Archives (page 60 of 454)

March 19, 2020 / 0 Comments

Ann VanderMeer: Five Things I Learned Editing Avatars, Inc.

Mars 2080.

While on a mission to Mars in the year 2080, a young astronaut encounters a decommissioned robotic Avatar unit, partially buried in the Martian dust. She pops open the cranial casing to find its central processing chip, still intact. She holds the chip up to her visual display unit to reveal its contents. Within moments, she is flooded with what-seem-to-be “memories” from the life of the avatar. This is Avatar Inc’s 24th successful mission, as part of an overall campaign to physically retrieve, preserve and archive the memory cards from their most valuable robotic avatar units. They searched the world, and deep into the solar system, to acquire the chips that contain avatar memories spanning the 21st century. These are those memories.

Stories can heal and also bring us closer together, even when we’re miles apart

Even as we are faced with what seem to be insurmountable odds, the human spirit still rises to the occasion. Keep in mind that the avatars are controlled by humans. And they make mistakes but also decisions that help save lives even to their own detriment. I see this in Ken Liu’s “Uma,” when the person behind the maintenance avatar decides to go against protocol and save a family. I see it again in “Oannes, From the Flood” by Adrian Tchaikovsky, when people on an archaeological dig are faced with that same dilemma. What this tells me is that even in our most dire circumstances, our inclination is to do what we can to help others, no matter where they are or where they come from. Beyond the excitement of the gadgets, technology and devices, it is the human element that brings us all together.

This anthology is launching in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and each hour the news seems to be getting worse and worse. Some may think this is the wrong time to be reading stories. But I disagree. I see many people online posting and engaging with the stories. What better way to take a break and still connect with others? These connections make me hopeful for what can be.

Writers may veer from the original prompt but that’s ok

Establishing a prompt that is provided to each contributing writer is an important way to design a cohesive theme and an enjoyable experience for the readers, but you also don’t want to creatively hamper the writers or have the prompt be so limiting that you start to see repetition across the stories. For Avatars Inc, we noticed that writers slightly deviated from the original prompt, which forced us to take a hard look at the overall narrative of the campaign. We ended up adjusting the prompt in response to the authors’ interpretations, and we are thrilled with the result.

I know that sometimes giving more freedom to a writer can be a dangerous thing (insert smiley face here) but in this case, it was a marvelous idea that generated extraordinary fiction.

Science Fiction stories never cease to amaze me

I’ve spent the last few years heavily immersed in fantasy stories after editing THE BIG BOOK OF SCIENCE FICTION and THE TIME TRAVELER’S ALMANAC. Fantasy was a nice break for me. As I worked on Avatars Inc, I was reminded of why I love science fiction so very much. I feel challenged and comforted at the same time. How can that be? The stories in this anthology forced me to take a different look at the world as it is today, but also to feel hopeful that humanity will rise to the occasion to deal with complicated issues. Are all the futures generated in science fiction stories hopeful? Of course not. Right now, we’re inundated with dystopian fiction worldwide. But as long as we can reach for the stars, and writers keep sharing their vision of what could be, I can take comfort in that.

The relationship between Art and Science is getting stronger

I’ve always known there was a relationship between art and science. I’ve seen it while working on various projects in how writers approach their work, riffing off of current events and yet extrapolating into the future. And I am also seeing so many science experts reaching across the divide to include writers in storytelling, to help get messages across to the larger public. Just as many universities are having multidisciplinary conferences that bring scientists and artists together, organizations like XPRIZE also recognize this important relationship.

The Use of Avatars can be much greater and more creative than I ever thought possible

I was surprised by all the different ways avatars were being used in the stories. I knew there would be space stories, of course. But I never thought of crime scene cleanup, as an example, and it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Nino Cipri came up with that idea in their story “At the End of a Most Perfect Day.” I also was intrigued with Johanna Sinisalo’s story “A Bird Does Not Sing Because It Has an Answer.” We think in terms of using avatars to go where it would be dangerous for humans. However, in this story the avatar is adopted because humans are dangerous to the natural world! And in “La Mer Donne” by Sarah Pinsker, the avatar is operated for weather reporting in the middle of a storm. Living in Florida, I am very used to seeing reporters trying to stay put on solid ground while a storm whips around them. I expect that, just as I was surprised to read about novel avatar use-cases in the stories, that I will also be surprised to see what teams are developing as part of the real-life ANA Avatar XPRIZE.

* * *

Over a 30-year career, Ann VanderMeer has won numerous awards for her editing work, including the Hugo Award and World Fantasy Award. Whether as editor-in-chief for Weird Tales for five years or in her current role as an acquiring editor for Tor.com, Ann has built her reputation on acquiring fiction from diverse and interesting new talents. As co-founder of Cheeky Frawg Books, she has helped develop a wide-ranging line of mostly translated fiction. Featuring a who’s who of world literature, Ann’s anthologies include the critically acclaimed Best American Fantasy series, The Weird, The Time Traveler’s Almanac, Sisters of the Revolution, The Big Book of Science Fiction, The Big Book of Classic Fantasy, and the forthcoming Big Book of Modern Fantasy (Vintage).

Avatars, Inc.: Digital anthology (free)!

March 18, 2020 / 28 Comments

The Ghost Of Normalcy Lingering Past Its Time

Everything seems mostly normal.

And it’s that word, that one word — “mostly” — that’s getting me.

A day begins, a day ends. Cars go past. Some cyclists, too. I make breakfast, I write some things, I make dinner, the family tosses a baseball around the yard. And then while we’re out there playing baseball, a plane goes overhead, and I make a quick joke to my wife and son — “Now, those people really know how to win at social distancing.” Because, y’know, forget six feet. They’re up in the sky and we’re on the ground. Only people doing it better are the people on the ISS, right?

But that joke, it’s not a normal joke. It’s normal to make jokes, to be clear; in times of standard operating procedure and in times of tumult, we make jokes. Light-hearted jokes and gallows humor alike. It wasn’t the joking — it was the joke.

That wasn’t a joke I could’ve made two weeks ago.

Shit, maybe even a week ago.

I wouldn’t have understood it. It wasn’t a thing. And now, it’s a thing.

A week ago, we went out to breakfast with a couple friends, and even though things were starting to get a little weird (my son’s school closed for a day due to “The Rona,” or are we calling it “The Cove?”) we still felt, you know, fairly normal. The blips and glitches in everything felt expected and unexceptional in the sense we knew we lived in strange times, what with the unbridled fuckery of the Trump Era, and we’d grown accustomed to those little bumpy hitches and pulled stitches. But now, looking back, that breakfast feels somehow indulgent. Like we didn’t appreciate it enough. And we don’t know when, or even how, a breakfast like that will happen again.

That’s what gets me, most. It’s that we’re living presently beneath a veneer, a shiny shellacking, of normal. Are things broken? No, not yet. Will they break? Probably somewhat, though to what extent, who can say? But right now we’re still in this interstitial space where things feel mostly normal, until something hits us that really, really doesn’t feel normal at all. A photo of emptied shelves, a cart full of toilet paper (stop hoarding toilet paper, by the way, you’re not going to poop more in the apocalypse, settle down), a picture of the stock market, a mumbly-mouthed presser with Trump, a new picture of the stock market as it plunges during his mumbly-mouthed nonsense, and then a Facetime call between kids because they can’t see each other, and then an e-mail from a local business about how they’re weathering the quarantine, then the quiet fear that the ground is shifting underneath your feet in a way that is as-yet-unperceived, a silent and unmoving earthquake, as much spiritual and emotional as anything else —

And then you look back outside. Cars and cyclists. Birds birbing. A plane overhead.

It feels normal, but that seems like an illusion. Like you can run your hand right through it — passing your fingers through a ghost. I suspect the illusion will continue. Until it doesn’t. How long will it be before something I did today feels rare, like a gift I didn’t appreciate enough at the time?

I think we’ll be fine, of course.

Not now. Maybe not soon. But eventually, eventually, we’ll be fine.

And eventually, we’ll find a new normal, whatever that will be.

March 18, 2020 / 22 Comments

Bit Of News, Couple Of Sales, Yadda Yadda

HEY Y’ALL, it’s me, your Pandemic Pal, your Apocalypse Acquaintance, your Coronavirus Cohort, your Quarantine… uhh, Qu… Quester? Fuck, I don’t know.

Anyway! Just some quick bits while we all hide in our submarines and spaceships:

First up, if you need a little escapism, here’s a 50% off coupon for both of my Mookie Pearl books — use coupon code MOOKIEPEARL to get 50% off both — EDIT: I’m taking this down for now because Paypal is losing its fucking mind. I’m getting email after email of payment, and then payment canceled, and then again and again. I’ll look into it. Sigh.

If you’re into a more cathartic kind of “escapism,” then WANDERERS is now dropped a bit in e-book to $11.99 over at Amazon.

And you can find me at SyFy talking about the book and our, uhhh, current level of fuckery? Both how the book compares to reality and also about hope and community and stuff.

In other news:

MY WRITING SHED IS DONE. Needs to earn its final permit, and then I’ll snap pics and point out the trapdoors (information only available to subscribers).

That’s it for now, I guess.

And here I ask, anything I can do for you? How are you all doing? Would you like it if I did a kind of AMA here? I’m starting to wrangle some “online appearances” upcoming — some digital panels and podcasty things. But what else can I do for you? I want to be of service in this dark time.

Meanwhile:

Here is a dog.

March 13, 2020 / 13 Comments

Wanderers News, When Wanderers Also Sort of IS The News?

The question is, is it glib to announce book news now? Is it gauche or otherwise in bad taste? What if that book is a book that… sometimes eerily mirrors the reality in which we’re living? Does that make it better, worse, or just weirder?

I have no idea! As I said yesterday on Twitter, this all feels like a slow-motion 9/11. Like we’re watching the planes hit, frame by frame, stretched out, instead of all at one time. But it’s also the aftermath of it, too, as if time itself has run together like wet paint.

Still. All I know is this: I’m a writer and I write books and this is what I do, and in the absence of much else, I’m gonna keep on writing books and editing books and talking about the books I have out in the world. Because otherwise I’ll just panic-eat cookies all day.

So, with that said, some book-ish news —

First, the slightly bad news: my next novel, The Book of Accidents, won’t be out this summer, as predicted. We talked about moving it to the fall, but given what is potentially to come in November, we felt it better to just… get out of the way of that trolley problem now, and move the book into 2021. I believe the expected publication date on that book is now July, 2021.

That said, the Wall Street Journal talks about how readers are, in the midst of COVID19, eagerly consuming pandemic fiction — and Wanderers gets a (fairly spoilery!) shout-out.

And I offered some brief thoughts at The Portalist about what it is to find hope in end-of-the-world stories. You can also find Mike Chen there, who would’ve been with me at the Tucson Book Fest. And here I remind you that with a lot of book events being canceled (see below for more about that), it’s a nice time to support indie bookstores and authors. Certainly I don’t mean to suggest it is your responsibility, as the difficulties going forward are likely to impact us all, but creative folks and the marketplaces for their work are often closer to the razor’s edge. The good news is, books make for an excellent dry good to stock up on for all your doomsday prepping needs! Bookshop.org (in beta) and indiebound.org are good places to start, but also I remind you that many, many indie bookstores will also sell and ship direct. Also note that another alternative (as with restaurants) is buying gift certificates from local stores to give flagging income a little goose.

(*honk*)

ANYWAY.

Finally, I can also announce that Wanderers is coming out in paperback!

If you want a little publishing industry inside baseball —

Because the book has done so well in its run so far (seriously, thank you, everyone), the initial paperback plan was to release it one year after hardcover, in July. And then I was going to maybe round that out with some bookstore and con events. But at this point, since all of that is suddenly fraught, Del Rey wisely decided to bump the paperback release sooner.

In the UK, it’ll be out on May 14th.

And in the US, it’ll be out May 19th.

Bonus: in the US it’s getting a revised cover:

* * *

WANDERERS: A Novel, out now.

A decadent rock star. A deeply religious radio host. A disgraced scientist. And a teenage girl who may be the world’s last hope. An astonishing tapestry of humanity that Harlan Coben calls “a suspenseful, twisty, satisfying, surprising, thought-provoking epic.”

A sleepwalking phenomenon awakens terror and violence in America. The real danger may not be the epidemic, but the fear of it. With society collapsing—and an ultraviolent militia threatening to exterminate them—the fate of the sleepwalkers and the shepherds who guide them depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart—or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.

Print: Indiebound | B&N | BAM | Amazon

Audio: Audible | Libro.FM

March 11, 2020 / 14 Comments

Anonymous: “I Got Swabbed For Covid-19 Today”

So, let’s say this up front: this post is not from me, but from a friend. A friend who wanted this kept anonymous due to — well, not just the Internet, I’m sure, but friends and family. You are wise not to trust this, because it’s an account from a person you don’t know, a person without a name. I know them. And I trust them. And this story isn’t even that salacious or terrifying, except for me in a kind of subtle, dystopian way. This person asked if I could post this somewhere, and so here I am, posting it.

* * *

I got swabbed for covid-19 today.

I went in to my rheumatologist for a routine appointment, and at admission, I was asked if I’d had any of the symptoms listed on the wall. As it happens, I’ve had a very mild fever (between normal and 99.6) off and on since Feb. 20 (it’s March 10 as I write this, so 18 days), and a cough intermittently for even longer —but I have asthma, I have a cough a lot of the time.

So I told the nice woman manning the desk. She very apologetically gave me a paper surgical mask, then told me to sit in the waiting room. Some time later, I was told to go into an exam room to wait instead.

Even later still, a PA came in with gloves, a gown, a surgical mask and visor, awkwardly tried to take my temperature without holding the thermometer, and when it fell out of the sleeve and onto the ground, she gave up. Then she said my rheumatologist would call me later, and I should go to urgent care to be tested. She gave me a bad photocopy showing three locations where testing for coronavirus was already set up.

When I left, all of the desk staff were wearing masks. They hadn’t been before.

Let me back up. I’m absolutely confident I don’t have coronavirus at this time. If nothing else, I have a pretty bad immune system, am on immunosuppressants, and suffer some comorbidities — I would expect to be much sicker than this.

OK, so, not especially sick, but I try to do the right thing. And so in the interest of public health, and feeling slightly ridiculous, I went to urgent care.

I put my mask back on, went in, waited for a while as the patient in front of my finished checking out. They were not wearing masks at this urgent care.

When I explained why I was there, the receptionist told me to go sit in my car and call her. So I did. I was checked in, she told me there were five patients ahead of me, and she’d call when it was time for me to come in.

OK. Abundance of caution. Also very, very frightening. I watched people around me come and go. I wondered if it was OK to have my car windows open or not.

An hour and change later, I called again from the parking lot wondering what my ETA was. She told me I was still behind five other patients — they had been waiting on a delivery of gowns — but there was no wait at an associated urgent care facility seven minutes away.

Fine. I went.

This place let me wait in the waiting room until I was called. Half the front desk staff had masks, but not everyone.

When I was called, the nice woman in a gown, gloves, and mask but no visor took my blood pressure and temperature (99), then swabbed both nostrils with the same two Q-tips (deeply uncomfortable but not painful.) “I’ve been testing for two or three days and haven’t seen any come back yet,” she said. “So it may be a while.”

I laughed. “So I should hear in, what, a week?”

“You’re optimistic,” she said. Then she sent me on my way.

I stopped at the front desk about my copay. “Should I pay here, or…?” I asked. I gestured at my mask. Handing over a credit card didn’t seem like the best idea.

The front desk staff consulted with each other and shrugged. “You can pay,” one said.

That seemed… wrong. Unhygienic. “Are you sure? I don’t want to…”

“We can bill you,” the other one said. “Have a nice day.”

Here are some things I have learned:

* When you are already short of breath, wearing a mask makes it worse.

* When you are already kinda freaked out, waiting alone in your car makes it worse.

* There is wildly inconsistent medical practice on protocols to prevent transmission.

All of these things are going to need to be addressed. The first two because the more isolating, uncomfortable, and flat out terrifying the experience of getting tested is, the less likely people are going to follow through. Note that there were several steps in here where I could have just not done my civic duty and no one would be the wiser.

And the third is a problem for obvious reasons. If even people working on the front lines aren’t taking consistent steps against transmission, what hope do the rest of us have?

This is going to be rough, friends. Take care of yourselves, wash your hands, and flattenthecurve.com.

March 11, 2020 / 22 Comments

So, You’re Working From Home!

HELLO [work_from_home_user], I SEE YOU HAVE BEEN QUARANTINED DUE TO [current_pandemic] AND ARE NOW SEEKING INSTRUCTIONS.

GOOD NEWS, FELLOW HOMEWORK CITIZEN. I HAVE BEEN — *clears throat* — sorry, I’ve been in these here freelance mines for oh, about 22 years now, and so I am glad to share any lessons I’ve learned along the way regarding the brave, surreal act of working from home.

Let’s just get this out of the way up front: I am no expert on this, except I am, and you should listen to me, or you’ll die. It’s dangerous to go alone, except you’re going alone, and only I can save you. *checks notes* Okay, my lawyer informs me it is not best to paint myself as an “expert” or “cult leader” in this regard, so I will add the legal disclaimer that I am not an expert, but please see my vigorous winking, wink wink wink, so you know that really, you can trust me, and only me, forever.

Anyway.

Your biggest problem right up front is a bifold peril — and you will be tempted to fall one of two ways off this horse.

The first way is this:

You will fall entirely into work. You have uploaded WORK into HOME and now, everything is work. You will start work early. You will end work but then go back to it after dinner, maybe before bed, maybe at 3AM, because you’re floating in a sensory deprivation tank of PURE, MERCILESS WORK. You’re the seven dwarves now, it’s all hi-ho hi-ho until death. Worklife has no margins. It is a land without borders and you will wander it aimlessly. And worse, your employers will smell this on you like the stench of slick, fresh fearsweat, and they’ll encourage this behavior. “Hey, can you send me that file?” your boss asks you at like, 6AM, 6PM, 9:30PM, whatever. Because the boundaries of work-home have now been chewed to dust by the termites of our current apocalyptic moment.

The second way is:

You will not be able to summon the discipline to work. Listen, being at home is — well, c’mon, it’s cozy. Cozy as hell. You have everything there! Why would you ever leave your home? You have, probably, I’m guessing, ALL THE MUSIC, and ALL THE MOVIES, and ACCESS TO DAMN NEAR ANY BOOK YOU HAVE EVER WANTED and haha, woo boy, it’s hard to summon the ability to commit to actual effort when you could just eat candy on the couch. Have you ever just sat on a couch, eating candy? Not doing anything else, just peacefully staring forward and eating candy? It’s great. It’s fucking great. Why would you work on a spreadsheet when you have a book to read? Your comfortable home bubble refuses to be punctured by the needle of work. It is turgid and unyielding and your recreation will not be denied, goddamnit.

So, your fight will be against endless work… versus no work at all. Your job will be to live in the interstitial terrain where even though you are ensconced at home, you can still create a work perimeter — a safe summoning circle in which wrestle your employment demons.

And in that vein, then, here are some tips. These tips are not facts, they are just my opinions, just the way I deal with things. And certainly my job — sorry, “job” — is less strident than standard employment. I’m ruined for public life. I’m basically a creepy magical hermit at this point. So, you are wise to distrust me.

Still. Tips. Let’s have at them.

Sure, you can masturbate. I know. I know! It’s rude to be talking this way but listen, we’d be foolish not to acknowledge the self-pleasuring elephant in the room. You’re home. Jacking or jilling it is a good stress reliever and an immune-booster, so you can do it. And it’s not like you can do it at work usually, so take the tiny salacious bump in your dopamine levels as you perform the illicit act of getting paid to tickle your bits.

Set clear boundaries. Boundaries mean time and place. That means start your day at a time, have lunch at a time, end it at a time. If your boss calls outside this time, you answer it and say, THE OFFICE IS CLOSED in a nasally voice, then drop your phone in an aquarium. Also buy an aquarium, fish are very relaxing. Place also matters — if you have a home office space, use it. If not, try not to make a too-comfy place your office space. No bed, no couch, no sex furniture, whatever. (Wait, do people not have sex furniture? Hm.) Dining room table is… enngh, okay if you gotta, but the ideal is to keep your routine home space relegated to home activities. Again, form that work perimeter. It’s like caging a T.Rex. Don’t let it out, or it’ll eat all your goats. (Wait, do people not have goats?)

Ergonomics. I’m gonna guess your job involves computers and desks and whatever — it’s not like you can be a coal miner and work from home. This shit ain’t Minecraft. So, ergonomics are going to be a thing. You will really dork up your back and neck if you don’t protect your haggard, bent prole-body. For the first several years of my freelance life I did not pay so much attention to this, and turns out, that’s not good for you. Once I concentrated on it, I eradicated endemic back pain I was having. All because I was sitting poorly. (Given that this is my professional life, I bought a very nice chair, a Steelcase Leap, which really helped. This is outside the range of what is likely cost-effective or normal if you do not intend to stay home for a long period of your work life.)

Those boundaries don’t need to be too strict. I see some folks advocating for strict adherence to work life protocol — like, say, dress for work. I’m pretty agnostic on this point and feel like, working from home should have some benefits, and one of those benefits is like, fuck yeah I’m wearing pajamas. If I have to Skype, I’ll put on a shirt and comb my hair, but you go to hell if you think I’m putting on pants for you, Dave. Working from home is still often more fun than working from an office, so you don’t need to make it a punishment. PANTS ARE A TOOL OF THE OPPRESSOR.

The blood must flow. Get up. It’s like washing your hands — make it a part of your routine. Move the blood around. Have some hand weights nearby. Take a walk, go for a run, take a bike ride. Take breaks and move your slugabed body around. Slosh your viscera. That shit needs to move or it calcifies. Bonus: blood flow moves blood to your brain, and your brain is where all the thinky thoughts happen. Blood makes the grass grow, or something, shut up. Move your blood. Get some sun. Listen to birds. Birds don’t give a fuck, they’ll just tweet and twoot and it’s nice, a good reminder that there is an existence beyond your own computer screen, your own anxiety.

Eatin’ good in the neighborhood. No, that doesn’t mean to eat Applebee’s, settle down. God, why would you do that? Though, I guess Applebee’s is not an uncommon work lunch joint. Anyway. Point is, don’t eat poorly whilst on your WORKHOME SOJOURN. Good, healthy snacks: nuts, jerky, fruits. Have you had an apple? They’re great. No to Applebees, but yes to apples. If you eat a lot of heavy carbs, or snack a lot, your brain will jog through concrete, and that makes work harder.

Beware your internet habits. These days, social media and the internet is a slick-lubed flume ride that will have you swiftly descending into a timeless, panic-fueled void. Now, to be fair, if you were a person with a computer in an office, this was a problem then, as well as now. And we all have a Panic Rectangle in our pockets to check like a rat hungry for its electric shock. Good news! At home, you might be able to install a product like Freedom, or I think there’s one called Cold Turkey? Point is, you can be proactive in dialing back your internet habits if you feel like that’s a problem for you.

Habit trackers are fine! Your schedule will feel a bit topsy-turvy. This will feel like a new normal. Nothing wrong with tracking your habits in a journal, or on a whiteboard, or carved into the walls of your cell. Something just to give you a sense of how much time you need to allocate to different things, and how certain habits have shifted.

Take sensible breaks. I like to work for 45 minutes, then break for 15.

See people. Unless you don’t like people, in which case, relish in your introversion and become the cave monster you have longed to be. But more seriously, social contact isn’t the worst thing, even if it’s Facetime or whatever. Just check in. Together, but separately!

Listen, hear me out: coffee coffee coffee. Failing that, tea. I brew my own pot. I bring it with me into the office with a mug. I guard it with a spear. I drink it and snarl.

Be forthright. Tell your employers when you’re having a problem or difficulty adjusting. Also tell your family. Don’t suffer alone. Not that I think working from home is suffering! For me, it’s amazing. But it will take some adjustment for some, and extroverts may find it hard. Just let people know.

Reclaim travel time. If you drove 30 minutes each way into work, don’t add that into your work time. Why do that to yourself? Use it similarly. Use it for books or audiobooks. For making yourself a healthy lunch. For playing video games, I dunno. Don’t give those minutes back to THE MAN, man.

Daydream. Real-talk, work is hard, the world is literal batshit right now, and so take a little time to just sit and let your brain percolate. Not in an anxious way — but willfully daydream, or meditate. Seriously. Deep breathing. Think about awesome stuff. Find grace and gratitude in quiet moments. Then masturbate one more time, for good measure.

And that’s it.

If you have more tips or tricks, toss them in the comments below.

* * *

WANDERERS: A Novel, out now.