Capclave

Just found out today, Ann VanderMeer (one of Capclave 2010’s GoH) has just been promoted to editor in chief of Weird Tales magazine. The press release said:

JAN. 25, 2010 — Wildside Press, publisher of the Hugo Award-winning Weird Tales magazine, today announced the promotion of fiction editor Ann VanderMeer to the position of editor in chief.

“Ann has done an outstanding job since joining the Weird Tales editorial team three years ago,” said publisher John Betancourt. “For two decades she’s been one of the most talented, cutting-edge editors in the business, so we’ve been thrilled to see her finally burst onto SF’s center stage, both with Weird Tales and with her recent run of high-profile anthologies. We could not be more pleased to have Ann representing the proud tradition of the world’s oldest fantasy magazine.”

Editorial and creative director Stephen H. Segal, who has collaborated with VanderMeer for the past three years in leading the 21st-century revamp of Weird Tales, will remain a valuable part of the team as the magazine’s senior contributing editor. He is stepping away from the magazine’s day-to-day operations to accept a new full-time position as acquisitions editor for Quirk Books, publisher of the 2009 international bestseller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

The Weird Tales masthead will be rounded out by two new, though very familiar, additions to the management team serving under VanderMeer. Campbell Award-winning author, artist, designer and performer Mary Robinette Kowal will serve as the magazine’s new art director. And two-time Stoker Award nonfiction winner Paula Guran, editor of the Pocket Juno fantasy imprint, will serve as Weird Tales’s new nonfiction editor.

You’ll find the full article on the Weird Tales website.

Everyone’s a Rebel: An Interview with Jeff VanderMeer By Cynthia Hawkins in Strange Horizons, 4 January 2010.

Shortly after detective John Finch first hustles up five flights of steps and right into the impossible minefield of his next assignment, author Jeff VanderMeer details Finch: “Written on a wall at a crime scene: Everyone’s a collaborator. Everyone’s a rebel. The truth and the weight in each. Sweating under his jacket, through his shirt. Boots heavy on his feet. Always a point of no return, and yet he kept returning. I am not a detective. I am not a detective.”* Finch, unwittingly working for the fungal enemy invaders, must investigate the murder of a human and a “gray cap,” an investigation which nudges him into the crosshairs of both sides while he grapples with doing what’s right.

Go to Strange Horizons to read the full interview.

Connie Willis will be one of Capclave 2010’s Guests of Honor. In Tuesday’s issue of Publishers Weekly, there’s an interview with Connie about her upcoming books: Black Out and All Clear.

Black Out will be released in February 2010 and All Clear in November 2010. Both are in her time travel series which includes: Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog.

Wet Asphalt interviewed Jeff VanderMeer during his national book tour. “He is a writer known for fusing Post-Modern literary sensibilities with fantasy and genre tropes. His most recent books are the fantasy noir Finch and Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st Century Writer.”

Jeff VanderMeer’s website can be found at http://www.wetasphalt.com/?q=content/jeff-vandermeer-wet-asphalt-interview.

Interview with Jeff VanderMeer — Intro

Eric Rosenfield | MySpace Music Videos

Library of Congress Professional Association What If… Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum Presents:

Booklife: The Public and the Private in the Age of New Media
Jeff VanderMeer

An award-winning author who writes for the New York Times Book Review, Washington Post, and Amazon presents an entertaining talk on the future of writers and publishing as part of a six-week Endurance virtual and real-world book tour.

Tuesday, December 1, 12:10 pm
Pickford Theater, Madison Building

All Staff and Library Patrons are welcome to attend a book signing will follow

Omnivoracious interviewed Jeff VanderMeer about the topic of keeping your private life and public life separate. Jeff’s Booklife talks about his subject as it regards authors.

See Jeff’s website for more on what he’s up to now.

Capclave will have a table at Philcon this weekend. Look for the table with the dodos and the Capclave banner. Buy your membership now at $35 before the price goes up.

On November 17, Studio 360 takes you where no audience has gone before: traveling through time. In this live show hosted by Kurt Andersen at WNYC’s The Greene Space (taped for later broadcast), scientists and artists explain why time travel is more than an idle fantasy.

Astrophysicist David Goldberg (A User’s Guide to the Universe) unravels the physics of time travel. Sci-fi writer Connie Willis tells us what to do if your journey through time goes awry. Simon Wells, the great-grandson of H.G., shares his obsession with the classic The Time Machine. Musical sensation Janelle Monae performs her 28th-century funk. And Mike Daisey drops by to give us advice from the future.

Studio 360’s “Science & Creativity” explores the intersection of art and science. The series is supported in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen: Live from Greene Space website
Connie Willis website: http://www.conniewillis.net

I thought posting a bit about Ann VanderMeer would help Capclave and WSFA members get to know another of our upcoming Guests of Honor a bit better. Of course, I googled much and gleaned a bit so I’m pulling in info from various sources — adding links along the way..

Ann VanderMeer is a publisher and editor, and the second woman editor of the Weird Tales. She is also the founder of Buzzcity Press.

Her work as Fiction Editor of Weird Tales won a Hugo Award. Work from her press and related periodicals has won the British Fantasy Award, the International Rhysling Award, and appeared in several year’s best anthologies. Ann was also the founder of The Silver Web magazine, a periodical devoted to experimental and avant-garde fantasy literature. The Best of the Silver Web was published by Prime Books.

In 2009, Weird Tales, edited by Ann VanderMeer and Stephen H. Segal, won a Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine. Though some of its individual contributors have been honored with Hugos, Nebula Awards, and even one Pulitzer Prize, the magazine itself had never before even been nominated for a Hugo. It has also been nominated for a 2009 World Fantasy Award in the category “Special Award – Professional”.

WSFA Press released it’s newest publication Reincarnations by Harry Turtledove with introduction and story notes by Sheila Williams at this year’s Capclave. If you missed buying a copy at Capclave, we still have books available:

Reincarnations by Harry Turtledove (signed hardcover, 2009)
Reincarnations by Harry Turtledove (trade hardcover)

The Washington Science Fiction Association’s WSFA Press is trying to clear out inventory to make room for planned future releases, and to scare up monies to further support Capclave, our annual convention, for future years. So we’re selling some of our older, limited edition publications. They have:

The Edge of Things by Lewis Shiner (75 copies of the signed hardcover; published in 1991)
Home by the Sea by Pat Cadigan (50 copies of the slipcased/signed hardcover, 1992)
Future Washington edited by Ernest Lilley (200 copies of the trade papereback, 2005)
Future Washington edited by Ernest Lilley (40 copies of the trade hardcover)

We’re also offering “special sets, representing a slice of WSFA Press history, comprised of five hardcovers, for just $100: The Edge of Things, Through Darkest Resnick with Gun and Camera by Mike Resnick (1990, unsigned), Home by the Sea, Future Washington, and Reincarnations.” (Only 5 bundles left as of 23 October 2009).

The books (individuals and sets) are available on a first-come first-served. WSFA Press is offering dealer discounts (for more information, contact Gayle Surrette or Paul Haggerty at webmaster@wsfapressbooks.org) or to purchase go to WSFAPress.org