2008 Awards Season

Following the lead of John Scalzi, Jay Lake, and others, I thought I’d post a list of things things I’ve published that are eligible for awards in 2008.

Since Wastelands is officially a 2008 book, nothing to do with that is eligible this awards season. With that in mind, I think the only thing I’m eligible for is some World Fantasy categories, such as Best Anthology (maybe, if the Pirate Issue counts).

But really, the only thing I could realistically be nominated for is the World Fantasy Award Special Award: Professional, for:

So I’m not really eligible for much as of yet. Next year, I should be eligible for the Best Editor (short-form) Hugo Award. But meanwhile, all of the stories I bought for the Pirate Issue are eligible for the various Short Story awards:

Eligible for Best Short Story (Hugo, Nebula [through end of Oct.], World Fantasy, Stoker, IGH):

  • The Sweet Realm by Jill Snider Lum [read]
  • Captain Blood’s B00ty by Jeremiah Tolbert [read]
  • A Hand for Each by J. Kathleen Cheney
  • The Blackguard of God by Melinda Selmys
  • Come to the Islands by Mikal Trimm
  • The Barbary Shore by James L. Cambias
  • Pirates by Adeline Thromb Age 8 by Marissa K. Lingen
  • The Furies by Rajan Khanna
  • The Perfect Hook by Justine Graykin
  • Hard Times for Bartleby Crow by Grant Stone
     

Also, I’d point out that you can and should nominate Shimmer for the Best Fanzine Hugo Award, and can also nominate Beth Wodzinski, the publisher, for the World Fantasy Award Special Award: Non-Professional.

Read More

Guitar Hero Redux

Okay, seriously folks. HOW DO YOU HIT THE BLUE FRET BUTTON?  I totally rock on Easy now, but man, Medium is another ball game.

Other commentary:

  • I totally can’t figure out hammer-ons and pull-offs. But I seem to do fine without them. Maybe that won’t be so as the game increases in difficulty.
  • That Queens of the Stone Age song must be the hardest, most-complicated song in the game. (At least of the ones I’ve played, having unlocked everything available on Easy.) Also really difficult is Crossroads by Cream. I already had respect for the talent of Cream, but I’ve got a new respect for QotSA. I never thought much of them before, but that’s some fancy guitar-work.
  • That fucking star power always screws me up when I try to turn it on. Well, not always, but a large percentage of my mistakes are caused by me trying to activate the star power. Also, it seems slightly harder to play the notes when star power is activated, because I think my fingers have become accustomed to the colors, but not the fret positions as much.

This game isn’t well-suited (or might be perfectly suited) for my perfectionist tendencies. I played one song perfectly ("Hey You"), and there are a few others I’m certain I *could* play perfectly, but always manage to blow one note–not even something difficult, just some random note I shouldn’t have any trouble with. <sigh>

I wonder if I’m going to need to create a Guitar Hero category on this blog.

Read More

Dying to Get Her Hands on Wastelands

In case you haven’t noticed it, Rose Fox, the new SF/Fantasy/Horror reviews editor at Publishers Weekly has started up a professional blog, where she’ll talk about what goes on behind the scenes at PW.

Today, she talked about a bit (more) about reviewing timelines, and in the course of which mentioned how she’s been dying to get her hands on Wastelands for months now. Yay!

But don’t go read it just for my ego gratification–check it out for the insider stuff. If you’re an author, a PW review is one of the most important factors in your book’s publicity/marketing campaign, so it would behoove you to know how the system works…and to make sure everyone at your publisher does as well. The blog’s just getting started, but there have already been some interesting posts, and I’m looking forward to seeing what else Rose sheds more light on.

Read More

Goodbye Sleep, Hello Carpal Tunnel

So I got a guitar for Xmas this year (an acoustic guitar). I have no idea how to play it as of yet, but my cousin Greg is a professional guitar player who has given lots of lessons (as well as having played lots of big shows, such as opening for Bruce Springsteen). I saw him today, and we talked about getting together for him to show me the ropes.

Meanwhile, for Xmas, my nephew got Guitar Hero for the PS2. He, my niece, and my sister were up visiting from North Carolina, so we all sat around playing it for a while. Before I go any farther with this commentary, let me say this to all the writers reading this: DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. Actually, I should amend that to DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME, because if you play it, I’m certain you would want to buy it afterward. That’s what happened to me.

As I was saying, we were playing Guitar Hero. It’s an immediately fun and addictive game, and the soundtrack is surprisingly good–probably, I suppose, because all the tracks are somewhat guitar-driven, and I think fancy guitar-work is the fastest way to my musical heart. Since I first heard of this game, I’d been saying "If it actually taught you to play guitar, I’d buy it in a second." Well, it doesn’t teach you to play guitar, not really at all, not even a little bit, I don’t think, but holy Moses, it’s so goddamn fun.

But, as the title of this post implies, it might just be a bit too addictive and may lure you away from the keyboard before you’ve finished your daily word count. Not to mention that the repetitive motion the game requires is sure to be the leading cause of carpal tunnel for an entire generation to come. When I sat down to write this post (just moments after finishing up with the game), my fingers were actually stiff. For righties, it’s much worse on your left hand, as that’s the one on the fret board doing all the button mashing.

I mentioned the soundtrack earlier. Much to my surprise, there was actually some metal songs on there, and I’m happy to say that I seem to be best at playing those. I’m certain if I keep at it, I can play "Iron Man" and "Symphony of Destruction" perfectly. As it is, I think I played "Iron Man" with only one mistake.

Admittedly, I’m talking about doing this on the Easy setting. Medium is another story entirely. On Easy, you only use three of the five fret buttons to play notes and chords. On Medium, you use four of the five. It’s really kind of amazing how much harder that makes it.

If you’re going to successfully avoid being ensnared by this insidious drug, beware the video game stores; the in store game displays will call out to you, and you’ll think "Oh, just one game won’t hurt." But it will. The in store display is what finally did me in.

Okay, that’s enough for now. I’ve got to go soak my hand in some ice water.

Read More

Noctem Aeternus Vol. 1

Charlie Finlay points out that the first issue of Noctem Aeternus is now available as a free PDF download. It features his story "The Rapeworm":

You can download the issue here, but you have to join the subscription list. (I think this is so they can pitch solid subscriber numbers to advertisers, who will underwrite the cost of the fiction, which would be a new model for internet fiction magazines similar to the free weekly newspapers you pick up in most cities. Their goal is 30,000 subscribers by the first of next year.) It’s worth signing up just to take a look at this issue. There are other stories in the issue by Cherie Priest, Michael Laimo, Tim Waggoner, and Ramsey Campbell, plus a Paula Guran column, interviews, and art by Kuang Hong.

Read More

Thanks

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who expressed their condolences for my grandfather’s passing. It’s appreciated.

The viewing is today, with the funeral mass and burial scheduled for tomorrow morning.

Read More

SF Signal on Wastelands: "More entertaining than the average ‘Best of’ annual anthology."

John over at the great SF Signal blog posted a glowing (four-out-of-five stars) review of Wastelands. Here’s a snippet:

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse offers a great selection of end-of-the-world stories proving that stories in a single setting (or a single subgenre of science fiction) need not be similar. While the prevailing theme, as would be expected, is one of hope, the stories are presented with unique focus and voice. But the mood is as dark as it should be with such serious subject matter. With rare exception (Neal Barrett, Jr.’s comical "Ginny Sweethips’ Flying Circus") these stories are gloomy indeed. But isn’t that the appeal of post-apocalyptic fiction after all?

John Joseph Adams has culled a great selection of stories here dating back to 1973, with more than half of those written in the last seven years. […] In then end, Wastelands proved to be more entertaining than the average yearly "Best of".
 

One of the thing I like so much about SF Signal’s reviews is the fact that when they cover an anthology, they review each and every story. That’s the case here as well–John provides mini-reviews of each tale, along with a star-rating for each. So go check out the full review, and add SF Signal to your RSS feed-reader.

Read More