Just got news that we have an official publication date for Pandemonium,
my first novel: August 26, 2008. You can even pre-order the book on the Del Rey / Random House website for only $13, a move recommended only for the brave at heart, or people who are my mother. I mean, there’s not even a cover for it yet—so ordering now is the very definition of buying it sight unseen.
This is not the cover, but an image I’ve been using on my PR
materials, but it’s all I’ve got for now:
My story “Second Person, Present Tense” is now appearing on the Israeli SF webzine Bli Panika, which translates as “Don’t Panic.” I can’t read a word of it, but my thanks to the translator, Ehud Maimon, and Bli-Panika’s editor Rami Shal’heveth, who provided very cool illustrations for the story.
There are an awful lot of “Year’s Best” anthologies that come out every year, which highlights the craziness of the term — all these stories are the best? Really? Shouldn’t there be some kind of playoff system? (Wait, that would be the Hugos.)
But the nice thing about so many of these collections is that they provide second chances for stories that appeared in obscure publications or vanished before people found them on the magazine stand, and that’s heart-warming news for both readers looking for good stories and writers looking for more readers–like yours truly. (Cue promo music.)
Down below I announced that “Dead Horse Point” will be appearing in Jonathan Strahan’s Year’s Best anthology. I’ve also learned that “Unpossible” will be in Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2008 Edition, edited by Rich Horton, and in Year’s Best Fantasy #8, edited by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer.
And aren’t these covers nice? Click to see the larger images.
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Too many Christmas gifts these days are just cash, cards, and certificates — but I do love getting bookstore certificates. Last night I emptied the Barnes and Noble gift card I’d gotten and came home with three books I’m really looking forward to. Which is a rarity — sometimes I go months without finding a book I’m really excited about reading.
First up, Michael Chabon’s “Gentlemen of the Road”, a swashbuckler he was thinking of calling “Jews with Swords”. It’s even illustrated with those pen-and-ink drawings with a caption from the text, just like in Hardy Boys and other adventure books. Too. Much. Fun.
Then the new book by Iain Banks, “The Steep Approach to Garbadale”. This is Banks in non-genre mode — when he writes SF his name is “Iain M. Banks.” Which makes me think that if Banks really cared for his readers, he would have used the initial for Mainstream and left it out for SF. Ah, too late to change now. I’ve read every book the man’s written, going back to 1984’s “The Wasp Factory”, and if you must know, he’s one of the reasons my son is named Ian.
And then I bought my own copy of a book I’ve read years before, but I very much need to re-read, Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics.” The thing is, it’s not just about comics — it has a lot to say about all storytelling, and maybe some day I’ll blog about that. My son picked up another book in the series, “Making Comics”, and I’ll be reading that too.
Nothing says Happy Holidays like one of those mass-produced year-end summary letters from friends and family. But If you’re like me, you have trouble finding the time to write your own generic letter, much less one personalized to every Tom Dick and Mary in your address book.
I was stuck—until I discovered the miracle of Auto-Emotion™!
Thanks to Auto-Emotion’s quick-and-easy web forms, I churn out fully-customizable holiday letters out in a jiffy—and now so can you!
Just print out this handy form, pop it in the mail, and let your recipients do the work for you! It’s a festive project everyone can enjoy, and I guarantee your loved ones will cherish this form-driven letter just as much as that rambling missive you sent last year.
Due to time constraints, I can no longer offer individual holiday greetings. In the form below, please check the boxes that apply to you, sign the letter with my name, and mail it to yourself. Feel free to include a recent picture of me and/or my family. Thank you.
Dear
Friend
Happy Holidays!
I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to write. The
How is/are the
But seriously, as a person who shares your deep faith in
As for me, this has been one “wacky” year! You probably
I have to sign off now—so many letters to write!—but don’t be a stranger. We must get the “old gang” together for that
“Dead Horse Point”, which ran in Asimov’s in ’07, will be appearing in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Vol. 2 — and the coolest thing is having my little boat of a story swamped by fictional goodness from some of my favorite writers. I mean, come on. Swanwick, Gaiman, Sterling? And stylists like Rickert, Link, and Ford? Plus a friend of mine, Ted Kosmatka, has a very cool story in here.
Here’s the TOC, and click the image to see a larger version of the cover:
Cover art by John Berkey
It will be out in March ’08 and you can order (for $19.95) at Amazon. More info is at Nightshade Books.
Heidi Ruby Miller has been doing a cool thing for some time now — Heidi’s Pick Six. Basically, she interviews SF writers by sending them 12 questions and letting them pick six to answer. It’s like Alberto Gonzales’ congressional hearing — everyone knows that you’re only going to answer half the questions, then lie about the rest. Or maybe it’s more like a Rorschach test in which you’re allowed to ignore any blots that make you think about The Incident.
You can see which six I chose to answer– or more interestingly, which I avoided — and make your own diagnosis. It’s at
http://ambasadora.livejournal.com/149044.html
Agua-Cero, a Columbian SF anthology, was launched Friday, with a Spanish translation of “Second Person, Present Tense” appearing in the table of contents as “Segundo Person, Tiempo Presente”. They wanted me to provide an audio or video introduction to play at the launch party — which I thought was a cool idea — but since the only recording equipment I own is a crappy gaming headset, I struggled for a couple days before finally giving up and sending them at the last minute a static-y and awful-sounding audio file.
(If only I had the mad skillz of James Patrick Kelly. Not to drop names here [plonk], but because Jim is also in the anthology, and because he’s an SF podcast pioneer [podoneer?] , I wrote him an e-mail asking what he was doing for this intro — and of course he already had all the equipment and whipped out a probably great-sounding audio recording in no-time. Which means that if this trend persists, it won’t be enough to just write stories, run a website, and update a blog — SF writers are all going to have to become recording artists. And what about video? My god, does anybody really need to see the glorious physical specimen that is the average SF writer? Okay, Andy Tisbert is an exception, because he’s a rock n roll front man who gets chicks to scream when he takes off his shirt, and James Patrick Kelly 
has that cool goatee thing going, but trust me, I’ve been to conventions, most of the SF revolution should not be televised. Wait, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, Agua-Cero…)
The anthology was edited by Hernán Ortiz and Viviana Trujillo, who have been great to work with. If you live in Columbia, or if you speak Spanish, buy the anthology!
Howdy, folks. On the stands now in the October/November “All-Star Anniversary” Double Issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction—a story about all those children who had fantastic adventures in the “lands beyond”, and what happens when they hit 50, realize that life hasn’t lived up to the storybook ending, and try to go back. (Hint: You can’t go back.) A Genuine Stan Lee No-Prize goes to the reader who can spot all the kiddie-lit allusions in this one.
The August issue of Asimov’s is out now, with “Dead Horse Point” in there somewhere. Tangent Online called it “a poignant tale of love and desperation.” Full Review.
(I’m just stoked to be on the same cover as Bruce Sterling, Rudy Rucker — my hero — and good friend Jack Skillingstead. It doesn’t get any more fun than that.)
Gabriel McKee has an interesting discussion of the story in SF Gospel, his blog focused on “explorations of religion in science ficiton and popular culture.” He raises the point that concept of space-time in the story is similar to Augustinian eternalism. I would have mentioned eternalism in the story, except I didn’t know about it until I read McKee’s blog. I should really read the reviews commentary before I write the story—that would save time and make me look smarter.
Daryl Gregory 