Monthly Archives: April 2010

Q&A

Posted by Christopher Barzak in Blogging, Books, Japan, SF, The Love We Share Without Knowing, Writing

Joseph Mallozzi hosts a book of the month club over at his very popular blog.  This month The Love We Share Without Knowing is the selection.  Joe posted a great response to the book and then opened the comments section up for questions from his fellow readers.  Today my responses went up.  We talked about all sorts of things:  genre writing versus literary, Japan, my life there, the making of my book.  If you’re interested you should teleport over to Joe’s original post on the book, and then move onto the Q&A post.

Thanks again, Joe.  It was fun!

A step up

Posted by Christopher Barzak in Interstitiality, Recommendations, Writing

According to Jeff VanderMeer on The Best of 2009:

“Interfictions 2 edited by Delia Sherman & Christopher Barzak was a significant step up in quality from the first volume. Contributors included Lavie Tidhar, Brian Francis Slattery, Peter M. Ball, Alan DeNiro, M. Rickert, and Theodora Goss. Intended to showcase interstitial fiction, this volume also featured some of the most experimental and formally daring genre fiction of the year. In this respect,Interfictions 2 not only did a fine job of presenting interesting stories, it filled the gap left by the erratic publishing schedule of the Polyphony anthology series, while also seeming more focused and accessible. In a generally conservative publishing environment, the Interfictions series now serves as an important bastion for new writers, both as an anthology with an open reading period and for its encouragement, like such online venues as Strange Horizons and Clarkesworld, of risk-taking. Such safe harbors are essential.”

Pretty cool.  I like the step up, and the recognition of a necessity for spaces to display risk-taking fiction.

Next year: a reprise

Posted by Christopher Barzak in Books, Recommendations, Young Adult

Following on the heels of the Beastly Bride anthology mentioned in my last post, fabulous editor Ellen Datlow announced on her blog today that one of her and Terri Windling’s new anthologies has been completed and turned in to their editor at HarperCollins:

Teeth

Table of Contents

Introduction by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow

Things to Know About Being Dead by Genevieve Valentine

All Smiles by Steve Berman

Gap Year by Christopher Barzak

Bloody Sunrise by Neil Gaiman

Flying by Delia Sherman

Vampire Weather by Garth Nix

Late Bloomer by Suzy McKee Charnas

The List of Definite Endings by Kaaron Warren

Best Friends Forever by Cecil Castellucci

Sit the Dead by Jeffrey Ford

Sunbleached by Nathan Ballingrud

Baby by Kathe Koja

In the Future When All’s Well by Catherynne M. Valente

Transition by Melissa Marr

History by Ellen Kushner

The Perfect Dinner Party by Cassandra Clare & Holly Black

Slice of Life by Lucius Shepard

My Generation by Emma Bull

Why Light? by Tanith Lee

She’s guessing it’ll be out in 2011.  I can’t wait to read all of the stories.  It was a blast to write mine for this anthology.  I didn’t think I had a vampire tale in me.  It’s definitely not a typical vampire story, but it’s turned out to be one of my favorites to write because of that.

Beastly indeed

Posted by Christopher Barzak in Books, Recommendations, Young Adult

I mentioned last year that the newest volume of the mythic fiction series edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling would be released this coming spring, and here we are, a couple of days after its release date.  The Beastly Bride.  This is a great anthology of fiction for young adults and adults alike.  Here’s a description from editor Terri Windling:

The fourth volume in the Mythic Fiction series contains beastly brides, animal bridegrooms, shape-shifters, were-creatures, and other stories of animal-human transformation from world mythology. The authors who have contributed to the book are Christopher Barzak, Peter Beagle, Steve Berman, Richard Bowes, Carol Emshwiller, Jeffrey Ford, Gregory Frost, Nan Fry, Jeanine Hall Gailey, Terra Gearheart, Hiromi Goto, Ellen Kushner, Tanith Lee, Steward Moore, Shweta Narayan, Johanna Sinisalo, Lucius Shepard, Delia Sherman, Midori Snyder, E. Catherine Tobler, Jane Yolen, and Marly Youmans.

My own story certainly has a shape changer of sorts, but it also investigates the other half of the anthology’s title, bride, by addressing that most recently still (unfortunately) touchy subject of a marriage between a same sex couple.  Beastly indeed.

If you pick it up, I hope you enjoy the stories.