short story

"You're Not Alone" Anthology

You're Not Alone cover image

Damien Broderick has put together an anthology of short fiction originally published in Cosmos Magazine, when he was the fiction editor there. That means it includes my short story FOR THE LOVE OF JAZZ. In fact, it was my first pro-level sale, so it means a great deal to me. The book is nicely done, too, with a great cover by Anders Sandberg.

As a bonus, I get to share the TOC with names like Jay Lake, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Joe Haldeman.

Since I know you're going to click right out and buy a copy, here's a handy link to Amazon.

Human remote control

This amazing research coming out of the University of Washington, in which one subject's brain controls the hand of another subject--via the Internet, no less--sounds vaguely familiar. Oh, that's right! It sounds like my short story STRINGS ATTACHED, from the SATIRICA anthology. In that one, unskilled workers hired themselves out to be teleoperated by folks with skills, like surgeons.

I guess I need to put that story out as a single or something.

Clarkesworld: Year Four

For the print readers out there, here's a "heads up". The Clarkesworld: Year Four anthology, including my short story BRIEF CANDLE, should be available some time in the next week or so. Also, I just noticed that all of the back issues on Amazon are also available as POD chapbooks. I don't know if that's new or if I've just been extraordinarily inattentive.

Asimov's Author Copies

Woot! I got my author copies of the October/November Asimov's today. When I saw the listing for "This Petty Pace" in the TOC, I flashed back to a thirteen-year-old me holding the then-current issue in his hands and thinking "Some day...." Well, it's been a long, weird road from there/then to here/now, but yes, it's just as good a feeling as I thought it would be.

I just got word from Neil over at Clarkesworld Magazine that my short story "The Architect of Heaven" will be appearing in the May issue. Once again, I'll be ToC-mates with Cat Rambo. Neat, huh? Last time, my story "Brief Candle" appeared with her story "The Mermaids Singing Each to Each" back in the November 2009 issue.

I should mention that, if you prefer to read on a reader device (as do I), instead of the Web, Clarkesworld is available by subscription from Weightless Books, along with Bullspec, Lightspeed, and others. Weightless appears to be filling the void left when Fictionwise stopped doing magazine subscriptions, signing up small press and Web-based magazines and handling e-fulfillment. It's not quite as convenient as a nook or Kindle sub, in that it doesn't just appear on your device, but neither did Fictionwise subs, and I did those for years.

I have no idea how successful Weightless is for the publishers, or what the deal is on sharing subscriber information, but more outlets are better. Period. Also, Weightless is using the standard "buy it all at once" subscription model, as opposed to the "pay per issue" model. So I'll add that more business models are better, too. Choice and diversity are the only real way to see what the market wants.

My novelet "The Long Fall" is now available in the Grantville Gazette's Universe Annex. The issue doesn't officially go live until September 1st, but it's up early. The story features Mi Dimarco and is a prequel to "Johnny Plays 'Round Saturn's Rings", which originally appeared in Jim Baen's Universe and is now available at Anthology Builder.

Samuel Montgomery-Blinn's Bull Spec #1 has a been reviewed in Tangent Online. It isn't a fawning, do-no-wrong review, but it is a positive review that marks Bull Spec as a promising newcomer to the literary SF scene. The reviewer's summation comes down to this: "For a first issue, production values are very high, and the quality of the contents I would rate as very good."

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