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发表于 2009-7-8 03:49
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本帖最后由 NamingGame 于 2009-8-5 12:27 编辑
Elizabeth Bear
I think you're supposed to do these things in third person, but then, we'd be pretending that somebody other than me was maintaining this website, and that seems sort of silly. So.
I was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1971. I share a birthday with Frodo and Bilbo Baggins. I lived in New England for 28 years, and then spent seven years near Las Vegas. I'm back in Connecticut now. I have the best job in the world and a really pushy cat, and if you want to know way too much about the daily minutia of a writer's existence, the link to my livejournal on the left over there will set you up.
Intro
Set in 1930's New England, "Shoggoths in Bloom" features Dr. Harding, a black college professor doing research in a Maine fishing town on shoggoths. I make mention of Dr. Harding's race because, in this story and given the setting, it matters that he is a black man.
Oh, and for those whom this will matter, the shoggoths in the story are the lone science fictional element. "Shoggoths in Bloom" is really a human story, though the shoggoths do feature prominently as a natural creature.
The story touches upon race and while not in a cosmetic manner, the fact that Dr. Harding is black does not mean "Shoggoths in Bloom" is about race. This fact does inform the story and quite obviously who Dr. Harding is informs his decisions which in turn directs "Shoggoths in Bloom" in a particular direction which may not have occured were Dr. Harding white. Or a woman.
The gradual research and exploration Dr. Harding undertakes to understand the shoggoths is the heart of this story and even without the issue of race and the burgeoning realization through newspapers of what is occuring in Germany, "Shoggoths in Bloom" would be an interesting story. With everything else that Bear has put into the story to show that these characters are not operating in a vacuum devoid of life, "Shoggoths in Bloom" is a rather strong story from Elizabeth Bear.
James Alan Gardner - The Ray-gun (A Love Story)
以下摘自作者官方网站：
I have, of course, considered doing a blog. For the moment, though, I've decided against it. My experience with the Net goes back to 1981 with the original SF-Lovers Digest—the email version, because Usenet hadn't quite penetrated the University of Waterloo (where I was working as a technical writer). Soon it took up a lot of my spare time...not just the time I spent reading and writing to the digest, but the much more significant time I spent brooding about how people reacted to what I said.
As a writer, I care deeply about expressing myself clearly and being understood. As a long-term citizen of the Net, I realize there will always, always, always be people who twist one's words into something unrecognizable. So whenever I become active on the Net—which has happened over and over again in the past quarter century—I end up obsessing over the disconnect between what I say and what a few people end up hearing.
It drives me nuts. I can't stop thinking about it. In the end, I always decide that the only way to get my mind on other things (like, say, writing stories and novels), is to take a step back. I love the online world; I read a number of blogs and other sites; but if I actively enter the fray by writing a blog of my own, I won't be able to think of anything else.
Like writing science fiction and fantasy. I love writing. It's my vocation—not just a job, but a calling. So that's what I'm going to do instead of blogging. I hope readers will think I've made the right decision.
Bio
James Alan Gardner (born January 10, 1955) is a Canadian science fiction author.
Raised in Simcoe and Bradford, Ontario, he earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Applied Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.
Gardner has published science fiction short stories in a range of periodicals, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Amazing Stories. In 1989, his short story "Children of the Creche" was awarded the Grand Prize in the Writers of the Future contest. Two years later his story "Muffin Explains Teleology to the World at Large" won an Aurora Award; another story, "Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream," won an Aurora and was nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo Awards.
He has written a number of novels in a "League of Peoples" universe in which murderers are defined as "dangerous non-sentients" and are killed if they try to leave their solar system by aliens who are so advanced that they think of humans like humans think of bacteria. This precludes the possibility of interstellar wars.
He has also explored themes of gender in his novels, including Commitment Hour in which people change sex every year, and Vigilant in which group marriages are traditional.
Gardner is also an educator and technical writer. His book Learning UNIX is used as a textbook in some Canadian universities.
He lives in Waterloo, Ontario.
Intro
From: http://bbs.sfw.com.cn/redirect.php?tid=31472&goto=newpost
跟去年一样，今年的雨果奖短中篇提名大概是最强的。提名的五篇作品里我全看了，也全都喜欢。不过，我最喜欢的是加拿大作家James Alan Gardner的这篇《射线枪：爱情故事》。这篇实际上是我读过的2008年中短篇科幻奇幻小说里最喜欢的一篇。这篇优秀中篇几乎获得今年所有的科幻小说奖提名，并已经收获中短篇小说的Theodore Sturgeon纪念奖和《阿西莫夫科幻杂志》读者奖。
这篇轻松有趣的小说是这样开头的：
这是一个关于射线枪的故事。我们对射线枪的解释只能是：“发射光线。”
它们是危险的光线。如果击中胳膊，胳膊就萎缩了。如果击中面部，眼睛就失明了。如果击中心脏，那就死翘翘了。这些情况肯定是真的，否则就算不上是射线枪。但是它却千真万确是的。
射线枪来自太空。这只射线枪原本属于一架穿越我们太阳系的外星飞船的船长。这艘飞船停下来从木星的大气层汲取氢气。在补给燃料的过程中，机组成员出于某些我们无法理解的原因发生了叛变。我们永远不能理解外星人。如果什么人花上一个月的时间来为我们讲解外星人的想法，我们自以为懂了而事实上却相反。我们的大脑仅仅能理解何为人类。
John Kessel
Bio
John Kessel (b. 24 September 1950 in Buffalo, New York) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. He is a prolific short story author with several longer works to his credit. He won a Nebula Award in 1982 for his story "Another Orphan," in which the protagonist finds himself living inside the novel Moby Dick, and a second (2008) for his novelette "Pride and Prometheus", a story melding the tales of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." His short story "Buffalo" won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and the Locus poll in 1992. His novella "Stories for Men" shared the 2002 James Tiptree Award for science fiction dealing with gender issues with M. John Harrison's novel "Light." He also is a widely published science fiction and fantasy critic, and organizes the Sycamore Hill Writer's Workshop.
Having obtained a Ph.D. in English from the University of Kansas in 1981, Kessel has taught classes in American literature, science fiction, fantasy, and fiction writing at North Carolina State University since 1982. He was named as the first director of the MFA Creative Writing Program at NCSU and currently shares the directorship of creative writing with Wilton Barnhardt.
In 2007, his play, "A Clean Escape" was adapted for ABC's science fiction anthology series Masters of Science Fiction.
2009 Interview
【John Kessel is nominated for his novelette “Pride and Prometheus.” 】
Would you like to talk about the inspiration behind Pride and Prometheus?
I got the initial idea at the critique table at the Sycamore Hill Writers’ Conference in 2005. We were discussing Benjamin Rosenbaum’s story (later published as , a Jane Austen pastiche, when it occurred to me that Austen and Mary Shelley were contemporaries, and that both of them were, at least in part, about finding a “mate.” I jotted it down in my notebook and though about the story a great deal over the next months. I re-read Frankenstein and Pride and Prejudice. When I did so I noticed that, at one point in Frankenstein, Victor and his friend Henry Clerval visit the town of Matlock, which is mentioned in Austen as being near Mr. Darcy’s estate of Permberly. When I discovered that, it seemed like a signpost telling me I had to write this story.
In the writing of Pride and Prometheus, did you have a particular favorite character? Who was this character and why was she/he your favorite?
I think my favorite character is Kitty, the heroine Mary Bennet’s sister. When I started she was merely the flirty sister of the serious Mary (with whom my sympathies primarily lay). But as I wrote my way into the story Kitty became more and more important, both to the plot (what happens to her leads to its resolution) and to its themes. I felt for her predicament, as an unmarried woman in her late twenties, without particular resources of character and judgment, in Regency England. She desperately desires to marry, but her prospects are fading. She’s become more than the silly sidekick to Lydia she was in Pride and Prejudice, but there seems to be no role for her in this world than “old maid,” which is to her a complete failure. Mary of course faces the same fate, maybe even more, but she has developed some greater understanding of herself and the world. Kitty affected me emotionally in a way that the typical “silly woman” would not normally.
Are there particular themes that attract you or which you feel moved to write about? What are you passionate about?
I am passionate about the choices people make, and how they affect their fates. I’m puzzled by human personality. Lately it’s come out in my work in a concern about male-female relationships. I suppose that’s been a concern of writers since writing began. But it’s certainly not exhausted.
You could say I’m obsessed with moral issues, but I hope it’s not in a moralistic way. I don’t mean sexual morality, I mean the ways in which people treat and mistreat each other, the social structures that make it easier for them to ct well or poorly, and how those structures can be changed for the better or worse.
Among the stories you’ve written is there one that you are proudest of?
I’m a little reluctant to pick favorites. Sometimes you like one story more than another for reasons that are not objective assessments of how they came out. But if I were to say which ones give me the best feeling long after having written them, I’d list a few: “Invaders,” “Stories for Men,” “The Franchise,” “The Baum Plan for Financial Independence,” “Buddha Nostril Bird,” and this one, “Pride and Prometheus.”
If I had to stake my reputation on a single story, I suppose it would be “Invaders.”
When you start a new project, do you know whether that project will be a short story, novella or novel? How do you know and how do you make the choice?
I generally know more or less how long it’s going to be by the time I begin putting words down. It just feels like a 7,000-word story, or a 17,000-word story, or a novel. I have seldom started a story and had it turn out to be much longer or shorter than I intended. It’s not really so much a rational choice as a feeling for what this story is about, the effect I want it to have on the reader. The idea of taking a short story idea and expanding it to a novel feels alien to me.
Has winning various awards changed the way you look at your position as a writer or the way in which you approach writing?
Winning awards is certainly wonderful, and makes me feel good. I have desired to win them, but I can’t say I have ever set out to win one--though I did have the feeling when writing “Stories for Men” that it might attract the attention of the Tiptree Award jury.
When I won the Nebula for my novella “Another Orphan” early in my career--I was 32 years old--it was a major surprise. It rather derailed me for a while. I didn’t know what it meant for me or my work. Was I an “award-winning writer”? What did that mean for my next story?
But that was so long ago. Now I have a sense of who I am as a writer, I think, and I write what I’m interested in, and just hope other people will find it interesting too. I’d love for “Pride and Prometheus” to win the Nebula, but it won’t be an iota better or worse as a story if it does or doesn’t.
You continue to teach as well as write. How do these two disciplines influence and inform each other?
As a teacher I’m always thinking about how stories work, and trying to convey that to my students. That often makes me think about what I’m trying to do. For instance, when I was starting “Pride and Prometheus,” I actually used it in class as an excersise in plotting--I wrote down a couple ideas I had for scenes on the blackboard, and we talked about how those might grow into a story, and who the characters were and what they wanted. I always talk about how plot and character are flip sides of each other, and this was a good way to make the point.
I don’t get as much writing done as I might otherwise because I am teaching. I do get to work with some wonderful young writers, and help them to make their own stories better. I’m very proud of the work they have created.
What’s the best piece of advice you ever got from another writer?
James Gunn, my teacher at the University of Kansas , said to me that stories aren’t written, they’re rewritten. At the time I disliked rewiting, but now it is my favorite part of the process.
I don’t know if I ever heard it in so many words from one person, but over my career and interactions with numerous writers, I’ve also learned that you should write what you like and let the market figure it out later.
What does your typical writing day look like?
Many days during the school year are not writing days. When I get time to write , I get up in the morning, have breakfast, maybe walk the dog, read my email, and take up where I left off on the story last. I’ll start by rewriting what I wrote the last time, and keep going forward. I have starts and stops, sometimes have to ponder issues as to what happens next. In the summer when I have my days more to myself, I’ll work until one pm or so, then break for lunch. I’ll come back and do some idle work--correspondence, etc--or read, or go out and get some exercise, or do the marketing for the family.
In the summer I often cook supper. When Sue and Emma get home, we have supper, and in the evening often watch some tv or a movie on DVD.
What’s your next project? Would you like to tell us about that?
Right now I’m sort of between things. I just finished editing an anthology, THE SECRET HISTORY OF SCIENCE FICTION, with James Patrick Kelly, due out from Tachyon Books in Fall 2009. I have a desire to get back to a novel I stalled on a few years back, set in the lunar background of “Stories for Men” and the others of the “Lunar Quartet.” We’ll see if that works out.
当期F&SF封面：
Mike Resnick
Michael "Mike" Diamond Resnick (born Chicago, March 5, 1942), better known by his published name Mike Resnick, is an American science fiction author. He is executive editor of Jim Baen's Universe.
Two notable trends run through the majority of Resnick's science fiction work. The first is his love of fable and legend. Many of his stories chronicle larger-than-life characters with colorful names like "The Widowmaker", "Lucifer Jones", "The Forever Kid", and "Catastrophe Baker" and the legendary adventures they pursue. Resnick is also interested in the formation of history and legend, and sometimes includes bards as characters. The book The Outpost deals most with these themes, as it includes a story told from multiple perspectives and a bard who openly intends to exaggerate and edit his accounts to make them more interesting. Resnick's books in this vein bear some resemblance to Westerns, but are clearly science fiction. The other main subject of Resnick's work is Africa - African history, African culture, colonialism and its aftermath, and traditionalism. He has visited Africa often, and draws on this experience. Some of his science fiction stories are allegories of African history and politics. Other stories are actually set in Africa or have African characters.
Resnick's style is known for the inclusion of humor; even his most grim and serious stories have frequent unexpected bursts of humor in them. Resnick enjoys collaborating, especially on short stories. Through 2009 he has collaborated with 41 different writers on short fiction, and three on novels. He is also a long-time participant in science fiction fandom. Resnick has been the Guest of Honor at some 38 science fiction conventions, and Toastmaster at a dozen others. Since 1988 Resnick has edited over 40 anthologies. He has also sold screenplays based on his novels to Miramax and Capella, and often has multiple properties under option to Hollywood studios.
His work has been translated into French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Russian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Dutch, Swedish, Romanian, Finnish, Castilian, Slovakian, Chinese, Danish, and Croatian.
Paolo Bacigalupi
Bio
Paolo Bacigalupi is a Theodore Sturgeon Award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer from Colorado. His fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Asimov's Science Fiction, and the environmental journal High Country News. His non-fiction essays have appeared in Salon.com and High Country News, and have been syndicated into numerous western newspapers including the Idaho Statesman, the Albuquerque Journal, and the Salt Lake Tribune. He was a webmaster for High Country News starting in 2003. He is currently working on a novel in his home state of Colorado, where he lives with his wife and son.
His short fiction has recently been collected in Pump Six and Other Stories (Night Shade Books, 2008). His debut novel The Windup Girl will be released by Night Shade Books in September 2009.
作者似乎在学中文噢，更多八卦请移步：http://www.douban.com/group/topic/2568730/
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发表于 2009-7-9 06:22
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发表于 2009-9-30 03:35
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