Bragging Rights!
Locus released its 2009 Recommended Reading List.
I was pleased to see my name appearing twice on this list! One entry for ISLANDIA by Austin Tappan Wright; and one for "Terror in the Fourth Dimension" by Farnsworth Wright. Congratulations to me!
Just kidding. They actually gave a tip of the hat to "The Far End of History" (The New Space Opera 2); and to "Twilight of the Gods" (Federations)
I was also pleased to see these anthologies recommended (no doubt despite rather than because of, if you take my meaning):
- The New Space Opera 2, Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan, eds. (Eos)
- Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance, George R. R. Martin & Gardner Dozois, eds. (Subterranean Press)
- Federations, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Prime Books)
I was pleased to see a number of short stories from Clockwork Phoenix 2 get the nod of recognition, because editor Mike Allen merits respect for his work.
Also, honors due Peter S. Beagle, Gene Wolfe, and other members of the literary menagerie not named after canines are deserved, so I applaud and second the judgment of Locus.
I was sobered to see Kage Baker listed in several categories, only because this fine author has departed for the hither shore of that river all mortals one day must cross, so nothing more will be born of this pen for us. Rest in peace.
Keep all this in mind, my fellow members of the Ancient and Honorable Guild of Science Fiction Writers of America and Seekers of Truth and Pennance, when offering candidates or votes for Nebulae.
ALSO REMEMBER those of you who, like me, are fans of John Scalzi’s blog, please heed his pleas. Amazon.com recently nulled the buy buttons on all his books, and all mine, and all those of my publishing house that has to sell books to pay my wage to fee my children. This was done in the spirit of robust brinksmanship-style capitalism, which I believe shouldbe answered in kind. Don’t boycott Amazon, says he, but support the authors whose sales took a hit. Here are the words (and links) of Mr. Scalzi on the topic.
Support the authors affected. Buy their books.
How to do this is simple enough: Remember there’s more to bookselling than Amazon. Offline there are brick and mortar bookstores — go visit one. They like visitors. Tell them I sent you. Online there is Barnes and Noble. There’s Powell’s. IndieBound will hook you up. Specialty bookstores have their own web sites. You can often buy books online from the publishers themselves. Hell, even Walmart.com sells books.
Yes, yes. I know, you know Amazon isn’t the only place to buy books online. But that doesn’t mean you use those other places. I had a friend who used Barnes & Noble’s web site for the very first time in a decade today, because, as it happens, Amazon wouldn’t let him buy a book. He was pleased to discover B&N let him use PayPal. Good for him. The point is, he didn’t let a balky retailer keep him from getting a book he wanted. I suspect too many people do just that; they get used to going to that one place online and forgetting there are any other options. Well, you know. Remember, please.
Here’s the Macmillan site — I give it to you not as a show of support for Macmillan but because it has all the books, imprints and authors affected by this thing. Find a book you like and want, and then go to any retailer you want, who will sell you the book, and then buy it. It will matter to the author. And I personally would appreciate you supporting these people who are my friends and fellow writers, who could use a break in all of this. Give it some thought today, if you would. And pass the idea along. Thanks.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
