WHY SHOULD I CUT YOUR THROAT?

Good question. Why should I cut your throat? It's certainly something I wondered about when a junkie said it to a friend of ours late one night in Atlanta, while wandering downtown, looking for food after a long day at DragonCon in 1990...

Somehow that convention experience, my first, felt like the perfect opening to my collected nonfiction. Thus, MonkeyBrain Books has just released 316 pages of VanderNonfiction under the title Why Should I Cut Your Throat?: Excursions into the Worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror. Although the book will not be available from bookstores until mid to late October, it can be purchased directly from the publisher right now.



What can you find in this tome? About 15 years-worth of essays, articles, polemics, reviews, and convention reports. The convention reports might be my favorite part of the book. From Harlan Ellison stories to bizarre New Orleans cuisine stories to visiting Lovecraft's grave to...well, these convention reports cover a little bit of everything.

But I'm also glad to see my long, long essay on Angela Carter finally collected in book form, as well as my essay on the creation of City of Saints & Madmen. It's also very cool to have a cover by Scott Eagle and be able to include an interview with Eagle in which he explains a little bit about the genesis of his work for City of Saints and for Secret Life.

The only nonfiction of note not included in this collection? My series of Odd Jobs columns on this blog, my Storyville Weekend report (collected on this blog, below), and my essay "The Romantic Underground," slated for inclusion in the Nebula Awards anthology in March 2005.