SF Signal: SF Tidbits for 1/25/08

SF Tidbits for 1/25/08

Rick Kleffel from The Agony Column podcast-interviews Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, co-editors of The New Weird anthology.

MilSciFi interviews John C. Wright: "A.E. van Vogt had the greatest influence on my work: I steal all my ideas from him. He captures the 'sense of wonder' that is to science fiction what the sense of horror is to horror writing."

The latest episode of the always-entertaining Cult Pop has another great video interview posted, this time with Tobias Buckell and SciFi artist Carl Lundgren.

Fear Zone interviews editor Ellen Datlow: "The best writers can take the traditional horror tropes of serial killers, zombies, vampires, werewolves, ghouls, children in danger, "bad" houses or places -- and make something new out of them by their skills at storytelling and use of language."

At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Daniel Abraham, co-author of Hunter's Run with George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois.

Fantasy Book Critic interviews Gail Z. Martin: "There are some people who oddly believe that if you write about something you must actually be like that in real life, which would make every crime writer a cop or a murderer. There are folks who will make amazing assumptions about your religious beliefs (or lack thereof) and the status of your immortal soul. Oh well. And there's our culture, which thinks it's way more cool to be able to throw a football than to write a book. I did a radio interview last year and the host kept trying to get me to talk about how "weird" SF conventions were. I asked him if he'd ever been to a Big Ten college football game or a NASCAR race--the frizzy wigs, the body paint, the costumes, the tailgate craziness. It would be nice if we'd let people have fun in their own way without needing to judge."

Free Fiction:
- Interzone has published the awesome, 2007 BSFA-Nominated story "The Sledge-Maker's Daughter" by Alastair Reynolds.
- From Subterranean Press: "The Pile" by Michael Bishop.
- Also from Subterranean Press: "Dragon Chili: From the Grand Church Cookbook" by Joe R. Lansdale.

Real science, Part 1: Sf author Daryl Gregory doesn't believe in aliens...as portrayed in sf, that is. Biology in Science Fiction responds by asking "How alien should science fiction aliens be?"

Real science, Part 2: In case you get lost, here's a map of the universe within 1 billion Light Years. [via The Daily Galaxy]