Personal Message Board 2012

I will be getting a new reviewing gig at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography:

http://www.cclapcenter.com/

One of my favorite lit blogs, it also gives a fair treatment of self-published works, and is revving up its bespoke publishing biz. I'll be sending them a photo and my bio information in the next few days. One of my main tasks is writing a series of monthly themed essays. Unfortunately, I'm drawing a blank on that. Time to brainstorm!

Congrats, Karl. Spread the word on the good stuff folks might otherwise be missing.

Congratulations Karl.

I'm debating whether to write something on Dance to the Music of Time or some essays on Lawrence Durrell, since this is the year of his centennary.

Bloody hell! SF Mistress works has made the short-list for the BSFA Awards in the non-fiction category.

My essay series for CCLAP will be on "Being Human" (the concept, not the BBC series). I'm going to look at everything from the Space Marines in Warhammer 40K, Beckett's "Trilogy", The Killer Inside Me, and Hellboy ... and the BBC series too.

5: Is that an essay, or a book, or? Is it by you? Congrats if so!

It's a website - this one, in fact. Reviews of sf books by women writers.

That is really cool!

Always looking for more reviews - sf books (novels, collections or anthologies) by women writers, published before 2001, no YA. Around 500+ words per review.

Good news, Ian, Karl.

Keepin' the flame of literature alive.

Sherron bought me a small video camera to encourage me to get out of my office more often. Here's my first effort:

http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/suspicious-mind-a-short-film-by-clif...

>12 du du duuuuu- sounds like someone's about to kill their wife (or the caller) on that little film. Talk about atmosphere. Nice.

Cheers!

Last night I finished final edits on my new novel, THE LAST HUNT, and will have the book out by mid-late March.

Too burned out and tired to express more than relief and something that feels like pleasure...but which might be a flu bug coming on (happens every time I finish a major project).

Anyway, if there are any western fans out there, or people who love the Yellowstone region, hope they'll be watching for this one...

I'll be debuting on CCLAP tomorrow. I'll post the links.

Karl, having CCLAP is nothing you want to advertise (sorry, I've been dying to drop that one on you)...

LOL ks be sure not to attack a much loved classic or you may be subject to some parody.
http://www.librarything.com/work/995/reviews/9208468

17: Just can't seem to make heads or tails of the blogging software they have. Drat!

My long overdue review of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy":

http://cinemaarete.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-starring-g...

Mailed off the proofs for my book of stories. So sick of those things now. . . .

Way to go, Geoff!

Anyone who says they enjoy editing and proofing is a fool...or a masochist.

My first essay in my themed essay series, "On Being Human," was posted at CCLaP yesterday:

http://www.cclapcenter.com/2012/02/obhintro.html

Being human.

Still figuring that one out. Appropriate behavior in public. Cultural no-nos. Farting when I shouldn't...

I've always wanted to slap a Voigt-Kampff test on Ian Sales.

cc: "The Electric Ant" by Philip K. Dick. One of the best treatments on the subject EVER.

Carry on...

Just posted the cover art for my new novel, THE LAST HUNT, due out next month:

http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/the-last-hunt-cover-art/

That looks pretty damn cool.

Thanks, Monsieur Sales.

My first general review over at CCLaP on Frederic Chaubin's Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed:

http://www.cclapcenter.com/2012/02/cosmic_communist_constructions.html

Probably the only time you'll see Jacques Derrida, Zardoz, and Ted Mosby in the same book review.

Personally, I judge a reviewer by the frequency of their pop culture references.

#28 Excellent book, that. Made my best of the year list for 2010.

28:

In a similar vein - http://trendland.net/spomenik-yugoslavian-abandoned-monuments/#

#31. Yes, I've got Spomenik too.

29: You'd be surprised how many times James Wood mentions "Two and a Half Men" and OutKast ... in a review of Ethan Frome

Posted about this year's "Silence is Golden" film event:

http://cinemaarete.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/silence-is-golden-roxy-theater-saska...

My son, Sam, and his writing partner/best friend Sean send themselves up in this short "mockumentary". Most of it ad-libbed and very, very funny:

http://newurns.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/new-film/

Just learned that the proof of my latest novel will shortly be on its way. THE LAST HUNT should be available in 2 or three weeks.

In the meantime, I've provided a sneak peak of the cover and the first 20 pages of the book on my site:

http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/teaser-alert-an-excerpt-from-my-new-...

I just read the excerpt - sounds like a lot of fun. Will be watching for it to come out.

Well...bless you for that, m'dear.

Thanks for taking the time--I love the western genre and hope my l'il tale does it justice.

I went and started up a very small press in order to publish something of my own - see here.

And the sf anthology I've edited, Rocket Science, has now been sent to the printers - see here.

Good luck with both these endeavors.

The life of an indie writer/publisher ain't easy but it does have certain attractions (having complete control over the creation, production and distribution of your work).

I had the pleasure of reading your novella "Adrift on the Sea of Rains" and I'm hopeful it will do well for you. ROCKET SCIENCE looks like great fun, as well.

The life of an indie writer/publisher ain't easy but it does have certain attractions (having complete control over the creation, production and distribution of your work).

Now that's Snooki is pregnant, we might have a fighting chance of getting something decent on the shelves. No news on Damien von Antichrist McSantorum will be sired:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2109517/Snooki-pregnant-2012-Jersey...

Anything to keep that vile cow from writing another damn book!

I know a lot of you guys are writers. Does any of you have an attractive-ish Facebook page, especially in the new "timeline" layout? I just started a FB page, and now I don't know what the heck to do with it. FB doesn't seem designed for the kinds of things a writer might want to have seen.

Sorry, Geoff, not a Facebook or social networking guy. But I think it's a good way of spreading the word re: your work...once you figure it out.

I mainly use FB as a means for self-promotion and exorcising volcanic levels of snark, cynicism, and black bile that usually accumulates with my friends posting political and/or religious posts and the latest crap to spew from the mouths of Rush Limbaugh, Rick Santorum, and other people making me miss the social contributions of Sirhan Sirhan and Charles Whitman Seriously, one can hardly complain about the Decline of Western Civilization because of the Nettertubes, when any media mogul will give the nearest hydrocephalic gasbag an open mic and a syndicated radio show. That is ... if you keep your advertisers from fleeing.

The efforts to use new technology/sites/networks to promote writing goes on (I empathize with Geoff). I spent most of yesterday adding a lot of my recorded work and spoken word efforts to a site that allows folks to listen in, download what they like. So far it's been paying some dividends:

http://cliffburns.bandcamp.com/

I have an FB page but I set it up before the timeline thing and honestly I just use it for exchanging news about the weather with people I knew from high school and looking at pictures of my mother's cats. I don't think it's designed for promoting one's work, really, although it maybe I'm not using it to the full extent it can be used. There are lots of other sites which are probably better for making a public image: blogs, sites like the one that Cliff recommends, maybe even Linked In (which I don't really know much about as I can't be bothered to join.)

Yeah, I'm hating FB so far. A writer friend of mine convinced me I should set up a page, but I can't figure out how to do the simplest things.

You need a teenager, Geoff--when I'm stuck on anything technology-oriented, all I have to do is call one of my kids and they have it figured out in a jiffy. Pat the old man on the head, coo reassuring words and get back to their affairs.

In terms of book marketing, I think networking is the key in this interconnected age--word of mouth, book clubs. Spreading your tentacles, seeing what you can snare.

But it's a funny biz--I've been at it a long time and the contemporary publishing scene with its rampant awfulness still astonishes and depresses me. I wrote recently about the flood of books in the market place, e-books and self-published efforts...how does one separate your work from the godawful tripe that is just SWAMPING the scene, much of it offered for free (and over-priced at that)? Still searching for an answer to that one.

Guess I'll just keep on keepin' on...

47: The trope is as follows:

1. FB rolls out new format. Complain about how said new format sucks.

2. Listening to complaints, FB rolls out new format. Complain about how new format sucks.

It's an act as comical and futile as voters complaining how these newly elected scumbags in Congress totally suck. Step 2: Re-elect aforementioned scumbags because, hey, lesser of two evils and such.

If everyone quit their bitching, communication on the Internet would entirely collapse.

>25 good looking cover Cliff, nice title too. Good luck with the launch

Thanks very much. The life of an indie writer/publisher is pretty marginal--I count my successes, literally, one reader at a time.

THE LAST HUNT is now officially available (in a variety of formats)...

Back at it here at the library, troping it up.

...trope, trope, trope...

(Accompanied by sound fx of goose-stepping soldiers)

Someone used the following search term TWICE today and was (inexplicably) directed to my blog:

"can I snif your ass"

Spelled exactly like that.

I really have to change the tone of my blog...

54: On the Internet, nobody can tell you're a dog.

Unless you use Google.

Cliff, I think that's some kind of badge of honor. I'd brag about that.

I dunno, lads, I think I'm drawing the wrong kinda crowd.

After all, I'm shooting for smart, discerning, literate readers...and I end up with people with anal fixations who can't fucking spell.

Quite depressing, really.

After all, I'm shooting for smart, discerning, literate readers

What ... all 7 of them?

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." -- HL Mencken

My book just came online for pre-order. I know this group well enough not to paste in an Amazon link....

It looks like one can actually order straight from OSU Press. Which is nice.

Good luck with the book, Geoff. Knock 'em dead, kid. Keep us apprised of reviews and reactions.

http://www.amazon.com/Ohio-State-Prize-Short-Fiction/dp/0814251838/ref=sr_1_3?s=...

Love-ly looking edition.

Cliff, I'll be overjoyed to get any reviews or to get as many as a hundred people to read it. I saw Tiger Woods this morning on Sportscenter saying, "I always believe in myself." I'm one of the people providing balance at the other end of the spectrum.

I, too, am a man who retains decidedly low expectations. A view so jaundiced, it's amazing I haven't turned yellow, like old ivory. That's why it's such a pleasure when truly good things happen to genuinely decent and deserving people.

Keep the faith, bro...

63: Well, Mr. Jaundiced, I'm sending off my aesthetic manifesto to Paraphilia Magazine this weekend. Sure, Civilization is an "old bitch gone in the teeth" if Mr. Pound is correct, but, hey, that doesn't mean we can't have fun and do it with high aesthetic standards.

Oh, I generally agree. It's really only when I think about the business of writing--not writing itself--that I start feeling dreary.

Posted a lengthy personal essay on my love of western movies over on my film blog:

http://cinemaarete.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/why-westerns-still-matter/

Uh, High Noon an honorary mention?

This town ain't big enough for the two of us.

Telling me that most people just ain't no damn good is preaching to the converted (as far as I'm concerned).

It's a message movie, A.J., beautifully shot but slow-paced and, I think, predictable. Loved Coop in it, though, and the supporting players are pretty fine as well.

I realize that I am very late to the conversation, but Facebook does have a "notes" option. I have had friends use it for rants and poetry, often at the same time. I also have had friends post their music on there, but I don't know how to do that. Wow, sounds like I have a lot of friends there.

I mostly use FB for sharing interesting articles. Strangely, I also get most of my news there, too.

69: If you like "rants and poetry, often at the same time," I highly recommend Maldoror by Lautreamont

69: Thanks. FB, as I've learned, just isn't ideal for authors. Everything you post gets cycled down the page by new posts or isn't permanently and immediately visible. I'm never happy after a session on Facebook.

71: I use it for my blog, simply to increase self-exposure. But on the personal level, it can get quite irritating, especially after some lefty friend has posted another "Rick Santorum said X about whatever random topic" for like the millionth time. Then my blood boils and I get blood poisoning from the bile coursing through my veins.

On a positive note, I'd recommend using Wordpress to promote your writing. The interface is user-friendly and accommodates posting images and video.

I second Karl. My blog runs on Wordpress, and it provides a good platform to promote yourself and your writing.

I'll check out Wordpress--never seen it before.

71: Yes, for me the single most disheartening thing about FB is its revealing of the political backwardness of friends and family. I promised myself not to engage any of that.

Wordpress guy too, Geoff. No complaints.

Books have arrived from printer - yay! See.

Very nice, Monsieur Sales. Lovely looking volume and a damn fine read too. Here's hoping your imprint does well.

My "Anarcho-libertine Manifesto" will appear in the pages of Paraphilia Magazine. Not for pay, but heck, James Havoc wrote for the mag.

Way to go, lad.

Launching my novel THE LAST HUNT on Thursday:

http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/breaking-protocol/

If any of you are passing through that day...

Congrats to all the hard working writers here on this list.

I have no literary productions to my name, but my son just had a baby daughter. There are pictures on my profile. Her name is Aziza and she is beautiful.

Love-ly name. Best wishes to you and your family, Anna.

A few pics from the launch of my novel, THE LAST HUNT:

http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/scenes-from-the-last-hunt-book-launc...

Got an email from the photo editor of the Bedford Intro to Literature. It looks, unbelievably, like they're going to use one of my stories in the next edition....

Very nice credit, Geoff. Sweet addition to your c.v.

I'm being fitted for a crown today.

(I mean for my tooth, of course. Just so there's no confusion.)

The King of Saskatchewan!

A dubious honor, I assure you.

86: I assume you married someone who isn't your first cousin, so you wouldn't be eligible for Albion's crown anyway. But with Pippa Middleton acting like David Crosby at an airport, who can really tell anymore?

On a completely different note, my aesthetic will appear in the upcoming issue of "Paraphilia Magazine." Should be coming out on Cinco de Mayo.

Some of you might enjoy this discussion about adults reading YA novels: http://www.librarything.com/topic/135696

My manifesto is up on the pages of Paraphilia Magazine:

http://driftlessareareview.com/2012/05/06/published-read-my-manifesto-in-the-pag...

Just click the image to get to the magazine itself.

Hope it gets people into the streets.

91: That...was amazing. Really. First rate. Now I want a physical copy; unfortunate since it appears to be in a purely online magazine, but still. Great argument and fun to read.

You can take all that praise with a grain of salt of course, since people really like manifestos only to the extent that they agree with them. :)

93: Thanks for the feedback! I want a physical copy too. Alas, the PDF will have to do for now. On the plus side, the "online only" status makes production cheaper and they have less to censorship issues to deal with.

Manifestos are fickle objects ... and immediately obsolete. There's a similar piece in the back of the issue that I can't wait to read. Along with an interview with Alan Moore on the non-comic book writings.

To me, Paraphilia is the mutant bastard offspring of Re/Search and Vogue The back issues are definitely worth perusing. An embarrassment of riches if you're into experimental and transgressive art, music, and writing.

Had a short story accepted by Ecotone this morning. It put my workplace bullshit into proper perspective for a couple hours.

Huzzah! Huzzah! Keep scribbling, pardner.

Anyone up for a rant on the sorry state of popular fiction?

http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2012/05/12/a-brief-fit-of-pique/

97: On the one hand, I am rather excited about this James woman. I mean, the Patterson-Meyer-Brown bashing was getting old; I was beginning to wonder when a new author would be selected for the ritual stoning.

On the other hand, this is disgusting. It would be ridiculous if it weren't really a bestseller. Worse, it makes one nostalgic for the era of censorship. Back then, Pauline Reage was news, now E.L. James is? That's not just a downgrade, that's something I don't even have a word for.

Keep right on ranting, Cliff. Discerning readers are still out there, listening in the wilderness....

Cliff is just jealous, because she sets the bar so high in terms of storytelling:
http://books.usatoday.com/bookbuzz/post/2012-05-10/el-james-fifty-shades-of-grey...

Eck.

Cliff, she did more than "honed her chops on Twilight fan fiction". Fifty Shades of Grey is apparently Twilight fiction with the serial numbers filed off. Someone - I forget where - has compared her original fan fiction novel and Fifty Shades of Grey and they're identical but for the names.

This is not the first case of a publisher taking a self-published book and chucking it out onto the market without even bothering to edit it. They seem to think that if they do that they will take away the "magic". There was a fantasy novel like this which was eviscerated on Strange Horizons. The book included the line, "He was a knight of archaic dimension." Wtf does that mean? And why did a professional editor leave it in the manuscript? That's not only a professional failure, it's an abdication of their responsibility.

"He was a knight of archaic dimension."

The meaning is clear. His height was measured in feet and inches, and his weight in "stone," practices now abandoned across the civilized world.

Yes, I too have read that Fifty Shades is a Twilight fanfic with the names changed. Enough to make one ask, "Why go on?"

From what I have heard it is soft porn. That is a reason.

To clarify 103 I just think that lots of people read romances for the sex scenes and I expect this is the same phenomenon. She is just a newer Danielle Steele.

I do not think the presence of this genre is cause for despair. It does not replace regular fiction, it is read for a different purpose.

People are saying such soft porn is proving especially popular now due to ereaders - no one can see you're reading a dirty book on it.

The problem, Anna, is that publishers see the monumental success of unedited garbage and begin pouring it out. Good writers will become increasingly marginalized and forced to the fringes, no promotion, no attention, their releases dying on the vine. Editors have been displaced in the new publishing regime--publishers have realized that the proles out there don't give a shit about syntax or graceful prose and have decided to dispense with such superfluous nonsense. Churn it out, remainder or pulp what doesn't sell and on to the next piece of drek.

It's all downhill from here, the slope increasingly steep and treacherous as we careen toward books with fewer and fewer big words, more illustrations, more porn, more rape fantasy...and past masters of the printed word spin in their graves like tops...

Cliff, I think my rant is more intemperate than ours...

104:

While I don't agree with Cliff's slippery slope, the fact that this kind of shit makes its authors into millionaires while serious writers can calculate their mothers' percent contribution to their royalty statements without aid of a calculator does, indeed, provoke despair.

At least among those writers, anyway.

Good one, Ian. Couldn't help adding my two cents' worth (possibly even less than that)...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/in-e-reader-age-of-writers-cramp-a-bo...

Guaranteed to send some of you ranters off into orbit! :)

I think I need something to be sick in. Where's Lee Child's safety deposit box?

Product, product, must release product.

Are these assholes widget-makers or fucking writers?

Ah yes, regarding choice. You put me in mind of a very old sketch from Fry and Laurie about the importance of quantity over quality and what results from that.

Here on youtube

Fry and Laurie: humor for smart people.

Yes, give the people what they want and you get 500 channels of "Beverly Hillbillies" and "Gilligan's Island" reruns.

Interspersed with footage of men and women being tortured, vivisected and raped, just for a little palate cleanser.

And folks have the nerve to ask: "what's the source of your misanthropy, Burns?"...

111: In a market driven society everything is a widget. And there is this false idea of "choice" by making a bunch of different labels for identical products so that customers think they are king. I was thinking about this the other day at the supermarket when I was buying kitty litter. There were about 10 different kinds of the same brand, which I bet all have slightly different coloring etc. but don't really work any differently, all labeled with different colors and names, e.g., "multi-cat household," "small spaces," "odor control," etc.

Ridiculous...and, y'know, a recent U.N. report found that most childhood deaths in the world are preventable. In other words, if we threw a little money into the "kitty" (couldn't help it), premature deaths due to malaria, typhus, water-borne diseases, malnutrition and dysentery would be greatly reduced.

All that variety does is feed the voraciousness for MORE. Despicable.

My wife and niece, who are far more adept at social networking than yers truly, have set up a kinda "Cliff Burns Facebook Page". All I have to do is supply the occasional rant (and I'm happy to oblige).

http://www.facebook.com/CliffJBurns

97: Since when has popular ever meant good? Wait, now I just sound like some hipster d-bag. My perpetual state of highbrow outrage will end by me pulling a muscle. Hard to pat myself on the back when my shoulder has such a big chip on it.

"Popular = good" is up there with "best is entirely subjective" and "you're only giving this book a bad review because you're jealous" as moronic misconceptions you see far too often in conversations about books.

Oh, yes, Ian, I've heard that one (bad review = jealousy). Numerous times. I'll KILL the next fuckhead who directs it my way.

119: I agree. Probably why the Randroids resented my accusation that Miss Rosenbaum take her filthy earnings from her philosophical bricks and use it on a creative writing class. Hardly jealousy, merely pointing out the obvious.

Now I've proven I can write - as the reviews of Adrift on the Sea of Rains are demonstrating - I'll no doubt be told either a) if it was that good I wouldn't have needed to self-publish it, or b) I'm jealous of writer X's success because no one's heard of my book...

And so it goes on...

118: I hate that 'best is entirely subjective, it's-my-opinion-and-so-can't-be-questioned' bullshit. As a high school teacher, I hear way too much of that.

Got the contract from the Bedford Intro to Literature for the story they want to reprint. $400 doesn't seem like enough, does it? Am I being mercenary?

It's a reprint, which drops the price some and they're hoping the stature of the antho will make you more agreeable. Your agent might be able to play hardball but if you're representing yourself it's a great deal tougher to negotiate terms.

It's a nice feather in your cap, dunno if you wanna push your luck...

Right, it might be nice to have an agent. . . . I've never been successful at getting one.

So here's how it turned out. Since the rights to that story are currently owned by OSU Press (who's bringing out my book), it was up to them to negotiate the fee (and take half of whatever I'm paid). They talked Bedford up from $400 to $750. Pretty interesting result. I would have had no idea what to ask for.

122: The answer is, "Yes, taste is entirely subjective, but yours is bad."

125: That's how every conversation ends on Facebook.

123: So here's the uglier ACTUAL end to the story: I'm not seeing any of the $750 because the initial prize money I got from OSU Press was an "advance against royalties," and they're counting the $750 against that. This, despite the fact that the book containing the story hasn't appeared yet and Bedford (thus, obviously) came across my story in ways having nothing to do with OSU's publication of it.

Do the competition rules describe the prize as an advance? If not, they are are in breach.

Ian's absolutely bang-on right, Geoff. Do some checking, look at the fine print...and then eat their fucking hearts like an Aztec.

Oh Geoff, that really seems too bad (and also, like Ian says, I can't believe they related these two things in the competition rules).

Personal note from me, I just had confirmed that sure enough I am losing my hearing. And apropos of that not too pleasant discovery I just discovered that hearing aids are not covered by my otherwise gold-plated insurance. Sigh.

Bad news, Anna. Hearing aids not covered? Ah, health insurance, always great until you need it.

May your diagnosis improve with further testing and may the treatment (and cost) not be too onerous, chum.

Huh? Oh, thanks! :)

Anna, I have been looking into iPhone apps which mimic hearing aids (my issue is high-frequency hearing loss).

Here is a review of an app that also performs hearing tests: http://www.uci.edu/features/2010/12/feature_eartrumpet_101213.php .

Usual disclaimers: don't try this at home, consult a licensed audiologist, you didn't hear this from me (sorry about that one!).

133: Intriguing, thanks! I need to get an Iphone! Boy if I could only get my health insurance to cover THAT.

134: The only thing American health insurance covers is your wallet. So, do ya want to be sick and financially liquid, or healthy and bankrupt your future progeny with Himalaya-sized medical debt? Viva American capitalism!

128, 129: Oh, of course the publisher has a sharper understanding of the contract than the writer; everything they're doing is kosher, it just doesn't feel right. And when I expressed that sentiment, I got my head bitten off in a lengthy email. They've successfully made me feel like shit about my book.

All of which is a lot less important than losing one's hearing. Like my friend here at work told me, "You have first-world problems."

Just looked on the website. It says it there in the rules. Ah well.

I'm trying to give away two copies of my novella, Adrift on the Sea of Rains, but without much success. All you have to do is answer three easy questions, and then two entrants with the correct answers will be randomly chosen to receive a copy each of the signed limited edition.

See http://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/adrift-on-the-sea-of-rains-co...

Fabulous book, folks, make sure you "take the test".

Just posted the cover art of my next book:

http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/new-selected-poems-cover-teaser/

My recent radio interview for "The Reading Life," a local books-and-authors show here in New Orleans:

http://wwno.org/programs/reading-life

We've had some wild weather here in Saskatchewan the last few days:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2012/06/27/sk-storm-social-medi...

Dahlings...

Just returned from a rare 4-day, purely pleasure-oriented trip (no work or research involved!) with my lovely wife and return a more tanned, happier and wiser man. Will be posting pics on my blog re: our little voyage to Grasslands National Park, but suffice to say for now (having just returned an hour or so ago), it was a lovely, lovely time. Any Canucks or Yanks in the vicinity should definitely make the journey. It's special, magical country...

...a bit more on Grasslands National Park:

http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/sk/grasslands/natcul/natcul1.aspx

It looks lovely. We're about to set out on a trip to the National Parks in southern Utah -- Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches. Mostly strange colored rocks.

Haven't made it to Utah yet but I'd REALLY like to. My kinda country. Have a fantastic trip--and mebbe drop a few pictures into this thread, hmmm?

146: It's where Mitt Romney is from. How bad could it possibly be?

Utah gave the world Butch Cassidy too.

Brief account of my recent (thoroughly uncharacteristic) trips:

http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/against-the-shadows/

I just heard this and immediately thought of "kswolff". In the kindest way I assure you.

150: Brings me back to my undergraduate days in Madison, WI. At least until I discovered Bill Hicks, NIN, and TOOL. But I still love Dr. Denis Leary

Check out his new one 'Kiss My Ass'.

It's our 22nd anniversary today--what can I tell you, I'm a lucky guy. Blessed really. Sherron and I make a great team. Beauty and the beast.

Keeping things low-key; we actually unofficially celebrated our 2+ decades together while we were at Grasslands National Park earlier this month. The rattlesnakes and bison added a certain, ah, poignancy.

A nice review of my book running in today's New Orleans Times-Picayune:

http://www.nola.com/books/index.ssf/2012/08/new_orleans_writer_geoff_wyss.html

Lovely review, Geoff.

Really happy for you.

Congratulations on a really good review. Two questions:
1. Is it not annoying to find yourself compared to "A Confederacy of Dunces," just because you write about New Orleans? It sounds like your book is, and in this one respect it resembles a case of dysentery, way better than that.
2. Is it available on Kindle or Nook? It sounds like something I would enjoy.

156: 1. Annoying or not, the comparison is probably unavoidable, so I don't worry about it. At least the comparison was favorable, and it might actually convince a few people (people for whom Confederacy is nearly the only thing they've ever read, or pretended to read, and who have apotheosized it ever since) to buy the book. 2. It's on Kindle.

Congratulations Geoff, I will look for your book when next at Powell's.

My new short film, just uploaded to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBVXEw7VnxI&feature=plcp

My NEW & SELECTED POEMS finally arrived this week and is already up on Amazon (for those of you who don't consider Jeff Bezos an avatar of Satan).

http://www.amazon.com/Selected-Poems-1984-2011-Cliff-Burns/dp/0969485360/ref=sr_...

Shouldn't be too long before it shows up at Powell's etc. I decided to go with a paper version ONLY, which is going to make some folks I know cranky. But poetry seems like an artifact of another time to me...and those who love verse should read it the old-fashioned way.

Just finishing off a companion volume of prose poems--hope to have both ready for a launch scheduled for the end of September. Finger crossing time...

The book trailer for Corey Redekop's new novel, Husk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Aww3ARfyxk

I got a kick out of it ... Corey is a member here but rarely posts. Blurbed by Peter Darbyshire, who also sometimes participates here.

Corey and Peter, great guys. Fine writers too.

The cover for my next book, a companion volume to my SELECTED POEMS:

http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/next-up-stromata-prose-works-publica...

I have a new short film up on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huzJX2d0lAw&feature=plcp

A feast for sci-fi geeks...

Er, sorry, there was a glitch on the audio track. Will re-post once it's fixed.

After hours of tinkering, we finally un-glitched my short film "Storm", which is now (I think) available for viewing on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVBV7Ha1NU8&feature=plcp

My two new volumes, representing "Best of..." collection of my poems and short prose, are now OFFICIALLY available. There were a few, ah, delays and complications but the important thing is, both books will be here for my book launch on October 4th (it was touch and go for awhile):

http://www.amazon.com/Stromata-Prose-Works-Cliff-Burns/dp/0969485379/ref=cm_cmu_...

http://www.amazon.com/Selected-Poems-1984-2011-Cliff-Burns/dp/0969485360/ref=la_...

There will also be e-book and Kindle versions of STROMATA but the SELECTED POEMS will only be available as an actual, for real book.

Congratulations.

168: Are they available yet on Barnes and Noble for the BN e-reader? And are the real books available on Powells.com? I sort of avoid Amazon generally....

I don't blame you--I feel icky associating with the corporate types meself.

Both books will, indeed, be available at B & N and Powell's. And Foyle's and Waterstones and...

(STROMATA is just out so it may take a couple of days to get posted at the various book stores and affiliates.)

These two titles are very, very special to me. Companion volumes containing some of my very best writing from the past quarter century.

Thanks, I will watch for them.

P.S. But, remember, no e-book/Kindle for the poetry.

Yeah, reading poetry on an ereader would be just awful. I can see it now. the line breaks, everything would be all messed up and there would be ampersands all over the place. Poor e.e. cummings and other free verse people...

That's the way I felt too. Right from the start the SELECTED POEMS seemed like an artifact, something from another time, before all these gimmicks and gadgets. I wanted people to physically hold the book--and maybe when readers see what a lovely volume it is (I mean appearance-wise, God knows what they'll think of the content), I think they'll understand.

Poetry books have to be lovely volumes. Looking forward to seeing yours in stores.

Thank you.

>159 love your work CB

Why...thank you. Nice comment to wake up to--and I'm very, very grateful to you.

I expect to see you all at my book launch next week (October 4th)--I know Ian is jetting in on his personal Harrier and Karl's harnessing up his dog team...

(By the way, STROMATA: PROSE WORKS is now available in Kindle and e-book editions--you can find it at Powell's, Lybrary.com, etc.)

...and I was just thinking how I'd like to go to a book launch too. I take it it's not in NZ? (fingers crossed)

Well, there's always the sub-orbital shuttle...

180: Should we interpret this as an offer to pay our airfares (those of us lacking harriers and sled dogs)?

Subsidize people to attend a reading/launch? I guess it wouldn't be the first time a desperate writer resorted to such tactics. Er, how about Skyping in?

Actually, we're going to film the entire event with two borrowed cameras and a lapel mike, load it onto YouTube. If it turns out, I'll likely post a link.

Talk about shaving it close:

My official book launch is on Thursday (tickets still available, kids) and the books in question just arrived from the printer today. Cripes.

And then next Monday, a friend has secured two tickets to the Bob Dylan concert (with Mark Knopfler as the opener).

Gonna be a kick-ass week.

Lucky dog; that should be a killer double header!

Well, y'know Dylan's reputation. He's either gonna be great...or a dog. And will he get himself worked up for a Saskatoon audience, especially with ticket sales really sluggish (less than a week before the concert)? They've already closed off the upper tiers of the venue because of lousy advance sales. He might be grumpy and phone in his performance (as he's done many, many times in the past).

But I'm a big fan of Knopfler's too (does any other guitar in the world sound like his?) and I'm hoping he'll compensate if Zimmie's feeling out of sorts.

Ya, Dylan's recordings have always been hit and miss with me over the years but I've been a fan of Knopfler since early dire straits and have several of his solo offerings. Be worth it just to see him.

188: Knopfler also did the soundtracks to The Princess Bride and Wag the Dog

As an opinionated cineaste, what is your take on Dylan's Masked and Anonymous? Dylan also wrote a novel (?) Tarantula, have you read it?

"Masked & Anonymous" was pretty badly panned so I avoided it. Imagined another "Renaldo & Clara" and, well, five minutes of that is five minutes too many.

Knopfler's best soundtrack was for the Bill Forsythe film, "Local Hero". Most of it is instrumental (natch), but there's also a wonderful song "That's the Way It Always Starts" sung by Gerry Rafferty that'll get your toes tapping.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCJRONLzfUM&feature=fvwrel

(You can skip the ad at the beginning.)

P.S. I think even Dylan considers TARANTULA a badly conceived joke. I've glanced at it and was COMPLETELY unimpressed. His autobiography is interesting but not really that insightful or revealing. In the end, only Bob knows Bob.

191: In the end, only Bob knows Bob. Sounds like something from the SubGenius

Have just posted the cover art for Apollo Quartet 2, The Eye With Which The Universe Beholds Itself* - see here.

(*I was on a Malcolm Lowry kick when I picked the title, but it fits so who am I to argue...)

Gorgeous...and the excerpt you sent me was SUPERB.

Looking forward to the 2nd installment (absolutely love the title).

My reading and book launch is tonight.

Will post the YouTube link of the event when we've finished editing it. We did sound and lighting tests last night and it's going to look very...dramatic.

My review of Bob Dylan's abysmal concert last night--and check out the doggerel in the post that follows immediately afterward. Sums up my feelings perfectly:

http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/dylan-deconstructs-himself-leaving-n...

My review of Trilogy by Samuel Beckett is up on CCLaP:

http://www.cclapcenter.com/2012/10/on_being_human_the_trilogy_by_.html

And in it my spirited defense of Beckett as a science fiction writer a la Philip K. Dick

Just found out that I shall be having work exhibited at the FORMAT 13 photography festival in Derby (UK) next Spring!

http://www.formatfestival.com/

Very nice, Robert. Congratulations.

Congratulations!

If you're on the lookout for some quality handmade Xmas gifts, check out the latest offering from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography:

http://www.cclapcenter.com/2012/11/one_week_left_just_a_little_mo.html

Plus the illustrations are pretty awesome!

I don't know if Snobs have kindles. I don't. But Amazon just made a short story of mine free. It's called The Gizless Days of Thomas Binder. It's from The King of Pain: a novel with stories and is about a kid who has his device taken away in the not too distant future. It is very much about our favorite subject: books. Have at it if semi-metafictional-sci-fi-teen-romance is your thing.

http://www.amazon.com/Gizless-Days-Thomas-Binder-ebook/dp/B008BW0WF2

Congratulations, hope the tale does well for you.

Got an addition reviewing gig, this time with the New York Journal of Books:

http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/

Congrats Karl.

Yeah, good for you, mon.

What the hell. It's Christmas. Buy yourself a story about Nazi flying saucers for the festive season. I've gone and made 'Wunderwaffe' available for Kindle - in the US and UK.

Hey, nice Christmas gesture for your geek fans. Hope it garners some decent sales for you.

Sometimes we are exposed to truly terrible things...and even inveterate snobs need a little pick me up. My wife passed this on to me and I share it with the rest of the group. In case recent events have gotten you down:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/moments-that-restored-our-faith-in-humanity-this-...

Awww Cliff you are such a softy.

Another sign of creeping mushiness: I love Christmas too. Unlike Monsieur Sales, who's a complete Santa hater.

Beautiful Cliff; I even liked the cat at the end.

(someone should tell Ian that Santa's not real)

I posted a new story featuring my supernatural detectives Zinnea & Nightstalk on my blog and on Scribd. Set around Christmas, a case from their first months together. A little show of appreciation to readers and regular visitors to my blog:

http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/a-new-zinnea-nightstalk-story-and-me...

http://www.scribd.com/Cliff%20Burns

First review is up for the second book of the Apollo Quartet - see here. The book will be available in January.

The kind of review an author loves to read--you must be delighted. The novella deserves to be a great success.

Given the response to Adrift on the Sea of Rains, obviously I was a bit worried people would feel The Eye With Which The Universe Beholds Itself wasn't as good. Happily, those who've read it so far have said it's as good as, if not better. Admittedly, I did try to make it as different to the first book as I could in order to limit comparisons :-)

I am a Good Thing, apparently. And so is Rocket Science. Extensive review on Strange Horizons here.

216: Congrats and good tidings on that review. As someone who has had my fiction routinely rejected by Strange Horizons, I tend to keep them at arm's length. But, obviously, that is a personal thing.

And Ian, I promise to get to "Adrift" in the coming year. Alas, the TBR list is diverting 747s on their flight paths. But overall, I find their criticism much more agreeable than their fictional offerings.

#216 Well, well, proper little critical darling, aren't we? As a writer AND an editor, a not inconsiderable feat.

Now, don't you feel a bit silly being such a Grinch around Christmastime? Isn't there a certain magic in the air (or is that just toxic tailings, from the old mines and smelters in your vicinity)? 2012 was a banner year for you, you ungrateful degenerate. Hie yourself off to the nearest place of worship and bruise your knees in beatific gratitude. Prostrate yourself, heathen! Lest ye be smote like Arsenal by a determined Bradford squad, although it took a shootout to settle it and bad calls were definitely a deciding factor...

Perhaps among the 500 or so people who have seen my fiction. Shame that won't pay the bills :-)

Karl, I tend to read their reviews more often than I do their fiction too.

And here's another review of Apollo Quartet 2.

Another smart review. I'm jealous--Merry Christmas, you bastard.

Finished my Book Review Master List for my blog. Enjoy!

http://driftlessareareview.com/book-review-master-list/

222: BRILLIANT. Thanks so much for installing a navigation system. Major improvement.

I have to share this. It has made all the unanswered emails, the review copies that were just tossed in the resell pile, and all the rejections from publishers, a lot easier to shrug off.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/29/arts/television/reality-shows-reached-for-extr...

Quoted in the NEW YORK TIMES. Man, I am jealous. What a fantastic plug for your book.

Good piece too--"reality TV", when are folks going to realize that's an oxymoron?

20. When taking humanity as a whole, never. Humanity, that shaved ape propelled by a weak electric spark, makes itself a valid candidate for extinction with each passing day. Happy New Year, y'all!

Thanks, Cliff. Happy New Year to Literary Snobs everywhere!

224: Heartiest congratulations, Seth. What a great way to end the year. I hope it portends great things for 2013.

Dear Group,

Not that you need another source to get books from, but...

Recently (today) I remembered the "Brotherhood of St. Laurence", an Australian charity, which has an on-line bookstore for their donated books.

I had just bought 5 books and started to browse
the site when I found their Rare... section.

Some look overpriced and some not...
There is a prepondence of Australian books. Some
I even remember from my childhood.

Just thought some O'sea's members might find something interesting.

Guido.

PS. The Charity is based in Victoria and I'm
unsure if they send overseas. If anyone is interested I will contact them and find out.
I tried today but forgot today is Saturday :-)

PPS. They are Anglican, Thus mainly harmless ;-}

ETA. Perhaps this post might be more appropriate on "book hauls". Your thoughts?

Adrift on the the Sea of Rains has been described as "one of the most outstanding self-published books of the year" by daily newspaper the Guardian. See here.

High praise. Well done, Ian.

Wow, Seth. I really want to read it after I get done re-reading Infinite Jest only I am afraid I will be "entertainment"-ed out by then, so to speak.

Nice, Ian!

Guido, I think there was a thread called "where do you buy books?" that you might revive with that information.

Congrats both Seth and Ian. Always gratifying to be noticed.

Meanwhile, I note that the movie nobody adapted from my novel was again passed over for an Oscar nomination. Why am I not surprised?

Posterity wins out in the end, A.J.

Posthumous fame is better than none at all.

Ian, contrats.
Ana, I think The King of Pain will be a breeze after DFW.
AJ, that was funny. I like to think that my nomination is "in turnaround."

Ian, I read that article, googled the book, ordered a copy, told a colleague about it who also ordered a copy, then logged on here and twigged that Ian Sales and iansales are indeed one and the same. It's in the pile beside the bed now, and I'm looking forward to it.

I hope you like it. The second book of the quartet is due out in a couple of weeks.

Lucky enough to have a group discussing one of my stories over on Goodreads.com. They're not quite putting it under Snob-like scrutiny, but it's still nice.

VERY nice, in fact. Wonderful to have someone seriously discussing your work. Pleased for you.

My new novella, The Eye With Which The Universe Beholds Itself, wot I also publish myself, has been picked out in Tor.com's new column on UK genre releases here.

Yay Ian! That's great.

Our little Ian is joining the big leagues. (Sniff)

Don't worry, Cliff, I'll still talk to you :-)

Adrift on the Sea of Rains shortlisted for the BSFA Short Fiction Award! Yay.

And 'The Complexity of the Humble Spacesuit' by Karen Burnham from Rocket Science shortlisted for the BSFA Non-Fiction Award!

I just read your blog post--really delighted for you, Mr. Sales.

Hope this leads to bigger things ahead, both as a writer and an editor.

Wow ian, you are having quite a good week. Congrats!

My new short film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVuWwYP_dR0&feature=youtu.be

This is what kind of winter we've been having:

http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/and-it-snowed-and-snowed/

249: Seriously, a snowblower:

http://www.accesssportsmed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/snow-blower.jpg

My cardiovascular system would probably concur.

251: See, that's what I'm saying.

http://obit-mag.com/articles/shoveling-deaths-by-the-numbers.

Do your heart a favor. Otherwise the world would be robbed of your upbeat posts and prosody. A Canadian without a snowblower? WTF? This poutine shall not stand!

"Otherwise the world would be robbed of your upbeat posts and prosody."

I'll get ya for that, Karl.

Dear Karl, #252, when I tried to look at your link I got a 404 error (not on my screen but) on the webpage you pointed to. Perhaps a very short attension span?

254: That's odd, it was there a day ago. Better check Google.

I'm judging a high school fiction contest. It's the premiere arts high school here in New Orleans, the best we have, but it still reminds me just how hard it is to write something worth reading.

Looks like I'm on board for an editorial apprenticeship with the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography. I'll also be starting my 2nd essay series in the next couple weeks.

Cheers, Karl!

A windchill of minus thirty-eight (-38) Celsius outside today. Not only do I have to go out in that, it's to get my teeth cleaned.

AAAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!

257: What's the theme this time?

260: Erotica for discerning intellects.

My son Sam has finally completed editing the footage he shot of my reading and book launch back in October.

The kid did a great job and if you'd like a peek at the end result:

http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/cliff-burns-in-performance/