tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90014569691234861592024-03-13T12:59:28.824-07:00Jason HellerWriterJason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.comBlogger168125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-70242660008374227862017-11-11T15:53:00.003-08:002017-11-11T15:53:48.876-08:00NEW WEBSITEI have a new website! You can visit it <a href="https://www.jasonhellerauthor.com/">BY CLICKING ON THIS HERE LINK</a>.Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-67615019478916465032017-09-25T14:21:00.005-07:002017-10-20T11:24:49.285-07:00STRANGE STARS cover reveal (and pre-order link)!!!At last... the cover art for STRANGE STARS has been revealed. It's my upcoming book from Melville House which will trace science fiction's influence on the music of the '70s, from David Bowie to Rush to Parliament to Devo to Gary Numan -- and everything in between! The book comes out June 5, 2018, and <a href="http://static.mhpbooks.com/strange-stars/">here's the preorder link!</a><br />
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Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-20328841558766046682016-07-29T10:44:00.002-07:002016-07-29T12:35:58.158-07:00Strange Stars book announcement (and other news)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm supremely ecstatic to announce that my book STRANGE STARS--about David Bowie and how science fiction influenced popular music in the '70s--will be published by <a href="http://www.mhpbooks.com/">Melville House </a>(distributed by Random House). Along with Bowie, Strange Stars will cover everything from Hawkwind to Parliament-Funkadelic to Blue Oyster Cult to Devo to Yes to Gary Numan to Jefferson Starship to X-Ray Spex to T. Rex to Rush to krautrock to space disco. I can't disclose the publication date quite yet, but I assure you, it will be no secret.<br />
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David Bowie was my first concert: the Glass Spider Tour, Denver, 1987. My love of Bowie's music, as well as science fiction, stretches back even further; the two practically raised me. Immediately following Bowie's death, I wrote<a href="http://pitchfork.com/features/article/9787-anthems-for-the-moon-david-bowies-sci-fi-explorations/"> a big essay for Pitchfork</a> about Bowie's relationship to science fiction--but I'd actually started working on the Strange Stars proposal in the summer of 2015. During that time, I also began writing a series of essays about SF-themed bands and musicians for <a href="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/author/Jason%20Heller/">Clarkesworld Magazine.</a> It's been a crazy road from conception to contract (when isn't it?), but I'm so happy to have landed at a publisher as esteemed as Melville House. This is the book I've been waiting my entire life to write.<br />
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But that's not all! I have some other bits of newsishness (yes, it's been a busy summer):<br />
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-My short story <a href="http://www.stoneskinpress.com/index.php/jason_heller/">"Daughter of the Drifting"</a> will appear in the fantasy/horror anthology <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Swords-v-Cthulhu-Jesse-Bullington/dp/1908983094">Swords v Cthulhu </a>in August.<br />
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-This year I started writing for <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/contributor/jason-heller">Rolling Stone</a> and <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/contributors/jason-heller">The New Yorker</a>.<br />
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-<a href="http://www.hexpublishers.com/publications_cyber-world.html">Cyber World</a>, a science fiction anthology I co-edited with <a href="http://www.joshuaviola.com/">Josh Viola,</a> will be published this November by Hex Publishers.<br />
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-I signed a contract to head up another cross-genre anthology, Mechanical Animals, which I'll be co-editing with the great Selena "S. J." Chambers for Hex Publishers.<br />
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-My new band Cloak of Organs (which features members of Wovenhand, Planes Mistaken For Stars, Slim Cessna's Auto Club, and The Nervous) started playing shows, AND <a href="https://cloakoforgans.bandcamp.com/releases">we released a four-song EP</a>.<br />
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-I started playing bass with Neil Michael Hagerty and the Howling Hex (ex-Royal Trux, Pussy Galore), and we'll be doing a tour of the eastern U.S. in September.<br />
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-In late August, I'll be traveling to the World Science Fiction Convention (<a href="http://www.worldcon.org/">Worldcon</a>) in Kansas City as well as <a href="https://bubonicon.com/">Bubonicon </a>in Albuquerque, where I'll be moderating panels about David Bowie's link to science fiction.<br />
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So, yeah, hectic year! I hear there's even an election going on...<br />
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<br />Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-1768132597096081782015-12-31T11:02:00.002-08:002015-12-31T11:05:19.082-08:002015: My Year in Goosebump-Raising and Attic-SleepingThis year I slept in Neil Gaiman's attic.<br />
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That's not all I did, of course, but it's the thing that stands out the most in my mind as I peer back through the shrouded mists (or is that the misted shrouds?) of the past twelve months. But allow me to explain: This summer I was one of eight participants in a speculative-fiction-writing workshop called Wyrd Words, and it took place at Neil Gaiman's house deep in the wilds of Wisconsin. I won't elaborate on it too much, but I will say this: Among the many wonderful things that happened during those five days -- up to and including talking about '70s British punk with Neil, who regaled me with the tale of how he snuck into a pub to see The Jam while a teenager in 1977 -- I slept in the man's attic, just a wall away from his archive of original manuscripts and Sandman statuettes and other things that just boggled the mind of a guy who's been faithfully reading and gathering inspiration from that stuff since 1989.<br />
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In short: It was pretty amazing.<br />
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In preparation for Wyrd Words, I wrote the first draft of a novel throughout the first half of 2015. I'm pretty stoked about it: It's called <i>Repeater</i>, and it takes place in the punk scene in Denver in 1994, and it involves ritual magic and being in a go-nowhere band and what it's like to be 22 and lost and alone and yearning for far more than the world is prepared to give you. I need to revise it before having my astounding agent, Jennifer Jackson at Donald Maass Literary Agent, sent it around to some publishers. But that's high up on my to-do list for 2016.<br />
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That's not all I wrote in 2015. Along with my usual output of articles and reviews about books and music for NPR, Pitchfork, and The A.V. Club, I wrote a few pieces for <i>Clarkesworld Magazine</i>, including a pair of essays about two of my favorite science-fiction-fixated musicians: <a href="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/heller_06_15/">Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex</a> and <a href="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/heller_12_15/">Marc Bolan of T. Rex</a>. Full disclosure: I am the former nonfiction editor of Clarkesworld (which is how I won that shiny Hugo Award in 2013, for which I am eternally grateful), and I'd also been researching Styrene, Bolan, and many others for a nonfiction book proposal I wrote in 2015. That proposal is currently making the rounds with publishers, and one major publishing house in particular has shown avid interest; I've been working with a certain editor there in the hopes that we can make something happen. But I don't want to jinx myself, so I'll keep the details mum for the time being...<br />
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I didn't write a ton of short stories this year, but I did sell three, varying from interstitial science fiction to horror to fantasy: <a href="http://www.farragoswainscot.com/2015/13/homes.html">"Of Homes Gone" </a>to <i>Farrago's Wainscot</i>, <a href="http://www.hexpublishers.com/publications.html">"The Projectionist"</a> to the Hex Publishers' anthology <i>Nightmares Unhinged</i>, and "Daughter of the Drifting" to the Stone Skin Press anthology <i><a href="https://www.stoneskinpress.com/index.php/announcing-the-swords-v-cthulhu-roster-of-contributors/">Swords v. Cthulhu</a></i> (which will be published in 2016). Speaking of Hex Publishers: I've also signed on to edit two science fiction and/or fantasy anthologies for them over the next couple years. One of them we're close to officially announcing, but I'll drop some details here: It's titled <i>Cyber World: Tales of Humanity's Tomorrow</i>, and it's coming out in November of 2016 in both physical and digital formats, and it's going to feature a stellar roster of authors that includes Paolo Bacigalupi, Saladin Ahmed, Nisi Shawl, Stephen Graham Jones, Cat Rambo, E. Lily Yu, Chinelo Onwualu, Madeline Ashby, Isabel Yap, and others. More details soon!<br />
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Music-wise, I made a big leap in 2015: After many years of playing guitar, I picked up the bass again. Some of you reading this (that is, if you lived in Denver in the '90s) may remember that I started out playing bass, in a punk band called Crestfallen from '93-'96, before I switched to guitar in '97 to play in The Blue Ontario (with two members of the seminal emo band Christie Front Drive). Anyway, I've stuck with guitar in various bands ever since -- but this year I grabbed the bass again to join a great band called Cowcatcher (ex-The Blackout Pact, who released stuff on Astro Magnetics/Eyeball Records, which were co-owned by Geoff Rickly of Thursday). Anyway, I'll be playing my first handful of shows with Cowcatcher in January of 2016 -- including an opening slot for Small Brown Bike on January 22 at the Marquis in Denver -- and I'm super stoked. Cowcatcher sounds sort of like Leatherface, Jawbreaker, and Hot Water Music; in other words, it's exactly the kind of music I'm rooted in. However, I'm not forsaking the guitar altogether! I've got another band called Cloak of Organs (featuring Neil from Wovenhand and Planes Mistaken for Stars), and it's a much heavier affair, and hopefully our debut EP will be ready in early 2016. More news on that to come.<br />
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Oh, and I guess I ought to mention a little book of mine that came out in 2015: <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Goosebumps-The-Movie-Slappys-Smartest/dp/0545821258">Slappy's Revenge</a></i>, an official Goosebumps movie tie-in that was published by Scholastic Books. It was a blast to write an installment in one of the world's most popular horror franchises, and of course, my 10-year-old-niece Hazel suddenly thinks I'm the coolest person in the world. In other young-person-book news, I've also been busy in 2015 revising my original middle-grade novel, <i>Lullaby Underground</i>, which will hopefully be finding its way to a good home in 2016. Fingers crossed.<br />
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So yeah. Goosebumps-raising and attic-sleeping. 2015 has been a weird year. Hopefully 2016 will top it. Time to start making that happen.Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-37597568376251994492015-10-09T08:03:00.002-07:002015-10-09T08:06:27.739-07:00Denvoid<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.456px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="line-height: 15.456px;">I just got my copy of</span><span style="line-height: 15.456px;"> Bob Rob Medina</span><span style="line-height: 15.456px;">'s new book, </span><i style="line-height: 15.456px;"><a href="http://bobrobart.bigcartel.com/">Denvoid and the Cowtown Punks</a></i><span style="line-height: 15.456px;">. It's fucking amazing. Bob Rob conducted tons of interviews with people from the Denver punk scene of the '80s then added lots of his own incredible artwork, which makes the whole thing super vivid and eye-popping. Of course, there are also photos, flyers, and other bits of archival stuff sprinkled throughout. Bob Rob published this book himself, and it's such a labor of love, passion practically drips off the page. And the tone of the writing is perfect, a very funny and poignant and readable mix of fact and anecdote. Bob Rob's conversations are definitely nostalgic and fun, but he also sneaks in all kinds of insight and smart musical analysis. He doesn't white-wash shit either. It's an unvarnished, unflinching look at a time that was as violent and intolerant as it was creative and liberating.</span></div>
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If you don't know Bob Rob, he's one hell of a guy. He started playing in Denver bands in the '80s, but he was also involved in the punk scene here in the early '90s before moving out of town. I first got to know him in the '90s, when I got into the local punk scene. He'd been a member of Savalas, a great, Rites of Spring-esque band that he'd played in with Sonny Kay (later of Angel Hair and The VSS; by the way, Sonny designed <i>Denvoid</i>, and he deserves tons of credit for how beautifully the book came out). Sonny and Bob Rob were super supportive of the '90s scene, even snot-nosed little shits like me who were just starting to play in bands, put out zines, and put on shows. I'll always remember how kind and cool they were back then.</div>
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I got into the scene relatively late, when I was about 17-18, circa 1990 and '91. I already loved punk rock at that age (I'd take the bus down to Wax Trax to buy punk cassettes using the money from my after-school warehouse job), but I was a dirt-poor kid living in Northglenn, very introverted and shy, and I had no idea how to access the local music scene (or really what the local music scene looked like). I was yanked into it by my old friend and bandmate <a class="profileLink" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=1805569003" href="https://www.facebook.com/johnny.seven.9" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Johnny Seven</a>, who was a few years older than me and much more experienced in the ways of punk. It was then that I dived into the local punk scene for the first time -- and I was able to experience the fading echoes of the '80s punk scene that Bob Rob writes about in <i>Denvoid</i>. In the early '90s I was lucky enough to see bands like The Fluid (of Sub Pop fame), Dead Silence, Choosy Mothers, The Rok Tots, Rope, and other local punk bands that either survived the '80s or featured members of '80s punk bands that had exploded long ago.</div>
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These bands blasted my eyes open. It wasn't long before I started a punk band of my own (with Johnny), called <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=136464226375299&fref=ts">Crestfallen</a>. I also started working at Wax Trax, the epicenter of Denver punk at the time. It was there that I got to know guys like Pete Flye, Mike Serviolo, the late Larry Denning, and my manager at Wax Trax, John Meggitt -- all of whom had played in some of these already legendary '80s punk bands. (Many years later, I even had the honor of playing music with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambi_Lee_Savage">Bambi Lee Savage</a>, formerly of the '80s punk band Pagan Cowboys, who get a great little chapter in <i>Denvoid</i>.) I'm sure they would've all balked at being called "legendary." But they were. Back then, there was no way to instantly access, learn about, and listen to the local bands that came before you. You had to find the records, dig up the old zines, and most importantly, listen to your elders, hoping to snatch a few crumbs of history from them while never appearing too hungry. This was punk, after all, and you weren't supposed to have heroes. But all these guys, in their own ways, were my heroes, the ones who created the Denver scene that I -- along with the rest of the '90s punks -- had so fortunately inherited. What can I say? It changed my life.</div>
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Anyway, Bob Rob is having a release party for <i>Denvoid</i> tomorrow at Denver's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1461782657485090/">Mutiny Information Cafe</a>. You should go. I'm not much of a socializer these days, but I'm really looking forward to it. I'm sure I'll see a bunch of old friends, but mostly I just want to thank Bob Rob for pouring so much of his sweat and soul into this book. It's seriously a monument -- to a city, to a scene, to way of life, to an ethic, to a glorious neverending mistake, to motherfucking punk rock. I can only hope someone comes along to similarly document Denver's punk scene of the '90s. We should be so lucky.</div>
Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-16970894294304914012015-08-24T09:01:00.001-07:002015-08-29T08:02:40.253-07:00Hugos, Goosebumps, and me<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">DISCLAIMER: This post is NOT about the recent Hugo Awards
kerfuffle, nor this weekend's results of said awards. There are plenty of people
out there doing an admirable job at covering and commenting on that. Cool?
Cool.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">***<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Last month a dear colleague of mine, someone I hold in extremely
high esteem as both a person and a writing industry professional, said to me ever-so-slightly slyly,
"You're going to the first Hugo winner to write a Goosebumps book."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">That person was gently chiding me. But on all counts, they were
right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black;">I won a Hugo for Best Semiprozine in 2013 as part of the editing
team of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/"><i>Clarkesworld
Magazine</i></a><span style="color: black;">, for which I
served as Nonfiction Editor. During my time at<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Clarkesworld</i>, I expanded the
nonfiction section, including the addition of a monthly column titled Another
Word. I brought the great Daniel Abraham aboard as the regular author of Another Word, who rotated in every other month; on alternating months, a guest author would take
the reins, using that space to speak personally and intimately about the process
of reading and/or writing. I also did my best to help expand<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Clarkesworld</i>'s pool of
nonfiction writers and to do my own small part in solidfying the section as a
worthy complement to the magazine's award-winning, world-class fiction.
My successor, Kate Baker (a multiple Hugo winner), has done great things with<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Clarkesworld</i>'s nonfiction since
I left, and she's even been generous enough to accept multiple articles from me over the past couple years,
including<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/heller_06_15/">a piece I wrote about the late punk legend Poly Styrene</a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span><span style="color: black;">and her relationship to science fiction, of
which I'm particularly proud.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">In addition, I've written a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Goosebumps</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>book. Tomorrow, August 25, the world
will bear witness to the birth of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Goosebumps-Movie-Slappys-Revenge-Smartest/dp/0545821258/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8"><i>Slappy's Revenge: Twisted Tricks from the World's Smartest
Dummy</i></a><i><span style="color: black;">.</span></i><span style="color: black;"> Okay, so now I'm chiding myself a little. No one, me included, will ever mistake<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Slappy's Revenge</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>for a wondrous work of literature, any
more than the </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4Nm1irH0q8"><i>Goosebumps<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i>movie</a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: black;"> that </span></span><span style="color: black;">my book ties into, which will hit theaters
out later this year, will likely go down as some cinematic milestone. (That said, I've read the script and seen tons of stills, and it looks like a hell of a lot of fun.) But you know what?
I'm still proud of it. Scholastic Books asked me to write it, thanks in part to
some ongoing conversations I've been having with them about a separate project--not to mention the fact
that I have experience writing this kind of media tie-in. A few years back I wrote<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Captain-Jack-Sparrow-Handbook/dp/1594745048"><i>The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></a><span style="color: black;">for Quirk Books/Disney, an official tie-in
to the fourth<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Pirates of the
Caribbean</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>film. And I was
happy to do it. Thrilled even.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">Why thrilled? I mean, I've written my own, original novel, the alt-history
political satire<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Taft-2012-Novel-Jason-Heller/dp/1594745501"><i>Taft 2012</i></a><span style="color: black;">, for which I was interviewed by NPR's<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Morning Edition</i>, and which snagged a starred review in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Publisher's
Weekly</i>. And I've been consistently working on other original novels--I'm
revising two complete novel drafts, one middle-grade, one for adults, even as I
procrastinate by writing this blog post--which is the path I've always wanted
my writing career to take. I have a ton of ideas, and I want to write my own
novels about those ideas. And as my esteemed and beloved colleague so
chidingly yet good-naturedly pointed out, I<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>am</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>a Hugo winner. Why not use that as a platform? Doesn't having a Hugo open some
doors for you in the writing world? Doesn't that launch you up to some higher
tier, or at least a tiny step up, where you don't have to rely on writing media
tie-ins any longer?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">Well, no. Actually, of course not. I am but one of many, many Hugo winners
who<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>aren't</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>big names. Many people with Hugos have win them the way I did--as part of a team, be it editing, writing, or
podcasting. The glory is shared. It's not like I won a Hugo for <i>Taft
2012</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(it never threatened
that ballot with its presence). I'm proud of my shiny rocketship statue, sure, but I
hold no illusions about it. If this year's Sad/Rabid Puppy controversy showed
us in the SFF community anything, it's that we shouldn't take for granted what
our awards mean and stand for--or overestimate what they signify to the
populace at large, most of whom could not have cared less about what must have
seemed from the outside to be just another case of online insider squabbling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">Oops, sorry. This post wasn't supposed to be about this year's
Hugo kerfuffle. Ahem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">Anyway. Yes, I have a Hugo. And yes, I'm still writing media
tie-in books. I</span>n case my base humanity wasn't painfully apparent by now, I did it for the money. But here's the thing: In both cases, I actually <i>enjoy</i> the piece of media that my tie-in book ties into. Do I love every<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Pirates of the Caribbean</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>movie? No. Do I enjoy the series
overall? Absolutely. Same goes for<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Goosebumps</i>.
Both of these properties are squarely in my wheelhouse, seeing as how I also write my own original fantasy and horror. I didn't seek out these tie-in assignments, but when they fell on my lap, I grabbed them. They were both<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>fun</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>to write. And the money they made helped me buy some more time to work on my original fiction, novels
included. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">See, I'm a full-time writer. I have no other source of
income. I don't have a nest egg or a trust fund. I was born poor--not kinda poor, not lower-middle-class, but<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>dirt
poor,</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>at least by United
States standards. It's something I wrote about candidly in, aptly enough, an <a href="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/another_word_03_14/">Another Word column</a>
for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Clarkesworld</i>--and coming from
that background made me realize a few things. First of all, there's no shame
in making a living at what you do best, even if some of those jobs might seem
beneath you to someone who's never known what it's like to go hungry
or not know where they're going sleep that night. But it's more than that. I
grew up poor, but I also came of age in the punk scene. And in the punk scene,
integrity is a big concern. Integrity can also be a hangup, and an albatross
around one's neck--but in my case, I felt no qualms whatsoever about writing<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Pirates of the Caribbean</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>or<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Goosebumps</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>books. I have always wanted to write for big publishers, and I've always loved swashbuckling fantasy, and I've always loved things that scare kids in the best possible way. Nothing about writing my two media tie-ins scribbled outside the lines of my integrity. Which is still something I take seriously, as much as I still take the music and message of, say, The Clash seriously.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">Again, these two properties for which I've written tie-ins, these two cool universes I got paid to play around in,<i> are
things I like</i>. If someone asked me to write a media tie-in for a property I knew
and/or cared nothing about, I would turn it down. In a heartbeat. Trust me. But now, having done this
kind of tie-in work, I feel even more prepared to march forward with my own original
fiction. Tie-ins were basically on-the-job training for me. And a way to keep
out of working another temporary warehouse job, which I've had to do in the
past when the writing thing wasn't making ends meet. If the punk ethic values one
thing above all else, it's scrappy resourcefulness--which is its own kind of integrity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">Both times I've written a media tie-in book, I've been asked by my
respective editor if I wanted my own name to appear on the book, or if I wanted
to write it under a pseudonym. In both cases, I didn't blink. HELL YES I wanted
my name on it. If I was okay with writing the book, I damn sure was taking
credit for it. I've written under a pseudonym before--specifically, I
ghost-wrote a middle-grade horror novel for a big publisher a couple years
ago--but I used a pen-name because it was part of the concept of the
book itself, as conceived by the editor who hired me to write it. Even then, it
hurt not to have my name on it. Not because it's an amazing book or anything,
but because I poured my sweat and tears and brains all over it, and it felt criminal not to be able to own it. But even then, I learned a lot--and again, it bought me more time to write my own novels, and with the added lessons about craft and business I'd learned along the way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">It's been said, often and wisely, that every author finds their
own path to publication. Writing movie tie-ins has opened doors for me that I thought
would take years to even find. It's helped me sharpen my chops, tighten my
ability to meet deadlines, and figure out how to work with editors on book-length
projects. It's gotten my name out there, even if just a little. And hell, I
have a nine-year-old niece who couldn't be more stoked that her uncle writes<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Pirates of the Caribbean</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Goosebumps<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i>books. She couldn't give a rat's ass about my Hugo, bless her heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">And after all, it’s not like I’m the only Hugo winner who ever worked
in media tie-ins. Fritz Leiber wrote an official tie-in to the film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tarzan and the Valley of Gold</i>—eight
years following his win of a Best Novel Hugo for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big Time</i>. After winning the Best Novel Hugo in 1959 for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Case of Conscience</i>, James Blish
famously went on to write novelizations of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Star
Trek</i> episodes. Best Novel Hugo winner Neil Gaiman, long before taking home
that award for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American Gods</i> in 2002, wrote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Don’t Panic: The Official
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Companion</i>, back when he was just launching
his illustrious career. I’m not saying I’m in their class, or that I ever will
be. What I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">am </i>saying, though, is
that this kind of practice isn’t all that strange among Hugo winners--even the upper echelon of Leiber, Blish, and Gaiman, regardless of how increasingly august
the Hugos have grown in our eyes over the course of decades. (Assuming this year's kerfuffle hasn't forever downgraded that estimation. Again, ahem.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">As writers, we're told these days to be obsessed with our brands.
Honestly, I don't think that way at all. If other people want to look at my
"brand," fine--although I'd be surprised and probably a little creeped out if anyone actually cared.
But even if they <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">did</i>, that so-called brand of
mine is going to be a mosaic of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all </i>the
kinds of writing I have done, and can do, and will continue to do, even if some
of those things don't seem particularly worthy of a Hugo winner--even one who was just a member of a great team. If that makes for a bit of cognitive dissonance--and maybe even a little chiding--well, I'm fine
with that too. At the end of the day, <i>I’m</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
writing for a living</i>. That’s its own reward, and its own humility.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-8611266255200614012015-07-04T16:26:00.002-07:002015-07-04T16:41:16.487-07:00New Novel PlaylistI just finished the first draft of my new novel! And as I usual do when working on a book, I listened to a lot of music while writing it. But this novel is a little different: Music is one of its central components.<br />
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More specifically, the book takes place in the punk scene in 1994, and each chapter is named after a punk/hardcore/post-hardcore/emo song that was released between '90 and '94 on an independent label (even if some of the bands later moved to a major--and even if some of these songs we were later rerecorded for those major-label debuts. Specifically, Green Day and Quicksand.)</div>
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The book is also an urban fantasy. You know, with magic and stuff.</div>
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Other than that, I'm not spilling any more details about the book as of yet. Not even the title! I don't want to jinx anything. But I will gladly share that list of songs/chapter titles, which can be found below. (FYI: The name of the book actually does appear somewhere on this list: either a song title, album title, or band name. But that's all I'm spilling right now.)</div>
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Not only is each chapter named after a song, each of those song titles has some integral connection to what happens in that chapter. Which means, given all the information in this blog post, you could conceivably piece together my entire novel. Or you could, you know, just listen to some great songs. And wait for the novel. Hopefully not too long, though. Fingers crossed.</div>
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Oh, and needless to say, this is a pretty accurate reflection of the music I was obsessing over circa 1994. This isn't everything I was listening to--I was just as much into The Kinks, Stereolab, and Ornette Coleman at the time--but it definitely sums up the scene I cut my teeth on. In a very direct way, this novel is an outgrowth of a huge, yearlong column about '90s punk/hardcore/post-hardcore/emo called <a href="http://www.avclub.com/search?feature_types=fear-of-a-punk-decade">Fear of a Punk Decade</a> that I wrote for <i>The A.V. Club</i>.</div>
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P.S. In case you're wondering, I didn't make a Spotify playlist for these songs because Spotify didn't have all of these songs. Hopefully the YouTube embeds will suffice!</div>
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<b>Chapter 1<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“Welcome to Paradise”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Green Day, <i>Kerplunk</i> (1992)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 2<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“Pure Pain Sugar”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Unwound, <i>Fake Train</i> (1993)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 3<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“Unwritten Rules”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Rancid, <i>Rancid</i> (1993)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 4<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“In Circles”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Sunny Day Real
Estate, <i>Diary</i> (1994)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 5<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“How We Connect”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Dog Faced Hermans, <i>Hum of Life</i> (1993)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 6<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“And I Live in a Town
Where the Boys Amputate Their Hearts”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Bratmobile, <i>The Real Janelle</i> (1994)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 7<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“I Always Thought You
Were an Asshole”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Circus Lupus, <i>Solid Brass</i> (1993)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b> </b><b>Chapter 8</b></div>
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“Lightning Strikes
Twice”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Rorschach, <i>Remain Sedate</i> (1990)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 9<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“A Chronology for
Survival”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Neurosis, <i>Souls at Zero</i> (1992)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 10<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“Go Your Own Way”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Seaweed, <i>Go Your Own Way</i> (1993)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 11<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“The Science of Myth”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Screeching Weasel, <i>My Brain Hurts </i>(1991)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 12<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“Alien She”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Bikini Kill, <i>Pussy Whipped</i> (1993)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p> </div>
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<b>Chapter 13<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“Don’t Break Me”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Samiam, <i>Billy</i> (1992)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 14<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“A Comment on Ritual”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-The Nation of
Ulysses, <i>Plays Pretty for Baby</i> (1992)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 15<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“Omission”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Quicksand, <i>Quicksand</i> (1990)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 16<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“Mother Made Me”<o:p></o:p></div>
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–Lungfish, <i>Rainbows from Atoms</i> (1993)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 17<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“Kiss the Bottle”<o:p></o:p></div>
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–Jawbreaker, <i>17 Reasons: The Mission District</i> (1992)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 18<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“Middle Finger Response”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Propagandhi, <i>How to Clean Everything</i> (1993)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 19<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“What Could I Have
Done?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-J Church, <i>Quetzalcoatl</i> (1993)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 20<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“By the Throat”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Born Against, <i>Nine Patriotic Hymns for Children</i> (1991)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p><b> </b></div>
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<b>Chapter 21<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“End of a Lifetime”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Unbroken, <i>Life. Love. Regret.</i> (1994)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Chapter 22<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“Lies About the Sky”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Shudder to Think, <i>Funeral at the Movies </i>(1991)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p><b> </b></div>
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<b>Chapter 23<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“My Poor Friend Me”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Bad Religion, <i>Recipe for Hate</i> (1993)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p><b> </b></div>
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<b>Chapter 24<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“Through My Fingers”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Pegboy, <i>Three-Chord Monte</i> (1990)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p><b> </b></div>
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<b>Chapter 25<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“Shut the Door”<o:p></o:p></div>
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-Fugazi, <i>Repeater </i>(1990)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-49322354070320155702015-06-29T06:37:00.004-07:002015-06-29T06:57:13.708-07:00Readercon boundI'll be attending Readercon in Burlington, Massachusetts, from July 9-12! This is my second time at Readercon, and the first time I'll be on programming (not counting the last-minute <i>Sybil's Garage</i> reading I participated in back in '09, thanks to my magnanimous editor Matthew Kressel).<br />
<br />
This year I'll be on one panel, and it's on Friday, July 10 at 1 p.m., and the topic is: "It's Actually About Ethics: Reviewing the Work of Colleagues and Friends." My fellow panelists will include Jonathan Crowe, Elizabeth Hand, Kathryn Smith Morrow, and Liza Groen Trombi.<br />
<br />
I'll be out and about at the convention all weekend, so if you'd like to chat about anything and everything (including any upcoming books you may have on the horizon), please do say hi. But just to let you know: I'm an introvert and a morning person, so if I seem distracted and/or overwhelmed (especially after dinnertime), that's why. Thanks for understanding.<br />
<br />
See you there!<br />
<br />Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-54516196098839467332015-06-06T08:26:00.001-07:002015-06-06T08:26:16.629-07:00Mile High Soul Club <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3byyXQqhKK8/VXMQ3R02iBI/AAAAAAAAB_o/atbahxFyITo/s1600/10392340_10153309450800883_3541141201174294282_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3byyXQqhKK8/VXMQ3R02iBI/AAAAAAAAB_o/atbahxFyITo/s320/10392340_10153309450800883_3541141201174294282_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.4559993743896px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.4559993743896px;">Human beings frighten and confuse me, so I don't go out much these days. But I'm happy to make an exception tonight for <a href="http://www.milehighsoulclub.com/">MILE HIGH SOUL CLUB</a>.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.4559993743896px;"> I'll be the guest DJ tonight, and I'll be bringing my box of soul 45s, and I'll be playing them while I watch you dance. Does that sound creepy? Because it kind of is. Most of human existence is sort of sickeningly absurd, when you think about it. Thankfully there's soul music to help distract us from our own frightening, confusing selves. FUCKING PARTY! </span>Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-87797905166813945072015-03-03T14:39:00.001-08:002015-03-26T05:21:02.125-07:00My AnomalyCon schedule<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-01LPJWadbM8/VPY3_gbCFyI/AAAAAAAAB0k/yliRj2nQ5hw/s1600/whale2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-01LPJWadbM8/VPY3_gbCFyI/AAAAAAAAB0k/yliRj2nQ5hw/s1600/whale2.jpg" height="147" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The schedule for this year's <a href="https://www.anomalycon.com/node/211">AnomalyCon</a> -- Denver's big steampunk convention -- just went up. I'm on a whopping SEVEN panels, including a couple with Cory Doctorow and a few with my friends S. J. Chambers, Carrie Vaughn, and Molly Tanzer. My schedule is below (subject to eleventh-hour tweaks, of course). The con goes down March 27-19 at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center. See you there?<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">FRIDAY 3/27<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">7pm: </b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ancient
Civilizations</span></b><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">From
the very ancient to the near modern, history has a way of romanticizing
features of our past that make us want to rewrite the stories about them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">B.
Cherf, J. Heller, S. West, TL Morganfield</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">8pm: Why Are We Still Talking
About This?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">No,
seriously. Why are we still
talking about feminism and equality? Isn't it here yet?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">C.
Doctorow, S. Chambers, M. Fowler, J. Heller, C. Rose</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">SATURDAY 3/28<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">11am: Steampunk, Anarchy, and
Sociopolitical Activism</span></b><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Steampunk
is on the rise and fans of the genre enjoy more than just the aesthetic. But
what about
using the core of a movement to bring about positive change in the political or
socioeconomic </span>climate?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">C.
Doctorow, S. Chambers, J. Heller, A. Rogers</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">12pm: The Science of
Steampunk<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Steampunk
might be considered "fantasy" to some hardcore scientists today, but
the science of Steampunk looks a lot like hard science when examined through a
Victorian lens.</span></div>
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G. DeMarco, M. Tanzer, J. Heller, S. Chambers</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2pm: A History of Steampunk
Music<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What
is Steampunk music, really, and how has the genre evolved through the ages?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">T.
Deeney, C. Vaughn, J. Heller</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">6pm: Steampunk Is Taking Over the World!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When
people think "Steampunk," Jules Verne and Wild Wild West often come to
mind. But the last 50 years of media have been full of hints of Steampunk. It's
everywhere, and there are things you need to see and read.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">J.
Heller, S. Chambers, M. Acevedo</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">9pm: Why Steampunks Love
Squid<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Why
Verne, why H.P. Lovecraft, why all the mysterious affiliations with squid?
Discuss the Steampunk attachment to certain kinds of fiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">G. DeMarco,
J. Heller, T. Kroenung</span></div>
Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-67948644981001149232015-02-09T06:58:00.000-08:002015-02-09T07:29:09.749-08:00Downton Abbey characters ranked by which ’80s British bands they listen to<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.4559993743896px;">Edith: The Smiths</span><br />
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<br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.4559993743896px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.4559993743896px;">Barrow: Death in June</span></div>
<div>
<br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.4559993743896px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.4559993743896px;">Tom: Billy Bragg</span></div>
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<br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.4559993743896px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.4559993743896px;">Lady Mary: Siouxsie and the Banshees</span></div>
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<br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.4559993743896px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.4559993743896px;">Rose: The Style Council</span></div>
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<br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.4559993743896px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.4559993743896px;">Daisy: Bow Wow Wow</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.456000328064px;">Lord Grantham: Cliff Richard</span></span></div>
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Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-40293396805695240722015-02-05T08:34:00.004-08:002015-02-05T09:30:01.895-08:00Announcing: Fantastique<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P7WHIPB8e6E/VNObi6BuNhI/AAAAAAAABw0/UMige9AMuv0/s1600/Highlander_00114.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P7WHIPB8e6E/VNObi6BuNhI/AAAAAAAABw0/UMige9AMuv0/s1600/Highlander_00114.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
For the past few months, my old friend Frank Romero (co-founder of Denver Comic Con) and I have been curating and hosting SCIENCE FRICTION, a monthly science fiction film series at <a href="http://drafthouse.com/denver/littleton">Alamo Drafthouse Denver</a>. It's done so well, we're branching off into a second monthly series: FANTASTIQUE. The new series will be all fantasy, and it will go down on the first Thursday of every month at Alamo.<br />
<br />
We're launching Fantastique on April 2, and we had to kick things off with one of our favorite fantasy films of all time: <i>Highlander</i>. It's a movie that helped put urban fantasy on the map in the '80s, back when that protean, nebulous term had different connotations entirely, and it stands as an undeniable epic (just don't think too hard about the sequels, although I will admit to having a real soft spot for the underrated Highlander TV series).<br />
<br />
Fantastique, however, won't only cover the swords-and-sorcery end of fantasy, although there will be plenty of that. It's my goal to represent fantasy cinema as inclusively and diversely as possible; for me, there's room for all kinds of fabulism, magic realism, and/or uncategorizable films that stretch our view of reality. <i>Conan the Barbarian</i>? <i>Willow</i>? Sure, we love it. But Fantastique also has room for quieter, quirkier films like Robert Altman's <i>Brewster McCloud</i> and Guy Maddin's <i>Careful</i>.<br />
<br />
As always, Frank and I will appear in person to introduce each Fantastique film as well as offer giveaways, host special guests, and so on. In fact, we have a great guest lined up for <i>Highlander </i>on April 2: <a href="http://www.carrievaughn.com/">Carrie Vaughn</a>, New York Times-bestselling fantasy author, as well as a huge fan of <i>Highlander </i>herself. She's even started spreading the rumor that she may show up to the movie cosplaying as Sean Connery's character, Ramirez, sword and all... fingers crossed! She'll also be giving away signed copies of her latest novel, <i>Low Midnight</i>, courtesy of <a href="http://www.tor.com/">Tor Books</a>. Oh, and like Science Friction, Fantastique is sponsored by <i><a href="http://www.avclub.com/">The A.V. Club</a></i>, where I'm Senior Writer and sometimes-puller-of-strings.<br />
<br />
Tickets for <i>Highlander</i> aren't on sale quite yet, but I will certainly and selfishly spread the news as soon as they are. And I almost forgot to mention, the kitchen at the Alamo will be offering a dinner special that night, in honor of the film's Scottish theme: haggis. Not even kidding. See you there?Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-85645085219217181062015-01-14T10:40:00.003-08:002015-01-14T10:42:20.604-08:00"...a labyrinth of capillaries."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q5lCw7LepMU/VLa4Y_C8nQI/AAAAAAAABuQ/Mt06Uy4MQgc/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-01-14%2Bat%2B11.32.36%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q5lCw7LepMU/VLa4Y_C8nQI/AAAAAAAABuQ/Mt06Uy4MQgc/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-01-14%2Bat%2B11.32.36%2BAM.png" height="135" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<b style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.farragoswainscot.com/">Farrago's Wainscot</a>-</b>-one of the most progressive and adventurous weird-fiction publications in recent memory--is back. And I'm lucky enough to have a short story in their new issue. The story is titled <a href="http://www.farragoswainscot.com/2015/13/homes.html"><b>"Of Homes Gone,"</b></a> and it imagines an impoverished world where people are no longer allowed (or no longer allow themselves?) to go inside buildings. It also has boys without noses, hints of<span style="text-align: center;"> Guy Debord, and architecture that resembles "a labyrinth of capillaries." If you dare to read it, I hope you like it.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span>Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-15737069243069103242015-01-14T07:17:00.003-08:002015-01-14T10:04:56.818-08:00From Motherships to Dazzle Ships: An Author-Selected Sampler of Great Science Fiction Music<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Adventure Rocketship!</i> #1</td></tr>
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A couple years ago I asked a few writers I love to list their favorite science-fiction-themed music. The goal was to print those lists in a future issue of a new SF journal out of England, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Adventure-Rocketship-1-Tidhar-Lavie-ebook/dp/B00CYPXGHI/ref=la_B005LGC6SC_1_8/178-1204729-4074740?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421246985&sr=1-8" style="font-style: italic;">Adventure Rocketship!</a>, that I'd begun writing for.<br />
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That second issue of <i>AR!</i> has yet to materialize (although I'd love to see it surface at some point), which left me holding a handful of great lists of SF music. Below are those lists, a stellar sampler of albums, songs, and insights about the intersection of speculation and sound. Thanks to all involved. Time to queue up some Parliament.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.bfslattery.com/bfsCMS/">Brian Francis Slattery</a><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">My favorite SF-themed music is
the stuff that heads straight for the</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><span style="color: #222222;">concept of alienation and
then turns it all the way inside out, so</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><span style="color: #222222;">that the sparks fly--no,
soar--in every direction, and reach all of</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><span style="color: #222222;">us. I don't know how to
rank these, so I won't; they're in</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><span style="color: #222222;">chronological order.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">1. Sun Ra, Interstellar Low
Ways</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">2. Parliament, Mothership
Connection<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><span style="color: #222222;">3. OutKast, ATLiens</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">4. Radiohead, Kid A<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><span style="color: #222222;">5. Janelle Monae, The ArchAndroid</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><a href="https://ridlerville.wordpress.com/">Jason Ridler</a><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">1. UFO: Strangers in the Night<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">The live rendition of
"Lights Out" is the best soundtrack to an SF adventure film never
made. Ever. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">2. Montrose: Self-Titled Debut<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">In any intergalactic pit
fight, someone will come to the match with "Rock the Nation" or
"Space Station No. 5" as their theme song. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">3. Rush: 2112<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Inspired by SF works from
Isaac Asimov to Samuel R. Delaney, Neil Peart's space opera is smarter than
anything Hawkind ever wrote, if not as cool. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">4. Godspeed You! Black
Emperor: Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">When a new planet is born, the
main theme is played. When a planet dies, the last song is played. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">5. Queen: Soundtrack to Flash
Gordon<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">When a soundtrack is this
awesome, No explanation is required.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><a href="http://www.demontheory.net/">Stephen Graham Jones</a><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">My tracks, which purposefully
don't include "The Final Countdown," though I did really want to
somehow feature a Yes video:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">1: "Rocket Man,"
Elton John</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">The loneliness up there, man. It's like Don DeLillo's "Human
Moments in World War III" story. Also, Mars ain't the kind of place to
raise your kids. At least not yet. But I've always wondered if that line was in
response to <i>Stranger in a Strange Land</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">2: "Highwayman,"
Highwaymen</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">Willie liberating jewelry, Kris doing his best Bobby McGee out on
the high seas, Waylon building Hoover, Johnny Cash playing <i>Fear Agent</i> out
there between the planets. It all confirms some suspicions I'd had all along,
about time and space, life and death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">3: "Band on the
Run," Wings</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">I've always heard this song as if sung by a spaceship
crew. <i>Stuck inside these four walls, sent inside forever</i>. That
could be Ripley and Bishop and them, yes? HAL and Dave. And there's even an
M-class planet in there, a 'desert world.' This song's pure <i>Silent
Running</i>, pure <i>Sunshine</i>. And then of course they fall into that
sunshine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">4: "Life on Mars?"
David Bowie</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">Not the usual spidery pick from his catalog, I know. But how can
that girl be watching that movie? And how can this 'Bowie' have <i>written</i> it?
The story of the song wraps around on itself in a very Calvino way, and then's
out the door only two verses in, so you don't even have time to question what
just happened. Real aliens are clever like that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">5: "The Voice,"
Moody Blues, from <i>Long Distance Traveler</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">I title I keep trying to
use, for science fiction. You know how <i>The Dark Side of the Moon</i>'s
supposed to go with <i>The Wizard of Oz</i>? I've always thought <i>Long
Distance Traveler </i>was meant as accompaniment for Olaf
Stapledon's <i>Star Maker</i>. Just listen to that first distant,
obviously galactic sound that opens up "The Voice." It's haunting,
it's bigger than any of us. Your mind has no choice but to fold open.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">First runner-up:
"Everything You Know Is Wrong," Weird Al. Obviously. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Also, I vote Ace Frehley as
the most science fiction of any guitar player ever, even counting
interplanetery history <i>and</i> the Dominion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><a href="http://www.bobfingerman.com/">Bob Fingerman</a><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Powers by Andy Partridge
should be on the list. His eerie soundscape tribute album to sci-fi master
artist Richard M. Powers is great.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222;"><a href="http://www.matthewsrotundo.com/">Matthew Rotundo</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Top 5 SF albums:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Rush--<i>2112</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">Really, nothing more need be said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Queensryche--<i>Operation: Mindcrime</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">Dystopia, mind control, assassination. Doesn't get
much more SF than that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">King Crimson--<i>In the Court
of the Crimson King</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">My go-to psychedelia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Yes--<i>Relayer</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">An
underrated work. "The Gates of Delirium" is suitably epic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Iron Maiden--<i>Somewhere in
Time</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">Another underrated album. One of the band's best. And hey, "Stranger in a Strange Land."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Top 5 SF singles:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Billy Thorpe, "Children
of the Sun"</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">A one-hit wonder, but what a hit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Blue Oyster Cult,
"Veteran of the Psychic Wars"</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">A nightmare vision of the
future, done without a hint of irony.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Rush, "The Body
Electric"</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">Featuring one of my favorite Rush lyrics ever: "Bytes break into bits."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Zager and Evans, "In the
Year 2525"</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">Cheesy? Sure. But never let it be said that
rock 'n' roll doesn't take the long view.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Pink Floyd, "Set the
Controls for the Heart of the Sun"</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;">No idea what the song's about,
but the title demands to be included here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222;"><a href="http://www.carrievaughn.com/">Carrie Vaughn</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">The ELO half of the soundtrack to Xanadu.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222;"><a href="http://chrisfholm.blogspot.com/">Chris F. Holm</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Deltron 3030: Deltron 3030</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">This record is to science
fiction what Enter the Wu-Tang was for kung fu. A dense, mythology-heavy
concept record with more sfnal ideas than you can shake a blaster at, it's also
a damn good listen from start to finish.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">David Bowie: The Rise and Fall
of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><span style="color: #222222;">I mean, c'mon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><span style="color: #222222;">Black Sabbath: Paranoid</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Y'all can keep your Zeppelin-y
ruminations on the Shire; I'll take the crushing, post-apocalyptic tunes of
classic Sabbath any day.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Parliament: Mothership
Connection</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Like Douglas Adams, Parliament
punctures the myth of the self-serious science fiction nerd with one of the
ass-shakin'est records of all time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><span style="color: #222222;">Devo: Q: Are We Not Men? A: We are Devo!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> </span><span style="color: #222222;">De-evolution never sounded so good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="color: #222222;"><a href="http://www.matthewkressel.net/">Matthew Kressel</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">1) "Replicas" by
Gary Numan and Tubeway Army<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Full of robot friends
("Are Friends Electric?") and night clubs were humans are tortured
for the entertainment of robots ("Down in the Park"), this album to
me fully encapsulates the cyberpunk verve of the early 80s.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">2) "Visage" by
Visage<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Glitz and glam new wave with a
decidedly futuristic edge, this was the sound we imagined would be playing in
the night clubs of the 21st century, back when 2000 seemed so far away. The
video for the title track "Visage" might have been a cut scene from
Blade Runner. And I could see their most popular hit, "Fade to Grey",
as the theme song to Chris Marker's brilliant French time-travel film La Jetée.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">3) "Flaunt It" and
"Dress for Excess" by Sigue Sigue Sputnik<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">I include both albums here
because it's hard for me to separate them. SSS mocked the corporate excess and
over-consumption that showed its moisturized face in the early 80s. SSS went
so far as to put ads for hair products (Loreal) and fashion rags (ID Magazine)
and others between each song. "Love Missile F1-11" made an appearance
in the opening act of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and the upbeat track turns Cold
War paranoia into one long sexual metaphor. Layering their music with
samples from Blade Runner, Scarface, Dirty Harry, and Japanese advertisements,
it's easy to enter the future techno-pop world that Sigue Sigue Sputnik
imagined for us. Favorite tracks are "21-st Century Boy,"
"Teenage Thunder," "Rio Rocks," and "M.A.D." The
albums are worth it just for their cover art.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">4) "Dazzle Ships" by
OMD<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Known for their pop songs like
"If You Leave," "Dazzle Ships" was a sharp departure from
their previous oeuvre. "Genetic Engineering" warns about the dangers
of experimenting with human DNA and has my favorite use of a Speak-and-Spell (an
80s toy) which creepily chants in a Stephen-Hawking-esque voice, "Babies,
mother, hospital, scissors. Creature, judgment, butcher, Engineer."
"Dazzle Ships Pts. 1-3" might be the sound of a spaceship docking
gone wrong, while "Time Zones" layers recordings of individuals from
around the world announcing the time. With tracks called "The Romance of
the Telescope," "Radio Waves," and "Telegraph" this
album veers sharply toward the science-fictional landscape and safely lands on
its own unique planet.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Lucida Grande";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">5) Blade Runner Soundtrack
by Vangelis<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Blade Runner, that iconic film
that has influenced everything from fashion to architecture, would only be half
a film if not for the surreal aural landscape painted by Vangelis. Due to
rights issues, the original film score wasn't available for public release
until 1994, and so for years we had to listen to the cheap methadone substitute
of an orchestral version. Who can forget the atmospheric sounds of "Main
Titles" when the film opens to Los Angeles' smog-choked streets? And the
haunting saxophone of the "Love Theme" is forever seared into my mind
as the sound of future city blues. With "Memories of Green" we
can almost hear Rachael's tears as she realizes she's a replicant. "Tales
of the Future" takes us down into Animoid Row, where artificial animals
are sold on thronging streets. And the "End Titles" might be
the orchestral accompaniment to Philip K. Dick's dreams. May you rest in peace,
fair prophet!</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-43523376249824281352015-01-12T12:26:00.003-08:002015-01-12T12:29:47.539-08:00Vermillion Revisited<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-blrj50N0NtE/VLQt0TmQ4pI/AAAAAAAABtQ/tol7C_x6xwY/s1600/c12e9e602dee7d30e573244fd7c6e0f6_l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-blrj50N0NtE/VLQt0TmQ4pI/AAAAAAAABtQ/tol7C_x6xwY/s1600/c12e9e602dee7d30e573244fd7c6e0f6_l.jpg" height="320" width="206" /></a>In this month's issue of <a href="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/heller_01_15/"><i>Clarkesworld Magazine</i></a>, I took a look back at <i>Vermillion</i>: the doomed, erratically brilliant DC/Helix comic book written by the late Lucius Shepard. <i>Vermillion</i> ran for 12 issues in 1996 and '97 before being unceremoniously canceled along with most of the Helix line, noble experiment that it was.<br />
<br />
I love Shepard's work -- I reviewed his posthumous novel <i>Beautiful Blood</i>, the culmination of his masterful Dragon Griaule cycle, last year for <a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/08/03/332666342/beautiful-blood-slays-cliches-not-dragons">NPR</a> -- and it was an honor to dwell in his abandoned city-universe for a little while longer.Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-10299126039416587352015-01-09T09:37:00.003-08:002015-01-12T12:28:02.664-08:00Morrissey Solo Albums: RankedFor no real reason other than the fact that I'm trying to find reasons not to do actual work to today, I thought I'd rank all of Morrissey's solo albums. A little background: Morrissey's debut solo album, Viva Hate, came out in 1988 (on my 16th birthday, no less!), and as huge Smiths fan I bought it immediately. I've been faithfully buying his solo albums, for better or worse, ever since. I still spend SO MUCH FUCKING TIME listening to these albums, far more time than I spend listening to most other music, new or old. I have something wrong with me.<br />
<br />
Please note: For the sake of simplicity I'm excluding most of Morrissey's many compilation albums, save for Bona Drag, which stands alone well enough despite its overlap with Viva Hate (and also because we all had no idea back then that Morrissey was going to turn into such on obsessive self-cannibalizer, discography-wise). I'm also leaving out the live album Beethoven's Deaf, despite how awesome it is. Oh, and in all cases, I'm using the most recent reissue of said album--especially in the case of my #1 pick, which particularly benefits from its reissue bonus tracks. And yes, this is all 100% subjective. Do I really even need to say that?<br />
<br />
1. Southpaw Grammar (1995)<br />
<br />
2. Vauxhall and I (1994)<br />
<br />
3. Your Arsenal (1992)<br />
<br />
4. Bona Drag (1990)<br />
<br />
5. Viva Hate (1988)<br />
<br />
6. You Are the Quarry (2004)<br />
<br />
7. Maladjusted (1997)<br />
<br />
8. Ringleader of the Tormentors (2006)<br />
<br />
9. Years of Refusal (2009)<br />
<br />
10. Kill Uncle (1991)<br />
<br />
11. World Peace Is None of Your Business (2014)<br />
<br />
Now go listen to Southpaw Grammar five hundred times in a row and try to tell me I'm wrong.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-80863996101982565642014-12-31T10:11:00.001-08:002014-12-31T10:16:51.171-08:002014: The Year in StuffSeeing as how 2014 is being put to bed, I find myself prone to the same backward-glancing rumination as your average navel-gazing creative type. Turns out, 2014 was a more happening year than it seemed to me at first. And not just because I went on an Irish honeymoon with my lovely wife in May, which was amazing. Here are a few things I've been up to over the past few months:<br />
<br />
-A chapter on time-travel music that I wrote appeared in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's latest anthology, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Time-Travelers-Almanac-VanderMeer/dp/0765374242">The Time Traveler's Almanac</a> (Tor Books). I also did a reading/signing with my table-of-contents-mates Carrie Vaughn and Connie Willis, which was beyond an honor.<br />
<br />
-I wrote a <a href="http://goosebumps.scholastic.com/">Goosebumps</a> book for Scholastic that will tie into the Goosebumps movie next year.<br />
<br />
-In addition to reviewing a bunch of books for <a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/11/02/360430401/first-listen-bedhead-1992-1998">NPR.org</a>, I wrote my first music article for them: a piece about the Bedhead box set.<br />
<br />
-I wrote a ton of stuff for <a href="http://pitchfork.com/staff/jason-heller/">Pitchfork</a>, including dozens of music reviews and longer pieces on John Fahey, Sun Ra, Steve Albini, and Peter Bebergal's great new book, Season of the Witch: How the Occult Saved Rock and Roll.<br />
<br />
-Over at <a href="http://www.avclub.com/author/Jason%20Heller/">The A.V. Club</a>, I finished my year-long series on '90s punk, <a href="http://www.avclub.com/features/fear-of-a-punk-decade/">Fear Of A Punk Decade</a>, as well as lots of other assorted malarkey, including pieces on Dragonlance, The Black Hole, Lev Grossman, and China Mieville.<br />
<br />
-I started writing for <a href="http://search.ew.com/results.html?Ntt=%22Jason+Heller%22&type=ew:Jason+Heller;&Ns=p_publish_date|1||p_headline_sort|0">Entertainment Weekly</a>, and there I rambled on about everything from Margaret Atwood to Marianne Faithfull, and from steampunk to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.<br />
<br />
-My alma mater, <a href="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/another_word_03_14/">Clarkesworld Magazine</a>, ran a couple essays of mine, including one I'm really proud of: a piece about growing up geek and poor.<br />
<br />
-I launched a monthly science-fiction film series at Alamo Drafthouse Denver called <a href="http://drafthouse.com/movies/science-friction-videodrome/denver">Science Friction</a>, which I curate and host along with my old friend Frank Romero, cofounder of Denver Comic Con. Fantasy author Jesse Bullington filled in as my cohost a few times, and those two guys are the best.<br />
<br />
-I wrote a couple short stories that will be published in 2015: "Of Homes Gone," a surreal science-fiction tale, for the relaunch of <a href="http://www.farragoswainscot.com/">Farrago's Wainscot</a>, and "The Projectionist," a dreamy horror story for <a href="http://www.hexpublishers.com/publications.html">Nightmares Unhinged</a>, an anthology from Hex Publishers.<br />
<br />
-I finished an extensive revision of the first draft of my middle-grade science-fiction novel, Lullaby Underground, and got some great interest and feedback from a certain editor who shall remain nameless, but who rocks. I'm giving it one more rewrite, and from there, fingers crossed.<br />
<br />
-I lined up a few awesome things for 2015, including editing an anthology with the great S. J. Chambers, co-author with Jeff VanderMeer of The Steampunk Bible; contributing to another excellent book by an editor/author already mentioned; and being part of a novel-writing workshop in the summer of '15 with a handful of amazing writers, which will take place in the house of a Very Famous Author (tease, tease).<br />
<br />
-I got a new tattoo: Bubo from Clash Of The Titans.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
-For the 42nd year in a row, I didn't kill anyone.Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-74776503008918434412014-08-19T07:39:00.003-07:002014-08-19T14:42:22.732-07:00Best albums: 2010-2014Over at Pitchfork today, our <a href="http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/9465-the-top-100-albums-of-2010-2014/3/">list of the top 100 albums</a> of the first half of the decade, 2010-2014, has been posted. I got to write the entries for #60 (PJ Harvey's <i>Let England Shake</i>), #50 (Godspeed You! Black Emperor's <i>Allelujah! Don't Bend Ascend!</i>), and #28 (My Bloody Valentine's <i>mbv</i>). Along with the rest of Pitchfork's contributors, I submitted a ballot of my own personal top 100 albums from 2010-2014 before the master list was made. In the interest of transparency, discourse, and why-the-fuck-not, here's my ballot:<br />
<br />
<ol style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Deafheaven: Sunbather</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Swans: The Seer</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Jesu: Ascension</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The Men: Open Your Heart</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Locrian: Return to Annihilation</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">White Lung: Deep Fantasy</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Pallbearer: Sorrow and Extinction</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Iceage: New Brigade</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">My Bloody Valentine: mbv</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Fucked Up: David Comes to Life</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Cult of Youth: Love Will Prevail</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Wolves in the Throne Room: Celestial Lineage</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">PJ Harvey: Let England Shake</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Circle Takes the Square: Decompositions: Volume Number One</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Sunn O))) / Ulver: Terrestrials</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Prurient: Bermuda Drain</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Joanna Newsom: Have One on Me</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Liturgy: Aesthethica</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Chelsea Wolfe: Pain Is Beauty</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Ty Segall: Sleeper</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Titus Andronicus: The Monitor</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Mamiffer: Mare Decendrii</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Waxahatchee: Cerulean Salt</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Metz: Metz</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">SubRosa: More Constant Than the Gods</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Protomartyr: Under Color of Official Right</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Bill Callahan: Dream River</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Deafheaven: Roads to Judah</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Speedy Ortiz: Major Arcana</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Merchandise: Children of Desire</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Loma Prieta: I.V.</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">David Bowie: The Next Day</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Converge: All We Love We Leave Behind</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Agalloch: Marrow of the Spirit</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Marissa Nadler: July</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Earth: Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 1</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Code Orange Kids: Love is Love/Return to Dust</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">No Age: Everything in Between</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Destruction Unit: Deep Trip</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Ceremony: Rohnert Park</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Swans: My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Inter Arma: Sky Burial</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Pianos Become the Teeth: The Lack Long After</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Perfect Pussy: Say Yes to Love</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">YOB: Atma</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Lower: Seek Warmer Climes</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra: Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Self Defense Family: Try Me</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Lycus: Tempest</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Japandroids: Celebration Rock</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Trap Them: Darker Handcraft</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Kinit Her: The Poet & the Blue Flower</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Cult Ritual: LP1</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Screaming Females: Ugly</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The Haxan Cloak: Excavation</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Tombs: Path of Totality</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Cold Cave: Cherish the Light Years</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Krallice: Diotima</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Priests: Bodies and Control and Money and Power</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The Body: I Shall Die Here</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">P.S. Eliot: Sadie</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_724201412" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Thursday</span></span>: No Devolucion</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Swans: To Be Kind</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Tigers Jaw: Charmer</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Arctic Flowers: Reveries</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Year of the Goat: Angels’ Necropolis</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">York Factory Complaint: Lost in the Spectacle</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Savages: Silence Yourself</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Horseback: Half Blood</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">White Suns: Totem</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Total Abuse: Mutt</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Cloud Rat: Moksha</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Belong</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Emma Ruth Rundle: Some Heavy Ocean</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">High on Fire: De Vermis Mysteriis</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Have a Nice Life: The Unnatural World</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Amebix: Sonic Mass</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Wild Flag: Wild Flag</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Barn Owl: Ancestral Star</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Touche Amore: Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Neil Young / Crazy Horse: Psychedelic Pill</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Fear of Men: Loom</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Windhand: Soma</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The Saddest Landscape: You Will Not Survive</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Barren Harvest: Subtle Cruelties</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Pissed Jeans: Honeys</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">La Dispute: Rooms of the House</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Taurus: No/Thing</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">The Soft Moon: The Soft Moon</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Pig Destroyer: Book Burner</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: The Brutalist Bricks</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Rush: Clockwork Angels</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Baroness: Yellow & Green</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Bob Mould: Silver Age</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Oranssi Pazuzu: Velonielu</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Planning For Burial: Desideratum</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Blood and Sun: White Storms Fall</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Russian Circles: Empros</li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;">Ex Hex: Rips</li>
</ol>
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<!--StartFragment--><!--EndFragment-->Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-46909676569361534792014-03-21T07:05:00.000-07:002014-03-21T07:05:29.838-07:00Reading this Sunday: The Time Traveler's AlmanacI am once again pinching myself. <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Time-Travelers-Almanac-VanderMeer/dp/0765374218">The Time Traveler's Almanac</a></i>, the definitive anthology of time travel fiction, just came out via Tor Books, and I am honored to be a part of it. My essay, "Music for Time Travelers," is one of the pieces of nonfiction commissioned for the book by its award-winning editors Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, and I'm pretty proud of it. To commemorate the release of this massive book, its three Colorado-based contributors--Connie Willis, Carrie Vaughn, and I--will be reading from and signing copies of <i>The Almanac </i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1442820782601756/">this Sunday, March 23, at Denver's Broadway Book Mall at 3 p.m</a>. The event is free, so if you're in the area, stop on by and say hi. In the meantime, check out a couple interviews I did in advance of the reading for <i><a href="http://blogs.westword.com/showandtell/2014/03/jason_heller_time_travel.php">Westword</a></i> and <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/books/ci_25338851/time-travelers-almanac-handy-reference-colorado-authors"><i>The Denver Post</i>.</a> You can also read the preface of the book, written by the VanderMeers themselves, over at <i><a href="http://www.avclub.com/article/read-preface-time-travelers-almanac-and-win-signed-202217">The A.V. Club</a></i>. Meanwhile I'll be over here pinching myself some more.<br />
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Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-61420879678084692952014-03-08T11:03:00.001-08:002014-03-09T05:33:08.752-07:00Some Interesting Facts About Words-A word can grow only so long, but the largest word ever found was in South Africa and measured 22 feet.<br />
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-A word has no arms, legs, or eyes.<br />
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-Words live where there is food, moisture, oxygen, and a favorable temperature. If they don’t have these things, they go somewhere else.<br />
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-In one acre of land, there can be more than a million words.<br />
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-Slime, which words secrete, contains nitrogen.<br />
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-Charles Darwin spent 39 years studying words more than 100 years ago.<br />
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-Words are coldblooded.<br />
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-Words have the ability to replace or replicate lost segments. This ability varies greatly depending on the amount of damage to the word and where it is cut.<br />
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-Words are not born. They hatch from cocoons smaller than a grain of rice.<br />
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-Even though words don’t have eyes, they can sense light, especially at their anterior (front end). They move away from light and will become paralyzed if exposed to light for too long.<br />
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-Words are hermaphrodites. Each word has both male and female organs. Words mate by joining their clitella (swollen area near the head of a mature word) and exchanging sperm. Then each word forms an egg capsule in its clitellum.<br />
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-Words can eat their weight each day.<br />
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-If a word’s skin dries out, it will die.Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-17495311499125637352014-03-02T06:04:00.003-08:002014-03-02T06:05:32.828-08:00On Growing Up Geek and Poor<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4HNGY4aYjKQ/UxM6a47e1hI/AAAAAAAABFo/AB8L9CWzbKM/s1600/cw_90_350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4HNGY4aYjKQ/UxM6a47e1hI/AAAAAAAABFo/AB8L9CWzbKM/s1600/cw_90_350.jpg" height="320" width="209" /></a>I wrote <a href="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/another_word_03_14/">an essay for the new issue of <i>Clarkesworld Magazine</i></a> about growing up disadvantaged and also a fan of science fiction/fantasy. It was a hard one to write. But the issue of socioeconomic diversity in SFF is one I've thought a lot about over the years, and while I'm happy to see the issue get more traction lately, I also feel it tends to get discussed in abstract terms rather than human ones. In any case, thanks in advance for checking it out.Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-85207453295889138792013-12-23T07:27:00.006-08:002013-12-31T04:04:36.787-08:00Flipping Ahead: SF/F Books I'm Anticipating in Early '14Did I read even half of the new books I wanted to in 2013? Not even close. But that hasn't stopped me from looking forward to some of the most promising novels (by my humble estimation) in the speculative-fiction/science-fiction/fantasy realm that are due in the first couple months of 2014. Like these:<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781594486104">On Such a Full Sea</a> by Chang-rae Lee (Riverhead, Jan. 7)</b><br />
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<b><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780385348997">Shovel Ready</a> by Adam Sternbergh (Crown, Jan. 14)</b><br />
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<b><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780345539786">Red Rising</a> by Pierce Brown (Random House, Jan. 28)</b><br />
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<b><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780857663177">Hang Wire</a> by Adam Christopher (Angry Robot, Jan. 28)</b><br />
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<b><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780374270650">Strange Bodies</a> by Marcel Theroux (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Feb. 4)</b><br />
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<b><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780374104092">Annihilation</a> by Jeff VanderMeer (FSG Originals, Feb. 4)</b><br />
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<b><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780765334862">The Waking Engine</a> by David Edison (Tor, Feb. 11)</b><br />
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<b style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780804137140">Black Moon</a> by Kenneth Calhoun (Hogarth, Mar. 4)</b><br />
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Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-68231733707732667132013-12-17T10:21:00.005-08:002013-12-17T23:44:45.703-08:00Year in the Rear-View: 2013<div class="MsoNormal">
Every December I sit down to write one of these
end-of-the-year posts, and every year I’m floored. I didn’t do half the things
I swore I would this year! I did twice the things I swore I would this year! At
the same time! What makes this paradox possible is the fact that I’m crazy, the
world is crazy, and writing is crazy. Amid those vectors of craziness, however,
shit got done. Here’s some of what went down in 2013:<o:p></o:p></div>
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-In March, I was nominated for a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award">Hugo Award</a> in the Best
Semiprozine category as part of the <i><a href="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/">Clarkesworld Magazine</a></i> editing team in 2012
(I served as Nonfiction Editor last year). And then, in September at Worldcon
in San Antonio, <a href="http://blogs.denverpost.com/nerd/2013/09/03/denver-author-jason-heller-hugo-award/972/">WE WON</a>—and I now have a shiny Hugo rocket sitting on top of a
bookshelf next to my Lego pirate ship. I owe the win to Neil Clarke, Sean
Wallace, and Kate Baker at <i>Clarkesworld</i>, who continue to put out the best
science fiction/fantasy magazine in the universe. I can’t thank them enough for
having me along for the ride. During my twelve months as an editor at
<i>Clarkesworld</i>, I launched a new monthly column, drew in a fresh crop of
top-notch nonfiction contributors, and helped streamline some behind-the-scenes
workflow. I’m extremely proud that I was able to play that small part in the
continued excellence and success of <i>Clarkesworld</i>. Heck, I even squeezed in <a href="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/heller_06_13/">an essay</a> for them this year about locomotives throughout the history of science fiction.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
-I proposed to my girlfriend of six years, Angie, on New
Year’s 2012. She said yes! In September, we got hitched. It was a small, quiet,
beautiful wedding ceremony, and Angie is the best person I’ve ever known, so… that was
pretty awesome.<o:p></o:p></div>
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-I wrote first drafts of two novels. The fate of them remains to be determined, but I’ve got some nibbles, and I’m currently in the midst of doing a massive revision/polishing job on one. It’s a science fiction book with a 12-year-old protagonist who
lives in a peculiarly dystopian future. The revision should be done and sent
off to some editors by the end of this month. So, yeah, fingers crossed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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-After four years of freelancing for <i>The Onion</i>’s <i><a href="http://www.avclub.com/author/Jason%20Heller/">A.V. Club</a></i>
(and three years of being their City Editor in Denver before that), I was promoted to
Senior Writer of the site. It’s an honor I never could have imagined a dozen
years ago, when I decided to quite my retail job and start writing for my local
alt-weekly newspaper, let alone when I first discovered and fell in love with <i>The Onion</i> and <i>The A.V. Club</i> many years ago. Of all the stuff I wrote for <i>A.V. </i>this year, I'm most happy with the launch of <i><a href="http://www.avclub.com/search?feature_types=fear-of-a-punk-decade">Fear of a Punk Decade</a></i>, a year-long series where I examine '90s punk, hardcore, and emo, year by year, mixing in a little memoir along the way.<o:p></o:p></div>
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-I began writing music reviews and articles for two other
publications that I love: <i><a href="http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18704-songs-ohia-the-magnolia-electric-co/">Pitchfork</a></i>, the biggest independent source of music
criticism in the world, and <i><a href="http://www.decibelmagazine.com/">Decibel</a></i>, the best heavy metal magazine in
existence. Hell yes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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-I had my first byline on NPR.org, for a <a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/10/09/228509103/crowley-meets-crime-novel-in-love-is-the-law">book review</a> I wrote of <a href="http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/">Nick Mamatas</a>’s excellent new novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Love-Law-Nick-Mamatas/dp/1616552220">Love Is the Law</a></i>. A year and a half earlier, when my own novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Taft-2012-Novel-Jason-Heller/dp/1594745501/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387304042&sr=1-1&keywords=taft+2012">Taft 2012</a></i> came out, I was interviewed for NPR’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/01/23/145413269/taft-2012-a-presidential-time-warp">Morning Edition</a></i>—so getting to review
books for them kind of brought it all full circle.<o:p></o:p></div>
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-I was asked, and eagerly accepted, an assignment to write a
chapter-length essay about time-travel-themed music for <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Time-Travelers-Almanac-VanderMeer/dp/0765374218">The Time Traveller’s Almanac</a></i>, an epic compendium of short stories edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. Not only did the British edition of the book come out
in November (the U.S. edition will be published in March via Tor Books), I got
to share a <a href="http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2013/08/toc-the-time-travelers-almanac-edited-by-ann-vandermeer-and-jeff-vandermeer/">table of contents</a> with some of my heroes—including Ray Bradbury,
Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Moorcock, Gene Wolfe, George R. R. Martin, and
Douglas Adams (not to mention friends of mine such as <a href="http://www.carrievaughn.com/">Carrie Vaughn</a> and <a href="http://www.genevievevalentine.com/">Genevieve Valentine</a>).<o:p></o:p></div>
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-And speaking of the great Carrie Vaughn: She and I recently co-wrote
a creative essay for Jeff VanderMeers’s next anthology, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.cookeagency.ca/books/VanderMeer-J_Chambers-SJ_Steampunk-Users-Manual.htm">The Steampunk User’s Manual</a></i>. It was a blast shooting text back and
forth with Carrie, and I think the piece came out beautifully. I’m not exactly
certain when the book comes out, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be in 2014.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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-A couple other random publication credits that I’m (still)
very excited about are an essay on J. G. Ballard and post-punk for the British speculative-fiction journal <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.tangentbooks.co.uk/products/Adventure-Rocketship!.html">Adventure Rocketship!</a></i>
as well as a more personal essay about being an erstwhile touring musician for the
literary journal <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.newhavenreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Issue-12-Heller.pdf">New Haven Review</a></i>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course, there were some things I wanted to do this year
that I didn’t get around to, including finishing the first draft of my
eternally-in-progress post-steampunk novel. Yes, you read that right:
post-steampunk. What does that even mean, besides the fact that I clearly love
the prefix “post-” too much? The book is still in progress, so I guess we’ll
both see.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Actually, finishing a first draft of that book is my primary
goal—call it a resolution—for 2014. Some other resolutions involve selling at
least one of the nonfiction book proposals (of three!) I’m currently working on
AND writing a first draft of a supernatural/science fiction book for kids that
I’ve been turning around in my brain for a few weeks. And did I mention the anthology-editing plans that my friend <a href="http://selenachambers.com/">S. J. Chambers </a>and I are cooking up? Because there's that, too Oh, and Angie and I will
be going on our honeymoon to Ireland in the spring, so that’s something to look
forward to in 2014.<br />
<br />
Along with more writing. Lots and lots of writing. Algebraically paradoxical shitloads of writing. Or something.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
UPDATE: I almost forgot that one of my old bands, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Cloud-West/263970196955733">Red Cloud West</a>, played a reunion show last month. It was fun as hell, especially seeing as how I (sadly) don't have time to be in a full-time band right now. Hmmm, maybe I need to add that to the 2014 to-do list. I clearly don't have enough stuff on there as is.</div>
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Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-51037889275867397392013-10-17T11:21:00.005-07:002013-10-17T11:26:23.740-07:00My MileHiCon scheduleTomorrow I'll be headed to MileHiCon, Denver's longest-running science fiction/fantasy convention, which takes place in the Hyatt Regency Tech Center. I'll be there all weekend, but my programming will go down on Friday and Saturday. Here's the rundown of where I'll be... If you'd like to grab a cup of coffee, please say hi!
<br />
<br />
FRIDAY, OCT. 18<br />
Panel: Are Writing Workshops Worth It?<br />
With Jason Heller, Ian Tregillis, S.J. Chambers, Matthew S. Rotundo, Thea Hutcheson<br />
3 p.m., Grand Mesa B-C
<br />
<br />
FRIDAY, OCT. 18<br />
Readings by Jason Heller and David Riley<br />
7 p.m., Wind River B
<br />
<br />
SATURDAY, OCT. 19<br />
Panel: Beyond Brass And Goggles<br />
With Jason Heller, S.J. Chambers, David Riley, Guy Anthony De Marco, Sam Knight<br />
3 p.m., Wind River B<br />
<br />Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001456969123486159.post-79063637483340272692013-10-17T11:07:00.000-07:002013-10-17T11:07:21.039-07:00The greatest Table of Contents everI just got my contributor's copy of Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's The Time Traveller's Almanac. Holy shit. I'm sharing the Table of Contents with a staggering array of writers, including heroes of mine like Ray Bradbury, Michael Moorcock, Gene Wolfe, and Ursula K. Le Guin. Not to mention George R. R. Martin, Isaac Asimov, Nalo Hopkinson, William Gibson, and writer-in-residence at Odyssey Writers Workshop (and all-around inspiration), Carrie Vaughn. My contribution to the book is titled "Music for Time Travellers," and it's a nine-page essay about how time travel has inspired all kinds of popular (and not-so-popular) music over the past few decades. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Time-Travelers-Almanac-VanderMeer/dp/0765374218">The book comes out<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gRW0bd3Yks0/UmAnTVZnbzI/AAAAAAAAA6E/sEZ3Ttfzqs4/s1600/1392099_10151995457977754_968296742_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gRW0bd3Yks0/UmAnTVZnbzI/AAAAAAAAA6E/sEZ3Ttfzqs4/s320/1392099_10151995457977754_968296742_n.jpg" /></a></div></a> on March 18, 2014 -- the week of my birthday, coincidentally. I'll consider it all the present I need. Um, no pun intended.Jason Hellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15240813925042806242noreply@blogger.com0