#michael blumlein

All of us at Tachyon are saddened by the news of the amazing Micheal Blumlein’s death.

Formerly a practicing M.D and faculty member at the University of California in San Francisco, Michael Blumlein’s modest, yet impactful output included The Movement Of Mountains (1987), The Healer (2005), THE ROBERTS (2011), and Longer (2019). His novel X,Y (1993) was the basis for the 2004 movie of the same name.

Ysabeau Wilce, Jacob Weisman, Michael Blumlein at Nebula Weekend, May 17, 2014 (photo: Ellen Datlow)

Many of his short stories and essays have been collected in the Readercon Award winner and World Fantasy Award nominated The Brains of Rats (1990), What the Doctor Ordered (2013), All I Ever Dreamed (2018), and Thoreau’s Microscope (2018). Blumlein also wrote the screenplay for the acclaimed short film Decodings (1988).

A practicing M.D and a faculty member at the University of California in San Francisco, Michael Blumlein’s modest, yet impactful output includes The Movement Of Mountains (1987), The Healer (2005), THE ROBERTS (2011), and Longer (2019). His novel X,Y (1993) was the basis for the 2004 movie of the same name.

Many of his short stories and essays have been collected in the Readercon Award winner and World Fantasy Award nominated The Brains of Rats (1990), What the Doctor Ordered (2013), All I Ever Dreamed (2018), and Thoreau’s Microscope (2018). Blumlein also wrote the screenplay for the acclaimed short film Decodings (1988).

All of us at Tachyon wish the amazing Michael a great birthday.

The amazing Dr. Michael Blumlein, author of THE ROBERTS, with the help of writer and jazz pianist Carter Scholz celebrates the release of his new novel Longer at Bird & Beckett in San Francisco on Sunday, June 23 at 2pm.

Michael Blumlein has had a distinguished 30+ year career in speculative fiction, and presents his novel, Longer, today at Bird & Beckett with a little help from his friend, fellow writer, and jazz pianist Carter Scholz.

Library Journal says, “Blumlein gives us Waiting for Godot, set in space, in succinct and intelligent storytelling.” We like anything that reference Sam Beckett, of course, though it’s not certain how that fits this wonderful novel. Nimble and tender, poignant and thoughtful. At once complex and simple. A touch of the marvelous, floating just out of reach where philosophy and science mingle in the miasma. Ultimately, it’s seems to be about the decisions the heart leads us to make about our lives and the work we do.  And about how we avoid, embrace or ponder the inevitability of death.

Bird & Beckett Sunday, Junes 23 2pm 653 Chenery Street San Francisco CA 415-586-3733

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

Nick Mamatas, Kelley Armstrong (photo: Kathryn Hollinrake), Joe R. Lansdale (Ulf Andersen/Getty Images), and Michael Blumlein

NIGHTMARE (FEB. 2019 (ISSUE 77) offers a reprint of Nick Mamatas’ “The Glottal Stop,” which first appeared in THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF EVERYTHING.

Dating cis was rough, no doubt. For any woman, but especially for Beatriz Almonte, a living meme who had several years ago made a mistake and gained the attention of a secret bulletin board full of trolls for whom harassing her was a vocation not dissimilar from the priesthood. She had no more free background checks left on Spinstr, but was bored and horny enough to do without just this once and press *sm00ch* on some guy’s face. Another mistake.

That same issue of NIGHTMARE delivers an excerpt from “We Are All Monsters Here” by Kelley Armstrong.

So disappointing. After decades of movies and TV shows and books filled with creatures by turns terrifying and tempting, it was a guarantee that the real thing could never live up to the hype. We knew that. Yet we were still disappointed.

When the first stories hit the news—always from some distant place we’d never visited or planned to visit—the jokes followed. Late-night comedy routines, YouTube videos, Internet memes . . . people had a blast mocking the reality of vampires. The most popular costume that Halloween? Showing up dressed as yourself and saying, “Look, I’m a vampire.” Ha-ha.

Brad Miska for BLOODY DISGUSTING reports on the inclusion of “The Companion” by Joe R., Kasey, and Keith Lansdale in the forthcoming ShudderTV show Creepshow.

Production Weekly reports that Matt Venne (Stephen King’s “Bag of Bones”, Acts of vengeance, “Fear Itself”: Pelts) will write the “Creepshow” episode “The Companion”, which is based on the 1995 short story by Joe R. Lansdale, Kasey Jo Lansdale, and Keith Lansdale.

“13-year-old Harold decides to explore the long-abandoned farm of the late Raymond Brenner, and finds that he’s got a new Companion: a murderous, indestructible scarecrow.”

At his recent event at Malvern Books, Michael Blumlein read from THE ROBERTS.

And then was interviewed by Christopher Brown.