New two-book deal for Adam Nevill

From agent John Jarrold's blog:

"Julie Crisp, Editorial Director of Pan Macmillan in London, has concluded a World Rights deal for two further horror novels by British author Adam Nevill with agent John Jarrold, for a very good five-figure sum.

Adam Nevill’s novel APARTMENT 16 was published very successfully by Pan in May this year, reprinting three times and spending many weeks as Amazon.co.uk’s bestselling horror title, and THE RITUAL will follow in 2011. The two new books are, as yet, untitled. They will be published by Macmillan in 2012 and 2013.

Adam Nevill said: ‘Since my early contact with books, no other kind of fiction has captivated me, or transported me, in the same way as supernatural horror. Many years ago, the idea of contributing to this great field of the weird tale became a dream. To interpret my influences and to add something fresh, became my main purpose as a writer. The dream has been realised; the purpose continues. It’s genuinely a wondrous thing to receive another opportunity to create original works of disquiet, that will be given flight by the engines of a major publisher.’

Julie Crisp said: ‘Pan Macmillan has a tradition of publishing great British horror and so we’re thrilled to be working with Adam on his next two books. APARTMENT 16 and THE RITUAL were both terrifying and exciting adventures into the macabre and I can’t wait to see what nightmare scenarios he comes up with next to chill his readers."

Awesome on a stick. I really liked Apartment 16, and can't wait to read The Ritual. I'm delighted for Adam that he's signed a new deal, as he's a top guy and a very good writer.

Authors for Autistica

I like to support charitable causes where I can, so here's a quick heads-up on Authors for Autistica, which is basically an auction involving a slew of various authors, where you can bid for either a) your name to be included in an author's upcoming book, or b) some professional feedback on your own manuscript.

Authors taking part include Peter F. Hamilton, Ken Follet and Darren Shan.

The website can be found here if you're interested.

Dark Fiction Magazine launches

Dark Fiction Magazine is a brand-new UK webzine specialising in, um, dark fiction. Despite being early days, the magazine has got some great authors lined up for future issues.

Here's the press release.

DARK FICTION MAGAZINE LAUNCH

LONDON, MIDLANDS AND MANCHESTER, UK, 26 Oct 2010. Dark Fiction Magazine (www.darkfictionmagazine.co.uk) is pleased to announce the launch of a new service for fans of genre fiction. Beginning Oct 31st (Halloween), Dark Fiction Magazine will be launching a monthly magazine of audio short stories. This is a free service designed to promote genre short fiction to an audience of podcast and radio listeners. A cross between an audio book, an anthology and a podcast, Dark Fiction Magazine is designed to take the enjoyment of short genre fiction in a new and exciting direction.

Dark Fiction Magazine publishes at least four short stories a month: a mix of award-winning shorts and brand new stories from both established genre authors and emerging writers. Each episode will have a monthly theme and feature complementary tales from the three main genres – science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Co-founder Del Lakin-Smith said: "I love reading short stories, and with the increased uptake of mobile and portable devices this really is a growth area. But like many I find I don't have as much time as I would like to read, so I tend to listen to many podcasts on the go. The idea of replacing my podcasts with high quality, well performed audio short stories is something I find highly appealing, so Sharon and I set about making that a reality."

Sharon Ring, co-founder of Dark Fiction Magazine, said: “From technophobe to technophile in less than two years; I spend a great deal of time working online. To while away those hours, I like to listen to podcasts and drink copious amounts of strong coffee. Now, while I don’t recommend you drink as much coffee as I, I do recommend you check out what Del and I have created. We love podcasts; we love genre fiction; we built a site to bring the two together.”

The theme of Dark Fiction Magazine’s first episode is The Darkness Descends and will feature four fantastical stories:

‘Maybe Then I’ll Fade Away’ by Joseph D’Lacey (exclusive to Dark Fiction Magazine)

‘Pumpkin Night’ by Gary McMahon

‘Do You See?’ by Sarah Pinborough (awarded the 2009 British Fantasy Society Short Story Award)

‘Perhaps The Last’ by Conrad Williams

Lined up for future episodes are Pat Cadigan, Cory Doctorow, Jon Courtenay, Grimwood, Ramsey Campbell, Rob Shearman, Kim Lakin-Smith, Ian Whates, Lauren Beukes, Mark Morris, Adam Nevill, Gareth L Powell, Jeremy C Shipp, Adam Christopher, and Jennifer Williams, among others.

With a team of dedicated and passionate narrators, a central recording facility and a love of genre, Dark Fiction Magazine delivers a truly outstanding aural experience.

Dark Fiction Magazine will also be producing special editions with seasonal stories and topical issues, competitions, flash fiction episodes and novel excerpts. Each episode aims to shock and delight, to horrify and confound as Dark Fiction Magazine takes its listeners on an aural tour through the world of genre fiction.

Dark Fiction Magazine is a collaborative project, created and developed by Del Lakin-Smith and Sharon Ring. For further information, contact Del or Sharon at editorial@darkfictionmagazine.co.uk

The City and the City wins World Fantasy Award

Having already won a Hugo, the Arthur C. Clarke award, and the BFSA, China Miéville's The City and the City last night won a World Fantasy award for best novel. Rumours that Miéville, upon learning of his victory, swore loudly and muttered something about "another new mantlepiece" as of yet remain unconfirmed.

Congratulations to China - great guy, great writer.

You can find a list of the other award winners here.

China Miéville Vs Facebook

I try to avoid posting things that have already received extensive coverage elsewhere (it annoys me when the blogosphere looks like a big publicity machine) but in some cases I'm happy to make an exception. China Miéville slapping down Facebook certainly qualifies as one such case.

Anyway, to the point: Miéville - who is well known for abstaining from social media - has repeatedly asked the powers that be at Facebook to remove the various fake profiles that certain sad individuals have set up, through which they pretend to be him (you wonder about some people, eh?). Naturally, Facebook couldn't give a toss, so Miéville has written an open letter that has inevitably spread like a rash through the blogosphere.

Since Miéville is a great writer and a lovely guy, and because I think that Facebook sucks grizzled donkey balls (especially when it comes to privacy and security), I've decided to re-post China's letter below.

Here it is:

Facebook
1601 S. California Avenue
Palo Alto
CA 94304
USA
6 October 2010

Dear Facebook People,

URGENT COMPLAINT– PLEASE READ, MORE ACTION TO FOLLOW SHORTLY

1) The short version:

At least one person, if not more, is/are impersonating me on Facebook, with (a) fake profile(s) claiming my identity. Despite me repeatedly bringing this to your attention, you have taken no action to remedy the situation. And I’m getting very annoyed.

2) The full version:

This thing you hold is called a letter. This is the third time I’ve contacted you, and I’m doing so by this antiquated method because, and I realise this may shock you so brace yourself, I have no Facebook account. Which means it is nigh-on impossible for me to get in touch with you. Kudos for your Ninja avoidance strategies.

Back when you had a button allowing me to alert you to a fake profile despite not having an account myself, I contacted you that way. I was answered with a resonant silence. Subsequently, when the problem persisted, I hunted lengthily for, found and left a message on the phone number you go out of your way to hide. Absolutely nothing happened. So here we go again: third time’s a charm.

I am being imitated on Facebook. I believe the only reason anyone is bothering to do this is because I’m a novelist (published by Macmillan and Random House), a writer and broadcaster, with a minor public profile. I think there are one or two community pages about my stuff on Facebook – that of course is very flattering and nice of people to bother. The problem is that there is or are also pages by someone(s) purporting to be me. This is weird and creepy. What’s worse is I know for a fact that some readers, friends and colleagues are friending ‘China Miéville’ under the impression that it is me, and that others are wondering why ‘China Miéville’ refuses to respond to them. And I have no idea what dreadful things or ‘likes’ or ‘dislikes’ are being claimed as mine, nor what ‘I’ am saying.

I know lots of people enjoy being on Facebook. Great. More power to them. Vaya con Dios. Me, though: not my thing. I have absolutely no interest in it. I am not now nor have I ever been a Facebook member. Short of some weird Damascene moment, I will not ever join Facebook – and if that unlikely event occurs, I promise I’ll tell you immediately. In the meantime, though, as a matter of urgency, as a matter of courtesy, as a matter of decency, please respond to my repeated requests:

• Please delete all profiles claiming to be me (with or without the accent on the ‘é’ – last time I looked, I found one ‘China Mieville’, and one more accurately rendered).
• Please do not allow anyone else to impersonate me. I have neither time nor inclination to trawl your listings regularly to see if another bizarre liar has sprung up.
• And while you’re at it, please institute a system whereby those of us with the temerity not to sign up to your service can still contact you on these matters and actually get a [insert cuss-word] answer.

I appeal to you to honour your commitments to security and integrity. Of course as a multi-gajillion-dollar company I have absolutely no meaningful leverage over you at all. If David Fincher’s film doesn’t embarrass you, you’re hardly going to notice the plaintive whining of a geek like me. All I can do is go public. Which is my next plan.

I’m allowing a week for this letter to reach you by airmail, then three days for you to respond to me by phone or the email address provided. Then, if I’ve heard nothing, on 16 October 2010, I’ll send copies of this message to all the literary organizations and publications with which I have connections

…

some of the many books bloggers I know; and anyone else I can think of. I’ll encourage them all to publicise the matter. I’m tired of being impersonated, and I’m sick of you refusing to answer me.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,
China Miéville

Interview with Paul Kearney over at Solaris blog

Paul Kearney, compared to many authors these days, has a fairly small internet presence. Which makes it all the sweeter when he does emerge, as he always has something interesting to say.

There's a new interview with Paul over at the Solaris editors' blog, in which he discusses - among other things - his upcoming Macht books, Corvus and Kings of Morning:

"People tell me, when they know what I do, that I must have a great imagination, but I really don’t. I just get inspired by some fragment of history and then I run with it. To make up everything, and I mean everything, in the way guys like Erikson do, is unfathomable to me. I come up with the story first, and the world comes later. And I want to get that world out there as fast as I can, so that it can keep up with the story I want to tell. So for me, the worldbuilding comes last. Is that heresy for a fantasy author to admit?"

Corvus is due out on 28 October 2010, with Kings of Morning lined up for 2011.

My own interview with Paul, conducted back in 2008, can be found here.

Genre novels up for the Guardian's "Not the Booker" award

Just a quick post to say that a healthy number of genre novels  have been nominated for the Guardian book blog's "Not the Booker" award - and voting for the shortlist ends at 12:00 am GMT, so you've not got long to get your vote in if you want to do so.

The genre novels nominated are as follows:

Dan Abnett – Triumff

Tom Fletcher – The Leaping

Peter F Hamilton – The Evolutionary Void

Guy Gavriel Kay – Under Heaven

MD Lachlan – Wolfsangel

Margo Lanagan – Tender Morsels

Ian McDonald – The Dervish House

China Miéville – Kraken

Mark Millar and John Romita Junior – Kick Ass

Bryan Lee O'Malley – Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour

KJ Parker – The Folding Knife


I think that's all of them, but do feel free to point out any I've missed.

Hugo win for The City and the City

China Miéville's The City and The City - already a winner of the Arthur C. Clark and BSFA awards for best novel - has now gone and won a Hugo award as well. The City and the City was named joint best novel at the 2010 Hugo awards, along with The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi.

Congrats to China; great to see his undeniable talent being recognized and rewarded.

As an aside, it's been interesting to see The City and the City receive so much critical acclaim over the last year or so. Out of the three Miéville novels that I've read, it's easily my least favourite (the other two being the superb The Scar and the more recent tentacle-tastic Kraken). I wonder whether the fact that The City and the City is more mainstream than his other novels played a role. Then again, why should this matter for genre awards?

You can find the rest of the Hugo winners at the official website.

Del Toro to direct film adaptation of Lovecraft's 'At the Mountains of Madness'

According to Empire:

"It’s both a shock and yet not truly surprising, as the Lovecraft tale (which sees a 1930s scientific expedition discover something ancient and terrible at the South Pole that suggests mankind’s origins might lie with the powerful, alien elder gods) has been a passion project for the filmmaker for more than 13 years.


The movie has been at more than one studio over that time, with the current incarnation starting off at DreamWorks in 2004. But that stalled out and Universal took it over when del Toro made an overall deal there in 2007. It looked like the Madness might actually begin there, before The Hobbit came a-calling and GDT headed to New Zealand.


But with Middle Earth now off the table, it’s back into the Madness for the man who has long dreamed, along with writing collaborator Matthew Robbins, of bringing the monstrous elders to life."

I must admit I'm not that familiar with Lovecraft's work, having only read a handful of his short fiction, but I've heard good things about this particular story. With James Cameron onboard to help with the 3D aspect, this is certainly one to keep an eye on.

Brad Pitt to produce and star in film adaptation of 'World War Z'

From the Independent's website:

"The film rights to author Max Brooks' zombie book World War Z have been bought by Brad Pitt to be adapted for his production company Plan B, MTV reported. Pitt also plans to act in the film. The movie is planned for release during summer 2012."

This is pretty cool news. World War Z is an excellent book, although may not be easy to adapt to the big screen given that it is essentially a collection of interviews and memoirs from various survivors of the zombie outbreak. However, there's some wonderful moments in the book that will no doubt translate very well to the film medium; the battle of the US army against a million zombies at Yonkers could look pretty spectacular.

Definitely one to watch.

My review of World War Z can be found here.

Gollancz announces book deals and artwork

First up, the UK cover for Richard Morgan's The Cold Commands.

Interestingly, Gollancz seem to have gone for a cover that is similar in style to the UK MMPB version of The Steel Remains, rather than the original hardback cover (which I must say I prefer). By contrast, the US cover is more in keeping with the tone of the UK hardback cover, and I like it more than the above version.

Speaking of Gollancz, they had some interesting news on a couple of book deals today...

First up, Stephen Deas - author of the very successful Adamantine Palace and its follow-up The King of the Crags has set pen to paper on a new deal for more books. From the journal of agent John Jarrold:

John Jarrold has concluded a four-book World Rights deal with Simon Spanton of Gollancz, for fantasy novels by Stephen Deas, for a high five-figure sum in pounds sterling. Deas’ debut novel, a dragon fantasy titled THE ADAMANTINE PALACE, was published by Gollancz in March 2009 and followed by KING OF THE CRAGS this April (the third volume in this series, ORDER OF THE SCALES, will follow early in 2011).

The first book in this deal is a one-off, THE BLACK MAUSOLEUM, related to his dragon fantasies, which will be followed by three further adult titles that entwine that series with Deas’ YA fantasies that open with THE THIEF-TAKER’S APPRENTICE in August. THE BLACK MAUSOLEUM will be delivered in the summer of 2011, with the other books following at yearly intervals.

‘Simon and I did our first three-book deal for Steve at the end of 2007,’ said John Jarrold. ‘With the immediate success of THE ADAMANTINE PALACE in early 2009, we were able to follow that up with another three-book deal that May. And now Steve’s third multi-book deal in two-and-a-half years – which is remarkable testimony to his writing and story-telling, and to the fact that Simon and Gollancz know a good thing when they see one!’

Congratulations to both Stephen and Gollancz.

Secondly, one of those news items that no doubt lends (false) hope to the countless self-published authors out there: Gollancz have signed up a self-published author in a six-figure deal. Taken from the Bookseller:

Gollancz has spent a six figure sum in acquiring a five book young adult fantasy series that had previously been self-published.

Gillian Redfearn, senior commissioning editor, bought world rights from Pier Russell-Cobb, managing director of MediaFund, to the Stonewylde series by Kit Berry.

The first four novels in the series, Magus of Stonewylde, Moondance of Stonewylde, Solstice at Stonewylde and Shadows at Stonewylde, will be available from the Orion sci-fi and fantasy imprint next year.

Gollancz described the series as about Stonewylde, a hidden idyllic community in Dorset ruled by a Magus. The publisher said: "For Sylvie, a young girl dying in hospital, Stonewylde could be more than a paradise: it could save her life...but for all the harmony of this world, there is something dark lurking at its heart. The magic of Stonewylde could save her...but at what price?"

Redfearn said: "I'm delighted that Kit Berry has joined the Gollancz list. The Stonewylde books are a breath of fresh air, a multi-faceted series with something that will reach out to every reader, and a character to touch every heart. The Stonewylde series will bring a touch of magic to the genre...Kit herself has an amazing story as well: her success as a self-published author is amazing, there’s a wonderful tale behind how she came to write the novels – with magic, romance and a spirited battle against the publishing odds. I can’t wait to work with Kit to bring Stonewylde to a larger audience."

This is an interesting one, make no mistake, both for the amount of money involved and the fact that the author had self-published their work.

Malazan re-read at Tor.com

I've read both Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon and Deadhouse Gates, as well as Ian Cameron Esslemont's Night of Knives, but decided some time ago to wait until the Malazan Book of the Fallen series was complete before going back and reading all ten novels (I was contemplating reading them all back-to-back, but given their size and my reading speed, that might not be so advisable...).

Interestingly, Tor.com have had a similar idea. Here's a press release I received earlier today:

"Calling all Malaz fans!! In a few minutes, Tor.com will launch the epic fantasy re-read of the novels by Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont’s in their co-created Malazan Empire world. Modeled after Leigh Butler’s fabulous Wheel of Time re-read, capable bloggers and fantasy critics Bill Capossere and Amanda Rutter (FantasyLiterature.com) will reintroduce Whiskeyjack, Anomander Rake, Quick Ben, Kalam Mekhar, Fiddler, Iskaral Pust, and all the other great characters from this dark and complex fantasy world, a few chapters at a time. And with the completion of each book in the re-read, Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont will weigh in with their reactions to the posts, comments, ideas, and theories of the fans and bloggers."

Sounds pretty cool, no? Should be interesting to see not just what Bill and Amanda think about the books, but also how Erikson and Esslemont respond to the points they raise.

There's already a hefty introductory post up, which provides more detailed on how the whole gig is going to work, while the first entry in the series - examining the prologue and first chapter of the excellent Gardens of the Moon - has also been posted, and has already generated some debate.

I'll certainly be following this undertaking (well, for the first two books anyway), as it could throw up some really interesting points for further discussion.

Best of luck to Bill and Amanda in this epic undertaking...

HarperCollins part company with genre imprint Angry Robot

Press release from the Angry Robot website:

Following an acclaimed first year of publishing, the revolutionary science fiction imprint Angry Robot Books has parted company with HarperCollins UK. It will now run as an independent publishing imprint, with the full backing of niche publishing experts, Osprey Publishing.

Angry Robot will continue to operate from its Nottingham base and with its existing team under Marc Gascoigne, its founder and publisher. Marc said: “With the support of HarperCollins UK, my team and I have worked very hard on Angry Robot since it was founded. We have a great publishing programme in place and a dedicated bunch of supporters, the Robot Army, as well as some excellent sales of our first titles in the UK and an imminent launch into the USA. We are very pleased to have become part of the burgeoning Osprey empire. They understand our business and the enthusiasts who drive it.”

Chris Michaels, HarperCollins Digital Publisher, Fiction/Non-Fiction, who helped set-up Angry Robot, said: “Having helped build the foundations for a successful future, we are delighted that the Angry Robot team has found a new publishing partner in Osprey. We believe this will help them develop their niche offering, supported by Osprey’s specialist sales and marketing teams. We wish them good luck for the future.”

Marc Gascoigne added, “Our publishing programme for 2010/11 will be basically unaffected by these changes. There will be a short break while the transition is sorted out, but we will be re-launching in September 2010 and then it will be business as usual.”

Osprey’s move is a reflection of the company’s continuing strategic drive into niche communities that share a deep enthusiasm for their interest or hobby, whether it be military history (Osprey Publishing), heritage (Shire Books), or science fiction and fantasy.

Richard Sullivan, Marketing Director at Osprey commented: “We have a great deal of experience of serving specialist niches with a very tight product focus. Angry Robot is a great fit with our existing businesses. We are very excited about the opportunity to enter into a new market and we are looking forward to helping Angry Robot, its authors and its readers go to some exciting places.”

Make of that what you will...I do wonder why HarperCollins were willing to sell up if Angry Robot had indeed had an 'acclaimed first year' of publishing, but they can't have done that badly if Osprey were interested in taking on the imprint.

Will be interesting to see how things develop.

Twitter

Yep, I finally caved in and can now be found on Twitter, where I am engaging in the active genre debate and also spouting a load of nonsense.

Feel free to say hello if you're also tweeting.

Pat Rothfuss confirms release date for The Wise Man's Fear

From his blog:

So that’s what happened today: I found out the publication date for The Wise Man’s Fear – March 1st 2011.

Honestly, it would be way easier for me to sit on this information for a while. I could wait until the date was a little closer, thereby avoid some of the great wailing and gnashing of teeth I expect will follow this announcement. That shit brings me no joy. It damages my calm and makes it harder for me to write.

But I promised y’all I would pass along the *real* publication date as soon as I knew it. So that’s what I’m doing.

March 1st 2011.

Rothfuss is risking incurring the wrath of some of his fans by making this announcement (we all know how some fans react when predicted release dates fall by the wayside) but you presume he's uber-confident of hitting his deadline of September 2010 (for handing in the manuscript to his editor), otherwise he wouldn't have made this news public.

I hope Rothfuss manages to keep to his promise, not so much because I want to read the book, but more because he's a really decent guy and doesn't deserve the flak he's received (or the flak he no doubt will receive if he doesn't meet his deadline).

Ridley Scott reveals Alien prequel in the works

This is really cool news for fans of the Alien franchise: Ridley Scott (who directed the original film in the series, Alien) has confirmed he is working on a prequel:

As we speak, I've got a pile of pages next to me; it's like the fourth draft. It's a work in progress, but we're not dreaming it up anymore. We know what the story is. We're now actually trying to improve the three acts and make the characters better, build it up to something [we can shoot]. It's a work in progress, but we're actually making the film. There's no question about it, we're going to make the film.

Scott goes on to reveal what the focus of the story will be:

It's set in 2085, about 30  years before Sigourney [Weaver's character Ellen Ripley]. It's fundamentally about going out to find out 'Who the hell was that Space Jockey?' The guy who was sitting in the chair in the alien vehicle — there was a giant fellow sitting in a seat on what looked to be either a piece of technology or an astronomer's chair. Remember that?

He also hints he has little time for the Alien Vs Predator tie-in films:

Yeah, the thing about "Alien vs. Predator" is, I know it's commerce, but what a pity.

When asked if the designer of the original alien, H. R. Giger, would be involved, Scott replied:

Yeah, he's still around. Once I get more serious and get going, and the big wheels start turning, we'll certainly talk. And maybe we'll come up with something completely different.

All things considered, this is terrific news for Alien fans. The franchise seemed dead after the disappointing Alien 3 and rather ludicrous money-spinner Alien Resurrection, but if there's one man who can breathe new life into the franchise it's Scott. Alien remains a superb horror film to this day, so if he can recapture some of the spirit of that film, it will stand this prequel in very good stead.

You get the impression that Scott wouldn't even think about doing this film unless he felt he had a decent idea worth exploring, and he's certainly got that with the space jockey. The question of who this alien was, and why they were transporting a cargo of alien eggs was never answered, so it'll be interesting to see how this storyline develops. It's good as well that Giger is on board, and the possiblity that he might come up with a new alien design is a tantalising one (though tricky as well, since a brand-new alien type/appearance would raise continuity issues).

From what Scott has revealed, I get the impression the film will be more character-orientated and pyschological, as opposed to an all-guns-blazing action romp (in other words, more like Scott's own Alien, as opposed to James Cameron's Aliens).

We'll have to wait a while to find out, since the new film won't be released until 2011/2012, but hopefully it will be well worth the wait.

In related news - this is probably old news, but it's the first time I've heard of it - a third film in the Predator franchise has been confirmed, and filming is apparently already complete.

Nicholas Sparks launches broadside at Cormac McCarthy

I must admit I love it when an author slaps another author down - especially when they make a bit of a prat of themselves while doing it. Especially when they risk committing career suicide.

Which is exactly what Nicholas Sparks has done, after revealing - among other things - that he's not the biggest fan of Cormac McCarthy:

"Cormac McCarthy? Horrible...This is probably the most pulpy, overwrought, melodramatic cowboy vs. Indians story ever written."

Sparks was referring to McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian - the same novel that Time magazine voted as being one of the top 100 English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005, and that finished as runner-up in the 2006 New York Times poll of the most important American fiction of the last 25 years. The same novel that - as far as I understand - is widely regarded as McCarthy's finest work.

Of course, Sparks is entitled to his opinion...though he really ought to have kept it to himself - attacking other authors (especially those with the stature of McCarthy) is generally considered to be poor form; you can only really get away with it if you're a highly successful and respected author in your own right (i.e, Stephen King dismissing Stephanie Meyer, and Terry Pratchett having a dig at J. K. Rowling). The general online reaction to Sparks's comment involves repeated use of the word 'douchebag'.

Sparks can't have any complaints: he hardly comes across well in the interview. At times, he sounds alarmingly like that renowned ego-monster, Terry Goodkind:

"There are no authors in my genre. No one is doing what I do."

Sure, no one else is writing novels about people falling in love and then losing each other. Sparks must be some kind of genius to come up with such an original, groundbreaking premise. As if that wasn't enough, Sparks actually has the audacity to compare himself with Hemingway:

"A Farewell to Arms, by Hemingway. Good stuff. That's what I write," he says, putting it back. "That's what I write."

I doubt it. The only person that writes like Hemingway is Hemingway. Still, at least Sparks acknowledges his influences:

"I write in a genre that was not defined by me. The examples were not set out by me. They were set out 2,000 years ago by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides."

Come on...I mean, seriously. Likening yourself to the great ancient Greek tragedians is just...well, it's laughable.

Perhaps Sparks should stop writing his romance novels - sorry, love stories, to use his own term - and write a book called "How to Destroy your Reputation in Thirty Seconds", since he's clearly an expert on the subject.

Good Show Sir - a tribute to terrible genre book covers

Seems I've come a little late to this one, but better late than never. If you're a sadist for embarrassing, vomit-worthy genre cover art (and you're in desperate need of a fix while you wait for my next instalment on the subject) then look no further than Good Show Sir, a website that celebrates crap-tastic genre covers.

They're all pretty horrendous, but the cover for Hunters of the Red Moon is particularly awful - a naked man wrestling with a lion wearing a pair of underpants. No, really - see for yourself.

Scott Lynch reveals reason for the delay with The Republic of Thieves...

...and it's probably not what everyone assumed. There's been all kinds of rumours and gossip flying about regarding the nature of the delay, but all of it was wide of the mark.

To quote Lynch himself:

"I have occasionally taken deliberate breaks from the internet-at-large, but my silence of the past few months has not been by choice.

I have been dealing for some time with bouts of depression, which have been bad, and ongoing panic attacks, which have been orders of magnitude worse-- positively crippling.

These attacks worsened sharply during the Season of the Long Flu last fall and reached the point where they interfered with nearly everything I tried to do, making it impossible to write, communicate, and sometimes even think straight. It has been a long, sore trial for everyone around me and it ain't over yet. I do not have a firm grip on precisely what causes the damn things, though they are related to my work, my reading, my writing, and my intellectual life. They are very much an ongoing problem.

So, for the first time in my life, I am in therapy."

It takes courage to admit you have a problem, and even more courage to make it public - I should know, as I had a similar experience to Lynch a few years back, so I can totally appreciate what a struggle it can be. Kudos to him for being open about it and I for one wish him all the best.

Check out the rest of his entry here.

Early reminder for Alt Fiction - 12 June 2010

Looks like the popular genre convention Alt Fiction is going to be held this year, after its absence in 2009, with the current projected date being 12 June 2010. Details so far are rather sketchy, though the con will once again take place in Derby. There's usually a good turnout of authors, editors, agents, reviewers and other genre folk, and a host of panels and discussions throughout the day.

Mark Charan Newton has already threatened to gatecrash the event by holding a launch party for his upcoming book City of Ruin, which should be fun (even more fun if we can get him drunk beforehand - that'll be one of my goals for the day).

Anyway, more details as and when. I'll probably be attending, though will no doubt end up in the bar (along with 99% of the other attendees).

The event's official website can be found here.