Jason Sanford

Literary liar James Frey dips toes into SF for big money payout

So well-known literary liar James Frey (of A Million Little Pieces infamy) hooks up with a new writer and creates a young adult series of SF books. However, instead of pulling his own weight, Frey gets the new writer, Jobie Hughes, to actually do most of the writing for the series, the first of which is titled I Am Number Four. The premise: A group of alien teenagers "hide on earth after their planet is attacked by hostile invaders." Wow. Original.

Naturally the large publishing houses which aided and abetted Frey's previous lies scoop up the new series, and immediately sell it to Hollywood. Michael Bay, the director of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, is signed on to produce and possibly direct the first installment. For those of you who aren't sure of the talent swirling around all this, here's Nick Mamatas' recent review of the new Bay film.

Think this is all a joke? Here's the NY Times article.

Perhaps Jobie Hughes is a great writer and storyteller, in which case I wish him the best with the series. But from where I sit, this deal stinks worse than most of Michael Bay's films.

Sneak peak at Tesseracts Thirteen

Tesseracts, the famed anthology series of Canadian speculative fiction, returns with Tesseracts Thirteen: Chilling Tales from the Great White North. Where last year's anthology focused on novella-length SF and fantasy, this year's collection is solid Canuck horror.

An advanced reading copy arrived in the mail today and so far I'm really impressed. Edited by Nancy Kilpatrick and David Morrel, the collection includes a large number of original stories by authors such as Kelley Armstrong, Alison Baird, Daniel Sernine, and many more. The first story I read is an amazing tale: "Lost in a Field of Paper Flowers" by Gord Rollo. This story will likely make many of the year's best lists, and left me wanting to keep reading the book.

Tesseracts Thirteen hits bookstores in the middle of September. Until then, here's my review of last year's edition.

What the top SF/F editors want

If you write SF/F, then you must read "The Story Is All: Ten Fiction Editors Talk Shop" in the current issue of Clarkesworld Magazine. The article features interviews with most of the top SF/F editors in the field, and if you've been submitting blindly to their magazines then reading this article will be a eye-opening experience. Even experienced writers will learn a thing or two.

Support Tim Pratt and his serial story idea

SF/F writer Tim Pratt's wife was laid off yesterday. As he details on his Livejournal page, he and his wife are searching for freelance work to both keep a roof over their heads and pay their son's medical bills (so if you know of anyone needing a talented freelancer, contact him).

Tim also says he is "toying with the idea of writing a Marla Mason prequel novella/short novel, about her early days as a sorcerer. Would any of you be interested in a donation-driven serial approach, with me posting a chapter a week free online, and soliciting whatever people want to pay? And possibly selling a hard copy/e-book through Lulu.com or something when it's done?"

I'd totally support that. Help convince Pratt to write this story by going to his Livejournal page and making a pledge.

UPDATE: Tim is now writing the serial story. As Tim explains, "Bone Shop tells the story of Marla's evolution from runaway to sorcerer's apprentice to mercenary magician and beyond. Fans of the urban fantasy series that began with Blood Engines will find surprising secrets revealed about Marla's past, and new readers can meet the character from the very beginning." To read the story, go here. The first chapter will be posted June 29. Be sure to hit the donate button on that page.

My award-nominated story "The Ships Like Clouds ..." now available online

My short story "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen By Their Rain" has been reprinted online in the literary journal Ensorcelled, which is published by the University of California, Berkeley.

The story was originally published last year in the British speculative fiction magazine Interzone and has gained a number of honors, including being reprinted in The Year's Best SF 14 anthology, reprinted in the Czech SF magazine Ikarie, nominated for the 2009 British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction, and nominated for the 2008 BSFA Award for Best Short Fiction.

That'll do, story. That'll do.

No Kindle for me

I love the idea of the Amazon Kindle.  My mother has one and loves it, the screen is easy to read with, and you can download books immediately. I was considering purchasing one. However, the fact that the Kindle's DRM only allows you to download a particular book a few times killed that impulse.

I wonder if the Kindle will end up being like the original Macintosh computer, which popularized image-driven home computers but was so restrictive and expensive that it was eclipsed by Windows PCs. I also wonder if people who have been buying ebooks for their Kindles will start running into this issue more and more in the years to come, particularly when they upgrade to a new Kindle or an alternative system and the DRM keeps them from moving their books to these platforms. I mean, if someone came into my house and tried to take my books we'd have violence. How is it any different when someone does this same theft electronically?

For now, I'll stick with dead tree books.

Rude Pundit Lee Papa takes interviewing to lows

I've long been fascinated by bloggers who scream and shout over every little perceived online grievance. Would these people behave the same way--biting and crying and moaning and complaining--if they interacted with people outside the one-way blind of the blogosphere?

In the case of one blogger, the answer is yes.

Lee Papa is famous for his blog The Rude Pundit, which proudly aims to lower the level of political discourse. Papa was recently interviewed by poet and critic Dan Schneider, who runs the website Cosmoetica. Now Dan's done interviews with a whole mess of top-notch people, including philosopher Mark Rowlands, novelists Charles Johnson and Daniel Wallace, poet James A. Emanuel, and many more. A quick run through of his interviews will show anyone that these aren't your typical fluff-filled media gabfests--these are in-depth explorations of what these deep thinkers believe. If you don't want to do one of these type interviews, then don't do it. But I guess that's not how the Rude Pundit works.

So Papa does the interview. Said interview is published. Then Papa goes berserk, calling Dan a "wannabe Harlan Ellison" and that Papa will now publicly proclaim that "...the interview is your raving fantasy based on a few words I sent you." To rebut Papa's statement, Dan posts their entire email correspondence online so people can judge the situation for themselves.

My take: The Rude Pundit doesn't like debating the big issues when he can't use his blog as a one-way megaphone for shouting. But go draw your own conclusions.

Million Writers Award winners

The public vote for this year's Million Writers Award has ended and the winners are:

1. First place (winner of $500): "The Fisherman's Wife" by Jenny Williams (LitNImage)
2. Runner-up (winner of $200): "Fuckbuddy" by Roderic Crooks (Eyeshot)
3. Honorable mention (winner of $100): "No Bullets in the House" by Geronimo Madrid (Drunken Boat)

Congratulations to all the winners--I'll contact them shortly on how to receive their prize money. Also, thanks to everyone who took part in this year's award, especially the donors, without whom there would have been no prize money.

I'd also like to draw attention to Erica Naone and her wonderful blog. During the course of the MWA public vote, Erica reviewed the top ten stories on her blog. So if you haven't read the finalists, pop over there to see what Erica thought of them.

Final day of voting, and a warning

With less that 24 hours before voting ends for this year's Million Writers Award, a few people are attempting to stuff the ballot box for different stories. I have removed these votes, and, to discourage more attempts, have restricted the viewing of the results. I'll let everyone see the results again once voting closes at 11:59 p.m. tonight. I also reserve the right to disqualify any of the stories if the ballot stuffing attempts continue.

Calling BS on Harry Potter plagiarism claim

According to this Reuters report, the estate of Paul Allen, author of the 1987 novel The Adventures of Willy the Wizard -- No 1 Livid Land, are claiming that J.K. Rowling copied "substantial parts" of Allen's book when she wrote Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Allen's estate alleges that "the plot of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire copied elements of the plot of Willy the Wizard, including a wizard contest, and that the Potter series borrowed the idea of wizards traveling on trains.

"Both Willy and Harry are required to work out the exact nature of the main task of the contest which they both achieve in a bathroom assisted by clues from helpers, in order to discover how to rescue human hostages imprisoned by a community of half-human, half-animal fantasy creatures," the estate statement said.

Let me be the first to call this plagiarism claim what it is: Bull crap! (Yes, I'm being polite by using the euphemism.) Having wizards in different books both riding on trains is not plagiarism--that's next, yelling plagiarism if two authors both write about characters riding in cars? And having Willy and Harry both work out their task assisted by clues from helpers--My God, that sounds like the plot of half the fantasy books in existence. That must mean every fantasy author out there is guilty of plagiarism.

Seriously, this is an attempt by the estate of an author no one has heard of to profit from a book no one has read. Google The Adventures of Willy the Wizard and all you'll find is a report about this lawsuit. According to a Google Book search, Allen's book is all of 36 pages long and was likely published (according to the Writer Beware blog) by a vanity publisher. Even if these charges rose to the level of plagiarism--which they don't--I rather doubt Rowling could have found a copy of Allen's book to read.

So like I said earlier: Bull crap!