I’ve put off making this entry for a while, for what will likely be obvious reasons. On Wednesday of last week (March 15), Gordon’s first child, Zoe Tamsin Van Gelder, came into the world, and my paternal grandmother, Eleanore T. Adams, left it.

She was 85 and in poor health, so it didn’t come as a huge surprise, but no matter how much you think you’re prepared for something like that to happen, it always seems to hit you just as hard as if it had come with no warning. I was actually in Manhattan at KGB for the Fantastic Fiction reading when I got a call from the hospital telling me my grandmother was dying. I left right away to head back to NJ, but even as I rushed out of there, I knew I would be too late. And I was, though I got in touch with some cousins who were able to make it over there for her final moments. She wasn’t conscious before the end, so my being there couldn’t have comforted her. But still.

We held the wake on Sunday, and she was buried on Monday.

My grandmother and I were very close. When I was young, my family and I lived in the upper half of a two family home built by my great-grandfather (my grandmother’s father), while my grandparents lived downstairs. Both my parents worked, so after school, I’d come home and my grandmother would babysit me. I remember sitting in her living room watching Nickelodeon, especially You Can’t Do That on Television, and my grandmother bringing me snacks. She’d always bring me cheese and crackers–the crackers varied, but the cheese was always that spreadable sharp cheese that goes on like cream cheese.

My grandmother liked to reminisce about the past, and one of the stories she liked to tell, she told so often, I can’t be sure if I actually remember it, or if I’ve just heard the story so many times it’s imprinted itself on my memory. Here’s the story:

When I was a toddler, my grandmother was babysitting me. She went out onto the back porch to hang some clothes on the clothesline, and when she was out there, I ran over to the screen door and hooked the latch, locking her out. She can’t get back in the house, and I’m inside doing God knows what. She can’t see me from the porch, so she’s calling out “John! John! Where are you?” She doesn’t know what to do, so she tells the neighbors what happened, and one of them says to cut the screen and unlock the door that way. So she does. And when she gets inside, she finds me in one of the bedrooms, in the corner, laughing my ass off.

The story usually ended with her saying, and looking genuinely surprised as she says it, “Can you imagine that?” then adding, “That little stinker.”

My dad died when I was eight, and we moved out of my grandparents’ house shortly after that. So she took care of me a lot during those formative years. About a year after moving out, we moved away to Florida, so I didn’t see much of her, though she and my grandfather would make the trip down to Florida (by car!) every year to spend some time with me, then would go vacation at some resort in the Tampa area and play shuffleboard. When I moved back to New Jersey in 2001, it was because I wanted to get a job in publishing, but also because I knew my grandparents needed someone to help out. At first, they didn’t need very much, but as the years progressed, the two of them required more and more help, and they came to rely on me for pretty much everything. So as she took care of me in my first years of life, I took care of her in her final years.

The last few months, she’d been through a lot. She was suffering from terrible, crippling arthritis, and she was battling with cancer on and off for a about a year and a half. A few weeks ago, she had a small stroke, and became all but unable to walk. After a brief hospital stay, she was transferred to a nursing home for rehabilitation, and once she got there, the doctors and physical therapists concluded that she’d have to stay in a home, or get full time nursing care. So her final days were rather trying, and I know she couldn’t have been happy, so perhaps it’s a good thing that she passed before things got any worse for her.

I’ll miss her.

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As you may have heard elsewhere, Gordon recently procreated (with the help of his lovely wife). The result: Zoe Tamsin Van Gelder. And as a extra special bonus, this whole baby business prompted Gordon to buy a house.

The new place is a two family-deal, so Gordon’ll be living upstairs, and F&SF will be living downstairs. So the office is now in Jersey City instead of Hoboken; though it’s in a different city, it’s only about ten minutes away. Don’t worry–we’re keeping the same PO Box, so our submissions address hasn’t changed. If we find a better (closer) post office, we might change it eventually, but for now we’re still going to use the same one.

On Thursday and Friday of this week, we were making runs back and forth to the new place, shuttling over files and computer equipment–small and important stuff that we didn’t trust the movers with. The new place looks to be pretty cool–we’ll have lots of extra room to work with, including a LOT more storage space. In addition to the main house (which has a big basement too), there’s a gigantic shed-thing in the backyard–it’s bigger than some Manhattan apartments. It’s in kind of rough shape right now, but as Gordon says, it’s got a lot of potential. If Gordon grants permission, perhaps I’ll post some photos of the new office once we get it up and running.

That’s all there is to say about the move, I guess, but I just wanted to point out that our response times might be delayed a bit over the next few weeks as we settle in (due to the move, and other reasons). I didn’t get any slush read on Thursday or Friday, and I was already backed up a little bit when this week started. So don’t panic–we’ll get to it soon.

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I got a spam recently that I found somewhat interesting. Apparently there’s someone out there who knows how to turn chicks into zombies.

xr scot mmmm bongo
Using this system: 1492 pail kraft 95%
You can make any woman submit to you INSTANTLY;
You can make with her EVERYTHING you want;
It’ll be a pleasure for her to fulfill all your DIRTY desires;

I don’t know what the hell that means–I guess I’m supposed to click the link. Of course, I’m afraid to click. Besides, the zombie apocalypse is unstoppable anyway–no need to rush it along.

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There’s been much discussion lately about New York Times SF reviewer Dave Itzkoff’s top ten list–which was criticized for, among other things, being made up entirely of white men: no women or people of color on the list.

So, that leads me to my questions:

(1) What are your top ten SF/Fantasy books (novels, collections, etc.) written by women?

(2) What are your top ten SF/Fantasy books (novels, collections, etc.) written by people of color?

It’s unclear whether Itzkoff was including fantasy in his list, or excluding it on purpose, but for the purposes of my question, let’s say fantasy is okay to include. (I’d say he probably *was* including fantasy–since I’d assume most if not all of the Mieville stories in Looking for Jake are fantasy [I haven’t read it yet].)

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I received a press release the other day, about a new novel called Seeker by William Nicholson.  It included an exerpt of the novel, and encouraged me to reprint it online if I so desired.  So I thought I’d try it out.  Here’s the synopsis, and the exerpt will be in the extended entry.

Seeker

Book One of the Noble Warriors

By William Nicholson

Published by Harcourt

May 2006;$17.00US; 0-15-205768-4

Three very different heroes, brought together by a shared dream.

On the rocky island of Anacrea, in a garden within the great castle-monastery called the Nom, lives the All and Only, the god who made all things. He is protected by an elite band of fighter monks. These are the Nomana, the Noble Warriors.

Seeker, who lives on the island, is now sixteen, at last old enough to follow his brother into the ranks of the Nomana.

Far away, Morning Star, also just sixteen, is leaving home to achieve her lifelong wish to join the Nomana.

And when a beautiful, violent river bandit known as the Wildman finds himself completely helpless before two Nomana, he too, is determined to become a Noble Warrior.

But these are dangerous times. Secret enemies have sworn to destroy Anacrea, and in the imperial city of Radiance, where human sacrifices are thrown to their deaths every evening, elaborate plans to attack the Nom are in place. Soon, in a shocking turn of events, Seeker, Morning Star, and the Wildman are caught up in a bloody and harrowing race to save the god of the Nomana — and themselves — from destruction.

An epic coming-of-age story about courage, friendship, desire, and faith, Seeker heralds the beginning of a riveting new series.

(more…)

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In this case, the WBNA is the Women’s National Book Association, so you’ll be learning stuff about writing, not dunking.  They’re having a “skill-building workshop for writers at the query stage”

Writers are invited to bring their cover letters, synopses (1000 words or less please) and first page of a novel or narrative.

Agents will review one item per session and offer insights into what gets an agent’s attention, what works and what doesn’t.  Each session is ten minutes. Writers can meet with multiple agents. No pitching required or expected: just seeking and getting advice.

Confirmed agents include:

Loretta Barrett, Loretta Barrett Books

Jennifer Lyons, Lyons & Pande

Jenny Bent, Trident Media

Stephany Evans, Imprint Agency

Paige Wheeler, Folio Literary Management

Kate Epstein, Epstein Literary Agency

Byrd Leavell, Waxman Literary Agency

Al Longden, Rights Unlimited

Janet Rosen, Sheree Bykofsky Agency

Jessica Regal, Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency

This is a great opportunity to find out what’s wrong with the query you’ve been sending or catch problems before you start sending it.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

6:30pm -8:30pm

Small Press Center

20 West 44th Street

Reservations by April 10, 2006 are required. Email your name and number of desired sessions to: wnbaevents @ earthlink.net

Least expensive: one ten minute session: $30

Better value:  three ten minute sessions: $60

Best deal: ten ten minutes sessions: $125

10% discount for current members of WNBA.

For questions or further information contact: Janet Reid, jetreidliterary @ earthlink.net, 718 821 4996.

Please feel free to pass this information along to writers you know!

I’m not familiar with this workshop, but it sounds interesting, so I thought I’d pass it along to those who might be interested.

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