Heads up! “Asimov’s SF: Next Issue” Gord Sellar, making a memorable Asimov’s debut, takes us on a long, strange trip around the Solar System with an unlikely cadre of jazz legends in “Lester Young and the Jupiter’s Moons’ Blues”… It’s coming soon, folks! I’m giddy. (Hat tip to reader.)
Category: WRITING
The Gnaw
What gnaws at me these days is a sense that I haven’t got enough of my stories out to markets. I have four stories coming out in major places, probably most of them this year, but you know, there’s always next year’s publications to get started on. It’s amazing how, when you develop the habit, even a slight lull in submitting work begins to nag at you. You start checking your tracker stats, counting up how much stuff you’ve got out at markets, and asking yourself why you haven’t sent out more. Or, at least I do. Still, this is …
Apparent Slight Progress (Actually Major Progress, Sort Of)
Sometimes, progress in drafting a story isn’t immediately visible by wordcount changes.
Jetse’s Challenge
Well, I’ve finalized a few writing projects. “Wonjjang and the Madman of Pyongyang” is completed, done, finished (the text handed in the other day) and I have pretty much tidied and prepared a few more stories for sending out (some minor editing was necessary on them all: “The Broken Pathway”, “Solvjaynghi’s Christmas Wish”, and the piece I sent to Nemonymous for the Cone Zero anthology. Today, I whipped off a little Biblical End Times zombie piece for Bits of the Dead, which the lovely and talented Tristan (Facebook profile again, as that’s all he’s got!) pointed out today — though …
Weekend Update
This weekend I: and Lime met some people for dinner. Not all of whom I expected would be there, but the ones seated nearest us were cool. However, at an adjoining table was a student invited by one of the LEC teachers. The student is a nice enough guy but I’m kind of annoyed since, when around a student from my own department, I always have to be a little on my guard, or, at least, can’t quite relax and be myself. But happily after the dinner a few of us got together and hung out, particularly the people upstairs …
Sold: Dhuluma No More…
I’m very pleased to say that my tale of climatech, climaterrorism, the global south, and journalism in the mid-21st century, “Dhuluma No More,” has been accepted for publication in Asimov’s SF! That’s my second official pro sale of 2008, and the year’s still very young! It’s also my second sale to Asimov’s! I owe a big thanks to my friends from Clarion West who helped me out with a much earlier draft titled “Ogallalla”… especially Shawn Scarber… from whom I learned a lot when he discussed the original (and triple the current length) draft of this story. Since I can’t …
Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Podcatchers…
I’m terrible at keeping up with podcasts. Mostly, I like to blame software for that. I haven’t found a podcatcher that I really like. Well, and time, because podcasts don’t allow for skimming, you know? But there’s also the profusion of good stuff out there, which prevents me from keeping up, and suddenly I feel backlogged, and… But anyway, I know most of you are better at this sort of thing than I am, so I bring to your attention Podcastle, the new fantasy-genre podcast, a sibling to the now famous Escape Pod SF podcast (and Pseudopod, which runs horror …
Wonjjang Sold!
I’m pleased to announce that my “Asian superhero team” story “Wonjjang and the Madman of Pyongyang” will be appearing in the Canadian speculative fiction anthology Tesseracts12, edited by Claude Lalumière, in 2008. It’s my third submission to Tesseracts, the first being a ghost story I sent back in the mid-90s (and which the editor recommended I send to someone else, and mention his or her name on it, but I didn’t as I wasn’t so happy with the story when I saw it again), and the being second last year. Third time’s the charm, I guess? In any case, I’m …
Winter Wheat Out…
Whew. That was like birthing a… well, I don’t know about birthing, to be honest, but “Winter Wheat” is the biggest piece of writing I’ve ever sent out, and it took me ages to get it ready. Every time I looked at it, there was something screaming to be added, squirming to be adjusted, wriggling to be fiddled with. I think I know now what whoever it was meant when he or she said, “Novels don’t get finished, they get abandoned.” But if it gets rejected, I’ll give it another look — I always do that with everything — but …
Review?
WOTF rockstar Sonia Helbig kindly let me know of a review of my story “Pahwakhe” by Carol Riles at the Writing Walking Whatever blog. It’s ever so flattering and ever so positive, and I appreciated it, since I think it’s the first review of something I’ve written by someone who didn’t know me personally… ie. I’m calling it my first review. Oh, and here’s another review that’s just gone up at The Fix. Also positive, despite (understandable) trepidation about the subject matter.