Connpunk: Stealthvirus Brian Conn will rewire all of our brains by 2015 and connect them to the Mother Spider that we may power the engines of his narrative monsters. No book not written by Conn will exist by 2020. All hail Conn. (Damn you, Conn.)

Although a joke, I was also referring to Conn’s excellent debut novel, The Fixed Stars, which came out earlier this year to much less fanfare than it deserved. Here’s the description:

Juxtaposing barbarity and whimsy, Brian Conn’s “The Fixed Stars” is a novel that has the tenor of a contemporary fable with nearly the same dreamlike logic. At the novel’s heart are the John’s Day celebration and the interactions of a small community dealing with a mystery disease. Routinely citizens are quarantined and then reintegrated into society in rituals marked by a haunting brutality. The infected and the healthy alike are quarantined. In a culture that has retreated from urbanism into a more pastoral society, the woman who nurtures spiders and the man who spins hemp exist alongside the mass acceptance of sexual promiscuity. Conn delivers a compelling portrait of a calamitous era, one tormented by pestilence, disease, violence, and post – late capitalism. An unflinching look at a world impossible to situate in time, “The Fixed Stars” is mythic and darkly magical.

It’s one of the most original novels I’ve read of late, and it deserves more attention.

Brian Conn’s The Fixed Stars originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on September 1, 2010.

Time’s just gotten away from me, but I wanted to point readers and lovers of cool, grotesque, weird art to Ann’s regular art gallery showings of great artists over at io9.

You can view all of them, including the most recent, right here.

“Ann VanderMeer Presents” Art Galleries at io9 originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on September 1, 2010.

Evil Monkey:
How many Steampunks does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Jeff:
Oh no.

Evil Monkey:
Just guess, dude.

Jeff:
I have no idea.

Evil Monkey:
Two, one to change it and a second to glue unnecessary clock parts to it. (Thanks, James Burnett.)

Jeff:
Sigh.

Evil Monkey:
Now. How many New Weirdies does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Jeff:
….

Evil Monkey:
More than a dozen. You need one to put forth a manifesto about the lightbulb, another to ascribe cosmic malice to the lightbulb, a few more to argue about whether the lightbulb is indeed light issuing from a bulb, a few more to discuss the origins or non-origins of the bulb, at least one to actually do something and get a ladder to reach the bulb, and then a few more to doubt both their own proximity to the light from the bulb and then a last few to doubt that the lightbulb, even while shining, ever actually existed. A few years later, you need a bunch of others to come around to ascribe motivations to the New Weirdies who were originally loitering around the lightbulb and to create a whole new history for the event and for the idea of “lightbulb,” which some of the original attendees of the lightbulb event will deny actually ever existed, or that the event occurred. Someone will certainly suggest that the lightbulb only existed for marketing purposes. Then, maybe, at that point, you or the lightbulb will be properly screwed. In.

Jeff:
What’s your point?

Evil Monkey:
People shouldn’t be plugging in lightbulbs if they’re in literary movements!

Jeff:
What brought this on?

Evil Monkey:
You haven’t noticed bloggers poppin’ up like carnival gophers to tell peeps what they think New Weird and Steampunk are?

Jeff:
Well, I have noticed someone trying to define Steampunk every other day, that’s true.

Evil Monkey:
And generally with no clue as to what a powerful tool Google can be.

Jeff:
Now, now. I understand the urge to come at a subject without the clutter and roar of knowledge.

Evil Monkey:
Yes, your readers have gotten used to that.

Jeff:
I’m gonna ignore you…but the New Weird stuff is even more perplexing. I understand the idea that movements (or, non-movements, if you like) change over time, and are re-interpreted, but why wouldn’t you check out the actual source material and a nicely concise introduction to New Weird. Disagree with it if you like, but, surely, immerse yourself in what’s out there about it first and then launch your blog posts upon a sea of fully contextualized tentacles…

Evil Monkey:
New Weird isn’t horror.

Jeff:
Blork. You’re grotesque.

Evil Monkey:
It was always just a marketing term. (How do you undercut a term? You change the wiki by randomly referencing a comment by another editor who has always been antithetical to its potentiality and never liked this kind of cross-genre experimentation.)

Jeff:
BLORK! (Wait. Why the hell would anyone with integrity start anything as just a marketing term?)

Evil Monkey:
It’s all about fantasy and horror, not SF! (They took urban fantasy away and did strange experiments on it.)

Jeff:
SF is strange, man! Always has been!

Evil Monkey:
It’s British only!

Jeff:
It’s American only!

Evil Monkey:
American doesn’t mean what you think it means! And there’s a whole world out there, moron!

Jeff:
Evil doesn’t mean what you think it means! Stop slapping me! I didn’t steal that damn banana.

Evil Monkey:
You repudiated the movement! Stop punching me in the liver! I didn’t steal your vodka.

Jeff:
I did? Did I? Actually, I did whatever the word is for repudiating something before it can even be pudiated.

Evil Monkey:
Then you put your books on a NW recommended list!

Jeff:
Huh? I did. I did! (They wanted my fiction in the book, I said no–isn’t that good enough?) I’d do it again, damn you. I don’t remember. I forgot. People change. Frog of war.

Evil Monkey:
New Weird predated New Weird. Frog of war?!

Jeff:
Never mind. I went back in a time machine through a singularity in a giant squid’s mantle. I predated it with a stamp. I stamped NEW WEIRD all over Harrison’s head while he was sleeping. He wiped it off. So I went back further and did the same thing to Peake. Then I aged ungracefully and died a curmudgeon, having taken the name Avram Davidson. Ah…here’s the time machine. I’ll be off soon.

Evil Monkey:
You were never Avram Davidson! And that’s no time machine! That’s just a huge nautilus shell that somehow crawled in here. You bastard!

Jeff:
I wasn’t *that* Davidson. I was Avram Davidson the taxidermist. I gave up fiction because I knew what was coming next.

Evil Monkey:
KJ Bishop doesn’t believe you exist.

Jeff:
Do I exist, Evil? We know you exist. But I don’t exist. Except in the past. Now get out of my way. I’m getting into that time machine, with my stamp pad.

Evil Monkey:
I can’t let you do that. We need you here, in the present, to stamp out alternative revisionist versions of history. (Only 20 people in the world are reading this by now.)

Jeff:
I won’t do it, Evil! I won’t. I won’t be chained to this term the rest of my life. I want to be free. I want to run with the deer and the coyotes and the hamsters.

Evil Monkey:
Don’t worry! You’re already branded a Steampunk. See—it’s right there, a tramp stamp. Whatever you’re running with, it’s gonna be all baroqued-up!

Jeff:
Unhand my shorts. I am not an animal!

Evil Monkey:
Step away from the time machine you loony tune.

Jeff:
You’re weirder than I am.

Evil Monkey:
But you’re newer. What do we do now?

Jeff:
It’s up to you. We can keep keeping on with this stand-off and soon the second time machine will get here. The one from the past. The one in the form of a giant beetle. The one piloted by Kafka. He’s gonna kick all of our asses and leave us for dead. He’s the original Kafkaesque. Everyone else is just a row of mirrors waiting to be shattered.

Evil Monkey:
Cheery fucker, aren’t you?

Jeff:
You should know.

Evil Monkey:
All right. Then what’re we waiting for—let’s get in that damn time machine.

Jeff:
Where to first?

Evil Monkey:
First we stop Brooks and Meyer, then we take Manhattan.

Jeff:
Weirdies, ho! (That was mean and you’re going to burn in hell.)

Evil Monkey:
Shut up. Wow. It’s bigger in there than I thought it would be, and who or what the hell is that shadowy thing standing at the end of the —–……………………………………………………
@%#%&&!!!!!!!!
……… …….. ………..
>>evil help !! help jeff<<

>> evil : jeff <<

The Weird:
*Bomp, bomp-a-roo.* Hmmm. A little stringy, a little fatty, but they’ll do. I’ll hug ‘em and love ‘em and keep ‘em close. My nue litul friends. Gotta come up with a name for them, though, some term to bind them and in the darkness keep them…This one I think I’ll just call “Weirdie” and this one’ll be “Punk.”

Evil Monkey: Steampunk and New Weird originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on August 31, 2010.

I just received a copy of The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction (Arthur B. Evans, ed.; Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., ed.; Joan Gordon, ed.; Veronica Hollinger, ed.; Rob Latham, ed.; Carol McGuirk, ed.).

It looks like a worthy enough volume, and I certainly understand that there are space constraints and other constraints that act upon editors compiling a collection of stories–if I didn’t know it before, I know it now from co-editing The Weird with my wife, Ann.

That said, here’s the selection from 1990 to the present, the last 20 years of SF:

John Kessel, “Invaders” (1990)
Gene Wolfe, “Useful Phrases” (1992)
Greg Egan, “Closer” (1992)
James Patrick Kelly, “Think Like a Dinosaur” (1995)
Geoff Ryman, “Everywhere” (1999)
Charles Stross, “Rogue Farm” (2003)
Ted Chiang, “Exhalation” (2008)

Of these, I’ve read the Chiang (awesome) and the Ryman (also quite good). I think I read the Kelly a long time ago, but don’t recall the specifics.

But I guess my point is…are these seven stories really the epitome of the last two decades of science fiction (as opposed to fantasy)? I don’t mean to call into question the quality of these selections–what I mean is, what’s missing? What else should be there? Why is there nothing between 2003 and 2008, for example? Was nothing worthy published?

These questions I open up to you, dear readers, in the context of (1) I have no stake in these proceedings, in that I can count the number of SF short stories I’ve written on one hand and (2) I find the selections from 1980 to 1989 stimulating (Misha!!!! Memory: SF Eye! Airfish!)

Anyway, what thinks thou? And here’s the full TOC:

• Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Rappaccini’s Daughter” (1844)
• Jules Verne, from Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864)
• H. G. Wells, “The Star” (1897)
• E. M. Forster, “The Machine Stops” (1909)
• Edmond Hamilton, “The Man Who Evolved” (1931)
• Leslie F. Stone, “The Conquest of Gola” (1931)
• C. L. Moore, “Shambleau” (1933)
• Stanley Weinbaum, “A Martian Odyssey” (1934)
• Isaac Asimov, “Reason” (1941)
• Clifford D. Simak, “Desertion” (1944)
• Theodore Sturgeon, “Thunder and Roses” (1947)
• Judith Merril, “That Only a Mother” (1948)
• Fritz Leiber, “Coming Attraction” (1950)
• Ray Bradbury, “There Will Come Soft Rains” (1950)
• Arthur C. Clarke, “The Sentinel” (1951)
• Robert Sheckley, “Specialist” (1953)
• William Tenn, “The Liberation of Earth” (1953)
• Alfred Bester, “Fondly Fahrenheit” (1954)
• Avram Davidson, “The Golem” (1955)
• Cordwainer Smith, “The Game of Rat and Dragon” (1955)
• Robert A. Heinlein, “ ‘All You Zombies—’” (1959)
• J. G. Ballard, “The Cage of Sand” (1962)
• R. A. Lafferty, “Slow Tuesday Night” (1965)
• Harlan Ellison, “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” (1965)
• Frederik Pohl, “Day Million” (1966)
• Philip K. Dick, “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” (1966)
• Samuel R. Delany, “Aye, and Gomorrah . . .” (1967)
• Pamela Zoline, “The Heat Death of the Universe” (1967)
• Robert Silverberg, “Passengers” (1968)
• Brian Aldiss, “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long” (1969)
• Ursula K. Le Guin, “Nine Lives” (1969)
• Frank Herbert, “Seed Stock” (1970)
• Stanislaw Lem, “The Seventh Voyage,” from The Star Diaries (1971)
• Joanna Russ, “When It Changed” (1972)
• James Tiptree Jr., “And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side” (1972)
• John Varley, “Air Raid” (1977)
• Carol Emshwiller, “Abominable” (1980)
• William Gibson, “Burning Chrome” (1982)
• Octavia E. Butler, “Speech Sounds” (1983)
• Nancy Kress, “Out of All Them Bright Stars” (1985)
• Pat Cadigan, “Pretty Boy Crossover” (1986)
• Kate Wilhelm, “Forever Yours, Anna” (1987)
• Bruce Sterling, “We See Things Differently” (1989)
• Misha Nogha, “Chippoke Na Gomi” (1989)
• Eileen Gunn, “Computer Friendly” (1989)
• John Kessel, “Invaders” (1990)
• Gene Wolfe, “Useful Phrases” (1992)
• Greg Egan, “Closer” (1992)
• James Patrick Kelly, “Think Like a Dinosaur” (1995)
• Geoff Ryman, “Everywhere” (1999)
• Charles Stross, “Rogue Farm” (2003)
• Ted Chiang, “Exhalation” (2008)

The Wesleyan Antho of SF: Spotlight on 1990s–2000s originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on August 31, 2010.

Weird Tales is getting back up to speed, transitioning from Stephen Segal to Ann VanderMeer as editor-in-chief, with Mary Robinette Kowal as art director and Paula Guran heading up nonfiction. The cover of the forthcoming issue is above.

On their site, they’ve now got a new one-minute video created by Gregory Bossert from text by R. Scott McCoy and original fiction—Aidan Doyle’s very surreal and sly story “Mr. Nine and the Gentleman Ghost”. Cool stuff!

Weird Tales: Vids, Fic, Mag originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on August 30, 2010.

Well, the timing didn’t quite work out as planned. The idea was to cook three meals last week, and I only managed two by Sunday. That’ll change this week, with any luck. Anyway, it’s a good start, and the most excellent news is I didn’t poison myself or Ann! In fact, the food turned out pretty darn good.

What did I cook? Trout with almonds and Steak Provencale…

The fish was potentially the most daunting, because I hadn’t asked the butcher to take out the bones. So I watched a youtube video on how to do it, and then completed the task myself.

It wasn’t pretty, but I got it done. One fish I had successfully deboned–not a bone in it. The other, unfortunately, I’d been less adroit and even more unfortunately that’s the fish Ann got. By the time we realized, it was too late to switch. So there were some bones. I’m torn on whether to just perfect my technique or have the butcher do it next time.

The actual cooking process was ridiculously easy, and a lot of fun!

I had to keep a careful watch because I always forget how fast fish cooks. I also had a little too much flour on the outside, but it didn’t really affect anything.

They came out crispy brown on the outside, but perfectly cooked on the inside. (If I do say so myself!)

Presentation-wise, it needed some work, and I overdid the sauteed almonds on top.

Steak Provencale was a lot easier–just mix the garlic, ground sirloin, egg, cut up mushrooms (I wound up dicing the beef after this shot specifically to make sure the mushroom pieces were smaller–my bad), and salt/pepper. Then dip each patty in flour, and cook for about five to six minutes (less if you don’t like medium-well).

My presentation really sucked on this one, but, man, was this meal delicious! The garlic and mushrooms in the burger just made it utterly sublime to eat. Didn’t need anything on it to make it wonderful. (Yes, I totally got lazy and made green beans again.)

Tonight I’m cooking Chicken Marengo, which looks like it might be a whole nother level of difficulty. Not sure…

Cooking Update: Trout & Steak Provencale originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on August 30, 2010.

So the rough layouts for the Steampunk Bible arrived today, and I sat down with my coauthor S.J. Chambers to review them. At this stage, the point is to have the text and images in a standardized, approved format, even if not all of the images are at high-res (some are still coming in). To adjust the text as necessary at this stage, before we’re locked in, and also to provide feedback on both the images used and the way they’ve been deployed in the layout. Many things will change, many things will stay the same.

It’s certainly an eye-opening experience, somewhat different from working on a novel or story collection or anthology–although so many of the books I’ve done have had some illustrative component that it’s not as foreign as it might have been.

The book will be out in May of next year, which is practically right around the corner, and features contributions from, among others, Jess Nevins, Libby Bulloff, Bruce Sterling, Desirina Boskovich, Jake von Slatt, Rick Klaw, etc. Those interviewed for the book include Sean Orlando, Scott Westerfeld, Ay-leen the Peacemaker, Evelyn Kriete, Ekaterina Sedia, Dexter Palmer, and more. Too many are involved for me to provide a complete list right now.

A very, very special thanks to Jake von Slatt, to acquiring editor Maxine Kaplan and David Cashion at Abrams, and to our editor on the book now, Caitlin Kenney, who has been nothing short of awesome in every way, including developmental edits on the text.

Here’re a few more photographs of rough pages, noting, again, that nothing here is final and some images are placeholders. Enjoy!

There are some lovely two-page spreads in the Origins chapter and elsewhere.

The original British cover art for The Difference Engine, created by the wonderful Ian Miller, makes a nice jumping-off point for the fiction chapter.

John Coulthart created some great symbols for our sub-subgenre two-page spread…

A comics gallery section showcases Girl Genius, Sydney Padua, Bryan Talbot, and, among others, Greg Broadmore–emphasizing how comics can be integrated with physical manifestations of the illustrations therein. (This page will be radically different in final.)

Can’t remember why there are quotes around “making,” but those will probably come off. This lead-in image may change since it’s an anchor piece for the Oxford exhibit section that’s found much later in the chapter.

Photos by Libby Bulloff (self-portrait) and Lex Machina. We’ve decided that Libby’s photo should be smaller and go with her sidebar article on types of Steampunk fashion, allowing us to emphasize another shot instead. Libby’s photo isn’t particularly Steampunk, but it is striking!

Photo of Ay-leen the Peacemaker in a section that in part discusses the growing multicultural directions being taken by Steampunk.

A very compelling signpost from Maker Faire!

The first couple pages of the movies/TV section…

Brazilian Steampunk fans will be thrilled by the Future chapter, which not only showcases a Brazilian steampunk anthology cover but also features an exclusive excerpt in translation of one of the stories published therein (thanks, Fabio Fernandes!).

James Ng’s awesome Chinese Steampunk art is also featured in the Future chapter.

Have we shown you too much, dear reader? Not at all. We have, in fact, held back many of the most exclusive images and delights from our book. But, consider your appetite whetted.

Steampunk Bible Roughs! originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on August 28, 2010.

For your Friday reading pleasure, may I recommend this great interview with author Nnedi Okorafor, conducted by Matt Cheney, as well as this equally cool interview with Publishers Weekly’s Rose Fox that I just posted this morning. Wonderful answers from both interview subjects. Okorafor’s novel will be on my best-of-the-year-so-far post for Amazon in early September.

In other news, Matt Cheney just finished off the Third Bear Carnival with an unexpected surprise: my wife Ann wrote a short essay about my fiction. It was really sweet of her and made my Friday. (Matt just posted a podcast of my short-short “The Magician” the day before.)

Omni Features on Nnedi Okorafor and PW’s Rose Fox originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on August 27, 2010.

The Third Bear carnival has been going on for awhile, but Matt Cheney has upped the ante by staging a “fourth bear” contest that ends Friday. I have to say, the idea of a fourth bear blows my mind. Go check it out. You might win a one-of-a-kind book with a unique illo by Eric Schaller (who did a lot of the art in my City of Saints).

The Third Bear Carnival has already led to some illustrative work, the first below by Eric and the second by Paul Smith’s fiance. I’ll link to the full-on carnival early next week. Thanks to everyone who has contributed–it was a wonderful surprise.

Win a Unique Third Bear originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on August 25, 2010.

On Omnivoracious, I just posted an account of Shared Worlds 2010, a teen SF/fantasy writing camp for which I serve as assistant director. This is our third year running, and we believe SW is the only camp of its type in North America due to our unique approach.

If you’re a teenager interested in writing SF/fantasy or the parent of a teenager with such interests, consider signing up next year. It’s a really great experience for the participants. The guest instructors for next year will include myself and my wife, Hugo Award winner Ann VanderMeer, as well as Nnedi Okorafor, Ekaterina Sedia, and Will Hindmarch, with more to be announced later.

(Students Taylor Livingston and Harmony Riley, posing with the alien baby.)

(Student Killian Glenn.)

Who were the 2010 Shared Worlders? Here’re their bios from the back of the SW chapbook that features samples of their writing…

Jayde Barton is from Spartanburg, South Carolina. She enjoys writing, reading, and all things music. Ask her about Phoenix, and you’ll definitely regret it. She’s finally a senior in high school. Her favorite treats are soft serve (woo!) and sprinkles (yay!).

John Belmont is a high-school freshman in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He has been to South Carolina, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, California, Hawaii, and South Korea. He is “The Riddler” and possessor of a Korean fedora. His favorite quotes include “Food?!” and “We are the Knights Who Say ‘Ni!’” John plans on publishing his novels, one of which discusses how bears solve everything.

Rae Berry hails from Mars. As a young child, she was shot from the planet in a small capsule, much like Superman, but has come to be known on Earth as Superpest. She holds a great contempt for those who stereotype her Martian kind to have green skin and big heads. Her kind in fact has blue skin. The green skinned are on the northern side of Mars, and are much more hostile. Her hobbies include reading, writing, music, and planning world domination for the acceptance of her home planet.

Joe Cain is from Indianapolis and is an avid reader, gamer, and writer. He loves comic books, and coming up with incredibly complex plots and ideas. Low attention span, very passionate when he does finally get focused; big temper, well controlled; control freak, stories must be consistent.

Mikki Churchwell, called “Cannibal Girl” by some, is an artsy 17-year-old girl with an interest in the supernatural and insane. She appeared out of nowhere one day from the land of northeast Tennessee. She is in fact not a cannibal.

Kate Clayborne is a semi-sentient space squid from Memphis, TN. She can juggle purple elephants.

Caitlyn Cody, or “Pixi,” goes to high school in Houston, TX. She likes to read and write, along with riding horses. She is a magical pixie who likes to be very dramatic. She is queen of all pixies, and she loves her two cats, dog, tarantula, and her three awesome Flemish giant rabbits. (Butterz is really a dwarf rabbit, but don’t tell him. He’ll be sad and his girlfriend will dump him because she doesn’t like sad bunnies.)

James Cookson is from Las Vegas. He enjoys psychological thrillers, Shakespeare, and is an avid movie buff. He also enjoys Batman.

Christopher Davis lives in Half Moon Bay, California, and every couple of months he turns into a zombie for a brief period of time. He hungers for brains, but retains some of his humanity. He doesn’t eat brains, just normal food. He continues to shamble around and learn more about his zombie brethren. When he is normal, he attempts to find a cure, but he has not.

Jasper Ferehawk lives in Los Angles, California, and lives with his sister and parents there. He wants to become a video game story writer when he grows up and enjoys writing, reading, and gaming. He is going to be an eighth grader next year. His favorite book is Eldest of the Eragon series and his favorite video game is Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon.

Zak Frey is a native of upstate New York currently residing in Pennsylvania. While he is primarily a musician by trade, he has taken up creative writing in his spare time, which he seems to have copious amounts of. He has a deep and abiding interest in philosophy and will talk your ears off about it at the slightest provocation. He is also an incorrigible punster, so don’t incorrige him.

Kelsey Fuson is a 14-year-old who lives only half an hour from Wofford in Greenville, SC. She has a tendency to make no sense.

Killian Glen was born in northern Georgia and now lives in Spartanburg, SC. He will be a freshman this year.

Jackie Gitlin is just a small town girl, living in a lonely world called Maryland. She writes… a lot. She did not, in fact, take the midnight train going anywhere, but rather came back to Shared Worlds for her second year. She will be a minion of the high school education system for the last time and is a weasel. She does not, in fact, smell of cheap perfume.

Nathan Goldwag is from Brooklyn, New York. He is interested in reading and writing.

Tyler Hayes lives in Atlanta. He enjoys stories in whatever format they appear: books, comics, manga, TV, movies, or spoken. He has a severe fear of ballroom dancing, and openly admits that he is neither normal nor does he aspire to be. At least one of these statements is a lie, it’s most likely the dancing one, but you can decide.

The Taylor Hocutt is a reclusive yet boisterous and arrogant creature that subsides solely off of high-starch meals, Coca-Cola, and usurped attention from his peers.

Will Holcomb was born and then quickly shipped to a mental institution in Kirksville, MO in the distant future of 1994. He enjoys music, existential crises, and the chaos of politics, and has no successful writing career. He may own a cat—only Schrödinger knows.

London Hu is from Baton Rouge, LA. She enjoys writing, drawing, and is, in fact, the youngest person at Shared Worlds 2010. She is 12 years old, an otake (anime freak), and wishes to become a manga artist. She mostly writes fan fiction.

Aimee Hyndman is a 15-year-old from Texas who likes writing (obviously) 24/7, playing video games, making music videos, acting, singing, playing piano, and watching various anime. She is crazy, random, and altogether awesome. She is also very modest… teehee!

Megan Jackson is from a secret base off the coast of Atlanta. Turn left at Main Street, turn right at the Waffle House, travel a light year and you’re there. She is a dark mermaid and blue-haired, although some dispute the color as green. She enjoys shiny things and waffles.

Jake Johnson is from Greenville, SC. He is an avid reader and lives to cook and play video games. He is a vegan of five years. He has five siblings.

Cassandra Konz, age 17, was born in Seattle and now lives in a small Minnesota suburb where nothing happens and probably nothing will continue to happen. Her family includes two biological sisters, five exchange sisters, and one sister who isn’t really her sister at all. She spends her time making paper stars, writing letters to people in basic training, and generally imagining herself far, far away.

Carmen Laughlin is a senior in high school in Prosperity, SC. She is in the process of learning four foreign languages, and also has interests in law and neo-pagan studies. She is a published poet and aims to publish a novel in the future.

Taylor Lewis was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but shortly left at the age of five because the city itself was so boring. She now lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where she likes it much better. She’s a vegetarian, and makes her parents stop the car to allow squirrels, dogs, and chipmunks to cross the road unharmed. She’ll make an excellent driver next year.

Taylor Livingston has been writing since she was three. She was born and raised in Taylors, SC though she has traveled as far north as Washington, D.C. and as far south as Florida, and all the way through Texas to the edge of New Mexico. She favors long walks on the beach and macaroni. Her astronomical sign is Leo.

Megan McKay is from Cary, NC and is 16 years old.

Grayson Mooney is from Durango, CO. He is 14 years old. He likes to write. This is his bio.

Crawford Muller was born in Winston-Salem, NC. He is 14 years old and has brown hair and blue eyes and enjoys running, playing guitar, and reading. He is a straight-A student and enjoys helping people. He currently lives in Charlotte, NC and likes Georgia UNC and Wofford College. He likes most food and his favorite movie is Old School.

Shannon Owens is a 16-year-old girl who lives in Cedar Park, TX. She plays the tuba in band and loves to read and write.

Claire Pillsbury is to be a sophomore in Greenville, South Carolina. She is currently 15 years old, swims during the summer, and plays the piano and cello. Claire aspires to become the sort of psychiatrist who heedlessly dispenses medication to her patients simply because she has somewhere else to be.

Mónica Quiñones-Rivera has just moved to Cambridge, MA from Berkeley, CA. She has two sisters, one of whom is going to Berkeley School of Music and one of whom is going to UC-Santa Cruz. Monica is 17 and is going into her senior year of high school.

Harmony Riley originates from the small city of Memphis, Tennessee. She is known for her humor and love of video games. She fears nothing, and doesn’t expect nothing from nothing because nothing can do nothing. She bites. Shamalama—my, oh my, Ding Dong.

Isaac Rader is a relatively normal guy from New Hampshire who, when not in school, spends his time in bizarre skiing accidents (or just bizarre skiing), playing Runescape, reading books several times the size of bricks, and eating thick clam chowder. He got the idea of writing from making bad fanfic, then deciding to play Runesape and writing infinitely better fanfic with pirates. It may have been bad brownies or a bad muffin that caused him to do this, but nobody, least of all himself, is entirely certain.

Allie Roose is a girl from Goose Greek, South Carolina. She isn’t good at writing about herself, so she’ll just fill this bio with filler sentences. This is one of those sentences. Here is another one. She kept on like this till the gods got angry and hit her with a flurgel fruit.

Miranda Severance likes western cartoons. She is terrible at athletic activities (including running from anything), is hardheaded, and has the self-esteem of a mashed potato. She is a good artist, singer, and writer, but she is far too cowardly to write anything. [Despite this, she is a brilliant writer. :) - JV]

Connor Smith is 13 years old and is from Spartanburg, SC. He enjoys playing tennis, soccer, and basketball. Connor also enjoys reading and writing. His favorite book is Airman by Eoin Colfer. Connor’s middle name is Payne.

Laura Wagner is a high school senior born and raised in Sweet Home Alabama. She has been writing since she was nine years old and has always had a taste for fantasy in particular.

Ryan Yappert is from California and loves singing and fantasy.

Shared Worlds Teen Writing Camp This Summer… originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on August 25, 2010.