A friend’s recent post (on a mailing list, so no link) has me thinking about the fact I’m in a slump in terms of sending out stories and even in terms of writing. The last semester just really took it out of me. Between the stress of considering hunting for a new job, getting my freelance gig done, staying on top of my classes, and dealing with personal stuff, there’s been little energy or brain-space left over for writing. Which drives home to me the importance of priorities. What’s more important: freelance gigs, or writing? What’s more important: making each …
Category: WRITING
Clarion West — Support or Attend!
If you love speculative fiction — horror, fantasy, SF, and so on — then I’ve got a way you can pitch in to keep pumping fresh blood into the genre. That is, the Clarion West workshop is looking for donations, and for students for next year. If you read this blog regularly, I’ll have mentioned Clarion West before, but I have described it in a while. So here goes: it is a workshop for speculative fiction writers, one that is sometimes described as a “boot camp” for them to cross over into professional publishing. I’m far from the only person …
Low Point, High Point
Low point of the day: Smarmy Campus Bureaucrat Dude entered my apartment without knocking. Since the house was rather hot (we’re still working on getting the hang of the ondol controls here, which are old-fashioned valves instead of digital controls like modern apartments have), I was at my computer in boxers and a t-shirt, typing away, while Lime was sprawled asleep on the bedroom floor. Smarmy Campus Bureaucrat Dude didn’t even think to apologize for coming in without knocking until I pulled some clothes on and told him it was unacceptable to enter people’s homes without at least knocking or …
Purty Good Day…
Why? Some much-needed documents are on their way here. I received my copy of Interzone 219, with some very fine art illustrating it., and a cheque for my story, too. My students in one class — the graphic novel class — volunteered to work during the first week or so of post-semester break, in order to do a good job finishing up their project, rather than rush through and do a so-so job before exams. I was quite stunned. They jokingly asked for extra credit, but the best I can do is give them a pizza party or take them …
Writer Career Path Meme
Pro-writer career path meme via Vylar Kaftan. (Note: “Pro” here I’m just defining as SFWA pro, or, well, someone who sells stuff to pro markets. I’m not a pro in the sense of not having a day job. Lots of writers aren’t, but non-writers may or may not assume this. So when we say pro, it doesn’t always mean full-time.) Current Status as of now: 4 stories in circulation (I’ve been pretty busy, so this is slumpy) many stories awaiting rewrite 1 or 2 stories waiting for particular markets to open up not sure how many stories completed but trunked …
Gecko Tape? Oil-Defecating Bacteria? Spider Silk Construction Materials?
These are the kinds of things that end up in 8th grade conversational English textbooks when you let an SF writer do some of the content. (The spider silk was actually suggested to me: I just riffed on the theme of biotech.) It also happens to say a lot that anyone besides an SF writer could look at content like that for such a textbook and say, “Yeah, sure, why not?” Heck of a world we’re in, folks! But you know, biotech is at least more interesting than, “This is my sister. She is five years old.” Or some of …
“Dhuluma No More” podcast at Starship Sofa
The podcast of my story “Dhuluma No More” (from Asimov’s Oct/Nov. 2008) is now live at Starship Sofa. Check out the website — he’s got tons of excellent stories by others, including, last week, one of my favorite authors, Bruce Sterling — but feel free to download the podcast directly from here. The podcast has some other excellent content besides my story — including a fantastic piece (of a piece?) called “How We Did It, Or, Orson Welles and the Pickle Jar of Doom” by Lawrence Santoro, a short story by Bertram Chandler, some poetry by Mikal Trimm, a book …
(STICKY:) Tesseracts Twelve Is Out!
I haven’t seen it yet — as I’m in Korea, and it’s not stocked here, and I haven’t gotten a contributor’s copy yet — but I see that over on Amazon.ca, Tesseracts Twelve is available. (Here’s the link on Amazon.com, if you’re in the US, or Amazon.co.uk if you’re in Britain/Europe. Or if you’re in Korea, you can get it at Whatthebook.com.) The book was launched yesterday at World Fantasy Con, if I’m not mistaken… The publisher, EDGE Books, has a page for the book here (though, warning, the pages display weird in Firefox, at least in Ubuntu). It was …
[redacted] and the Blowfish
Yet more good writing-related news: the Machine of Death anthology is going to be illustrated, and (I think this is firm) I’m chuffed at who they’ve chosen to illustrate my little yakuza story! (Which some might remember is titled “Improperly Prepared Blowfish.”) (NOTE: I noticed that the guys over at Machine of Death is not publicizing names for a bit, so I’ll let them announce it first when things are finalized. But it’s cool!) The comics world is a foreign land to me, as is probably evident from the fact I used the word “comics” just now, but I had …
Dhuluma No More Podcast
More writing squeeage — Starship Sofa, an excellent British SF podcast I’ve been listening to for a while now, will be podcasting “Dhuluma No More,” my most recent publication which appeared in Asimov’s SF. Now, I just need to get the manuscript tidied (ie. enter the copy-edits into my final text) and email it to Tony Smith at Starship Sofa. Apparently he’s got a hell of a lineup in addition to the stories he’s already podcast, including people like Bruce Sterling, Nancy Kress, Ted Chiang, Elizabeth Bear, Norman Spinrad, and all kinds of other luminaries. So, yes, I am feeling …