ordinary bragging
Jun 18, 2008
My story "The Hero" will be in Eclipse 2
...And yes, it's a Virga story
I'm actually engaged in writing several stories set in my world of Virga (the setting for Sun of Suns, Queen of Candesce, and the forthcoming Pirate Sun). "The Hero" is the first--thanks to Jonathon Strahan for choosing it for Eclipse 2!
I'm in pretty amazing company with this anthology; here's the lineup:
The Hero, Karl Schroeder
Turing’s Apples, Stephen Baxter
Invisible Empire of Ascending Light, Ken Scholes
Michael Laurits is: Drowning, Paul Cornell
Elevator, Nancy Kress
The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm, Daryl Gregory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, David Moles
The Rabbi’s Hobby, Peter S. Beagle
The Seventh Expression of the Robot General, Jeffrey Ford
Skin Deep, Richard Parks
Ex Cathedra, Tony Daniel
Truth Window: A Tale of the Bedlam Rose, Terry Dowling
We Haven’t Got There Yet, Harry Turtledove
Fury, Alastair Reynolds
I won't say anything about what "The Hero" is about, except to say that it does have to do with one of the major plotlines running through the first three Virga books; and it doesn't have any of the characters from those books in it.
Apr 10, 2008
Queen of Candesce up for Locus Award
Anyone can vote, but the deadline is April 15
I just found out that Book II of my Virga series, Queen of Candesce, is on the preliminary ballot for the 2008 Locus Award! (I should have known this--aren't all the Locus Recommended Reading titles on the ballot?) In any case, I'm quite proud of the company this puts Queen in, next to books by Brian Aldiss, William Gibson, Joe Haldeman, and Charlie Stross. The downside to being on such a prestigious list is that my chances of winning are miniscule, but the ballot is of the Australian Rules type, where you can choose your top five works in order of preference. (The ballots hold a kind of run-off election against each other that allows a candidate who's nobody's first choice, but everybody's second choice, to win.) So, who knows, maybe Queen will be everybody's second-favourite book of last year! (Venera would fall to the ground and gnash her teeth at that thought.)
One oddity of the ballot is that the web page makes it look like you have to be a Locus subscriber to vote. You don't. Anybody can vote, you just have to include some identifying contact information, which Locus will keep confidential.
There are a lot of categories for this award, including short story, novelette, best art book etc. So zip on over and vote; it's painless and at the very least will let you settle in your own mind what your favourite works were last year.
Feb 06, 2008
. . .And speaking of being singled out
Pirate Sun will be August, 2008's SciFi Essential book
Once again the SciFi channel is gracing me with a special honour: Pirate Sun will be August, 2008's SciFi Essentials title.
The SciFi Essentials home page describes the programme like this:
Each month we select a new book as a SCI FI Essential. That means it deserves to be counted among the finest works of the genre.
My novel Lady of Mazes was also a SciFi Essential, back in 2005.
This month, by the way, the Essentials book is Paul Melko's Singularity's Ring, which is just fantastic. This is a first novel that reads like the work of an accomplished master. Melko's a superhot talent, and I hope the Essentials seal of approval gives this book the attention it deserves.