I wasn’t going to post the Postcards from Hell schedule, but I see that some others have, so what the hell, right? Get it, hell? August 4 – Wilted Lily by Henry Gee August 11 – One Thumb Up by Nick Mamatas August 18 – Dickey Size It by RJ Sevin August 25 – Dyscrasia by Gord Sellar Sept 1 – Footprints by Ann Leckie Sept 8 – Fitness is Its Own Reward by John Platt Sept 15 – One Step at a Time by Billy O’Calaghan Sept 22 – Ten by Kathryn Eason Sept 29 – The Cabinet of …
Category: WRITING
“Junk” not junk
My friend and Clarion West classmate David emailed me a link to this article. How amusing, that the story titled “Junk” that I sold only a couple of weeks ago, to Nature, had an eerily familiar proposition, at bottom. Do I get to claim I “got one right,” even if it’s published after the news broke? I wrote it last winter! But then, as David commented about his own suspicions, it’s long been imagined by some — me included — that the majority of the genome being “junk” is questionable. As I wrote to David: Of course, there were people …
Zombies Sold! (To Postcards From Hell)
It appears that this is an excellent month for me. I’ve just sold my a zombie story titled “Dyscrasia” to the very cool Postcards From Hell. The concept is very cool, and if you haven’t subscribed, I suggest checking it out. (I already subscribed, long ago.) Last count, they need fifty more subscribers to break even and continue doing postcard-fiction series, and I’m pretty sure, with the lineup they’ve got, a subscription is worth every last penny of the $6.66 you’re asked to pay. Meanwhile, though the call for fiction submissions is over, Postcards from Hell is still looking for …
Writing/Research Update
All I’m going to say is that this conversation with a juggler at the Incheon Immigration Office started it all rolling, and as I’ve begun to poke about for what to research, more and more is falling into place for that story I have in mind as taking place in the same world as “Lester Young and the Jupiter’s Moons’ Blues.” The exciting thing is that I’ve never read anything like the kind of story that my preliminary research is beginning to shape in my mind. The scope is vast, and by vast, I mean, 1000 page novel vast. Okay, …
Sponsor Me: I’m Doing a Write-a-thon
Last year, I went to the Clarion West workshop in Seattle. I learned lots. I wrote lots. I made some incredible friends, and found myself some mentors, too. I think other people should be able to do that. But the costs aren’t covered completely by the funding that comes in from students and scholarships. Even with generous funds, like the Susan C. Petrey scholarship that sent me there, a lot of the work still ends up being done by volunteers, and running a world-class writing workshop is not cheap or easy. So there’s a write-a-thon. I’ve committed to doing my …
Sold! “Junk”
I’m happy to announce my second fiction sale. My short-short story “Junk” will be appearing in Nature‘s prestigious “Futures” column, featuring 850-950 word long hard SF. There’s no date set yet, but the editor, Henry Gee, accepted the story very quickly and just I’ve been sitting on this until I heard back about the contract. I’m blown away and very happy to be able to announce this. Yay! As for sales versus submissions, I think I’ve been relatively lucky so far: it’s a ration of 1:10. Anyway, the year’s half-done, so I should be able to sell one or two …
Derridian Nonsense, Story Idea
You know, I decided to give Derrida one more try, by perusing a bit from Of Grammatology — the bit collected in A Derrida Reader: Between the Blinds, edited by Peggy Kamuf. The only thing that resonated with me was a bit of a footnote, which I’ll quote here: Linear writing has therefore indeed [“]constituted, during many millennia, independently of its role as conserver of the collective memory, by its unfolding in one dimension alone, the instrument of analysis out of which grew philosophic and scientific thought. The conservation of thought can now be conceived otherwise than in terms of …
Ow Ow Ow
Back pain. Doing better. Not writing or posting much. That’s why. Reading a lot, though, while stuck on my back doing stretches and resting my weary back muscles. I’ll update on recent readings when I am feeling better… as well as launch into revisions of “Lester Young”, post long-overdue crits to friends, and start in on a new short story somewhere between Lovecraftian horror and War On Terror ™. Also, realized I’d started my story “Jing the Quae” way too early in the timeline… the real story happens months after the end of the period of time I drafted as …
Trimmed Down, Baby!
I spent a LOT of time today trimming a story down. It’s my little bloody Christmas story, “Solvjaynghi’s Christmas Wish,” and while I didn’t get it as slim as I wanted — I was vaguely hoping I could compress it into 4000 words and give it a try at Clarkesworld — I did get it down to 5000 words. I regard that as a considerable feat since the original was 8200 words, and since I managed to lose not so very much of the story. And yeah, for the curious, I started it with the reindeer thing. Caroline, I guess …
Der Rejectionze
Water off a duck’s back, really, these days. I got “The Egan Thief” back from F&SF, and “Ogallala” back from Analog. I think “The Egan Thief” might be too weird for Analog, so I think I’ll shoot it out to Interzone, since they there’s an e-submissions period open now. I think I’ll send Ogallala to F&SF, just to see what happens, and failing that, try one of the Canadian mags. I need to find a market for “Iblis” and I’m considering doing a little reworking on “The Wager” before sending it out again. I also have a short-short called “NOWORRIES” …