Tag: my writing

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

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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 “Final” Edit/Rewrite Under Way

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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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“Focus” in Neil Clarke’s Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 3

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So, Neil Clarke recently published the table of contents of the Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 3, collecting his picks for the best stories of 2017. To my immense happiness, my short story “Focus,” which was originally published in Analog, will be included in the volume… and in very good company. It’s not just an honor to have my work appear in a Year’s Best collection by such a discerning editor, but to have it appear alongside work by some of the best authors around today—and some authors whose work I was reading back when I started writing …

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Perspective… and Pizza

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A while ago I mentioned being in the “home stretch” on the book I’m writing. A bunch of people were very encouraging when I said that, which, well, encouraged me. (Thanks, everyone.) Thing is, I still am in that home stretch, pretty close to where I was at the time I made that comment, in fact. I’m kind of stuck there. Not writing-stuck: I would be done the draft if it wasn’t for the exigencies of life. A recurrent, won’t-go-away ear infection has been gnawing on our son, and I developed bronchitis (seemingly the same damned bug), just as a …

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Another Prodigal Reprint

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I got another book in the post the other day! Supposedly the publication date for this one in in July, but it seems available at some places, at least: Somehow, my shaggy dog story has been reprinted in three languages so far—Chinese and Czech, along with English—and appeared in two Year’s Best collections so far! This one is The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois  and published by St. Martin’s Griffin (which is MacMillan). It’s the second time Gardner has selected one of my stories to appear in his annual anthology, and as always it’s an honour, …

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“Focus” in Analog

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My short story “Focus” is in the current issue of Analog! I was happy to discover this when I received contributor copies on Friday in the mail. (I’ve been too busy to post an update since then, and likewise I’m so behind on everything that I only noticed the story was out when I received the print copies…) The story is set in Vietnam—in Saigon and a South Korean-run factory complex in nearby Bình Dương Province, and is about how companies parasitize everything—or, rather, convince us to allow them to parasitize everything to better serve their ends. It’s inspired in part …

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Now In Print…

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The past week or so has been good on the writing front, or at least in the publishing front. I finally received my copy of Volume 2 of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, edited by Neil Clarke: What a handsome cover! My contributor copy apparently was sitting in the department office, and nobody told me. I happened to stop by and discovered it by chance… and who knows how long it’d been there? (I check my mailbox there, but this was a package so it didn’t fit the cubby and was sitting on a shelf below, where I’ll admit I never look.) Want a …

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Prodigal Reviews

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So, some positive reviews so far for “Prodigal,” which is nice to see. (Not everyone has the ability to totally ignore or dismiss critics and reviews so wholeheartedly encouraged by Miles Davis.) The highlights so far? Well, Greg Hullender’s review Rocket Stack Rank has this to say: “Moving, thought-provoking exploration of animal uplift. (…) as a metaphor for losing a loved one to a cause, it’s dynamite.” There’s an uncredited review at SFRevu that praises the story, too: “Sad story. Very well done.” And finally, Chuck Rothman over at Tangent has high praise: “[The issue] starts out with a bang with “Prodigal” by Gord Sellar… This …

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In Other News…

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It’s been such a busy time I haven’t updated much, but a lot has been going on, and not all of it relates to poo, diapers, 3:00am feedings, and baby wipes… There’s been some movement on several fronts, in fact: fiction writing & publication, RPG/game writing, and a workshop I attended just before Noeul was born. Publication News: Back in late September I got my copy of Cthulhu Fhtagn!, which contains my story “The Return of Sarnath” alongside new, original works by a number of Lovecraftian notables, as well as some authors new to me. Here’s the copy I got in …

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