The VanderMeers School NPR on Fantasy Fiction

The intern has returned to tell you to catch up on your National Public Radio. Yesterday's Weekend Edition Sunday aired The Reality Behind Fantasy Fiction. Rick Kleffel does a great job interviewing Ann & Jeff VanderMeer and Tachyon's own Jacob Weisman.

Fantasy fiction is often seen as escapist literature. But that's not always the case. Fantastic elements in stories are often the only way a writer can approach a subject that is all too real. Fantasy pros Ann and Jeff VanderMeer say fantasy literature is a haven that allows them to tackle difficult real-life subjects in a way they feel is both effective and expressive.

You can listen to Ann and & Jeff's insights on fantasy, folklore, and why the genre is important, or you can read the transcript.

It's really worth checking out, or sending along to that smug guy at the office who thinks 'literary fiction' is the only fiction worth reading. You know the one I'm talking about.

Jeff VanderMeer: "The thing about life is that it's bittersweet. It is both funny and dreadful and horrific and beautiful and everything else. And so to capture that sometimes, especially in this complex world we live in, I turn to fantasy for that reason."

You tell 'em, Jeff!

Tachyon is Reinventing the Future!

Intern Elizabeth popping in to say that the good folk at i09 have once again recognized our fabulosity and named Tachyon first in its list of Independent Publishers Who Are Reinventing the Future.

"A lot of the most challenging and thrilling short fiction today is appearing in Tachyon's titles, one way or another," says editor Charlie Anders (who is quite, quite right).

Images from the Endurance Tour

After a fun weekend at World Fantasy Convention, Jeff VanderMeer's whirlwind book tour for Booklife and Finch brought him back through the Bay Area. In between hanging out with the Tachyon folks (minus me, infected with the WFC plague), his stops included Petaluma at Copperfield's Books, San Francisco at the SF in SF reading series with S. G. Browne, and Clayton Books in, um, Clayton. I'll leave you to guess which images belong to which event...

SF in SF movie night on 11/12: Wild Things!

SF in SF
announces a special screening for SF in SF attendees!!!

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

2009 - 101 minutes. Director, Spike Jonze / Screenplay, Dave Eggers
Based on the classic children's book, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Sunday, November 22

Doors and Cash bar open at 5:30PM
Movie will begin at 6:00 PM

POPCORN AND CANDY!

Seating is limited to 60 - first come, first seated.
Numbers will be given at the door to ensure that
seating is available.

A $5 donation at the door, or cash at the bar
goes directly to Variety Children's Charity of Northern California.

Since 1927, Variety the Children's Charity has been dedicated to improving the lives of children around the world. We do this by providing programs of last resort which help families' access medical care and related services that are not covered by insurance companies, hospitals, government agencies or community based organizations.
More information at www.varietync.org.

Any questions, please feel free to email Rina Weisman at sfinsfevents@gmail.com or call her 415-225-7445.

Variety Preview Theatre
The Hobart Building, 1st floor - entrance is between Quiznos & Citibank
582 Market Street at 2nd & Montgomery
San Francisco

See you at the movies!!!

The Hotel Where the Best Books Are

Jenny Miller of Where the Best Books Are has posted this excellent review of The Hotel Under the Sand, commenting: "Baker's first children's book is an uplifting fantasy about rising above adversity. Emma is as sweet-natured and level-headed as Dorothy was in the Wizard of Oz. In the face of terrifying circumstances, she makes the most of what she has to work with and jumps headlong into an adventure that is as captivating as any child could dream of."

2010: Forthcoming Tachyon Books

Since aught nine is almost done, it's time to spotlight our forthcoming 2010 titles through next summer:



In The Best of Joe R. Lansdale, Godzilla's in a twelve-step program. A soul-sucking Mummy stalks Elvis and John F. Kennedy. Joe Bob Briggs has a moral dilemma: If your girlfriend turns zombie on you, what do you do? And that's the tame stuff. The high priest of Texan weirdness will shock, amuse, and offend you as only he can.



A perfect gift book, The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals is a sumptuously illustrated and whimsically bite-sized bestiary. This is the definitive – in fact only - guide to the kosherness (kashrut) of imaginary animals. It is an undomesticated romp from A to Z, including E. T., Mongolian Death Worms, the Ziz, and the elusive chupacabra.



A sophisticated, scary anthology, Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror collects the best horror fiction published during one of horror’s most prolific eras. These exceptionally diverse stories, hand-picked by expert horror editor Ellen Datlow, are tales of the subtly psychological, the unpredictably mischievous, and the disturbingly visceral.



In The Very Best of Charles de Lint, the popular pioneer of urban fantasy and creator of the mythical city of Newford, has chosen — along his fans — many of his finest stories, gathered in this must-have career retrospective. These are retold fairy tales and new modern myths that redefine the boundaries of magic whether in a heroic, selfless act or sitting two tables away at your local café.



Compared by critics to Borges, Nabokov, and Kafka, a startlingly inventive contemporary fantasist amazes with The Third Bear, a surreal, innovative, and absurdist gathering of award-winning short fiction. Exotic beasts and improbable travelers restlessly roam through Jeff VanderMeer's darkly diverting and finely-honed tales, which include two previously unpublished stories.



In this exciting, groundbreaking volume, anthologist Peter S. Beagle takes you on a journey though The Secret History of Fantasy. Gifted writers have rediscovered older fantasy classics and moved past them to redefine fantasy in their own unique voices. Contributors include Francesca Lia Block, Gregory Maguire, Patricia McKillip, and many more.

io9 on Secret History

Chris Hsiang (a.k.a. Grey_Area) from io9 has written this thoughtful review of The Secret History of Science Fiction. It concludes, very amusingly, "These stories are good enough to make The New Yorker's Eustace Tilley pop his cartoon monocle." (Should we offer to buy him some contact lenses?)