A little BIRD told me…

Well, I’m back from my trip to Vietnam, but too busy…lazy?…to write a full post or series of posts about whatever cool things I experienced there. I’ll just work in little fragments here and there as I go along, once I’ve had some pictures developed to help illustrate my anecdotes. In the meantime, let me tell you about two fascinating new books I’m in…

IN CONVERSATION: A WRITER’S PERSPECTIVE, edited by JAMES COOPER

This is a collection of interviews with horror writers, such as myself, conducted by the very nice James Cooper and handsomely produced (what a striking cover!) by the British Fantasy Society (ahem!). The writers interviewed are:

JOE R. LANSDALE – RAMSEY CAMPBELL – GRAHAM JOYCE – BRIAN KEENE – CONRAD WILLIAMS – STEPHEN GALLAGHER – TIM LEBBON – MARK MORRIS – NORMAN PARTRIDGE – TOM PICCIRILLI – JEFFREY THOMAS – PETER CROWTHER – RAY GARTON – GREG F. GIFUNE – GARY McMAHON – GARY FRY

Very cool book, and it can be ordered here:

http://www.britishfantasysociety.org/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=19&category_id=2&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=73&vmcchk=1&Itemid=73

LAST DRINK BIRD HEAD, edited by ANN & JEFF VANDERMEER

Another quirky and fun project from the quirky and fun VanderMeers. This one is also a handsome hardcover, limited to 1000 copies, with wonderful cover art by Scott Eagle — and my copy as a contributor came with a blue quill and a very groovy little metal LAST DRINK BIRD HEAD pin. But I’ll let the editors describe the nature and intent of this anthology:

Last Drink Bird Head is a variation on a surrealist writing game: we gave the phrase to over 70 writers and asked them “Who or what is Last Drink Bird Head?” The results run the gamut from the hilarious to the terrifying, with each writer bringing their signature style and voice to the enterprise.

All proceeds on Last Drink go to ProLiteracy.org. WHAT IS PROLITERACY?
Help promote worldwide literacy through the ProLiteracy organization. ProLiteracy “champions the power of literacy to improve the lives of adults and their families, communities, and societies. We envision a world in which everyone can read, write, compute, and use technology to lead healthy, productive, and fulfilling lives.” For more information, visit ProLiteracy.org.

The contributors to this intriguing anthology are:

Daniel Abraham, Michael Arnzen, Steve Aylett, KJ Bishop, Michael Bishop, Desirina Boskovich, Keith Brooke, Jesse Bullington, Richard Butner, Catherine Cheek, Matthew Cheney, Michael Cisco, Gio Clairval, Alan M. Clark, Brendan Connell, Paul Di Filippo, Stephen R. Donaldson, Rikki Ducornet, Clare Dudman, Hal Duncan, Scott Eagle, Brian Evenson, Eliot Fintushel, Jeffrey Ford, Richard Gehr, Felix Gilman, Jon Courtney Grimwood, Rhys Hughes, Paul Jessup, Antony Johnston, John Kaiine, Henry Kaiser, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Tessa Kum, Ellen Kushner, Jay Lake, Tanith Lee, Stina Leicht, Therese Littleton, Beth Adele Long, Dustin Long, Nick Mamatas, JM McDermott, Sarah Monette, Kari O’Connor, Ben Peek, Holly Phillips, Louis Phillips, Tim Pratt, Cat Rambo, Mark Rich, Bruce Holland Rogers, Nicholas Royle, G Eric Schaller, Ekaterina Sedia, Ramsey Shehadeh, Peter Straub, Victoria Strauss, Michael Swanwick, Mark Swartz, Alan Swirsky, Rachel Swirsky, Sonya Taaffe, Justin Taylor, Steve Rasnic Tem, Jeffrey Thomas, Scott Thomas, John Urbancik, Genevieve Valentine, Kim Westwood, Leslie What, Andrew Steiger White, Conrad Williams, Liz Williams, Neil Williamson, Caleb Wilson, Gene Wolfe, Jonathan Wood, Marly Youmans, and Catherine Zeidler

That’s right, you saw Peter Straub’s name in there. So many other great people, too.

My brother Scott Thomas has a story in here, also, and his follows mine. Something funny: we start out with very similar opening lines, though we weren’t aware of what the other was writing, and though are stories are very different — Scott’s being in his usual Victorian ghost story style, while mine is a mini Punktown tale. My story begins:

“Pre’tu hated holidays to begin with. Holidays reminded him of his wifelessness, childlessness, his pennilessness in having to buy presents for others who – with mocking grins of joy, or at least drunkenness – embraced each holiday only too readily, like birds enticed by any bright bauble however broken and petty.”

Scott’s protagonist is also without wife, chldren, or much else going for him. His story begins:

“Poor John Burnham died alone and unloved with no wife, no children and only a fever to keep him warm.”

Maybe I’ll have to sue Scott once I’m done suing James Cameron (see previous posts).

A really exciting, offbeat project, and for a good cause, too. LAST DRINK BIRD HEAD can be ordered from the publisher, Wyrm Publishing, here:

http://wyrmpublishing.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=20

So read, people…read!!!!!

I’m so blue over AVATAR

My Thi Gonh of BLUE WAR and DEADSTOCK is blue-skinned, too, but doesn't have the tail AVATAR's Navi has. I'd still do her, though.

A few weeks ago I received an interesting email from a guy named Dave Figueroa, who had just seen the movie AVATAR and thought it reminded him of a story he’d read a few years earlier – this being my short story IN HIS SIGHTS, in the anthology THE SOLARIS BOOK OF NEW SCIENCE FICTION #1. (See my post of 10/15 on the weird similarities between AVATAR and my novels BLUE WAR and DEADSTOCK, and the related short story IN HIS SIGHTS: http://punktalk.punktowner.com/?p=343) Subsequently, Mr. Figueroa has done two fascinating blog posts on the subject, in which he notes these similarities, too, and then discusses my own earlier blog post on the matter:

BLUE DEJA VU, from 1/3/10 http://daedahl.blogspot.com/2010/01/blue-deja-vu.html

And BLUE WORLDS REVISTED, from 1/9/10 http://daedahl.blogspot.com/2010/01/blue-worlds-revisited.html

I’m sure any movie, but particularly one so effects oriented, would have been in the works long before my stories came out — even if they did actually appear first — but it’s still pretty damn strange. I suppose I can’t expect James Cameron to come groveling for my forgiveness with a huge check in his hand, but maybe he’ll call me up one of these days and say, “We think alike, Jeff…I like you. How about you script my next movie — I’ll make you the next king of the world!”