Fantasy

I'm now in week three of a five-week book tour...

The New York/Boston gigs for my novel Finch and for Booklife were a lovely blur. I enjoy both cities, and we had a great attendance at both boookstore events, with raucous, fully engaged crowds. I read with Paul Tremblay and David Anthony Durham in Boston and with Geoff Manaugh and Jeffrey Ford in NYC (with Ron Hogan moderating a discussion of cities real and unreal). I also did an MIT lecture with great attendance at MIT's new media studies center. The lecture focused on aspects of private and public booklife and should be available via podcast soon. Afterwards, we had a Q&A session hosted by Kevin Smokler of booktour.com.

As ever, New York was dirty, gritty, and fantastically alive. I walked everywhere I could, ignoring the subway, just to reacquaint myself with the texture of the city. Whether walking through a high-end shopping district or being interviewed in a dive bar around 44th Street and 9th Ave, attending the National Book Awards with my wife or eating breakfast in a greasy diner, I was once again in love with the energy you could find on every street corner. After the bookstore event, we invited everyone to join us at a local bar, and a good thirty people did, including Ford and Manaugh and Hogan, but also people like Rick Bowes, Paul Witcover, and Lev Grossman. I really enjoyed meeting Lev for the first time, and loved that he seemed comfortable discussing both high and low culture. The whole evening was a lot of fun for me--so great to see so many old friends, too.

   
 
(From the Plymouth State exhibit, along with the poster for the Baltimore event...)

Boston I also had a chance to explore--I stayed at a great boutique hotel called the Chartermark, and highly recommend it to anyone who visits Boston. It's right on Copley Square in the center of everything, and I booked it the day before I arrived, which seemed to help ensure a reasonable rate. From there, I walked across the city, just taking in the sights. There's something about being alone in a big city at the beginning of winter that's invigorating. I got lost a couple of times, wandered into a somewhat anemic Chinatown, then found my bearings again just in time for, as I rummaged for my cell phone, some guy to walk past and drop a quarter in my outstretched coffee cup...which wasn't entirely empty. It made me realize my jacket might've gotten more rumpled than I'd thought. But, the quarter helped make up a little bit for an experience on the Amtrak train coming down. I put in a generous tip at the food car before ordering, then was told the credit card machine didn't work--but my last cash was in the tip jar, and the attendant wouldn't let me take it back out. Thus, I had a somewhat uncomfortable non-food, non-coffee four-hour ride to Boston.

The city itself made up for that, and the accompanying exhaustion, as did the company at both MIT and the bookstore event. One of my biggest supporters, Rob Davies, had distributed posters, and I was glad to finally meet him. It was also great to get to know David Anthony Durham and Paul Tremblay a little better. My only regret is not hitting the gym while in Boston. I'm going to have to make up for that while here in New Hampshire. I'm staying with the excellent nonfiction/fiction writer Matthew Cheney at the moment, in preparation for speaking at Plymouth State University tonight. It's a fairly unique event, as I'll be teaming up with long-time collaborator Eric Schaller. Eric did many of the illustrations in City of Saints & Madmen, among others, and Plymouth State has been running an exhibit related to this collaboration for the past month. I'll speak a little bit about City of Saints and the effects of having something so idiosyncratic out in the world, and then Eric will present a selection of his art and talk about the collaborative process--followed by discussion and Q&A.

After that, it's four days off before hitting Baltimore's Book Escape on Nov. 29th at 3:30 pm with mystery novelist Sarah Ruttan and mystery columnist Brian Lindemuth for readings and discussion of noir. I also just got the great news that my wife and I will indeed by featured on national NPR's Weekend Edition sometime in the near future, so check out the next couple of Sundays for that...

Prior posts:

- National Book Award follow-up (with more to come)

- National Book Award coverage

- Tour Update from LA and San Francisco

- Tour Update from Seattle, Portland, San Bernardino

In celebration of New Moon's opening, we're exploring your favorite movie & TV vampires and putting them head-to-head (or fang to fang). Feel free to chime in with your thoughts as we match up two different bloodsuckers every day this week. This is the last of our pairings, but feel free to dream up your own cage matches: Dakota Fanning’s Jane (New Moon) vs. Kirsten Dunst’s Claudia (Interview with a Vampire)? Kiefer Sutherland's David (The Lost Boys) vs. James Marster’s Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)? Aaliyah's Queen Akasah (Queen of the Damned) vs. Catherine Deneuve's Miriam (The Hunger)? Sesame Street’s The Count vs. Count Chocula?

ROUND FIVE: COUNT DRACULA (BELA LUGOSI) VS. COUNT ORLOK (MAX SCHRECK)

Two old-time scarers who find black-and-white blood just as tasty as the red stuff. 

WHO?:  This might be our most evenly matched fight yet because it's basically the same character.  Bela Lugosi is the classic Count Dracula, starring in the 1931 Universal movie that launched not only his career but a huge wave of monster and horror-theme movies during the decade.  Max Schreck is not the big green ogre--he plays Count Orlok in F.W. Murnau's 1922 movie Nosferatu, which is Bram Stoker's story but with the characters renamed for legal reasons.

UN-UNDEAD SOULMATE: Mina Harker nee Seward (played by Helen Chandler) for Lugosi; Ellen Hutter (Greta Schroeder) for Schreck

INSTEAD OF HUMANS, THEY DRINK FROM: These guys wrote the book on human sustenance, as in, using humans for sustenance.

PHYSICAL STRENGTHS: Dracula hypnotizes people and transforms into a bat. Interestingly, Orlok kills his victims outright instead of creating undead companions.

PHYSICAL WEAKNESSES: Both guys avoid wooden stakes and sunlight, surely resulting in Vitamin D deficiencies.

WOOING: Dracula bites Mina, but ultimately loses her.  Orlok wins Ellen, but at a high cost.

Which vampire would win this bout? --David

In celebration of New Moon's opening we are going to explore your favorite movie & TV vampires and put them head-to-head (or fang to fang). Feel free to chime in with your thoughts as we match up two different bloodsuckers every day this week.

ROUND FOUR: DRACULA VS. LESTAT

Two old-school, control freak vampires with attitude problems and horrible luck in love.

Qualifier: There are many versions of both of these characters. This cage match is between the Lestat from the movie Interview with the Vampire, and not the book version. The Dracula character is from Gary Oldman’s portrayal in the 1992 film, Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

WHO?: Dracula (Gary Oldman), is the most famous of the vampires, and also known as the first vampire.  He is forever searching for the reincarnation of his lost love. People usually just get in the way of his goal, and when they do, he kills or eats them. Lestat (Tom Cruise) is a 6-foot tall, blond vampire with a flair for fashion. He is bold, defiant and conflicted.  He tends toward selfish introspection without much concern for the feelings of others. 

 
UN-UNDEAD SOULMATE:  Mina (for Dracula); Himself? (Lestat)

INSTEAD OF HUMANS, THEY DRINK FROM: Both actually drink from people.

PHYSICAL STRENGTHS: Dracula, once known as Vlad the Impaler, has major battle training. He also puts little to no value on any life, sometimes including his own. That sort of ambivalence could give him an advantage. Lestat’s resourcefulness and resilience lead him to survive fire and dead blood (which apparently can kill him). He’s selfish enough to turn anyone into a vampire in order to keep them as his companions, who on-screen are a Who’s Who of vampire hotness: (Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas).

 
PHYSICAL WEAKNESSES: These two are pretty well-matched physically, but their mental issues could make all the difference. Dracula is so confident in his ability to triumph, he runs the risk of underestimating his opponent. Lestat is extremely self-centered and might worry about getting his clothes dirty.

 
WOOING:  Dracula is only concerned with his Mina. He loves to the point of obsession, even though the original Mina has been dead for many years. Lestat is a charmer. He has well-honed seduction skills, but has no ability to keep a long-term relationship.

Which vampire would win this bout? --Shauna

As Omni readers know, our own Jeff VanderMeer, who usually posts from the Florida panhandle, has been on a typically hydra-headed book tour for his two new releases this fall: his latest novel, Finch, a hard-boiled tale set in his city of Ambergris, and Booklife, a guide to the writer's life in the early 21st century, with from-the-front-lines advice on how to survive in the new world of new media. Happily, as his fuzzy phone photo from last week confirmed, he made it to Seattle (twice!) and we were able to sit down for lunch at a pub near the Amazon offices (and meet in person for only the second time). At the end of the meal I risked what I'm learning is the ultimate buzz kill for any convivial author meeting and pulled out my beloved Flip camera to record a little of our conversation for Omni. But Jeff was game, and had some sharp things to say about a couple of my questions.

So while Jeff and Ann get all gussied up in New York for tonight's National Book Awards, here is Jeff talking about what a booklife really means in 2009. (Pardon the background pub chatter: we call that "atmosphere.")

My first question, after being somewhat daunted, as I'm sure some writers will be, by all the possible routes to getting your work out there he describes in Booklife--and having seen in practice how many of them Jeff uses, often in the space of a single day--was: do you have to be a whirling, multi-platform dervish like Jeff VanderMeer to live a modern booklife?

Then, taking from his comment that he had "laid bare" his own methods and writing career in Booklife, I asked if the new writer's life demanded that he or she erase the line between public and private life? How do you draw the line, when the culture demands that you erase it?

--Tom

This holiday season, are you looking for that perfect gift to give to the comics fan in your life? You have my sympathies. We are an admittedly obsessive, persnickety bunch. Our interests are byzantine, but there is a great equalizer in Alan Moore.  No matter the distance he has put between himself and mainstream comics of late, Moore's catalog is still unrivaled in its scope, reach, and influence. That said, when a body of work is as vast as his, even Alan Moore fans can play favorites. It's with this in mind that DC Comics wisely peppered the 2009 holiday season with a feast for all Moore fans.

If your favorite comics fan prefers the dystopian Alan Moore, a la Watchmen , then look no further than Absolute V for Vendetta, Alan Moore and artist David Lloyd's bleak depiction of a totalitarian United Kingdom in need of a revolution.

The Absolute V for Vendetta boasts over 100 more pages than the trade paperback, including an expanded sketchbook section, Lloyd's "silent" pages (collected here for the first time), as well as a slipcase, a new dust-jacket, and all the supplemental goodies (intros by Moore and Lloyd, and an long afterward by Moore) collected elsewhere. Plenty of ink went into the enlarged artwork here, featuring some of the best coloring I've seen of this story, and it's all presented on thick, durable pages.

If that favorite comics fan prefers his or her stories with a touch of magic, then you can't go wrong with Absolute Promethea: Volume 1. In an earlier Omni post, I recounted my love for this series in (embarrassing) detail, but I never thought I'd see this underrated story in the Absolute format. This is Moore's most personal and most ambitious work, and it all starts within this volume, which collects the first 12 issues on an oversized canvas. Artist J.H. Williams III's artwork can only be fully appreciated in such a package.

This edition, while slimmer than V, comes housed in a stunning slipcover (featured at left), and, in possibly a first for the Absolute line, without a dust-jacket. To be honest, I'm always worried about tearing the jacket every time I put them back into the slipcase. Plus, J.H. Williams III has crafted an all-new wraparound image for the hardcover, complete with a complex spot varnish, so who needs a dust-jacket? Bestselling author Brad Meltzer provides an afterword, but that's it for extras. Since this is only the first in a promised three-volume set, I have to believe that DC is saving the extras to pad the final two volumes.

[Note: In a conversation with DC, they confirmed that not only will Volume 3 feature the most extras, including the "Little Margie" stories and a section on the making of issue #32, but that Volume 2 will have approximately 25-30 pages devoted to an art gallery, plus pages of sketches, pinups, commissions, and more.  The breakup of extras across the latter two volumes was due to storytelling purposes.  So be good for goodness' sake.]

Let's say you are on a tighter budget, and your special someone has a flair for adventure--then allow me introduce you to Promethea's sister (or is that brother?) book, Tom Strong. Along with Promethea, Alan Moore created Tom Strong in a fit of creativity, where he devised an entire universe of linked characters and worlds (see also the Omni spotlight on the series). Tom Strong boasts a hefty cast, and this Deluxe Edition, Vol. 1 features put-'em-up! action and artwork by co-creator Chris Sprouse. The first 12 issues are rip-roaring and cheery, and Sprouse turns over the reins for flashback sequences by Art Adams, Dave Gibbons, Rick Veitch, Jerry Ordway, and more. Aside from the slightly oversized format, there is a light sketchbook section here as well, mostly notable for the teaser image of Sprouse's forthcoming 2010 continuation of the series.

There's a very select but vocal corner of fans who wickedly call Moore's run on Swamp Thing their favorite work. Be advised that this is adult material, not to mention Horror comics at their finest. As a child, I was mistakenly given one of these issues, and I think it’s the basis for some of the worst nightmares I still have (it involves a creature with its hand sewn into his back). Initially collected across six paperbacks, Moore's (very) graphic epic is getting the hardcover treatment from DC's Vertigo imprint. Now on Book 2, these hardcovers collect over 200 pages each, with art by series staples Stephen Bissette and John Totleben. To be released in early December, Book 2 features a newly-restored forward by Neil Gaiman, plus the famous, bizarre, Mature Readers-labeled "Rite of Spring" chapter. Book 1 is a must-have precursor to this second collection, and it features the never-before-collected first issue of Moore's run.

There isn't another comics creator who has a spectrum so fully covered this holiday, and for the Alan Moore fan who has everything, 'tis the season.

Teenagers take risks, even stupid risks, at times. But the chance on any given night that sneaking a beer will destroy your life is damned slim. Art isn't exactly like life, and science fiction asks the reader to accept the impossible, but unless your book is about a universe in which disapproving parents have cooked the physics so that every act of disobedience leads swiftly to destruction, it won't be very credible. The pathos that parents would like to see here become bathos: mawkish and trivial, heavy-handed, and preachy.

Quick links...
In The New York Times Book Review "Field Guide to Fairies", Regina Marler looks at the allure of YA novels trafficking in the tortured loves of mortals and fairies:

It’s not just the dark lovers that allure and threaten. Passion itself feels alien at this age, the point at which choices--the dangerous lover who enchants versus the dependable boy next door--can have lasting consequences.

YARN (Young Adult Review Network), a new litmag for readers ages 14 and up, launches their site, announcing their impending kick-off in winter 2010. The magazine (which accepts submissions from young adults as well as "fogies over 18") will feature fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews, as well as a “What We’re Reading Now” series, with editors asking readers what YA books they're into. (via YA & Kids Books Central)

At Bookslut, Colleen Mondor rounds up books "on war around the world, both declared and not, that older teens in particular will find both compelling and engaging."

Out this week: Deadly Little Lies, book two in Laurie Faria Stolarz's Touch series.

Happy reading!--Heidi

 
 (Pardon my DIY phone photos, but here's me and Tom Nissley at Amazon HQ, and a sample of the wonders that await you at Tio's Tacos.)
  
What day is it? That's one question that keeps popping into my head as I make my way through this massive book tour in support of my novel Finch and writing strategy guide Booklife. Other questions range from the mundane, like "When will I ever get to do laundry again?", to the slightly more esoteric, including "Should I get that tattoo today or just lie here and catch up on sleep?" (I decided on the latter as the more sensible answer.)

I'm now about six or seven events into the tour, and it's already been a rather wonderful, frenetic, at times odd experience. Starting out in Seattle after being a guest of honor at the World Fantasy con in San Jose, the first event at University Bookstore co-featured Cherie Priest and Cat Rambo. A boisterous crowd of about seventy got the tour off to a great start, after which my intrepid editor Victoria Blake hijacked me to go down to Salem for a gig talking to students at Willamette University, followed by a well-attended reading. Then it was off to the Press Club in Portland and Powell's. Meeting Jeff Johnson, author of Tattoo Machine was a definite highlight, as was hanging out with novelist Jay Lake at the Japanese Garden. Finally, it was back to Seattle for a Hugo House workshop and lecture, as well as a nice lunch with Omnivoracious' own Tom Nissley and Alex Carr. (If you're wondering, there's no dirt to dish--both are genuine, fun, laid-back people who care about books. Perhaps they spend their off-hours using bunnies as target practice and planning world domination, but I rather doubt it.) A lot to absorb, a bit of a blur.

The Blur is definitely something I'm experiencing now. Not remember who I've told what stories to, and in the middle of that trying to find time to just sit and not do anything. In the midst of The Blur, small details stand out: losing my voice and asking the pharmacist for a remedy, and being told "saliva replacement gum." Um, yeah. Can you give me a brand that doesn't sound so disgusting. Or moments where time slows down, like sitting in Tio's Tacos and talking with my friend Dave Wesley, Cal State San Bernardino professor Glen Hirshberg (an amazing writer), and some of his students after doing a Finch reading (one of whom expounded in rather convincing fashion on the myriad uses for dryer sheets). Tio's Tacos has an amazing "outsider art" garden of figures and animals and weird structures.

The other thing I'm experiencing that may sound weird is: "Oh, there actually are readers out there." As a writer, you always get that paranoid feeling in the pit of your stomach about events. What if nobody shows up? So far, though, so good, with an average crowd of about 50. Hey, I'm not a NYT bestseller. I'm one of them critically acclaimed midlisters. I'll take it, and frankly it's been great to meet such a mix of people so far. There are readers who'd never heard of me before Booklife or Finch, and readers who came up to have me sign every book I've ever written.

Anyway, I expect it to get weirder and for The Blur to become Godzilla-like in proportions, but it's okay. I'm finding myself oddly invigorated and stimulated by changes of scenery, by good and fun conversation, and reaffirming that people in this country still care about books, and still care about readings.

Check in next week when I report back with further adventures. Yes, you too can chart Jeff's ongoing disintegration and failing sense of time.

What Jeff's Reading on the Road: On the plane to Seattle I cranked through Will Self's Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes, composed of several long stories with connections that range from marginal to essential. The first one, set in a degenerate drinking club with a number of sleezy people of bad moral fiber, has a great baroque and tactile feel to it. Then you get to the end and, pardon the expression, have a genuine "WTF" moment when he adds a twist that had me torn between admiring his insane bravado and wanting to throw the book across the room. Are you having us on, Will Self? Are you having a larf? Regardless of how that story strikes you, though, I recommend Liver for its daring.

Just out: the trailer for Clash of the Titans, opening March 26, 2010 and starring Sam Worthington as Perseus. Looks like special effects have come a long way in the last 30 years. --David

I didn't tune in to see Taylor Swift hosting Saturday Night Live last night, but I hear one of the highlights was the Twilight spoof, called Firelight, and starring Swift as "Stella." Watch it below or on YouTube. --David