Hate email to me, read by Richard Nixon!

Two weeks ago I asked if the term SciFi was still considered derogatory by the science fiction community. In response I received a number of emails from people none to pleased with my comments. I'm sure every writer gets these messages, which rant on and on about how feeble minded you are for daring to state an opinion.

Lucky for us, writer and critic Edward Champion refuses to allow such anger and venom to disappear with the emptying of our email's trash. As part of his Hate Mail Dramatic Reading Project, he's turned one of the emails I received into an amazing performance--read by none other than Richard Nixon. What was once merely an inbox irritation has been transformed into a work to stand proudly beside the best of Richard Nixon's many, many recordings.

Praise for "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain"

I've been slow in mentioning this, but Rusty at BestScienceFictionStories.com had some very nice things to say about my story "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain."

"Kudos, Jason, for one of the best stories I have read this year. When is Jason going to put out a collection of his short stories? I know I'll be the first in line to purchase it.

Thanks, Rusty, for the kind words! As for that collection--maybe book publishers will take note of this interest.

Cover of new Interzone, featuring my novella

IZ224coversm The new issue of Interzone, featuring my novella "Sublimation Angels," will be published September 10. TTA Press has released the cover, which is stunning as always. I mean, damn, if there's a more beautiful SF magazine than Interzone, I haven't seen it. Click the image to see the full-size cover. I should also note that my novella has no relation to that beautiful art--the world in my story is as far from green and warm as humanity will ever get.

Issue 224 (Sept./Oct. 2009) also features stories by Jeremiah Tolbert, Adrian Joyce, Katherine Sparrow and Rachel Swirsky, and Chris Butler.

Story accepted in OCHO, the print companion to MiPOesias

My experimental story "Cwazy," which combines fantasy and Southern literature, will be published in an upcoming short fiction edition of OCHO, the print companion to the well-known literary and arts magazine MiPOesias. This special issue is edited by Kirk Curnutt and will feature authors such as Josh Russell, Elise Blackwell, Michael Griffith, Jim Murphy, David Racine, Marlin Barton, Dana Coester, Jim Gilbert ... and others, including me!

Look for this issue of OCHO in the fall.

How long does it take F&SF to reject me? Seven Days!

We now have the answer to one of the great riddles of the ages: How long does it take F&SF to reject my most recent submission? In this case, 7 days.

I mailed the submission on July 27 and received the rejection today, for a grand total of 7 days. It was an "alas" rejection from Gordon Van Gelder, which was actually dated on July 31. This was well under their average response time of 12 days, per their Duotrope listing. Talk about speed.

There was one outright winner, who will receive a copy of David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer's anthology Year's Best SF 14 (which includes my Interzone story "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain"). This winner picked 8 days. There were also four people who picked 9 days. I'll throw their names in a hat and draw the final two names to receive copies of the book.

As for all those who picked 10 days and up, I guess you were being too kind. And before people feel too sorry for me, I also received a very nice acceptance today for a different story. Once the editor says its okay to announce the details, I'll spill the complete beans.

Thanks to everyone for taking part. I'll mail the books in the coming days.

The Great "How Fast Does Jason Get Rejected by F&SF?" Contest

I have three copies to give away of David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer's anthology Year's Best SF 14, which includes my Interzone story "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain." So let's do a little contest; the three winners all receive free copies of the book.

Here's the deal: In the next few days, I will be submitting a new story to Fantasy and Science Fiction. As most writers already know, F&SF processes submitted stories in a very fast manner. This isn't a complaint against the magazine--the simple truth is editor Gordon Van Gelder and assistant editor John Joseph Adams (aka Slushgod, who is the first reader for the slush pile) work extremely hard to respond to all submissions in a prompt manner. As a writer, I appreciate this.

So the contest will be guessing how many days it takes for my story to be rejected. For an idea on F&SF's submission response times, check out their Duotrope Digest listing. The date range will be based on how long it takes from mailing the submission to when the rejection arrives in my mailbox. My previous three submissions to F&SF had a rejection time of 7 days, 12 days, and 21 days, as listed in my Duotrope submission tracker.

The three people who guess closest each win a book. If by some unlikely chance the story is accepted, I'll throw all the entered names into a hat and draw the winners. And if more than three people pick the same winning day, the hat will also be used to pick the winners from among those people.

If you want to track the contest, you can follow my submission progress at twitter.com/jasonsanford. To enter, email me your name and rejection guess to lapthai (at sign) yahoo (dot) com. And please make sure you have a snail mail address I can send the book to. And yes, anyone anywhere in the world is welcome to enter.

Three of my stories, free for the reading

I finally got off my butt and created PDFs of my three SF stories published last year in Interzone and Analog so people can read them online. The stories, with promotional notes, are:

Thanks for all the support everyone has given my stories!

Art for my upcoming novella "Sublimation Angels"

Pdrummond_43_large Artist Paul Drummond, who frequently illustrates stories for the British SF magazine Interzone,has posted on his website the art for my upcoming novella "Sublimation Angels." The novella will appear in the next issue of Interzone (issue 224, Sept./Oct. 2009).

Drummond is a great hard SF artist; you can see more of his Interzone work here. Even better, subscribe to Interzone, because it is simply the best SF/F magazine around.

Interzone to publish my story "Plague Birds"

Great news: The British SF magazine Interzone has accepted a new story of mine titled "Plague Birds." In addition, my 20,000-word novella "Sublimation Angels" will appear in the next issue of Interzone (issue 224, Sept./Oct. 2009). As always, thanks to Andy Cox and all the Interzone editors for the wonderful support they have given my writings.

My award-nominated story "The Ships Like Clouds ..." now available online

My short story "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen By Their Rain" has been reprinted online in the literary journal Ensorcelled, which is published by the University of California, Berkeley.

The story was originally published last year in the British speculative fiction magazine Interzone and has gained a number of honors, including being reprinted in The Year's Best SF 14 anthology, reprinted in the Czech SF magazine Ikarie, nominated for the 2009 British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction, and nominated for the 2008 BSFA Award for Best Short Fiction.

That'll do, story. That'll do.

Hanging with Hayao Miyazaki and Brian Aldiss (in my mind, at least)

YearsBEstSF14 Today I received a copy of David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer's anthology Year's Best SF 14, which includes my Interzone story "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain." In the introduction to the story, they write:

"If there is such a thing as new weird SF, this is it. The story gets high marks for originality. It has a kind of anime feeling reminiscent to us of Miyazaki, but it also reminds us of the early fiction of Brian Aldiss."

Uh ... wow! I can't believe they mentioned my story in the same sentence with Hayao Miyazaki and Brian Aldiss. I've been a big fan of Miyazaki's films for years--and as a self-promotional sidenote, if Miyazaki needs a story to adapt for his next film, "The Ships Like Clouds ..." is available! I also I grew up loving Aldiss' writings. So many thanks to both David and Kathryn for the extremely kind words.

Million Writers Award update

I've almost finished reading the notable stories from this year's Million Writers Award. There are a ton of great stories and I'm having some trouble making my selections, so I'm re-reading a few stories and will announce the top ten stories Sunday evening. The public vote will also begin at that time

Update: Now made my selections. Probably have the top ten stories up Saturday night, but no promises.

My "Thorns" story wins Interzone Readers Poll, now available as both a reprint and podcast

Big news about my story "When Thorns Are the Tips of Trees," published last year in Interzone: It won the 2008 Interzone Readers Poll!Many thanks to everyone who liked the story and voted for it, and a massive thanks to Andy Cox and the Interzone editors for publishing it.

In other great news, the story was reprinted this week in the final issue of Apex Magazine, while StarShipSofa has published a wonderful podcast version. So go read/listen to the story!

BTW, my other Interzone story, "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain," placed #4 in the Readers' Poll and will appear a few weeks from now in Year's Best SF 14.

Stories to be reprinted in Apex and Czech SF magazine Ikarie

Two of my stories published last year in Interzone—"When Thorns Are the Tips of Trees" and "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen By Their Rain"—will be reprinted in the Czech SF magazine Ikarie.  While I don't know the exact publication schedule, one of the stories will evidently be in Ikarie's July issue alongside works by Paolo Bacigalupi and Ted Kosmatka, who happen to be two of my favorite short story writers.

I should also note that "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen By Their Rain" has been nominated for the 2009 British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction and will be reprinted in Year's Best SF 14, due out next month. "When Thorns Are the Tips of Trees" was nominated for the 2008 BSFA Award for Best Short Fiction and is scheduled to be reprinted next month in Apex Magazine.

Guess that's enough self-promotion for today.

My Outshine prose poem

OutShine is a Twitterzine edited by Jetse de Vries which publishes optimistic, near future prose poems. The catch with a Twitterzine is that each story or poem can only be 140 characters.

A few weeks back Outshine published one of my optimistic prose poems. Here it is, reprinted in its entirety:

She dissipatedthe past. Footsteps walking reclaimed beaches. Grinned as seagulls abandoned all worship of trash to instead hunt fish.

Anyone interested in submitting to Outshine should check out their submission guidelines (and do note that they are a paying market). Outshine also publishes an excellent selection of insightful quotes, and is worth reading on a regular basis.

On a final note, Jetse is also working on the Shine anthology of optimistic SF. I'm writing two stories which might work for the anthology, but I won't know until the end of April if they'll be ready to submit.