Well, I’ve just sold my story, “Toxoplasmosis of the Brain; Candidiasis of the Esophagus; Candidiasis of the Trachea; Candidiasis of the Bronchi; Candidiasis of the Lungs; Kaposi’s Sarcoma; Pneumonia; Tuberculosis; Stab Wound in the Belly; and Bus Accident” to The Machine of Death, Volume 2. I had a story about Japanese yakuza (gangsters) in the first volume of the book, but while I was writing it, I got the idea for a second story. I didn’t end up writing it until I saw the call for submissions for Volume 2. As you might be able to guess from the title …
Category: WRITING
The Immersion Book of Steampunk and “The Clockworks of Hanyang”
While I sit on some other news that I cannot announce yet, there is something I forgot to mention in terms of a story publication! The Immersion Book of Steampunk is apparently out (since 20 September — I’m sadly a bit late), and editors Gareth D. Jones and Carmelo Rafala saw fit to include (among stories by a great list of contributors) my Korean Steampunk story, “The Clockworks of Hanyang.” (More information about the story is here, and you can get the book here (USA), or here (UK), or if you’re in Korea, it’s here. Or, you can order direct …
The Pain of Prescience That Missed the Train
When I was at the Clarion West workshop back in 2006, Vernor Vinge (our last instructor) spent a certain amount of time talking about the idea of “future-proofing” an SFnal story. The idea is that, since you’re talking about the future, you’re likely to get a bunch of things quite wrong. Anyone who’s read older SF knows this problem well, the signal example being the one everyone cites, of people on spaceships calculating the math for some complicated ship maneuver using slide rules, because nobody imagined calculating machines might get invented (and/or that such machines might become small enough to use …
“Zymurgico-Lovecraftian” Tale Finished
Whew. There, I’ve coined the word. (Actually, I did it elsewhere, but this feels more official.) I’ve mentioned this project recently, and now it’s done. The title is “The Homebrewer’s Consolamentum” and it takes two things that are fun and weird — zymurgy, ie. the science of fermentation, ie. making beer, among other things) and the Lovecraftian take on metaphysical/existential conspiracy by unimaginable, powerful beings — and puts them together. The rough draft of this story was, when I looked at it again, somewhat disappointing, for I’d written it in a fit of passion — but then, I hadn’t quite come …
Writing About What You Love
Notice, it says “what” you love, not “who” you love, which is another kettle of… well, fish? Hops? I am working on a short story about homebrewing, brewing, yeast, beer-mythology (there’s a lot of it), art, transformation… well, and finally I’ve come to think of it as my attempt to write something Zymurgico-Lovecraftian. (Zymurgy is the fancy-dancy word for the branch of applied chemistry related to fermentation — making beer, mead, wine, and the like using yeast. Lovecraftian is a term I expect I won’t have to explain to anyone reading this blog.) Anyway, I’m busily revising the story now …
Back to the Primeval Forest of Story
I took music lessons from about the 8th grade on. For a long time, it was just saxophone lessons, but when I was a high school senior, I started taking jazz theory lessons as well. I had a friend or two who’d done so — a pianist and a guitarist — and they both recommended the local freelance jazz pianist, a guy named Bill Richards (who I see is still playing and composing, happily). Bill was an excellent, thoughtful, and engaging teacher, as well as a genuinely good person, and I got a lot out of our lessons. I remember …
Editing…
This afternoon, I had to make a trip to the department office to hand in some paperwork, so I decided to email myself the manuscripts for a bunch of short stories that I’ve either submitted for critique, or else want to submit for crits, and which I want to revise this summer, alongside the novel-drafting I’m doing. I figure, the university is giving me “credit” (as achievements, but not as publications) for story publications, so I ought to be able to print stories at the department office for the purposes of revision and editing. One reason I printed the stories …
“Trois morceaux en forme de mechanika” in the latest Clarkesworld!
My newest publication, “Trois morceaux en forme de mechanika,” is now live as part of Clarkesworld #58 (July 2011). You can see the text (linked above) or listen to the podcast, wonderfully-narrated by Kate Baker, whatever you prefer. There’s all kinds of other good stuff this issue too, especially the hauntingly odd and very smart “Frozen Voice” by An Owomoyela (with its layers of language, linguistic colonialism, “alien” invasion — tough month for humans on Clarkesworld, this July is! — textuality, and identity). There’s some good nonfiction up this month too, including a sensible comment on ebooks (and how people talk …
Write-a-Thon
I’ve signed up for the Clarion West Write-a-thon again this year. This time around, I’ll be working on my long-deferred novel project, A Killing in Burma. I have a chunk of it written and I’m going for about 10,000-15,000 words a week, which should be possible even amid brewing, exercising, and catching up on my reading. That is, should be possible from this week; the first week of the Write-a-thon always happens during the last week of grading for me, so I will be playing catch-up for a week afterward, or something. We’ll see how much I produce. If I …
Critiques and How to Use Them
I’ve just finished reworking my story, “The Clockworks of Hanyang.” (Yay!) It’s one of those stories where it explodes in your mind in one form, gets reworked in another form, and neither of the two are really appropriate to the final form of the story. Some stories are like that — like bread dough, the demand to be kneaded and kneaded and bloody well kneaded. I’m pretty happy with how it’s come out at the moment, though I’ll need to set it aside for a day or two (no more than that) to see what I think of the changes …