books that VanderMeer wrote that are now available via Amazon and other online retailers (and by Nov. 3 in retail stores), Booklife (a guide for writers, with some interesting tidbits for essayists such as myself and others interested in the various duties of writers), which was released on October 15, and his novel (and the final volume in his excellent Ambergris Cycle) Finch, which is apparently shipping now from Amazon and which is scheduled to be released in stores on November 3.  While I have to make the personal disclaimer here that I knew more about the genesis and crafting of the two books than many other reviewers, my opinions I believe will not inflate (nor deflate) what I believe to be honest insights into the two works.  But it is fair to note them here.

After these are done, I have a long, overdue essay on international SF and recent anthologies to write and send elsewhere.  I hope to get that done in the next few days, but I'll have to battle work fatigue and other distractions, which have already delayed it several weeks.  When it's done and posted, I'll post a link to it here.

Oh, and I might update my reading list (with shorter-than-usual commentaries) in a few hours.

Now back to my other duties.

New poll on a possible (un)official mascot for this blog

Forget the weighty issue of choosing between excellent books.  I have decided to present to you a new image (in the upper right corner of the blog) and a new poll seeking opinions on a possible (un)official mascot for this blog.

There's just something about squirrels that has appealed to me for years, even before they became a sort of in-joke between me and another on another site.  Nothing says a combination of quickness, intelligence, craziness, and perhaps evil like a squirrel grasping the mother source of paper, a tree.  Therefore, I think it might be amusing to have the squirrel become a sort of mascot for this blog.  What do you think?

For those viewing this via RSS feeds, be sure to visit the blog directly so you can vote in this very non-serious poll!

I love people who take my silly polls so seriously

Fun to watch the person who has refreshed/deleted cookies 19 times apparently (according to the Sitemeter log that I just checked on a whim) to vote for George R.R. Martin's Fevre Dream enough times to make it the apparent winner with just over two hours to go in voting.

Guess what?  I don't always follow the results of the polls now (actually, I still have two I want to review first).  I think I'll go with the second-place vote getter first, then the Martin (since it was a somewhat more legitimate second-place entry).

Ah, the power to ignore the will of the masses (or those who want to vote multiple times in a 13 minute span)!

I so need an evil dictator picture to close this, but instead this pic might be even more evil:

Feeling the evilness yet?

A deleted question

I have participated in several interviews this year, with each of them, whether they appear on this blog or on the Nebula Awards site, being rewarding to do.  But despite how in-depth these interviews might be, I find myself always deleting this one question, because I can't decide if it's too broad or if it'd limit the author's response.  So for your reading pleasure (and feel free to answer this one as you like), the always-deleted question:

How do you know when you've "made it?"  Is there ever a point where you're tempted to stop, look around, and go, "You know what?  This isn't bad at all!  I kinda like where I'm at in life right now."?  Or is there something that keeps nagging at you, pushing you on to create new vistas/settings or to refine that polished prose just a teeny-bit more?

OK, that's really three questions, but anyways...how would you answer such a question?  Is it ever really the sort of question that ought to be asked of an interviewee?

A partial sampling of my October book porn to date

For those curious to know what I receive, what I buy new, and what I find in a Nashville-area used bookstore, here are some of the books I've purchased or received over the past two weeks (there are few left out for a post later dealing mostly with a similar theme).  Since there are more than three dozen books here, I'll just make the pictures large and let you read them, with only stack hints to which is a review copy (the first picture here), which are books I bought new (the Sparrow art book series to the left in picture 2, and all the books in picture 3), and which are used books I bought for $10 or less (pictures 2 and 4, minus the Sparrow books to the left of picture 2).  Feel free to ask questions about what I thought about some of these books, if I have read/enjoyed the ones listed (I've read 16 of them to date), or anything along those lines.

The books whose titles you might not know are (second-from-top), Zoran Živković's Serbian original for his upcoming novella The Ghostwriter and (third-from-top) the fur-covered edition of Dave Eggers' adaptation of Maurice Sendak's (and of the screenplay Eggers and Spike Jonze wrote for the movie adaptation) Where the Wild Things Are, called simply The Wild Things (just finished it, loved it, might review it in the near future).

This is strangely compelling

This is from the just-released charity Christmas album of Bob Dylan's, Christmas in the Heart.  Who would have ever thought that one day Dylan would record Christmas songs, much less singing a verse in Latin?  As a long-time fan of his music (well, a fan for 13 years now), this album certainly will get some playtime at home and at work in the coming weeks!

A question on picture books

I was recently asked by someone close to me (she and I had been discussing some graphic novels we had read recently, among other things) the following question:

Do you think picture books you read or that were read to you when you
were small influenced you and shaped your aesthetic senses in any way?

How would you answer this question?  My response is in the comments.