My review of 1776 by David McCullough appeared in PW recently, and you can now read it on the audiobook’s Amazon.com page. If you scroll down, it’s the one labled “From Publishers Weekly.”

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Incidentally, I thought I should point out that response times may continue to be a bit longer than usual as I endeavor to catch up after the delay caused by Readercon, my vacation, and Gordon’s week teaching Clarion West.

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You may remember I blogged recently about a self-published novelist having submitted a ms. to F&SF who managed to violate nearly every rule of submission etiquette. Well, lucky me! This week, there was another submission from him in the pile.

And despite the fact that I very nicely pointed out the ways in which he varied from standard procedure and provided him with a link to Vonda McIntyre’s very handy article on the subject, he ignored all of my advice and submitted his new manuscript in exactly the same way as he had his first.

Well, to be fair, he might have listened to one piece of advice (though it may have been luck of the draw); previously, he submitted, I believe, three stories at the same time. This time around, there was only one in the submission package. Hey, let’s hear it for progress!

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Check out the shiny new blog. Isn’t it pretty? If you read my blog via an aggregator, you owe it to yourself to come take a look at this.

Note that the comments have been enabled once again on the main page, but remain disabled on archived posts (to combat spam). You’re still always welcome to post on the message board too.

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Gordon’s back from teaching Clarion West, and on the F&SF message board proclaimed that this year’s class was the best class he taught since the last class he taught. He informs me that everyone in the class reads my blog. Well, of course they do! And they’ll keep doing it too, if they know what’s good for them [shakes fist].

If someone from the class could post a note to my message board when there’s a nice photo of the class online, I’d appreciate it, so I can see what all you monsters look like.

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Just a few acquisitions this month. Not because there wasn’t any good stuff, but because, I think, between Readercon and Clarion West and me being on vacation last week, Gordon was probably too busy. But we have: a new Archonate story from Matthew Hughes (featuring Luff Imbry, the hero of Black Brillion), a new Hardhands yarn from Ysa Wilce, and a haunting tale from Charles Coleman Finlay.

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Awards are usually a mixed bag for any reader, and this reader is no exception. However, the John W. Campbell Award for best science fiction novel and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short science fiction in 2004 were handed out this weekend, and they chose my favorite novel and favorite story of last year as the winners. What makes it even more perfect, is that these were not just my favorites of the shortlisted selections; these two were my absolute favorites of all last year.

And the winners are:

John W. Campbell Award Winner

Market Forces by Richard K. Morgan

Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award Winner

“Sergeant Chip” by Bradley Denton

Congrats to both Richard and Brad for well-deserved wins.

Read the SFWA News Press Release.

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So, I’ve been planning all year to go to Readercon, my favorite regional con, and now at the last minute, I find out I can’t go. I don’t want to get into the reasons here on my blog, but I will say I’m quite disappointed.

Mood: Bummed

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I just posted about slushy slush I found recently, but other than that I know there hasn’t been much activity here lately. Sorry about that. Between being a bit burnt out after Slush Writer Appreciation Month and being swamped with three deadlines this week and having Readercon this weekend, I’ve been quite busy lately. I’ll probably be back in action next week some time with new and insightful commentary, and perhaps a Readercon report.

Oh, and lest you all start questioning my taste, some of the books I’ve been reading lately have been for review purposes, so that’s why I’m reading them, rather than purely for enjoyment.

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In the slush pile, I recently stumbled across a submission from a vanity press author who I’d seen self-promoting himself on various message boards.

The author managed to break just about every rule of submission etiquette.

Here’s a partial list of his crimes against me:

(1) a large ms. arrived folded into thirds inside a #10 envelope

(2) single spaced

(3) extra small font (looked like 10 or 8 point Times New Roman)

(4) submitted two stories at the same time

(5) failed to include an SASE

(6) the mss. were stapled

Oh yeah, and the story itself was pretty bad. Well, dreadful really. And I could go on, but why prolong the agony?

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