Well, I must’ve impressed them the first time, because the dudes at The Functional Nerds podcast asked me if I’d be interested in appearing on another episode. Obviously, I said yes. Alongside myself, John Anealio and Patrick Hester is Dan Goodman, from Literary Musings. The website has a nice write-up of the things we cover in the episode:

In the 23rd episode of The Functional Nerds, Patrick Hester and John Anealio are joined by returning 3rd Nerd Aidan Moher and our youngest recruit to date – Dan Goodman! This week, we chat about NASA, crowdsourcing wake up music for astronauts, digital distribution, Stargate Atlantis, creative commons licensing, Cory Doctorow, free tv, pay tv, bit torrent, record companies, the music industry, the long tail, publishing, ebooks, ereaders, Caprica, the channel formerly known as Scifi, Stargate Unierse, Haven, Jeff Vandemeer, A Dribble of Ink, Literary Musings and bandcamp.com.

Also, I’ve got a couple of pieces of very A Dribble of Ink related news at the end of the podcast, so if you’re interested in hearing about some of my new projects (with some very cool folk), give it a listen.

You can also find my first appearance on Episode 009 of The Functional Nerds.

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Jeff Vandermeer, World Fantasy Award Nominated author of FinchJeff Vandermeer needs little introduction. Between his fiction (he’s just been nominated for another World Fantasy Award), his work on various anthologies or his popular blog, Ecstatic Days, it’s hard to miss Vandermeer’s presence when you step into the online Speculative Fiction community. With the recent release of The Third Bear, a collection of short fiction from Tachyon Publications, Jeff and I decided it would be a great time to sit down and talk about his latest project, the online reviewing sphere, sticks, awards, writing and, just maybe, what other projects he’s got up his sleeve.

It’s a long one, but Jeff pushes me around a little, so grab some popcorn, get comfy and enjoy.

The Interview

Jeff! Welcome to A Dribble of Ink and thanks for dropping by! Any opening words to set the mood?

    “I will smack your head from your body and pull your arteries out through your neck bones.” Oh, sorry, that was the third bear saying hi.

*gulp* The tone has been suitably set, I think.

    Behave yourself, sir.

Your most recent project is a short fiction collection called The Third Bear, recently released by Tachyon Publications. What can The Third Bear, and the stories it contains, tell us, right now, about you as a writer, both professionally and creatively?

The Third Bear by Jeff Vandermeer

    I’ve spent a great deal of effort not explaining anything about the stories in the collection—no story notes, no introduction, just a sparse afterword. It’s not really up to me to say what it tells readers about me or my fiction. For me, it was just important to have a tight, complex collection that entertained but also didn’t compromise.
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The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Reviews have started cropping up, and the release is just around the corner. Few authors have come around that can match the impact had on the genre by George R.R. Martin, Terry Goodkind or Robert Jordan, but Brandon Sanderson (with the marketing push behind him, his ties to Wheel of Time, the accessibility of his work, and, well, his popularity) seems poised to join them with the release of The Way of Kings, the first book in The Stormlight Archives.

Will he become the next Frank Herbert, and bathe in pools of hot women and gold dubloons? Or the next Robert Newcomb, subjugated to the lowest levels of hell for not being able to live up to the grandiose quotes plastering the covers of his novels? Only time will tell, but Sanderson seems to succeed at everything he sets out to accomplish. The ball’s certainly in his court.

Tor Books has released Chapters Twelve and Thirteen on their website, to go alongside the Prologue and Chapters One through Six, Nine and Eleven.

In Great Waters by Kit WhitfieldFrom Locus Online:

Novel

  • Blood of Ambrose, James Enge (Pyr)
  • The Red Tree, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc)
  • The City & The City, China Miéville (Macmillan UK/ Del Rey)
  • Finch, Jeff VanderMeer (Underland)
  • In Great Waters, Kit Whitfield (Jonathan Cape UK/Del Rey)

Novella

  • The Women of Nell Gwynne’s, Kage Baker (Subterranean)
  • “The Lion’s Den”, Steven Duffy (Nemonymous Nine: Cern Zoo)
  • The Night Cache, Andy Duncan (PS)
  • “Sea-Hearts”, Margo Lanagan (X6 )
  • “Everland”, Paul Witcover (Everland and Other Stories)

Short Story

  • “I Needs Must Part, the Policeman Said”, Richard Bowes (F&SF 12/09)
  • “The Pelican Bar”, Karen Joy Fowler (Eclipse Three)
  • “A Journal of Certain Events of Scientific Interest from the First Survey Voyage of the Southern Waters by HMS Ocelot, As Observed by Professor Thaddeus Boswell, DPhil, MSc, or, A Lullaby”, Helen Keeble (Strange Horizons 6/09)
  • “Singing on a Star”, Ellen Klages (Firebirds Soaring)
  • “The Persistence of Memory, or This Space for Sale”, Paul Park (Postscripts 20/21: Edison’s Frankenstein )
  • “In Waiting”, R.B. Russell (Putting the Pieces in Place)
  • “Light on the Water”, Genevieve Valentine (Fantasy 10/09)

Anthology

  • Poe, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Solaris)
  • Songs of The Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance, George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois, eds. (Subterranean/Voyager)
  • Exotic Gothic 3: Strange Visitations, Danel Olson, ed. (Ash-Tree)
  • Eclipse Three, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade)
  • American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny: From Poe to the Pulps/From the 1940s to Now, Peter Straub, ed. (Library of America)
  • The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology, Gordon Van Gelder, ed. (Tachyon)

Collection

  • We Never Talk About My Brother, Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon)
  • Fugue State, Brian Evenson (Coffee House)
  • There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (Penguin)
  • Northwest Passages, Barbara Roden (Prime)
  • Everland and Other Stories, Paul Witcover (PS)
  • The Very Best of Gene Wolfe/The Best of Gene Wolfe, Gene Wolfe (PS /Tor)

Artist

  • John Jude Palencar
  • John Picacio
  • Charles Vess
  • Jason Zerrillo
  • Sam Weber

Special Award – Professional

  • Peter & Nicky Crowther for PS Publishing
  • Ellen Datlow for editing anthologies
  • Hayao Miyazaki for Ponyo
  • Barbara & Christopher Roden for Ash-Tree Press
  • Jonathan Strahan for editing anthologies
  • Jacob & Rina Weisman for Tachyon Publications

Special Award – Non-Professional

  • John Berlyne for Powers: Secret Histories
  • Neil Clarke, Cheryl Morgan, & Sean Wallace for Clarkesworld
  • Susan Marie Groppi for Strange Horizons
  • John Klima for Electric Velocipede
  • Bob Colby, B. Diane Martin, David Shaw, and Eric M. Van for Readercon
  • Ray Russell & Rosalie Parker for Tartarus Press

The Life Achievement Awards will be released in the coming weeks in a separate announcement.

It’s nice to see some new names on the list. Particularily, I’m interested in In Great Waters by Kit Whitfield, a novel I wasn’t aware of before it’s nomination, but that sounds wonderful and which I’ll be purchasing soon. An equal standout for me is Blood of Ambrose, but for an opposite reason: I wasn’t much a fan of Enge’s novel. Best of all, I’ve got a whole slew of new short fiction to wade through, which is always something to look forward to.

Congratulations to all those nominated!

Anything in particular stand out from the list for you? If you could suggest one item, from any list among the nominations, which would it be?