Comments on: Blurbs

By: Lenna

Lenna — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 03:32:22 +0000

justine, i’m on your side with the zombie-ness.
I have Unicorn issues…they go way back to my little pony days
[gah..shuddering...dry heave]
as for zombie unicorns?? thats a taaad on the odd side, but i’d read a book about it if the blurb on the cover was good like “if you enjoy reading author blogs with inter-author arguments on mythical creatures, you’ll love this book!”

By: Chang, in space!

Chang, in space! — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 14:09:58 +0000

IF we let the unicorns give us piggybacks, then the zombies win. But then, IF we give the zombies piggybacks, don’t they and the unicorns win? Because the zombies love eat brainz and they’re closer to them brainz when on piggyback and then the unicorns laugh at our folly.

I think zombies AND unicorns win and then humanity loses.

By: Diana

Diana — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:17:17 +0000

I have a unicorn coat. So soft! So warm! And completely impermeable.

I also know a few zombie unicorns. They aren’t a bad sort, once you get used to their man-eating ways.

By: holly

holly — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:26:56 +0000

…and we all know you love to touch unicorns, right scott?

I predict a lot of shingles in your future.

By: scott w

scott w — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:18:03 +0000

In my next fantasy novel, there is a race of winged zombies who fly around pissing on unicorns from a great height. So ubiquitous are these zombies that the word in Standard Tongue for “unicorn” translates literally to “yellow-coated annoying creature.”

Zombie unicorns are cool, because they only allow people with shingles to touch them.

By: John Scalzi

John Scalzi — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:06:13 +0000

I propose a meeting of the minds:

Zombie unicorns.

Discuss.

By: cherie priest

cherie priest — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 22:32:11 +0000

And that’s yet another reason that zombies will eventually conquer all the unicorns. No natural predators — not even man. Top of their food chain, they are.

zombie pride 43va!

By: holly

holly — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 22:26:04 +0000

Leapfrog with a unicorn is a more demanding sport. An Olympic event, even.

And while you may well deride my desire for a unicorn coat, no one, but NO ONE wants a coat made from a zombie.

By: cherie priest

cherie priest — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 22:05:22 +0000

Well. I think the whole “unicorn coat” thing underscores quite nicely what sort of people are prone to Unicorn Love. I do believe that their fan club makes yet another irrefutable strike against them.

Yup.

And also in the Superiority of the Undead column: you can play leapfrog with a zombie. That’s just one more reason why zombies are cooler than unicorns.

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:52:03 +0000

Cherie of course is talking about American zombies, while I am discussing Australian zombies who are famous for their cleanliness.

Oh, and I would so wear a unicorn coat. I have the perfect place for it in my closet, right next to the one made from Dalmation puppies.

Holly! You monster!

By: holly

holly — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:51:08 +0000

In addition to the many diseases that contact with their decomposing flesh could give you, one could argue that zombie-ism is a communicable disease all on its own.

Oh, and I would so wear a unicorn coat. I have the perfect place for it in my closet, right next to the one made from Dalmation puppies.

By: cherie priest

cherie priest — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:48:36 +0000

Oh. Oh that’s just COLD, Holly. Now you’re hatin’ on zombies over something they’ve got no control over. They can’t help it that they’re germy and shambly. They didn’t choose to be infectious undead!

Why don’t you just point and laugh at orphans, widows, and 3-legged puppies too, while you’re at it?

By: holly

holly — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:42:40 +0000

But the horn of a unicorn can cure diseases! Possibly the diseases you might get from accepting a piggyback ride from a zombie.

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:29:19 +0000

See, Holly? No one holds with your zombie-hating ways.

By: cherie priest

cherie priest — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:24:52 +0000

But Holly, if you ask nicely, a zombie will give you a piggyback ride even if you are not a virgin.

And that is why zombies win.

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:24:18 +0000

I shamble. Bits fall off me all the time: Hair, skin cells. Are you saying you disapprove of me?

By: holly

holly — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:17:10 +0000

Zombies shamble. I disapprove of shambling. And bits that fall off. You never see a unicorn behaving that way.

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 20:46:30 +0000

Oh, I see, so you’re all for the use of unicorn products. Are you thinking about having a unicorn coat made for yourself as well? I wonder how PETA feels about your unicorn-exploiting ways . . .

Not to mention that zombies don’t have diseases. I’m appalled that you would spread lies about them.

By: marrije

marrije — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 20:17:24 +0000

but why, diana? or is that between the two of you? confusion!

By: Diana

Diana — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 20:10:49 +0000

Marrije,

Justine is evil. But then, so are unicorns.

Scott, to hear it from Maureen Dowd, it’s all a big, blurbin’ daisy chain in genre fic world…

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 20:09:03 +0000

Robin: My dislike of unicorns goes back to childhood but I cannot discuss that trauma without becoming further traumatised.

Holly: What kind of a person doesn’t like zombies? What have zombies ever done to you?

I cannot comment on the shingles unicorn incident except to say that my husband is innocent!

Also I am not evil. Diana’s the evil one. And unicorns of course.

I ask you, Marrije, why, if they’re so sweet and innocent do unicorns have sharp pointy horns?

By: Kevin Wignall

Kevin Wignall — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 19:51:56 +0000

Much on my mind at the moment. I was lucky to have Jeffery Deaver blurb my first book – he’d met me at a dinner but our joint agents and publishers asked him. A few years later he told me he read a lot of books but only blurbed those he truly wanted to tell people about, a good policy.

i’ve blurbed books just because authors asked me and i didn’t want to say no, even though i couldn’t imagine a blurb from me being worth anything. in the process, i’ve blurbed books i probably shouldn’t have blurbed and i’m toying with a no blurb policy, but there’s the rub…

now my new editor is asking if i can solicit blurbs for the new book. not nice, and this post has made up my mind – i won’t do it.

by the way, john, you assume scott was the instigator of the shingles-inducing encounter, but if the unicorn was the instigator that would explain justine’s aversion to said mythical beast.

By: marrije

marrije — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 19:44:35 +0000

who is evil, diana? justine? scott? or mr scalzi?

By: Diana

Diana — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:46:15 +0000

you’re evil.

By: scott w

scott w — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:15:42 +0000

I think the relations between blurbers are interesting in their own right, much like those in writers’ acknowledgments.

Someone should do a Six Degrees of Blurbification site, where anyone can enter blurb relationships found on a book. That way we can all see how many blurbs we are from, say, F. Scott Fitzgerald. (Hint: If you’re an sf writer, all roads lead through Jonathan Lethem.)