Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Genre-iffic's LiveJournal:

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Monday, June 29th, 2009
9:11 am [oracne]	Worldcon Writers' Workshop There will indeed be a writers' workshop at Anticipation 2009, Worldcon in Montreal this August. Entry fee is $20 plus $2.58 in taxes, Canadian. This cost is to defray costs of the workshop. You pay the fee when you're notified that you have a slot and not before. Instructions will be emailed to entrants directly. There are a limited number of slots available and right now, it's one slot per customer, no multiple submissions. Maximum length is 10,000 words, including any synopsis of the rest of a novel, novella, etc. Shorter lengths, including flash, are fine, even encouraged, but only one story. Genre: science fiction, fantasy, horror, the usual for a Worldcon Type: short story or novel excerpt Language: English or French We will also consider entries for critique of non-fiction critical essays on the subject of genre, same length requirements. The entries will be distributed in advance so the window to get space in the workshop won't be open for very long. Please link to this post or repost the information, even if you're not going to Worldcon this year. Someone on your f-list might be going and might have a story to be critiqued. Official details will be forthcoming on the website and other avenues of communication. Oz Whiston Creative Writing Track (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
4:10 pm [nelilly]	Thaumatrope Reopens to submissions for guest editor Sean Wallace Thaumatrope is proud to announce guest editor Sean Wallace! Starting immediately Thaumatrope (a twitter fiction magazine of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror) has reopened for submissions through to July 31st, 2009 to collect stories for special run of -punk themed tweets to be published in the month of August. The science fiction field is often populated with new literary movements, and for August we want to honor what has come before, and what will come after, specifically with stories featuring elements from various -punk categories: cyberpunk, steampunk, clockpunk, biopunk, and many more. Hardboiled, noir, or edgy, it doesn't matter, but Thaumatrope wants your best: pushing genre boundaries with the best of them, bringing to your attention "punk" as you have never see it before . . . welcome to #thaumapunk Sean Wallace is the founder and editor for Prime Books, which won a World Fantasy Award in 2006. In his spare time he is also co-editor of Clarkesworld Magazine (Hugo nominee), and Fantasy Magazine; the editor of the following anthologies: Best New Fantasy; Fantasy; Horror: The Best of the Year; Jabberwocky; Japanese Dreams; and The New Gothic; and co-editor of Bandersnatch; Phantom; and Weird Tales: The 21st Century. He currently resides in Rockville, MD, with his wife, Jennifer, and their two cats, Amber and Jade. http://thaumatrope.greententacles.com/submissions/stories/ (Comment on this)
Monday, May 11th, 2009
7:59 am [muchtooarrogant]	A World of Scribbles worldofscribble is a brand new writing community with a monthly competition for the best author and critiquer. ( Click here to find out what we're all about. ) (Comment on this)
Friday, May 8th, 2009
2:24 pm [xjenavivex]	Promoting the work of Adam P. Knave, murnkay One of my favorite things in my reading and writing life is learning the back story of a particular project. The writer in me is taking notes, comparing processes, and remembering to hope. The fan in me is just excited to have that personal touch. Stories are personal. Writing is something you do alone. The writer has a connection to the work. When that writer then shares the how, the why, and sometimes the feelings behind it, the reader feels a deeper sense of connection to the work as well. At least, that is how it works for me. Strange Angel Adam P. Knave is kind enough to give us such a candid glimpse behind the scenes of his latest release. I am linking the related entries via his tag to share with you here. Scroll all the way to the bottom and work your way back up. You get to read a series of three posts discussing his thoughts on the work. Then you see his release post and a finally a pic of his books fresh off the press. I love that part!( Come on. Read a little further. Please. ) (Comment on this)
11:19 am [xjenavivex]	Promoting the work of another good friend In March mmerriam announced the release of You Don't Know What You've Got: Tales of Loss and Dispossession . I went back to Amazon to check on it today. The price has dropped which means you get an even better deal. I wanted to also take a look at the reviews. There is only one so far. This reviewer mentions that marketing stories as a collection dealing with loss and dispossession during these tough times might not be the best plan. I disagree. While many of us seek fantasy fiction for the escape, we gain a sense of empowerment in watching the characters we love overcome obstacles, hardship. Beyond that, remember misery loves company. Some of us just like to know we aren't alone when facing tough times. That can be just as important as a book offering a great laugh. The reviewer was a tough critic but gave Mike's story a shining review and the anthology a 4 out of 5. Not too shabby! I am taking from Mike's post here, but I wanted to give you a little information on the book and his story in his own words.( More behind the jump. ) (Comment on this)
9:57 am [xjenavivex]	Promoting the work of a good friend The button link below will take you to reannon's post in which she says: I also announced that starting (May 4th), I am taking preorders for COVER OF DARKNESS! This horror anthology from Sam's Dot Publishing includes my short story "Weathergirl" and comes out on May 10. Cover price is $10 plus $5 shipping, but if you order any other title from me at the same time, shipping's on me. What's that? You want the entire collected works of Elizabeth Donald? Here's what we have in stock: SETTING SUNS $13 NOCTURNE $12 ABADDON $8 Or you can get all three for $30. Toss in COVER OF DARKNESS and it's $40. Bonus: You get them all signed! I also answered a few questions: as far as I know, DREADMIRE is on track for release in June. I cannot take preorders yet because I don't know the cover price yet, but assuming the edits haven't been too evil, I think you'll all really enjoy it. I was very pleased with the final product, particularly given my newness to quest fantasy. When we know more about the release for DREADMIRE... heck, we'll hold another chat. :) Also available for $1 each: Buttons! Below the cut are the designs currently in stock: Button Button Who's Got The Button! Click here to go to her journal and check out the buttons. You will laugh. Trust me. You know you want one. Or several. For newbies: find out more about my books on my web site at www.elizabethdonald.com, and order by emailing booksales@elizabethdonald.com. Orders must be received by 11:59 p.m. CST May 10 to qualify for the free shipping deal. Seriously, go check her out! (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
12:33 pm [oracne]	call for subs - Race and Ethnicity in Fandom Special issue: Race and Ethnicity in Fandom (Summer 2011) Transformative Works and Cultures http://journal.transformativeworks.org/ editor AT transformativeworks.org SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS Sarah Gatson (Gatson AT tamu.edu), Sociology, Texas A&M University, http://sociweb.tamu.edu/faculty.php?faculty_id=12 Gatson@tamu.edu Robin Reid (Robin_Reid AT tamu-commerce.edu), Literature and Languages, Texas A&M University-Commerce, http://www.tamu-commerce.edu/litlang/reid.asp?menuName=people&pageName=f aculty Robin_Reid@tamu-commerce.edu Please feel free to forward to other listservs, individuals, and to post online! DESCRIPTION _Transformative Works and Cultures_ (TWC), an online-only, peer-reviewed journal focusing on media and fan studies, broadly conceived, invites contributions for a special issue on race and ethnicity to be published in summer 2011. Academic scholarship on fan cultures and fan productions over the past few decades has focused primarily on gender as the sole category of analysis. There has been little published scholarship on fan cultures and productions that incorporates critical race theory or draws on the rich array of methodologies that have been developed during the past century in both activist and academic communities in order to incorporate analysis of the social constructions of race and ethnicities in fandoms. In contrast, fan activism and fan scholarship (at cons, workshops, and on the Internet) has produced a growing body of work (personal narratives, essays, carnivals, and in recent months, a press) focusing on not only analyzing but also confronting hierarchies of race and ethnicity and their relationship to gender, sexuality, class, and disability. Submissions by academics, acafans, fan scholars, and fans are encouraged. In all categories, people of color are especially encouraged to submit. Topics might include but are not limited to: *Online activism and the circulation of critical race theory and women of color feminisms in fan communities, in particular the relationship between fan online discourse and other online activist communities. *Critical analysis of the instantiation and critique of racial hierarchies in fan communities and the surrounding cultural productions. *Racist and antiracist issues in commercial transformative works (comics, film, mashups, remixes, machinima, etc.), especially recuperative race readings (e.g., Randall's _The Wind Done Gone,_ Rhys's _Wide Sargasso Sea_). *Race concerns in source texts (characters of color and their fannish reception, fandoms for work by authors of color, writing fannish original characters, etc.) and fannish responses (such as the Carl Brandon Society, Verb Noire, and other panfannish and professional projects). *Intersection of race and ethnicity with gender, sexuality, class, and ability in fannish contexts in fan works and fan communities (pre-Internet, Internet, conventions, vids, fan fiction, artwork, etc.). SUBMISSIONS Submit final papers directly to TWC by October 1, 2010. Please visit TWC's Web site (http://journal.transformativeworks.org/) for complete submission guidelines. Please contact the guest editors with questions or inquiries. ARTICLE TYPES Theory: Apply a conceptual focus or theoretical frame. Peer review. 5,000-8,000 words. Praxis: Apply a specific theory to a formation or artifact; explicate fan practice; perform a detailed reading of a specific text; relate transformative phenomena to social, literary, technological, and/or historical frameworks. Peer review. 4,000-7,000 words. Symposium: Provide insight into developments or debates surrounding fandom, transformative media, or cultures. Editorial review. 1,500-2,500 words. (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 12th, 2009
11:59 am [sarahf]	Call for Applications for new academic romance society and journal: IASPR and JPRS (Comment on this)
Friday, February 27th, 2009
12:15 pm [oracne]	2008 Nebula Award ballot Novels Little Brother - Doctorow, Cory (Tor, Apr08) Powers - Le Guin, Ursula K. (Harcourt, Sep07) Cauldron - McDevitt, Jack (Ace, Nov07) Brasyl - McDonald, Ian (Pyr, May07) Making Money - Pratchett, Terry (Harper, Sep07) Superpowers - Schwartz, David J. (Three Rivers Press, Jun08) Novellas "The Spacetime Pool" - Asaro, Catherine (Analog, Mar08) "Dark Heaven" - Benford, Gregory (Alien Crimes, Resnick, Mike, Ed., SFBC, Jan07) "Dangerous Space" - Eskridge, Kelley (Dangerous Space, Aquaduct Press, Jun07) "The Political Prisoner" - Finlay, Charles Coleman (F&SF, Aug08) "The Duke in His Castle" - Nazarian, Vera (Norilana Books, Jun08) Novelettes "If Angels Fight" - Bowes, Richard (F&SF, Feb08) "Dark Rooms" - Goldstein, Lisa (Asimov's, Oct/Nov 07) "Pride and Prometheus" - Kessel, John (F&SF, Jan08) "Night Wind" - Rosenblum, Mary (Lace and Blade, ed. Deborah J. Ross, Norilana Books, Feb08) "Baby Doll" - Sinisalo, Johanna (The SFWA European Hall of Fame, James Morrow & Kathryn Morrow, Ed., Tor, Jun07 ) "Kaleidoscope" - Wentworth, K.D. (F&SF, May07) Short Stories "The Button Bin" - Allen, Mike (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, Oct07) "The Dreaming Wind" - Ford, Jeffrey (The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Ed., Viking, Jul07) "Trophy Wives" - Hoffman, Nina Kiriki (Fellowship Fantastic, ed. Greenberg and Hughes, Daw Jan08) "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" - Johnson, Kij (Asimov's, Jul08) "The Tomb Wife" - Jones, Gwyneth (F&SF, Aug07) "Don't Stop" - Kelly, James Patrick (Asimov's, Jun07) Scripts The Dark Knight - Nolan, Jonathan; Nolan, Christopher, Goyer, David S. (Warner Bros., Jul08) "WALL-E" Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter (Walt Disney June 2008) The Shrine - Wright, Brad (Stargate Atlantis, Aug08) Norton Graceling - Cashore, Kristin (Harcourt, Oct08) Lamplighter - Cornish, D.M. (Monster Blood Tattoo, Book 2, Putnam Juvenile, May08) Savvy - Law, Ingrid (Dial, May08) The Adoration of Jenna Fox - Pearson, Mary E. (Henry Holt and Company, Apr08) Flora's Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) - Wilce, Ysabeau S. (Harcourt, Sep08) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
2:16 pm [oracne]	Harlequin comics in Japan. (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
10:51 am [oracne]	Fred Pohl has a blog. (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 15th, 2009
9:06 am [oracne]	New Nebula Award rules for 2009. (Comment on this)
Friday, January 9th, 2009
1:13 pm [oracne]	Inauguration special Spiderman comic. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
12:24 pm [oracne]	Preliminary 2008 Nebula Ballot. ( Cut for length. ) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
9:25 am [oracne]	Black Gate blog Judith Berman posts on genre conventions at the Black Gate blog. Having come up as a scholar through the study of unwritten languages and folk literature, I have a great respect for convention. All language, for example, depends upon shared conventions that govern how we parcel sounds and strings of sounds into meaningful categories. These rules do not determine what we say, but are rather the necessary tools for saying it. Successful storytelling similarly depends upon many kinds of conventions, and from a folklorist’s perspective, all stories are examples of one genre or another. What distinguishes any given genre is its particular constellation of stock elements along with its rules for combining them. Moreover (I would add), every genre has its own bell curve of conventionalization, from the completely cliched and predictable to stories that are barely comprehensible within the genre’s framework. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 21st, 2008
9:18 am [oracne]	Buffy sale! Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Collector's Set (40 discs) is on sale at Amazon for $69.99! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
9:19 am [oracne]	Check out Book View Cafe. LJ Feed is here. "Every day, new content available nowhere else will be served up on Book View Cafe: short stories, flash fiction, poetry, episodes of serialized novels, and maybe even a podcast now and then. The content will be archived and available after the posting date by visiting the author's bookshelf. Author's bookshelves are accessed by using the pulldown menu at the top of the first page of the site. Current authors are: Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff Brenda Clough Kate Daniel Laura Anne Gilman Christie Golden Anne Harris Sylvia Kelso Katharine Eliska Kimbriel Sue Lange Ursula K. Le Guin Rebecca Lickiss Vonda N. McIntyre Nancy Jane Moore Pati Nagle Darcy Pattison Irene Radford Madeleine Robins Amy Sterling Jennifer Stevenson Susan Wright Sarah Zettel" (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 13th, 2008
9:08 am [oracne]	Mythcon call for papers Mythcon XL Call for Papers The Mythopoeic Society is presenting its annual conference, Mythcon XL, July 17‐20, 2009 at the UCLA DeNeve Conference Center, Los Angeles, CA. The theme of this year’s conference is “Sailing the Seas of Imagination.” The Guests of Honor will be Diana Pavlac Glyer and James A Owen. Professor Glyer is the Conference’s Scholar Guest. Her book, The Company They Keep, is being hailed as the best work yet on the Inklings as a creative and collaborative group. She is well versed in Inklings’ studies, focusing on the effect of a creative community upon individual creators. James A. Owen is the author of the young adult novels Here, There Be Dragons and The Search for the Red Dragon. He is also the writer and artist of the independent comic series Starchild. Of special interest this year are examinations of all aspects of the creative process in the Inklings’ works, and in particular, the concept of artistic community. Papers dealing with the work of the Guests of Honor, on young adult fantasy and science fiction, on artists and writers in community, and in any other aspect of the conference theme are especially encouraged. Seaborne imagery is important to much mythopoeic fantasy, especially in the motif of sailing to unknown lands. Each paper will be given a one-hour slot to allow time for questions, but individual papers should be timed for oral presentation in 40 minutes maximum. Two presenters who wish to give short, related papers may also share a one-hour slot. Participants are encouraged to submit papers chosen for presentation at the conference to Mythlore, the refereed journal of the Mythopoeic Society. All papers should conform to the MLA Style Manual (2nd edition). Please include your AV requests, or any other technical concerns you have, as all equipment MUST be arranged in advance. All paper presenters must register for the full conference; please see the Mythcon 40 web page, www.mythsoc.org/mythcon40.html, for information and rates. We must receive proposals and abstracts by April 15th, 2009 Paper abstracts (250 words maximum), along with contact information to: Sherwood Smith Sherwood@sff.net put MYTHCON 40 in subject header (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, November 7th, 2008
11:57 pm [_ocelott_]	Undead and Unemployed by MaryJanice Davidson Series: Betsy Taylor (Undead) Publisher: Berkley, 2004 Genre: Romance Sub-genre: Chick lit, Paranormal Read the full (spoiler-free) review here. Undead and Unemployed was a cute book, a quick, fun read about a vampire who'd really rather lust over shoes than angst about her undead status. The first person narration is so firmly entrenched in Betsy's voice that readers will either love or hate the books depending on how well they like the flighty protagonist. Fairly typical for a chick lit heroine, Betsy is irreverent and a bit of a snob, especially when brand names come into question. As a heroine in a vampire-laden paranormal romance, I got the feeling she was just trying too hard. She did everything she could to contrast with the expectations of what a Queen of the Vampires was supposed to act like, she lost what charm she might have had in doing things her own way. My biggest annoyance was that things just seemed to happen a little too easily for Betsy. She's barely begun to look for a job when an opening in her ideal job falls into her lap. Most of the regular vampire rules don't apply to her, which isn't due to anything she's done or earned, but because she fills the prophecy for the Queen of the Vampires. Her independently wealthy best friend goes and buys a mansion for Betsy to live in after the termites destroy her home. Most of the problems she encounters in the book resolve themselves without any effort on Betsy's part whatsoever, and the few things she did have to resolve on her own could have been worked out a lot quicker had she been paying attention to matters outside her shoe closet. Also, I'm slightly puzzled over the part where Betsy the vampire who regularly sucks blood from humans is scared of a ghost. Bwuh? As far as vampire fiction goes, Undead and Unemployed wasn't the most addictive or creative additon to the genre I've ever seen, but if you're in the mood for something fun and fluffy, you could do a lot worse. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
9:18 am [oracne]	Speculative Literature Foundation Announces 2008 Gulliver Travel Research Grant Winner The Speculative Literature Foundation is delighted to announce that its 2008 Gulliver Travel Research Grant has been awarded to author Alaya Dawn Johnson. The $800 grant will be used to help Johnson to travel to Mexico City and other historical sites in Mexico, to research a novel. Johnson's stories have appeared in Fantasy, Interzone and Strange Horizons, and have been reprinted in both the SF and Fantasy Year's Best anthologies edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. Her first novel was published by Agate Publishing in 2007, with the sequel due in 2009. "Alaya's fiction is lean and muscular but bejeweled with strangeness," said Colin Harvey, author of Blind Faith, editor of Killers, and the Foundation's UK travel grant juror. "Within that strangeness, though, beat human hearts. Her characters love and grieve, are bitter, generous or ashamed --as real people are. Her proposal was detailed, her fiction compelling. She is a worthy winner, and we look forward to reading the completed novel." "Alaya's sample was a compelling slice of a brutal and beautifully realized world. The characters are fierce, tragic and brave, and events in this tantalizingly short piece hint at the complexity to come: one gets the sense that the threads of art, love, and ambition will weave together into a deeply passionate novel about human existence," said Corie Ralston, the Foundation's Managing Director. The Gulliver Travel Research Grant is awarded to assist a writer of speculative fiction in his or her research. As in previous years, the 2008 grant of $800 is to be used to cover airfare, lodging, and/or other expenses relating to the research for a project of speculative fiction. The grant is awarded by a committee of Speculative Literature Foundation members on the basis of interest and merit. The grant is named after Gulliver, a character in the 1726 story "Gulliver's Travels" written by Jonathan Swift. The story represents one of the earliest examples of fantasy travel. Applications for the sixth annual Gulliver Travel Research Grant will open on July 1, 2009. The Speculative Literature Foundation is a volunteer-run, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the interests of readers, writers, editors and publishers in the speculative literature community. "Speculative literature" is a catch-all term meant to inclusively span the breadth of fantastic literature, encompassing literature ranging from hard and soft science fiction to epic fantasy to ghost stories to folk and fairy tales to slipstream to magical realism to modern mythmaking -- any literature containing a fabulist or speculative element. More information about the Speculative Literature Foundation is available from its web site, www.speclit.org. More information about the Gulliver Travel Research Grant can be found at www.speclit.org/Awards/SLFTravelGrant.php. (Comment on this)