Apart from the rare review requests my mail is also a host to quite a few intriguing notifications, which I consider might entertain and/or benefit a number of my readers. For today I have prepared three events from around the World Wide Web of interest.

1. America is the home to countless conventions and any hard core con attendee can tell you that finding the right accommodation with the right people, if one is traveling alone, can be a tedious usually maddening task. I for one have not been in such a situation, but I can imagine how aggravating organization can be with few resources and just Google by your side. Worry not, for Ryan L. Kopf has the solution just one click away. Without further telemarketing antics I present to you UpcomingCons.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Convention Website Connects Fans With Conventions And Roommates
July 5, 2009

Summary: A new website, UpcomingCons.com, lists hundreds of anime, game, comics, and science fiction conventions, and also allows users to sign up to find hotel roommates.

We are proud to announce to creation of a new fan convention resource, focused on anime, comics, gaming, and sci-fi, to help fans in a whole new way. Not only are over two hundred upcoming conventions listed with links to official websites, but users can use the website to find convention roommates, absolutely free!

Ryan Kopf, a board member for the fan organization Mindbridge Foundation, began working on UpcomingCons.com and developing features in late June 2009. Kopf wanted to create a resource that would enhance fandom over multiple genres, but especially help anime fans.

“I think convention attendees have always needed a good, reliable place to find upcoming conventions,” said Kopf. “Game, Comic, and Sci-Fi conventions had seemed the most neglected.”

UpcomingCons.com lists conventions around the world, although most are focused in North America

The most unique feature of UpcomingCons.com is easily the convention roommate system. Every year thousands of convention attendees look for people to share rooms with, to help offset the typically high cost of having a room at a convention hotel for three nights. Any fan can register for an account, go to the page of their favorite convention, and sign up to find hotel space, or to offer their hotel space for others. Other users who does the same thing will have a chance to see who else will be going to the same convention.

“We help connect the people together who might want to share rooms, but they do the communication and arrangements themselves,” said Kopf. “The listing of people attending a convention links to their profile, which contains general contact information for the person. They have to get in touch themselves and see if the potential roommates are the kind of individuals they want.”

ABOUT UPCOMINGCONS.COM: UpcomingCons.com was started in 2009 as a resource for fans across the world, helping them find conventions, find convention roommates, and meet other fans. They also provide convention reviews, photo galleries, and news.

While it’s true anyone can publish their own book and eat a loss, even two (I know one individual who actually self-published three books at considerable economic loss before throwing in the towel), but to successfully self-publish any books, one must turn a profit. I did. Twelve times.

My decision for releasing this compendium as blogs instead of in its originally intended book form is based on the present torpor of an entire publishing industry in denial; an industry suffering laser strikes from the twin Furies of desktop publishing and internet distribution; a shrinking industry who leaves little opportunity for oncoming writing talent. In short, with major publishers disserving the reading public and headed for cutbacks and bankruptcy as a consequence, self-publishing might, for aspiring writers, be the only viable game in town—provided it’s correctly accomplished.

I'm running a little contest I'm calling the Tag Your It Contest. Contestants will be entered into a drawing to win $100 USD. I would love to have your readers to get the opportunity to enter.

Basically, it works like this - go to JC two novels listed on Amazon -
Rise of the Ancients Annuna -
http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Ancients-Annuna-JC-Torre/dp/0978527232/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2

Ancient Rising -
http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Rising-Rise-Ancients-Book/dp/0978527216/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

Scoll down to the section called "Tags Customers Associate with This Product"

Click everything you see.

Once completed, take a screenshot of your amazon page. (go here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/tips/screenshot.mspx if you're not sure how to do this).

Email the screenshot to contestATdltatlantispub.com (replace AT with @)

At the end of the month, a random drawing will be held from the entries and someone will win $100 bucks for just 10 seconds of their time.

Absolutely no purchase is necessary, you just need an amazon account to participate.

This will be the first in a series of contests celebrating the launch of Rise of the Ancients - Annuna on July 31st.

I have struggled with figuring out the appropriate words to draw a summary out for the anthology “The Living Dead”, much harder than it was for me than starting with the opening post. The way I see it, the reason to keep stalling and reading bits in between weeks’ and months’ worth of pauses could be explained with my desperate need for this anthology to never finish rather than it being a burden. As far as the undead go I have developed an everlasting fascination/horror and John Joseph Adams produced one wicked volume, which pays an outstanding homage to an idea that is still picking up speed as pop culture evolves. For me 500 pages didn’t seem merely enough to cover such a simple idea for a monster, a dead corpse walking, but with a no-rules-attached attitude towards anything else regarding origins, environment and actual creature attributes.

Perhaps the subject is rather bleak and depressing to be excited about and perhaps not taken seriously enough by the general public, which has been introduced only to new generation Hollywood movies. However I think that once the zombie is translated into literature the result differs from the good scare found in the movies and leans on more to the philosophical introspective look at our culture and at society. Every cultural era has its own monster. The sexually repressed Dark Ages has the incubi and sucubi, while the late 19th had Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to portray the dichotomy that is associated with the Victorian era. For me the zombie is the spokesperson of the 21st century and the new breed of human; perfect consumer. It’s been pointed out what the zombie represents countless times and yet it’s an idea that can be reinvented countless times with new scenarios, new set of survivors, new set of zombie hordes and new sets of grim morale tales.

What John Joseph Adams successfully accomplished was to find as many as possible faces of the zombies from the dumb to the smart, from the restless to the peaceful and from the victim to the predator and arrange them into an exhibition for the reader to sample. Diversity and quality are the leading traits as far as “The Living Dead” goes with legendary names in the horror genre such as Stephen King with his chilling story “The Delivery” and Clive Barker with “Sex, Death and Starshine”, which brings an air or macabre aristocratism. The anthology however shifts into new directions with Laurel K. Hamilton representing the urban fantasy genre with her story “Those Who Seek Forgiveness” and George R.R. Martin with “Meat House” to put a fantasy spin on the concept. There is humor like in “She is Taking Her Tits To The Grave” by Catherine Cheek and there is despair as in “The Skull-Faced Boy” by David Barr Kirtley and “Dead Like Me” by Adam-Troy Castro.

It is natural for the anthology to have certain lows, where stories touched the subject in a faint manner and took a wrong direction. Nevertheless “The Living Dead” remains in my opinion one of the strongest anthologies I have had the pleasure of reading, much less reviewing.

For this week’s Artist Corner I have someone real special, who has touched million of urban fantasy readers. I present to you Chris McGrath, the cover artist behind the instantly recognized Dresden Files covers as well as covers for authors like Vicki Pettersson and C.E. Murphy. With him I prod in a new direction aimed at the not-so-much-known niche of cover art and I hope you guys are satisfied with the end result.

Harry Markov: Hello and thank you for accepting my invitation. Having you here would be a major treat for my readers, since you provide UF readers with some of the best covers in the industry. So let’s start with the essentials. What was the first encounter with the visual arts to stir you in that particular direction?

CM: Actually I had no intention of doing that sort of cover art. Not that I didn’t like it, it’s just that I didn’t know much about the genre and it was still just starting to take off at the time I came in. I was doing a sci fi series for Roc at the time and the art director thought the “noir” style that I had would work well for the Dresden Files “Dead Beat” cover.
But I don’t think either one of us had a totally clear vision as to how it would look in the end.
When I had finished the cover I felt that it had been a turning point for me as an illustrator and really finding myself as an artist. The next cover I did was Night Life by Rob Thurman. After that I was pretty locked down as an Urban Fantasy guy.

HM: Another tradition with the “Artist Corner” is to share something a bit more personal, so that all nosy about the person behind the artist can be satisfied. Who is Chris McGrath in the daily routine?

CM: Nothing special really. I work at home so I can control my schedule a bit. I live in Manhattan so that's always fun (and helps with UF covers). I usually go to bed around 3am, wake up at around 10 or 11am. Go out for a cup of coffee, then sit down to work. I usually take a break before dinner and play my guitar for a couple of hours, then around 7pm I work a little more. I can’t really complain I guess

HM: Who are the artists and photographers that inspired and influenced you the most?

CM: My painting teacher Steve Assael was a huge influence on me as well as Dorian Vallejo.
But there is a huge list. I’m traditionally trained as a realist painter, so I like a lot of the 19th century painters. Odd Nerdrum is a modern favorite of mine.
Sci Fi guys, I really like Enki Bilal, Frazatta, Dorian Vallejo and so on..
I do like photography but I can’t really pick any one in paticular. Maybe Bresson.

HM: So the essence of your work involves a great mastery over Photoshop and other programs from that caliber. What I want also to know is, whether you shoot the picture material for the covers yourself as well?

CM: Yes. I shoot everything. Even when I was oil painting I still shot all of my own reference. It’s the way I was trained. I’m not really that good with photoshop in the traditional sense. I learned it by myself by just trying to get it to work the way I would do my oil paintings. The process is the same and so are the rules.

HM: Doing covers for fantasy books must mean that you are also a fan of the genre in some of its aspects the least. What attracts you to the out of the ordinary and fantasy? Different people find something entirely unique for themselves and I always like hearing a new answer on the subject.

CM: I’m actually more of a science fiction fan. My three favorite books are Dune, Hyperion, and Veniss Underground. As far as Fantasy books, I do love the Elric series.
I like this sort of stuff because visually it’s creative and in a lot of ways it’s more believable than regular action or supspense fiction. I can never buy into the mainstream action books because I live in this world and I know how things work and how rediculious those plots are.
But when you move it all into a far fetched world, it becomes much more believable because it’s an unfamilar setting.

HM: Do you have to read the manuscripts you receive to get an idea what the best possible cover might be, inclining that you have full creative freedom over the process or do you have to abide already set down standards and vision o the publishers?

CM: it’s a mix. A lot of the times I just get an outline. Sometimes a manuscript.
Some companies have more control over the cover than others.
Every publisher seems to have their own rituals as to how they work and get things out, but there definitely are a lot of people involved quite a bit.

HM: Another completely customary question would be about your work process. How much does it usually take to complete a piece from start to finish and what’s your way of doing things?

CM: Finish time really varies on the project. Sci Fi stuff generally takes longer.
The most difficult part is the sketch phase and planning. If I do that well, I have less trouble but quite often there is a bit of a struggle. Plus I’m really hard on myself and things always seem to be a disaster as I’m working on them. But Sketches can take a week sometimes.

HM: In the same line of thought, provided you are the photographer as well, how does a typical photo shoot go for you? Bringing in humans as an aspect of your work certainly contributes its unexpected bumps and turns to the whole process. Does it take long to achieve the image you require or is it strictly individual?

CM: It’s funny, everyone I know who does photoshoots and has been doing them for 10 years or more still has days where everything goes wrong. There is a lot to try and control and get right. And trying to get what you need from a model can be hard too. That's why you’ll see a lot of the same models on book covers in the stores. If you find one that is good and you know you’ll get what you want from them, they get used a lot. It’s tough getting a good model.

HM: Since your job requirement and description basically demands achieving maximum realism for a very otherworldly concept, how do you manage to layer the magical elements into your compositions? Do you get to shoot against Hollywood’s beloved green screen?

CM: A lot of stuff is made up or pieced together and repainted the way a lot of concept guys work. But it’s all painted in Photoshop.

HM: Speaking of compositions, where do you get your inspiration from? What brings out new ideas for compositions and covers?

CM: Sometimes the story dictates that sort of thing. When you begin to establish the main elements of the concept a rhythm begins to become apparent and sometimes you just follow through with that instinctively. Other times a movie or something like that will give me an idea.

HM: Also to rewind a bit, how did you get involved in the cover art making business in the first place? Your profession is extremely interesting and a small niche, so there has to be an interesting story behind your involvement with it.

CM: When I was around 12 years old I saw Frazetta’s work and that pretty much inspired me to go into doing book covers. It is a long story, but to sum it up: I finished college in 1995 and really didn’t have a portfolio finished. I was kind of into doing the fine art thing at the time and it distracted me a bit from the sci fi stuff. Plus there were a lot of other things going on in my life. Becoming an artist is not always a reality for family members to support. But I pushed on because I really couldn’t do anything else. While I worked on my portfolio I gave guitar lessons to make money. In 1999 the industry really seemed like it was headed for more digital stuff so a friend introduced me to photoshop. I didn’t want to get involved with it but soon I began to like it. In 2001 the art director at ACE books gave me my first job doing an oil painting of all things. I had showed her my digital portfolio and I had one traditional painting in the back,. I’m suspicious that my friend Dorian had called her and said to make sure that the job she gave me was done in oil not PS. At that time digital was still “evil” to painters. The cover is on my website still. Entitled “the King”. But that was my only traditional cover. The other weird thing about that cover is that I started it the morning of sept.11th. so it has a erie vibe to me.
From there work was slow. I started at 3 covers my first year. 6 my second. Maybe 10 or 12 my third. And in 2004 after I did Dead Beat I did around 16 covers. It started looking good but It wasn’t really full time until late 2005.

HM:As a final question, what are your future plans? Would you deviate from what you do right now and pursue different projects and if so, can you share?

CM: that's a question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately and I really don’t know yet.
The publishing world is changing and it’s not getting any bigger. I would love to continue to do covers full time but I don’t really see that happening. Unless book sales pick up or it shifts into something else. I don’t really want to do full time concept work and I’m not sure if I want to do traditional fine art either. I honestly don’t know where things are headed but you never know. I would be happy just doing sci fi stuff.

In my opinion you can almost never go wrong with zombies. Even the weakest movies with these gruesome creatures as critter feature are entertaining to me. Comedies go well with them as well as horror movies. Comic books thrive in this niche and even literature picks up on the zombie myth. It was a matter of time before a mini-series were to be made and with this overture coming to an end I present to you “Dead Set”, a five episode series about a zombie outbreak hitting Britain. The focus falls on the Big Brother house, where the sole survivors are actually the housemates inside and some of the TV shows’s personnel.

As per with most good survival horror adventures much about the outbreak’s origin and nature is not known and even if people wanted to know that wouldn’t help them stay any more alive and out of danger. The best part of the whole mini series is that it didn’t hold back in the gore section. Blood, organs and body parts grace the silver screen with great deal of realism. The zombie species featured is the runner, which is not as ominous as its shuffling and moaning cousin, since to me the slow zombie is the symbol for inevitable death, from which you can run, but you can’t really escape. However the fast zombie delivers a great number of scare moments, popping out from nothing with glazed over eyes and a predatory shriek. I found it most enjoyable to see actors abandon their characters and then go completely animalistic. It’s the commitment that makes it believable and exciting, because the cast managed to make me believe in their metamorphosis into undead.

The main protagonist as far as I can tell is Kelly, a runner for the show, who before the outbreak tries everything to excel in the television business, but ultimately gets bossed around by Patrick the producer. After the outbreak she is lucky enough to survive and hides in the Big Brother house, where her bloodied appearance and her story of hungry dead were met by the housemates as another mission. Once however one zombie breaks in and infects two of the survivors, things change and from here on starts the battle to outsmart the predators, fortify the house and manage provisions. It all goes well until Patrick the producer manages to get in the house and drag everybody in a messed up escape plan, which ultimately leads to the loss of every advantage the survivors had.

Perhaps it’s because I am partial to the bulked out tension and the question “Will a zombie attack them now?”, but I found this mini-series quite refreshing. Considering the fact it got nominated for the BAFTA award. To hardcore Romero fans it will be also a scavenger hunt for references to the ‘Living Dead’ series. Apart from that I can’t help but spin some theories to why the writers chose to place this story in the Big Brother house and tie it with live TV. I view this as a grotesque representation of our current culture at the time being. With reality TV being intelligence’s current sworn nemesis the zombie outbreak can be interpreted as society’s collective drop of IQ. The fact that the only channel on TV still functioning is not CNN or anything watch-worthy but the Big Brother Live Feed, speaks that much to me. Of course I can be wrong and nevertheless it’s cool to se the Big Brother house used as a bunker.

Title: "The Raven"
Author: John Lawson
Pages: 618
Series: Witch Ember Series, Book Two
Genre: Heroic Fantasy
Publisher: Publish America

Blurb:

Guiromelans is a knight, a sacred paladin, seeking nothing more than to obey the
commandments of God. But when God betrays him and allows a hells- condemned
witch to defeat him in battle, he is forced to reexamine his faith. What did he
do to merit such disgrace? What can he do to atone for his sins?

Facing
challenges both of the flesh and of the soul, Guiromelans begins a pilgrimage
across the known world. In search of redemption and forgiveness, he discovers
the true meaning of God's will.

The Raven is the sequel to John Lawson's
first novel, Witch Ember.

For an inexplicable reason I receive impulses to pen down reviews for pretty much everything of any cultural and entertainment value. There is something quite satisfying to simply have a say on a subject that may have something to do with literature or not. This is being really hard to resist, since I enjoy numerous TV shows and series. However the latest season of “Supernatural” made me feel like a Twilight fan and I need to resolve this bundle of emotions.

As far as I know, the upcoming fifth season will be the closing one for the series, wrapping up all arcs and it’s natural since it marks the start of the apocalypse. I personally perceive this tidbit of news with mixed feelings. On one hand it’s a killjoy to see one of the few better TV shows right now in the paranormal subgenre go, but on the other it will go with style. It shows that producers and writers have taken into account the natural progression of the story rather than stretching the concept needlessly like it happened with Charmed, a series that after eight seasons of not going anywhere in a definitive direction had to be quickly wrapped up.

But back to the actual Season 4... Perhaps there is one word that best defines the season as a whole: build-up. The drift between the Winchester brothers becomes more evident as both siblings find themselves on the opposing camps. Sam is on his way to abandoning humanity in the name of the greater good. With his character the show’s writers take a great spin of the general concept that the way to hell is paved with good intentions. Sam Winchester really just annihilates the line between what is acceptable and the forbidden taboos. Being willing to sacrifice your human soul by drinking demon blood in order to assassinate Lilith is admirable, though nauseating, seeing his struggles with morale. Dean Winchester’s situation is as grim as his brother’s. For better or for worse he has been forced into an allegiance with the angels, who in this series are unlike most stereotypes with little nobility and more strategy in their heads. As a character he has been written to be a selfless protector of his little brother and being into a position, where he has to stand up against him, especially in the wake of the apocalypse, is a slow death for Dean.

The clock is ticking, seals are being brocken and Lilith has to be stopped. The angels don't act accordingly or timely at all, which will arouse suspicions towards their agenda and whether a greater and sinister scheme is in place. Once the strategy for the whole apocalypse is revealed the viewer will get a sense that the kingdom of heaven is full of winged warriors with the greater good in mind rather than humanity’s current need of salvation. Collateral damage is acceptable and millions dead is nothing to be concerned with. This paired with the amazing acting provided by Misha Collins as Castiel and then Kurt Fuller as Zachariah, both written to grab attention as reinvented images of high stature angels and performed at the needed level. My compliments go to Christopher Heyerdahl, who makes a chilling Alastair, and Genevieve Cortese, who does a good enough job filling in the shoes of Ruby’s character.

Compliments go to the writers of the show that fisrt of all made Biblical mythology as cool as vampires on their media pedestals and interpreting all the myths and figures as well as lacing them with popular folklore from around the globe and local urban legends. I really felt that the inclusion of an actual prophet to be quite entertaining as well as his unstandard portrayal. There hasn't been a TV series with a tighter story frame that progressed from single episodes that feature more or less monster or the week and then move on to episodes chaining in with backstory and plot arcs. Ending with a very big cliff hanger and a ton load of questions but satisfyingly organic and expected, Season 4 opened the doors to the arena and Season 5 will be the final massacre.

Man, how quickly a week passes, when there is so much to do. I am still pretty much unconnected from the community and the grapevine at large, remaining self-contained, but hopefully, if my Internet provider manages to fixes the quality of my connection I would be back in no time. For the same reason I got behind on so many of my posts with delays and undesirable quality involved. I am praying that this issue will be resolved soon and not just for one day as it happened on Friday, my off-work day, which I spent out of the house and couldn’t enjoy the connection. These issues aside here is my plan for this week.

Monday: I have a commentary on “Supernatural” Season 4. This is the TV series that gave me back hope that television can be saved from identical sit-coms.


Tuesday: I dish out my much promised review of “Raven” by John Lawson, a book that clicked on and off with me, but deserves attention from fans of the more brutal and edgy fantasy.

Wednesday: This has been long on my mind. I came across this amazing British horror mini-series called “Dead Set”, which combines fast moving zombies and Big Brother. It’s scary.

Thursday: It’s been some time since it came out, but “Coraline” is the sole gem in the 2009 movie releases so far. Plus it’s based on a Neil Gaiman writing, which sets it apart immediately.

Friday: Okay, it’s the Artist Corner again, but I have a treat. My guest is the awesome cover artist Chris McGrath, who has adorned some of your favorite titles with that slick noir image.


Saturday: God knows how overdue I am with this anthology, but I want to write a follow-up overall commentary on “The Living Dead”, so that it can feel finished for me.

Sunday: I have a new reviewer for “Reviewer Time”, the energetic Doug aka the SciFiGuy. I hope you are curious about it.

It’s a very unearthly sensation to sit down in front of the keyboard and write a review-like representation of “Fantasy Book Critic”. Considering how book review blogs are very well becoming the hottest new thing to do on the World Wide Web, it’s strange for a newbie to point out the merits of having a first generation institution such as FBC on your link list. But then again I am doing the “Reviewer Time” more or less for the benefit of having the bloggers speak their minds.

So nervous banter aside, I can honestly say that “Fantasy Book Critic” embodies perfection as far as blogs from this caliber are considered. The original creator, Robert Thompson, has put together a site that comes off as professional, meticulous and organized. Perhaps I can best illustrate this with his reviews, the model of which is carried through by his contributors and heirs to his legacy, which were always segmented and highlighted the essential elements that build a book. This he and his contributors handled with great care for the reader’s benefit alone; I can testify it’s a process that steals a great deal of time and demands commitment and time management skills at the highest level. This paired with the reviewer team’s ability to incorporate conversational elements as well as scholarly air into the actual content of every review gives meaning to the time spent on the Internet reading FBC. If you are to take into account the number of reviewers with different tastes and interests, you are sure to be welcomed by a wide range of titles and genres discussed and presented. For a lack of a better definition or without falling into excessive gushing I would label FBC as a quintessential intellectual read, because it not only brings books to your immediate attention FBC manages to open your eyes to the mechanics involved in a novel.

Now that this has been covered, I’d have to say that everything else the crew does with Robert in mind comes off as profession and serious without boring. Each author interview delights with intriguing content and one can really learn how to ask the right questions and what topics would draw most attention. Then there is the steady stream of giveaways that can range from US and UK restricted to worldwide, which gives a chance to off-continental readers like myself to touch the English literary scene in an easier manner without involving Amazon and delivery fees. Next stop is naturally the necessary highlights and news that are always hot from the publishers’ and authors’ websites. However most notable is perhaps the monthly releases list that pops every beginning of the month and has turned more or less into a signature trademark for “Fantasy Book Critic”. For one thing as a follower of FBC you would have an idea what would come up in terms of reviews and for another you could also sort out your book-shopping list for the whole month. It’s practical and also very hard to pull off, if you want to be thorough. It just shows how much these people love what they are doing and care for their readers.

I can continue with the listing, but after awhile I fear I might fll into repetition with my praise or even worse, become tiresome for my readers. So I will just go with the interview. I managed to snatch Liviu and Cindy for a little chitchat. Robert, the humble guy that he is, explained how being ‘retired’ means not giving interviews. But I hope it’s still an enjoyable interview.
___

Harry Markov: Not much time has elapsed since I first started reading FBC and noticed that Robert had his helpers to keep everything going at the pace it did and still does. Needless to say I was and still am curious about the said contributors, since I know Robert rather well. Now I have the chance to get the answer to my question. So, who are you guys outside FBC and what's a typical day for you?

Liviu: I work, take care of my son after my work and his school and read a lot, both home and on the go since I am never bothered by noise.

Cindy: Outside of reading, I pursue a lot of interests. I play a lot of games online, and also with the Wii. I love Broadway musicals, and anything that has dance in it. I absolutly love ballet and jazz style dancing and even take occasional classes when I get the time.

HM: Official introductions now aside, let's get down to the offline personality mode and share three things that you believe no FBC reader or co-blogger would have never guessed about you and yes, the question is pretty much customary for me and my curiosity.

Liviu: I dislike dogs but love cats. I love wild nature but I dislike gardens, lawns and such. I harvested fruits and vegetables in my school years as part of the "patriotic duty of building a greater collective future".

Cindy: I collect teddy bears, they are pretty much all over anything I have in my house. I'm a major nut of anything British, I love their shows, books and everything over there. I love to watch Spongebob, that show makes me laugh every time I watch it.

HM: Rewinding the tape back and going back to your very first days at FBC, can you share the story behind your involvement? I am pretty sure Liviu was a keeper with his lightning fast reading ability that has earned him an eternal kudos from me, but nevertheless when it comes to FBC, I bet the readers would live a little Oprah moment of remembrance.

Liviu: I have been around the online sff scene since the early days of Usenet in the mid 90's, posted here and there, thought about doing a review blog but never did it seriously. I commented once in a while on FBC and had a dialog with Robert on sffworld and when he approached me about doing some reviews from the many books I was reading, I agreed.

Cindy: I had followed FBC for a while contributing with comments when I could. It was actually the blog that got me started with going to other blogs regularly. I had noticed Robert mentioned something about YA books becoming popular and not feeling like he could adequately review them. I emailed expressing that I'd love to help out, I explained my background in writing and all the reading background I had, and we went from there.

HM: Considering that FBC centers around novels from the fantasy-sf spectrum, it's evident you guys have a knack for spec fic. What I want to know is what pulled you in in the first place to become so involved with these genres? Everybody experience fantasy and sf in a different manner and it's this unique shade that I am searching in the answers.

Liviu: I read a lot of classics years ago but I was always attracted by "the future" and to some extent about "the past". I am very curious, get easily bored and for my first 21 years I lived in one of the worst hellholes on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain so literature and especially interesting literature was sanity. Ultimately I found sf the most interesting literature of our age and that has always been my first love for the past 20 years. I also like the weirder reaches of fantasy and selected historical epics or adventures, while for traditional fantasy I started reading more when the "new epic gritty" got started, but my interest in it ebbs and flows.

Cindy: I have always been really involved with reading and books that I love. I take part in the library projects when they come around and I'm friends with many librarians, as a matter of fact my aunt is a librarian. So from a young age I have been very active with my reading. I have always had a love for dragons and elves and such, so I found fantasy very intriguing. As far as fantasy goes, I find the amount of work that an author takes in creating new creatures, lands, customs and such so involved that it just pulls me in.

HM: By the time you all got on board FBC, the site has gained loyal readers and a certain dose of popularity as well. How did it feel to contribute to a blog like that at the beginning and did you adjusted well? Perhaps, you can add a small portrait of Robert as the great overseer, before he decided to step down. I know him personally as far as the Internet allows, so I can pretty much string great adjectives after his name, but everybody likes to hear straight from the horse's mouth so to say.

Liviu: I never gave too much thought to the "mechanics" of FBC before I decided to co-edit following Robert's retirement; generally I would talk with Robert about books, decide what I want to review and and try to do the best review I could, convey the essence of the book and why people would want to read it. Most of the books I reviewed for FBC were obtained by me (bought, library, authors who sent review inquiries to Robert and I liked their style), with some received as review arcs through Robert or as pdf's from the publishers. Robert would edit and format the review, ask the occasional question if anything was unclear and let me know when he would post it, while I would try and answer comments as much as I could. I would also check his lists of upcoming releases, suggest new books or new places to look for titles, tell him about the titles he may not know that I found impressive...FBC was Robert' site and I was happy to have a popular site to showcase my favorite books and authors.

Cindy: I never really thought about how popular FBC was or how much work behind the screen it took. For the most part, Robert would either recommend books, or I would mention a title and we'd work on getting it a spot on the blog. As far as adjusting to FBC, my first review took me so long to write because I was so nervous and it was rather lengthy, now that I look back on it. Now being a co-editor, I find it a lot easier to convey my thoughts and working behind the scense easier. Everyone that I work with has been very supportive and helpful with ideas and working together so it wasn't that big of an adjustment.

HM: To drop the more biographical elements of this interview and go into the technical aspects, let's go straight to the reviews now shall we. What is your guiding principle in writing a review, the specifics that act as a sort of signature? Also in the same train of thought, how much length should be invested into a review. Some people have speculated that perhaps length is the key to achieving seriousness and quality.

Liviu: I want to write the review I would like to read. First and foremost the review should contain a clear description with as few spoilers as possible of what the book is about, not a blurb or synopsis but the "essence" of the book. I like to know whom the characters are at the beginning of the book, what they do, where the book takes place, stuff like this that helps me decide how interested I am in it. Second I want the reviewer's personal opinion about the book, how the book read to him/her. So clarity, coherence and voice. I like to use excerpts only when the style of the book is essential to its enjoyment *and* short excerpts illustrate the style.

Cindy: Like Liviu said, I do not like to spoil any books so spoilers are a big no no. Even if there is something I didn't like about the ending and as much as I'd love to shout it from the highest building I try to make it vague so no one will have the book spoiled. I like to cover summary, and them my thoughts on the book. I'm very big into character development and converstaional, so a lot of reviews focus on that. However it really depends on the book, I just write what I found to be good about the book and what I feel could have been better or needed explaination.

HM: Working as a team implores some sort of organization in order to keep posts regular and in sync. Do you have special reading schedules and also how do you handle duplicated titles?

Liviu: We are at the beginning of the "FBC chorus" rather than "Robert the general" so we make it up as we go; we try to have reviews scheduled in advance and two weeks of content ahead done or almost so. We all have jobs, do this for love of books, do not get paid, so "real life" can and does intervene and it pays off to be organized.

Everyone reviews whatever they wish, the one general requirement is the book is recent/upcoming, while for books from 2-3 years past we tend to do exceptional ones that truly impressed us. We may do "classics" - with a flexible definition to include books published in 2002 for example - but no firm plans.

Regarding duplicate books - it's rare since our interests overlap only sometimes, but we can and do dual reviews - I did some with Robert, have one with Cindy - or we can have two different reviews of the same title, especially for big names like China Mieville or very notable books that got nominated for prizes and such; nothing to say why not.

Cindy: Like Liviu said the switch from one reviewer with a few contributors to a chorus is the big jump that we've made to FBC. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes for reading so there is very litle overlap. If there's a major title or one that a few of us wish to review we pretty much work together on the review if our opinions are the same, or we have sections where we can share our point. It never hurts to have more then one opinion.

What a lot of people don't know is there's a lot of emailing between us that goes on throughout the week. We share our plans for posts or what we see the week to 2 weeks ahead and work from there.

HM: In retrospect, have you ever done a negative review and how did you handle the situation? Every once in a while a book comes that doesn’t agree with a reviewer and there was a heated discussion revolving around negative reviews and what comes afterwards. Was there any fear of ruining your relationship with publishers?

Liviu: Sure I did some negative or so-so reviews - Fall of Thanes and City/City are some examples with Judging Eye an earlier one (more of not as good as expected than truly negative), not to speak of some capsules in my short story anthologies reviews; I know that authors spend a lot of time working on a book and I feel bad about "trashing a book", so usually I mark it as "not for me" and be as polite as I can; there are occasions when I get very annoyed that a book I find "for me and bad" got published instead of other potential ones that languish, so I would have a snarky line here and there on Goodreads where I keep a log of all my readings which are much more numerous than what I showcase on FBC.

I also buy/library most of my books including many review ones and I lived happily reading 200 books a year for almost 20 years now before the Net, FBC and all so I am not particularly concerned about my relation with publishers; sure I want to have a good relation with them and I consider Lou Anders from Pyr a great model for the online sff community, but I still do only what I want and the way I want it.

Regarding reading/reviewing - every book I read means another one unread, every book reviewed means another one un-reviewed by me; there is somewhere a (depressing) statistic about how many books people can read assuming lifespan x and reading rate y and I keep that in mind when deciding what to read/review. So FBC will have mostly "highly, highly recommended" reviews from me, by *my* choice and *my* reasons why I spend the time/energy reviewing. I simply choose those books out of the many I read or try to read.

Cindy: I like to review books that I enjoy, you won't see me reviewing a horror novel for example because I'm not into that so I don't feel it's just to review something I don't like. For the most part there is something positive to say about almost every book I read, but really a review should be honest, and if an author or publisher can't handle having slight negativities pointed out, I won't be that upset over it. I however believe there is a classy way to be negative, going on and on about how much I hate said book isn't doing it justice. I just say why I didn't feel it lived up to my expectations and what I felt it should be done.

HM: The foundations of FBC have already been laid down by the time you started contributing and now that this titan in the Review Blog field is in your hands, what are your plans? Will there be gradual or radical changes to the original formula?

Liviu: My only rules are: review and showcase what I love or what I thought would love but disappointed me and explained why in both cases; that means more sf, more historical fiction, more weird stuff and less traditional fantasy from me, but hopefully the other contributors will make it up there; other than that, maybe an occasional topic of interest essay, an occasional discussion of sff awards, updates on our plans, and author/series spotlights for big-time favorites of mine that have not appeared yet on FBC.

Cindy: I don't think there will be able radical changes as far as FBC, instead maybe showcasing titles that wouldn't normally have gotten the spotlight is what I"m looking for. I like YA books so I'd love to bring more of those into it, I'd also love some more epic fantasy and such.

HM: So as we know some bloggers that review books and know enough about literature, have writing aspirations. Do you want to stand on the other side of the business?

Liviu: Not for the foreseeable future but plans can always change.

Cindy: I used to and still play with the idea occasionally but it's not something I see happening in the next 5 years or so.

HM: Now when it comes to literature and reading as many books as you as a team have tackled, there must be established favorites and stay-away-from authors in your list. Can you for the sake of knowing name one author that has blown your perception of the genre in a good light and an author, who failed to deliver?

Liviu: IM Banks has been the most influential recent (80's on) sff author for me; Charles Stross has great short fiction but his novels have almost always failed to impress me.

Cindy: I've read such a range of books that it's hard to say I can't really compare a YA book to an adult book. But James Maxey took my idea of fantasy and dragons to a completely new light.

HM: What are your personal pet peeves when it comes to your respective genres and also do you see a tendency for these pet peeves and cliches, because they usually are worn out from repetition, to resolve?

Liviu: "Sf is dying" is a meme that keeps popping up here and there despite being patently untrue and it annoys me greatly. Bandwagon writing/publishing is something else that tends to be way overdone.

Cindy: I don't really have any pet peeves for fantasy, but I would have to say I don't like when the hero does everything right and not one thing wrong in a book. I sorta like it when they make real life mistakes.

HM: What do you think of self publishing? This is a very interesting topic as of late with the numbers of authors self-publishing on the rise and the treatment they receive not only from reviewers, but the whole book publishing community including readers.

Liviu: I have found lots of "independently" published gems - I prefer to call it this way since there are so many varieties of "self-publishing" today from old-fashioned "vanity presses", to micro-publishers to Lulu or Smashwords and similar sites where anyone can publish easily; interesting subject and excerpt that hooks me and I would and did read and/or review lots of "indies".

Cindy: I like finding that one "indie" book that is really good. I think self publishing to a point is great because it gets people out there that normally wouldn't be out there in the literary world. However, almost anyone can publish anything now a days, so I've become really selective and look for excerts of the book before reviewing because it could be not what I'm looking and hoping for.

HM: Do you think there are still areas fantasy has slipped that you would like to cover in other mediums? And how far do you think the fantasy/sci-fi culture will enter mainstream? This I ask because art purists denounce fantasy and sci-fi on a regular basis and yet they keep coming back full speed ahead.

Liviu: "Jazz became respectable, jazz became dead" is an (approximate) quote I love from a recently published interview with James Enge; I would be scared if sff becomes "respectable". Regarding mainstream, we are living in a "sf age" as even the possibility of this interview shows.

HM: Also there has been much denouncing of urban fantasy in pretty much the same vein mainstreamers give fantasy and sci-fi the cold shoulder. Where do you stand in this matter? I ask this because of my partiality to the genre and because genre vs. genre behavior has become frighteningly predominant in exchange between genre readers.

Liviu: It depends on how you define urban fantasy - if you refer to gods, elves or wizards in modern NYC, I generally find it very hard to suspend disbelief; also the structure of most urban fantasy as mysteries with investigator/detective narrators puts me off since frankly I am not a fan of the mystery genre conventions, they seem too limiting for me. There are exceptions of course, but overall I prefer secondary world fantasy; nothing implied about quality and such, just my suspension of disbelief is usually stretched too hard by urban fantasy.

Cindy: I don't have a preference from urban fantasy, I believe it's all in how the author presents this type of fantasy. So really I go more for the writing style then putting labels on books.

HM: As another newly developed custom I leave the lat word for the interviewees to conclude their session with few closing words on their own about blogging, reading or anything they fancy.

Liviu: I urge everyone to read as much as they can, discover and cherish authors and appreciate their work.

Cindy: Books are like food, everyone has their own tastes and likes and dislikes. If you don't like one type of writing check out a mystery, a biography, or a historical fantasy. I find it hard to believe when people say they can't find something "good" to read. There's millions and billions of books, just keep looking until you find what you like!