Podcasts

Episode 150: Live with John Crowley and Peter Straub!

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This week the Coode Street Podcast, or part of it, is on the move! With  Readercon 24  in full swing, Gary has travelled to Burlington, Massachusetts and has corralled award-winning author of  Little Big  and the  Aegypt  sequence, John Crowley, and long-time friend of the podcast Peter Straub to take part in a fascinating discussion of genre and other things. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

00:00  Introduction (flawed)

02:00  Discussion of reading and being influenced by early science fiction from the ’50s and ’60s, and the path from there to reading literature.

12:40  On how genre works and what makes the SF ideational space function. Mention of Bob Shaw’s classic “Light of Other Days”.

19:00  Peter discusses writing about fear, reading Ballard, and other influences.

30:00  On reading work as science fiction, including mention of John’s novel  The Translator.

35:00  On how writing SF/F is accepted to day in a way that it was not before.

40:00  Peter discusses his novel  In the Night Room.

43:00  Story McGuffins and the death of the author.

50:00  Sequels, Lin Carter, book signings.

58:00  A brief discussion of what’s next from Peter and John.

As discussed in the podcast, you can  order the 25th Anniversary Edition  of  Little Big,  or just check it out.

Journal

Lately….

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It’s July and I’ve not been blogging. I know why I haven’t been blogging. Mostly because I have Twitter, and because of the semi-shambles that the first half of 2013 has left everything in round here. I’ve not blogged much about all sorts of small, recurring problems – mostly medical ones like hearing and blurry eyes and so on – which haven’t been life-threatening, but have kept me from feeling like blogging or doing much.

What have I been doing? Well, since getting back from Canberra and the Australian Natcon I’ve watched a lot of TV – four seasons of Justified, a season of Nashville, a season of The Americans, two seasons of Switched at Birth, and so on. I’ve read a small handful of novels, most of which I’ve discussed on the Coode Street Podcast with Gary K. Wolfe. I’ve also recorded a couple episodes of the Last Short Story podcast, read some excellent short fiction, started work on The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 8,  bought the first story for Reach for Infinity, seen the cover art for the follow-up to Fearsome Journeys, bought the central story for my special issue of Subterranean Magazine, and outlined a couple of other projects.  I’m pretty sure there was also a 13th birthday party for my daughter in there, a 75th birthday for my mother, and some travel and other planning.

What lies ahead in the second half of 2013? Well, without indulging too much in repeating myself, I have some Locus editing to do, taxes to get submitted, the above-mentioned anthology and editing projects to finish and deliver, and a trip to London and Brighton for World Fantasy Convention to plan. I’m very excited about the latter. I’ll be doing some touristy stuff before WFC with Ellen Klages and Gary Wolfe, as well as trying to pack some UK-focussed podcasting into things, and then down to Brighton. Every year I take a tuxedo with me for my brilliant agent Howard Morhaim’s big annual shindig, but this year I’m hoping to just take a normal suit. See if I can get away with that.  I also have a few birthdays to help celebrate before Christmas, and then my own 50th in January (no idea what to do about/for that). I mega-ton of reading. I really want to finish the best of the year before Brighton as much as possible, and all sorts of other things. And all that on top of a day job.

It should, all in all, be a busy time. I’ll try to record more of it here, but we shall see how that goes. Tonight: Locus editing, business paperwork and day 2 of the 1st Ashes Test.

 

Podcasts

Episode 149: Awards, Matheson and the Year to Date

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In what is definitely the latest official instalment of the Coode Street Podcast, Gary and Jonathan sneak past the Jerome Kern Memorial Habachi Stand and settle down just near the Richard Rogers Habachi Grill to discuss many things. In an incredible development, this time the Production Gnomes of Coode Street have been able to produce a rough running schedule for the episode. Rejoice!

00:00   Introduction
05:00 Discussion of Kim Stanley Robinson’s new novel Shaman, Werner Herzog’s film Cave of Forgotten Dreams and prehistoric fiction. (This bit’s shorter than you’d think it would be).
13:00:  Locus Awards winners, and Gary drops names.
30:00   Richard Matheson.
38:00   The Year in Fiction to Date (including our favorites and must reads of the year so far [though not really “must”, just “we like it a lot and you might too”]
1:13:00 End
Please let us know in comments about your favorite books of the year too! Next week we hope to be reporting in from Readercon. Until then, as always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!
Science fiction

Locus Awards go to Neptune – The Pat Cadigan Edition

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EDGE OF INFINITYThis morning while I slept a group of people, sartorially garbed in bright Hawaiian shirts gathered at the Best Western Executive Inn in Seattle, Washington for the annual presentation of the Locus Awards.

I am delighted to report that beautiful and wondrous Pat Cadigan’s fantastic story “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi” won for Best Novelette (she’s expanding it into a novel!), while Edge of Infinity picked up the gong for Best Anthology. I love this book a great deal and I am incredibly happy that it won and that Pat won. My congratulations to her, and my sincere thanks to the Solaris team of Jonathan Oliver, Ben Smith, and Michael Molcher, who all worked incredibly hard to make the book a success, with a special thanks to Adam Tredowski for the fantastic cover. If you’re a member of LonestarCon you can read the book as part of the Hugo packet, but it’s out in the world in all sorts of places.

In addition to thanking all of the authors, my wife and family, my spectacular agent Howard, and Solaris, I want to thank Liza Trombi, Fran, Kirsten and the Locus family who support me so well, and who do a great job with the awards. I can’t wait to see the plaque when it gets here.

Finally, an enormous congratulations to all of the Locus Awards recipients on their wins! A fine bunch, and one I’m proud to be part of this year.

Podcasts

Episode 148: Playing for time

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As any regular listener knows all too well, hotel wifi is an unreliable friend. With Gary away in Seattle at the Locus Awards weekend, we recorded this “safety” episode to make sure you’d have your weekly Coode Street fix, It was recorded on June 23, and amongst other things we discuss the very sad recent deaths of Iain M. Banks, Jack Vance, and Parke Godwin, all of whom made significant contributions to our field As always, we hope you enjoy this latest ramble.

…unavoidable stuff from jonathan strahan…