throw another bear in the canoe

the land was too changed to ever change

2013-05-22T01:24:12Z

View Poll: just a man and his will to survive

you gotta keep on going. you gotta feast on crumbs.

2013-05-21T15:07:04Z

Oh, gosh. Here's your weepy moment for the day.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50147264n

Terriers, man. You can't keep a schnauzer down.

a dream within a trail of sparks

2013-05-21T15:01:07Z

It always amazes me how getting a couple of big, mentally taxing projects (like, say, a major novelette commission and the Very Important Third Book Of A Trilogy) squared away opens out the horizons. There are suddenly more hours in the day, and more energy to get stuff done in those hours.

Creative work is really emotionally taxing. The more ambitious it is, the more taxing. I've been struggling, the past couple of months, to get the basics done--dishes washed, bills paid, exercise exercised. Now that the book and one of May's two novelettes are done, suddenly my head is full of room.

Case in point: after yesterday's marathon work session, I'm achy and exhausted and this morning's run was kinda brutal (and truncated by two families of geese, who I was unwilling to disturb in order to run along the trail they were hanging out on) but I still got All The Procrastinated Errands Done this morning, and more will happen this afternoon.

And I've reread what I have on the month's other novelette, which is actually probably going to be a short novella, and I like it! It's good!

I just have to figure out the twist and the rest of the caper, and I'm good to go.

Brave companions of the road: one of two families of feathered dinosaurs encountered on this morning's jog. The other was a two-parent household with younger goslings, still in the mottled yellow and brown stage. I decided to let them have the path, preferring my arms unbroken.

Excelsior!

i'm going to drive to the river styx. i'm gonna take route 66.

2013-05-20T23:43:05Z

Ding dong, the draft is dead.

That's "The Heart's Filthy Lesson," handed in at exactly the contracted length (10K: The manuscript is 10K manuscript (40 pages in manuscript format) ~9.3K MS Word.)

This old features writer still has enough column-inch damage that it feels awfully good to dial it after running 25% long on that damned book last month. *g*

Now there's just one more June 1 deadline I should really try to hit. And, oh yeah, a cross-country flight, two ten hour drives, and a convention guest gig in the middle.

Where's my fucking Wonder Woman icon?

Oh yeah, I'll be at Up In The Aether in Detroit this weekend with my beloved Mr. Lynch! Come out and play!

***
travel and appearances 2013:

Up in the Aether: Detroit, MI, May 23-27 2013
4th Street Fantasy: Minneapolis, MN, June 21-24, 2013
American Library Association (guest speaker): Chicago IL, June 28-30 2013
ConVergence: Minneapolis, MN July 4-8, 2013
Readercon: Burlington, MA, July 11-14, 2013
Space City Con: Houston, TX August 2-4, 2013 (Literary Guest of Honor)
Lone Star Con (San Antonio Worldcon): San Antonio, TX, August 29-September 1 2013
Context: Columbus, OH, September 27-29 2013 (GoH)
Signing (and Scott Lynch's The Republic of Thieves book launch!) : Pandemonium, Central Square, Cambridge MA, October 8th 2013
NYC ComiCon: NY NY, October 11th 2013 (only)
Viable Paradise: Oak Bluffs MA, October 12-16 2013
World Fantasy Convention: Brighton England UK, October 31-November 3, 2013

2013:

OWW EC: April 15, 2013
Popular Science flash: April 22, 2013
Steles of the Sky final: May 1, 2013
"The Heart's Filthy Lesson": July 1, 2013
"Dark Leader": April 2013
"Green and Dying": June 1, 2013
Hieroglyph story: August 10, 2013
"Something's Gotta Eat T. rexes": October 2013

An Apprentice to Elves: ?

2014:

Karen Memory: January 6, 2014

travel and appearances:
RavenCon: North Chesterfield, Virginia, April 25-27th, 2014 (Guest of Honor)
ConVergence: Minneapolis, MN, July 3-7, 2014
Finncon: Jyväskylä, Finland, July 11-13, 2014 (Guest of Honor)
Worldcon: London, England, August 14-17, 2014

No fixed deadline:

Smile (unless its name is actually Salt Water)
Unsuitable Metal
Gotham Jazz
Untitled Gangland Urban Fantasy That Keeps Bugging Me
"Gallowglas"
"Untitled Space Opera Thingy" aka "Periastron"
"Posthumous Jonson"
"Steel"
"On Safari in R'lyeh and Carcosa with Gun and Camera"
"This Chance Planet"
"Flush"
"Coronado"
"Patience and Fortitude"
"A Time to Reap"

no sleep 'till brooklyn

2013-05-20T15:29:11Z

I have olive bread, sharp cheddar, orange/cardamom tea, wrist braces, & 16 unscheduled hours. This draft dies today.

i promise i'm not trying to make your life harder

2013-05-17T12:08:43Z

So, I'm reasonably confident that the Police's "Every Breath You Take" is a savvy enough song to know just how deeply sophipathological it is. I'm pretty confident about Blondie's "One Way Or Another." (Still amuses me that the first couple of seasons of Farscape use a modified but identifiable version of the riff in the theme. Because yeah.)

And I know Sarah McLachlan's "Possession" does, because she wrote it that way on purpose.

I'm willing to give unreliable narrators a lot of benefit of the doubt, and people in art do not exist to be role models.

Dido's "White Flag," on the other hand...

I'm pretty sure this song does not know how fucked up it is. I'm just saying. And I'm pretty sure the object of the song needs a restraining order.

...It is pretty, though.

they live upon their feet and they die upon their knees

2013-05-13T17:05:54Z

I am so very stuck on how this character outsmarts a nemesis. I'd go write the other story, but I'm stuck on how those characters outsmart their nemesis.

Basically, I have made the critical error of trying to write stories about people being smart, which means I have to be smart.

*sigh*

Smart is hard.

we wake alone in the blackness. we sleep wherever we fall.

2013-05-09T20:18:40Z

I have my first pair of new glasses since 2009. I can see leaves on trees! And freckles on the lovely person who helped fit my glasses!

In other news, I am apparently nominated for four separate Locus awards in four separate Locus award categories: Novella, novelette, short story, and collection. All three of the short fiction offerings are available in their entirety, for free, online. You may read them here, if you like:

Novella: "In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns"

Novelette: "Faster Gun"

Short Story: "The Deeps of the Sky"

Congrats to all the other nominees! Here's the complete list:

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

The Hydrogen Sonata, Iain M. Banks (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
Caliban’s War, James S.A. Corey (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Redshirts, John Scalzi (Tor; Gollancz)

FANTASY NOVEL

The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc)
Glamour in Glass, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
Hide Me Among the Graves, Tim Powers (Morrow; Corvus)
The Apocalypse Codex, Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)

YOUNG ADULT BOOK

The Drowned Cities, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown; Atom)
Pirate Cinema, Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen)
Railsea, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan)
Dodger, Terry Pratchett (Harper; Doubleday UK)
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, Catherynne M. Valente (Feiwel and Friends; Much-in-Little ’13)

FIRST NOVEL

Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed (DAW; Gollancz ’13)
vN, Madeline Ashby (Angry Robot US; Angry Robot UK)
Seraphina, Rachel Hartman (Random House; Doubleday UK)
The Games, Ted Kosmatka (Del Rey; Titan)
Alif the Unseen, G. Willow Wilson (Grove; Corvus)

NOVELLA

“In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns”, Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s 1/12)
On a Red Station, Drifting, Aliette de Bodard (Immersion)
After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, Nancy Kress (Tachyon)
“The Stars Do Not Lie”, Jay Lake (Asimov’s 10-11/12)
The Boolean Gate, Walter Jon Williams (Subterranean)

NOVELETTE

“Faster Gun”, Elizabeth Bear (Tor.com 8/12)
“The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi”, Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity)
“Close Encounters”, Andy Duncan (The Pottawatomie Giant & Other Stories)
“Fake Plastic Trees”, Caitlín R. Kiernan (After)
“The Lady Astronaut of Mars”, Mary Robinette Kowal (Rip-Off!)

SHORT STORY

“The Deeps of the Sky”, Elizabeth Bear (Edge of Infinity)
“Immersion”, Aliette de Bodard (Clarkesworld 6/12)
“Mantis Wives”, Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld 8/12)
“Elementals”, Ursula K. Le Guin (Tin House Fall ’12)
“Mono No Aware”, Ken Liu (The Future Is Japanese)

ANTHOLOGY

After, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (Hyperion)
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-ninth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin’s Griffin; Robinson as The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 25)
The Future Is Japanese, Nick Mamatas & Masumi Washington, eds. (Haikasoru)
Edge of Infinity, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US; Solaris UK)
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Six, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade)

COLLECTION

The Best of Kage Baker, Kage Baker (Subterranean)
Shoggoths in Bloom, Elizabeth Bear (Prime)
At the Mouth of the River of Bees, Kij Johnson (Small Beer)
The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories Volume One: Where on Earth and Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands, Ursula K. Le Guin (Small Beer)
The Dragon Griaule, Lucius Shepard (Subterranean)

MAGAZINE

Asimov’s
F&SF
Tor.com
Clarkesworld
Subterranean

PUBLISHER

Tor
Subterranean Press
Orbit
Baen
Angry Robot

EDITOR

John Joseph Adams
Ellen Datlow
Gardner Dozois
Jonathan Strahan
Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

ARTIST

Donato Giancola
Stephan Martiniere
John Picacio
Shaun Tan
Michael Whelan

NON-FICTION

An Exile on Planet Earth, Brian Aldiss (Bodleian Library)
Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010, Damien Broderick & Paul Di Filippo, eds. (NonStop)
Distrust That Particular Flavor, William Gibson (Putnam)
The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, Edward James & Farah Mendlesohn, eds. (Cambridge University Press)
Some Remarks, Neal Stephenson (Morrow)

ART BOOK

Spectrum 19: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Underwood)
Trolls, Brian Froud & Wendy Froud (Abrams)
Tarzan: The Centennial Celebration, Scott Tracy Griffin (Titan)
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull, eds. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Steampunk: An Illustrated History, Brian J. Robb (Aurum)

And I'm interviewed at Amazon's Omnivoracious regarding the awards.

Excelsior!

with one fist raised in anger. with one foot in the fire.

2013-05-09T13:04:40Z

So let's talk about Charles Ramsey and Amanda Berry (and Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight).

Let's talk about the fact that Amanda Berry is a hero, and that she rescued herself, her daughter, and two other women from a horrible situation.

Let the record show that she did what she had to do, and if she hadn't, those four women would still be in that house.

Because the media seem to want to cast her and the other women only as victims, and that narrative is a lie.

Let's talk about the fact that Charles Ramsey is a hero, too. Because he saw a person obviously in distress, and he acted. And the fact that that person was white and female, and that he was black and male, living on a job as a dishwasher, and that his police record would be brought up afterward, definitely entered his consciousness; and he did it anyway. Because he saw a person who needed help.

That does not decrease his heroism. It increases it.

Let the record show that he did what he had to do, and if he hadn't, those four women would still be in that house.

And Ariel Castro might be getting away with it for another fifteen years.

And now I'm speaking here as an abuse survivor.

That Mr. Ramsey allegedly has a record for domestic violence is not beside the point; it is the point. It's people who abuse other people, and it's people who help other people. And people can learn better, or make a mistake one time and do something to repair it another.

Ramsey doesn't have to be perfect to be a hero. Berry didn't have to be perfect to be a hero. Michelle Knight was a hero when she delivered Ms. Berry's baby daughter, with no experience and no support, and she doesn't have to be perfect for that to stand, either. Gina DeJesus has no doubt done some pretty heroic stuff in the last ten years or so as well.

Our absolutist cultural narratives do nobody a service. People do not have to be perfect and blameless to be worthy of respect and admiration; they only have to be trying.

And one of the effects of that absolutism is to tell survivors who are not perfect and blameless (and who is, and who who has been abused can see themselves as perfect?) then they are somehow villains too, or responsible, or that they bear guilt for what they've suffered.

Another effect is that people who are capable of making a change may not, because they are scared of how they will be perceived if they aren't perfect.

***

(As for Mr. Ramsey's drug charges: if you don't understand the interplay of race, class, and drug-law harassment, I suggest you do some reading, and understand that middle class suburban white people can get away with a lot more than some black guy from Cleveland.)

as i walk these streets i know

2013-05-04T00:53:58Z

It's finally Spring in New England (I got out of Wisconsin just in time, apparently; I beat the blizzard by a day) and I get to be home with my dog for a whole three weeks before I head back to the Midwest.

With spring come the historical re-enactors. There's a pile of them camped out on the town common currently, firing off muskets and terrifying my poor dog. He would like you to know that he is not a gun dog. He doesn't mind thunderstorms in the least, but the musketry was bad enough that he had to climb into my lap and tremble.

I was half tempted to go out there and give them a piece of my mind, but I suppose it wouldn't be neighborly. And they probably have a permit or something.

The bugler playing Taps horribly was more frightening to me. But I'm not a Briard.

ETA: Oh, god, now they're playing fiddle. Badly.

tonight the sky will not be consoled.

2013-04-30T00:21:54Z

My goal from now until it's finished is a thousand words a day on "Dark Leader," and then a thousand words a day on "Green and Dying," and then the same on the story I don't have a title for yet but is due July 1. No excuses.

"Dark Leader" is the Shadow Unit story that should have been going up on Sunday. Um. Chances are it won't be. Sorry. There was this book that wanted a hundred extra pages. 0.0

I'm on it. It's all good.

a letter in your writing doesn't mean you're not dead

2013-04-29T15:59:12Z

I delivered the publication version of Steles of the Sky at about 4 AM this morning. It goes to production now, and if all goes well, next April you will have a lovely bundle of pages or pixels in your hot little hand. (I've already seen sketches for the cover art. Oh man. This is not going to suck. The roughs are currently my computer desktop. Thank you, Donato Giancola, for another gorgeous cover.)

It's the longest of the three books at 153,000 words Microsoft word count, and about 190,000 words manuscript word count.

Why the big disparity? Well, here. Because I keep getting asked what the difference between a word processor's word count and "manuscript word count" is, I explain.

No, take too long. I sum up.

Your word processor will generally give you a word count when you click the proper button. This word count will vary from word processor to word processor, because Scrivener uses a different algorithm than MS Word than Wordperfect than Open Office than what have you. How can algorithms vary? Because wordcount is a judgment call. Is fire-fighter one word or two? Do we count letters and punctuation? MS Word thinks a hash mark for a scene break is a word. Not all word processors agree.

Manuscript word count is calculated a different way. It is not a measure of the number of words in a piece, but the number of "words," where "words" are bundles of five characters and a space. Like column inches, it's meant to tell an editor or a compositor how much space the piece is going to take up in a finished work. So a page of dialogue may have far fewer words than a page of description, but the same number of "words." (Dialogue, you see, has a lot of white space.)

In the era of typewriters, you didn't calculate your word count by counting every word on the page. You calculated it by setting your margins such that your page had either 24 60 character lines on it, or 25 50 character lines. This gives you (very roughly), ~250 words to a page. (This is one reason why standard manuscript formatting calls for a fixed width serif font such as Courier, double-spaced. Another reason is that fixed width serif fonts, double-spaced, give editors and copyeditors and compositors room to scribble all over your manuscript. Another reason is that you get used to reading it, and picking out errors becomes easier. Proportional fonts (where the letters are different widths) look prettier and save space, but also hide errors and make it harder to guess how much space (how many pages or column inches) a given story will take. Sans-serif fonts make it harder to tell a 1 from an I from an l.

In the ebook/webzine era, the industry seems to be transitioning from manuscript word count to MS word count in general--both in terms of payment for stories that pay by the word (alas! because we get paid more for manuscript counts: they average 15% higher, especially if you're a sesquipedalian bastard like me) and in terms of award eligibility categories.

It doesn't matter so much with novels, where you're not paid by the word and the chief issue is the price of printing additional signatures. (Google it.)

But I find I can't accurately compare word I do now with work I did ten years ago unless I keep track of the manuscript word count.

(By the way, this makes Steles of the Sky the second-longest book I have ever written, after The Stratford Man. Which was a 290,000 word monster eventually published in two volumes: Ink and Steel and Hell and Earth. The manuscript was 1190 pages long.)

Excelsior!

with her hundred miles to hell

2013-04-29T08:51:54Z

Just emailed off the more-or-less final version of Steles of the Sky.

Hope it worked.

I am mighty. Now I need to get cracking on "Dark Leader" and the final version of "Green and Dying."

Zippy zoom!

i'll find a map and draw a straight line

2013-04-24T06:08:53Z

--30--

I just sent the manuscript for Steles of the Sky off to my editor and agent. It's only 30K over the contracted length.

*cries*

I guess it's a real epic fantasy now.

Damn. That was novel number 25.

...guess I better get on that overdue Shadow Unit episode, huh?

***

travel and appearances 2013:

Signing: Uncle Hugo's Bookstore, Minneapolis MN, April 13, 2013
Up in the Aether: Detroit, MI, May 23-27 2013
4th Street Fantasy: Minneapolis, MN, June 21-24, 2013
American Library Association (guest speaker): Chicago IL, June 28-30 2013
ConVergence: Minneapolis, MN July 4-8, 2013
Readercon: Burlington, MA, July 11-14, 2013
Space City Con: Houston, TX August 2-4, 2013 (Literary Guest of Honor)
Lone Star Con (San Antonio Worldcon): San Antonio, TX, August 29-September 1 2013
Context: Columbus, OH, September 27-29 2013 (GoH)
Signing (and Scott Lynch's The Republic of Thieves book launch!) : Pandemonium, Central Square, Cambridge MA, October 8th 2013
NYC ComiCon: NY NY, October 11th 2013 (only)
Viable Paradise: Oak Bluffs MA, October 12-16 2013
World Fantasy Convention: Brighton England UK, October 31-November 3, 2013

2013:

OWW EC: April 15, 2013
Popular Science flash: April 22, 2013
Steles of the Sky final: May 1, 2013
"Dark Leader": April 2013
"Green and Dying": June 1, 2013
Venusian story: July 1, 2013
Hieroglyph story: August 10, 2013
"Something's Gotta Eat T. rexes": October 2013

An Apprentice to Elves: ?

2014:

Karen Memory: January 6, 2014

travel and appearances:
RavenCon: North Chesterfield, Virginia, April 25-27th, 2014 (Guest of Honor)
ConVergence: Minneapolis, MN, July 3-7, 2014
Finncon: Jyväskylä, Finland, July 11-13, 2014 (Guest of Honor)
Worldcon: London, England, August 14-17, 2014

No fixed deadline:

Smile (unless its name is actually Salt Water)
Unsuitable Metal
Gotham Jazz
Untitled Gangland Urban Fantasy That Keeps Bugging Me
"Gallowglas"
"Untitled Space Opera Thingy" aka "Periastron"
"Posthumous Jonson"
"Steel"
"On Safari in R'lyeh and Carcosa with Gun and Camera"
"This Chance Planet"
"Flush"
"Coronado"
"Patience and Fortitude"
"A Time to Reap"

Nov 6th, 2013

2013-04-19T15:12:13Z

Tah dah:

Nov. 6, 2013

the trick is to keep breathing

2013-04-19T04:18:08Z

Nothing left but the screaming.

I am earning my damned Wonder Woman *and* King Mob icons this week.

ring like crazy, ring like hell, turn me back into that wild haired gale

2013-04-18T23:59:12Z

I have finally gotten through the rising action and I have reached the earth-shattering kaboom. Which means I will be taking a moment before writing to organize it. And cry a little.

I just typed "Chapter 26." Chapter 26 is the new Chapter 25, and Chapter 25 was supposed to be the start of the climactic space battle. I may actually cram one more scene into the new Chapter 25, though, which was previously the second half of Chapter 24, except Chapter 24 got to be sixty pages long, because the scene that is now supposed to start Chapter 26 (formerly 25) may go better in Chapter 25 (formerly 24.)

This book is going to be seven hundred pages long. I wish I were even kidding.

were we the belly of the beast or the sword that fell?

2013-04-18T20:14:37Z

Zeno's novel is in full force. I have written 16,800 words since Sunday, and I'm just about to OD on overly sweet multi-shot espresso drinks and get back at it, and I feel like the end of the damned book just gets further and further away.

I will not be done by Friday. But I may still pull off the next-week deadline if I manage to stay knuckled down. (I am taking Saturday off to give my brain and hands a break.)

In lieu of content, here are the songs I have been listening to obsessively while working this week.

Boston.

2013-04-15T20:25:47Z

Because I've heard from some who were worried: I'm fine. I'm in Wisconsin with Scott and nowhere near Boston today--or this month. My half-marathon was last month, and was not related in any way to the Boston Marathon.

Thank you to all the fire, EMS, bomb squad, police, and other first responders working to protect and heal Boston today. Thank you the hospital trauma staff, blood donors, and Samaritans.

My best wishes to everyone affected.

For those of you not in Boston and not from Massachusetts, today is a state holiday (Patriot's Day) and so the library in Copely Square was closed.

Be aware that as of this writing, police and other emergency services are still sweeping the Boylston Street/Copely Square area;

that the T stations closest to the affected area are closed;

that cell phone service has possibly been shut down in downtown Boston in order to prevent remote detonations of any further potential explosives;

that so far reports of devices in Cambridge and elsewhere in the Boston Metro Area have been unsubstantiated, but that may change and that many "suspicious packages" are bags abandoned in the chaos by bystanders;

that the area close to the main Boston Library campus is not considered safe and police are reporting (and in at least one case, controlled-detonating) additional explosive devices;

that two devices exploded in trash cans on Boylston Street about ten seconds apart, at the Marathon Finish line;

~~that a third device exploded inside the JFK Library that may be related;~~ this now appears to have been a fire, per the Boston PD;

that a fire in a facilities room at an area hotel is not related;

that there are possibly unsubstantiated reports that the Lenox and Mandarin Hotels have been evacuated;

that there are at least two dead and multiple seriously injured;

that you should not go to the area;

that police are asking everyone in Boston to stay home, if possible;

if you are already near the site of the explosions, you should leave immediately, per the Boston Police.

There are some reports that BPD is asking people in bars and restaurants in the area to stay indoors while a sweep for other devices is carried out.

Consider following @Boston_Police and @BostonGlobe (and @CambridgePolice) for the most verifiable updates. There's a lot of fog of war spreading on social media. It is irresponsible to speculate as to the motives and persons behind this at this time.

Be careful, stay clear, text or IM your loved ones rather than calling; check rumors before retweeting; watch out for scam artists!

It's okay to turn off the coverage. I'm about to do that myself.

If you are checking on a runner, you may be able to find information here.

If you are looking for someone else or if you wish to let people know you are okay, you can check in here.

If you wish to donate blood, go here. The Massachusetts Red Cross is reporting that they have sufficient blood supplies on the shelves, however.

Making Light entry, with fans checking in.

Google person finder

go get your suitcase, would you?

2013-04-15T01:17:07Z

Five chapters left to write on Steles of the Sky, racing my deadline. Very productive day today, and now I am going to give myself a bit of a rest so I can do it again tomorrow.

The good news is the weather is still crap, so really, there's no reason to want to go outside.

Oh wait, that's not actually good news. Year without a summer much?

the sweat is coming through each and every pore

2013-04-11T16:05:36Z

I'm thrilled that Range of Ghosts is the 2012 Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Epic Fantasy! The other SF/F category winners are John Scalzi and N. K. Jemisin.

Yay books!

keep your hand on the dead man's handle

2013-04-11T00:50:53Z

I'm absolutely thrilled to announce that my short story "Karen Memory" will be appearing in the new John Joseph Adams-edited anthology Dead Man's Hand, collecting some of the finest in all-new, original Weird West tales.

"Karen Memory" is the short that gave rise to the novel of the same name, which will be coming out from Tor in 2015, if all goes according to plan.

The rest of the TOC is pretty astounding:

Bamboozled—Kelley Armstrong
Karen Memory—Elizabeth Bear
Sundown—Tobias Buckell
Alvin and the Apple Tree—Orson Scott Card
Sheriff Poole & The Mech Gang—Charles de Lint
Clockwork—David Farland
Le Madre De Or—Jeffrey Ford
Holy Jingle—Alan Dean Foster
The Devil’s Jack—Laura Anne Gilman
Second Hand—Rajan Khanna
The Red-Headed Dead—Joe R. Lansdale
What I Assume You Shall Assume—Ken Liu
Ghostwood—Jonathan Maberry
Stingers and Strangers—Seanan McGuire
The Hell-Bound Stagecoach—Mike Resnick
The Man With No Heart—Beth Revis
Wrecking Party—Alastair Reynolds
Neversleeps—Fred van Lente
The Golden Age—Walter Jon Williams
Medicine Dance, Arizona—Tad Williams
The Old Slow Man and His Gold Gun From Space—Ben Winters
Bookkeeper, Narrator, Gunslinger—Charles Yu

Seriously, it goes not get better than this.

send his love to me

2013-04-09T02:02:57Z

I'll be a Guest of Honor at RavenCon in Virginia next April! And I will be joining That Boy I Like at NYC ComiCon for One! Day! Only! in October.

And now, back to the word mines.

travel and appearances 2013:

~~Boskone: Boston, MA, February 15-17 2013~~
Signing: New England Mobile Book Fair, Newton Highlands MA, March 20, 2013
Signing: Bookpeople, Austin TX, March 27 2013
Signing: Dragon's Lair, Austin TX, March 28 2013
Minicon: Minneapolis, MN, March 30-31 2013
Signing: Uncle Hugo's Bookstore, Minneapolis MN, April 13, 2013
Up in the Aether: Detroit, MI, May 23-27 2013
4th Street Fantasy: Minneapolis, MN, June 21-24, 2013
American Library Association (guest speaker): Chicago IL, June 28-30 2013
ConVergence: Minneapolis, MN July 4-8, 2013
Readercon: Burlington, MA, July 11-14, 2013
Space City Con: Houston, TX August 2-4, 2013 (Literary Guest of Honor)
Lone Star Con (San Antonio Worldcon): San Antonio, TX, August 29-September 1 2013
Context: Columbus, OH, September 27-29 2013 (GoH)
Signing (and Scott Lynch's The Republic of Thieves book launch!) : Pandemonium, Central Square, Cambridge MA, October 8th 2013
NYC ComiCon: NY NY, October 11th 2013 (only)
Viable Paradise: Oak Bluffs MA, October 12-16 2013
World Fantasy Convention: Brighton England UK, October 31-November 3, 2013

2013:

Steles of the Sky rough draft: March 2, 2013
~~Book proposal madness!~~
OWW EC: March 15, 2013
Metatropolis III story: March 31, 2013

OWW EC: April 15, 2013
Popular Science flash: April 22, 2013
"Dark Leader": April 2013
Steles of the Sky final: May 1, 2013
"Green and Dying": May 1, 2013
Venusian story: July 1, 2013
Hieroglyph story: August 10, 2013
"Something's Gotta Eat T. rexes": October 2013

An Apprentice to Elves: ?

2014:

Karen Memory: January 6, 2014

travel and appearances:
RavenCon: North Chesterfield, Virginia, April 25-27th, 2014 (Guest of Honor)
ConVergence: Minneapolis, MN, July 3-7, 2014
Finncon: Jyväskylä, Finland, July 11-13, 2014 (Guest of Honor)
Worldcon: London, England, August 14-17, 2014

No fixed deadline:

Smile (unless its name is actually Salt Water)
Unsuitable Metal
Gotham Jazz
Untitled Gangland Urban Fantasy That Keeps Bugging Me
"Gallowglas"
"Untitled Space Opera Thingy" aka "Periastron"
"Posthumous Jonson"
"Steel"
"On Safari in R'lyeh and Carcosa with Gun and Camera"
"This Chance Planet"
"Flush"
"Coronado"
"Patience and Fortitude"
"A Time to Reap"

you've only got the symptoms. you haven't got the whole disease.

2013-04-08T20:15:41Z

Have some Elvis Costello (and Fiona Apple), in honor of the day.

stuck in new york and the rain's coming down

2013-04-07T22:42:08Z

Well, I learned last night that I can deadlift three sets of 140 pounds, which made me feel pretty good about myself. (My squat is nowhere near there yet. Someday, I hope it will be.)

Today, I learned that in my shoulders and neck, I have trapezius muscles, deltoids, and this little dude called the erector scapulus. And I also learned that they have ways of making their opinions known.

Picture Binkley saying calmly, "'Ben-Gay,' Please."