⇒OK, one more twist on the “nominated for an Edgar and a Nebula” meme, and then I swear we’re done: I told you about Michael Chabon‘s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, then I learned about Jeffrey Ford‘s The Girl in the Glass, and now Ellen Datlow emails to remind me of the Harlan Ellison novella “Mefisto in Onyx,” which she published in Omni nearly 15 years ago—after which it was nominated for an Edgar, a Nebula, a Hugo, and a World Fantasy Award, and won both the Bram Stoker award for horror and a fan poll held by Locus. (Obviously, when I call it “the most award-nominated story you’ve never heard of,” I’m not counting fantasy/sci-fi, mystery, and horror fans among “you.”)
⇒Remember how Japan’s hottest new fiction is ‘published’ on cell phones, and how Barry Yourgrau became one of the new genre’s stars? Now The Millions interviews Yourgrau, who says keitai “might be part of the future of the novel,” but “the ‘old novel’ still has lots of life.” Ben Vershbow has additional commentary at if:book about how such stories have migrated from the phonescreen to print, and sometimes from there to film adaptations:
“A story need not be bound to one particular delivery mechanism, be it a cell phone, web page (or book). In fact, the ecology of forms can make a more comprehensive narrative universe. This is not only the accepted wisdom of cross-media marketing franchisers and brand blizzardeers (Spiderman the comic, Spiderman the action figure, the lunchbox, the movie, the game, the Halloween costume etc.), but an age-old principle underlying the transmission of culture.”
(photo of Ellison from that YouTube clip that made the rounds during the writer’s strike; Yourgrau sent me that photo of him ages ago for a Beatrice Q&A)