I’m off to Readercon in the morning. I posted my con schedule here, if you’re interested. If you’re at the con and see me walking by, come say hello (even though your instinct might be to run away, or run to your room to arm yourself with weaponry). If you’re not at the con and you see me walking by, run, it’s an evil clone!
Strange Horizons is having its annual fund drive. Give a little, why don’t ya?
To raise money for his impending relocation to England, where he intends to take up a secondary career as a housesitter, F&SF author Matthew Hughes is auctioning off some items that may be of interest to collectors. He’s going to hold a number of auctions over the next few weeks. First up:
Lot 1 — Fools Errant hardcover: this is the original 1994 Maxwell Macmillan Canada edition, signed, in near mint condition — it’s unread but it’s been moved around from time to time — and dust-jacketed. Only 750 copies were printed, and most of them went to Canadian libraries.
Lot 2 — Black Brillion proof: this is a Advanced Reading Copy paperback, with no artwork on the cover, signed, in mint condition.
Lot 3 — Magazines: a complete set of my magazine appearances from recent years. In total, there are twenty-one stories, sixteen from F&SF, Two from Asimov’s, two from Postscripts, and one from Interzone. Each story is signed on the page where it starts. As a bonus for completists, I’ll also throw in signed copies of my two stories in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and a Czech and Russian edition of F&SF with a couple of my pieces.
HOW TO BID
For each of the three lots, e-mail a bid to mhughes[at]mars.ark.com, and put AUCTION and the LOT NUMBER in the subject line. I’ll post the latest bids (assuming they keep coming in) daily, or more often if there’s a lot of action. There will be no time limit (I’m not Ebay); when bids stop coming, I’ll sell to the highest. There will also be shipping costs.
For more information, visit Matt’s web site at http://www.archonate.com.
D’oh! I just realized that I completely forgot that June is Slush Writer Appreciation Month. But I guess everyone else forgot, too. I didn’t catch on like I’d hoped it would.
Well, although I was thoughtless and forgot, I truly do appreciate all of you who submit stories into that great pit we call the slush pile. After all, if it weren’t for you guys, I wouldn’t have this cool job. So, thanks!
Okay, so I cut my head open with a power saw today.
I had a very productive day prior to the incident, making a lot of progress toward the completion of my ongoing porch-repair project. Everything went smoothly, except that the skies became overcast and there was some drizzle. Fearing a downpour, I moved the table saw so that it was underneath the second floor porch, right in front of the cellar steps. As it happened, there was no cause for alarm, as it never progressed past a slight mist of rain. I managed to cut more than fifty balusters without injuring myself; strangely enough, it wasn’t the power-tool portion of the table saw that damaged me–it was the table itself.
After calling it quits, I packed everything away, stowing most of my equipment in the cellar, but I left the table saw out because, well, I sure as hell can’t get it down the steps by myself. So when I went back upstairs after depositing my equipment, I introduced my forehead to a metal arm of the table saw. It didn’t really hurt that much (though it’s kind of aching now), but it did, as the title of this post indicates, start gushing blood. It stopped soon enough, after some ministrations, though I felt the need to go get some of that liquid bandage stuff to minimize the chance of scarring. But looks like I’ll probably have a lovely wound to show off at Readercon this weekend.
So there you have it. That’s how I spent my Independence Day. What did you all do?
Incidentally, isn’t it a bit ironic that it’s illegal (pretty much everywhere) to set off fireworks, considering that we’re doing it to celebrate our independence?
I thought this might be of interest to some of my readers:
How to Sell Your First Genre Novel
a 3 hour seminar on breaking into — and staying in — genre fiction taught by editor/author Laura Anne Gilman
Learn what makes genre writing different from mainstream or literary publishing, and how to parlay that knowledge, and a love of the genre, into the start of a successful career.
-The breakdowns and crossovers of genre classification
-How to work within genre structures to create something original
-How to pitch your work to a genre editor as opposed to a mainstream house
-The important know-how that give new authors a foot in the door
-The importance of a series concept versus a stand-alone book
-How to maintain a career once you’ve had your first book acceptedWHEN Wednesday, August 29, 6:30-9:30 pm
WHERE mediabistro.com, 494 Broadway (Spring & Broome), New York, NY 10012
PRICE $65Laura Anne Gilman spent fifteen years as an editor for major NYC publishing houses before going freelance. She is the author of the popular `Retrievers´ series from Luna Books, which includes Staying Dead, Curse the Dark, Bring it On, Burning Bridges and Free Fall (2008), the Grail Quest trilogy for young adults, and over thirty short stories. In addition, she has edited two genre anthologies, and writes paranormal romance under the name Anna Leonard.
I don’t know more about this than what’s reprinted above, but I’ve taken a Mediabistro class before, and thought it was pretty good.
My pal, Jeremy Tolbert, is having a blog contest. He asks:
If you were a transformer, what object would you turn into? Assume you have a robot shape and something else. What’s the something else?
After he receives the answers, he’ll make a poll and there will be voting. The winner will win a copy of the Fantasy anthology sampler, which features his awesome story, “The Yeti Behind You.”
Here are some of my favorite pull-quotes from the Transformers reviews I’ve seen thus far:
You know, I usually resist going to see big summer blockbuster movies in the theater. I usually end up seeing them eventually, though often grudgingly and often don’t see them all the way through. But this…I don’t think I can resist this. Dude! Chikachikachika!
Lookee here:
GARDEN STATE HORROR WRITERS SHORT STORY CONTEST
Extended Deadline: August 20, 2007
The GSHW is looking for enticing, well-written speculative fiction. There is no theme this year so let your imagination run wild, but please, no more than 3,000 words.
Entries can be in Horror ~ Science Fiction ~ Fantasy ~ Mystery ~ Suspense ~ Thriller.
First prize is $100 and The Graversen Award; second prize is $50 and third prize $25. Each eligible entry will be critiqued by three published writers and/or editors.
Go to www.gshw.net for deadlines, complete rules, etc.
I’ll be attending Readercon in Burlington, MA next weekend (July 6-8), and I just got my schedule:
Friday 8:00 PM. Kaffeeklatsch
an intimate get-together between author and readers
Saturday 12:00 Noon. Panel
Sense of Wonder, or Sense of Cool?
John Joseph Adams, Thomas A. Easton, Laura Anne Gilman, Ernest Lilley (M), Ian Randal StrockSf seeks that sense of wonder, but we think much of today’s best sf brings forth a different feeling. To some of us, stories such as those in Charles Stross’s _Accelerando_ sequence evoke a response more along these lines: “It really might be like that? Cool!” The emotion is less an awed contemplation of the universe and its inhabitants, and more the delight we have toward a new, really loaded computer, electronic gadget or online capability-what can we do with it, what are the implications? What the author shows us may be amazing, beyond present technology or knowledge, but it feels better understood and more under our control than the cosmic wonders of older sf. Cool is more widely shared than wonder, but less, er, wonderful. Can this be part of the reason for the decline in the popularity of sf-cool can be reliably found in more places? Does fantasy supply wonder more reliably today?
I’m driving up to the con Friday morning, along with Doug Cohen, Rajan Khanna, and Jenny Rappaport. We expect to stop over at the Traveler Book Restaurant on the way, and arrive mid-afternoon sometime.
The Kaffeeklatsch is the perfect excuse to come by and say hello if we’ve never met before. So if you’re free, be sure to drop by! If that “intimate” description confuses you as to the nature of a Kaffeeklatsch, just ignore that; it’s basically going to be me sitting at a table (with coffee!) and chatting with whoever shows up. Very informal and relaxed. At least, if I understand it correctly. I haven’t actually done one (or attended one) before.