If You Lived Here

Lorrie McCullough, the head of marketing at Underland Press, alerted me to an interesting project they have in the works. It’s called If You Lived Here: The Top 30 All Time Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Worlds, and will serve as a guide to the imaginary worlds we have loved in fiction. You can make nominations of such worlds and leave comments at www.ifyoulivedherebook.com, and your input could get into the book itself, which will be authored and edited by acclaimed writer/editor Jeff VanderMeer.

Having spent the last few weeks in the imaginary land of Westeros (long enough that I feel an urge to stab friends and enemies alike), I can see the need for this guide, and I imagine it will make a fine addition to your bookshelf whEN published.
.

Martin H. Greenberg, 1941-2011

Master anthologist Martin H. Greenberg has died at age 70. Greenberg’s name appears on the cover of around 2500 books, most of them anthologies containing fantasy, horror, sci-fi, or mystery. Most of us who read genre fiction have a shelf (or two) filled with his books. R.I.P., Mr. Greenberg.
.

Another Mea Culpa

Due to assorted personal issues, posting here has been sporadic lately. Okay, by sporadic I mean non-existent. Hopefully, I will be getting back to a more or less regular schedule soon. One of the interesting things I noticed in coming back to check the blog’s stats is my number of “followers” grew much faster during the period when I wasn’t posting than when I was. This begs the question of whether people like it better when I don’t have anything to say. Anyway, I hope to catch up on a pretty extensive backlog over the coming days.
.

Invisible Fences - 2011 Stoker Winner

Way back in December of 2008, I posted a review of Norman Prentiss excellent book Invisible Fences, and did what little I could to beat the drum for this masterpiece of quiet horror. I made an offhand remark at the time that Invisible fences would win a Stoker Award. Considering I’m right about something every decade or so, I’m happy to say that prediction came true, and Invisible Fences won in the Long Fiction category. Congratulations, Norman, it was a well-deserved win.

It’s fashionable to bash the Stoker Awards for the endless electioneering that goes on, and I’ve criticized them myself, but this years winners are pretty impressive, and if you plan some reading around the list, you shouldn’t be disappointed.
.