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dr_pretentiousI'll be posting regularly at Black Gate again, biweekly instead of weekly this time. It won't be my old column on teaching and fantasy literature, which has sort of been picked up by other writer/teachers who post there. I mean, I could pick it back up again, but I'm not teaching while I'm between houses, and I want to do something fresh.
My editor suggests that I write about current fantasy novels, especially series fantasy. I'm excited about that idea, except that I'm not entirely free of the predicament this guy writes about in a NYTimes essay: parents of young children simply cannot keep up with adult popular culture. (You should click on the link just for the cool Tom Gauld cartoon that illustrates the essay. I love every Tom Gauld cartoon, graphic, or comic I've ever seen. My crazy dream for the Trafficking in Magic, Magicking in Traffic anthology is that it go out into the world wearing a Tom Gauld book cover like this one.) Not only am I out of the loop, but every bit of grown-up culture--pop, genre, or otherwise--that I do get to consume has a sort of ecstatic glow about it, because it comes out of that other world I used to live in before I was a parent.
Okay, readers, you've demonstrated a willingness to read me when I'm holding forth. What would you like to see me hold forth about?
And what awesome fantasy series are coming out right now that you'd like more people to be talking about? I'm planning to lead with James Enge's latest novel of Morlock the Maker, the first book I've bought for myself since we boxed up the last of my personal library and sent it to storage. I had planned to hold myself to a no-new-books-until-new-house rule, but but but it's a James Enge novel, so of course I had to have it immediately. After that post, whenever it eventually percolates out, I have no earthly clue what I'll talk about at Black Gate.
In other news, I've sent my story of faerie abduction and supernatural tax collection out for what I think will be its last round of critiques before I submit it somewhere, and I'm already at work on a new short story. Is it possible that I've actually finished a thing and picked up the next item on my creative to-do list? I don't mind domestic limbo nearly so much, now that I seem to be out of creative limbo.
My editor suggests that I write about current fantasy novels, especially series fantasy. I'm excited about that idea, except that I'm not entirely free of the predicament this guy writes about in a NYTimes essay: parents of young children simply cannot keep up with adult popular culture. (You should click on the link just for the cool Tom Gauld cartoon that illustrates the essay. I love every Tom Gauld cartoon, graphic, or comic I've ever seen. My crazy dream for the Trafficking in Magic, Magicking in Traffic anthology is that it go out into the world wearing a Tom Gauld book cover like this one.) Not only am I out of the loop, but every bit of grown-up culture--pop, genre, or otherwise--that I do get to consume has a sort of ecstatic glow about it, because it comes out of that other world I used to live in before I was a parent.
Okay, readers, you've demonstrated a willingness to read me when I'm holding forth. What would you like to see me hold forth about?
And what awesome fantasy series are coming out right now that you'd like more people to be talking about? I'm planning to lead with James Enge's latest novel of Morlock the Maker, the first book I've bought for myself since we boxed up the last of my personal library and sent it to storage. I had planned to hold myself to a no-new-books-until-new-house rule, but but but it's a James Enge novel, so of course I had to have it immediately. After that post, whenever it eventually percolates out, I have no earthly clue what I'll talk about at Black Gate.
In other news, I've sent my story of faerie abduction and supernatural tax collection out for what I think will be its last round of critiques before I submit it somewhere, and I'm already at work on a new short story. Is it possible that I've actually finished a thing and picked up the next item on my creative to-do list? I don't mind domestic limbo nearly so much, now that I seem to be out of creative limbo.
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no subject
Date: 2013-09-03 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-03 12:58 pm (UTC)Honestly, I think that most of the things you write about are entertaining and blog-worthy.
If I was really reading any current fantasy series other than the House War series by Michelle Sagara-West, I'd happily make recommendations. Alas, I am in love with an author who is famous for writing prodigiously long books that tend to get turned into two slightly less prodigiously long books after a year or two of writing, and so the pace of new releases is occasionally slower than molasses. The books are totally worth the wait, and when the new ones come out I squeal like a little girl with a new toy and promptly stay up all night suffering from "just one more page" syndrome; and then get all mad at myself when I go into work feeling hungover the next day. She also writes another series ("Cast in ___") that is fairly popular, but which for some reason I haven't gotten into yet (I suspect I'm afraid of getting caught up in two such series).
Looking forward to the Faerie Tax Collectors =)
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Date: 2013-09-04 04:42 pm (UTC)