Well, I’ve just sold my story, “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” to The Machine of Death, Volume 2. I had a story about Japanese yakuza (gangsters) in the first volume of the book, but while I was writing it, I got the idea for a second story. I didn’t end up writing it until I saw the call for submissions for Volume 2. As you might be able to guess from the title …
Tag: WRITING
The Immersion Book of Steampunk and “The Clockworks of Hanyang”
While I sit on some other news that I cannot announce yet, there is something I forgot to mention in terms of a story publication! The Immersion Book of Steampunk is apparently out (since 20 September — I’m sadly a bit late), and editors Gareth D. Jones and Carmelo Rafala saw fit to include (among stories by a great list of contributors) my Korean Steampunk story, “The Clockworks of Hanyang.” (More information about the story is here, and you can get the book here (USA), or here (UK), or if you’re in Korea, it’s here. Or, you can order direct …
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 …
The Pain of Prescience That Missed the Train
When I was at the Clarion West workshop back in 2006, Vernor Vinge (our last instructor) spent a certain amount of time talking about the idea of “future-proofing” an SFnal story. The idea is that, since you’re talking about the future, you’re likely to get a bunch of things quite wrong. Anyone who’s read older SF knows this problem well, the signal example being the one everyone cites, of people on spaceships calculating the math for some complicated ship maneuver using slide rules, because nobody imagined calculating machines might get invented (and/or that such machines might become small enough to use …
Korean Girl Groups as a Window to the Industrialization of Culture
EDIT (5 Sept 2001): I goofed on the dating of the video I used as historical evidence, as one commenter pointed out. What can I say? Duh! See the comments section for more. (But I don’t think it kills my argument… there’s other evidence for that.) ORIGINAL POST: When I arrived in Korea, people were using the word “talent” in a way I really didn’t understand: it was synonymous with “performer”… even performers who quite obviously had no talent. And believe me, there were lots of those on TVs in those days. I’m sure some people out there would say that …
“Zymurgico-Lovecraftian” Tale Finished
Whew. There, I’ve coined the word. (Actually, I did it elsewhere, but this feels more official.) I’ve mentioned this project recently, and now it’s done. The title is “The Homebrewer’s Consolamentum” and it takes two things that are fun and weird — zymurgy, ie. the science of fermentation, ie. making beer, among other things) and the Lovecraftian take on metaphysical/existential conspiracy by unimaginable, powerful beings — and puts them together. The rough draft of this story was, when I looked at it again, somewhat disappointing, for I’d written it in a fit of passion — but then, I hadn’t quite come …
The Music of Jo Hyeja is a Go…
Well, I claimed that I got a lot less done this past summer in terms of my writing than I’d hoped — since I’d been hoping to draft a novel — but in fact, I did pull off something in my writing that I’m very pleased with: a script for a short Korean film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Music of Erich Zann.” I’ve reflected in the past on how challenging it is to adapt Lovecraft to a Korean setting, but it’s less so with a story like this one, since the horror is more simply existential; there is, of …
Writing About What You Love
Notice, it says “what” you love, not “who” you love, which is another kettle of… well, fish? Hops? I am working on a short story about homebrewing, brewing, yeast, beer-mythology (there’s a lot of it), art, transformation… well, and finally I’ve come to think of it as my attempt to write something Zymurgico-Lovecraftian. (Zymurgy is the fancy-dancy word for the branch of applied chemistry related to fermentation — making beer, mead, wine, and the like using yeast. Lovecraftian is a term I expect I won’t have to explain to anyone reading this blog.) Anyway, I’m busily revising the story now …
Editing…
This afternoon, I had to make a trip to the department office to hand in some paperwork, so I decided to email myself the manuscripts for a bunch of short stories that I’ve either submitted for critique, or else want to submit for crits, and which I want to revise this summer, alongside the novel-drafting I’m doing. I figure, the university is giving me “credit” (as achievements, but not as publications) for story publications, so I ought to be able to print stories at the department office for the purposes of revision and editing. One reason I printed the stories …
“Trois morceaux en forme de mechanika” in the latest Clarkesworld!
My newest publication, “Trois morceaux en forme de mechanika,” is now live as part of Clarkesworld #58 (July 2011). You can see the text (linked above) or listen to the podcast, wonderfully-narrated by Kate Baker, whatever you prefer. There’s all kinds of other good stuff this issue too, especially the hauntingly odd and very smart “Frozen Voice” by An Owomoyela (with its layers of language, linguistic colonialism, “alien” invasion — tough month for humans on Clarkesworld, this July is! — textuality, and identity). There’s some good nonfiction up this month too, including a sensible comment on ebooks (and how people talk …