What're You Up To? (And Thirdbearblurbage)

(Cover by Jacob McMurray)I'm out the full week on deadlines, so please share what you've been up to since I can't. Also, my story collection The Third Bear is scheduled to come out in August from Tachyon, and some very nice people have read it in advance and offered some words. I feel very blessed.Jeff“Cunningly crafted stories full of wonder and intelligence...VanderMeer proves again why he is so essential and why everybody should be reading him.”—Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao“Jeff Vandermeer is not to be trusted. He hypnotizes with shiny objects, bizarrely beautiful shapes and phrases, then (more often than not) gently drifts you into very dark places. You won't know where you're going till you get there and then, of course, it's too late.”—Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy“Vandermeer’s stories hit one’s hindbrain slantwise—they offer no easy answers and no comfort. Rather they are hard, brilliant gems meant to cut and shine—these are some of the most beautiful, upsetting, and accomplished tales I have ever read.”—Catherynne M. Valente, author of The Orphan’s Tales“The Third Bear contains some of my favorite stories of recent years. There’s the meticulous workplace surrealism of ‘The Situation,’ the remorseless multi-world cataclysms of ‘The Goat Variations,’ the beautiful eldritch heartsickness of ‘The Surgeon’s Tale.’ [co-written with Cat Rambo]. Jeff VanderMeer is one of the very best.”—Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Brief History of the Dead“Jeff VanderMeer knows what story can do to human consciousness, as is delightfully evident in his latest collection, The Third Bear. These stories are smart, gorgeous, allusive, and tricky. VanderMeer is a fantasist extraordinaire.”—Jack O’Connell, author of The Resurrectionist“Annexing the weird half-lit spaces between genres, these stories lean sometimes into fantasy and sf, sometimes into metafiction, but are always deft and pleasurable reads. VanderMeer is one of the few writers out there able to coax something startling and necessary from anything...a very strong collection.”—Brian Evenson, author of Last Days“Jeff VanderMeer’s work is subversive and disquieting, possessed of an almost kinetic force in its impact upon the mind. Body horror gone viral, fairytales wrapped in their own entrails, and metafictional murder; these and other images herein are sure to leave their mark and fester in the subconscious. Already a well-regarded fantasist, The Third Bear reveals VanderMeer at his most fearsome.”—Laird Barron, author of The Imago Sequence and Other Stories