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Friday morning coming down
Woke to the sad news that ICFA 41 has been cancelled, that the Australian cricket team will play New Zealand will play to empty stadiums, and that the Australian F1 has been postponed. Sensible decisions all, but my thoughts go out to everyone at ICFA (for whom this could be an existential threat), to everyone who has lost money on the trip, and to all of the small business owners and staff who no doubt have lost income and possibly jobs. Strange, challenging times.
Happier news is that Kristina Ten’s story, “Tend to Me”, has been published at Lightspeed. Kris is one of the mighty Clarion West class of 2019 who have been selling stories all over the place lately and making Jack Dann and me incredibly happy.
Today is finishing binge reading the “Sean Duffy” novels, spending a little time doing some editing Miss 18 gets to work, seeing KJ for beer(!), and wondering if the world is ending. Stay safe and healthy out there, people.
Any other Thursday
Today has not been a day of focus. Woke at 4.30 am, which is becoming more and more common, and then dealt with editorial and other emails before heading to the day job which was annoying without being terrible. I have started when we’ll start coronavirus precautions but no sign yet. Lots of announcements and exhortations to wash hands, but nothing else.
This weekend will be pretty social, which is nice. Keen to undo the lack of social contact with old friends, so the weekend will kick off with seeing Keira before a Cat Valente book signing on Saturday and lunch on Sunday. I need to find some time in there to get on top of work, including reading and editing some submissions and maybe finally writing some proposals. Perhaps time to dig out the ‘to do’ software and make some lists.
I’ve actually been reading quite a bit, which you can see from my Goodreads page, but not enough SF or F really. In fact, mostly the Adrian McKinty ‘Sean Duffy’ novels James Bradley recommended during his flying visit in February. I seem to have inhaled them and am currently reading Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly (another lifted Tom Waits lyric) while thinking I should be reading something else.
Two anthologies fell through my inbox this morning:Â Ann VanderMeer’s second X-Prize book, Avatars Inc., which has an impressive table of contents, and Europa28: Writing by Women on the Future of Europe, from the fabulous Comma Press, so maybe they’ll drag me back to the fantastic. Who knows?
Episode 367: Ken Liu and the Power of Good Story
This week Gary and Jonathan are joined by a long time friend of the podcast, Ken Liu, to discuss his new short story collection The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, approaching the end of his epic silkpunk fantasy series The Dandelion Dynasty, and how having good stories is more important to a society than having good institutions. Along the way, we talk about history, life, evolving art, and much, more more.
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories is out now and The Veiled Throne is out early next year.
As always, we’d like to thank Ken for making time to join us and hope that you all enjoy the episode. See you in two weeks with more!
Episode 366: Apocalypse, awards, and others
As usual on this week’s Coode Street, Jonathan and Gary discuss what they’ve been reading lately, with a particular focus on how apocalyptic fiction has evolved over the decades, and how writers like Kim Stanley Robinson have found ways of finding some sort of hope even in the face of what increasingly seems inevitable.
This being the start of awards season, they also spend some time discussing the finalists for the Nebula, Stoker, and Spectrum awards, as well as the new Ray Bradbury Prize from the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes.
Mostly, though, they focus on the Nebulas and the interesting question of whether Nebula nominees which had a lot of buzz years or decades ago still have an impact today. We stop short of guessing which of this year’s nominees will have readers in another decade or so.
Among current and forthcoming books, Gary sounds pretty enthusiastic about the new Liz Williams novel Comet Season and James Bradley’s forthcoming novel, Ghost Species.