Category: Science Fiction

Context

Posted on July 6, 2010July 6, 2010 By Mark Tiedemann

Well, well, it seems I’ll be doing three conventions this year.Â I’d planned originally on one, but then I found out about MadCon 2010, in Madison, Wisconsin, which is ostensibly Harlan Ellison’s last convention.Â He claims.Â Not that I’m inclined to disbelieve him, but…

I’ve been asked to participate in programming at Context 23 in Columbus, Ohio.Â I’ve heard many good things about this convention and some friends have been pestering me to attend for a long time.Â I’ve been reluctant to do conventions that cost me anything out of pocket unless something really special is going on, because, well, I don’t have a book coming out or anything else to promote.Â …

A Few More Memories

Posted on June 27, 2010August 6, 2011 By Mark Tiedemann

I thought I’d post a handful of photographs from Clarion ’88.Â Just a few.Â The temptation to try to do humorous captions is great, but I decided to simply be informative.Â Enjoy.

The entrance to Owen Hall, the dorm building

Van Hoosen, where the workshops were conducted

Tim Powers, our first week writer-in-residence, in session

Pizza with Powers

Daryl Gregory, doing his Tim Powers “I Got No Story” Clarion Blues

Kelley Eskridge arrived already injured, with sprained ankle, but as optimistic as the rest of us

One of many outdoor meals held in the courtyard of Van Hoosen.Â Lisa Goldstein, second week instructor, is in the midst of students here

One of the other eateries in East Lansing frequented by Clarionites

Chip Delany, third week instructor

Nicola Griffith

Andy Tisbert, Me (attempting inscrutability), and Kimberly Rufer-Bach during a workshop

Kate Wilhelm, Kim Stanley Robinson (fourth week instructor), and Damon Knight.Â …

Clarion

Posted on June 25, 2010August 6, 2011 By Mark Tiedemann

Tomorrow, June 26th, is the 22nd anniversary of my arrival at the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Workshop, on the campus of Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.Â The following piece was written for an anthology about Clarion several years ago, one which firstly did not take the essay and secondly seems not to have appeared at all.Â Be that as it may, I’ve decided to post it here.Â Enjoy.

And to all my fellow Clarionites, Happy Anniversary.

Baked Grass and Surgical Evisceration

The room could double for a steambath late into the night.Â When we arrived—seventeen of us from Maine to California, plus one from England—the weather was the last thing on our minds.Â …

Resume du jour

Posted on June 1, 2010 By Mark Tiedemann

It’s June.Â A smidgen over a year ago (May 29th, 2009) Advance Photographics closed its doors and I have been unemployed since.

In that time I have written half of the sequel to my alternate history novel, Orleans, and a complete new novel, a murder mystery calledÂ The Drowned Doll.Â I’ve written blog posts for both here and Dangerous Intersection and occasionally for my MySpace page (which is getting more and more neglected in favor of Facebook, through which I can stream this blog).Â I wrote book reviews for a good chunk of 2009 until two of my review outlets basically dried up and went away.…

Zelazny and the Perils of Reading at a Young Age

Posted on May 3, 2010May 3, 2010 By Mark Tiedemann

Recently I started reading Roger Zelazny’sÂ Amber series.Â I’ve been hearing about this for decades, how great it is, and till now it’s one of the few things of Zelazny’s that I’ve resisted reading.

See, it’s pretty much fantasy, in form if not conceit.Â I can see a way to describe the world he created here in quantum mechanical terms and render it SF, but frankly it’s a typical sword and sibling fantasy.Â Genealogy and combat.

But it’s Zelazny, so while reading it one is having a good time.Â He was always dependable that way, he was never dull.Â This, however, is not his major work.…

Reading Lists

Posted on April 19, 2010April 21, 2010 By Mark Tiedemann

I started keeping lists of the books I’d read when I was fifteen.Â I don’t know how many people used to do this, it may be a habit peculiar to myself, but the list has come to comprise a catalogue of sorts as time has passed and hundreds of titles become thousands and memory runs into itself.Â I stopped doing this between eighteen and twenty-three for reasons forgotten and probably never very clear.Â Now, of course, there are reading list websites, like Shelfari and Goodreads, so I suppose it’s more common than I once imagined.

That first list, though, held surprises, one in particular that has become part of an on-going internal debate.Â …

Outgrowing Illusions

Posted on April 15, 2010April 15, 2010 By Mark Tiedemann

I met my first real live, honest-to-goodness science fiction writer when I was twelve.Â It was a sobering experience.Â Several illusions dissipated in a cloud of reality and it has contoured my thinking about writers in general ever since—unjustly, since the illusions banished had really little to do with writing.

Children tend to take things at face value, approaching life with a literalness that is too often confused with naivete.Â Perhaps this is due to the way in which a child’s expectations—often of the most sophisticated construction, like fiction—collide so painfully with reality.

Whatever the cause, I went to Carpenter Branch Public Library with a head full of expectations, most of which were based with tortuous logic on the artifacts singularly important to me up to that point—television and books.Â …

Beginnings of a Lifelong (Addiction) Love

Posted on April 7, 2010 By Mark Tiedemann

When I became infected by literary influenza (a longterm, chronic condition treatable
by a steady diet of words) I had four sources of books.Â The library, of course, both the one at school and the public one; the books my mother had bought through the Doubleday Book Club and had stored in boxes in the basement; the Scholastic Book Club at school; and Leukens’ Pharmacy around the corner from my house.

At first my reading tended to be omnivorous, with strong leanings toward books upon
which favorite films had been based.Â But these weren’t that easily obtainable then.Â Jules
Verne and H.G.…

Remains Still Available

Posted on March 23, 2010 By Mark Tiedemann

A couple days ago I received my royalty statement on my last novel, Remains.Â There are still copies available and if you go directly to the publisher’s site here you can pick one up at a discount.

One of the things I’ve gotten very little of is feedback on my work.Â At conventions I’ve spoken to readers about one or another, but aside from the Robot novels, very few people have let me know how they felt about either the Secantis books or this one.

I’m still looking for a new publisher for my work and at present feel pretty cut off.Â …

Kage Baker, A Fine Writer, Gone

Posted on January 31, 2010 By Mark Tiedemann

Following upon the previous post, Kage Baker has passed away.

A few years back she was guest of honor at ConQuest, in Kansas City.Â Here in St. Louis some folks at the public library contacted me to see if I could get her to come here to do a presentation.Â In my office at the time as president of the Missouri Center for the Book I made inquiries, set up a venue, and actually made arrangements.Â A couple of local fans who were at the Kansas City convention volunteered to drive Kage and her sister to St. Louis.Â They said they had a marvelous time with her and were pleased to take Kage around the city on tour.…