Stars Fell on Alabama

This story appeared in the October/November 2014 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction. It was written through the end of June into the second week of July 2013 (with a break during which I finished another jazz-centric SF story, which isn’t yet published); that is, I wrote this a few months after I started living in Saigon. If you enjoyed this novella, I hope the story notes below only add to that enjoyment.  And if you haven’t checked it out already, you may also enjoy my previous jazz-SF novella from Asimov’s, “Lester Young and the Jupiter’s Moons’ Blues.” Reviews: “For fans …

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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

This story appeared in the second volume of Machine of Death stories, titled This Is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death (2013). I actually got the idea for this story back when I was writing something else for Volume 1, but decided not to write it at the time because I was already knee-deep in the original story. Originally, I envisioned it as being from the point of view of a foreign aid worker, probably someone working with Médecins Sans Frontières. The story never got written, at least not for the first Machine of Death …

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The Rite

“The Rite” appeared in Bibliotheca Fantastica, edited by Claude Lalumière and Don Pizarro, and published by Dagan Books in late June 2013. There are many ways to buy the book listed here. Incidentally, the book was published just a couple of weeks after the centenary of “The Rite of Spring,” the orchestral work discussed in the story. (The premiere and world-famous riot happened in Paris on 29 May 1913.) That’s kind of cool! Background: When I started studying music at the University of Saskatchewan, my exposure to “classical music” had been limited to the Schubert, Schumann, Bach, and Mozart that …

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The Bernoulli War

“The Bernoulli War” appeared in the August 2012 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction. It received an Honorable mention in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois, and was reprinted in Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2013 Edition. A funny thing happened on the way to the publisher… No, really. This story was all but accepted in mid-2011, but there was some issue with the way the characters were named. Originally, I used strings of characters from various writing systems: Khmer, Chinese, Hangeul, Greek, Roman, Sanskrit, and so on. For example, the iterations …

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Empty of Words, The Page

“Empty of Words, The Page” appeared in Black Static 27, the February/March 2012 issue. I’ve been a fan of the magazine almost since its beginnings (I missed a few issues at the start), and I am proud that Andy Cox gave the tale a home there! One of those things that’s very hard to get a handle on in writing — much more, I think, than in music — is the effective development of a unique, highly personal voice. Some of my writer friends somehow quite naturally seem to have done it (or maybe they just make it look natural), …

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The Clockworks of Hanyang

“The Clockworks of Hanyang” appeared in The Immersion Book of Steampunk, edited by Gareth D Jones and Carmelo Rafala (Immersion Press, September 2011). It was reprinted in Sean Wallace’s anthology The Mammoth Book of Steampunk Adventures in the fall of 2014. This story was my response to the discussion I ran across in 2010 of the revisionist historiography that seemed inherent to a lot of steampunk writing and fandom. (As discussed in like this one by Charles Stross and this one by Nisi Shawl, along with this critique by Tobias Buckell and the post that brought the discussion to my attention — this one …

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Trois morceaux en forme de mechanika

“Trois morceaux en forme de mechanika” appeared in Clarkesworld #58 (July 2011). This is the second story I’ve written in the steampunky world of a mechanikae uprising. It explores some of the same issues as the previous story, “The Clockworks of Hanyang” and I won’t post a lengthy discussion of its themes, but instead will simply note things that might be of interest to one who has read it: The title is indeed inspired by the piece of music that the mechanika in Erik Satie’s room ponders. Satie, 19th century French composer, wrote the piece as a rebuke to critics …

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Improperly Prepared Blowfish

“Improperly Prepared Blowfish” is available in the Machine of Death anthology, edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki. (Order a copy, or check out the book’s website.) My story is illustrated by Jeffrey Brown. Go ahead and listen to the official Machine of Death podcast, narrated by Brett Donnelly. This story was one of the first batch of stories I sold, after attending Clarion West — not quite the first, I think, but maybe my third or fourth professional sale. It was written especially for Machine of Death. The concept of the anthology was as follows (from the book’s …

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The Broken Pathway

“The Broken Pathway” is available in The Immersion Book of SF, edited by Carmelo Rafala and published by Immersion Press, which will be coming out at the end of September. (But you can preorder it on Amazon now!) This is a story that’s especially fun because it’s set in the neighborhood where I live, featuring Wonmi-san (Wonmi Mountain) the small mountain where I have, several times in the last few years, gone hiking daily, and which was also the setting for a few stories by the inestimable Korean author Yang Kwi-Ja in her collection 원미동 사람들 (or, as the English …

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The Bodhisattvas

“The Bodhisattvas” appeared in the Spring 2010 issue of Subterranean, guest edited by Johnathan Strahan for Spring 2010. (A Korean translation, by Kim Chang-gyu, titled “보살들,” appeared slightly earlier in the <백만 관년의 고독 > One Million Light-Years of Solitude) SOAO Workshop anthology from Omelas, December 2009.) This story was influenced by my attendance of two astronomy-focused workshops for creative writers (and other creators): The SOAO Workshop at Sobaek Mountain (South Korea) hosted by the Korea Astronomical and Space Science Institute in February 2009, and the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop in July 2009. The original version of this story formed part of …

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