People throwing love all over my stories

Two "wow!" reviews have come in over the last two days. First, Sam Tomaino at SFRevu praised my new Interzone novelette "Into the Depths of Illuminated Seas," saying it is the first 2010 story on his Hugo Award short list for next year. And in words that blew me away, he added, "Interzone is really spoiling me when it publishes Jason Sanford so regularly. As far as I'm concerned, they couldn't publish too much of this author if they named it Jason Sanford's Science Fiction Magazine."

And then Rachel Swirsky, in a post on Jeff VanderMeer's site, listed my Interzone novella "Sublimation Angels" as her favorite out of all the novellas she's considering for the Nebula Awards. She called the novella "an engaging read, both intellectually and plot-wise. I will definitely be nominating it."

Many thanks to both Rachel and Sam.

As I mentioned the other day, "Sublimation Angels" has received several nominations for the Nebula Award. If anyone else wants to consider the novella for a possible nomination, I've posted a copy online in a pdf format. I can also provide copies of the file in alternate formats upon request.

A few writing updates

I've been busy with family this weekend--which isn't a complaint, merely an observation--so only minor updates for now. First, here are three new reviews of Interzone 226, which includes my fantasy story "Into the Depths of Illuminated Seas":

I've now finished my third week of tracking my writing life. Here are the numbers:

  • Time spent on new short story writing: 6 hours
  • Time spent revising and editing short stories: 2.5 hours
  • Time spent on my novel: 0
  • Time spent on Facebook/Twitter/Blog: 4 hours
  • Time spent reading the news and doing other worthless stuff online: 5 hours

The good news is I cut back on wasting time on the internet. Bad news: I also cut back on my writing. Try to do better next week.

Art for "Into the Depths of Illuminated Seas"

Into-the-depths Artist Ben Baldwin has posted the original artwork he created for my story "Into the Depths of Illuminated Seas," which appears in the new issue of Interzone. I love the art and am wondering how my family will react to a print hanging in our house (fingers are crossed for a positive reaction, because I plan to order one). If you want to see a larger version, click on the link above.

I should mention, though, that readers won't find a naked woman standing in ocean waves in the story. Ben used that oft-mentioned "artistic license" technique to great effect, as he aimed at capturing the story's essence instead of illustrating a particular scene.

And while there has been a lot of worthy debate recently about why so many naked women are featured in fantasy magazine art (especially on the covers), in this case I believe the subdued nudity is appropriate. My story deals with a woman cursed to have the names of dying sailors continually flow across her body. Without showing her skin, I don't see how anyone could illustrate this story. If a fantasy magazine plops a naked woman on every cover, yeah, I have major concerns about that. But when an artist illustrates a particular story where you have to see some skin to expose (pun intended) a major plot point, then such an illustration strikes me as appropriate. Especially when it's done as tastefully and artistically as Ben did. It'll be interesting to see what other people think.

Ben is an incredibly talented artist who has illustrated a number of books and magazines. You can check out more of his art on his website at www.benbaldwin.co.uk. For more on my story, please see this recent post.

My story "Into the Depths of Illuminated Seas" in Interzone 226

IZ226The Jan./Feb. 2010 issue of Interzone (number 226) contains my fantasy novelette "Into the Depths of Illuminated Seas."  Of all the stories I've written, this is one of my favorites. I hope readers enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Which isn't to say the writing was easy. I've worked on this story for at least four years, with an earlier version published last fall in a small press zine edited by Pete S. Allen. But none of these earlier versions matched my original vision for the story.

And yes, this means I spent way, way more than 20 hours on this story. I wrote so many versions that at one point I forget which version I was working on, did a rewrite on a discarded draft, and ended up with two competing versions. Only a painful line-by-line edit was able to condense these two drafts back into a single story.

The version published by Pete came closest to my vision, and I owe him a massive debt of gratitude for preventing a major mistake with the story (without giving too much away, it involved me almost removing the daguerreotypes from the tale). Pete read this daguerreotype-less version and said a polite "hell no," which was the totally right thing to do.

If you read the earlier published version of "Into the Depths of Illuminated Seas," the final reworking in Interzone massively improves the love story and totally changes the ending, among other changes.

In my Interzone author's note I thank both Pete for publishing that earlier version, and Andy Cox and the IZ editors for taking a chance on this reworking. It's not often a previously published story is allowed a second chance at life, and it's not often a writer gets to work with so many talented editors on a single tale. So thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thanking people for their kind words

Since the New Year is now well underway, I wanted to point out the kind words reviewers have had for my stories in recent weeks:

  • In a SF Signal Mind Meld on "The Best Genre-Related Books/Films/Shows Consumed in 2009," Colin Harvey praised my novella "Sublimation Angels" and short story "Here We Are, Falling Through Shadows," saying "As I noted with Ted Kosmata last year, good--but very different--stories appearing in quick-fire succession by the same author have a cumulative effect far beyond that achieved by single works." In addition, in Strange Horizons' "2009 in Review," Colin mentioned me as a newcomer publishing "high quality" fiction.
  • At SF Crowsnest, Gareth D Jones called "Here We Are, Falling Through Shadows" "a chilling story of the unknown" while John DeNardo at SF Signal called it a "marvelously engaging story."
  • At SFRevu, Adam Tredowski said my "Shadows" story would make his Hugo short list.
  • At Tangent Online, Bob Blough praises my novella "Sublimation Angels," calling it "SF of the purest quality" and that he eagerly awaits "the sequel to the greater story incumbent in the original idea." Don't worry, I'm already sketching out the sequels to the story.
  • Free SF Reader picked "Sublimation Angels" as one of the best new stories of 2009, as did Gareth D Jones.
  • Finally, Shaun Duke will be mentioning my "unique, spatially disconnected short fiction" in his academic paper "Shaping the Shapeless: New Weird, Bizarro, and Bending Genres," which will be presented at the upcoming "What Happens Now: 21st Century Writing in English--the first decade" conference in Lincoln, England. Wow! And I love that description of my work.

I hope I haven't missed anyone. Thanks to everyone listed for the kind words, and thanks to every reader out there who has enjoyed my stories.

New fiction from me

My short story "Cwazy" has been published in OCHO #28, the print companion to the literary and arts magazine MiPOesias. This special issue was edited by editor and writer Kirk Curnutt, and features stories which "leave the reader wanting more." My story is a literary fantasy set along the Alabama interstates, featuring a dead fairy girl and a man shot through the head.

You can access the issue in multiple ways. To read it for free through Issuu (jump to page 71 for my story). But be aware you have to access the story through Issuu's DRM service, which can be frustrating. However, they do let you print the issue, and download if you have an account. Or you can order a very nice copy of this perfect-bound literary magazine from Amazon.

Russian SF magazine ESLI

Cover of Russian SF magazine ESLI My contributor's copy of the Russian SF magazine ESLI (IF in English) arrived today. They purchased the reprint right to my story "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen By Their Rain" (PDF download), which was originally published last year in Interzone, and subsequently reprinted in Year's Best SF 14.

ESLI is a beautiful magazine, about the size and thickness of a double issue edition of Asimov's or Analog before they went to their new size. Since I don't read Russian, I can't comment on the quality of the content. But there appears to be a good mix of original Russian SF stories and translations of stories. In addition to my story, there are translations of "Boojum" by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, "Fury" by Alastair Reynolds, and "The Others" by Lawrence C. Connolly.

Russian art for "The Ships Like Clouds..." The best thing about ESLI is the amazing black and white line art for each story.

At left is the art for my story. Without giving too much away, the art perfectly captures in an abstract way the essence of my tale. Great art. I wish I knew the artist's name so I could give him or her credit. I also figured out that the wording at the top of the page is my name in Russian.

Russian art for "Boojum" by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette At right is the art for "Boojum" by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, one of my favorite science fiction short stories of recent years. Unlike the art for my story, this artist took a realistic approach to a story which could have been dang hard to illustrate. But the artist captured the story perfectly, and in the process created a small masterpiece.

I wish I could read Russian because ESLI looks like a great SF magazine. Definitely a great place to be reprinted in (and from a financial point of view, they paid promptly, which is always a good thing).

Interview with Larry Eisenberg

In case you missed it, my interview with author Larry Eisenberg is up at SF Signal. In response to the interview, a number of people have asked where they can read Larry's stories. Unfortunately, his only collection is The Best Laid Schemes, published way back in 1971. Since Larry wrote a large number of stories after that date, that means to read most of his work you have to track down the original magazines he was published in.

My hope is that a publisher will notice this need for a new collection and approach Larry about one. If anyone wants to get in touch with him, drop me a line.

Guest posts at Jeff VanderMeer's blog

I'm one of the guest posters for Jeff VanderMeer's blog while he's on a book tour. So check out these recent posts of mine:

Mark Pexton's art for my new Interzone story

FallingShadows One of the things I love about Interzone is they publish your stories with amazing art. So far several top-notch artists have illustrated my Interzone stories, and this trend continues with my new story "Here We Are, Falling Through Shadows."

As you can see from Mark Pexton's art, the story is rather dark and, without giving too much away, straddles the line between science fiction and horror. What impresses me most, though, is how Mark so perfectly captures the story's family dynamic.

Many thanks to Mark for the great art. To see a larger version of the artwork, go here.

Interzone 225 table of contents (includes a story by me)

I'm still recovering from an eye injury, so extensive blogging will have to wait a few more days. Until then, the good news is Interzone issue 225's out and features my story "Here We Are, Falling Through Shadows."

Cover for Interzone 225

Inside you will also find:

  • "By Starlight" by Rebecca Payne (And please note that not only is this Rebecca's first publication, this was the first time she'd ever submitted a story to a magazine or publisher. Send a big congrats her way!)
  • "Funny Pages" by Lavie Tidhar
  • "The Killing Streets" by Colin Harvey
  • "Bone Island" by Shannon Page and Jay Lake
  • And the usual reviews and features, including an amazing wrap-around cover by Adam Tredowski.

More information on the issue is available here. In addition, you can read an interview with artist Adam Tredowski on the TTA website.

Interzone 225

Issue 225 of Interzone (Nov./Dec. 2009) will be out November 12. In addition to stories by me, Lavie Tidhar, Rebecca Payne, Colin Harvey, Shannon Page and Jay Lake, the issue features an amazing wrap-around cover by Adam Tredowski.

Cover for Interzone 225I mean, that cover is flat-out a work of art.

I can't remember the last time I saw a SF magazine with a wrap-around cover. For those who don't know, wrap-around covers used to be more common in books and magazine, but have largely disappeared due to the pressures of marketing information and advertising. And in a Twitter post, TTA Press admits (with a tongue-in-cheek comment) this wrap-around cover is "a treat that disguises a major failure by the Advertising Manager." But it's still beautiful, so pick up a copy next month.

BTW, the last issue of Interzone, which contains my novella "Sublimation Angels," is now available for download as a multi-format ebook at Fictionwise.

My new personal motto, and a review of Gaiman's Odd and the Frost Giants

I'm still offline working on a novel, but I figured three minutes to post a few items wouldn't kill my writing.

Over at SF Signal is my new review of Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman. My oldest son helped me review the book. Our take: I'd recommend this to Gaiman fans, while my son says every kid must read this book. But either way, wait for the paperback edition or buy the cheaper Kindle edition. Because $14.99 is simply too much for a story this short.

In other news, reviews of my novella "Sublimation Angels" have started to trickle out. SF Signal gave the story 5 stars and called it "A captivating story about freedom, rebellion, and seeking the truth." But over at the Internet Review of SF, Lois Tilton reams the story, calling it "straight out of the Sci-Fi Catalog of Stock Cardboard Characters." Okay, maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing Lois didn't like the story.

That said, I've received a number of emails and forum comments from people loving/liking the story, including one very nice reader who sent me a tip after finishing the story. If someone sending you money after reading your story isn't proof they liked it, I don't know what is.

Thanks to everyone for the positive comments and support. And as I work on my new novel over the coming months, my personal motto is to always stay true to the "Sci-Fi Catalog of Stock Cardboard Characters!"

Offline for a while

I'll be offline for a good bit over the next two months. I'm working on a novel. Since I have to slot writing around family life and work, I've decided to offer up Twitter, Facebook, and my blog to the altar of actually getting something done. So if I'm posting stuff online, feel free to yell at me ALL CAPS STYLE in a nasty email or Facebook message.

Fritz Leiber and His Classic Story "A Pail of Air"

IZ224coversm The new issue of Interzone, featuring my novella "Sublimation Angels," arrived yesterday. The issue should arrive in bookstores across the U.S. in the coming days, so keep an eye out.

My story is set on a cold planet wrenched from its orbit, causing its atmosphere to freeze and fall from the sky. Given such a setting, the story is naturally dedicated to Fritz Leiber and his famous "A Pail of Air." I remember reading that story as a child, fascinated and excited by both an earth tumbling through deep space and the desperation of the main character, who stays alive only through retrieving pails of frozen air.

Leiber's story is still a good read, although parts of it haven't aged well, such as its representation of women. I mean, seriously, what woman in her right mind asks about fashion and dresses upon first meeting other humans after years of isolation and near death? Still, this is a well-deserved science fiction classic. Read the complete story here.