A View From Corona #5

March 18th 2002 at 4:08 pm

Springtime is here, and I am getting psyched for World Horror Con 2002. World horror has become one of my favorite events each year. One of the reasons it is such a fun convention is because it is small and intimate–usually between 400 and 800 people make the annual pilgrimage. This definitely makes for a fun convention–it’s made up of hardcore horror fiction fans, writers, artists, editors and publishers, most of whom you know. Even if you don’t know anyone, people are usually more than willing to exchange a civil word with you (usually over a glass of some sort of alcoholic beverage) because chances are you are just as knowledgeable and passionate about the genre as they are. World horror Con doesn’t attract casual fans. It attracts people who have devoted a large part of their life to horror fiction.

A View From Corona #4

March 12th 2002 at 10:22 am

This month’s issue of Locus Magazine features an interview with China Miéville. I mention this because any fan of “genre fiction” - that is, horror, fantasy and SF - should run out and read it. China makes some profound observations about fantasy, and the tradition of Tolkien’s bucolic style of fantasy. The editors of Locus put the following quote from the interview on the cover.

“The idea of consolatory fantasy makes me want to puke. It’s not that you can’t have comfort, or even a happy ending of sorts, but to me the idea that the purpose of a book should be to console intrinsically means the purpose is therefore not to challenge or to subvert or to question; it is absolutely status quo oriented - completely, rigidly, aesthetically - and I hate that idea. I think the best fantasy is about the rejection of consolation… using the fantastic aesthetic to do the opposite of Consolation.”

A View From Corona #3

March 6th 2002 at 9:09 pm

Now that I’ve spent the last two columns telling you what you should be reading, I figure I should spend a little time letting you know who I am, and why you might consider listening to me. Obviously, I’m one of the owners of Night Shade Books. But how, you might ask, did this thirty year old kid manage to become an owner of a publishing giant like Night Shade Books?