Jared Sandman

As of this week, all my novels are in the Apple bookstore.  Before they’d been available only via the Kindle app; now they’re properly on sale through iBooks.  Snag a copy today for your iPad, iMac or iWhatever.

No news yet about Kobo.  My books should be appearing there in the very near future, and I’ll make a separate announcement for that when the time comes.

I also saw today that A&E is putting together a new television series about Norman Bates, called Bates Motel.  Vera Farmiga has been cast as Mother Bates.  No word yet who will play Norman.  This might be interesting, in the right hands; since Carlton Cuse has been tapped as showrunner, I have some reservations.

Fourteen science fiction writers in 1987 were asked to write predictions of what the world would be like a quarter-century thence.  Their answers were collected and placed inside a time capsule, to be opened IN THE FUTURE.  Well, that future has arrived.  Some of their results are surprisingly accurate (especially for Dave Wolverton and Sheldon Glashow).  Others?  Not so much.  Only five of the authors have passed away since:  Asimov, Budrys, Feinberg, Williamson and Zelazny.  The rest are still alive and kickin’.

In more science news, researchers at Harvard were recently able to break down a book, transfer and store it on a single strand of DNA.  Technology like this will be able to encode so much more information in the future than we’re capable of storing today.  Reminds me a bit of Fahrenheit 451, except people won’t have to remember a book by rote; it will be coded directly into every cell of their bodies.

Couple of interesting articles, one from the New York Times and another from Forbes.

The New York Times has a report for authors thinking about getting into digital publishing.  It’s pretty straightforward, not too meaty but good for readers who don’t generally follow these things.

The Forbes article is more in-depth and makes several good points, even going so far as to include a few predictions for the near future.  Well worth a read.

I signed up for GoodReads a long time ago and never did much with my profile.  In the past week, however, I’ve been learning how to navigate the site and I’m warming up to it.  Social media has never been a strong point for me, though it’s an essential part of publishing in the digital age.  I don’t do much on Facebook; despite myself, I can see the charms of Twitter.  Anyway, today GoodReads announced it signed up its 10,000,000th (that’s ten million) member.  If you’re also on GoodReads, consider adding me as a friend, or become a fan of my work at my author page. 

In other news, I learned about a new company called Togather.  Right now it’s in the beta stage.  As it matures, I hope it flourishes into a successful venture.  Sounds like a great idea to foster community outreach.  Book tours are generally more of a hassle than they’re worth (except for bestselling authors, of course, and the Catch-22 is that they’re famous enough that they don’t need to go on tour).  This idea simplfies the the whole process of booking speaking engagements, which gets a thumbs-up from me.

Here’s an interesting link showcasing that great writers like Ray Bradbury still have to deal with rejection, even well after becoming household names.  Bradbury was a poet at heart, not a scientist, and this anecdote hightlights that point.  I hope one day his lost planetarium show sees the light of day.

Forbes also released a list of the highest-paid writers in the world.  See if your favorite bestseller made the cut.  I have to admit being surprised by a couple of entrants.

This morning the list of nominees was released for the World Fantasy Awards.  Congrats to all those who were nominated.  (List taken from Publishers Weekly.)  Winners will be announced at the World Fantasy Convention later this year in Toronto, the first week of November.

Novel
•  Those Across the River, Christopher Buehlman (Ace)
•  11/22/63, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton as 11.22.63)
•  A Dance with Dragons, George R.R. Martin (Bantam; Harper Voyager UK)
•  Osama, Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)
•  Among Others, Jo Walton (Tor)

Novella
•  ”Near Zennor”, Elizabeth Hand (A Book of Horrors)
•  ”A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong”, K.J. Parker (Subterranean Winter 2011)
•  ”Alice Through the Plastic Sheet”, Robert Shearman (A Book of Horrors)
•  ”Rose Street Attractors”, Lucius Shepard (Ghosts by Gaslight)
•  Silently and Very Fast, Catherynne M. Valente (WSFA Press; Clarkesworld)

Short Fiction
•  ”X for Demetrious”, Steve Duffy (Blood and Other Cravings)
•  ”Younger Women”, Karen Joy Fowler (Subterranean Summer 2011)
•  ”The Paper Menagerie”, Ken Liu (F&SF 3-4/11)
•  ”A Journey of Only Two Paces”, Tim Powers (The Bible Repairman and Other Stories)
•  ”The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees”, E. Lily Yu (Clarkesworld 4/11)

Anthology
•  Blood and Other Cravings, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Tor)
•  A Book of Horrors, Stephen Jones, ed. (Jo Fletcher Books)
•  The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Harper Voyager US)
•  The Weird, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Corvus; Tor, published May 2012)
•  Gutshot, Conrad Williams, ed. (PS Publishing)

Collection
•  Bluegrass Symphony, Lisa L. Hannett (Ticonderoga)
•  Two Worlds and In Between, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean Press)
•  After the Apocalypse, Maureen F. McHugh (Small Beer)
•  Mrs Midnight and Other Stories, Reggie Oliver (Tartarus)
•  The Bible Repairman and Other Stories, Tim Powers (Tachyon)

Artist
•  John Coulthart
•  Julie Dillon
•  Jon Foster
•  Kathleen Jennings
•  John Picacio

Special Award Professional
•  John Joseph Adams, for editing – anthology and magazine
•  Jo Fletcher, for editing – Jo Fletcher Books
•  Eric Lane, for publishing in translation – Dedalus books
•  Brett Alexander Savory & Sandra Kasturi, for ChiZine Publications
•  Jeff VanderMeer & S.J. Chambers, for The Steampunk Bible

Special Award Non-Professional
•  Kate Baker, Neil Clarke, Cheryl Morgan & Sean Wallace, for Clarkesworld
•  Cat Rambo, for Fantasy
•  Raymond Russell & Rosalie Parker, for Tartarus Press
•  Charles Tan, for Bibliophile Stalker blog
•  Mark Valentine, for Wormwood

Forbes recently conducted a comprehensive three-part interview with Smashwords founder Mark Coker that makes for an interesting read.

I’ll also bring your attention to Marmaduke Explained, which I’ve enjoyed for some time now.  It’s so simple, a daily deconstruction of a one-panel comic strip.  Way funnier than Marmaduke itself.

New Doctor Who trailer for the first half of Series 7 came out today.  It starts airing later this month, and it looks epic.

Here’s an in-depth article The Atlantic Wire published earlier this month about YA author R.L. Stine.

I’m part of that Goosebumps generation the reporter spoke about.  This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the first book in that series being published.  I remember going to the bookstore to pick up each month’s new title.  Those books had a unique smell; I don’t know if it came from the type of paper used or what, but that scent can instantly transport me to the now-shuttered Borders Books in Fairlawn, Ohio.

This was before the recent boom (and subsequent crash — stay tuned) in young adult fiction, the lean days before Harry Potter.  Back then there wasn’t a lot in the way of YA books, especially good speculative fiction.  Alvin Schwartz had his Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Bruce Coville put out a line of great anthos in his Book Of series, and the Monsters Series published by Crestwood House was superb.  Beyond that, there wasn’t much that held my interest.

Except R.L. Stine.  I devoured those books and went back for more.  Some of the best were the earlier, darker ones like Night of the Living Dummy, The Haunted Mask or The Scarecrow Walks At Midnight.  Admittedly, many of the books explored plots (a ventriloquist doll that comes to life, Halloween masks that become part of you, evil scarecrows) that are well-trod.  But those aren’t really horror cliches when you’re under the age of ten.

As the series went on, the books became more cartoonish and less suspenseful.  I kept buying them, however, because I wanted the full set.  By the time the original Goosebumps series ended, I had moved on to Stephen King; still I have those books, boxed up and tucked away in the closet for some future generation to enjoy.

Earlier this month I listed my favorite books about writing.  One of them, Writing Movies for Fun andProfit, just came out in paperback.  The authors, Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, appeared this week on Attack of the Show to promote the book.  Any fans of Reno 911 know these men are funny, and their book is truly hilarious.  This embedded interview is from last year.  Click here to see this week’s newer interview.