Endicott Redux

Senses Five Press and Sybil's Garage

While attending Wiscon, Terri and I were introduced to a few new (well, new to us!) writers, editors, and artists -- incredibly talented and creative people working in contemporary urban fantasy and speculative fiction. The world of small press and interactive webzines has just exploded, and what a rich world it is. Over the next few days, I will be introducing the editors, small presses, and online projects that caught our eye.

Matthew Kressel is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Senses Five Press, which publishes Sybil's Garage, a unique small press magazine of speculative fiction, poetry, and art. The current issue contains "brooding, intelligent, heart-stopping fiction from veteran masters such as Steve Rasnic Tem and Rick Bowes, trips into the bizarre from Leah Bobet and Ekaterina Sedia, haunted dreams and disturbed visions by Cat Rambo and Barbara Krasnoff, and much more. Poems by masters of the craft Bruce Boston, JoSelle Vanderhooft, Aurelio Rico Lopez III and others delight, amuse, disturb. Interviews with Jeffrey Ford & Stephen H. Segal." The journal is handsomely illustrated and provides suggested musical accompaniment for each title.

In addition to Sybil's Garage, Senses Five Press also has a new anthology of contemporary urban fantasy coming out this November. We will of course review it closer to its publication date, but I wanted to alert our readers to what promises to be a stellar anthology of innovative fantasy. Paper Cities, An Anthology of Urban Fantasy is edited by Ekaterina Sedia and contains "original fiction from Forrest Aguirre, Barth Anderson, Steve Berman, Darin Bradley, Stephanie Campisi, Hal Duncan, Mike Jasper, Vylar Kaftan, Jay Lake, Paul Meloy, Richard Parks, Ben Peek, Cat Rambo, Jenn Reese, David Schwartz, Cat Sparks, Anna Tambour, Mark Teppo, Catherynne M. Valente, Greg van Eekhout, and Kaaren Warren." And to celebrate the upcoming anthology, Senses Five Press has made Catherynne Valente's dense and wonderfully strange "Palimpsest" available online.

Cassandra Clare: City of Bones

Oh boy, the legacy of 80s urban fantasy has returned and is thriving in City of Bones, a splendid new novel from Cassandra Clare. The novel features a young woman, Clary, who is about to learn that the NYC that she thought she knew has a second, hidden world existing secretly around it. Clary witnesses three teens apparently murder another teen -- but the body disappears, swallowed in a black shadow. The three teens, it turns out, are Shadowhunters (an ancient race of human and angel) who hunt the renegade demons, vampires, and werewolves of the underworld. But the fact that Clary can see them suggests that she too is something more than just a "mundie" (a mundane human).

The plot quickly thickens like good broth as Clary's mother Jocelyn disappears -- either kidnapped, or on the run. Clary learns that Jocelyn has her own secret history with the Shadowhunters, including knowing the whereabouts of the "Mortal Cup" -- a powerful, magical cup used to turn humans into Shadowhunters. A renegade Shadowhunter is searching for the cup to create his own army with which to eliminate any nonhumans -- including even benevolent werewolves, vampires, and demons. (The story develops an interesting subtext on issues of racism and fear of "otherness.") Clary must quickly adjust to these events -- re-learn who she is, develop skills as a Shadowhunter, and find the cup to keep it safe.

This novel is so much fun to read! Fast-paced, funny, dark, and exciting. Clare has dipped her pen in the deep resources of fairy lore and epic tales, and has her ear well tuned to the teenage voice. The plot is tight, twisting, and full of surprises. City of Bones is the first of a series -- The Mortal Instruments -- and it promises great things to come. Do check out the Mortal Instruments website -- it's fabulous, filled with extras, news, art, and updates on the series.

New Spring 2007 Issue online!

The Endicott Studio's Spring Issue of the Journal of Mythic Arts is now online! This 20th Anniversary issue celebrates Fairy Tales -- mixing older essays that have been expanded, updated, and re-designed with new illustrations, with new pieces such as an article from Terri on the Rapunzel fairy tale. In Fiction, we are pleased to present a haunting story from best-selling author Karen Joy Fowler based on the Pied Piper of Hamelin, along with newcomer (and recent high school graduate) Jessie Roy's wry take on the Sleeping Beauty tale. From the Archives, we also offer Jane Yolen's gorgeous Godmother Death and Kim Antieau's contemporary Briar Rose.

We are especially pleased to represent a collection of new poems -- each one based on a different fairy tale -- from poet Jeannine Hall Gailey. If you love her work as much as we do, then check out her recently published Becoming the Villainess, where you'll find poems on topics that range from myth and fairy tales to Buffy and Wonder Woman.

In the Writing Room, there are reflections by several authors on the influence of fairy tales in contemporary literature. In the Gallery, we look at the glorious art and tragic life of Golden Age fairy tale illustrator Kay Nielsen, alongside an historical survey of women fairy tale artists from the Gallery Archives. The Crossroads reprises Howard Gayton's journal of creating children's fairy tale theatre with drama students in Portugal, and a hilarious personal memoir by photographer James Graham of growing up viewing Baba Yaga in Russian propaganda films of the 1950s.

The art above is "Crumbs" by Jeanie Tomanek (an Endicott Studio favorite!) and the art below is an illustration from Walter Crane's "Sleeping Beauty."

We hope you enjoy it!

Wiscon Weekend: Time to Celebrate!

Midori and I and lots of other Endicott folks are on our way to Wiscon, which starts tomorrow and ends on Monday. (We'll be hosting a 20th anniversary party there, among other things.) So our blog coverage may be spotty for several days while we're all away from home, and while I'm in transit afterwards from the U.S. back to England. Please bear with us...we'll be back to a normal schedule by the end of next week.

The picture above is a preview of the new Endicott 20th Anniversary print, which we'll be selling at Wiscon to raise money for the Journal of Mythic Arts and our children's charities. It will also be available by mail order on the Endicott site at the beginning of June, along with three other new prints. We'll post the news here when they go online.

Through the Cobweb Forest: Chapter Seven

Are you hooked like me on Through the Cobweb Forest, my favorite flash animated story of a woman on a journey through a mysterious forest? Artist Connie Toebe and author Lisa Stock now have chapter seven up and it's gorgeous. What's more, this dynamic duo is joined by British musician plinth, who has created unique soundscapes that perfectly match Connie's surreal-Victorian landscapes. His work will be featured on the next few chapters, so be sure to have your speakers turned up as it is really special.

Women and violence...

Despite having worked in publishing for two and a half decades now, I have to admit that when it comes to Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I turn into into a teenage fan girl. Buffy, during its best seasons, was ground-breaking, mythic, hilarious, and contained some of the best writing and character development I've ever seen come out of Hollywood. (Okay, for us New-York-is-the-center-of-the-universe literary types, that might sound like faint praise indeed...but writers like Joss Whedon, Aaron Sorkin and David Chase have managed to convince me that television writing can equal the art of novel writing at its best.)

Buffy is a show that I dearly wish had been around when I was a teenager, and I envy all the young girls (and young men) who have grown up with its heroine and her friends as archetypes. As if that wasn't reason enough to love Joss Whedon, please read his recent blog entry on women and violence on the Whedonesque website. (With thanks to Emma Bull for the link.) It's utterly spot-on: both heartbreaking and a rousing call to action. Bless you, Mr. Whedon.    

And if you want to know more about what you can do about violence against women and girls around the world, go here.

Speaking of Buffy, Will Shetterly wrote a thoughtful essay a couple of years ago reflecting on what one can learn about writing the series -- from both its triumphs and its failures. You can find the essay, "The Buffy Lessons: Learning from the Dead" on the Qwerty Ranch blog. (If you haven't yet watched all seven years of the series yet, however, don't read the essay, for it's full of spoilers.)

The Sunday Poem

Our Sunday Poem today is by a poet that Midori and I both love: Gloria Fuertes. "Now" is a poem about metamorphosis and the month of May, translated from the Spanish by Brian Barker and published on the Words Without Borders website. Gloria Fuertes (1918 - 1998) was one of the finest Spanish poets of the 20th century. She published 15 collections of poetry, as well as 34 children's books. She lived in Madrid.

The art above is by Colette Calascione, who hails from San Francisco. Her absolutely stunning paintings can be found on her website and MySpace page. I highly encourage you to go take a look, for her work is truly enchanting.

Ojos de Brujo: Sultana de Merkaillo

Ojos de Brujo is a fantastic band from Spain that digs deep into the roots of gypsy and flamenco music and pairs it with Cuban drums and Senegalese hip-hop. The result is a vibrant sound that will get you out of your seat and dancing. The name "Ojos de Brujo" translates as  "Eyes of the Wizard." Percussionist Xavi Turull explains: "We chose this because we think of wizards, witches, and sorcerers as the people who have more vision than the rest of the population. They are more aware of what is going on in this screwed-up world. And we think that music – and every other art form – should be trying to help make the world become more conscious and aware. Also, 'brujo' is a word strongly connected to flamenco. Gypsies have always had their witches and wizards protecting them."

Check out their video for the song "Sultana de Merkaillo," which is from their new CD, Techarí (which means "free"). Along with the regular band members, the song showcases its collaboration with musicians from around the world: Faada Freddy from Senegal, Asian Dub Foundation's Prithpal Rajput, and Nitin Sawhney, South Indian fusion artist. Cuban pianist Roberto Carcassés joins respected flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela and Cuban très/flamenco guitar player Raúl Rodríguez from Son de la Frontera. This is music that moves!

Catherynne Valente: The Orphan's Tales

In Vol. One of The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden, Catherynne M. Valente has proven herself a prodigious successor to that other heroic storyteller, Shah’razad. This gorgeous novel of intricately interwoven stories delights and enchants with its innovation and seemingly-endless source of imagination. The orphan, the novel’s primary storyteller, is a feral child who secretly inhabits the lush palace gardens. Her smudged eyes are ringed with miniscule tattooed words, the “printed” source of her tales. A young prince, drawn by the girl's soft voice, becomes a rapt audience of one, captivated, terrified, and thrilled (just as we are) by the magical power of the girl’s stories.

In a textured, baroque writing style, Valente gives us familiar tales from around the world, but twists them into new, unexpected shapes that challenge what we assume about heroes and heroines, about rites of passage, and about women and men. In these richly populated worlds of fabulous desert cities, forests and jagged mountains, there are pirate saints, dog-headed monks, bears who transform themselves into men, and girls who shape-shift into swans. There is an oracle who speaks from a secret mouth in her abdomen, griffins and satyrs, and a necromancer who traffics in bodies that provide buyers with the opportunity to experience life in new shapes.

With book in hand, we at least have an advantage over the young prince, who must wait until evening to hear the stories strung together over many nights. I found it almost impossible to stop reading once in the grip of the orphan's tales. My disappointment in finishing the novel was happily allayed by the fact that one can now pre-order Vol. II, The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice (due out October, 2007). Both books, it should be noted, are beautifully illustrated by Michael Kaluta.

Sad news

Lloyd Alexander died today, at the age of 83. He died at home (where he had been receiving Hospice care), just two weeks after the death of his wife Janine, to whom he'd been married for sixty-two years. The couple had met in Paris at the end of World War II, and had settled in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania.

Lloyd was the author of some of the finest children's fantasy novels of the 20th century -- including the much-loved The Chronicles of Prydain series. "My parents were horrified when I told them I wanted to be an author," he once admitted. "I was fifteen, in my last year of high school. My family pleaded with me to forget literature and do something sensible, such as find some sort of useful work." He went on to write over thirty books for children and adults, winning the prestigious Newbery Medal, the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, and many other awards and honors. He was a tireless advocate for children's literature, a great fan of folklore and mythology, a writer generous with his time to his legion of young (and not-so-young) fans, and one of the nicest men I've ever met.

In an article on fantasy for the Children's Book Council, Lloyd wrote: "The best fantasy it seems to me, is permanently relevant. Because it deals metaphorically with basic human situations, it always has something to say to us. Also, I think that fantasy offers a certain vividness and high spiritedness unique to itself. We shouldn't underestimate the value of sheer fun, delight, and excitement. In any art, boredom is not a virtue. Dealing with the impossible, fantasy can show us what may be really possible. If there is grief, there is the possibility of consolation; if hurt, the possibility of healing; and above all, the curative power of hope. If fantasy speaks to us as we are, it also speaks to us as we might be." (Read the full article here.)

His final book, The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio, will be published by Holt in August. It has been reported that Lloyd's comment on the novel was: "I have finished my life's work."