1. One thing that’s been bothering me about all this news focused on Citigroup: it keeps reminding me of that terrible song by “‘Jefferson’ ‘”Starship”‘”–you know the one: “We Built This City.” (No, I’m not going to link to it. I don’t want that on my conscience.) Maybe Citibank used to use it in their ads, I’m not sure, but the association seems to be ineluctable (an ugly word for an ugly thing). I try to drive it out with this but it’s not working very well.
2. Work proceeds on the sequel to Blood of Ambrose. (No, I never get tired of linking to that page.) I wrote through one of those blank spaces over the weekend–one where I knew what came before and what came after and that something would have to happen in between but I wasn’t sure what it was. A voracious lake troll with braided ear-hair showed up out of nowhere–I literally had no idea that such a being existed in Morlock’s world. But he seemed to belong there, so I didn’t kick him out.
3. Groupblogging has started in earnest at the Black Gate website. David Soyka, BG‘s occasional short fiction reviewer posted Sunday; Judith Berman (author of the Nebula-nominated “Awakening” as well as the remarkable Native American fantasy Bear Daughter) posts today about conventions and intelligibility. Ryan Harvey and Howard Jones are also going to pitch in, and I’m slated for Wednesdays, starting this week. So I guess I’d better give it some thought in advance: these lake trolls don’t always show up when you need them. Busy braiding their ear-hair, no doubt, the heedless grishk-gnawing bastards.
1. I hate you. That song had not penetrated my mindspace in a long, long time. Until now.
2. Groovy.
3. Thanks for mentioning it. It might have been a while before I stumbled upon it. That coupled with (2) is almost enough to… No, I still hate you.
–Jeff Stehman
Okay, now that I’ve followed the link in (1), I can forgive you. Can. Will I? At this point I prefer to let the tension build. But I will point out your link has a whoopsy at the tail end.
–Jeff Stehman
I understand that healing will take time. Thanks for the link-check–I’m the worst coder in the world.
And I see that is already set up.
Thanks!
No problem. Maybe I should have mentioned it above, actually–am glad you did here.
Blood of Ambrose Praise
Awesome comments from Lou Anders over at Fantasy Book Critic:
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2009:
“Blood of Ambrose” by James Enge
We’re putting this out in April 2009, with stunning cover art from Dominic Harman and interior illustrations by Chuck Lukacs. A tale of the battle for control of an ancient empire, fought between powerful wizards; and featuring the unlikely anti-hero of Morlock Ambrosius, wandering swordsman, estranged son of Merlin, dry drunk, and greatest Master of Magical Making of them all—this is my pick for the “If you dug Joe Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy, you’re gonna love this too” fantasy novel of 2009.
http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2008/12/fantasy-book-critics-2008-review2009_18.html
Re: Blood of Ambrose Praise
Thanks for the heads up! My capillaries were working overtime when I read that, believe me.
Re: Blood of Ambrose Praise
And yet another promising reference to Blood of Ambrose:
“I’m also thumbing through James Enge’s first novel, Blood of Ambrose. I’m going to talk about this more when I get to the April instalment of Books I’m looking forward to…. I have all sorts of conflicts of interest recommending it. It’s edited by my good friend and collaborator Lou Anders and Enge has written a terrific short for Lou and my anthology, Conquering Swords, but I am interested to see what he’s done with the novel. It has the same lead character as the one in his Conquering Swords story so I’m intrigued.”
~ from Jonathan Strahan at http://www.jonathanstrahan.com.au/wp/2008/12/30/books-im-reading/
Re: Blood of Ambrose Praise
Thanks for the catch!
I’m sinfully proud of that sale to “Conquering Swords,” too.
Re: Blood of Ambrose Praise
I think it totally awesome, James. Several folks have been concerned this antho would skip over numerous names deserving recognition.
Congrats!