Elsewheres & Otherwises

A few things from places other than here:

First and foremost, Strange Horizons has posted the first half of something I've been working on for months: A Symposium on Speculative Poetry I conducted between Mike Allen, Alan DeNiro, and Theodora Goss. I was thrilled with the thoughtfulness of the conversation between Mike, Alan, and Theodora, three people who are tremendously knowledgeable and have marvelously different perspectives on poetry.

Also this week is another of my monthly columns at SH, this one a rambling meditation on apocalyptic inclinations.

Elsewhere on the web, the new SF Site has been posted, including a review I wrote of recent issues of The Third Alternative and Interzone. This edition of SF Site has the regular set of reviews and news, plus a new feature that will be fun to watch called "Close to the Heart", wherein reviewers write about SF books that were an early inspiration to them. The first column is by Nathan Brazil, about Genesis by W.A. Harbinson.

And at another elsewhere: Paula Guran offers a comprehensive response to Locus's policy on reviewing and counting any books produced through Print on Demand technology. There's still a lot of confusion out there about how POD is used, and it's nice to see that some people are combatting the misperceptions, because publishers such as Wildside and their imprints have shown that POD can be used to keep a lot of books in print and can allow publishers the opportunity to take a risk on innovative writers.

Yes, lots of POD books are unedited vanity press publications. But the technology itself doesn't only work for vanity presses. And not all vanity press publications are horrible. Indeed, there's even a blog devoted to finding the pearls in the manure pile of POD self-publishing. A noble cause, it seems to me. (Please don't use this as an excuse to send me your book. I still like editors, because I'm just one person and can only read and review so much.)

Update: John Clute has offered some concerns about POD at his message board. (via Cheryl)

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