Archive for February, 2008

Cover update & blurb!

Note the slight update to the Seeds of Change cover. On Sean Wallace’s blog, Patrick Nielsen Hayden rightly pointed out that my last name looked a lot like ROAMS instead of ADAMS in that font. So Stephen Segal tweaked the design to make my name more clear (by changing it from capital letters to lowercase).

Also, you might note the nice blurb provided by Robert J. Sawyer, which says "A first-rate anthology of provocative stories." Which was redacted down from:

"Isaac Asimov said science fiction is the branch of literature that deals with the responses of human beings to changes in science and technology.  His definition put humans in a reactive role, and essentially had science and technology changing on their own.  But we can also be proactive, actively making the future what we want — or what we dread.  A first-rate anthology of provocative and disturbing stories gathered by the always reliable John Joseph Adams." — Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of HOMINIDS
 

That means a lot to me, especially coming from Rob Sawyer. I’ve been a big fan of his for a long time–really ever since I seriously got interested in science fiction.

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Books Received

Heroes Adrift: Moira J. Moore: Books

ISBN: 0441015980
ISBN-13: 9780441015986

Dead To Me: Anton Strout: Books

ISBN: 0441015786
ISBN-13: 9780441015788

Goblin War: Jim C. Hines: Books

ISBN: 0756404932
ISBN-13: 9780756404932

Alliance Space: C. J. Cherryh: Books

ISBN: 0756404940
ISBN-13: 9780756404949

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Lunacon schedule

I’ll be attending Lunacon next month (March 14-16), and just got my panel schedule. Here it is:

FRIDAY, MARCH 14TH
Track: Craft of Writing
Start Time: 03/14/2008 8:00:00 PM End Time: 03/14/2008 9:00:00 PM
Room: Poplar
Title: The Art of Criticism
Description: Experts review the state of the "art" of fantasy review and criticism. Is there too much out there? Too little? Are reviews helping or harming the field? Where can a reader go for reliable reviews? And, of course, what practical things can a writer do to insure a fair review? If you write
reviews, what is the best way to give an honest review without alienating either the readers or the author in question?

Participants: John Joseph Adams, Peter Heck, Kim Paffenroth, Steven Sawicki [M], Ian Randal Strock,

SATURDAY, MARCH 15TH
Track: Track 51
Start Time: 03/15/2008 3:00:00 PM End Time: 03/15/2008 4:00:00 PM
Room: Odelle
Title: How I Learned to Stop Worrying, and Love the Post-Apocalyptic Story
Description: John Varley said "We all love after-the-bomb stories. If we didn’t, why would there be so many of them? There’s something attractive about all those people being gone, about wandering in a depopulated world, scrounging cans of Campbell’s pork and beans, defending one’s family from
marauders." Why *do* we all love after the bomb stories? What is it that makes them so compelling? Subconscious cultural anxiety? Is it Thanatoses,
schadenfreude, or something else entirely? There is no track 51.  Move along.

Participants: John Joseph Adams, Terri Osborne, John J. Pierce [M]

SUNDAY, MARCH 16TH
Track: Media
Start Time: 03/16/2008 1:00:00 PM End Time: 03/16/2008 2:00:00 PM
Room: Maple
Title: The Golden Age of Piracy
Description: The 18th century–the so-called Golden Age of Piracy–saw many parts of the world (not just the Caribbean) subject to merciless raids, unthinkable violence, and paralyzing terror. Today, we are living in another kind of Golden Age of Piracy–a Golden Age of Pirate Entertainment. Movies, novels, TV, video games–pirates have infiltrated seemingly every medium. Why is it pirates have so captured the imagination of genre writers, and what are the best examples of such fiction and/or film?

Participants: John Joseph Adams, Ellen Asher, Andrea Kail, Alex Wittenberg [M]
 

Yay for pirates and post-apocalyptic panels!

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Anthology: Seeds of Change

imageHere’s the cover copy and the full table of contents of my forthcoming original SF anthology for Prime Books, Seeds of Change.

Imagine the moment when the present ends, and the future begins–when the world we knew is no more and a brave new world is thrust upon us. Gathering stories by nine of today’s most incisive minds, Seeds of Change confronts the pivotal issues facing our society today: racism, global warming, peak oil, technological advancement, and political revolution. Many serve as a call to action. How will you change with the future?

These nine stories sow seeds of change across familiar and foreign territory, from our own backyards to the Niger Delta to worlds not yet discovered. Pepper, the mysterious mercenary from Tobias S. Buckell’s Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin, works as an agent for change—if the price is right—in “Resistance.” Ken MacLeod envisions the end-game in the Middle East in “A Dance Called Armageddon.” New writer Blake Charlton imagines a revolutionary advance in cancer research in “Endosymbiont.” Award-winning author Jay Lake tackles technological change and the forces that will stop at nothing to prevent it in “The Future by Degrees.” Other stories by K.D. Wentworth, Jeremiah Tolbert, Mark Budz, Ted Kosmatka, and Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu range from the darkly satirical to the exotic. All explore the notion that change will come.

Will you be ready?

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction by John Joseph Adams
  • N-Words by Ted Kosmatka
  • The Future by Degrees by Jay Lake
  • Drinking Problem by K. D. Wentworth
  • Endosymbiont by Blake Charlton
  • A Dance Called Armageddon by Ken MacLeod
  • Arties Aren’t Stupid by Jeremiah Tolbert
  • Faceless in Gethsemane by Mark Budz
  • Spider the Artist by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
  • Resistance by Tobias S. Buckell

The cover features a very nice blurb provided by Robert J. Sawyer, which says “A first-rate anthology of provocative stories.” Which was redacted down from:

“Isaac Asimov said science fiction is the branch of literature that deals with the responses of human beings to changes in science and technology. His definition put humans in a reactive role, and essentially had science and technology changing on their own. But we can also be proactive, actively making the future what we want — or what we dread. A first-rate anthology of provocative and disturbing stories gathered by the always reliable John Joseph Adams.” — Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of HOMINIDS

Now available! Visit the website at www.seedsanthology.com.

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Organize Me

Does anyone have any good recommendations for keeping track of notes and/or task management? Basically, my problem is this: I take a lot of notes during the day, usually when I’m reading slush, because a thought will pop into my head and I jot it down so I don’t forget. Sometimes this is something I need to remember to do later, sometimes it’s just some idea to follow up on. But the thing is, I end up with all these pages of notes on my desk when I get home, and I want to get rid of them, but I don’t always have time to cross off every item on a list. And as a result, I end up with more paper on my desk than necessary, which leads me to sometimes forget to actually take care of items on my list that were more important.

So, what to do? Transcribe the list onto the computer when I get home? Using what? I’ve tried doing that with Outlook’s "tasks" feature, but it doesn’t work — I end up just ignoring everything that’s in there. Similarly, I’ve tried using the Google Notebook feature, which doesn’t seem to work for me either, despite the fact that I can keep it open in a tab at all times. 

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Alignment — good or evil?

Not that kind of alignment, D&D players. What I’m talking about is text alignment.

One of the annoying variances in manuscript formatting that tends to annoy me as an editor–or rather as a reader who happens to be reading something in manuscript format–is when writers put their name and/or any other information in the header aligned to the left margin. You see, there is a reason that standard ms. format dictates you put your name/title of the story/page count, etc. on the right. Well, there might actually be more than one reason, but the one that seems obvious to me, having read so many thousands of mss. over the years is that when that information is left-aligned, the reader trips over it every time he/she turns the page. If you look, you’ll notice books never do that either–so when you flick your eyes to the top of the next page, the first words you see are the continuation of the text, rather than being interrupted by the title of the story or the name of the author.

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Books Received

Implied Spaces: Walter Jon Williams: Books

ISBN: 1597801259
ISBN-13: 9781597801256

Anvil of Stars: Greg Bear: Books

ISBN: 0765318148
ISBN-13: 9780765318145

Tigerheart: Peter David: Books

ISBN: 0345501594
ISBN-13: 9780345501592

Iron Angel: Alan Campbell: Books

ISBN: 0553384171
ISBN-13: 9780553384178

 

The Books of the South: Tales of the Black Company: Glen Cook: Books

ISBN: 0765320665
ISBN-13: 9780765320667

 

 

 

 

Cosmos Incorporated: Maurice G. Dantec: Books

ISBN: 034549993X
ISBN-13: 9780345499936

Grimspace: Ann Aguirre: Books

ISBN: 0441015999
ISBN-13: 9780441015993

Escapement: Jay Lake: Books

ISBN: 0765317095
ISBN-13: 9780765317094

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When the (Slush)Gods Came

when the gods came

My Facebook doppelganger got me thinking about John Adamses again, and I remembered that in the course of my research of post-apocalyptic fiction, I came across a book by one John Adams published in 1967 called When the Gods Came. I bought myself a copy of it, but haven’t read it yet. Here’s the cover copy:

Men had fought wars throughout history, but never such a war as the one which destroyed the cities of earth and turned vast areas into badlands, stretches of intense radioactivity where nothing could grow and no one could live. It also produced the deviates, mutants who had warped bodies and strange talents.

But there were others who had still stranger talents, mental powers exceeding those of the mutants, and whose bodies did not bear the sign of the deviate. Their origin could not be traced to an atomic war; even they themselves had no idea whence they came.

Forced to take part in the abortive war between the Eastern and Western Federations, one man and one man eventually escaped and discovered creatures similar to themselves. But to discover their origin they had to go back five thousand years; and the answer lay not on earth, but somewhere in the stars.

ARCADIA HOUSE 419 Park Ave. South, New York 10016

Looks like it’s going for a pretty steep price on Amazon at the moment ($99). It originally cost $3.50, so that’s quite a markup. I don’t recall what I paid, but I’m sure it wasn’t in that neighborhood.

UPDATE: My pal Rightcoast said, in an LJ comment: "John Adams was a pen name for prolific British author Johns S(tephen). Glasby. He wrote a few stories within the Cthulhu Mythos and a ton of other stuff in all genres."

Links:
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/john-s-glasby/
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?John_S._Glasby
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Glasby

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