Twilight & Mary Poppins

A young teenage friend of mine gave her opinion on books vs. films, as least as far as film versions of written material. In her view, as she gave it last evening, films can never be as good as the books that they represent, because they narrow your vision of what was in the book. Both she and her best friend pointed at Twilight as an illustration -- both are fervent fans of the book series, but were not very happy with the film, because, they said, it didn't portray the depth of feeling between the two main characters that they found in the book.

I think that we all, even those of us who are film buffs, have been similarly "betrayed" by film versions at one point or another. Mine came very early; I was a huge fan of Travers' Mary Poppins books when I was a kid, and the idea that this smiling young woman singing about spoonfuls of sugar could possibly be the stern, magic, somewhat frightening Mary Poppins of the books irritated me terribly.

Panel at Readercon

I found out which panel I'm going to be on at Readercon: "Exceptions to the Rule." What are we discussing? The description says, "Can the intelligence and subtlety that inform a great novel or short story translate to other forms? Are there ways that those forms, properly used, could surpass written literature at the things we expect written literature to do best?"

In plain English: Can a movie or TV show be as good as a book?

How do people do it?

How do people find time to blog, and Facebook, and LinkedIn, and Twitter, and everything else? Besides earning a living and maybe doing some writing on the side? Just asking...

Looks like Clockwork Phoenix 2 is in stock at both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. So if you want to read my story "Rosemary, That's for Remembrance," plus a bunch of other stories by some really excellent writers, you may want to take a look.

Clockwork Phoenix 2 gets PW's approval

Clockwork Phoenix 2, which is due out this July (and which includes my story "Rosemany, That's For Remembrance"), has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Judging from the reaction from the publisher, Norilana Books, this is a very Big Deal indeed. According to the reviewer, "Allen finds his groove for this second annual anthology of weird
stories, selecting 16 wonderfully evocative, well-written tales." Mary Robinette Kowal and Saladin Ahmed (both of whom are in my writer's group, Tabula Rasa) are mentioned specifically.

Click here to fine the Publishers Weekly review; go down to the bottom of the page.

Random thoughts

I wonder, sometimes, if we consider enough the kind of upset that this economic "downturn" has on all those who are experiencing layoffs and cutbacks and unpaid vacations and salary cuts. You listen to the news, and they talk about how an upturn is expected and less people are being laid off this month than next.

But losing a job is not something that disappears as soon as the stock market starts to recover. Somebody who loses a job -- especially somebody older -- may not easily fit into another position. (And "retraining" usually ends of making money only for those doing the training.) Salaries reduced are not automatically raised back to their former levels when things get better. Savings and retirement accounts that were decimated by the market and then by necessity may never be restocked.

Once an economic recovery begins, the media will invariably start acting as if everything is back to normal. But people's lives are being changed in ways that they will not quickly recover from.

Descended From Darkness -- the cover art

The folks at Apex Magazine are showing the piece of art that will be used as the cover of Descended From Darkness: Apex Magazine Vol. I, the anthology that "Waiting for Jakie" will be included in. It's a really impressive scape from artist Vitaly S. Alexius.

Incidentally, thanks to Michael Burstein for mentioning the anthology in his  recent Livejournal entry-- and thus leading me to find this sneak peak of the art on the Apex blog.

"Waiting for Jakie" included in new anthology

I've just found out that my story "Waiting for Jakie," which appeared in the April issue of Apex Magazine, will also be part of the anthology Descended From Darkness: Apex Magazine Vol. 1. According to the Web site, the book is scheduled for an early December release. I'm really pleased -- especially since I'll be keeping company with so many great writers.

Here's the Table of Contents:


“Hideki and the Gnomes” - Mark Lee Pearson

“Clockwork, Patchwork and Ravens” - Peter M. Ball

“Waiting for Jakie” - Barbara Krasnoff

“The Last Science Fiction Writer” - Jamie Todd Rubin

“The Mind of a Pig” - Ekaterina Sedia

“The Puma” - Theodora Goss

“Dark Planet” -Lavie Tidhar

“Cai and Her Ten Thousand Husbands” - Gord Sellar

“On the Shadow Side of the Beast” - Ruth Nestvold

“Starter House” - Jason Palmer

“A Night at the Empire” - Joy Marchand

“Organ Nell” - Jennifer Pelland

“PLEBISCITE AV3X” - Jason Fischer

“Shaded Streams Run Clearest” - Geoffrey W. Cole

“A Splash of Color” - William T. Vandemark

“Behold: Skowt!” - Jason Heller

“Blakenjel” - Lavie Tidhar

“I Know an Old Lady” - Nathan Rosen

“The Limb Knitter” - Steven Francis Murphy

“Scenting the Dark” - Mary Robinette Kowal

“The Nature of Blood” - George Mann

“In the Seams” - Andrew C. Porter

“These Days” - Katherine Sparrow

“Post Apocalypse” - James Walton Langolf