Joe Abercrombie on If You're Just Joining Us

Jon Armstrong continues his series of interviews with John W Campbell Award Finalists with this chat with Joe Abercrombie, author of a sudden trilogy of books: The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged and The Last Argument of Kings. He talks about being funny, his mum and dad, on being stabbed in the face with a cheese grater, about thinking men's savages and the shiny fantasy approach to violence.

This young man has done quite well for himself, as you'll see ample evidence of if you wander over to his website. I encourage you to wander over, because he's always amusing. Got a gift for the humor, he does. (Caveat - you must promise that'll you'll wander back this way before long, too.)

Maya Calypso Durham...

...is nine years old today. Geez... Are you kidding me? This young lady is my daughter! (Said with nine years worth of awe at that fact.) She is as lovely in person as looks in this photo...

What I did to deserve the family I have escapes me. I don't know. Blessed by whomever does the blessing, I guess. I'm not sure how I got them, but I'm doing my best to be worthy of them now. Maybe I got them on credit, now I'm chipping away at the monthly statements - happily.

Maya was born in Scotland. We lived in the very small village of Forneth at the time, in Perthshire. (Go find that on a map - if you can!) I'm talking sheep and rabbits here, wonderful views, turnips and rape seed flowers (which bloom brilliant yellow). My in laws lived just down the road, around the bend, and my father in law, the poet and novelist and naturalist J Laughton Johnston, picked up the old quill and penned a few words to commemorate the occasion. The poem is included below.

Should you be inclined to read it due note that Laughton was writing from the Shetland Isles, where he was at the time of Maya's birth and where he and Patricia now live. Also note that my family is from the Caribbean, Trinidad in particular - hence the Calypso in Maya's name and the mention in this poem...

Maya (2.7.99)

The Flags are flying for Maya,

Yellow above the stiff green blades

around the mill at Bousta.

Overhead another raingoose rides the hypotenuse

and beyond the skerries and the tirricks

Brilliant white birds fold themselves into origami darts,

hurtle to the sea

and re-emerge as fish-stuffed gannets.


I look out over the Bay of St Magnus

And wonder what parallels, if any,

There might be between these North Sea islands

and those of the Caribbean?

What a hanself you have been given,

such a harvest of far-flung seed.


Maya,

who can look out at seabirds from so many shores

and call each one - home.


J Laughton Johnston Bousta July 1999

(Next year, on Sage's birthday, I'll post the poem Grandpa wrote about Sage as well.)

Some French Acacia Material - Glimpse Of The Cover?...

Like I've said before, the author is often the last to get a glimpse of anything. You know, I've still never held a copy of the Russian edition of Pride of Carthage, and that was published a couple years ago. (At least I think it was.) The newest incarnation of this dynamic is that I've just learned that French reviewers/bloggers are receiving arcs (advanced reading copies) of Acacia! Lucky for them, I guess, but no such luck for me. My friend Emmanuel at Elbakin.net clued me in, and he sent me a scan of some of the promotional material that came with it... (Tis' clickable.)

Emmanuel assures me that not many books get arcs in France (especially in fantasy), so it's another good sign my publisher, Le Pré aux Clercs, is behind the book. But will the French readership get behind it as well?

By the way, is that a glimpse of the cover I see in the upper left corner? I guess so, but I also know that they were rethinking whatever their early ideas on the cover was, so I won't swear it's going to look anything like that. We'll see..

Back From Angel Island

Back from Angel Island State Park now. We had a really great time. It was an awesome little trip. Backpacking through SF was amusing, riding the ferry out was good fun, and the island itself was just perfect for a three-day stint. I've done a lot of camping, but never in quite this setting: at a primitive site overlooking a busy shipping lane, with Alcatraz in swimming distance, with the San Francisco skyline as a backdrop and the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate at either side of the horizon. That was our view.

We hiked in about a mile and half, backpacks and all, and spent most of the second day walking the five mile perimeter road around the island. What's so unusual about the place is that it's an unspoiled collage of historical ruins from several time periods: 19th century barracks, early twentieth century immigration stations, quarantine areas, cold war military batteries, not to mention the Native American history that predates it all. By "unspoiled" I actually just mean that the ruins dot the island like ghost towns, decaying, haunted, so very quiet. There's something about the silence and the emptiness of the spaces that makes the connection with the place's history tangible in a way that no museum or complete reconstruction or reenactment could. It's like you're walking on sacred ground, across earth and through buildings with memories.

The kids felt it, too. On their own impulse, they couldn't help but tell tales of murder and hauntings, of escaped prisoners that lived on yet among the echoing halls. They just felt it.

This is not to say it was morbid. We were surrounded by life and movement and lights in the evening. (Ah, the view...)

I feel like mentioning as well that part of the joy of it was just being with my family without outside stimulus or interruption. We played many card games, read and told stories. I'd forgotten - and bear in mind that I'm actually home often and get to spend a lot of time with my family - just how completely wonderful it is to have belly laughs inspired by nothing other than the comedy that springs out of conversations with the ones you love. (A lot of the humor was Sage inspired. The boy has absolutely no poker face!)

If you'd like to see some photos you can check out the snaps at our family blog, Girl Cat Snoozing. (The two photos here I stole from over there, but there are a few more, as well.) My wife, Gudrun, is into experimenting with her camera, hence the strange effects...

Just What The Hell Is Wrong With Us?

That's a question Richard K Morgan asked a while back in a rather heated article about backbiting factionalism in Sci-Fi and Fantasy. If you've been reading my posts for a while you've heard me say lovely things about my fellow spec-fic writers. Things are good. I like these people. They like me, it seems. But that may be a new arrival's rosy-eyed view of things.

If you've visited here in the past you may also know that I respect Mr. Morgan as a writer. I dig what he does. I'm interested in what he has to say, and I'm aware that I'll be thinking about his complaints in this essay often as I navigate my upcoming sci-fi/fantasy events (ReaderCon in July and Denvention in August).

Anyway, here's the post if you're interested. Let me know what you think...

Angel Island

Hi. Early in the AM here in Fresno. Just writing to say that I'm off camping for a few days at Angel Island State Park. Should be interesting. We have to walk through downtown San Francisco with our backpacks on to get the ferry out to the island.

I've got a new mini-cassette tape handy, so I've every intention of having lots of good plot ideas, lines of dialogue, descriptive flourishes recorded over the next few days. Work on the book will continue! So it's not a vacation. Not completely, at least...

Mary Robinette Kowal on NASA and Ball Gowns

The wonderful Jon Armstrong has been kind enough to invite his fellow (yes - he's in the running for this thing, with his debut novel Grey) John W Campbell Award Nominees to do podcast interviews for his show If You're Just Joining Us.

Mary Robinette Kowal was the first up. She talks about Ms Piggy's lack of moving eyelids and an embarrassing exhibition of puppet self-love, among other things. Listen here.

Is this an act of camaraderie, or is Jon trying to find ways to embarrass us publicly?...

I'm not asking that question seriously at all. Jon's clearly a great guy, another one of these individuals that makes you glad to be writing in this loosely inclusive genre.

Parallax and Kindred Awards

(With just a hint of self-interest...) I wanted to remind folks that the Carl Brandon Society is now accepting nominations to award books published in 2007. You can learn more about the society on their website, but some highlights are as follows.

Their Mission...

"The mission of the Carl Brandon Society is to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the production of and audience for speculative fiction."

That's a good mission. It'll take vision to achieve it, though. Their vision...

"We envision a world in which speculative fiction, about complex and diverse cultures from writers of all backgrounds, is used to understand the present and model possible futures; and where people of color are full citizens in the community of imagination and progress."

I dig that. I think, actually, it's near the heart of what I tried to do with Acacia. Or... it's near one of the hearts. I'd like to think Acacia is chock full of hearts. Here's how they describe the two awards...

"The Carl Brandon Parallax Award is given to works of speculative fiction created by a person of color. Nominees must provide a brief statement self-identifying as a person of color; creators unwilling to do so will not be considered for this award. This Award includes a $1000 cash prize.

The Carl Brandon Kindred Award is given to any work of speculative fiction dealing with issues of race and ethnicity; nominees may be of any racial or ethnic group. This Award includes a $1000 cash prize."

It may take a while for the winners to be announced. Actually, I'm not sure what the time frame is at all. I know that the winners for books published in 2005 were Walter Mosley for 47 and Susan Vaught for Stormwitch, but the winners for books published in 2006 have yet to announced... No worries, though. Patience is a virtue.

So, if you're inclined to get me in the running you can do so HERE. I believe you'd find the nominating process is easy, just a short form. By the way, I'd encourage you to nominate other writers as well. Awards - even awards with a specific focus like this - can miss people. So don't let that happen!

French Acacia Release Date and Acacia Recommended by... Orson Scott Card - in French?

I've just learned that the release date for the French version of Acacia will be October 16th. I'm really looking forward to that. One can never know how a book is going to do at home or abroad, but so far my French publisher has expressed much enthusiasm for the book. As I understand it, Acacia is the fall book on the list, the one that'll be getting the biggest push. Love that. Here's hoping it works. I'd love to be big in France...

Getting that news put me in "killing a few hours in the French Fantasy blogosphere Mode". Over at Ebalkin.net, I came across a search that turned up an interview with Orson Scott Card. I promptly began scanning, and what do you know? I'm in there! Here's the question and the relevant part of the answer:

Avez-vous des livres à recommander à nos lecteurs, en fantasy ou autre ?

Card : Je ne sais pas exactement ce qui a été traduit, mais il y a de très bons nouveaux romans : The Name of the Wind de Patrick Rothfuss, Acacia de David Anthony Durham, et Mistborn et Elantris de Brandon Sanderson.

Ah! Translation, translation... Babel Fish to the rescue...

Do you have books to recommend to our readers, in fantasy or other?

Card: I do not know exactly what was translated, but there are very good new novels: The Name off the Wind of Patrick Rothfuss, Acacia of David Anthony Durham, and Mistborn and Elantris of Brandon Sanderson.

So, yes, that's a "recommendation". What do you folks think of that? I'll admit to being pleased that such an amazingly popular author (one whose work I have enjoyed) chose to mention my work, but I can't go too far with that positive response before I start to ruminate on the other side of Mr. Card: all that political stuff.

There are some significant and fundamental things that I disagree with him 100% on. There are occasional moments when he thoroughly surprises me by coming to conclusions that I do agree with. And a lot of the time when reading his essays I'm a bit knotted up by his labyrinthine logic - which I'm sure he doesn't feel is labyrinthine at all.

For a basic introduction this article in School Library Journal isn't bad. If you don't know what his politics are you could check out his posts on World Watch - The Ornery American. He is very public in his views (even on Star Wars), and a Google search about his politics provides both his own words and plenty of responses to them. (Check out this essay by John Kessel, for example.) Oh, and the folks at Elbakin.net just sent me a link the the entire OSC interview in English.

But what should any of that mean to me in reference to his recommending my work? They asked him for fantasy recommendations; he mentioned me. Any thing wrong with that?