#dungeon23, Days 1-9: The Lunar Surface Access Complex

This entry is part 1 of 8 in the series #dungeon23

So, I’ve joined in on the #dungeon23 thing. (Or, #facility23? Er, whatever. Check out the original post if you don’t know what this is.) I will be posting here intermittently about it—probably after each “chunk” is finished, rather than on a fixed schedule like once a week. I’m not sure whether I’ll bounce each post to social media or just just toot/tweet them occasionally: I guess we’ll see.  My first chunk this year took 9 days, so that’s what I’m updating about. (I know it’s the 10th of the year, but this is everything up to and including yesterday. I …

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Review(s) of “Sojourn,” and Other Thoughts

I was very gratified a few weeks ago to learn of Simon Scott’s comments about by story “Sojourn”, one of the stories from the 2020 collection  City of Han that he discussed in a review in Kyoto Journal. He begins this way: In this era of extreme global hypersensitivity to race and national narratives, it is arguably a high-risk proposition for a Western expat author in Asia to write about such things. Yet two of the authors represented in this volume of expat short stories from South Korea, Gord Sellar and Ron Bandun, fearlessly walk the ideological plank of their …

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A**hole Island

Hey, finally post that’s not about RPG stuff, huh?  I’m ending the first week of my month of writing time this year. This is the first time I’ve reallyt sat down and done some serious writing since 2018. I… just didn’t have it in me, somehow, in 2019, and throughout most of 2020 our son was home with us and my wife was recovering from a work-related injury for a chunk of the year, so … really, honestly, I guess I’d have to say it was some combination of there being no time and no energy.   This year, though: we worked …

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Fermentvm Nigrvm Dei Sepvlti Reviews

So, it’s been a few months since Fermentvm Nigrvm Dei Sepvlti was released! During that time, there’s been some mostly-favorable reviews posted: The first appeared at Save vs. Player Agency: Fermentum is an inspiring and substantial addition to the Lamentations of the Flame Princess product line-up, at over double the size of the largest of 2019’s offerings. It is at once something new and impressive from a new (to our hobby bookshelves anyway) and impressive author, and entirely at home thematically and aesthetically with the existing Lamentations of the Flame Princess range. I highly recommend it! Next, a review appeared …

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FERMENTVM NIGRVM DEI SEPVLTI Now Out!

So, my first real RPG project has been published as of a few weeks ago, and it out in the wild! It’s bananas seeing pictures being posted and seeing the first few reactions to it out there. I haven’t posted about it here because, let’s face it, the blog has lain mostly dormant for years. (Long story, for another time.) But man, look at this book: The adventure is set in a brewing monastery, because, you know, write what you know? Okay, I’m not a monk, but I know a fair bit about beer and historical brewing, and was reading …

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“Sojourn” in A City of Han

So my latest publication is out! Not in the usual sort of place, though! A City of Han is a collection of short stories set in Seoul, hence the title. Anyway, “Sojourn” is a low-key story that’s set in a world of mutants and superheroes and super-powers, but which is really about people trying to live normal lives in such a world—and what a titanic struggle can be for those a little away from the peak of the bellcurve. It’s also very much about the hakwon-teaching experience. I’ve written more about it in my post on the story, along with …

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“Alone With Gandhari” reprinted in Bloody Red Nose

My short story “Alone With Gandhari” (which originally appeared in Clarkesworld almost a decade ago now) has been reprinted in David Higgins’ Bloody Red Nose: 15 Fears of a Clown anthology.  (For those who don’t recall, this is the one featuring a group of drugged-out lunatic terrorists who dress up like a certain trademarked clown character and attack fast food restaurants and, eventually, decide to attack a high-tech facility where beef is being produced from highly modified cows… and the tale of how one individual gets radicalized to the point of joining these lunatics.)  If you’d like a copy, drop by …

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“Winter Wheat” in the current Asimov’s SF!

So, the current issue of Asimov’s SF includes my novella, about which the magazine’s website says very kind things: Our September/October 2019 issue features Gord Sellar’s blockbuster novella about high-tech farming in the Canadian North. “Winter Wheat” is a tour de force that begins in the dead of winter and takes us through a twelve-year cycle in Saskatchewan. You won’t want to miss this amazing story. Very flattering. (You’d hardly guess I was a city kid who’s never lived on a farm.) Oh, and yes, it’s a novella. It spans 13 years, jumping 13 months ahead in each section. It’s …

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A**hole Island “Final” Edit/Rewrite Under Way

Well, I’m finally back at work on A**hole Island. It’s one of two novels I drafted between the fall of 2016 and the summer of 2018, at which point I toppled over from exhaustion. Working a day job, doing editing on the side, parenting, trying to sell the odd short story, plus writing at that pace is not sustainable all at once, especially since A**hole Island is the shorter of the two novels. (But also the one that feels most complete.) I started working again on it today, taking some advice from a friend (thanks, Jeremy!) and hacking away at …

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Reprint in Lightspeed!: “The Incursus by Asimov-NN#71″

UPDATE (23 Feb 2019): I’m a bit late on this, because I was traveling for a pair of events in Los Angeles and Riverside that I’ll blog about soon, but anyway, an update: this story reprint is now live for non-subscribers over on Lightspeed’s website!  Original Post: I’m a bit late on this, thanks to the Lunar New Year holiday over here in Korea, but I’m very pleased to announce that my short story “The Incursus by Asimov-NN#71″ is appearing as a reprint in the February 2019 issue of Lightspeed, alongside a lineup of work by Matthew Baker, Elizabeth Bear, …

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