Jim Butcher

Speculative Fiction Sucker Punches, Part 3 – Upper Cuts, Body Punches and Haymakers

So we’ve covered convenient magic and uber leetness as speculative fiction sucker punches; the right hook and left hook, respectively. Now we’re going to bring it on home. A strong corollary to the uber heroine is the female character written by a man who is clueless about women. So many good […]

Literary Pin-Up Calendar from The Tinker’s Pack

For The Tinker’s Pack 2013 calendar, the not-for-profit organization founded by Patrick Rothfuss, has teamed up with some of the best authors in the fantasy genre: Peter S. Beagle, Ray Bradbury, Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher, Jacqueline Carey, Neil Gaiman, Charlaine Harris, Robin Hobb, N.K. Jemisin, George R. R. Martin, Terry […]

Birthdays

On this day, August 5, in 1850, Guy de Maupassant was born in Tourville-sur-Arques, France. Considered one of the fathers of the modern short story, he was mentored by Gustave Flaubert and taken under the wing of Alexandre Dumas, fils. Author of over 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books, and one volume of poetry, his very first work, Boule de Suif was immensely – and immediately – popular, and is considered a masterpiece. Despite his public and critical success, he craved solitude and suffered from hallucinations, eventually attempting suicide at age 42. He died less than two years later after being committed to a private mental asylum in Paris.

Birthdays

On this day, December 3, in 1857, Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Imperial Russia (modern
Ukraine, then a part of Poland). While he settled in England and wrote in English, he always considered himself a Pole. Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous of his 20 novels (which explores colonialism and the attitudes regarding what constitutes a barbarian versus civilized society) is considered one of the best English novels of the 20th century, as is his novel Lord Jim, which chronicles a crew’s abandonment of its disabled ship. Conrad died in England in 1924 at age 66.