I am about to disappear into the dismal Nebraskan winter for a week. There will be few if any postings during that time. I leave you with a few words from our sponsors.<\/p>\n
Some of you may remember my recent short story “The Island”, which appeared in Dozois and Strahan’s New Space Opera 2 <\/em>(and available as a freebie over at HarperCollins<\/a>). If you missed it the first time around, though, you get a couple more chances; as of this writing I’ve been told that “The Island” has been selected for two, count ’em two, Best-of-Year collections: the fourth volume of Strahan’s <\/span>The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year<\/em> (Night Shade), and Rich Horton’s <\/span>The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy<\/em> (Prime). I’m especially pleased to have been selected by this Horton fellow, because he evidently thought I was a complete loon<\/a> when he overheard me talking at a urinal during Readercon a few years back. [UPDATE: he did not.\u00a0 I had him mixed up with someone else.\u00a0 I am a goof.]\u00a0 It’s also nice to get the repeated exposure given that “The Island” was the only story I published this year.<\/span><\/p>\n It was not, however, the only story I <\/span>wrote<\/em>, and I am pleased to report that after much wringing of blood from pixels, perryphobia, and a false start or two, “The Things” (aka “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Things”) will be seeing publication early in the new year over at Clarkesworld<\/a>. (You can also get an advance taste of that story from a couple<\/a> of fiblets<\/a> posted during construction back in the spring.)<\/span><\/p>\n I’ve also just handed in an introduction to Heyne’s rerelease of Clifford D. Simak’s classic <\/span>City<\/em>, but I don’t know when it’ll see print. It’ll be in German anyway, so we’re talking an item that’s only for completists anyway (assuming there even is such a thing as a Watts completist).<\/span><\/p>\n All of these little newsy bits, however, are but preliminary throat-clearing for a subject I hesitate to raise, and in hindsight wish I’d had fewer beers on the night I agreed to. That particular evening was spent in the company of someone with a bit of a background in PR. She cuffed me for my aversion to self-promotion (I can only assume she was speaking relative to other authors; anybody who has a blog and a website must have at least a mild case of the me-me-mes almost by definition), in particular my refusal to have autograph sessions at cons and my general reluctance to give readings at same. She suggested setting up a reading at some small local venue just to, you know, “connect with the fans”. A sneak peek at some new piece of fiction available nowhere else, as a treat to the locals.<\/span><\/p>\n My response, predictably, was “<\/span>what<\/em> fucking locals?”<\/span><\/p>\n I mean, I know I have fans in Toronto. I hang out with them all the time. One built me a computer; another introduced me to the music of Amanda Fucking Palmer; a third gave me a whole new way of thinking about God (a favor I intend to return by turning her into a character in <\/span>Dumbspeech<\/em> who dies a slow and horrible death). But by that very token, I don’t consider these people fans any more. I consider them friends, and a reading attended by <\/span>only<\/em> these folks would be both pointless and demoralizing.<\/span><\/p>\n I said as much, and got cuffed again1<\/sup>, and agreed to post the following question in order to avoid further beatings. To Torontonians only:\u00a0 if I were to give a free reading at some small local venue, would any of you show up?<\/span><\/p>\n We’re not talking a con reading here. We’re talking some little hole in the wall with cheap beer and low lighting, and no other entertainment except me. How many would attend?<\/span><\/p>\n I’m guessing, not enough to make it worthwhile. My dinner date\/assailant disagrees. A threshold number of attendees has been decided upon, and a dinner wagered on the outcome.<\/span><\/p>\n Please don’t weigh in just to be nice; an empty comment stream gets me a free meal and told-you-so rights (similar to “bragging rights”, but bitterer). And raised as a good Baptist boy, I know going in that a prophet is without honor in his own land.<\/span><\/p>\n Show of hands. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n 1<\/sup>Honestly, I think she just likes hitting people.\u00a0 Or maybe she was in a bad mood because our server kept calling her “Kitten”.<\/span> I am about to disappear into the dismal Nebraskan winter for a week. There will be few if any postings during that time. I leave you with a few words from our sponsors. Some of you may remember my recent short story “The Island”, which appeared in Dozois and Strahan’s New Space Opera 2 (and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-interface","category-writing-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=916"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":929,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions\/929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"