Holy crap! SCI FICTION is being discontinued by SCIFI.com. Read Ellen Datlow’s farewell message. A post by Ellen on her Nightshade Books Message Board indicates it’s true. There’s also discussion on the SCI FICTION BB.
I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say that SCI FICTION will be missed.
Update: Gwenda Bond has posted a list of favorite SCI FICTION stories, along with a link-roundup of other reactions to the demise of SCI FICTION.
SCI FI Wire just published a news story I wrote about Adventure, Vol. 1, a new multi-genre pulp anthology edited by Chris Roberson (MonkeyBrain Books).
Some wonderful items of interest were posted to BoingBoing while I was away, including reports of: a wall of boobs and a cruise ship fending off Somalian pirates with a sonic blaster. Also of interest was an item about the physics of cow-tipping, which was of particular interest to me, seeing as how during the con someone tried to convince me that cow-tipping was a myth (and that cows don’t sleep standing up); also, yesterday I bought a cow-tipping shirt at the Madison airport (a little local flava), so the subject was on my mind.
If you would all just read BoingBoing everyday, I wouldn’t have to post these things.
But the real reason I wanted to post about BoingBoing today is because of the story they posted about a new stupid Wi-Fi law being proposed. That post serves as a perfect example of the idiocy of the government, and how without watchdogs like Cory Doctorow and other journalists who point out such idiocy, this country would completely go to hell. Obviously, the issue of Wi-Fi is not an issue of monumental importance to the general public, but critical issues are dealt with by the government with that same clusterfuckery.
Jeremy Tolbert published a story in Interzone recently which postulated a future that included an “Otaku” political party–a geek party, for you non-geeks reading this (as if I would have any non-geek readers!). The story is a fun, farcical romp (not at all a political diatribe), but all this political bullshit that’s been going on lately here in the real world makes me long for such a party.
Cory for President! Doctorow in 2008!
SCI FI Wire just published a news story I wrote about Robert Reed, who, with his story “The Cure” in the December issue of F&SF, will have published his 50th story in the magazine.
At some point during the con festivities this weekend, Gordon went on my laptop and googled “crazy monkey love + where to find it” and left the results for me to see. This was amusing, and resulted in a wonderful discovery: a film called Play Mate of the Apes. It sounds like one of those movies that one just has to see. Go read the customer reviews of it at Amazon, and then please go to the Netflix request a title page, and request that they stock this fine piece of independent filmmaking.
Okay, so my previous post wasn’t very informative. So here’s what happened yesterday:
Flight got in around 4:15, caught the shuttle to the hotel with Jay Caselberg, Laura Anne Gilman, Darrell Schweitzer, Jo Fletcher, and others. Entered the lobby, was waiting as Gordon checked us into our room, and was pounced upon by Diana Rowland, who I’d exchanged emails with (and read the submissions of) but hadn’t yet met in person. Saw Toby Buckell in the lobby, who demanded a man-hug and followed it up with a complicated handshake. Went up to the room to deposit my goodies, tried without success to get the wireless internet working (it later started working on its own), then went back downstairs to registration.
Registration was nice and efficient — they had my stuff all ready for me and found it in a timely fashion. Received my big bag o’ books, which was considerably less big than I had anticipated. At the WFC in DC a couple years ago, the goodie bag was a really sweet score, full of brand new hardcovers — this one was smaller, had fewer books, and most of them were mass market paperbacks. Also, I was disappointed to see that my bag didn’t include a copy of the new Fantasy Magazine (though other people did receive it in their bags). However, I later found one on the retread table, which was dominated by several large piles of unwanted copies of Robert Jordan’s New Spring.
Wandered into the dealer’s room, made a circuit around it. Saw Diana Rowland again, and had more time to chat with her, found out some interesting stuff about being a NOLA police officer on the front lines in the aftermath of Katrina. Met and chatted with Daniel Abraham, whose first novel is due out from Tor early next year (and whose galley I was admiring at the office just the other day). Later last night, Daniel won the IHG Award for best short story, for his F&SF story “Flat Diane.” (Congrats!)
After chatting with Diana and Daniel for a while, my dawg, Charlie Finlay wandered over with Paolo Bacigalupi, one of my favorite new-ish writers, whom I hadn’t yet had the chance to meet. Had some more good conversation before wandering around the dealer’s room again, then joined Gordon as he chatted with Jeremy Lassen and Jason Williams from Nightshade Books, who, incidentally, seem to be doing quite well lately, with their new distributor, Diamond, and thanks largely to them now being the American publisher of UK uberkind Iain M. Banks.
Charlie Finlay had a reading at 7, so Gordon and I headed out to get something to eat beforehand. Wandered over to a nearby pub, and discovered Charlie (who was supposed to be prepping for his reading) having dinner there with a bunch of folks from the OWW (Online Writing Workshop, for which Charlie is an administrator). Toby Buckell was there too, and later, Paolo showed up. I had a caesar salad topped with cajun chicken–the chicken was great, but they put dressing on my salad despite my explicit instructions, and I didn’t have time to send it back. D’oh! Other than that, dinner was great.
Had to rush out a bit early to catch Charlie’s reading. He read most of a new “spicy” story, which he had intended for the Wheatland Press anthology, Spicy Slipstream stories, but though it was certainly spicy, everyone seems to agree that it’s not slipstream. It was terrific though, in any case, and I wished he could have finished reading it in his time slot. He got through most of it though, and what he did read makes it seem like a winner for sure. It’s funny and has a lot of cool SFnal concepts, and…how can you not like a story that begins with a guy telling someone about the eyeball he had inserted in his rectum?
Test your monster knowledge. An amusing diversion, but honestly folks–if you’re reading this, then this quiz wasn’t designed with you in mind. If you don’t get at least, say 7 out of 10 without looking anything up, just tear up that SFWA (or HWA) application or membership card right now.
Boing-Boing is reporting that statues of Darth Vader and Yoda have been
carved out a 1,000 lb. blocks of butter for a contest at the Tulsa State Fair.
Mmm … rich, creamy dark side.
SCI FI Wire just published a news story I wrote about Baen Books’s new magazine, Baen’s Astounding Stories.
Go read the story! Check out the submission guidelines, but you should still send everything to F&SF first.
Weird, but fun: an online comic strip called
Alien Loves Predator (with the subtitle: In New York, No One Can
Hear You Scream).
They're not all winners, but hey, it takes like five seconds to read each one,
and some of them are pretty damn funny.