Still the Echoes of Writer Past

I too have received my contributor copy of The Year's Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2010. Very nice package. Oddly tactile, the cover has this peculiar waxy feel to it, I can't stop stroking the damn thing.

Among the ToC 'Acception' is lurking (page 141-170 to be precise). It's the scoundrel among fine company. I do not know if there are still copies of Baggage available at Eneit Press, that dear book is rarer than hen's teeth now. The Year's Best is however fresh from the egg, and available for purchase from amazon and indie books.

I never mentioned receiving my Ditmar Nominee's pin, did I? A neat little thing bearing the Southern Cross. It's arrival confused me; I should be proud, should I not? Every achievement is something to celebrate, crawling and clawing my way up this molehill.

But I am not a writer.

Remember 'The Mona Lisa'? That little ditty Jeff VanderMeer and I wrote for Halo: Evolutions. And remember how they were animating it? It's done. All 11 episodes and the full story arc are out, and some awesome being in France has knit them together into the full film, 1 hour and 3 minutes of WHOA.



Again, Pyramid and One have done some superb work. The Flood are genuinely creepy and [spoiler spoiler spoiler] when [spoiler spoiler omg so much spoiler] was just EEEEK.

My favourite bit? This bit.



Benti & Henry. BFF.

ICECREAM [redacted]

Part III of The Mona Lisa!



WHOA.

We're now into new territory, stuff that neither Jeff nor I have seen before. AND WHOA. EEEEEEEEEEEE. TEN. WHOLE. MINUTES. Thanks France!

(Actual blogpost coming, uh, when I am not dying of pain.)

The Mona Lisa is lining up her approach vector!

A long, long, long, long time ago, secret channels indicated to Jeff VanderMeer and I that our megasaurusodonohugearama collaboration for Halo: Evolutions, The Mona Lisa, was going to be made into a motion comic. You know, animated. Like wow.



This was officially announced at San Diego Comic Con, with a "COMING THIS FALL" slapped on the end of the video, and a more official release date given of November. November came and went, so did December, January and we're now half way through February, and we hear the slavering hordes cry, "WHERE THE HELL IS TEH MONA LISA?!"

The answer is still: on its way, with tentative hopes for the Northern Hemispherian summer.

Also: Jeff and I? Happen to have the first two episodes in entirety. What was that? We've seen the first not one but two episodes? Really? No. Really. I can rub it in if you like, just in case you have any doubts. In fact I will. How's about a couple of screenshots?







And pardon me for stating the bleeding obvious but they look OARSUM. Yeah, that's a lil' peek o' the second episode, none of which features in the teaser trailer. Introducing, Rebecca, the UNSC Red Horse's AI, and her Commander, Tobias Foucault.

The peeps at 343 are clearly awesome. I didn't think it was possible for them to get any more awesome. Surely they've broken some universal awesome limitation. Ha! LIMIT BREAK! We've specifically been told the later action sequences are hot, and that they can't wait for us to see Henry and Rimmer.

Henry FTW!

Pyramid have also done a gorgeous job with the voice acting, effects and music. Seriously gorgeous voices happening in there (I luuuuv Mama Lopez's growl!), and well matched by One's gorgeous artwork.

Dudes? This is going to rock like an asteroid.

The Mona Lisa is Moving Pictures

As announced at San Diego Comic Con on the Halo Universe Panel, The Mona Lisa is being animated. The stop motion comic will be released in parts on the Halo Waypoint channel on Xbox Live.

My partner in crime Jeff VanderMeer shot me an email to draw my attention to the clip. The subject of said email was a line that, much to my dismay, was cut from the story. I shall now take this opportunity to resurrect this line of dialogue.

"Fucking fuck fuck!"

I just about peed my pants.



Dude. Dude. Dude. Dude. Dude. Dude. DudedudedudedudeDUDE. They all look way more badass than I picture them.

(Cannot wait to see Henry in action.)

Blow, blow damn you!

• Halo: Evolutions has been spied out in the wild of Australia. By me. I stared at it a bit, checked that yes, the behemoth Story of Doom was still in there and it wasn't some fabrication of my ever treacherous subconscious, and tried to work up some sense of...accomplishment? Satisfaction? True is, it doesn't feel real. The publishing end of this whole writer gig may never feel real. Jeff is probably some spectral figment I conjured up just to flesh out the delusion.
• Speaking of Mr VanderMeer, his novel Finch has made the Nebula Awards Final Ballot. Not bad for a figment.
• Speaking of VanderMeers in general, Amazingly Awesome Audacious Ann has been promoted to Editor In Chief at Weird Tales. Far too brilliant to be a figment, I have to say.
• Speaking of brilliance and weird and stories, the exceedingly eloquent Madame Bishop has a story currently online at Subterranean; The Heart of a Mouse. She's a writer who teases her readers, putting out a story here, a story there, and making us wait so. And it is always worth the wait.
• Speaking of putting out stories, I am not. I realised that once the other leviathan is released in April, I will have nothing 'forthcoming'. I feel I should bash something short into shape to release into the wild, but, I am not so flexible. I cannot work on more than one thing at a time, and my novel, poor old potato.
• Speaking of potatoes, I was snapshotted. Because this blog is not soap box enough.
• Speaking of enough-
  

Halo: Evolutions - ...they don't list an editor?

buy

The Deal: At this point in time, due to an RSI, I can only type for 10 minutes at a time. What you see below is what is hammered out before the timer goes off- and nothing more.

What is protocol when writing about books you're in? I suppose, since this is my blog, I can do what I like. But...er. I dunno. Sits funny with me. I didn't intend to touch the book at all, to be honest, as I'd read our story so many times in such a short space, but when it turned up on the door step, and was sitting there looking all pretty and stuff...well. You know how it goes, when you're alone with a book and no one else is around. Things just...happen.

And I think I've decided I'm not comfortable commenting on the merit of a project I had a hand in. Conflict of interest, too many disclaimers and contexts to provide and only 10 minutes.

I've been sitting here much longer than 10 minutes trying to convince myself to just pretend our collaboration doesn't exist for a moment and talk about the other stories, and dude, I can't do it! WTF. But the reader in me is getting MIGHTY shirty about not getting her say.

Okay, special mention goes to 'The Impossible Life and Possible Death of Preston J. Cole' by Eric Nylund, a delicious little folder of bits and pieces of evidence put forth regarding the near legendary Cole. It does some very interesting things.

Writer, satisfied? Reader, satisfied? Good, now shush.

Ding!

While I was Not Typing my writerly achievements went up a couple of levels. Here is my horn. Lo! I blow it!

Last Drink Bird Head

The flash fiction anthology edited by VanderMeer Inc with SJ Chambers riding shotgun was launched at this year's World Fantasy. Some 20+ of the 70+ contributors were present, the 'Bird of Paradise' cocktail was most delicious, and there was cake. There, I had the slightly disconcerting experience of being recognised despite some covert attempts at stealth.



(The wind-up Pukeko is totally checking out that bird's pins.)

It is a beautiful book. Without a doubt the prettiest book I've had the honour of sneaking aboard. That sumptuous dust jacket hides an elegant embossing on the cover, and dude, Dude, DUDE, DUDE IT IS A FLIP BOOK. Get your hands on a copy an flip the bottom corner of the book. Yes! How unbelievably splendiforous! That's another tick on my list of Things To Do Before Dying.

The collection of authors contained is fantastic, and the variety in the approaches taken to the theme keeps them fresh. Very fond of Ben Peek's and Drew Rhys White's pieces.

Halo: Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe

Oh frabjous day! Calloo! Callay! The behemoth collaboration that nearly killed Jeff Fucking VanderMeer and I is finally out in the wild, and now I can stop thinking about it, other than to ponder how many subtitles can a book have? I don't know that I can approve of more than one colon being present in a title.

Below, the Masterchief, Middlechief and Minichief are demonstrating exactly what I mean when I say 'behemoth'.



As a relatively under-exposed writer with little output, the thought of being read, and I mean really read by a whole lot of people who are picking up the book because they choose to and not because they know any of the contributors and certainly don't give a crap about the sensitive egos of the delicate writers responsible for the tome, the experience has been not quite the same as, yet still quite similar to, nerve torture. There's nothing more rewarding or exciting than having your little behemoth read, but holy crap it's traumatic.

At any rate, The Mona Lisa appears to be largely well received. Phew? Phew. (I have no idea how Jeff does this.)

Excuse me a moment to have a not-so-little and self-indulgent squee: I mentioned in passing that one character, Henry, was a hill I was prepared to die on, 'cause dammit Henry is awesome and no editors or canon-police were going to get in the way of that awesome.

And he is awesome. In fact, he is so awesome that someone made him his very own page on the Halo Wikipedia.

AWWWWWWWWWWW!

(Which unfortunately spoils the entire plot, so if you intend to read the story, don't click that link.)

Cricket bat FTW!

Halo: Evolutions Author List

Also known as: zomg, it's real.



From Kokatu, Who's Who in Halo: Evolutions

The only books I love more than video game novels that explore untold back-story is anthologies of stories that do the same thing. Makes for an extremely bathroom-friendly read. Check out the full list of contributors below, along with a nice shot of the book's cover, so you know what to look for.

TOBIAS S. BUCKELL, the New York Times bestselling author of HALO: The Cole Protocol and Sly Mongoose.

B.K. EVENSON, the Edgar and Horror Guild International nominated author of Last Days and The Open Curtain.

JONATHAN GOFF, writer and artist with 343 Industries.

KEVIN GRACE, writer and Managing Editor of 343 Industries.

ROBT McLEES, Bungie game developer and writer on Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2 and Halo 3, as well as the upcoming Halo: Reach.

ERIC NYLUND, the New York Times bestselling author of Halo: The Fall of Reach and Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, and most recently a new non-Halo series that begins with Mortal Coils.

FRANK O'CONNOR, the Franchise Director for Halo at 343 Industries.

ERIC RAAB, writer, and Tor editor of the Halo novels since 2004.

KAREN TRAVISS, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of her own Wess'har series as well as Star Wars and Gears of War novels.

JEFF VANDERMEER & TESSA KUM: Vandermeer is the World Fantasy award-winning writer of City of Saints and Madman as well as Shriek: An Afterword and Finch. Kum is the author of 7wishes and editor for Weird Tales and the Best American Fantasy series.

FRED VAN LENTE, the New York Times bestselling author of Incredible Hercules (with Greg Pak) and Marvel Zombies 3, as well as Cowboys and Aliens and the upcoming Marvel comic series Halo: Blood Line.

"Bathroom-friendly". Don't think I've come across a more appropriate anthology descriptor. I love it. Heee.

I'd like to point out that I am not an editor for either Weird Tales or Best American Fantasy. I am merely a humble editorial assistant to the mighty Ann VanderMeer. And that Jeff fella.

That Jeff fella in question posted regarding the finer points of name order in collaborations, and what he says is true, which includes the fact that it was a 50-50 effort. So, purely because it'll irk him, I won't switch the name order here, even if it is changed in future print runs of the book. Also because I just can't. I'm physically incapable of reversing the order. My audacity isn't a high enough level.

Preorder here. Is it sad to admit I'm rather looking forward to reading it? There're some fine, fine writers in that list. Although I think it is fair (and entirely irrelevant) to say that I have the greatest surname of the lot.