Category: WRITING

Why Should You Sponsor Me?

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Most writers I know agree: going to a workshop like Clarion West isn’t, strictly speaking, a necessity for becoming a writer. However, one could say the same thing about film schools, or art and music conservatories, or for that matter for business managers. All kinds of things can be learned outside of a classroom-and-teacher paradigm. But that’s not an argument that Clarion West isn’t necessary. The workshop, and others like it, has helped a lot of writers I know get what they need to start functioning as authors–that is, as people who actually get their work published professionally, and contribute to …

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Miracle Books Story Collection Deal

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So last Saturday, I signed the contract on a book deal that had been in the works for a while. I had only hinted at it until now, but since the contract’s signed, I feel I can say something about it. The twist is, the book’s a Korean-language project: the publisher is 기적의책 (Miracle Books, a small independent Korean speculative fiction publisher), which has published a few projects so far, including Korean translations of Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars, Ray Cummings’ The Girl in the Golden Atom, and Heinlein’s Orphans of the Sky. (As well, of course, as involvement in the Miraekyung …

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“The Bernoulli War” Story Notes Up

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Earlier today, I posted some story notes about “The Bernoulli War,” my most recent publication (in the current Asimov’s SF). If you’re interested in reading more about the story, including: why spambots ate the story for half a year, the original character naming scheme, the book that inspired it, a bit about the thought process and earlier attempted stories that got mulched into the draft, … and more… well, you can read more about it here.

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Publication News: A New Story Out, and a Reprint in Good Company

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I am in the habit now of not announcing things until they’re definitely announced by the publisher, but I have some publishing news that’s definitely out of the bag, and I’m pleased about it, so here it is: First off, my Clarkesworld story “Of Melei, of Ulthar” is going to be reprinted in The Book of Cthulhu II, from Nightshade books. Checking out the Table of Contents, I am frankly bowled over to find myself in the company of the likes of Fritz Leiber and William Browning Spencer, two authors I’ve been reading since I rediscovered speculative fiction as an …

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“Unevenly Distributed: The Mudang’s Dance” in Arc 1.02

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UPDATE (31 May 2012): There’s a preview for my piece available here, for those who would like a sneak peek. ORIGINAL POST: The new SF/Science magazine Arc, put out by the makers of New Scientist, has just published its second issue, Arc 1.02, with the theme of “Post Human Conditions.” Among the contents is an article by yours truly, included as an installment of the magazine’s “Unevenly Distributed” column. My piece, titled “The Mudang’s Dance,” is about South Korea’s particular relationship with futurity, memory, modernity, and change — assessed in the light of William Gibson’s famous comment “The future is already here, …

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In Times of Upheaval

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Interesting details gleaned from Tania: Memories of a Lost World by Tania Alexander (daughter of the infamous Moura Budberg, about whom I have posted before, many times, all the way back to 2006, as part of a story I am once again about to begin revising, after finishing a draft in 2010): during World War I, what was Russian high society doing? There were no official parties or embassy balls for the duration of the war, but right up to the  October 1917 Revolution it was possible to maintain the outward appearances of social life, and restaurants and gypsy taverns …

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Pound and/or Rilke

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Ezra Pound famously wrote a book on politics, titled Jefferson and/or Mussolini. This having been published in 1935, he’s referring to Thomas Jefferson, rather than the Jeffersons, though, uh: Anyway, the two poets I’ve long thought would make great protagonists for some kind of fantasy novel are Rilke — mainly, in the light of his trek through Russia — and Pound, in terms of his insane life, his insane poetry, and what I vaguely sensed was an occult undercurrent in The Cantos. Of course, my sense of how each figure would be best handled has diverged: Rilke, I always though, …

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미래경 (Futuroscope) #3 Has Arrived

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This entry is part 53 of 72 in the series SF in South Korea

It’s been one of those weeks, seriously it has — and today, during my office hours, I was flooded with visitors (which is to be expected, as it’s Teacher’s Day today). In any case, one of the visitors came by to drop off a package that had been accidentally delivered to the wrong office. In it was my contributor’s copy of the Korean “mook” (magazine-book) fanzine 미래경 (Futuroscope) #3 (Spring 2012), which contains my article “Outside Looking In” (translated to Korean by Insu Hong). (For those interested, I’ll see if I can post a copy of the piece in English sometime …

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“Fix” Published, and Launching “Stuff To Read”

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Well, only subscribers will see it for now, but I just got my contributors’ copies for the July 2012 issue of Asimov’s SF, which contains my short poem “Fix” (along with work by a number of other wonderful writers, including Robert Reed and Michael Blumlein, the latter an author I’ve read and admired since I first started reading speculative fiction: The Brains of Rats is still on my shelf, here in Korea!) Even better, This is the first of two appearances I’ll be making in Asimov’s this year, with my short story “The Bernoulli War” coming in the following issue …

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Whew…

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This entry is part 12 of 15 in the series Making "The Music of Jo Hyeja"

I have gotten so much done in the last couple of weeks that it simply isn’t funny: the semi-final draft of an article with a swiftly approaching deadline the final draft of a new short story submitted to Bibliotheca Fantastica a revision of the subtitles for our film, “The Music of Jo Hyeja” But there’s a lot left to do too, especially grading. owever, I’m tempted to take tommorrow off just for housecleaning and reading a novel, some novel, any novel, along with one nonfiction book on Pound; I never get enough reading done during semesters, and I’m eager to …

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