A.C. Wise

At the Poe reading, Edward Pettit mentioned a term I hadn’t heard before - Philadelphia Gothic. There’s an exhibition currently on view at the Library Company of Philadelphia dedicated to the subject. In particular it focuses on three Philadelphia novelists, Charles Brockden Brown, Robert Montgomery Bird, and George Lippard.

Their work spawned a literary movement of “lurid crime, weird hallucination and the brooding supernatural”, growing out of the existing Gothic tradition, but with a more urban flair. Their work, in turn, inspired Edgar Allan Poe.

(more…)

The Shirley Jackson Award Lottery winners were announced today. Not only am I not getting stoned to death, but I won a signed copy of Elizabeth Bear’s The Chains That You Refuse and a signed keyboard from Neil Gaiman. How abso-freaking-lutely cool is that?

I was pleasantly surprised to receive my contributor’s copy of Fictitious Force #6 in the mail today. It features a suitably strange and creepy cover, which appears to be inspired by my story - Fortune, also appearing in said issue - no less. Their website hasn’t been updated in a while and the future of the magazine is uncertain; it may be evolving into something else. The editors of magazine, Jonathan and Michele Laden, run Fictitious Force as a labor of love, so I hope to see it stick around in one form or another, whatever that form may be.

I went to the Poe reading at the German Society of Philadelphia yesterday. Edward Pettit, the Philly Poe Guy, gave a brief introduction on Poe’s work in Philadelphia, Ellen Datlow introduced the authors, and Gregory Frost, Laird Barron and John Langan each read a selection from their stories.

(more…)

As requested (hi, Amy!) pictures of the new laptop.

For reference, the old laptop - now with bonus crazed cat!

And the new laptop - shiny!

I brought my new laptop home yesterday. This post constitutes the first real use, other than basic registration and watching one episode of Arrested Development on Hulu. So far, so good; nothing has caught on fire. I do ninety-nine percent of my writing on a laptop, so this is a BigDeal for me.

I loved my old laptop, possibly to pieces. She put up with a lot of accidental abuse - being left on a plane, being left next to a leaking window in the rain, and being put to countless unorthodox uses by cats. She served me well for over five years, but she’s tired now, and she needs to rest. It started with random reboots and developed into a full-blown case of narcolepsy, repeatedly falling asleep instead of booting up. She will always have a special place in my heart. Like I said, so far, so good with the new girl, let’s see how she measures up.

I get a kick out of Free SF Reader’s reviews - one or two sentences capturing the spirit of the story and a score out of five. For example, their review of Sisters of the Blessed etc., “We don’t help dead men, stupid.” 3 out of 5. Nice.

Speaking of reviews, The Internet Review of Science Fiction also had good things to say about the story. Huzzah!

I haven’t seen the movie, but the fact that they made it inspired me to seek out and read the books. (See, the power of the re-interpretation can be used for good.) I have to say, I am seriously digging this series.

Like the best children’s literature, it doesn’t talk down to kids. It doesn’t back off from dark or disturbing themes, and it gives readers credit for the ability to catch implication, rather than spelling out the subtleties. To me, the series really hit its stride with Greenwitch, the third book. The first two books feel a bit like ’set-up’ books, but they add richness to the characters in the later books, letting the series build slowy.

The books are considered a classic. I’m not sure how I missed them while growing up, but better late than never. The Newbery Honor and Newbery Award are both well deserved. Highly recommended reading.

Being Some Random Thoughts on Re-imagining, Remaking, and Translating Print into Film

I’m trying to shift the way I think about movie adaptations. I’m doing this in anticipation of two films - Star Trek and Watchmen. The original versions of both of these properties are close to my heart. Alan Moore properties haven’t historically fared well when being translated to film, and the less said about some of the things done to Star Trek in the past, the better.

The casting of these films makes me nervous; the potential changes to the plots I know and love scare me. Back in my day we got two hog’s heads to the gallon (or something) and that’s the way we liked it.

(more…)

Beyond the country, October is a state of mind. It can come upon you suddenly, dropped into any season, like a stone into a pool. You will feel its echoes. It is a certain slant and color of light, it is a certain piling of clouds, it is a certain quality in the wind and the way it eddies and swirls. October is more than a month. It is more than a country. It is October today.