2008 - 02/2008 Meeting

Page Created: 09/16/10. Last Updated: 11/01/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 03/06/08.

JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS

John Joseph Adams is an editor, an author, and a reviewer.

Editor:

Assistant Editor: Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

Anthologies Edited:

.....No More Room in Hell: Stories of the Living Dead (forthcoming)

.....Seeds of Change (forthcoming)

.....Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse

Reviews Published in:

.....Kirkus Reviews

.....Publisher's Weekly

.....Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show

Non Fiction Appearances:

.....Amazing Stories

.....The Internet Review of Science Fiction

.....Locus

.....Novel & Short Story Writers Market

.....Science Fiction Weekly

.....Shimmer

.....Strange Horizons

.....Subterranean Magazine

.....Writer's Digest

Print News Correspondent:

.....Sci Fi Wire

Mr Adam's website is: http://www.johnjosephadams.com/.

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: February 9, 2008.

Meeting Site: Saddle River Valley Cultural Center, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 17.

Meeting Program: Talk by Editor/Writer.

Notes:

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2008 Philip J De Parto:

Editor John Joseph Adams addressed the meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County on Saturday, Feburary 9, 2008. The event was held in the Saddle River Valley Cultural Center in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Episodes of the anime series DEVIL MAY CARE were shown at the Animation Associates in the basement prior to the meeting. The Ice Nine pre meeting discussion ranged from books (SPOCK MUST DIE by James Blish), to TV (JERICHO), to movies (genre Academy Award winners), to science (the difficulty of detecting vessels in space).

John Joseph Adams dropped out of high school at 16 to work at Wendy's and later with his sister and brother-in-law at Walden Books. After a few years, he got tired of working retail, got his GED, enrolled in a community college, and later transferred to a four year school.

He began working at THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION shortly after graduating. He sent out a blind resume in January 2001. Gordon Van Gelder interviewed him and said that although he did not have a spot at the present time, he would keep Mr Adams in mind. In May of that year, he came aboard the magazine.

F&SF receives between 500 and 700 submissions a month. The magazine is known for its quick turnaround time on rejections because of Gordon's philosophy that there is no way to do it nice, but at least you can do it fast. Mr Adams is in the office three days a week. Works by established authors go to Gordon. Our guest looks at the rest. Any story which sees print is looked at by both of them. In 6 - 7 years of working at the magazine, Mr Adams has discovered about 18 slush pile survivors.

One day while working at F&SF, he went on a rant on the subject of the lack of coverage and reviews of audio books. Gordon suggested that he pitch a column on the subject to LOCUS. Charles Brown agreed to it on a trial basis, which led to Mr Adams doing one for PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY. This in turn led to reviewing books at KIRKUS and interviews at SCI-FI.COM. An article on Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction (Top 5 novels: THE LONG TOMORROW, NO BLADE OF GRASS, A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ, EARTH ABIDES, and THE LONG, LOUD SILENCE) for THE INTERNET REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION led him to pitching the idea for an original anthology on the subject. There were no takers, but his agent interested Night Shade Books on a mostly (one new story) reprint anthology which became WASTELANDS.

Reviews of the collection have generally been positive. It was a star review of PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY. THE BOOK SLUT slammed it, though. He will be editing a couple of other anthologies for Night Shade in the future.

One idea which did not work out as originally planned was a pitch to DAW Books for an original anthology titled, Pirate Fantastic. He was able to do a variant on the theme as a guest editor at SHIMMER MAGAZINE, a quarterly publication. SHIMMER has a blind submissions policy, i.e., stories are evaluated strictly on their merits. The reader does not know who wrote the piece so that they cannot be swayed by the author's reputation.

We thank Mr Adams for being an interesting and informative guest.