Forthcoming selections

At our previous meeting (and shame on you for not being there), we determined our selections through June.

• March 10 Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
• April 14 Death Is a Lonely Business by Ray Bradbury
• May 12 Steampunk edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
  (at least one of the book's contributors will be in attendance)
• June 9 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

We meet at Flight Path at 7 PM and we'd love to see ya there. Check out our home page for more details about the Dark Forces Book Group.

Steampunk-influenced music

In the latest entry of the Sci Fi Songs podcast, musician John Anealio continues his discussions about the influence of Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's anthology Steampunk on his recent creative output. He mentions Jay Lake's "The God-Clown Is Near," Mary Gentle's A Sun In the Attic," and my contribution, "The Steam Driven Time Machine" as particular inspirations.

A Dream of Vandermeers!

Vandermeers hard at work on what I can only assume is a new literary theory!

Last night, I had this long, complex dream about Jeff and Ann Vandermeer. The gist of the dream was that they took a group of diner-goers hostage in order to explain their latest literary theory. Not surprisingly, no one understood it. Frustrated, the duo planned on killing a hostage an hour until someone comprehended it.

Since I seemingly grok Jeff's books (and presumably the only one in the vicinity stupid enough to help), the cops called me in to decipher the theory. Problem was that it was complete unintelligible, When it became obvious that I had no idea what the hell they were talking about, the couple kissed and similar to the beginning of Pulp Fiction, Ann stood on the table pointing her gun at people. Before she could scream "Any of you fucking pricks move, and I'll execute every motherfucking last one of ya!", I woke up.



Some weird ass shit there.

New Weird contest

Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, editors extraordinare, have announced a contest to promote their new anthology, The New Weird.

Tell us your “new, weird” story–something strange (but entertaining and either PG-rated or with the naughty bits blocked out) that happened to you or you witnessed in the last couple of years. Hopefully some of these will be bizarre but also uplifting, although that’s not a requirement. It’s more about…hey, this world we live in is an odder place than we might think. All of those stories in The New Weird from China Mieville, Clive Barker, K.J. Bishop, Steph Swainston, Jeffrey Ford, Jay Lake, Pual Di Filippo, Michael Moorcock, M. John Harrison, and others–they’re not strange; the world is strange!

And the prize is pretty damn cool...

The three winners, chosen by Ann and me, will win ONE COPY OF EACH ANTHOLOGY WE EDIT BETWEEN NOW AND 2010, PERSONALIZED. Yes, that’s correct. You will get a copy of The New Weird, Steampunk, The Leonardo Variations (Clarion charity anthology), Fast Ships/Black Sails (pirates), Best American Fantasy 2, Best Horror 2009, Last Drink Bird Head, Mapping the Beast: The Best of Leviathan, and various other anthologies currently in the planning stages. Heck, we’ll even throw in the first couple issue of Weird Tales with Ann as fiction editor. We also reserve the right to give out honorable mentions, said HMs to receive a copy of the NW antho.

For official rules, visit Ecstatic Days.