Nicholas Kaufmann's Journal

Kirkus Reviews Not Dead After All?

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:34:34 GMT

Back in early December, I blogged about the imminent demise of the venerable old trade magazine Kirkus Reviews.

Well, it's too early to tell how things will work out, but Publishers Weekly is reporting that Kirkus Reviews isn't resting in eternal repose quite yet. Apparently they're working on a last-minute arrangement with a potential buyer. In the meantime, the magazine, which had originally scheduled its closing for the end of 2009, is now planning to publish through February as they try to finalize the acquisition. They're also asking publishers to continue sending them galleys.

More as the story develops, and fingers crossed that Kirkus pulls through!

Who's Reading Us?

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:48:15 GMT

Quite often as writers we wonder who is reading our books. Sure, we know friends and family members are eagerly cracking those spines, but what about people outside our circles? People we don't know who picked up the book because the synopsis sounded good to them, or they were intrigued by the cover art, or maybe they just needed something to pass the time on a long train ride--who are these people, we wonder? Do they even exist?

Well, here's something neat. Back when Hunt at World's End came out in October, series editor Charles Ardai invited everyone on the Gabriel Hunt mailing list to send in a photo of themselves reading the book, preferably decked out in suitable adventure garb. In return, he promised to email them advance PDF copies of the next book in the series, Hunt Beyond the Frozen Fire.

It seems several folks took him up on the offer, and now Charles has posted this veritable rogue's gallery of readers on the Gabriel Hunt website.

How cool is that? Visual evidence that people are actually reading the novel, and not a single one of them a family member or friend! It's not very often that a writer gets to see this kind of thing, and boy is it a treat. (As I'm sure you already know, writers have very needy egos that demand constant validation.)

By the way, Charles' offer still stands. You can still send a picture of yourself reading Hunt at World's End--or any of the Gabriel Hunt novels, including Hunt at the Well of Eternity and Hunt Through the Cradle of Fear--to AdventuresOfGabrielHunt AT gmail DOT com. Why not? It's a win-win situation. You get a free advance PDF of Hunt Beyond the Frozen Fire, co-written by Gabriel Hunt and Christa Foust, and I get to see what you look like!

Where the Jobs Are Now

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:17:18 GMT

Just a heads up: My good friend Joe Watson's latest book, Where the Jobs Are Now: The Fastest-Growing Industries and How to Break Into Them, is now available from McGraw-Hill. And given our current 10% national unemployment rate, not a moment too soon. If you or someone you know is looking to break into an industry that can provide job stability even in nasty economic downturns, whether it's a wholesale career change or just translating your existing skills to a new field, I highly recommend checking out this book. Joe knows what he's talking about.

The Naming of the Books

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:06:52 GMT

For some reason I no longer remember, maybe boredom, sometime in the early '00s I started keeping a running Excel spreadsheet of every book read during the calendar year and then posting the list here on my LJ at year's end.

You can find 2009's list after the cut, presented in the order in which I read them. As always the list includes books and graphic novel trade collections, but doesn't include any short stories, magazine issues or individual comics issues I read during the year. Looking back on it, I see 2009 was a sucky year for my love of reading. I only put away 10 books--well below my average, and possibly a personal worst for my adult life--but in my defense, writing three books in one year doesn't leave you with a lot of spare reading time. Still, I hope to make more reading time in 2010.

Alan Moore's Exit Interview by Bill Baker
Unspeakable Horror edited by Vince Liaguno & Chad Helder
Shivers V edited by Richard Chizmar
House by Josh Simmons
How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale by Jenna Jameson
The Little Sleep by Paul Tremblay
The Throat by Peter Straub
Bought by Emma David
Audrey's Door by Sarah Langan
23 Hours by David Wellington

Doctor Who: "The End of Time, Part Two"

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:48:58 GMT

Zounds! What a crazy episode! I still don't know how I feel about all of "The End of Time, Part Two," the fourth and final 2009/10 special that took the place of a regular season, but in general I thought it was quite good. Again, Russell T. Davies gives us some wonderful lines--"Worst rescue ever!"--and shows us the Doctor at his most heroic and his most human. The fulfillment of the four-knocks prophecy turned out to be way more genius than anticipated. Wilf made a wonderful companion, I wanted more Donna, blah blah blah. Let's get to the meat of it.

And the meat of it is the regeneration. It was the most anticipated moment of the episode--and one they played with admirably, psyching the viewer out a couple of times--yet it was also the most problematic. They drew it out to the point where it became overwrought, and also to the point where it became the longest regeneration in the program's history. After the Doctor steps out of the glass chamber, he tells Wilf that "it's started," implying his regeneration has begun. However, instead of it being an immediate process like every other time he's regenerated, apparently he still has plenty of time to go visit everyone. Loved seeing these folks again--and learning about Mickey and Martha's shared future--but these aren't even goodbyes. He doesn't say anything to anyone. Instead, he does them favors. He saves M&M from a Sontaran. He saves Sarah Jane's adopted alien son from getting hit by a car. He gets Captain Jack laid at Mos Eisley (how I cringed seeing a Fat Baby again!). And he creeps Rose out on New Year's Eve 2005. It was only about half an hour on BBC America (including really annoying and disruptive commercials), but it felt like weeks must have passed. Longest regeneration ever!

See, here's the thing. I can totally understand wanting to give this episode an epic feel. It's the end of an era with Tennant and series creator Davies leaving at the same time. But the problem is, by trying to make regeneration a tragedy instead of a celebration of life--the Doctor doesn't die, he survives!--it undoes everything the show, both classic and new, already established. Didn't Tennant's Doctor spend, like, an entire episode trying to convince Rose and her mother that he was the same person as Eccleston's Doctor, just with a new body? Didn't he regenerate in "Journey's End" but shuck off the face-changing part of the process like it was no big deal? And wasn't he psyched to meet the next Doctor in "The Next Doctor"? Heck, didn't Romana get to try on a number of bodies before deciding what she would look like when she regenerated in 1979's "Destiny of the Daleks"? So where did this "Even if I change, it feels like dying. I go away and some other man saunters off" nonsense come from? Well, the need to make it feel momentous, of course. And it is. But there's no need to overinflate the matter. We know Tennant's Doctor is the same as Eccleston's Doctor is the same as Tom Baker's Doctor. They're the same person. Regeneration isn't death, it's escaping death in order to keep living.

All of which means, to me at least, that even though the regeneration scene was touching, there were serious problems with the tone. "I don't want to go"? Well, he didn't go. (Plus, Tennant himself totally wanted to go!) Instead, he changed into a 26-year-old hipster with Eric Stoltz's face from Mask. How much better would it have been if he didn't know if he was going to regenerate, if he really thought he might die, and then he visits everyone and after tons of suspense he finally regenerates and survives after all, perhaps with the help of the Ood? In my opinion, that would have achieved everything Davies wanted without turning regeneration into something far heavier and more tragic than it actually is.

Still, while I had these issues with the end, I actually enjoyed the episode a great deal.

And now for some crazy-ass Doctor Who neepery!

Gallifrey and the Daleks are stuck in a time lock that removed the Time War from the timestream. Very cool. (Though how a diamond and the mysterious woman were able to get through the time lock is a mystery that is so far unanswered.) Even cooler that the Doctor is the one who created the time lock because the Time Lords, even in the old series, were always a bunch of arrogant pricks anyway. They even forced the Doctor to regenerate back in the 1969 serial "The War Games" as punishment for stealing a TARDIS and getting involved instead of adhering to their strict non-intervention policies. Most Time Lords are total bastards. But it still makes me wonder what happened to the Time Lords and Ladies who weren't on Gallifrey, not all of whom were assholes: Romana, K'anpo Rinpoche, the Monk, Drax, the Doctor's granddaughter Susan, the Rani, etc. Did they all get recalled to Gallifrey for the Time War? That would suck for them. It also sucks for the Doctor's old companion Leela, who married the Gallifreyan commander Andred and stayed on the planet. Whoops!

The biggest surprise of the episode, though, was the Doctor addressing Timothy Dalton's character as Rassilon. Hoo boy does that carry a lot of weight for those of us who watched the old series! Rassilon, as we first discovered in the 1976 serial "The Deadly Assassin," was the founder of Time Lord society. Along with another Time Lord named Omega, Rassilon discovered the principle of safe time travel and an inexhaustible source of energy in the form of the Eye of Harmony, basically a captured black hole under the city, that fuels it. He invented TARDISes and the time scoop and the Matrix and pretty much everything that makes the Time Lords what they are. But even Rassilon was kind of a dick, as we learned in 1983's "The Five Doctors." That's also where we learned that Rassilon, having discovered the key to immortality, isn't actually dead. So, unlike the Master, Rassilon wouldn't have had to be resurrected in order to lead the Time Lords in the Time War. All they would have to do is go to the Dark Tower in Gallifrey's Death Zone, where Rassilon sleeps in his tomb, and ask him. Being a total power-mad dick, I'm sure he would have said yes and created all the nasty things the Doctor mentions as the reasons for the time lock. Of course, it could also just be a common name on Gallifrey now. We've had a number of presidents named George, after all. But I prefer to think he's the real deal.

Also, the Time Lords would never employ a tattooed ooga-booga psychic woman to counsel them. They've always been portrayed as a highly scientific-based society with no expressed religious or spiritual leanings. But if Rassilon is really the Rassilon of old, it makes more sense, since he's from the olden days, referred to in "The Five Doctors" as the Dark Time. It's certainly possible they were more superstitious and spiritually oriented back then.

Finally, who was the old woman who warned Wilf about what was happening and locked eyes with the Doctor in the big climactic scene? My girlfriend and I think it might be the Doctor's mother. (I suppose it could also be Romana, but I doubt the show would dive that deeply into continuity issues.) Anyway, I have a feeling we'll find out at some point.

See, I told you this would be an immense amount of neepery!

Anyway, goodbye, David Tennant! You were the best Doctor since Tom Baker and really made the role your own. I'll miss you a lot.

And good luck, Geronimo boy. You've got some pretty damn big shoes to fill. Also, please lose the bowtie.

Happy New Year!

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:41:09 GMT

View Poll: #1505884

CHASING THE DRAGON Update

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:54:09 GMT

A number of people have emailed asking me why they haven't received their limited edition hardcovers of Chasing the Dragon yet, which were supposed to ship this month to those who preordered them. Brett and Sandra at ChiZine Publications inform me that there has been a slight delay at the printer that, unfortunately, means the books likely won't be in your hands until mid-January or so.

I feel terrible about this, especially for those who may have ordered copies as holiday presents, but production delays are out of my hands, obviously. All I can say is I'm sorry for the hold up, but hang tight, the books will ship soon.

Hunt Around the Web

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:35:17 GMT

Some reviews of my novel Hunt at World's End have appeared in various spots around the intertubes. It's always nice to see people enjoying something I wrote and sharing their opinions with others. Word of mouth is extremely important in bookselling, just as important as national advertising campaigns and media blitzes, albeit somewhat slower in its momentum. Still, these reviews have put a smile on my face this cold December morning.

brandlepack on LiveJournal had this to say: I finally got a chance to read Hunt at World's End by Nick Kaufmann. Freaking fantastic. It's pulpy, and totally entertaining from start to finish so that when I put it down I decided two things: (1) I'd check out more of Nick's work (this is the only thing of his I've read) and (2) Hunt was totally worth the dough. Buy it.

A fellow named Eric at GoodReads was slightly less enthusiastic, giving the novel only two stars despite admitting that he liked it: Overall I'm enjoying these pulpy adventure novels. I only wish that Gabriel Hunt would be less Indiana Jones and more Doc Savage.

Over at Amazon, Anthony R. Cardno gave it five stars and a lengthy review, mentioning how much he enjoyed the original characters I created for this adventure, including unusual love interest Joyce Wingard, and ending with this rave: Another fine entry in what is fast becoming one of my favorite book series.

Also at Amazon, Brien Master gave it five stars too, saying: I have read all three of the books in the Gabriel Hunt series and I have found them all to be a blast. At World's End in particular captures the breakneck pace and globe trotting action that proper serial-style adventure heroes deal with on a regular basis....The action, riddles, traps, and treasures are all wonderfully produced. I think I read this in about two days. The book is a lot of fun and I cannot wait to read the next installment!

All very nice--even if the book isn't Doc Savage enough!

As I mentioned, word of mouth is extremely important for a book's success. So if you have read and enjoyed Hunt at World's End, why not take a moment to write it up in your blog? Gabriel and I would be most grateful. Which reminds me, I need to give Gabriel a call and see how he's doing. Last I heard he was tied up with some ruffians in Antarctica--and I do mean tied up!--and telling author Christa Faust all about it for the next book.

Another Funny One from McSweeney's

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:47:56 GMT

Robert Lanham's INTERNET-AGE WRITING SYLLABUS AND COURSE OVERVIEW.

This one had me HFACTDEWARIUCSMNUWKIASLAMBing. Favorite bit, the prerequisite class: "ENG: 102—Staring Blankly at Handheld Devices While Others Are Talking."

Shorts, Sans Bermuda

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:16:42 GMT

I read two short stories over the holiday weekend that I liked a lot and wanted to bring to your attention. Interestingly, both are science fiction stories written by authors I usually associate with horror fiction. Go figure, maybe it's the start of a trend!

The first is "Horses" by Livia Llewellyn, which appears in Postcripts #18: This Is the Summer of Love. Many of the people on my friends list know the author as the frequently sharp-witted livia_llewellyn, but they may not know she's quite a talented writer of horror and dark fantasy too. Her story in the anthology Unspeakable Horror was one of the best of the bunch, and her entry in the Field Guide to Surreal Botany was one of the few truly scary ones. "Horses" is a science fiction story about, among other things, nuclear armageddon in the near future and the protagonist's attempt to survive it in an underground bunker, but the dark, nihilistic atmosphere remains reminiscent of the finest horror stories. And like many horror stories, at the end it leaves you feeling unsettled and icky. It helps keep the reader on his or her toes that the story's protagonist, Kingston, is depressed and possibly psychotic. But then again, everyone probably would be after a nuclear war. Kingston does some seriously questionable things, many of which result in other people's deaths, but Llewellyn is a strong enough writer that even if you hate Kingston, you empathize with her right to the end.

The other story is "Dreaming Robot Monster" by Mort Castle, which appears in the anthology Mighty Unclean. I know a number of you who read this blog are familiar with Castle's work, but some of you may not be and that needs to be rectified now. Aside from my personal connection with Castle--he was my unofficial writing mentor when I was just starting out, and I got to pen an appreciation of him for the World Horror Convention 2005 program book--he is a writer I truly admire (his book Moon On the Water is one of the best story collections of the past decade, in my opinion) and one I hope someday to be half as good as. "Dreaming Robot Monster" is the latest in a series of stories Castle has been coaxing from various cultural touchstones, often drawing upon real-life historical figures, as he did with Hemingway in the story "The Old Man and the Dead," or utilizing thinly disguised versions of well known literary characters, as with Lennie Small in "As Others See Us." Now he turns his sights on one of the greatest B-movies of all time, Robot Monster, and gives us a phantasmagorical backstory to what the film shows us. He puts us in the point of view of all the characters, including the robot monster itself, and ends on such a sweet note of yearning and affection that it makes you want to read the whole thing over again the moment you finish it. It almost makes you want to suffer through Robot Monster again too, just to compare the two.

Both Livia Llewellyn and Mort Castle are excellent writers well worth your time, and if you haven't experienced their work yet, these two stories make fine introductions. Were I in a place to do so, I would, without hesitation, recommend both stories for various horror and science fiction awards consideration. Here's hoping others will.

100 Feet of What Now?

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:26:55 GMT

Sometimes examples of much-needed proofreading can exist right under your nose for years before you notice them. Case in point, here is the 1986 VHS box for the Ray Harryhausen extravaganza Jason and the Argonauts*, which I've owned for decades:

Look closer and you'll see a typo in the text that I hadn't noticed before, until my girlfriend caught it, four lines up from the bottom:

That's right, it's a "100-foot broonze giant"! I'm not sure what "broonze" is, but I'm guessing it's some kind of mixture of metal and alcohol. Way to go, RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video! Remember, proofreading isn't just for internal memos and studio contracts anymore.

* Over the holiday, I showed my girlfriend two Harryhausen movies, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, which isn't the best of the Sinbad movies in my opinion (that would be Golden Voyage) but does include the famous and awesome cyclops, and Jason, which she liked better and thinks she may have seen before. I also got to show her Psycho, which, to my surprise, she'd never seen before, and she loved it. She has good taste, even if she prefers Jason to Sinbad.

Doctor Who: "The End of Time, Part One"

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 03:56:03 GMT

I was so overstimulated after watching "The End of Time, Part One," Saturday night, the third of four 2009 Doctor Who specials taking the place of a regular season, that I couldn't even write about it until now. Overstimulated not just because there was a lot going on--and there was, an awful lot, sometimes overwhelmingly so--but because I loved all of it. I was a giddy fanboy bouncing on my couch the whole time. It was all my girlfriend could do to keep me from accidentally crashing through the window.

You won't find any spoilers here, for the sake of those in the States without BBC America who have to wait for DVD, but it's inevitable that spoilers will appear in the comments. Proceed there at your own risk.

While there are a few things to take issue with, mostly regarding the villain (his resurrection is brought about by unexplained magical blue potions like something out of Harry Potter or a Hammer Satanism film? And now he's gonna fly around like Iron Man? Really, you guys?) and some super-lame looking green cactus aliens like rejects from the 1980 serial "Meglos," about a shapeshifting cactus monster, I was pretty much swept away by the whole episode. It's filled with lines to die for--"Got married. That was a mistake"; "I thought it would be cleaner"--the reappearance of old and much missed characters, and lots of cosmic threat. Basically everything a season-ender should be, with an added air of "Logopolis"-like foreboding because we all know David Tennant is stepping down from the role after part two airs next weekend.

The cliffhanger had me howling with laughter. That is, until the show said, "No, no, no, my friend, that isn't the cliffhanger. This is," and then my jaw hit the floor and I spent the rest of the night wandering aimlessly around my apartment wishing the second part would air right the fuck now.

January 2nd can't come fast enough--except that it'll be the last episode to star an actor who has become as iconic in the role as Tom Baker was. Ah, such a delicious melange of anticipation and trepidation!

I wonder if Blondie McBlonderson will show up again.

Shopping Mall Santa Says, "I Gave Up Drinking For This?"

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:54:25 GMT

Have a merry Christmas, everyone!

Kaufmann Around the Web, Part Two

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:49:39 GMT

My LiveJournal post on the sudden demise of Kirkus Reviews was excerpted by both The News-Herald (which also grumbles, perfectly reasonably, about those awful, annoying as hell Best Buy pop-up ads that have been plaguing the Plus Account LJs of late) and the Los Angeles Times.

Did I mention I'm drunk with power? Kneel before Zod!

It Could Have Been Worse

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:07:17 GMT

In my ongoing quest to find funny misspellings on menus and signs, I sometimes come across ones that are still amusing but could have been a lot worse. Case in point:

Tempura banana "rapped" with red bean paste. I suppose that means they had a casual conversation in the school hallway, or maybe on a street corner.

But as I said it could have been a lot worse, as many of the illiterate and incredibly unfortunate holiday season misspellings all over Lamebook can attest--"Grandma's downstairs raping the presents!"--but "rapped" is still pretty bad. I mean, they managed to spell "ethereally" right in the item above the Tempura Banana, and "ethereally" is like ten times harder than "wrapped"! WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THIS?

Brand New Author Photo!

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:04:58 GMT

I like both versions, but for some reason I'm grooving on the black-and-white one more. It's got a classy, old-time Hollywood feel to it. Now all I need is a fedora and the Maltese Falcon!

Photography by Kate Ehle.

R.I.P. Dan O'Bannon

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:13:08 GMT

Screenwriter and director Dan O'Bannon has died. He was 63.

This is sad news. O'Bannon was best known as the screenwriter of Alien, which is impressive enough in its own right, but to me he'll always be remembered the guy who wrote and directed The Return of the Living Dead, a zombie spoof that gave the world the iconic tarman (above), coined the funniest line in a zombie movie ever ("Send...more...paramedics"), and introduced me as a sixteen-year-old adolescent to the inimitable Linnea Quigley.

He was also responsible for the screenplay to Total Recall, coining another immortal movie line: "Get your ass to Mars"; the screenplay to Lifeforce, an interesting but not always successful film that is probably best known for introducing the American audience to voluptuous French actress Mathilda May, who was, to my great joy at the time, stark naked through most of the film; and the screenplay to Dead & Buried, a very weird semi-zombie movie that only barely holds up today but still occupies a fond place in my heart, and which also featured Robert Englund three years before he became Freddy Krueger.

He was an extremely talented screenwriter with a fantastic imagination, and he will be missed.

The Advent Book Blog

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:39:25 GMT

"Books on the Radio" host Sean Cranbury and "Book Madam" Julie Wilson came up with a cute idea: an Advent Book Blog for the month of December. They asked a number of authors, myself included, to select a favorite book published in 2009 and write a short, 25-word review. Like an advent calendar, each day sees another mini-review posted to the blog.

It was a tough decision for me. There were a ton of great books published this year, all of which I loved, but in the end I chose Paul Tremblay's The Little Sleep because it was such a fantastic debut novel. That Tremblay kid, he's going places!

You know, looking at the other reviews on the site, it occurs to me that I'm one of the few authors who took the 25-word rule seriously!

Merry Effing Christmas

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:10:25 GMT

Al Jourgensen of the industrial band Ministry has recorded a new Christmas song called "It's Always Christmas Time." Yes, you read that right. Al Jourgensen--Buck Satan--of Ministry. The funny thing is, the song's not bad. It's even kind of cheery. You can check it out here and even see a (possibly unintentionally) hilarious video for it--though it's probably not work safe with all the f-bombs he drops in the intro.

Everyday is Halloween? No, apparently now everyday is Christmas!

The Trivia King is Shamed

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:12:41 GMT

Ninth place. Argh. Only two members of Team Totally Tits showed up (make your own joke), so we were at a disadvantage from the start. I don't even want to talk about it, except to say that in the audio round, where a full 100 points was at stake, my knowledge of 1970s pop songs (title, artist and year of release required) failed me. Teammate Mike was born in the 1980s (I know!), so I was kind of on my own. In the end, I decided every artist I couldn't recognize was Peter Frampton, even the female vocalists, and every song I didn't know was called "The Peter Frampton Song" or "I Love Peter Frampton."

Here's hoping we do better when we return on January 11th.

P.S. According to one of the questions I got wrong in a different round, there is apparently a breakfast cereal called Quisp. Sometimes I wonder if I'm getting too old to play trivia, because I've never even heard of Quisp!

Word Puzzles

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:56:05 GMT

My friend Morgan Doninger has been running a fun word puzzle website since May called Puzzling New York City. I'm not so great at word puzzles unless they're crosswords, and even then I'm really only at TV Guide level, not New York Times level. But Morgan gives his puzzles an extra bit of coolness by focusing them on New York City and current events (with the occasional sports and comic book references thrown in, because that's how Morgan rolls). If you like word puzzles, you might want to give his site a gander.

It's Sad But True

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:13:30 GMT

If you wanna be my lover,
you gotta get with my nick_kaufmann.

Which song was this lyric from?

The Golem Wishes You a Happy Hanukkah!

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:31:33 GMT

Hanukkah is all about celebrating. Look how happy they are in the picture, they can't stop hugging!

DEAD AIR: Nothing New Under the Sun

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:29:08 GMT

My December horror column for the Internet Review of Science Fiction, "Nothing New Under the Sun," is now live at the site. This month I take a look at Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and the publishing feeding frenzy in the wake of its success.

Just as they did with the Da Vinci Code knockoffs [earlier this decade], publishers everywhere are now scrambling to hop on the monster mashup bandwagon. In August, Sourcebooks published Amanda Grange's Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, a supernatural sequel to Pride and Prejudice. Quirk Books itself published Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters in September. October saw Ulysses Press publish Vampire Darcy's Desire by Regina Jeffers, which apparently differentiates itself from Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by being a prequel/retelling of Pride and Prejudice rather than a sequel. In June of next year, Del Rey will publish Little Women and Werewolves by Louisa May Alcott and Porter Grand. And in August, Kensington will publish Wuthering Bites by Sarah Gray, in which Heathcliff is, you guessed it, a vampire. If you're currently shaking your head and muttering, "Enough already," you're not alone. But you're also likely to go unheard by the industry.

Also in this issue, Rachel Manija Brown has what I think is an excellent analysis of Miyazaki's latest animated film, Ponyo.

R.I.P. Kirkus Reviews

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:30:52 GMT

Publishers Weekly, The New York Times and bunch of other news outlets are reporting that the venerable old trade magazine Kirkus Reviews is dead.

Founded in 1933, Kirkus Reviews became one of the big four trade magazines that publishers absolutely had to send advance review copies of their books if they wanted those books to get any kind of market attention, along with Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Library Journal (or School Library Journal for kids' books).

Kirkus Reviews was notorious for two things. One, it was purportedly read by every Hollywood exec--or more likely their underlings--looking for literary properties to option for film (at its height, I'm told Kirkus was used for this purpose even more than PW was). And two, their reviewers were impossible to please. I mean, impossible. If your book got a good review from Kirkus, that really meant something because they pretty much hated everything.

I railed against Kirkus years ago when they launched their Kirkus Discoveries program, which charged "independently published" authors money in exchange for "unbiased" reviews in a completely separate book review service from their esteemed magazine (i.e., online). That program remained active until now, and if there's anything good to come out of this sad news, it's that Kirkus Discoveries will die along with the magazine.

I can't help feeling a pang of nostalgic regret at this news, though. The publishing world keeps changing, and not always for the better, but that's the way of the world. It may only be a matter of time before the other big trades follow suit, and then...well, let's just say it'll be a brave new world.