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Structural Elements, Abyss & Apex 2Q 2014

 in Blog  tagged abyss & apex / free fiction / me.me.me / news by

Belated announcement… my short story "Structural Elements" is up as part of Abyss & Apex's 50th issue! A&A has always been pretty high up on my list for submissions, so I'm happy to finally have something that they found a good fit! And especially for so important a milestone as a 50th issue–they are a quality magazine and it's good to have them still alive and kicking, long past the average lifespan of other 'zines. Sam Tomaino reviews this issue at SFRevu, and calls "Structural Elements" a "luxurious, rich fantasy." Also, my current WIP is a YA fantasy novel set […]

Milestones to Adulthood 1

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In response to this unbelievable NYT article about why 20-somethings "aren’t growing up",  writes this open letter. "Why are so many people in their 20s taking so long to grow up?" asks the article. Here’s one jewel of a sentence: Others reach the milestones completely out of order, advancing professionally before committing to a monogamous relationship, having children young and marrying later, leaving school to go to work and returning to school long after becoming financially secure.  responds: Perhaps the article (or, rather, its author) is attempting to be progressive and hip by just glossing over the horrendous state of […]

Amazon/Macmillan

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Unless you’ve been off the internet, you’ve probably heard about the Amazon-Macmillan drama over the weekend. Recap: Macmillan offers new ebook terms to Amazon. Amazon responds by pulling all Macmillan titles from its e-shelves, print as well as ebook. Amazon also yanks preview chapters remotely from Kindles (I’ve seen the term 1984 come up several times about this part). Many brilliant people have weighed in on the unfolding events (most of the authors you can see on my friendslist), so here I just thought I’d post a few primary sources: the open letters from Amazon and Macmillan. When juxtaposed, I […]

Spaceports & Spidersilk, “Smoke & Mirrors”

 in Blog  tagged me.me.me / news / spaceports & spidersilk by

Belatedly, I realized that my children’s story "Smoke and Mirrors" is up at Spaceports & Spidersilk for their Fall 2009 issue. As a kid I always loved the stories that didn’t dumb things down for me–Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain (that’s The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, etc.) are the best example–so I was going for simplicity without condescension.

ChiZine’s Filaria Contest 3

 in Blog  tagged brent hayward / chizine / donald jacob uitvlugt / me.me.me / news / richard thomas by

For ChiZine’s April-June 2009 issue, they have up the three winners of the Enter the World of Filaria Contest, based on Brent Hayward’s book Filaria, which I reviewed a few entries below. My "Bonepickers" took second place, so go take a look if you’re interested in what I write as well as read. I also really like the hallucinations of Donald Jacob Uitvlugt’s "Elevated State", which took third, and the title is very clever once you’ve read the story — it really brings all the themes together. And Richard Thomas’s first place winner, "Maker of Flight" has some nice griminess, rust […]

Bigots in the SF Community

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I’m breaking from the review-only format to include news from the specfic market/community because I couldn’t read about this and not pass it on, especially since there seems to be an effort to suppress it. From a rejection letter sent out by an editor of Helix: I’m impressed by your knowledge of the Q’uran and Islamic traditions. (Having spent a couple of years in the Middle East, I know something about these things.) You did a good job of exploring the worm-brained mentality of those people – at the end we still don’t really understand it, but then no one […]