Jeremy Zimmerman/Dawn Vogel Anthology: I Didn't Break the Lamp

Here's another fundraiser for a new anthology (with an ensuing call for submissions) about imaginary friends.

Last I looked, they were over 2/3s to their goal, but the Kickstarter is winding down.

Everything Dawn Vogel and Jeremy Zimmerman have done so far -- five anthologies and an online magazine that has running for seven years has a fun edge and a playful sensibility that lights up their journal, not to mention their fine cover art and illustrations.

Give them a look.

Review: Kensei by Jeremy Zimmerman

Kensei
by Jeremy Zimmerman
DefCon One Publishing

Kensei is Jeremy Zimmerman's first novel. It's a young adult superhero novel with relatively few missteps. Readers fond of Gwenda Bond's Lois Lane series, will find a similar delight in these pages.

Jamie Hattori (aka Kensei, her superhero name) has just begun her journey as a superhero. She knows martial arts, wields a katana, and can speak to the spirits that haunt and protect buildings, cars, and objects like light bulbs.

On the one hand, her father supports this venture. Her mother, though, does not. It becomes the center of the family's discord--a center full of its own secrets.

Meanwhile, a mystery person has a rumor-mongering blog that not only stirs up strife at school but is also cursed. Victims receive strange apples. The blog gets Jamie into trouble when an athlete is ridiculed online--a slander attributed to Jamie. Jamie is determined to track down and stop whoever is at the bottom of this.

Her sleuthing leads creating new friends, unlikely allies ("frenemies") and even a new love interest, who may or may not be involved in this website.

On first encountering Zimmerman's work, one recognizes his smooth writing style--one that invites many readers in. It doesn't surprise me that so many readers have given the novel five star ratings on Amazon. It is a popular style that takes verbal shortcuts that welcomes with familiarity. A more literary reader might complain about, say, "She snorted with amusement." But it does capture a common response in few words. Not everything need be shown.

Zimmerman's plotting is deftly handled. Readers are sucked in with proper pacing--involving but without the paradoxical snoozing nonstop, break-neck pace. The characters are interesting, realistic teenagers without the need to be annoyingly "teen" (a trap for some YA characters). The speculative aspects, while fascinating, aren't fully explored. The major finale has a less credible moment, but it doesn't mar the overall charm of the novel, likely to draw a number of readers who stumble across this little gem.

A second title in the series, Kensei, The Love of Danger, has also recently appeared. If enough readers speak out about their love of his work, Zimmerman should build a loyal legion of followers, eager to read more.

Note: Some characters are gay, which may deter some readers while interesting others.

New, reduced and forthcoming ebook lunches

Crossing the Streams: Genre Crossing Tales 
by Jeremy Zimmerman 
$0.99

The Character Naming Sourcebook 
by Sherrilyn Kenyon 
$1.99 

The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the Middle Ages: 
The British Isles From 500-1500 
by Sherrilyn Kenyon 
$1.99 

The Time-Swept City 
by Thomas F. Monteleone 
$3.99 

Among the Stars 
by G David Nordley 
$3.99 

Aliens: Recent Encounters
Editor: Alex Dally MacFarlane
Authors: Elizabeth Bear, Nancy Kress, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Ursula K. Le Guin 
$6.99 

The Godwhale 
by T. J. Bass 
$6.99

Forthcoming:
Kane series by Karl Edward Wagner
$3.79

1. The Book of Kane
2. Death Angel's Shadow

Writer News and Social Media

I have two humorous short shorts forthcoming in the spring issue of Dawn Vogel and Jeremy Zimmerman's Mad Scientist Journal, which are prequels to the story I wrote for them last year, "Monsters of the Id".  Eventually the series may grow into a novella or novel.

Also forthcoming is a speculative poem in David Kopaska-Merkel's Dreams & Nightmares.

Writers are caught in a curious trap:  They're told, on the one hand, to self-promote.  On the other, if they self-promote, it's self-aggrandizing. Ploughshares posted a humorous piece about Facebook folks for whom it appears it's all about ego-stroking.

Let's skip to the subtext.  I don't often post about my own writing.  The blog didn't even have my name on it until last year, so this is not self-defense but a defense of other writers with much to announce. It's curious that the article's complaints are only things writers would care and grow jealous about. Regular folks will think "I ain't never heard of that writer dude, so he must be a nobody."

Most writers are human beings, and human beings need validation. Why do people post videos and pictures of their kids?  "Behold:  My kid walks!  Isn't my kid the awesomest ever!"  (And you respond, "Who'da thunk a kid of yours could ever walk?"  or possibly, "It's alive!  Alive!")

Celebrate life's triumphs, big and small. (I probably will throw in the joke on your status, after celebrating.)

Some folks need more validation than others, which isn't to say that some overdo it. But who cares? Are any of us card-carrying officers in the morality police? Either celebrate with people or unfriend them. Jealousy will eat you up.

In terms of etiquette--not that there is any or should be--if you wanted to be safe, you could build up your news over the week.  But news tends to come in waves, with peaks and troughs--troughs that could last months or more--so this is not a prescription.

Support

That Ain't Right - A Lovecraft Themed Anthology by Jeremy Zimmerman

• "Cthulhu Mythos tales from the people of the Miskatonic Valley."
• Update: Funded. They're approaching semi-pro level payment

Jamais Vu: Raising the Profile by Eric Beebe - Post Mortem Press

• "Help attract BIG name authors to Jamais Vu so the rest of the authors receive well deserved attention."
• May get funded. First level of support: $10 for ecopy of mag.

Dreams & Nightmares Magazine

• More than half-way to goal
• Selling tons of stuff. Including poet's own collections.
• Best deal -- get all back issues and future issues of magazine [lifetime subscription] for $25

Lady of Misrule: A Marla Mason Novel by Tim Pratt

Fundraisers

• Crowd-Funding for Dreams & Nightmares Magazine

half-way to goal

• Unidentified Funny Objects 3 - Annual Anthology of Humor SFF by Alex Shvartsman

hours to go and shy of funding.

• That Ain't Right - A Lovecraftian Anthology by Jeremy Zimmerman

may reach stretch goals

Free Robert Reed ebook, Submit and/or Support Mad Scientist Journal

SF Signal gives you a chance to win Robert Reed's new ebook, The Great Ship.

Dawn Vogel and Jeremy Zimmerman's Mad Scientist Journal has a special call for submissions:  Basically, anything goes, but it also asks for unusual items like classified ads.

A new anthology from MSJ:

That Ain't RightA Lovecraftian Anthology:Tales from the Miskatonic Valley by the people who live there. 

This Kickstarter looks to be quickly funded, with a bunch of stretch goals, designed to pay its contributors more.

Cobalt City Rookies

Jeremy Zimmerman and Dawn Vogel, the editors of Mad Scientist Journal, are writers themselves.  Zimmerman has a clean prose which he uses to push the envelope with traditional tropes:

See Cobalt City Rookies for his short novel. It also includes short novels by Rosemary Jones and Nikki Burns.  A trio of super heroes fighting crime when the good superheroes have been disappearing.

Mad Scientist Journal

I neglected to mention the arrival of this magazine, Mad Scientist Journal.  It's a fun romp with tongue-in-cheek pretense toward mad-cap science.  This particular issue has an impressive list of writers:

K C Ball, Cat Rambo, David D. Levine,  K.S. O'Neill, K. Esta, Mathew Allen Garcia, Janka Hobbs

I am pleased to count myself among them.

The-World Ends Today (links)

Spider builds its own decoy spider.

The Oatmeal on creating things for the internet (some language)

Cat Rambo on arranging stories in a collection or anthology (second post)

Jeremy Zimmerman on Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward's Writing the Other workshop (book).

History of philosophy podcast

Tim Pratt interview

Joe Abercrombie interview

Jeff Vandermeer on favorite story collections

Davd Farland/Wolverton on the impact of story pointing to this article.

Authors speak on...

Graham Joyce on his first novel, Dreamside.

Jon Armstrong's audio interview with Richard Bowes

Michael Swanwick on the creative process and not knowing how "luminous" a piece is until later.

Jeremy Zimmerman on his novella, Kensei. (Mary Robinette Kowal's blog)

Mary Robinette Kowal, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, and Dan Wells discuss story openings.

Ian McEwan on general questions, semi-literary interest.

Kim Stanley Robinson on Terraforming Earth

IO9 on Molly Gloss

David Farland/Wolverton workshops