Enter the Octopus

My friends Fábio Fernandes and Jacques Barcia – you know them from the excellent blog Post-Weird Thoughts - have launched what appears to be an oustanding new online publication devoted to speculative fiction. Called “Terra Incognita,” the first issue is now online. It’s in Portugese, but they’re working on a special edition entirely in English, and they’re calling out for submissions.

Check out the guidelines here!

Mythic Delirium editor Mike Allen’s newest project is “Clockwork Phoenix,” a collection of tales of “beauty and strangeness” including work from Ekaterina Sedia, Marie Brennan, Cat Rambo, Catherynne M. Valente and many others. You can find out more at http://www.clockworkphoenix.com

What, may I ask, is a Clockwork Phoenix, anyway?
I like to think of it as an avenging machine that rises from the molten furnace, its gears and springs and pistons clicking into place with noises not unlike the sound guns make when you pull back the slide to put a bullet in the chamber. Its feathers are sharper than razors, and when it flies with its wings extended it’s as deadly to lowly creatures of the flesh as any killing blade. The question is: will it reach its target before it dissolves again into ash?
But that doesn’t have much to do with the book I put together. *g*
“Clockwork Phoenix” is just a catchy-sounding phrase meant to signify unexpected juxtapositions. In and of itself it means nothing.

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Brian Francis Slattery second novel “Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six After the Collapse of America” follows the adventures of a disbanded team of criminals who reunite in an America in the throes of an economic collapse, a setting that’s sure to strike more than a few worried chords with readers today.

Fresh off of a five year stint on a prison boat, Slick Six leader Marco comes home to find a country broken by financial ruin and haunted by the ghosts of its past. As he searches for his former partners he discovers that that slavery has risen again from the South and marauding tribes of “New Sioux” are cutting a bloody swath across the Midwest. Post-collapse America is in chaos, its former citizens fleeing to seek refuge in Canada and Mexico.

Is there any hope for this country? Marco and the rest of the Slick Six plan on finding out.

Wildly poetic, full of black humor and excitement, “Liberation” is an apocalyptic tale that only Slattery could deliver: a gonzo roadtrip across a troubled America that’s not too far from our own. It’s a worthy successor to “Spaceman Blues” that should cement Slattery’s reputation as a new master of speculative lit.

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at Octopus Central-

“The House of the Stag” by Kage Baker. This is a follow-up to Baker’s “The Anvil of the World,” but it’s not a sequel, rather a story set in the same milieu. Baker says, ” it’s the story of how Lord Ermenwyr’s parents met, married and proceeded to start their very strange family. An alternate title might have been The Villain’s Journey.”

Copy: Before the Riders came to their remote valley the Yendri led a tranquil pastoral life. When the Riders conquered and enslaved them, only a few escaped to the forests. Rebellion wasn’t the Yendri way; they hid, or passively resisted, taking consolation in the prophecies of their spiritual leader.

Only one possessed the necessary rage to fight back: Gard the foundling, half-demon, who began a one-man guerrilla war against the Riders. His struggle ended in the loss of the family he loved, and condemnation from his own people.

Exiled, he was taken as a slave by powerful mages ruling an underground kingdom. Bitterer and wiser, he found more subtle ways to earn his freedom. This is the story of his rise to power, his vengeance, his unlikely redemption and his maturation into a loving father–as well as a lord and commander of demon armies.

Kage Baker, author of the popular and witty fantasy, The Anvil of the World, returns to that magical world for another story of love, adventure, and a fair bit of ironic humor.

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Looking forward to the soon to be released movie “The Road” and in the mood for a little nuclear age apocalyptic horror?

Forget “The Day After,” the scariest movie about nuclear war I’ve ever seen is a British film called “Threads.” It’s a brutal, unflinching look at life before, during and after a nuclear war. I saw it as a kid and it absolutely terrified me. I watched it again as an adult – and guess what? – It’s scarier now.You can watch it as a streaming video OR download and burn it to disc for later.

Check this out”

“Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Hellboy” director Guillermo del Toro is scheduled to talk about monsters with New Yorker Features Editor Daniel Zalewski at the upcoming New Yorker Festival, October 4, at 7:30 p.m. The event will be held at the Director’s Guild of America, 110 W. 57th Street, New York, NY.

I’d love to be there for this. Hell, I’d love to be in New York for anything. If you’re lucky enough to be in that neck of the woods you can buy tickets for the event at at festival.newyorker.com or by calling 800-440-6974. Tickets will also be sold during Festival weekend at Festival HQ, at Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street, and at the door.

(Thanks, Chelsie!)

Some of you may have read my earlier piece in which I attempted to identify and define a sub-genre of speculative fiction that I call biopunk. Shortly after posting the piece I sent emails out soliciting the input of several of the authors who had work that I included.

The first response I received was from Jeffrey Thomas, whose “Punktown” stories seemed to me to carry at least a strong biopunk influence, or at least explore some of the same themes:

“I had never heard of this subgenre; has it been proposed before, or are you proposing it? Your definition is very well articulated and won over my skepticism, though one can slice fantastical fiction into any number of pieces to fit into various slots, which is why I think my own work can be categorized as biopunk, cyberpunk, splatterpunk, New Weird, horror, SF and fantasy all in one go. (Detective/noir fiction, too, at times.) I’m fascinated to see the response from those who read your post.”

Shortly thereafter I received this response from Caitlin R. Kiernan, whose new story collection “A is for Alien” features a great many stories that I would classify as biopunk:

“Well…it’s the first time I’d heard the phrase — biopunk — and these days I’m skeptical of genres with the -punk suffix. Cyberpunk, splatterpunk, steampunk, clockpunk, dieselpunk, mythpunk…squidpunk. Anyway, that said, it’s an interesting post, though I suspect this subgenre might be so broadly defined as to possess such an inclusivity that most of sf — certainly so-called “dystopian” sf — could be fitted into it. Elizabeth Bear and I have been using the phrase “eco-gothic,” and I think it’s roughly synonymous to what you’re talking about here. I’ll try to send some more thoughts, but my initial reaction is, can’t we stop creating subgenres that end in “punk”?

Regarding the origin of the term “biopunk,” I can’t claim to have invented it because others had been using the term before I started. To the best of my recollection I seem to remember coming up with the label to differentiate this kind of fiction I enjoyed from cyberpunk, only to Google the term and see that it was far from original.

Kiernan expresses her suspicion that at least by my own definition biopunk is too broad and inclusive to function as a recognizable category, but does recognize some kinship between biopunk and her own “eco-gothic,” so at least there is a concensus of sorts that there are some common and recognizable traits. Perhaps now the trick would be to boil my own definition down to its core essentials, compare notes and see if we all can develop a workable canon.

Regarding the “punk” suffix, sure, it’s artificial and kind of contrived, but I’ve included it to (a) indicate the genre’s kinship with cyberpunk and (b) because it expresses a “DIY” individualist theme that I’ve seen expressed in many of the stories that I’d include in a proposed canon. It’s definitely not a dealbreaker thought. I mean, I don’t think that it is a necessary component, nor is it a perfect fit, any more thank Kiernan’s own “gothic” suffix.

The question must be asked if it is even worthwhile to attempt to define this nascent genre. My own opinion is that labels like genre are useful only to the extent that it helps me and other readers like me find more of the kind of work that I enjoy. I approach genre labels in the same way that I do the “meta-tags” that accompany pictures and videos on the World Wide Web: they’re helpful in narrowing down exactly what I’m looking for, but aren’t boundaries or cages.

“A Night on Bald Mountain” is a short adventure taking place in the idyllic little country village of Idle Hill. I’ve written this for my own OD&D/Labyrinth Lord game but it’s suitable for any fantasy roleplaying game. I’ve not statted out any of the NPCS, instead using general descriptives like “Third level cleric, lawful, of average statistics.” Statting them shouldn’t be a problem for most DMs. I’ve not mapped anything out, either. Feel free to do that if you want to. I usually do that kind of stuff on the fly.

Idle Hill, a small village.

About Idle Hill:

Idle Hill: Population 400. An agrarian economy, with the primary crops barley, wheat and apples. Some sustenance farming of livestock and vegetables. Common foodstuffs: ale, cider, bread, porridge, pork.

People are generally friendly, tolerant and accepting.

Idle Hill is located on a grassy, forested plain, a nook comfortably resting in the shadow of nearby Bald Mountain, a place considered to be haunted by many of the town’s older residents. Idle Hill, the namesake of the town, is a small, grassy knoll at the top of which rests the town’s cemetery, a quiet, pleasant and restful place where the town’s beloved dead are placed to rest.

Idle Hill’s people live in small thatched huts surrounded by plowed fields and apple trees. There is one main road and a village green in which can be located the town’s well.

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Oh, kids. The eighties were THE best time for roleplaying games. Everything was grungier, darker and just a bit more gonzo. It was a time when the airwaves were absolutely full of hysterical “news” reports on suicidal gamers and satanic Dungeon Masters. Those were the days.The days when D&D was “evil,” and we loved it.

Fortunately, for those of you who weren’t around for the heyday of the Satanic Panic some kind soul uploaded a special report from proto news digest program “60 Minutes” on this dangerous new hobby. Enjoy!

Part one:

Part two:

Ahoy, matey-
In recognition of “International Talk Like a Pirate Day” WIRED magazine’s phenomenal GeekDad blog is hosting a sneak peek at the new pirate-themed fiction anthology “Fast Ships, Black Sails” edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer and published by Night Shade books!

Grab an eyeful of a new pirate video featuring Kage Baker, Rhys Hughes and Carrie Vaughn in all their buccaneer splendor, and steal a peak at “Boojum,” a pirates-in-space meets Lovecraftian horror story by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette!

Avast, point your browser here, privateer:
http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/09/fast-ships-blac.html

If you can post the link, I’ll owe you a pint of grog.

Cap’n Matt