Nebulas Noms, Antho TOC and blu-ray DVDs giveaway

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America released the final ballot as follows for the 2010 Nebula Awards:

Novel

The Native Star, M.K. Hobson (Spectra)
 Interview herein
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit UK; Orbit US)

Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
 Interview and review herein
Echo, Jack McDevitt (Ace)
 Review herein
Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)
 Interview herein and my review at Mostly Fiction
Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis (Spectra)

Hmmmm. Better get interviewed here if you want to get nominated, eh? I'm just sayin'. ;)

Novella


"The Alchemist", Paolo Bacigalupi (Audible; Subterranean)

‘‘Iron Shoes’’, J. Kathleen Cheney (Alembical 2)


‘‘The Lifecycle of Software Objects’’, Ted Chiang (Subterranean)

‘‘The Sultan of the Clouds’’, Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov’s 9/10)

‘‘Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance’’, Paul Park (F&SF 1-2/10)

‘‘The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window’’, Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer ’10)



Novelette


‘‘Map of Seventeen’’, Christopher Barzak (The Beastly Bride)

‘‘The Jaguar House, in Shadow’’, Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s 7/10)

‘‘The Fortuitous Meeting of Gerard van Oost and Oludara’’, Christopher Kastensmidt (Realms of Fantasy 4/10)

‘‘Plus or Minus’’, James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s 12/10)

‘‘Pishaach’’, Shweta Narayan (The Beastly Bride)

‘‘That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made’’, Eric James Stone (Analog 9/10)

‘‘Stone Wall Truth’’, Caroline M. Yoachim (Asimov’s 2/10)

Short Story


‘‘Arvies’’, Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed 8/10)

‘‘How Interesting: A Tiny Man’’, Harlan Ellison® (Realms of Fantasy 2/10)

‘‘Ponies’’, Kij Johnson (Tor.com 1/17/10) Interview herein

‘‘I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno’’, Vylar Kaftan (Lightspeed 6/10)

‘‘The Green Book’’, Amal El-Mohtar (Apex 11/1/10)

‘‘Ghosts of New York’’, Jennifer Pelland (Dark Faith)

‘‘Conditional Love’’, Felicity Shoulders (Asimov’s 1/10)



Ray Bradbury Award


Despicable Me

Doctor Who: ‘‘Vincent and the Doctor’’
 (Loved that episode!)
How to Train Your Dragon

Inception
 (Christopher Nolan won the Writers Guild Award for original movie screenplay, btw)
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Toy Story 3

Andre Norton Award


Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)

White Cat, Holly Black (McElderry)

Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press; Scholastic UK)

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, Barry Deutsch (Amulet)

The Boy from Ilysies, Pearl North (Tor Teen)

I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett (Gollancz; Harper)

A Conspiracy of Kings, Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow)

Behemoth, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)

Final ballots are due March 30, 2011 (only active SFWA members are eligible to vote). Winners will be announced at the Nebula Awards Banquet on May 21, 2011, during the Nebula Awards Weekend (May 19-22, 2011) at the Washington Hilton, Washington DC.

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If you don't know that I'm in two Dark Quest Books anthos already this year, I've not been tooting my horn nearly as much as I've been trying to. ;) Beauty Has her Way, edited by Jennifer Brozek, was released last month. We have two reviews already. The latter mentions "Trapped Star" specifically. The first one doesn't, which, under the circumstances, might be a good thing. You'll see what I mean when you read it.
Rise Reviews
Innsmouth Free Press

Defending the Future: No Man's Land is scheduled for launch on May 28th with a big launch party at Balticon and at least one more here on the West coast.

The table of contents has been released as follows. One story is pending.


David Weber - Introduction

Brenda Cooper - Cracking the Sky

Nancy Jane Moore - Gambit

Maria V. Snyder - Godzilla Warfare

Danielle Ackley-McPhail - Ghosts on the Battlefield

Kimberly Long-Ewing - Come Like A Tailor

Ann Wilkes - Immunity Project

Laurie Gailunas - In The Middle of Nowhere

S.A. Bolich - Fallling to Eternity

Lee C. Hillman - Under Pressure

Deborah Teramis Christian - Live Fire

(story pending)

Judi Fleming - Endings

Jennifer Brozek - M.O.V.E.

Phoebe Wray - Trashing



A&E Home Video’s Sci-Fi and Culture Classics Blu-ray prize pack giveaway
Now, for the winner of the blu-ray DVDs.

Les Baptiste answered the Space 1999 trivia question and (eventually) the Prisoner photo question correctly and had the luck of the draw. Congrats, Les! He wins the A&E Home Video’s Sci-Fi and Culture Classics Blu-ray prize pack which includes The Prisoner: The Complete Series [Blu-ray] (1968) and Space: 1999: The Complete Season One [Blu-ray] (1975).



The trivia question was: In Space 1999, Catherine Schell played a character in the first season, before being cast as Maya in the second season (or series as the Brits calculate). Name the episode and describe the character she portrayed.

The answer was: The robotic servant of the guardian.

And what was wrong with the picture of the penny farthing bicycle? The back supports for the canopy were missing.

In addition, DE Helbling asked for favorite episode anecdotes for a chance to win one of three copies of The Official Prisoner Companion. Nobody played that game, but Doug wants to reward effort, so Ed and John will receive the used, good condition copy of The Official Prisoner Companion”for having correct answers. And Tom will receive the third copy for participating. Congratulations one and all. We'll contact you for your snail mail addies.

Groundhog Day and military sci-fi written by women

Happy Groundhog Day!



It's also a Christian Feast Day: The Presentation of the Lord in the Temple.
And lesser well known is my son, Daniel's Birthday.

Yesterday, I sold "Immunity Project" to Dark Quest Books' Defending the Future IV: No Man's Land. This volume answers the question, "Can women write good military sci-fi?" with a big 10-4! And I share this table of contents with some good friends in the genre, including Jennifer Brozek, Sue Bolich and Brenda Cooper. Also, fellow Broad Universe members Nancy Jane Moore and Phoebe Wray.

Got some examples of good military science fiction written by women? My friend, Patricia MacEwan likes Elizabeth Moon. Whose military sci-fi do you like? As it happens, I'm reading one now, though it's not by a woman. It's been slow going only because it's in the middle of a very large series. Too many characters to meet at once.

That's my second story sale to a Dark Quest Books anthology. "Trapped Star" is available now in Beauty Has Her Way. Dark Quest Books rock!

Happy hump day everyone. And to my Orthodox friends - Spraznicum!

Editor Ellen Datlow, Anthology Queen

As promised, meet Ellen Datlow, editor of numerous anthologies, winner of almost as many awards and champion of excellent speculative fiction in all its various genres. Last weekend, she won --and not for the first time -- a Hugo for Best Editor - Short Fiction.

AW: You are, without a doubt, the Anthology Queen. How many have you edited now? What do you think is the secret to your success?

ED: I’ve lost count, but I’ve edited 21 YBFH [Year's Best Fantasy and Horror] and two Best Horror reprint anthologies so that’s 23 right there. I only propose anthologies on themes in which I have an interest. If I don’t feel strongly about something I’m editing I couldn’t do a good job. As an editor I buy the stories that I love—I entertain myself first and hopefully my taste coincides with the readers’. Some of my anthologies sell better than others. I don’t believe it’s a difference in quality but what hits the zeitgeist at the right time. I’ve anthologies about which I felt very strongly that sold terribly but I’m still glad I was able to sell and edit them (although the publishers might not have felt that way).

AW: SciFiction was a treasure trove. Do you see yourself ever getting involved with an online magazine again? What were the greatest challenges?

ED: Thanks. Sure, if I was offered a job. However, the weekly aspect of online webzines is exhausting and I’d hope that if I worked on a webzine again I’d have a managing editor and someone to assist me more. Buying and editing the fiction, doing all the administration, working with the copy editor and proofreader and the in-house production department is a lot for one person.

AW: You are tied, with co-editor Terri Windling, as the recipient of the most World Fantasy Awards in the organization's history. Your list of horror awards is becoming equally impressive. And more recently, you won, once again, the Hugo for Best Editor - Short Fiction. You seem at home in all three genres. Which is your favorite and why?

ED: I love all three equally. In fact, I’d love to sell more mixed-genre anthologies like The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy—I love working on more than one project at a time—often in different genres—I can refresh my palate by spending a certain amount of time reading submissions in sf/fantasy, or horror.

AW: Which of your anthologies is nearest and dearest to your heart and why?

ED: That would be like picking one favorite child over another, although I probably love my solo anthologies more than my collaborations as they’re exclusively my taste—no compromise.

AW: How does your career differ from what you imagined it would be going in? If you had your own personal time machine, would you go back and change anything?

ED: I had no idea how much I would enjoy my career. I feel lucky to have fallen into the best job in the world, doing exactly what I love doing. I would change nothing.

AW: What are your three biggest pet peeves regarding short fiction writing?

ED: Sloppy writing will stop me dead. I don’t think of this as a pet peeve but a judgment call. If a sentence in a story (or novel) stops me dead because its meaning is unclear and/or it stops the flow of the story, to me that’s sloppy. (This goes for experimental as well as non-experimental styles.) The job of the writer is to communicate with her reader.

Writers who send out obvious first drafts.

Writers who think writing good short stories are easy and don’t take the time to hone their craft.

A fourth: stories that are not about anything and leave me wondering, Why did the writer write this? It’s about nothing.

AW: What do you think about steampunk? Will it be a flash in the pan or a major player?

ED: I love reading it, but have been reading it for decades. Nothing particularly new about the sub-genre except that it’s hit the culture, which is fun but not especially pertinent in the long run.

AW: What's your favorite paranormal type of character and why?

ED: I have to say it's a toss up between vampires and ghosts. Both paranormal critters are so versatile that good writers can continue to make up brilliant stories using them. You know the expression "it ain't the meat, it's the motion?" Same thing with tropes and themes in fiction. It ain't the trope or theme that counts, it's what you do with it that matters. Anything old can be made new by the right writer.

AW: What are you working on now?

ED: Best Horror #3, and another YA anthology with Terri Windling. I’m hoping to sell a few more anthologies in the coming months.

AW: Tell me about the books you have coming out in 2011.

ED: In addition to the Best Horror of the Year, volume 3, I have a very big volume of all original urban fantasy stories coming out from St Martin's called Naked City: New Tales of Urban Fantasy. It's my more traditional interpretation of the sub-genre--hearkening back to what the phrase originally meant: fantasy in urban settings.

Teeth, edited by me and Terri Windling, is a YA anthology of vampire stories that will hopefully counter the sparkly vampire syndrome :-). It'll be out from HarperCollins.

Supernatural Noir (title self-explanatory, I think--although it has very few detective stories) will be coming out from Dark Horse.

Blood and Other Cravings is an adult vampirism anthology that is a kind of follow up to my earlier vampirism anthologies Blood is Not Enough and A Whisper of Blood (which are still available in a gorgeous double volume reissued by the Barnes and Noble imprint Fall River Press). B&N is also bringing out a new edition of Terri and my first adult fairy tale anthology, Snow White, Blood Red.

Read more about Ellen Datlow at www.datlow.com.

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Patrick Swenson - publisher, editor, writer and more

Patrick Swenson is a bit of renaissance man. He's a publisher, editor, writer and retreat organizer. And a doting father, as you can see by the photo with his son, Orion. I met Patrick at a room party at Radcon, where I scored an ARC of Jack Skillingstead's Harbinger. I asked for his card and he gave me three. Visit Patrick at Fairwood Press, at Talebones where you can get back issues of his late magazine or at the Rainforest Writers Village.

And here he is in that element with fantasy author Mark J. Ferrari at that very room party. It was the small publisher's party.


AW: As a publisher, how do you research what's selling? How hard is it to hop a trend before it fizzles?

PS: In my niche as a small publisher, I'm afraid I can't worry too much about trends. Trends are not going to affect my sales, really. And since I’m just one guy with a full-time teaching job, I don’t have the time to do that sort of stuff anyway. What I look at is: What authors have gathered a following and are visible? Who are the authors I like? Which of them are willing and able to help promote their titles?

AW: Do you only publish collections?

PS: I do mostly collections. Out of the 35 titles I’ve done so far (not including the six coming out this year), there have been eight novels, four writer reference books, two poetry books, and one book about diabetic eye disease! (I knew the eye doctor who wrote it, and I helped him with it). Anthologies and poetry collections are hard sells and don’t make money, for the most part.

AW: What is your favorite book Fairwood Press has published? Was it the top seller?

PS: I have a lot of favorites, to be honest. All four books I’ve done with James Van Pelt, for example. His collections are dynamite; he’s a fabulous story writer. I have to put his novel Summer of the Apocalypse, which is my top seller, near the very top. It was published in 2006 and it is still selling better than most of my newer titles! I love Ken Scholes’ first collection, Long Walks, Last Flights and Other Strange Journeys. I’m working on Ken’s second collection, Diving Mimes, Weeping Czars and Other Unusual Suspects, and I think it’s even better.

AW: Do you accept unsolicited manuscripts? If so, how does a novel slush pile differ from a short story one?

PS: I don’t accept them. I get all of my book projects on my own. Mostly I ask writers I know, and mostly these are writers who had stories in Talebones. Sometimes an author will ask me. Nina Hoffman approached me at Orycon last year and asked me about a collection. How could I say no? Actually, I picked up four book projects at Orycon. They are all Talebones alumni.

Someone like Jack Skillingstead, who tried to sell me stories at Talebones for years, eventually sent me a story I really liked. He was always “so close,” and I did like his writing style. Later, we became friends. Did being friends with Jack make me more likely to publish his novel Harbinger? Maybe a little, but I also had to like the novel (which I did a lot).

Closing down Talebones last year effectively stopped my R&D department for Fairwood authors. This is why I’ve toyed with the idea of doing a yearly Talebones anthology. It would be open to submissions for a limited time and I’d probably do a few more invites.

AW: Which do you prefer reading – novels or short stories? Do you have time to read for pleasure?

PS: I love novels. I grew up reading the classic science fiction novels by Clarke, Heinlein, Dick, LeGuin and Herbert. I just don’t have nearly enough time to read for pleasure any more. I’ll have a book on my nightstand and it will take me a loooong time to finish it because I have too many other things going on; too much other reading I have to do. I don’t own a Kindle, but I recently downloaded the free Kindle for Android application for my phone, and I’m going to try reading a few books that way. Because I’m so far behind with some authors, their books are now in paperback, or their Kindle prices are now cheaper than a lot of the newer releases.

I do love short stories, naturally, or I wouldn’t have taken up magazine editing. I wasn’t much of a short story reader when I was younger, although I do remember devouring the SF Hall of Fame and the Hugo Winners anthologies and being blown away by so many stories. It’s that sense of awe and wonder I fell in love with in science fiction. Nowadays, I can always take the time to read one or two short stories in a sitting and feel satisfied.

AW: Do you get involved with changes to the title of a book? Have you ever thought of a perfect title for a book after the fact, when it's too late? Can you "say" a few words about the qualities of a good title and how important a title is? A cover?

PS: I always work with the author on the title. For a story collection we usually try and figure out what story in the collection would be the best title to draw readers in. Sometimes a book title comes with the manuscript, and it’s already perfect. Jay Lake’s Rocket Science. Jack Skillingstead’s Harbinger. But sometimes they need a tweak. James Glass’s original title for his Fairwood novel was Culebra, which was the name of the main character. In the novel, Culebra means “viper.” The character’s home was a planet called Portello, so the title eventually morphed to The Viper of Portello. Had a nice rhythm to it, too. I’ve so far never had to second guess a title.

I can’t stress enough the importance of a good cover. I’ve been pretty lucky with my covers. I have a few artists I work with who do great stuff. I often I do my own covers using stock images. I’m particularly pleased with Louise Marley’s omnibus edition of The Singers of Nevya, that consisted of three stock images. The cover really pops, and it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. Put a bad cover or a bad design on a book, and readers are going to pass it over. Everyone with a desktop publishing program and access to the Internet can get a book published, but believe me, I’ve seen some of those covers, and they are not pretty.

AW: What do you think about mash-ups? Do you think Tolstoy and Austin would be offended or amused by Android Karenina and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, respectively?

PS: I’ve never read any of them, but I always see them, and I’m definitely amused. I have to think the authors would feel much the same way.

AW: Tell us about Rainforest Writers Village. What makes it special?

PS: The Rainforest retreat has really grown. The retreat for next year sold out in just over a day. So many people wanted to go and didn’t have a chance to sign up, that I decided to add a second session the following week. I’m a glutton for punishment. But really, I love it. And the writers who’ve been to it love it, and the whole thing’s infectious.

When I did the first retreat, I had this idea that writers would hang out in their rooms and cabins and write, eventually coming out for air and group activities, but what happened was that they immediately gravitated toward the whole community writing thing. Nearly all of them ended up in the resort’s lounge (which is reserved for us during the retreat) and were writing most of the day, at the times most conducive to their sleep patterns! Night Owls and Early Birds. I’m always in charge of the Night Owls, and I leave the key to the lounge in my cabin for the Early Bird in charge to pick up.

I came in one morning (late morning, that is) that first full day of the first retreat and there were about 20 writers in the lounge. It was amazingly quiet at that moment, the only sounds the click clack of the laptop keys. Some folks were staring out at the lake through the big picture windows. It rained a lot that year, and there was this warm, cozy feeling that welled up in me watching this scene and it about moved me to tears.

AW: How far people come to attend?

PS: A lot of writers are local to the Seattle-Portland area, but the retreat gets a few writers from locales far and wide. And of course there’s our crazy Calgarian contingent. This Canadian group loves the retreat and they keep telling their other writer friends about it. As long as they keep bringing their special Canadian Coke (the carbonated kind), we’re good with that!

AW: Can you give us the particulars?

PS: The retreat is $150 for five days, and includes breakout sessions (I only schedule two one-hour sessions each day because the main event is of course writing). It includes three breakfasts, one other group dinner, and drinks and food in my big cabin which doubles as the retreat office, hospitality room and sometimes a writer presentation room. Some of the cabins have kitchens and there's a restaurant on the resort and a few others nearby.

AW: Tell us about your writing.

PS: About the time I consciously decided to get back to my own writing was the time I decided I would close down Talebones magazine so I could get more time to write. It was also right around the start of the 2009 Rainforest Writers Village. Even I get to sit down and write at the retreats sometimes.

I got going on a novel that had been languishing for years, and after that retreat, I vowed to finish it before the year was up. I’ve rewritten and edited it and sent it to first readers, and written the synopsis. It’s about ready to go out to an editor who asked for it. Meanwhile, I had another novel that only had a couple of chapters that I hadn’t looked at for a long time. I started that one again at the 2010 retreat.

The finished book is called The Ultra Thin Man and is a science fiction noir mystery. (Do you want the little few sentence pitch I gave? It’s here: Two ex-private eyes who used to work together now contract for a large intelligence organization, and they’re set up to take a fall for something larger than they can possibly imagine. They’re on the run, split up on different colony worlds, trying to solve the mystery while staying alive and one step ahead of the bad guys. The problem is, they don’t even know who the bad guys are.)

The newer novel is a ghost murder mystery set around the area of the Quinault Rainforest where the retreat is held. I taught my first three years of school here and worked in the summers at the resort, and the novel pulls in some things that actually happened during my time there. The working title is Rain Dance.



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