Coming Soon: Saladin Ahmed!

Here's something that makes me happy. Next week Saladin Ahmed visits the University of Nevada, Reno! He'll be here for the week, hanging with students, visiting classes, critiquing grad student work, doing events in the Reno community, and giving a reading on Tuesday, February 6 at 6:00pm to 7:30pm! 

We'll be feeding and entertaining him, too, of course. Isn't UNR cool?

Loving it here.

Wild Times

I'm back home after an awesome Wild Cards reunion in Santa Fe. Highlights include hanging with a bunch of authors, staying at GRRM's guest house, a big panel event, followed by a big signing event, visiting sets used in Western movies, stopping in to watch filming of a movie, meeting Vincent D'Onofrio and Ethan Hawke, meeting the lovely Marisa Xochtl Jimenez of the Stagecoach Foundation, watching Sage (my 16 year old son) network with authors, actors, directors and producers. He's got skills. Also, the last night's bash at Meow Wolf, where this photo was taken!

Wild Cards Mass Signing

Here's a cool thing:

"Jean Cocteau Cinema Celebrates the WILD CARD ANNIVERSARY by hosting  a special multi-author book signing with the authors of Wild Cards, an epic science fiction anthology about super heroes and powerful villains (edited by George R.R. Martin)."

That includes me!

Here's the announcement on the Jean Cocteau website.

And here's George's post on his Not a Blog.

It'll be a good time. My son, Sage, is going with me. I'll get to watch him network. ;-)

A Carrie Story

Love this. A new Wild Cards Story at Tor.com by Carrie Vaughn - "The Thing About Growing up in Jokertown". It's got super cool artwork by John Picacio:

Good work.

Good friends.

Strand Magazine

I love it when the backlist gets new attention.

I just came across this recent article in Strand Magazine. What a treat to see my second novel, Walk Through Darkness, at the top of this list! Granted, it's not a mystery per se, but it occurs to me that the plot is fueled by a sense of mystery as to what's driving one of the main characters. It's about a secret that's not fully revealed until near the end. Interesting. Nice also to be on a list with the likes of James Lee Burke, Ron Rash, Paulette Jiles and Stewart O'Nan, among others. This will suffice nicely as today's pick-me-up.

Strange Horizon's Reader Poll 2015

Pleased to hear that a round table interview I was part of last year at Strange Horizons made the website's top five articles, according to their readers. Awesome.

The article is called "Representing Marginalized Voices in Historical Fiction and Fantasy, By Joyce Chng, David Anthony Durham, Kari Sperring, and Vanessa Rose Phin". My Stonecoast peeps will recognize this as stuff we talk about a lot during our MFA residency, but still... It's stuff worth sharing, I think.

It's HERE.

Stonecoast in Ireland

Hiya. I've been quiet because post-holidays I went right into preparations for the Stonecoast in Ireland Residency. I've been over on the Emerald Isle having a grand time with small batch of students. Good company, good food, terrific writer guests, whiskey. No Guinness for me, but still... It's all good, and it's not over yet!

One of the highlights was reading one evening along with the amazing Ian McDonald! He was great. Wonderful reading. Good guy. Terrific to hang out with. Great crack, as they say.

How cool is Stonecoast?

Lowball: A Wild Cards Novel

I'm very pleased to announce that as of today the newest Wild Card's mosaic novel is available!

It's edited by George RR Martin, is out in the world. It features original fiction by Carrie Vaughn, Ian Tregillis, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Mary Anne Mohanraj, David D. Levine, Michael Cassutt, and Walter John Williams.

Oh... and me!

Here, by the way, is the final cover:

 
The dude on the front is Marcus Morgan, also know as the Infamous Black Tongue. IBT for short. He's the product of a collaboration between myself and my son. He wouldn't exist quite the way he does with Sage's input. Awesome, that.

Wanna sample of this thing? Okay, here's one at Tor.com. It begins with a Michael Cassutt's story, and then includes the first part of mine.

Actually, I've gotten some love a number of times with in excerpts. IBT is featured on the Amazon page for the book, as well as in the official excerpt on GRRM's site.

Here's some copy from the jacket:

Decades after an alien virus changed the course of history, the surviving population of Manhattan still struggles to understand the new world left in its wake. Natural humans share the rough city with those given extraordinary—and sometimes terrifying—traits. While most manage to coexist in an uneasy peace, not everyone is willing to adapt. Down in the seedy underbelly of Jokertown, residents are going missing. The authorities are unwilling to investigate, except for a fresh lieutenant looking to prove himself and a collection of unlikely jokers forced to take matters into their own hands—or tentacles. The deeper into the kidnapping case these misfits and miscreants get, the higher the stakes are raised.

Never tried Wild Cards? It's a long-running series, but not to worry. You could begin at the book just before this one, Fort Freak (Wild Cards). It's the start of a new cycle, and it also features my character!

VCFA Novel Retreat

Hey. Here's a thing. I'm pleased to announce that next May I'll be one of the faculty members of the Novel Retreat hosted by the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Here's some of what they say about it:

"In keeping with its nationally recognized commitment to the literary arts, in May 2015, the College will host its second annual VCFA Novel Retreat. Readings, presentations, and faculty mentorships in which full-length manuscript critiques are available, are the centerpieces of this special week devoted solely to full immersion novel writing. It is specifically designed to provide participants with concentrated blocks of writing time in an environment that fosters and sustains emerging novelists."

It's a week-long event, with what looks like a terrific combination of writing and reading and short talks etc. But it's a retreat, so it's not all work! Sounds like great fun. The faculty looks terrific as well (by which I mean the other faculty - I'm just me): Connie May Fowler and Laurie Alberts and Clint McCown. I'm personally pleased to be hanging out with Clint again; we used to teach together at the Stonecoast MFA Program (where I still do teach, of course). Bios of everyone are here.

 Registration starts in September and the retreat dates are: May 19 - 25, 2015.

Interested? How's the novel coming along? What shape will it be in by next spring? Need incentive to get to work? Here it is!

Also, do note that part of the inclusion of me as a faculty member is to mix in a writer familiar with genre writing. Something to consider...

Write Angles (Belated)

Offering another post written months ago but not published!

Here's a first. I was recently asked to be one of the keynote speakers at the upcoming Write Angles Conference.

What is Write Angles? Here's what they say:

Now in its 29th year, WriteAngles is Western New England’s premier conference by writers, for writers. At this one-day gathering, you’ll mix with experienced writers and agents in panel discussions, hands-on workshops, face-to-face meetings, and in casual networking opportunities. The affordably priced conference fee includes a continental breakfast and a bountiful buffet lunch. The conference is held in Mount Holyoke College’s gracious Willits-Hallowell Center in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Past Keynoters have included Valerie Martin, Richard Russo, Julia Glass, Dennis Lehane, Patricia Smith, Andre Dubus, and Ann Hood - just to name a few. Now me? Yikes.

I was actually a panelist at this a few years back. Fun event. But this is the first time anybody has called me a "keynote" anything. Apparently I'm up at the podium for 45 minutes. Good thing I have until October to come up with something to say!

Wait. October isn't that far away...

Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror

Pleased to point you toward a new craft/writing exercise book that's coming out later this month.

It's the latest edition of the Now Write! series, focusing on SFF this time around. I'm one of the contributors. Only one, though, as there's a long list of distinguished folks involved. I'm just pleased to be one of them.

Check it out HERE.

Clarion 2014

You know I dig Stonecoast and think it's an awesome program for anyone that wants a Master of Fine Arts but that happens to be writing speculative fiction. It's a big commitment, though. What about a program that's shorter, tighter? I have a favorite for that as well: The Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Workshops.

I didn't attend as a student, but I did have the pleasure of teaching there a few years back. Great experience. An intense experience for the students, no doubt, but well worth it. It's competitive, but if you get in you're thrown together with around twenty other talented writers. Six weeks at the lovely University of California at San Diego campus. Each week a new instructor comes in to run the workshops. Each week you produce a new story. Much awesomeness transpires. If you look at the website alumni page you'll see a whose who of SFF stars. I'm not kidding.

A sampling of alums: Tobias Buckell, Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Cory Doctorow, Nalo Hopkinson, James Patrick Kelly, Kelly Link, Marjorie Liu, Kim Stanley Robinson, just to drop a few names. And of instructors: Steven Barnes, Holly Black, Orson Scott Card, Robert Crais, Ellen Datlow, Samuel R. Delany, Tananarive Due, Karen Joy Fowler, Neil Gaiman, Joe and Gay Haldeman, Elizabeth Hand, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Kij Johnson, Jonathan Lethem, George R. R. Martin, Tim Powers, John Scalzi, Delia Sherman Dean, Connie Willis, Gene Wolfe and, okay, I've got to stop... But the list goes on!

By the end of the six weeks you not only are on first name basis with some of the top writers in the genre, you've also got a bunch of new friends and colleagues. I really think it's a terrific program. I'm saying so now because the application period is in full swing. If the prospect of such a program interests you at all, please go check the website out and consider making the jump to sending in an application. I reckon some of the folks that went through the program would mark it as a career-making moment in their lives. Just saying. And the faculty this year is awesome! They are every year. I never fail to be impressed - and a bit jealous of the students that get to hang out with these folks in the eucalyptus scented air of Southern Cali.

Oh, and you get to go to San Diego Comic-Con on the side. No kidding.

Here's some of the official blurbage:

Applications for the 2014 Clarion Workshop are now open and will remain open until March 1, 2014.  If you've been thinking about applying, now's the time.  On February 15th, the application fee will increase from $50 to $65.  Just our way of encouraging applicants to finish sooner rather than later.  We've got a wonderful faculty anxious to share the secrets of great writing with a new class of promising students, one of whom might be you!  Let Gregory Frost, Geoff Ryman, Catherynne Valente, N.K. Jemisin, Ann VanderMeer, and Jeff VanderMeer give you the rocket fuel to power your career.

If you're accepted, we'll do our best to make it possible for you to attend.  Thanks to Clarion's friends and supporters, there is scholarship money for those who need it. In addition to general scholarships, there are special grants for students of color, students age 40 and older, students who are affiliated with Michigan State University, and students who are affiliated with UCSD.

Website is HERE!

Good Lord Bird

I'm thrilled to hear that James McBride's new novel, The Good Lord Bird just won the National Book Award! I've always thought he was a terrific fiction writer that didn't quite get his due from the literary establishment.

Miracle at St. Anna (Movie Tie-in) was a good read, an intricate novel of WW2 seen through the eyes of African-American soldiers. I didn't feel the Spike Lee movie did it justice, but I was still happy to see it get made.

Song Yet Sung, his second novel, was wonderful too. Historical again, but with a touch of prophecy and magic. I reviewed it for the Washington Post.

I really enjoyed The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, his first nonfiction book. It was quite a touching autobiographical work. That one sold a bunch of copies and still does.

That's great, but it's got to be super-great to win the National Book Award, coming out on top of a rather impressive list of candidates. I haven't read it yet, but I know to expect good things.
Congrats, Mr. McBride.

Mind Meld

SF Signal has a Mind Meld post up about: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Genre Series: Series vs. Standalones; Ones We Abandoned; Ones We Returned To.

This is wherein several authors/critics respond to the topic prompt. I'm pleased to have had it pointed out (thanks Zach) that the Acacia Trilogy got three mentions - and some further chat in the comments! What nice people...

You can read their thoughts HERE.

Wonderbook

Oh, I just got something neat in the mail today. It's this:

That being Jeff VanderMeer's supercool, illustrated craft book - all about writing Imaginative Fiction. It's totally beautiful (with artwork by Jeremy Zerfoss) and full of wisdom from Jeff himself, and from a ton of other folks as well. See, Jeff knows people. When he asks for creative consultations and contributions, we come running. That's why it's got articles and such from the likes of Neil Gaiman, Lev Grossman, Lauren Beukes, Charles Yu, Karin Lowachee, Catherynne M. Valente, Michael Moorcock, and many others, as well as a long exclusive discussion about craft with George R.R. Martin.

For some reason it's even got me in it. Yep, my name is right there on the back, wedged in between Kim Stanley Robinson and Joe Abercrombie. I'm just across from Karen Joy Fowler and I could tap Ursula K. Leguin and Catherynne M. Valente on the shoulder. I could tickle Neil Gaiman (not that I'd dare) and step on Lev Grossman's toes (not that I'd want to or anything - just saying).

Anyway, I am pleased to be in it, but mostly I'm happy to have it. It's a lovely resource. Not on sale yet, but soon. It's here on Amazon.com - Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction.

I like it. I really like it. As a matter of fact, I think I'm going to read it...

Unfettered in EBook Format

Shawn Speakman's fantasy anthology, Unfettered, is available as an ebook as of today! It's got great stories by lots of great authors in it. The table of contents looks like this:

• Foreword by Patrick Rothfuss
• Introduction: On Becoming Unfettered
• Imaginary Friends by Terry Brooks (a precursor to the Word/Void trilogy)
• How Old Holly Came To Be by Patrick Rothfuss (a Four Corners tale)
• River of Souls by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson (a Wheel of Time tale)
• The Old Scale Game by Tad Williams
• Game of Chance by Carrie Vaughn
• Martyr of the Roses by Jacqueline Carey (a precursor to the Kushiel series)
• Dogs by Daniel Abraham
• Mudboy by Peter V. Brett (a Demon Cycle tale)
• The Sound of Broken Absolutes by Peter Orullian (a Vault of Heaven tale)
• The Coach With Big Teeth by R.A. Salvatore
• Keeper of Memory by Todd Lockwood (a Summer Dragon tale)
• Heaven in a Wild Flower by Blake Charlton
• The Chapel Perilous by Kevin Hearne (an Iron Druid tale)
• Select Mode by Mark Lawrence (a Broken Empire tale)
• All the Girls Love Michael Stein by David Anthony Durham
• Strange Rain by Jennifer Bosworth (a Struck epilogue tale)
• Nocturne by Robert V. S. Redick
• Unbowed by Eldon Thompson (a Legend of Asahiel tale)
• In Favour With Their Stars by Naomi Novik (a Temeraire tale)
• The Jester by Michael J. Sullivan (a Riyria Chronicles tale)
• The Duel by Lev Grossman (a Magicians tale)
• Walker and the Shade of Allanon by Terry Brooks (a Shannara tale)
• The Unfettered Knight by Shawn Speakman (an Annwn Cycle tale)
• Acknowledgments

Pretty cool, huh?Check HERE for more information.

Iain Banks

Very bad news from author Iain Banks concerning his recently diagnosed terminal cancer.

His statement is HERE.

The Guardian article is HERE.

I'm really saddened by this. Because he's a good man. Because he's a brilliant author. Because his books will forever be entwined with my first exposure to Scotland in the late 90's. I never met him, but he's part of many, many memories I have. Always will be.

No Return

A few days ago I mentioned a story collection from a former student at Stonecoast.

Before that an anthology edited by two former students.

Today, I'm pleased to point you toward a novel by a former Stonecoast student, Zachary Jernigan!

His debut novel, No Return pubs today from Night Shade Books.

What's the book about? Lots of weird stuff. Click over and get the details. Here, I'll just point to what I myself had to say. I wrote:

"A visionary, violent, sexually charged, mystical novel -- No Return challenges classification. Clearly, Zachary Jernigan has no respect for genre confines. His tale of gods hanging in the sky and a “constructed man” with glowing blue coals for his eyes and a motley band of fighters navigating a harsh landscape peopled by savage creatures and religious zealots… Well, it’s pure genius. Here’s hoping it’s just the first of many such works from this guy."

Now, only the authors own credit for all this publishing success, but I will submit that there's something very good in the water of Coastal Maine. Aspiring writers of speculative fiction - check out the Stonecoast MFA Program!

In Search of and Others

Just a few days ago I mentioned a newly published anthology edited by some former Stonecoast students of mine (Futuredaze: An Anthology of YA Science Fiction). Well, today I get to mention another!

The marvelous Will Ludwigsen has just published a collection of short stories called In Search of and Others. I don't know if I've read any of these stories or not, but I loved the stuff I read of his when he was at Stonecoast. Quirky. Humorous. Gothic.

Here's the jacket copy:

A house inches eight hundred miles to confess its horrible crime. The last resident of a mental institution discovers he's not alone. A middle-schooler performs an experiment to determine how much time we fit in dreams. Boys looking for wonder find more than they're expecting in the Adirondacks with Charles Fort. A detective learns everything he's ever wanted to know...and some things he hasn't. In Will Ludwigsen's short stories of strangeness and mystery, the universe has a way of being weird in just the ways we need it to be. There are answers to many of our deepest questions...and they're usually far more personal than we expect. What are you in search of? And what is in search of you?

Hey, wait, I definitely did read that story about a house inching eight hundred miles to confess a horrible crime! It's terrific.

Publishers Weekly gave the collection a starred review, saying:

In this hauntingly beautiful collection of nine reprinted and six original stories, Ludwigsen issues an invitation to look past preconceived notions of self and ways of being, and to take a journey to the dark side of imagination. “The Speed of Dreams” begins as a lighthearted tale told from the perspective of a teen girl but takes an abrupt turn to a resonating and viscerally powerful conclusion. “We Were Wonder Scouts” echoes the irrepressible spirit of a Heinlein protagonist while twisting it ever so slightly. The variety of viewpoints and alternation between short and long stories allow the reader to catch a breath just before being pulled deep beneath the surface of chilling wonder. Each story’s concepts remain fully accessible while still challenging the reader, and exquisite craftsmanship makes this a timeless classic for those seeking asylum from formulaic prose.

Congrats, Will.

Futuredaze

Just wanted to mention a cool new book.

Futuredaze: An Anthology of YA Science Fiction, edited by Hannah Strom-Martin and Erin Underwood. It's published by Underwords Press, an indie.

Now, I have a particular interest in this anthology for several reasons. One is that I know both these editors. They graduated from the MFA program I teach for - Stonecoast. Another is that they're such awesome readers I've called on both of them to beta read for me on several occasions. The Acacia Trilogy owes a lot to their insights. And also because I read and blurbed this thing!

Here's what I said:

“I love this collection! It offers all the ideas, speculation and creativity I look for in quality science fiction, but it presents them with a nimble verve, with humor and with a focused attention to the interests and concerns of teen readers. Each story works as science fiction, while also resonating at a wonderfully energetic, youthful frequency. That pleasantly surprised me again and again.” —David Anthony Durham, author of The Acacia Trilogy

And here's how they describe the book themselves:

"Futuredaze: An Anthology of YA Science Fiction includes 33 original short stories and poems that spark the imagination, twist the heart, and make us yearn for the possibilities of a world yet to come. Futuredaze includes pieces by Jack McDevitt, Nancy Holder, Gregory Frost, Lavie Tidhar, Sandra McDonald, Brittany Warman, Stephen Covey, E. Kristin Anderson, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Jenny Blackford, and many more!  

Reflecting many of the ideals first set forth by science fiction icons such as Isaac Asimov, George Orwell, and Ray Bradbury, Futuredaze challenges the imagination with young adult fiction that includes far-flung futures, dystopian alternate worlds, life among the stars, and a host of startling stories that embrace the idea of “What if?” that has driven the science fiction genre forward for more then a century. Now, it’s time to give voice to the next generation of science fiction readers and to those of us still young at heart."