LundBlog: Beautiful Letters

moving to wordpress

2012-01-27T04:17:12Z

Hi all,

Just wanted to write a brief note that I'm moving blogging platforms to Wordpress. I officially migrated to LiveJournal from JournalScape back in February 2005, so I've been at LJ for almost exactly seven years. I've used Wordpress a bit during that time, and have always enjoyed the experience, so in honor of the New Year (both Chinese and Regular), and of the fact that I'm setting some definite writing goals this year, I decided to migrate not only my blog, but my entire website as well. The details of which can be found here.

So I hope you'll update your bookmarks and keep following me over at Wordpress, where I hope to increase my blogging output this year as well. And you can still keep track of me on Facebook and Twitter too.

Upwards!

published works eligible for the wfa

2012-01-12T15:20:57Z

The judges for the 2012 World Fantasy Awards have just been announced; for those of you who are attending WFC 2012 in Toronto, or attended last year in San Diego, or in 2010 in Columbus, Ohio, and who might be nominating works for this year's WFA, following is a list of my eligible fiction published in 2011, should you feel so inclined to do me the honor of placing any of it on your ballot:

Red Dot Irreal, Math Paper Press (collection)

"Bogeymen," Subterranean Magazine no. 8 (novella) (rep. in Red Dot Irreal)

"Coast," Coast (short fiction) (rep. in Red Dot Irreal)
"Dragging the Frame," Red Dot Irreal (short fiction)
"Ikan Berbudi (Wise Fish)," Red Dot Irreal (short fiction)
"Kopi Luwak," Red Dot Irreal (short fiction)
"Strange Mammals," Zouch Magazine & Miscellany (short fiction)
"Taxi Ride," Quarterly Literary Review Singapore (short fiction) (rep. in Red Dot Irreal)

So it appears that the overwhelming majority of my fiction published last year was also reprinted in Red Dot Irreal, or saw publication in the collection for the first time; the only outlier is "Strange Mammals," which can be read online for free.

So, that said, if you are a WFC attending or supporting member for 2010, 2011, and/or 2012, and can email me proof of your membership, I'll send you a coupon code so that you can download the DRM-free ebook version of Red Dot Irreal for your nominating consideration. Offer expires on June 1, 2012, when WFA nominations are due.

Happy voting!

2011 Books Read

2012-01-03T00:07:54Z

Going back to 2006, I've had a tradition of posting the books I've read each year, as a way of keeping track of my reading habits and preferences, and will do so once again here. The list is provided sans commentary, although I will say that the books I've bothered both to pick up and to finish are ones that I consider worth reading. And I would ask that if mention of the titles below strikes your fancy, please consider picking them up through IndieBound and supporting your local independent bookstores.

Only 66 books finished this year, but it was a rough year, and 1Q84 took me five weeks to finish by itself (although it was also an omnibus of three novels as well).

2011 Books Read:

01. *Pump Six and Other Stories* by Paolo Bacigalupi
02. *To Kill a Mockingbird* by Harper Lee
03. *The Sandman Presents: The Furies* by Mike Carey & John Bolton
04. *Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3: Torn* by Joss Whedon & John Cassaday
05. *Dreadnought* by Cherie Priest
06. *Satori Blues: A Poem* by Cyril Wong
07. *Astonishing X-Men Vol. 4: Unstoppable* by Joss Whedon & John Cassaday
08. *Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of "To Kill a Mockingbird"* by Mary McDonagh Murphy
09. *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows* by J.K. Rowling
10. *The Enchanter* by Vladimir Nabokov (Trans. Dmitri Nabokov)
11. *The Last Book* by Zoran Zivkovic
12. *The Ghostwriter* by Zoran Zivkovic
13. *The Executioness* by Tobias S. Buckell
14. *The Alchemist* by Paolo Bacigalupi
15. *The Man in the High Castle* by Philip K. Dick
16. *The Things They Carried* by Tim O'Brien
17. *Cages* by Dave McKean
18. *The Broken Kingdoms* by N.K. Jemisin
19. *The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World* by Paul H. Ray & Sherry Ruth Anderson
20. *Tales of Freedom* by Ben Okri
21. *The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ* by Philip Pullman
22. *Drawing Out the Dragons* by James A. Owen
23. *A Wild Sheep Chase* by Haruki Murakami
24. *Brighten to Incandescence: 17 Stories* by Michael Bishop
25. *Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was* by Barry Hughart
26. *Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?* by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert, et al.
27. *The Happiest Toddler on the Block* by Harvey Karp
28. *The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch* by Philip K. Dick
29. *Four Novels of the 1960s (LOA)* by Philip K. Dick
30. *The Story of the Stone* by Barry Hughart
31. *Starve Better* by Nick Mamatas
32. *The Five Wonders of the Danube* by Zoran Zivkovic
33. *Sensation* by Nick Mamatas
34. *The Merchant of Venice* by William Shakespeare
35. *A Visit from the Goon Squad* by Jennifer Egan
36. *Akata Witch* by Nnedi Okorafor
37. *Borges and the Eternal Orangutans* by Luis Fernando Verissimo (trans. Margaret Jull Costa)
38. *Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Last Gleaming (Season 8, Volume 8)* by Joss Whedon et al.
39. *The Tiger's Wife* by Téa Obreht
40. *A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia and Other Stories* by Victor Pelevin (Trans. Andrew Bromfield)
41. *Kraken* by China Miéville
42. *Manhood for Amateurs* by Michael Chabon
43. *Mary* by Vladimir Nabokov
44. *Wonderland* by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew
45. *Noise* by Darin Bradley
46. *Blockade Billy* by Stephen King
47. *How we Got Insipid* by Jonathan Lethem
48. *King, Queen, Knave* by Vladimir Nabokov
49. *My Suit* by Jason Wee (Babette's Feast #1)
50. *You Cannot Count Smoke* by Cyril Wong (Babette's Feast #2)
51. *Black & White* by Lewis Shiner
52. *Eight Skilled Gentlemen* by Barry Hughart
53. *The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox* by Barry Hughart
54. *The Luzhin Defense* by Vladimir Nabokov
55. *Half World* by Hiromi Goto
56. *Rossum's Universal Robots* by Karel Čapek
57. *Bloodshot* by Cherie Priest
58. *Vania (Extended Version)* by Vania Zouravliov
59. *Birds of Prey: Death of Oracle* by Gail Simone et al.
60. *1Q84* by Haruki Murakami
61. *The Eye* by Vladimir Nabokov
62. *Glory* by Vladimir Nabokov
63. *The Wild Girls* by Ursula K. Le Guin (PM Press Outspoken Authors #6)
64. *Zoo City* by Lauren Beukes
65. *The Sense of an Ending* by Julian Barnes
66. *The Infernal Desire Machines of Angela Carter* by Jeff VanderMeer

Previously: 2010 Books Read, 2009 Books Read, 2008 Books Read, 2007 Books Read, 2006 Books Read

red dot irreal now available to order (updated)

2011-11-08T01:42:05Z

If you live in Singapore, Red Dot Irreal is available for purchase at BooksActually and, by next week, at Kinokuniya. Since the awesome folks who published the book through Math Paper Press also run BooksActually, if you buy the book there until 31 December, you'll also get a coupon code for the free e-book version of the book.

For those of you outside of Singapore, the book is now available for ordering!

The paperback can be ordered from the main book page. The shipping zones are set by Singapore Post, although it's a good bet that many of you who may want to order are in Zone 3; if you're not sure, just read the description for each PayPal button on the page. I'm happy to sign and personalize your copies. Prices are in Singapore dollars (SGD), with the book at $25.00 SGD plus variable shipping (Z1 = $5.00 SGD, Z2 = $7.50 SGD, Z3 = $10.00 SGD); currency will automatically be converted by PayPal upon transaction. Please allow 2-3 weeks for delivery.

The e-book edition can be purchased and downloaded from Smashwords for only $3.99 USD. I've just been informed that it has been accepted into the Premium Catalogue, which means it'll be available at the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble NOOK bookstore, Kindle ebook store, and several others in a couple of weeks; I'll update here once this is the case.

In the meantime, you can buy the DRM-free multi-format e-book directly from Smashwords. You only need buy it once and you can download it as a PDF, ePub (for Apple iPad/iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions, others), mobi (for Kindle devices & apps), Palm Doc, RTF, and Plain Text. Then, all you have to do is upload it to your preferred e-reader(s). Since there's no DRM, you're free to move the e-book between devices. Easy!

I'm going to be getting the word out on the book soon, so if you're interested in reviewing a copy for a print publication or high-profile blog, please let me know.

Update: The paperback has now been confirmed as stocked at Books Kinokuniya on Orchard Road, and the e-book is now available at the Apple iBookstore, the Barnes & Noble NOOK Book Store, and the Diesel eBook Store.

red dot irreal and the power of fiction

2011-11-02T04:17:07Z

This past Saturday night, Red Dot Irreal, my debut short story collection, was launched at the Singapore Writers Festival as part of their "Brand New Books" programming track. About 30 people showed up, only half of whom I actually knew, and I spent an hour reading selections from the book, talking about the publishing journey, and answering questions from the audience. On stage with me were Karen Wai and Kenny Leck, my awesome publishers at Math Paper Press, as well as Jasmine Tan of You & Me Creative, who designed the cover and formatted the interiors. Afterward, to my surprise, a signing queue actually formed, and I happily chatted with those who'd attended the launch and decided to buy the book. (And after that, I got the chance to reconnect with Mario [ demonsismondo | @mingolbacon ] and Juria [ lilredbite | @JuriaTRM ], two good friends that I really need to do a better job keeping in touch with.)

It's been about a year from submission to publication, and at this point, it seems very strange to think that the book is now out there in the world, having to survive on its own, not completely "mine" anymore. I'm simultaneously excited that people are now able to read and (hopefully) enjoy the stories, and also terrified that those readers might instead demand their money back, decry me as a fraud and charlatan, and tell all their friends to boycott my writing from now on.

And it's an entirely different feeling from publishing a singular story in an anthology or magazine. The fact that it's a book, that it's a collective artistic statement about the strange experience of living in Singapore, that it represents years of hard work and an incredible amount of faith from Karen and Kenny -- it's as if somehow things have gotten much more serious, that my writing (and therefore I myself) is being intensely scrutinized for what I have to say.

Scott McCloud, in one of his amazing books of sequential art analysis starting with Understanding Comics (I forget exactly which one), details the different stages of an artist's development, starting with the imitation of other artists, all the way up to a profound self-examination of one's motives in creating art. I'd like to think that I've passed into that upper stage in the last decade, and that the choices I make as a writer have become much more considered and deliberate, to use fiction as the most apt vehicle for what I have to say, not only as a form of entertainment (although the entertainment cannot be divorced from the text either; if the reader isn't entertained on some level, she's not going to keep turning the pages).

In my story "Ikan Berbudi (Wise Fish)" (the second piece in Red Dot Irreal), there's a passage where I briefly lay out my philosophical justification for both writing and reading fiction. The protagonist, Mrs Singh, has complained to her son Vishal that fiction just isn't practical, like reading a medical or law text. This is his response:

He’d tried to explain how experiencing life through someone else’s eyes would make him a more empathetic and understanding person, less likely to be closed-minded or judgmental, more willing to think for himself rather than blindly follow a given ideology. But she wasn’t sure she accepted his argument.

Karen re-read this passage during the book launch in order to talk about why she and Kenny decided to publish the book in the first place, in that they feel much the same way about the power of fiction. BooksActually is a physical manifestation of this same mindset, in the carefully curated literary stock that they sell to the willing Singaporean public. She also talked about the effect of my writing style, that my decision to work within the tropes of slipstream consequentially result in the feeling of passing through or within a dreamscape, with all the wisdom and weirdness that come from dreams.

I hope that this level of profundity exists within my fiction, but on the surface, I also just hope that people enjoy the writing, and come out of the experience of reading my fiction with a slightly expanded sense of how strange and wonderful our own world can be.

I'm very proud of this book. I'm glad that it's only 160-odd pages long, so as to be a pleasant and brief introduction to my work. I'm ecstatic about the design and production of it as a physical object; it's just damn beautiful to look at, and the layering effect of the translucent dustcover adds to the multi-layered motif of the writing inside. Here I am unwrapping a hot-off-the-press copy about a week and a half ago, after the copies were finished printing and delivered to BooksActually:

As of right now, the original paperback version of the book is only available in Singapore, at BooksActually and (starting tomorrow) Kinokuniya. I'll put up a link soon for anyone to buy a signed copy via PayPal, and will be officially releasing the e-book in the next week or two. I'm also looking into possibly having a POD version available for folks outside of Singapore to be able to order. More on this later. If anyone has any suggestions for distribution (especially in the US), please let me know.

These are exciting times.

nabokov reading challenge (updated)

2011-08-23T02:59:04Z

Prior to this year, I had only a passing interest in the fiction of Vladimir Nabokov. I read Lolita several years ago to see what all the fuss was about, and found myself utterly seduced by Humbert Humbert's language, and discomfited and disturbed by my empathy for such a charming pedophile. Nabokov challenges all kinds of assumptions of acceptability in that novel, and does it in a way that entrances you, as if putting the reader under an incredible spell for the length of the book.

At that point, I did want to find out more about Nabokov, but got a bit intimidated by the size of his published oeuvre. I had heard of Pale Fire, but many of the other titles were unfamiliar to me, and so I didn't know where to start, with the result that I didn't.

Time passed, and then I came across a copy of The Enchanter on the shelves of BooksActually, an exquisitely designed edition with watercolor cover art, and the look of uniform series design (which, when I found other Nabokov titles, turned out to be the case). Penguin had begun reissuing all of Nabokov's books in 2010 with these beautiful covers and high-quality paper, and I was immediately attracted, much as I had been with the man's language.

So I bought The Enchanter from Karen at BooksActually (who is also quite the Nabokov fan), took it home, and read an alternate, much shorter version of Lolita, a version that predated that much more famous work, and could almost be thought of as a dry run for it. A version that works on its own merits; the unnamed enchanter is less successful in his attempts to seduce his own nymphette, and comes to a much worse end.

Some time later, on a visit to Kinokuniya, I spotted other Penguin Modern Classics of Nabokov's titles, and plunged in, steadily filling in the gaps of Nabokov's bibliography with visits there and back at BooksActually (where the shelves were now more fully stocked). At this point, I'm only missing four books for the full set (Transparent Things, Look at the Harlequins!, The Original of Laura, and Strong Opinions). And though the books look beautiful on a bookshelf in their uniform simplicity, I had yet to get to the words inside.

Yesterday, I decided that this was the time, and issued myself a Nabokov Reading Challenge: to read the entire oeuvre in chronological order, starting with Mary. This way, I also get to chart Nabokov's progression as a writer, and really get a sense of the differences between his books originally written in Russian and those in English.

I started Mary last night, and am already about halfway through it. It's a short book, and this is a characteristic of much of his Russian writing (with The Gift being a notable exception). I'm hoping that the brevity of a good many of his works will enable me to finish all of them by the end of the year, but I won't be too strict about this. I do have other books that I want to read, and may intersperse them as well.

I'm also hoping that reading the man's writing in such a concentrated way will have a subconscious effect on my own writing. I did notice that whilst reading Lolita my own fiction was wittier and more language-conscious; I don't read writers like Nabokov or Mieville to improve my vocabulary (a sentiment that some of my students actually subscribe to, as if this is all that reading literature is good for), but this tends to be a nice side effect.

So that's, what, 23 books in just over four months? Certainly possible, though like I said, I'm not pushing it. Anyone want to join me?

Update (31 August): Based on dsmoen's excellent suggestion in the comments to this entry, I've decided to make this reading challenge more reasonable: instead of cramming 23 books into four months (which may exhaust me and inadvertantly turn me off from Nabokov forever), I've decided to read one title per month. Which means that I'll be done sometime around June 2013, give or take a couple of months. This way, I have an attainable goal, and it allows for the reading of other authors during that time, which I'll absolutely want to do.

I've created a Goodreads group, Nabokov in Two Years, to organize the reading challenge, and hopefully to invite others to participate as well. The group is open, so please join today!

drawing out the dragons: a review and appreciation

2011-04-09T02:45:15Z

As a writer, it's sometimes very easy to get discouraged with this career I've chosen. Rejection rather than acceptance is the norm, a book may sell to a publisher then get dropped because of financial reasons, work that does gets published may get panned or, even worse, ignored. Holding onto that motivation that made me want to be a writer in the first place can sometimes seem a futile endeavor.

And so when James A. Owen released Drawing Out the Dragons: A Meditation on Art, Destiny, and the Power of Choice as an e-book (on April Fool's Day, of all days), it was like an inspirational bolt from heaven, exactly what I needed to read right now at this point in my life and career.

One thing the book does is to humble me utterly. Owen has gone through ten people's worth of seemingly-insurmountable challenges, and yet he has never lost his faith in himself as an artist and creator. Not when he was expected not to survive a mysterious childhood illness, not when his drawing hand was crushed in a car accident, not when he sold everything he owned to move overseas for his dream job and then watch that job evaporate before his eyes. Owen's consistently positive outlook enabled him to not only meet these adversities (and many more) head-on, but to turn them into opportunities for life-changing triumphs.

In the telling of his life's lessons, Owen consistently relays the impression that while his experiences may have been unique, the way that he handled them was not, that any of us can maintain the same mindset toward success. That the choices we make -- moving long-distance for a new career, quitting a safe regular job to focus on one's passion, taking inspiration from Superman and visualizing oneself healthy, or simply making lines on paper -- are always up to us to make the best of.

Unlike normal types of self-help or motivational books, Drawing Out the Dragons provides inspiration through experiential storytelling. Owen never lays out the "keys to success" or the "steps to happiness," but through his actions and the wonderfully fluid way in which in relays them in this book, any reader can glean these keys and steps for oneself. A modern riff on the idea of giving a man a fish versus teaching a man to fish, and Owen proves himself a master teacher.

I've known James Owen for a number of years now, but only online. We've never met in person, but he has done more for me as a friend and "big brother" than many people I know in real life. But perhaps the best thing he's yet done is to write Drawing Out the Dragons and present it to the world, and for this I am infinitely grateful. If I am ever lucky enough to meet James in the flesh, you can bet I'm going to ask to see his Superman ring.

Buy Drawing Out the Dragons as a DRM-free PDF ebook at Coppervale International for only $4.99. Or you can get it for the same price for the Barnes & Noble NOOK or the Amazon Kindle.

books, actually

2011-03-27T07:34:19Z

I had been in Singapore for about a year before poet Cyril Wong recommended I check out BooksActually. I'd shopped at Borders and Books Kinokuniya and Select Books, as well as the smaller chains like Popular and Harris, but Cyril assured me that based on our few conversations (at the time; we've had many more since) and shared literary sensibilities, I'd find something unique at BooksActually.

So a week or two later, I looked them up, and found the store on Ann Siang Road, tucked into a space surrounded by upscale clothing boutiques, gastropubs, and fancy restaurants. It wasn't a huge shop, but the shelves were packed, and their titles trended away from popular fiction and more toward those with a love for language. They also displayed lots of interesting knick-knacks, like old manual typewriters, vintage metal toys, instamatic cameras, and full runs of special Penguin paperback series.

I picked out a lovely Hesperus Press edition of Bulgakov's A Dog's Heart, and the young lady who rang me up did so with a smile, remarking that Hesperus always did a really nice job with their books. The owners of the shop, Karen Wai and Kenny Leck, were not in that day, but I was to meet them later.

On my next visit, some months later, that same employee was working, and almost as soon as I walked in the door, she said, "Hi! You're the one who bought that Hesperus Bulgakov, right? We have another one, if you're interested."

I was stunned and mightily impressed. In my history of shopping at bookstores, never (and this includes Quail Ridge Books, my all-time favorite bookstore in the USA) has an employee remembered me after a months-long absence, remembered the book I last purchased, and then recommended another similar title all in the same breath. It was astonishing, and in that moment I became a superfanboy of BooksActually for life. (I also bought the book she recommended: The Fatal Eggs.)

(And I wish I could remember who this young lady was, but I just can't. I don't think she even works at the store anymore. Whoever you are, awesome person, thank you.)

As I say, eventually I met Karen and Kenny, and we became fast friends. They agreed to let Janet and me launch A Field Guide to Surreal Botany at the store, and have, since the book's publication, faithfully kept copies of it in stock. They invited me and Janet to various other literary events hosted both at the store and elsewhere. Last year, they agreed to publish my first fiction collection, Red Dot Irreal, through their imprint Math Paper Press (forthcoming in ~~June~~ September). In sum, they made me feel as if I had a literary home in Singapore, which was something I'd dearly been missing since moving from the US.

They've moved twice since my early visits, once into a three-storey shophouse at Club Street around the corner from Ann Siang Road, and again recently to Yong Siak Street in the heart of Tiong Bahru (one of Singapore's oldest neighborhoods). A week ago, they celebrated their grand reopening with an all-day sale and then a nighttime party with wine (and ginger-ale for vinophobes like me) and cheeses and bite-sized eclairs. I posted my photos of the event on Facebook. The new location is far and away the best space that I've seen for the store, the biggest advatage being the actual space itself; at last, there is a feeling being able to breathe easy, to traverse the aisles without worrying about bumping into someone else. It'll be a great venue for upcoming events.

Jeremy Tan at Rediscover Singapore recently paid his own visit to the new store, and provided a wonderful write-up, accompanied by a beautifully shot video and series of photographs that provide a sense of the quirkiness of the store's (and its owners') sensibilities.

Big congratulations to Karen and Kenny and all of BooksActually's staff on their gorgeous new home. Long may you stay and feed the heart of Singapore's literary culture.

(All photographs are copyright © by Rediscover Singapore.)

thoughtspeaking truth to power

2011-02-23T06:22:57Z

Earlier today, I posted the following thoughts on George Orwell's novel 1984 (my number one all-time favorite book) at SF Signal as part of their new social community, and it's worth cross-posting here:

There are very few writers whose work have been so profound that their names have become adjectives. Shakespearean. Kafkaesque. Orwellian.

1984 remains George Orwell's greatest legacy, a fact shared by Roberto Bolaño's novel 2666; both books with a four-digit number as the title, both written frantically by authors who knew they were dying, both profound in their exploration of human cruelty, both lifting the veil of propaganda and rhetoric to get to the Truth underneath.

I try to re-read 1984 every few years or so, so as never to forget Orwell's powerful message (We Must Not Let This Future Come To Pass), and to rekindle the tingling literary joy I experienced when I was first exposed to the book in my last year of high school. The clandestine budding romance between Winston and Julia; the ever-present terror evoked by the telescreens and the Thought Police; the Party's final solution of engineering humanity out of every human being; the hope and optimism that lives in Winston's heart, which is then crushed by O'Brien in the Ministry of Love's Room 101, and which returns, oddly enough, in the form of the book's appendix on Newspeak.

Totalitarianism is still very much a reality around the world, with civil liberties always under attack, and so it's important to keep the nightmare world of Oceania and Airstrip One alive in the mind. One must be ever vigilant for signs of the watchful eyes of the Thought Police in CCTV cameras and internet wiretapping, of the destruction of language resulting from devolution into contextless acronyms and SMS-speak, of the censorious invasion into our very minds by authoritarian and corporate influence.

1984 can only be described as a tragedy. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, boy loses self. With the final lines, Winston Smith gloriously professes his love for Big Brother and thereby takes the final step in becoming an unperson, but his suffering and rebellion serve as inspiration for us all to never take our lives and freedom for granted. Orwell's literary sacrifice of his most human protagonist remains one of the greatest contributions to the world of letters and to the continuing species of humanity.

big publishing news: book book book! (updated)

2011-01-14T15:35:03Z

I've been sitting on some pretty cool publishing news for the last several months, but have been waiting until details were ironed out before I felt I could announce it here. Tonight, before the launch/reading for Ceriph issue no. 2 (which contains my story "Air is Water is Air," the first part of which I read to this packed audience at BooksActually), finalized contracts were signed, and so now it all feels official and very very real.

In ~~June~~ September 2011 (only ~~five~~ eight months from now), Math Paper Press, the independent press run by BooksActually's amazing proprieters Kenny Leck and Karen Wai, will publish my debut collection of short stories, Red Dot Irreal!!! Yay and W00T^∞!

The book collects many of my fantastical short stories set in Singapore, and one in Bali (just for shiggles), what I'm calling Equatorial Fantastika. With Math Paper Press, Karen & Kenny have begun branching out into publishing, and will be bringing their considerable talent for design and presentation (not to mention bookselling) to my little volume. I actually sold the book back in September, and have shown an unbelievable amount of restraint not to blab it all over the internets before now.

This isn't a full collection, it's only about 36,000 words and has a fairly tight focus, but I'm really jazzed about it. We're currently discussing whether the budget will handle interior illustrations, which I think would be really cool. I'm also talking with Karen & Kenny about possibly having copies available to be distributed in North America, so my USian peeps could also have access to it, but nothing's concrete yet.

Here's the proposed table of contents for Red Dot Irreal (subject to change):

01. Bogeymen
02. Ikan Berbudi (Wise Fish)
03. Hero Worship, or How I Met the Dream King
04. Lion City Daikaiju
05. Dragging the Frame
06. Kopi Luwak
07. Paper Cow
08. Taxi Ride
09. Coast
10. In Jurong

"Dragging the Frame" and "Ikan Berbudi" have been drastically expanded from their original flash format into fully-fledged short stories; I wrote like mad during the holidays in November and December so that I could get them done before the school year started again last week. "Bogeymen" sold to Bill Schafer for Subterranean Magazine nearly four years ago now, but I don't know if it'll show up there before the story gets published in the book.

So anyway: eeeee! Book book book! Happy happy happy!

N.B. This entry has been updated with the new release date; the book will now be published in September rather than June. Things were pushed back a bit by Math Paper Press' ambitious publishing schedule, and the many many other events and activities being organized by Kenny and Karen. Still, all told, a three-month delay is hardly anything, and is still in time to launch for the 2011 Singapore Writers Festival.

2010 books read

2010-12-31T08:16:26Z

Going back to 2006, I've had a tradition of posting the books I've read each year, as a way of keeping track of my reading habits and preferences, and will do so once again here. The list is provided sans commentary, although I will say that the books I've bothered both to pick up and to finish are ones that I consider worth reading. And I would ask that if mention of the titles below strikes your fancy, please consider picking them up through IndieBound and supporting your local independent bookstores.

(N.B. This list does not include the 60 or 70 children's/board books that we either bought or borrowed from the library to read to Anya this year.)

2010 Books Read:

01. *Widows & Orphans* by Lewis Shiner
02. *A Public Space* no. 8 (litmag)
03. *Bone Shop* by T.A. Pratt
04. *4 by Pelevin* by Victor Pelevin
05. *The Clay Machine-Gun* by Victor Pelevin
06. *How to Ditch Your Fairy* by Justine Larbalestier
07. *A Case of Exploding Mangoes* by Mohammed Hanif
08. *The Helmet of Horror* by Victor Pelevin
09. *The Yellow Arrow* by Victor Pelevin
10. *Match Fixer* by Neil Humphreys
11. *Chronic City* by Jonathan Lethem
12. *Roberto Bolaño: The Last Interview & Other Conversations* ed. by Monica Maristain
13. *What Babies Say Before They Can Talk* by Paul Holinger & Kalia Doner
14. *Point Omega* by Don DeLillo
15. *The New Father: A Dad's Guide to the First Year* by Armin A. Brott
16. *Stitches: A Memoir* by David Small
17. *Makers* by Cory Doctorow
18. *The Village by the Sea* by Anita Desai
19. *The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves* by M.T. Anderson
20. *The Bookman* by Lavie Tidhar
21. *A Short History of Fantasy* by Farah Mendlesohn & Edward James
22. *Red Spikes* by Margo Lanagan
23. *A Public Space* no. 9 (litmag)
24. *Metrophilias* by Brendan Connell
25. *All Art is Propaganda: Critical Essays* by George Orwell
26. *Half of a Yellow Sun* by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
27. *How Proust Can Change Your Life* by Alain de Botton
28. *Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays* by George Orwell
29. *In Other Rooms, Other Wonders* by Daniyal Mueenuddin
30. *Six Memos for the Next Millennium (The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures 1985-86)* by Italo Calvino
31. *Lisey's Story* by Stephen King
32. *The Taker And Other Stories* by Rubem Fonseca (trans. Clifford E. Landers)
33. *Boneshaker* by Cherie Priest
34. *Clementine* by Cherie Priest
35. *The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake* by Aimee Bender
36. *Leviathan* by Scott Westerfeld
37. *Falling Man* by Don DeLillo
38. *When the Moon Forgot* by Jimmy Liao
39. *Who Fears Death* by Nnedi Okorafor
40. *Utopia* by Thomas More
41. *Inception: The Shooting Script* by Christopher Nolan
42. *Broken Mirrors* by T.A. Pratt
43. *Midnight's Diaspora: Encounters with Salman Rushdie* ed. by Daniel Alan Herwitz & Ashutosh Varshney
44. *The Hour of the Star* by Clarice Lispector
45. *The Art of Happiness at Work* by His Holiness The Dalai Lama & Howard C. Cutler
46. *For the Win* by Cory Doctorow
47. *Zahrah the Windseeker* by Nnedi Okorafor
48. *The Jewel-Hinged Jaw: Notes on the Language of Science Fiction* by Samuel R. Delany
49. *Finch* by Jeff VanderMeer
50. *The Social Network* by Aaron Sorkin
51. *Zero History* by William Gibson
52. *Luka and the Fire of Life* by Salman Rushdie
53. *By Night in Chile* by Roberto Bolaño
54. *Distant Star* by Roberto Bolaño
55. *Gone Case* by Dave Chua
56. *Amulet* by Roberto Bolaño
57. *Ceriph* no. 0 (litmag)
58. *Shark's Teeth* by T.A. Pratt (chapbook)
59. *Ceriph* no. 1 (litmag)
60. *Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Retreat (Season 8, Volume 6)* by Joss Whedon et al.
61. *Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Twilight (Season 8, Volume 7)* by Joss Whedon et al.
62. *Hellboy Volume 7: The Troll Witch and Others* by Mike Mignola et al.
63. *The Godfather of Kathmandu* by John Burdett
64. *Hellboy Volume 8: Darkness Calls* by Mike Mignola et al.
65. *Batman: R.I.P.* by Grant Morrison, Tony Daniel, et al.
66. *B.P.R.D. Volume 1: Hollow Earth and Other Stories* by Mike Mignola et al.
67. *B.P.R.D. Volume 2: The Soul of Venice & Other Stories* by Mike Mignola et al.
68. *The Windup Girl* by Paolo Bacigalupi
69. *Good-Bye Chunky Rice* by Craig Thompson
70. *Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life* by Bryan Lee O'Malley
71. *Scott Pilgrim vs. The World* by Bryan Lee O'Malley
72. *Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness* by Bryan Lee O'Malley
73. *Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together* by Bryan Lee O'Malley
74. *Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe* by Bryan Lee O'Malley
75. *Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour* by Bryan Lee O'Malley
76. *The Thing Around Your Neck* by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
77. *Animal Farm* by George Orwell
78. *Moxyland* by Lauren Beukes
79. *Astonishing X-Men Volume 1* by Joss Whedon & John Cassaday
80. *Ocean* by Warren Ellis, Chris Sprouse & Karl Story
81. *The Universe in Miniature in Miniature* by Patrick Somerville
82. *The Guild Volume 1* by Felicia Day & Jim Rugg
83. *Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays* by Zadie Smith
84. *Interworld* by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
85. *Gone Case: A Graphic Novel, Book 1* by Dave Chua & Koh Hong Teng

Previously: 2009 Books Read, 2008 Books Read, 2007 Books Read, 2006 Books Read

art's saving grace

2010-11-08T05:44:35Z

Tomorrow is November 9th, what would have been Jamie Bishop's 39th birthday. I haven't talked about Jamie in a while, because his untimely death is still as raw for me as it was three and a half years ago, but also because I was accused of using his murder and my connection with him to somehow vaguely further my writing career. This is of course a ridiculous notion, but as I've mentioned before, I'm now very aware of how egotistical and attention-seeking my public mourning of Jamie could have appeared to some.

So I cooled it for a while, at least online. But I've been thinking a lot about Jamie today, and celebrating his life, in a small way, by reading his father's amazing collection Brighten to Incandescence, for which Jamie provided the cover art and design (and an appearance in the author photo). Art was a huge part of Jamie's life, and one of the ways through which he defined himself. His portfolio website, memory39, no longer exists except in a broken fashion accessible only through The Wayback Machine, and this seems a terrible tragedy to me, akin to losing Jamie all over again.

A Google Image Search reveals some of the book covers that his art adorned (and a lot of completely unrelated images), but this is an incomplete picture of Jamie as an artist. He was highly influenced by mixed-media masters like Dave McKean, Cliff Nielsen, and Bill Sienkiewicz, coming across their work initially through comics. Jamie was a huge comic book geek; on my and Janet's visit to Blacksburg in 2007, I finally got to see his massive drawer filing system for his comics (I don't remember if Jamie built it himself, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had), with rolling racks that slid out on whisper-soft ball bearings. The Sandman was one of his all-time favorite series (he seemed inordinately proud to have the entire 75-issue run bagged up; it is my presumption that this is where he encountered McKean's art for the first time), as was Frank Miller's run on Daredevil. He loved comics, but I think he appreciated even more the fine art touch that these artists added to them.

The first time I visited my sister Kristin up in New York, ~~sometime in the early 2000s~~ in October 2001 (yes, just a month after 9/11), she took me to Forbidden Planet, which had about a thousand percent more comics, comics-related, and SF-related items than even the chain stores back in Raleigh. (This was, of course, before Graphic Novels got their own section in the bookstore.) As I was browsing around, mouth open, I spotted a paperback copy of Dustcovers, a collection of McKean's cover art for every issue of Sandman, printed on thick beautiful art paper, plus commentary by McKean and Neil Gaiman, and an eight-page meta-Sandman story. Though I'd seen (and bought) all of the collected volumes of Sandman in the science fiction section of my local Borders, I'd never seen this book before (I likely might have found it at my neighborhood comics shop, but I'd stopped going there years earlier).

I immediately bought the book, plus a set of McKean-illustrated postcards, and when I returned to North Carolina and next saw Jamie in Carrboro, presented the gifts to him. His face lit up as if I'd just given him precious treasure, and we spent much of the rest of that visit poring through the pages and talking about McKean's techniques, and what he might have done to get a particular effect. (I later bought a copy for myself, although I don't remember from where.) The postcards he ended up framing and displaying in his living room, which made me doubly happy each time I visited as I could see how much they meant to him.

His art style was influenced (in part) by Dave McKean, my writing style was influenced (in part) by Neil Gaiman, and so it felt only natural to collaborate the way those two great creators had. Jamie illustrated a number of my stories, some published professionally and others self-published, and the back-and-forth process as we discussed how to approach each piece felt natural and invigorating. He was not only a friend but an artistic soulmate.

As he worked on other projects, he'd sometimes email or call and complain about a part of a work that just wasn't coming together, or the lack of time to complete it, or a number of other things, but in the end, he would always finish the piece, on time, and to everyone's satisfaction. (I sometimes think that those missives were a way for him to work some things out verbally that he couldn't quite do in his head alone.)

Whatever his day job, he kept coming back to his art, the one place he truly felt at home, again and again, always refining, always improving. His later work (and I'm thinking specifically of "Passing for Human," "Thanatopsis," and "A Reverie for Mister Ray") was a quantum leap in style, subject matter, composition, and confidence from those earlier pieces I was exposed to at the Trinoc*con Art Show where we first met. He seemed to have finally found his "voice" as an artist, still wearing his influences on his sleeve, but also clearly producing a vision that was solely his.

As incredible as his late work is, he seemed to be on the cusp of true greatness. Steadily moving forward to something remarkable and awe-inspiring. To think that the world is now deprived of his future brilliance only adds to my depression. As does the fact that he had been accepted into the art school at Virginia Tech, ready to start classes in the summer of 2007; not content to rest on his talent, he saw the need for graduate study in VT's MFA program, and I imagine him looking so forward to the new exposure and knowledge to come, but which would be denied to him several months too soon.

And so I must be content (although a part of me knows I never can be completely) with the art that Jamie did leave behind. I page through the digital prints that he gave to me, fresh from his own printer. I pick up my copy of Brighten to Incandescence and remember all the little secrets he told me about the composition of the cover art. (I'll reveal just one: the besuited figure was taken from a photograph of Colin Powell; Jamie took a certain glee in giving the then-Secretary of State the head of a rat). My fingers touch his inscription on the book's blank frontispiece, and I still somehow feel connected to my friend and his talent.

Following are screen grabs from the index page of the now-defunct memory39 portfolio site (which was Flash-based, so I had to refresh it a bunch of times); they give a further indication of both Jamie's style and interests, in both illustration and photography. Although it must be stated that these images are blown up from the originals, and do not represent each piece in their entirety.

lunch with thubten chodron

2010-10-19T02:59:48Z

Yesterday, I was extremely fortunate to be able to join Janet, Anya, Janet's parents, and an American Buddhist named Kevin for lunch with Venerable Thubten Chodron. Long-suffering readers of these missives may remember how much of an influence Ven. Chodron has been on my spirtual life; it was her books that Janet passed on to me which introduced me to Buddhism and were a strong factor in convincing me to become a Buddhist myself; I see her as my guru, and was honored to take Refuge under her guidance.

So it was really cool to be able to share a meal with her and talk about all kinds of things, including teaching, fatherhood, and living in Singapore. What a wonderful gift.

Ven. Chodron also gave Anya a blessing which had her attention rapt.

Big thanks go to Raymond, my father-in-law, for providing such a great opportunity.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

anya is one

2010-10-14T23:35:25Z

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY!

LOVE YOU, MWAH!

the immersion book of sf

2010-10-12T02:38:01Z

I've been meaning to post about this since last month, but just haven't gotten the chance before now. It's been about three months since my last blog entry, which should come as an indication of just how damn busy I've been, both as a teacher and a daddy.

Anyway, this is just to let you all know that an anthology that I'm lucky to be a contributor for is now available. The Immersion Book of SF [Publisher | Amazon], edited by Carmelo Rafala, also boasts stories from Tanith Lee, Lavie Tidhar, Aliette de Bodard, Gareth Owens, Chris Butler, Gord Sellar, and others.

My story in the antho, "The Time Traveler's Son," was originally published as a tiny extremely-limited-edition book from Papaveria Press in December 2008, which has since sold out. So I'm glad that the story will be getting a wider audience with the release of The Immersion Book of SF. It's attracting some nice early attention:

"What I’m really interested in are stories like 'The Time Traveler's Son' by Jason Erik Lundberg. Ironically, this is the least 'speculative' of the bunch as it could be interpreted as either 'realistic' or science fictional, giving it that extra layer of engagement. What made 'The Time Traveler’s Son' work for me is the emotional investment it gives the reader, even when the narrative is told in short chunks."
--Charles Tan, World SF blog

"'The Time Traveller's Son' from Jason Erik Lundberg is another shorter piece, and another very good story. It tells a story across a lifetime, of an absentee father and the lie (perhaps) he told to his son, to lessen the heartbreak of his absence. It does well creating an air of uncertainty about what the real truth is, and paints a rather moving piece of fiction."
--Matthew Dent, Amazon.co.uk reader

"The Immersion Book of SF contains stories by many whose names will be familiar to fans of speculative fiction, with Aliette de Bodard's 'Father's Last Ride' and Jason Erik Lundberg's 'The Time Traveller's Son' vying for position as my favourite in the volume. Maybe I have father issues. Anyway, the first offers a ride that is as emotional as it is exhilarating, with lightskimmers providing a way into a story that's as beautiful as the auroras a daughter travels through. It's a satisfying read with characters to care for, just like Lundberg's which provides more than you think you're getting, resonating in a way that puts me in mind of an Auden poem. To say more is to diminish the story."
--Ray Cluley, Amazon.co.uk reader

Which, naturally, puts a smile on my face.

It was Wade's seventh birthday. There were cake and ice cream and presents in the backyard, and a colorful piñata shaped like a donkey, and twenty of Wade's friends from school, and his mom had even hired a clown, a lazy clown, and Wade could smell alcohol when the clown bent down and breathed, "Happy birthday." Crap at balloon animals, he was winded after blowing one up, and upon failing to twist or turn or knot it into a dog or giraffe or something, he would present the sausage of air and latex with a weak flourish, "It's a snake!"

Upstairs, in the house, Wade's dad finished packing. The lame clown forgotten and left to wheeze on a lawn chair and nip from a cheap silver flask, Wade asked his dad where he was going, why he wasn't down at the party.

"Important business, kiddo," said his dad. "Time traveling business. My first mission." He closed the suitcase and pointed out the window to the ‘84 Chevy Celebrity, bandage brown, rusted through, the fabric inside the roof coming unglued, hanging down, a drapery of obscuration.

"That's our car," Wade said.

"Oh no, kiddo, it's my time machine. I can chat with Marie Curie, or punch Hitler in the face, or have tea with an archaeopteryx. I can go anywhere I want, and anywhen."

"All your stuff is packed inside."

"It's a long trip. I may be gone for a while."

there and back again

2010-07-19T02:49:42Z

My latest contribution to The Daily Cabal went up Friday, called "There and Back Again", my none-too-subtle nod to Tolkien.

This installment concludes the series of YA flash pieces collectively called Looking Downward. If you would like to read the entire series, you can do so at the following links:

01: Mini Buddha Jump Over the Wall
02: The World, Under
03: Androcles Again
04: Look Into My Eyes, You're Under
05: Shiftless, Hopeless
06: Cricetinae's Paroxysm
07: Wind and Harmony
08: Dragons at Dawn
09: Goodnight Nobody
10: There and Back Again

At some point, I will be gathering all these separate pieces into one story, filling in the blank spots, smoothing out the transitions, and then sending it off into the world. If you enjoyed Anya's adventures in the Land of the Grey Dusk, please do let me know.

My next project for The Daily Cabal is another series of short shorts, but less sequentially connected than Looking Downward. It will be a 23-part linked narrative called Fragile, which will take a liberal interpretation of the song titles (but not the lyrics) of the masterful Nine Inch Nails double album The Fragile (which still remains my favorite NIN album). This is a concept I've been thinking about for a long time, although I previously thought it would take the form of a mosaic novel or collection of linked stories; I still may expand the project into such a form, but for right now, I want to get the ideas down, even if in such terse form as flash fiction. I hope you'll tune in.

in raleigh tomorrow!

2010-06-18T00:55:09Z

marrael and I will be in Raleigh tomorrow! We're planning to hit Quail Ridge and a few other places during the day, and we'll be having lunch at Dalat Oriental; peeps who would like to meet up for Vietnamese lunch, shoot me an email or a DM on Twitter.

Yay Raleigh!

pee tee em

2010-05-25T02:55:18Z

OMG, two blog posts in two days! Is this a trend? Yeah, probably not.

Today is Day One of my school's two-day Parent-Teacher Meeting, a marathon of talking to one parent after another, over and over, until my brain falls out. Or at least until 5:00, when I can go home; other teachers have to stay until 8 p.m., but I begged off the last three hours so I could get home and help with Anya. It'll be exhausting, and my bronchitis is starting to act up again, so I'm not exactly looking forward to the experience.

The nice thing is that the face-to-face meetings don't start until noon, which meant the chance to sleep in (but only a little; Anya woke at 5:30, demanding a diaper change and early breakfast, and then again at 7:30, so I didn't get to sleep in that much), but even more importantly some time to spend with my ladies this morning. I entertained Anya from 7:30 on, feeding her at 8:45, and Janet got up around 9:15 to give her a bit of solid food (bananas mixed with rice cereal, which Anya hated; she didn't spit it out, but made the funniest face of disgust I've ever seen).

I came in to school a little early to get some last minute things done, and I now have about an hour before the shebang starts. Wish me luck.

updatery: anya's recovery, solid foods, flying to the states

2010-05-24T13:54:28Z

Back in January (holy monkey, has it really been so long?), I blogged about Anya's cleft palette and the upcoming surgery to correct it. The palatoplasty was seven weeks ago, and those of you following me on Twitter got to read about the recovery both in the hospital and then later at home. It was a harrowing experience seeing my baby go for such major surgery, but she did extremely well. It took a long time to get a decent amount of fluids in her afterwards, which meant staying at KK Hospital two days longer than expected, but eventually she was cleared to come home.

The first few weeks were ... well, "nightmare" isn't really the right word, but they were exhausting and frustrating and stressful times. I had to go back to work, and Janet was having trouble coping by herself (Anya was still on a medicine regimen, and her diluted formula never seemed to be enough; Janet has more details at Paint Stains), and I was doing the best I could to help but had student marking pressing down on me, in addition to dozens of other work duties. Thankfully, Janet's father's sister flew down from Hong Kong and was able to help us tremendously to get over the worst of it (she's since gone back, but the next sister in line came to visit and help out too, and she's still here).

Anya was incredibly clingy for four weeks after the surgery, refusing to be put down in the crib, only falling asleep if someone was carrying her. It took her a long time to recover emotionally from the trauma of the surgery, longer than the physical recuperation. But at some point after Week 4, we were able to start putting her down, and it has gotten progressively better since. Janet was able to put her back on the sleep schedule Anya'd been on before the operation, and getting regular naps and sleeping longer at night did a world of good for her disposition, and all the rest of us as well.

She still has her cranky times, when she'll cry and cry and refuse to sleep and we have to go through a whole routine (which includes reading Goodnight Moon) to calm her down so she'll conk out. But for the most part, she's sleeping much better.

After the surgery, we had to feed her via syringe, squirting the food into her mouth, because she couldn't take a bottle (for fear of disturbing the stitches) and after one time of liking formula in a MagMag sippy-cup refused to take it from there anymore. But we've slowly been weaning her away from the syringes and relying on the MagMags more, and now she loves it. She's discovered how to create suction in her mouth now (something she couldn't do without a palette), and she hoovers down formula at an amazing rate.

The biggest development recently, however, is that we've started her on solid foods. We had to wait until the palette was pretty much healed, and decided last Thursday that she was ready. It's astonishing how well she's taken to it, trying lots of different combinations of both store-bought and homemade mush. Sweet potatoes and butternut squash seem to be the current favorites. She loves sitting in her high chair and eating at the dinner table along with the rest of us.

Anya's also been trying out lots of new sounds now that she can make them properly. Nothing terribly coherent at the moment, but you can tell she's trying to have a conversation. Janet's pretty sure that she said "MUM MUM" last week as Janet was bringing in her food (mum mum is slang here for food, and Janet's dad refers to it that way every time Anya has a feeding). She could have been referring to Janet (mum), but it's more likely she was excited about lunch. No real repetitions yet, so we can't confirm it as a first word/phrase, but it's still exciting.

But the best thing is her smile, which has returned big time. The first four or five weeks of recovery, she was very serious all the time; still in pain and discomfort, and dealing with this weird new feeling in her mouth, and possibly feeling a bit betrayed that we would put her through it. But she's smiling regularly again now, and it just melts me every time. I still have a helluva time getting her to laugh, but that'll come too.

This is the last week of classes for Term 2, and I have some work-related things through Wednesday next week, but after that, for the rest of June, I'm on holiday. And because Anya's doing so well, we're all three going to take a trip to South Carolina for a bit of a family reunion. My mom was able to fly to Singapore last December, but my dad and sister have never seen Anya outside of Skype calls, and the rest of my side of the family has only seen pictures. My grandmother and aunt will fly in from Illinois, my sister from NYC, another aunt will drive up from Columbia, and there's a possibility that my godmother might come up from Atlanta.

We'll be in the States from 8-22 June, and though there are lots of family things planned, I have a desperate desire to drive up to Raleigh for a day trip. I miss my hometown like you wouldn't believe, and it would sadden me to no end to be so close and not come back for a bit. A trip to Quail Ridge Books is quite likely, but other than that, I have no specific plans. Raleigh peeps who would like to meet up, let me know in the comments, and when we have a more definite date and time, we can work something out. My parents have agreed to take care of Anya for that day, so it'll be just me and Janet, but it would be lovely to see some of y'all again.

ARCs: digital vs dead tree

2010-04-11T08:57:24Z

John Scalzi's latest blog entry, "eARCs: Big Fat PublicityFail," points to a new tactic Eos Books is attempting to save money on printing and shipping Advance Reader Copies of their books to reviewers: a full-color card with book cover on one side, and scratch-off download code on the other for an eARC of the book.

Now, unrelated to the complicated process just to download the book (which is a bit boneheaded) and to the other publisher he mentions that releases eARCs with a 30-day DRM expiry date, after which, it is assumed, one can no longer read the file anymore (which is even more boneheaded), what I want to talk about is another point that Scalzi brings up: eARCs themselves. I'm not one to criticize eBooks or eARCs in general; I think that they're fantastic ways to promote and disseminate books along a great distance. However, as a reviewer, I can't stand them.

I'm lucky in that I've been reviewing books for about eight years, and have done so for a few notable publications, which means I have a bit more clout than a n00b reviewer just starting out, which also means that very nice folks at publishers like Tor and Subterranean are actually inclined to send me physical dead tree books in the post, even all the way to Singapore. It's not cheap to do so, but they know that I can be counted on to review the book in a venue that will guarantee eyeballs, and there will be some level of enthusiasm about the book because I requested an ARC in the first place (my steadfast rule as a reviewer: I only review books that I feel have merit and will enjoy on some level).

Smaller presses have asked if they could send me eARCs rather than a physical copy of the book, for the reason above: posting expense. This is understandable. When Janet and I published A Field Guide to Surreal Botany in 2008, I sent PDF review copies to any blogger who expressed an interest, which, looking at my records, was about 35 people. However, I was also very fortunate to have Merrie Haskell in the US acting as my North American Distributor, and so I sent out almost 50 physical review copies (which were not ARCs, but the way; these were the final printed books) to newspapers, journals, and high-profile bloggers. I included the download code along with the physical review copies so that the reviewers could also take advantage of the digital version.

Looking back now at both lists -- reviewers and bloggers -- there is a much larger throughput on the reviewer side, meaning that a higher percentage of reviewers than bloggers actually reviewed the book. And the biggest reason for this ~~has to be~~ might possibly be that the reviewers could actually hold the book in their hands and enjoy its aesthetic qualities; this is of course an anecdotal conclusion, but it makes a lot of sense, especially for a book like Surreal Botany, which begs to be caressed. ~~They reviewed the book because they had the physical copy.~~

Same goes for me as a reviewer. I much prefer to have an actual physical copy of the book in my hands. I do plenty of reading on the computer screen, but it takes enormous effort and concentration to read an entire novel on my computer. As Cory Doctorow states: "The cognitive style of the computer is different from the cognitive style of the novel." There are an infinite number of distractions that my computer loves to inundate me with, to the point where I just cannot sink into that cozy narrative space that lying on the couch with the book in my hands allows me to do.

So if a publisher insists on only sending me a PDF for one of their titles, I'm very up front about my likelihood of reviewing their book. I appreciate that they sent me the file for review, but amidst all of the other things on my computer clamoring for my attention, not to mention the dozens of actual paper books in my current To-Be-Read pile, I'm less likely to actually read the eBook. Sad, but true.

Here's the list of eARCs or otherwise free eBooks that I've accumulated in the last couple of years (in alphabetical order by author's surname), almost all of which I have not yet read [ETA: not all of these books I intended to review, but many of them I did]:

A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham
Seeds of Change ed. by John Joseph Adams
Grey by Jon Armstrong
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Windup Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi
My Own Kind of Freedom by Steven Brust
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull*
Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods by Frank Darabont
Content by Cory Doctorow
Labyrinth Summer by Rudi Dornemann
"Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse" by Andy Duncan
Die! Vampire! Die! by Hal Duncan
Surveillance Self-Defense International by Peter Eckersley
Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet no. 22 ed. by Gavin J. Grant et al.
Dubliners by James Joyce*
Butcher Bird by Richard Kadrey
The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush by Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Realms of Fantasy vol. 16 no. 1 ed. by Shawna McCarthy
Why I Love Bees: A Case Study in Collective Intelligence Gaming by Jane McGonigal
The Magician of Lhasa by David Michie
In the Midnight Hour by Patti O'Shea
The Potemkin Mosaic: First Dream by Mark Teppo
Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest*
True Names by Benjamin Rosenbaum and Cory Doctorow
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia
Orthodox Chinese Buddhism by Chan Master Sheng Yen
Dogland by Will Shetterly
Spaceman Blues by Brian Francis Slattery
Nefertiti Was Here by Jasmina Tesanovic
The Disunited States of America by Harry Turtledove
Secret Lives & The Situation by Jeff VanderMeer
Farthing by Jo Walton
Starfish by Peter Watts
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
Speaking Treason Fluently & White Like Me by Tim Wise
Shimmer no. 10 ed. by Beth Wodzinski
Orphans of Chaos by John C. Wright
The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It by Jonathan L. Zittrain
The Last Book by Zoran Zivkovic

* I have read these books already in print form.

Lots of great books, yet they've been languishing on my hard drive for months, if not years, unread. The Last Book is the only book by Zoran Zivkovic that I have not yet read by him, for the simple reason that I don't have a physical copy, and I'm the webmaster for his website, fer crissakes!

And here are the physical ARCs that are currently waiting for me to review for SF Site or other venues:

Makers by Cory Doctorow
Clementine by Cherie Priest
A Short History of Fantasy by Farah Mendelsohn & Edward James
Technologized Desire by D. Harlan Wilson
Imagination/Space by Gwyneth Jones
The Well-Built City Trilogy (The Physiognomy, Memoranda and The Beyond) by Jeffrey Ford

Guess which ones I'll be getting to first.

library blogging

2010-04-09T05:48:01Z

This school year, I've been writing and maintaining the blog for our school library: Hwa Chong Institution Kong Chian Library. It was originally intended to focus more on Library events and Singaporean literature, but has expanded to include public library news in the US, book reviews, e-readers, and lots of other stuff related to books and reading. I think I tweeted about this (which means Facebook friends who obsessively check my status also knew about it, you know who you are), but I just realized that I never mentioned it here at LundBlog.

So here's me mentioning it. :-j

As an email acquaintance noticed recently, I haven't blogged here regularly in a long time, mostly because of simple lack of time thanks to both teaching and childrearing. But the Library blog is justified through my work with the school library, and so I feel like the time updating it is well-spent.

So if you're interested, go give it a look-see. I may try to sqirt non-school-related posts over here if I can figure out how; would anyone know?

polyphony update

2010-03-27T04:38:34Z

W00t, yay, and huzzah! The Polyphony series has been saved!!!

According to Deb Layne, even with the eleventh-hour push, she still didn't get her target number of preorders, however she did get enough, combined with sales of other Wheatland Press titles, that she can afford to publish Polyphony 7.

Again: w00t, yay, and huzzah!

Official publication date is July 1, 2010. Once again, you can preorder the book directly from Wheatland Press at the Polyphony 7 page.

last ditch attempt to save polyphony

2010-03-18T03:46:16Z

As I write this, a contractor and his crew are attempting to repair and patch up the damage done to our bedroom walls done by another contractor and crew when they completely overhauled our aircon system two days ago. (The units in the living room and master bedroom had failed, only the unit in Anya's room was working, and just barely, so we had to replace the whole shebang, including condenser and all condensate piping.) For the second time this week, Janet and Anya have fled for Janet's parents' house so that the baby might have a bit of peace and quiet and be able to nap well today. It looks like the workers are doing things intelligently, so I hope they don't take the entire day again.

Of course, all of that is tangential to what I want to say, which is that Deb Layne has written an update on the effort to save the Polyphony series (specifically the publication of Polyphony 7):

We are at just over half the number of preorders I said I wanted in order to proceed (225 was the magic number). Given that I first posted this announcement and plea back in November, this is pretty pathetic no matter how bad the economy is. The numbers that keep floating around in my head are the following: During a typical submission period of 45 days we receive 650 submissions. During a last gasp desperation sales period of over three months, we received fewer than one fourth that many orders. Yeah, Polyphony attracts four times as many writers as readers. I'm inclined to pull the plug.

But, I will give it until Friday night.

While this is not completely unexpected, it is incredibly disappointing. Back in November, I reposted Deb's call to action and added some thoughts of my own on Polyphony as a series:

One: The Polyphony series is perhaps my favorite anthology series of all time. It was the first time that I could see a concrete example of what was just beginning to be called "slipstream" fiction, and each volume consistently provided phenomenal stories from some of my favorite writers as well as others whom I'd never heard of before. I discovered Vandana Singh in P1 and Dora Goss in P2, both of whom went on to the top my list of favorite short story writers. The possibility that the series may not continue fills me with utter disappointment and bitter sadness.

Two: Polyphony 7 contains my story "Strange Mammals," which imho is one of my best stories to date (though the author is never the best judge of his or her work). I really want it to see publication, and furthermore, I really want it to see publication in Polyphony 7. Ever since the series began, it has been a goal of mine to sell a story to Deb and Jay Lake; it wasn't until Jay left and Forrest Aguirre took over co-editing duties that I accomplished this goal (coincidence? You'll have to ask Jay :-j), and this was one of the highlights of my writing career thus far. When Deb emailed that P7 might not come out, I was depressed beyond words.

If, like me, you have gotten something out of one or several (or all) of the volumes in the Polyphony anthology series, please preorder Polyphony 7. You will receive in return another fantastic collection of slipstream fiction, and you'll be helping to ensure that the series does not end prematurely.

Here is the table of contents for Polyphony 7, a lineup that deserves to see the light of publication:

The Bravest Girl I Ever Knew by Howard Waldrop
Dr. Black at the Red Demon Temple by Brendan Connell
The Snow Queen by Chris Clarke
Strange Mammals by Jason Erik Lundberg
The Afterlife of Sorrow by Mikal Trimm
Breaker of Thresholds by George Zebrowski
The Seven Deadly Motels by Bruce Holland Rogers
The Monster in the Field by Steve Rasnic Tem
There is Something So Quiet and Empty Inside of You that it Must be Precious by Ben Peek
A Problem in Five Clocks by Stephen Bush
Bear in Contradictory Landscape by David J. Schwartz
Automata by Eric Schaller
The Klepsydra by Micheala Roessner
Captain Kid by Kristin Livdahl
Loose Ends by Jerry Oltion
The Possibility of Love by Stephanie Campisi
Grief-Stepping to the Widower's Waltz by Ken Scholes
A Sip from the Cup of Enlightenment by Sarah Totton
The Dust and the Red by Darin C. Bradley
A Joy Forever by Celia Marsh
The Heart of the Rail by Mark Teppo
Mirages by Eric M. Witchey
Avoiding the Cold War by Josh Rountree

I can't tell you how extremely proud I am that my story is included amongst those by such fantastic writers and friends. This is one of the best tables of contents for an original anthology that I've seen in recent memory. I am so damned excited to see this book actually exist. It is important that this book actually exist.

When Deb asked the contributors to pass around the original call to action, she also mentioned that she didn't want us to preorder the book ourselves; we were owed contributor copies, and I'm pretty sure she didn't want the bad taste left in her mouth that comes with asking contributors to buy their own copies. However, she didn't say anything about us buying the other volumes. :-j

So even though I haven't pre-ordered P7, I just ordered all six of the previous volumes. (I previously owned #1-4, but had to sell them before the move to Singapore.) You don't need to do so, but it is more vital than ever to preorder Polyphony 7, and you've all been given two more days to do so.

Please.

six and one

2010-03-13T04:44:03Z

Six years ago today, Janet and I got married. We've certainly had our ups and downs in that time, but there's no one I'd rather have shared them with. She challenges me intellectually and creatively, and encourages me to be a better person. I continue to be grateful that Janet is in my life, and I love her more and more every day.

One month from today, Anya will go to KK Hospital for the surgery to repair her cleft palate. It's a day I'm not exactly looking forward to (my poor baby going under the knife!), but I know that after it's over, she'll have fewer problems and a much smaller chance of getting ear infections. That week of surgery and recovery will be a rough one, and I'll be taking much of it off from work, but after it's over we'll be able to get on with our lives.

review: match fixer by neil humphreys

2010-02-19T06:29:59Z

Match Fixer by Neil Humphreys
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Neil Humphreys and I have quite a lot in common. We're both writers, we're both ang mohs who've lived in Singapore (though he now lives in Australia), we're both new dads of daughters. He and I have spoken briefly on Twitter and Facebook, and I've enjoyed his writing. His nonfiction is funny and self-deprecating, much like Dave Barry. Also like Dave Barry, Humphreys' first foray into fiction is a crime novel, and when it was released, I snapped it up.

Match Fixer takes place within the S-League world of football, something that I know virtually nothing about, and, up until now, have not cared to. Yet despite not giving a jot for local Singaporean soccer, I was riveted by this book. It's less about the sport itself than the massive gambling, both within the country and outside its borders, associated with the game. It's indeed true that Singaporeans love to gamble; the reports from the limited opening of the new casino here reveal a subculture rife with addiction and debt. And Humphreys probes that world with a deft touch, bringing to the page a cast of characters including football stars from England, reporters, magazine publishers, senior narcotics officers, team owners, gangsters, and undercover police.

The result is a crime novel that sings like Elmore Leonard's best. The plot is twisty enough to invite surprises, but thick enough with ambition and betrayal that the characters live in the mind separate from the page. Humphreys' ear for Singlish (the local staccato patois that includes Malay and Chinese dialects, as well as its own lexical logic) makes the dialogue feel snappy and very authentic.

Match Fixer is a thoroughly enjoyable read, and Humphreys has set himself up as a worthy successor to Leonard himself.