I was really happy to find out that my vampire alt history/vampire academia story–one I really like, but am aware was a weirdly hard sell for most places–was snapped up by Daikaijuzine today, and will appear in an issue at the end of December.
My winning “worst cover letter” is now live in Poor Mojo’s Almanac(k). This was super fun to write.
On Monday, John Howell posted an excellent article about the ridiculousness of the SFF “ghetto”:
Especially interesting to me is that this continues, considering that the top-grossing films of the past several years are all, you know, SFF.
Also interesting: to read that Brian Aldiss was informed (when he was on Desert Island Disks) “…that SF readers were nerds who were poor and could not ‘get a woman’.” Rea-lly.
Today is Support Our ‘Zines Day.
Since March 2009, we’ve been working hard on Brain Harvest. We’ve been bringing the best, baddest-ass speculative flash and micro fiction to the web while paying our writers a fair (professional) rate. We’ve been really lucky to have readers and supporters like you, and today would be a great day–if you haven’t already–to show your support for what we are doing by making a donation, posting a link to us in your blog, telling a friend who may dig what we do (and not have found us yet), or just stopping by and catching up on stories you may have missed.
Miles Klee’s “Nurse on Terror Island.” Not your mom’s Little Mermaid.
Trivia point of great interest: you can read another great piece by Miles in Birkensnake 2–we are ToC mates. It’s a weird, cool feeling when you publish someone and are published alongside them.
Anyway, go do some reading. Good stuff.
Potlatch, the convention, is coming March 5-7, 2010 to Seattle, WA.
Potlatch, an all-volunteer, non-profit, literary event for the readers and writers of speculative fiction. Proceeds from Potlatch benefit Clarion West. And this year, I will be acting as the workshop administrator for the Friday writing workshop–open to all speculative fiction writers, regardless of experience, who want to get critiques in a round-robin Clarion West style.
…you can skip past my story, “Correspondence” at Birkensnake, and instead hit “Basic Biology,” my retell of Rapunzel, at Cabinet des Fées–which is also, now, live.
Or better yet, read both.
I’m evvvvvverrrrrywhere. W00!
is now live at Birkensnake.
I wrote this story at Clarion West (in week 5), after a joking dare from Connie Willis on whether I could write a hard SF space opera in less than 2000 words. “Correspondence” weighs in at just over 1500 words, and was inspired by an idea seeded to me by my husband, Chris (who always wants more robot stories). It’s not a space opera in the traditional sense, except that it’s in space, has a hero, and a battle (of sorts).
I also highly encourage you to order a hand-bound, hand-singed (with a blowtorch!) copy of the mag. It’s a lovely object and a steal at 4 measly bucks.
Our dutiful Mega Challenge elves are sorting out the entries to this year’s first annual contest, and will ferry them off to guest celebrity judge, Jeff VanderMeer, very soon. Thank you to everyone who played along and sent us some clever, funny (and sometimes touching) reworkings of the genre’s most exhausted tropes.
Stay tuned for the unveiling and publication of the winners in the next few months.
So, yeah. Brain Harvest is now, officially, back open to regular submissions.
And Steve Fahnestalk wrote a really nice blurb about my work*:
“As They Get Warmer, They Give a Little” by Caren Gussoff is a little techo-geek essay on the end of the world, sort of. Zack Leven works in a sim call center, but feels his hacking talents are wasted on the helpdesk. He also has a crush on the green-eyed receptionist. He’s hacked into a sim of the real world , but something goes wrong. We’ve read stuff like this before, but maybe not brought down to such a personal level. As reality apparently follows his sim, Zack gets a pair of really tight leather pants (“As they get warmer,” the salesman tells Zack, before slapping him on the ass, “they give a little.”) partly from need, partly to impress the receptionist. Nicely done, and by a Clarion West graduate.
Read the rest of the review here.
*Only note: Steve defines “didikai” incorrectly (from how I use it, to refer to myself). I don’t use it to mean non-Romany gypsy. I use it to refer to my own mixed blood–I’m half Rom, as y’all know.