From Modern Mythcraft to Magical Surrealism

Archive for February 2010

Donna Jo Napoli: Playing to Win in The Wager

by Jude Tulli

Donna Jo Napoli has seen more than sixty books in print. In her latest offering, The Wager (Henry Holt, April 2010), a well-bred Don Giovanni squanders away his wealth and is cast into the life of a beggar in the aftermath of a series of natural disasters. Until he meets a mysterious stranger who bets him a magic purse that he cannot go “three years, three months, three days” without washing or shaving or changing his clothes. Ms. Napoli describes her writer’s journey from the book’s conception through publication.

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Author Spotlight: Scott William Carter and Ray Vukcevich

by T.J. McIntyre

You often hear it said that when two people collaborate, a third person emerges. I think that is probably right. The assimilation process can be painful, but Scott made it easier with his endless patience. It took quite a long time.

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Ten Fantasy Sidekicks Who Could Do Better

by Genevieve Valentine

Fantasy movies often suffer from Hero Syndrome. Held hostage by the plot, the hero is trapped; their behavior becomes erratic, their moral code tedious, their dialogue overblown. Luckily for us, behind most heroes is a loyal and clever sidekick, delivering jokes and advice (and desperately updating their resume when they think no one’s looking). Below, [...]

Ten Fantasy Sidekicks Who Could Do Better

Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson

by Rich Horton

Husband and wife Peter Dickinson and Robin McKinley have each had remarkable writing careers as individuals. This is the second book (after Water, Putnam 2002) they have written together, collaborating on the book but not the individual stories. The two longer stories in Fire are by McKinley, the three shorter ones by Dickinson. All are Young Adult fantasies, about “fire spirits” of various types, such as a salamander, a phoenix, and a dragon. Fire is a wonderful blending of talents of two writers who have already given us some of the best YA fantasy of the past few decades.

Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson

A Stray

by Scott William Carter and Ray Vukcevich

Jim was spraying black paint on the last of the windows when he saw the cat emerge from the hedge of arbor vitae at the back of the yard—an unusual tortoiseshell cat with a wild mix of reds, blacks, and browns in its fur. All the confusing colors distracted for a moment from the fact that the cat’s head was missing.

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Nebula Awards 2009 Final Ballot

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SFWA is proud to announce the nominees for the 2009 Nebula Awards. The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of SFWA. The awards will be announced at the Nebula Awards Banquet the evening of May 15 at the Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront, just 20 minutes from the Kennedy Space Center in Fla. Other awards to be presented are the Andre Norton Award for Excellence in Science Fiction or Fantasy for Young Adults, the Bradbury Award for excellence in screenwriting and the Solstice Award for outstanding contribution to the field.

Nebula Awards 2009 Final Ballot

Author Spotlight: Nathaniel Williams

by William Sullivan

I’m fascinated by the idea of someone holding one person accountable for some other person’s or group’s actions–how that’s innately unfair yet very recognizably human, how we cope with it when it’s done to us or when we realize we’re doing it to someone else.

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The Wolfman: Another Shaggy Dog Story

by Matthew S. Rotundo

Werewolves always seem to get the shaft in popular culture. They constantly take a back seat to all those brooding, sexy, immortal bloodsuckers. Anne Rice never interviewed a werewolf, after all.

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Interfictions 2: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman & Christopher Barzak, Introduction by Henry Jenkins

by Cynthia Ward

Overall, these twenty-one stories offer high quality prose and a fair amount of unpredictability. But the anthology is uneven in a way that will allow readers to differ—perhaps radically—in their reactions. Still, you too may find the best stories to be Carlos Hernandez’s delightful “The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria”, which walks the tightrope between mainstream and magic realism without a slip, and Theodora Goss’s gemmed beauty “Child-Empress of Mars”. Goss’s tale takes its inspiration—in the finest post-modern fashion—from a Wikipedia entry on John Carter of Mars instead of the series itself, yet still manages to turn the interplanetary romance inside out in a way that would make Jack Vance proud.

Interfictions 2: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman & Christopher Barzak, Introduction by Henry Jenkins

Tenientes by Nathaniel Williams (audio)

by Nathaniel Williams

This month’s audio fiction is Tenientes written by Nathaniel Williams and read by M. K. Hobson

Tenientes by Nathaniel Williams (audio)