Launching my story collection

This week I launch my debut short story collection, Getting to Know You. I'll be at the Fairbanks Barnes & Noble on Friday, May 11, 7-9 pm and then on Thursday May 17, I'll be at the Fairbanks Gulliver's Bookstore from 6-8 pm.

The only story I seem to have of just the right length for a public reading is "Yurek Rutz, Yurek Rutz, Yurek Rutz." But I've read that one a number of times locally and won't subject the public to it again. Instead, I think I'll give a sampler of openings. I'll read the first seven minutes of three separate stories.

Hope to see you there.

Osama Phone Home

I have a new story in this issue (March/April) of MIT Technology Review. It's called "Osama Phone Home," and is about the most political and contemporary piece I've ever done. It's also the first science fiction the TR has published in its century of reporting on emergent tech. Here's what editor/publisher Jason Pontin writes in the same issue:

In this, I believe, I am an entirely conventional technologist. Most of us came to technology through science fiction; our imaginations remain secretly moved by ­science-fictional ideas. Only the very exalted are honest about their debt. In his collection of lectures on the future of technology, Imagined Worlds, the great theoretical ­physicist Freeman Dyson writes, "Science is my territory, but science fiction is the landscape of my dreams."

As to the photo at the top of this entry, I think it's a dead alien. I found it lying on the snow on the trail to my shed. It was already dead when I found it. A powerful build, hairy legs, a horse-like head. I didn't move it, and I think the foxes got it.

Getting to Know You--First Review!

My story collection got a starred review in Publishers Weekly today. Very cool and a good way to start out. The title above is linked to the review, but you need to be a subscriber.

* Getting to Know You
David Marusek. Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com), $25 (297p) ISBN 978-1-59606-088-3

Marusek, in a blurb for this superb collection of 10 stories (all the shorter SF he's published to date), gives fair warning when he says he lays his stories "like traps and bait[s] them with shiny ideas." Since the author lives in Alaska, it's no surprise to find that his characters inhabit extreme environments, both physical and psychological. "The Earth Is on the Mend" and "Yurek Rutz, Yurek Rutz, Yurek Rutz" are set in the Arctic, with characters made pragmatic by cold circumstance. Similarly stark is the world of "Cabbages and Kale or How We Downsized North America" (one of several entries that are sketches for his 2006 novel, Counting Heads), where characters fight to stay ahead of change, and one bad decision can topple a world. Marusek's "shiny ideas"—cloned laborers, electronic "proxies," the "boutique economy"—sparkle, but these assured stories also draw on core SF themes: in the face of change, what does it mean to be human, and where do we draw the line between helping ourselves and hurting others? (Apr.)

Sharron--A True Hero of the Arts

When I received the first galleys of my story collection to proof, I was compelled to read all eleven stories again, looking for typos and errors. When you write a story (or novel), you have to read and reread the piece many times, from first glimmerings, through many drafts, and much polishing to the final typeset galleys. Generally, you don't read the story when it comes out in print because by then you're sick of it and would feel satisfied if you never saw the story again in this life.

In addition, I updated "We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy" for inclusion in the novel, so I must have read that one well over 50 times. It's truly hard to read something so many times.

After the first read-through, I returned the galley. Then I realized that the manuscripts I had supplied Subterranean Press had never been reconciled to the published version of the stories. And there are always subtle edits done in the final copyediting. So I was faced with going through the eleven stories yet another time, this time comparing them word for word against the published versions.

My heart was not up to the task. I knew it would crush me, so I sent out a plea for help to the Borough Library SF reading group I belong to. And this young woman answered the call and volunteered to do the final read through for me. She may have saved my sanity; therefore, I pronounce Sharron Albert a True Hero of the Arts!

Thank you.

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)

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.

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.

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.