Good news for my first novel, Counting Heads. It's made the preliminary ballot for the Nebula Award.
The photo above is my brother, Mark, dressed up at Holloween as the KFC Colonel. Looks like he's counting hands.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Neb Prelim Ballot!
Good news for my first novel, Counting Heads. It's made the preliminary ballot for the Nebula Award.
The photo above is my brother, Mark, dressed up at Holloween as the KFC Colonel. Looks like he's counting hands.
Story collection is coming along
Subterranean Press is putting the finishing touches on my collection to be released in April. Here's what the cover is looking like at this stage. Illustrator is Mark A. Nelson. You can pre-order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and quality bookstores everywhere.
Read Czech?
A Czech anthology has been published that includes my story "The Wedding Album." Looks like a winner. Here's the lineup:
PAOLO BACIGALUPI: THE PASHO (Asimov's SF September 2004)
LAIRD BARRON: BULLDOZER (Sci Fiction 2004)
CHRISTOPHER BARZAK: THE LANGUAGE OF MOTHS (Realms of Fantasy 2005)
ALAN DENIRO: SALTING THE MAP (Fortean Bureau 2003)
CORY DOCTOROW: ANDA'S GAME (Salon 2004)
JEFFREY FORD: IN THE HOUSE OF FOUR SEASONS (Fantasy Magazine 2005)
GREGORY FROST: MADONNA OF THE MAQUILADORA (Asimov´s SF May 2002)
THEODORA GOSS: PIP AND THE FAIRIES (Strange Horizons 2005)
EILEEN GUNN: COMING TO TERMS (Stable Strategies 2004)
KIJ JOHNSON: AT THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER OF BEES (Sci Fiction website 2003)
CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN: RIDING THE WHITE BULL (Argosy Jan/Feb 2004)
ELLEN KLAGES: TIME GYPSY (Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction 1998)
JAY LAKE: INTO THE GARDENS OF SWEET NIGHT (L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume XIX 2003)
DAVID MARUSEK: THE WEDDING ALBUM (Asimov's SF June 1999)
PAUL MELKO: FALLOW EARTH (Asimov's SF June 2004)
Sarah Monette: Three Letters from the Queen of Elfland (Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 2002)
TIM PRATT: LITTLE GODS (Strange Horizons 2002)
Bruce Holland Rogers: Thirteen Ways to Water (Black Cats and Broken Mirrors, eds. Martin H. Greenberg & John Helfers 1998)
BENJAMIN ROSENBAUM: EMBRACING-THE-NEW (Asimov's SF January 2004)
KEN WHARTON: ALOHA (Analog June 2003)
Special guest:
HAL DUNCAN: THE TOWER OF MORNING'S BONES (not yet published)
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Story Collection Pre-Order
Subterranean Press has just made my upcoming short story collection available for pre-order. The book is due for release in April 07, but you can reserve a copy today.
The photo at the top is blown fireweed from before our first snowfall a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure why I'm into posting nature snapshots here lately, but I am, so deal with it.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Big doings in October
Next month I have three readings in Fairbanks. I plan on reading a different piece at each.
Friday, October 6, 7:00 PM--UA Museum
My reading will launch the new season of the Midnight Sun Readers Series at the gorgeous new University of Alaska Museum addition. I will read something from COUNTING HEADS that I haven't read in public before. All are welcome.
Friday, October 13, 2:45 PM--UAF University Park
This is part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Fall Schedule of "Fairbanks Authors." You have to be enrolled in the class to attend (but I think you can still sign up; call 907-474-6607). I plan to speak on the eternal question asked of writers--Where do your ideas come from? To illustrate, I will read my only SF story set in Fairbanks--"Yurek Rutz, Yurek Rutz, Yurek Rutz."
Saturday, October 21, 7:00 PM--Alaskaland Bear Gallery
I will be one of several local SF writers reading from their work. I plan to debut a work in progress, a short short story called, "Five Glimpses of the Day After Tomorrow." All are welcome.
The photo above is a particularly pretty fungus growing in my yard.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
LA Worldcon
I have been remiss in keeping this blog current. The long and the short of it is that I'm working full time on the second novel and two commissioned short stories. Unfortunately, I don't have the time even now to update with details. I just wanted to announce, for anyone in the LA area, that I'll be at the World Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim from this Wednesay, August 23, through Sunday the 27th. The program committee there has declined to assign me ANY program events, so I won't be on panels, have a reading, or be on the autographing schedule. But I'll be hanging out, attending panels, parties, etc. and if anyone wants to have me autograph their copy of COUNTING HEADS or to just say hello, please stop me in the halls. Also, I'll be checking the voodoo board and my emails regularly. Do approach me; I'd be more than glad to meet you.
The photo above is how I felt when the con program committee informed me that there was no place on the program for me. I was ready to go ballistic, but friends calmed me down. No, actually, it's a parasite that appeared on my wild roses this year. It looks dastardly, but only infected a plant or two. Nevertheless, few of my dozens of rose plants produced rose hips this year, though I don't think that was related to this particular pest.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Campbell finalist
I am proud to announce that COUNTING HEADS was named one of twelve finalists for the John W. Campbell Award. The Campbell Award is for the best novel as judged by a jury selected by the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas. These are the same folks who present the Sturgeon Award for best short fiction, which "The Wedding Album" won in 2000. Here's the full story.
By the way, the above picture has nothing to do with the Campbell. It's just a nice picture of the trunk of a paper birch across the road that I like.
Reading at Barnes & Noble
My reading at the new Fairbanks Barnes & Noble was a big success, though I think I read too fast. The chapter from MIND OVER OSHIP that I prepared was longer than the 20 minutes that I feel is optimal for a live reading. But afterwards in the Q & A period, the audience kept me talking longer than I read, so I guess no one was too impatient to get out of there. The bookstore staff even served little cakes from the cafe, a neat touch.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Reading at Barnes & Noble
I will read a chapter from my second book-in-progress, MIND OVER OSHIP, on Saturday, May 20, at the new Fairbanks Barnes and Noble bookstore, starting at 7 PM. Hope to see you there.
Second Season
I am pleased and proud to announce that COUNTING HEADS has been doing well enough (going into its third printing) that I have been afforded the privilege of publishing a second book.
I've recently signed a contract with Tor with a September 2007 delivery date. Such a short deadline makes me nervous, since I've never written under contract before, and 18 months seems to me an incredibly brief length of time to do a novel (the first one took six years if you include "We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy"). But I am filling binders with words and I'm fairly confident in my abilities.
I want to give a few details about Book 2, but first I should try to clear up a loose end or two about COUNTING HEADS. One thing that almost every review remarked on was the ending. Here's how Bookmarks Magazine, a sort of review digest for bibliophiles, put it, "Only the ending rang false in its brevity, suggesting that perhaps a sequel may be on its way."
So, is Book 2 a sequel, and if so, why was that fact missing on the COUNTING HEADS cover?
Book 2, which has a working title of MIND OVER OSHIP, does pick up right after the close of CH, with the same characters and overarching story line, but I don't think of it as a sequel, for that implies that the initial book was complete in itself. "Second in a series," is closer but I think implies more plot cohesion than I have in mind. I prefer to use a TV metaphor and think of these books as seasons of an ensemble cast drama, like ER or The West Wing.
What is the story arc of ER? A look at working in a busy county hospital emergency room in Chicago. That's it; that's what serves as plot. Characters come and go through the seasons, issues are explored, the administration and set changes (as they would in real life), and patients keep rolling in for their life and death struggles. The plot of The West Wing is: This is what it's like working in the White House for a popular liberal president. How much more open-ended can you get? Would you call the second season of ER a sequel of the first? Do you expect each season to wrap up all the individual plot threads? I don't think so.
With the TV model in mind, my story arc is about a thousand-year voyage aboard a colony ship traveling to a new star system, including the time it takes to get off the ground, the trip itself, and time spent at the other end at the destination. In other words, my plot line is quite open-ended, and I think the only limit to its run is declining interest, both the readers' and mine. And I feel empowered to leave a lot of loose ends at the end of any single season--book.
While I regret that no mention of future installments appeared at the CH release, I certainly understand why it didn't. Most readers have no idea how competitive the media is these days. It's excruciatingly tough to break into print in the fiction field. Publishers don't just hand out contracts, especially to writers of quirky fiction like me. I believe that David Harwell and Tor took a chance on me. I believe this because of all the other publishers who saw the manuscript passed on it. It doesn't surprise me that my sale was for a single book, not a trilogy. I'm not sure I would have even accepted a multi-book deal, not being sure I could even write one book at the time.
This brings up another sticky point. Some readers think that CH is half a book. This misimpression is probably my fault. On this blog (the inaugural posting) and other places I describe the CH timeline in which I describe how Hartwell asked me to cut the book in two (at 185,000 words it was just too long for marketing purposes). While it's true that I did cut the book in two, he subsequently asked me to put them back together for artistic reasons, and that's what I did. CH is the whole book, even if, as the Publisher's Weekly reviewer said, "it doesn't so much come to a conclusion as crash headlong into the last page."
I've recently signed a contract with Tor with a September 2007 delivery date. Such a short deadline makes me nervous, since I've never written under contract before, and 18 months seems to me an incredibly brief length of time to do a novel (the first one took six years if you include "We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy"). But I am filling binders with words and I'm fairly confident in my abilities.
I want to give a few details about Book 2, but first I should try to clear up a loose end or two about COUNTING HEADS. One thing that almost every review remarked on was the ending. Here's how Bookmarks Magazine, a sort of review digest for bibliophiles, put it, "Only the ending rang false in its brevity, suggesting that perhaps a sequel may be on its way."
So, is Book 2 a sequel, and if so, why was that fact missing on the COUNTING HEADS cover?
Book 2, which has a working title of MIND OVER OSHIP, does pick up right after the close of CH, with the same characters and overarching story line, but I don't think of it as a sequel, for that implies that the initial book was complete in itself. "Second in a series," is closer but I think implies more plot cohesion than I have in mind. I prefer to use a TV metaphor and think of these books as seasons of an ensemble cast drama, like ER or The West Wing.
What is the story arc of ER? A look at working in a busy county hospital emergency room in Chicago. That's it; that's what serves as plot. Characters come and go through the seasons, issues are explored, the administration and set changes (as they would in real life), and patients keep rolling in for their life and death struggles. The plot of The West Wing is: This is what it's like working in the White House for a popular liberal president. How much more open-ended can you get? Would you call the second season of ER a sequel of the first? Do you expect each season to wrap up all the individual plot threads? I don't think so.
With the TV model in mind, my story arc is about a thousand-year voyage aboard a colony ship traveling to a new star system, including the time it takes to get off the ground, the trip itself, and time spent at the other end at the destination. In other words, my plot line is quite open-ended, and I think the only limit to its run is declining interest, both the readers' and mine. And I feel empowered to leave a lot of loose ends at the end of any single season--book.
While I regret that no mention of future installments appeared at the CH release, I certainly understand why it didn't. Most readers have no idea how competitive the media is these days. It's excruciatingly tough to break into print in the fiction field. Publishers don't just hand out contracts, especially to writers of quirky fiction like me. I believe that David Harwell and Tor took a chance on me. I believe this because of all the other publishers who saw the manuscript passed on it. It doesn't surprise me that my sale was for a single book, not a trilogy. I'm not sure I would have even accepted a multi-book deal, not being sure I could even write one book at the time.
This brings up another sticky point. Some readers think that CH is half a book. This misimpression is probably my fault. On this blog (the inaugural posting) and other places I describe the CH timeline in which I describe how Hartwell asked me to cut the book in two (at 185,000 words it was just too long for marketing purposes). While it's true that I did cut the book in two, he subsequently asked me to put them back together for artistic reasons, and that's what I did. CH is the whole book, even if, as the Publisher's Weekly reviewer said, "it doesn't so much come to a conclusion as crash headlong into the last page."
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