Jason K Chapman

Sights, sites, cites, and writes

Clarkesworld Magazine just keeps getting better and better. Neil just announced that the legendary Gardner Dozois is going to be heading up the magazine's new reprint department. It looks like two stories an issue chosen by one of the best of the "best of"ers. You can read the original press release on Neil's site.

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 caught Ponywhip at a free show in the neighborhood yesterday. Awesome sound! Just good ol' butt-kicking rock. Benatar-esque vocals (early, pre-popish Benatar, that is), but gutsier. They did an interesting cover of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is".

Do yourself a favor and give a listen to their debut EP.

My thanks to Kate Baker for the excellent reading she did of "The Architect of Heaven" in the mid-May Clarkesworld Magazine podcast. She does a nice job of putting just enough acting into the dialog to get the point across and to help keep the different voices distinct. And I loved Valikova's accent!

The May 2011 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine is live with my story The Architect of Heaven in it. I noticed in a note from Neil that the story will get a podcast version on May 15th. That's awesome. I'm assuming Kate Baker will read it. She has this amazing, classical music radio station kind of voice that just sounds great doing readings.

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.

I don't know when it's going to run yet, but my short story "This Petty Pace" has sold to Asimov's. I'm trying not to act all newbie by freaking out, but getting into Asimov's is something I've been wanting to do for a while. So far [omgomgomgomg!], I've been managing to maintain my [yee-FREAKIN'-haaa!] decorum, I think.

I'm late in noticing this, which is what I get for being away from Baen's Bar for too long, but THE LONG FALL got a nice review on Tangent Online. The review actually went up back in September, when the story was current.

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."