short: Derek Zumsteg, ISO

medium: Christie Skipper Ritchotte, Medusa Complex

long: Rachel Swirsky, A Memory of Wind*


*Also, I love the illustration by Sam Weber.

I have a few eligible stories, in case you're looking for things to read and consider...


This first one gets a little extra mention, because of a cool review this week:


>The Bitrunners (Moonbase, yoinking, kiddie crimers), first published at Helix on 7/1/2008, and thus barely squeaking into eligibility. It's available to read on Transcriptase. It's also coming out in Rich Horton's Unplugged: Best Online SF 2008, and! And! Unplugged just got a STARRED Publishers Weekly review that includes this sentence: "...this exceptional anthology of the best science fiction and fantasy put online in 2008 includes gems by genre luminaries as well as rising stars like Tina Connolly and Beth Bernobich."*


And the rest!**

Stories:
>Turning the Apples (zombies, addiction, comabodies), published this year at Strange Horizons and forthcoming at Pseudopod.

>Hard Choices (flash, CYOA, get eaten), published this year at Brain Harvest.

>Child of Sunlight, Woman of Blood (blood, chokolat, freedom), forthcoming in 2 weeks at
Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

Novelettes:
>The God Death of Halla (temple, holy rich, uncles), last year at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

*SQUEE
**On Glicker Street (it is, always, fall) in the Escape Clause anthology, is Canadian and therefore I think not eligible.

pie: craved
pie: made.

2 more photos on flickr - the before of filling and the after of a pie slice. We ate it warm so the pie slices look more like pile-o-apples, but yum.

I have eaten pie for every meal since it was made, so it is almost gone. ::wanders off to tackle pie for breakfast::

omg, I think I've been looking forward to 11/5 since April. Besides regular bookstore work and face painting festivals I've had big projects* due nearly every month, as well as travel every month for...many moons now. I mean, I loved every bit of it, but...And Now We Nap.

I am back from World Fantasy, which was probably my favorite con so far. Too many brilliant conversations to list, but two memorable moments are forming the Fake Literary Agency with Spencer and accepting Sean as my first Fake Client, and free airport sushi with Eugene. Oh! And finding out that Lindsay's dad was my band teacher in eighth grade in California. How weird is that?

While in San Jose I heard that Pseudopod is picking up my Strange Horizons story Turning the Apples, and this morning I found that my reading of Holly Phillips' absolutely wonderful The Small Door is live on Podcastle. If you're the sort who likes to listen, give it a whirl, 'cause it's full of listening.



*Also, I finished a novel just before WFC. :D

It's official, 'cause I got my copy! "On Glicker Street" is out in the first Escape Clause anthology!


See, looky here:


Escape Clause with very red maple:


Escape Clause with Japanese Maple:


Escape Clause with Sunflower Head, for Scale:


Spiderweb with Juniper, for Scale:

Just finished Justine Larbalestier's Liar, and it is indeed very good. It's a fascinating psychological thriller, and you really can't talk about it without spoiling bits of it.*

So I won't. But pick it up** and read the first few pages and see if you get hooked. As you can guess from a title like Liar, there's an unreliable narrator. This plus what Larbalestier does with the different ways you can read Micah's story means that the book combines lots of my favorite things to do as a writer. So it's a good lesson in doing those things well.

But also, just an awesome read. I treasure awesome reads more than I used to. I expect I used to be slightly less discerning. I love it when you feel in good writerly hands.


One other story. This one by a friend, but it also sucked me in right from the beginning ("Haunted went Melei that evening into the streets of Ulthar....") Gord Sellar's Of Melei, of Ulthar.




*Though, unlike The Sixth Sense, it's not like it's a story that hangs on one big twist at the end and once that's spoiled too bad so sad. No, it's just that it's more fun not to talk about all the twists and turns so you can read them for yourself.

**In a store, so you don't accidentally read reviews when buying it.

So Friday Eric & I had a lovely day walking around Portland with some friends, and then on the way home I stopped in Borders to see if the October Highlights was out.

When I saw the proofs this summer, the editor said there was a 90% chance I'd be in this issue, but sometimes things get moved, even at this date. Highlights pays up front, but doesn't always publish the stories it buys right away (or sometimes, at all.) And, given that my story was a Halloween story...if it wasn't in now I'd be waiting at least another year. In the proofs, my story was on page 8-9, and they had changed the title from the descriptive but spoilery "Jose Picks a Halloween Costume" to "Something Different."

So I flip to pages 8-9. ( read on )

Just back from my brother's wedding in the Adirondacks. It was absolutely lovely - we took over a camp with cabins scattered over it. It was thick with trees and on a lake with canoes, and there was a little boathouse and even an old-fashioned bowling alley. Coolidge used to stay at the camp during his presidency, and then much later it was a sort of frathouse for boys working on their forestry training at the nearby college. Thus, lovely parquet floors, with axemarks from when the forestry boys got tired of chopping wood outside.

For the ceremony, I read Sonnet 116 (Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments.) I love that one, and it seemed to go well. Admittedly, I did threaten to Mike beforehand to declaim it in a faux British accent with many meaningful gestures.

And while I was there, my latest podcast reading went live! I read Madeline Ashby's delightful YA SF story βoyfriend for Escape Pod. I really loved reading this one, so I'm stoked that the author (as well as quite a few of the rowdy bunch of EP forumites) liked it. Give it a listen.

Robert DeNiro is hosting the Actor's Studio with Gwyneth Paltrow as his guest. They are making fun of Jude Law, who is present, but drunk. DeNiro sets up a clip from their movie, which has a Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow vibe.

#

EXT: A moody street in NYC. DeNiro and Paltrow are standing next to a FLYING CAR. They are impatient.

PALTROW
I'm telling you, if he makes one more crack about his penis....

DENIRO
Hold that thought.

Law stumbles in. He is scruffy and hungover and wearing a BATHROBE and GOGGLES draped around his neck. The bathrobe is dieselpunk.

LAW (effeminately)
To the car! We must catch the getaway blimp! Post-haste.

PALTROW
Why are you lisping?

LAW
My character's from the south, and when I'm from the south, I'm effeminate! God.

Paltrow and DeNiro exchange a look.

DENIRO
You're not driving.

LAW (scornfully)
God.

DeNiro takes the driver's seat and Law shotgun. Law pushes the seat all the way back. Paltrow is squished sideways in the tiny backseat.

PALTROW
I hope you're comfortable.

Law lets his bathrobe fall open. He is wearing nothing underneath and is very hairy.

LAW
Now I am.

Law tilts the REARVIEW MIRROR so it reflects his intimate areas into the backseat. Paltrow is horrified, but transfixed. DeNiro, who is in the middle of takeoff, has lost his rearview sightline.

DENIRO
What the ff -- I can't see! That's a delivery blimp, oh hell --

The flying car collides with the BLIMP. It crashes. The blimp explodes. The passengers in the flying car are shaken but unharmed.

LAW (lisping)
Always let the man in the bathrobe drive. God.

Some people have asked me how I end up narrating stories for Escape Pod and Podcastle (I currently have one in the pipeline at both places.) This is how:

Jeremy's looking for hosters and narrators.

#

I worked, like, 12 hours at my desk yesterday on Drupal and newsletters and phone calls etc. I staggered out at 8:30 to make dinner.

Tips for making dinner when you're tired.

>Do not almost pour a full box of baking soda into your boiling water.*

>Do not almost grease your bread pan with cocoa.**

>The next morning, do not almost pour your hot water for french press into your empty Green Lakes Organic Pale Ale bottle.***

I hope this PSA has helped.




*Baking soda box, macaroni box - both orange chipboard.
**Cocoa tin, shortening tin - identical in shape and heft.
***I got nothing.

Portland Soapbox Derby racing at Mt Tabor yesterday with Camille and joshenglish and @ericsbrain (who dubbed it the downhill detergent delivery device derby), and more fun folks.

Several of the cars were quite clever, like this lego one*, and the one made out of two wine casks (they had real difficulties steering, but it was a major crowd pleaser.)

And because it's Portland, two gentlemen streaked on bicycles after the first heats were all done. Because here, every event has to have a naked biker chaser.


*I didn't take the pic, just found it on flickr

A lot of face painters work sporting events, you know, painting Jayhawks on arms and faces half red half blue and ROCK CHALK across beer-filled bellies and so forth.

This particularly amuses me because it suggests an alternative reality where I'm working Quidditch matches.



Team Ginny!

As I said on my twitter just now - the only problem with gigging is that sometimes your timecard for the week is: 13/10/13/1/11/11/9. Not counting driving. Well, face painting will slow down soon (although I'm doing the early part of the Hawthorne Street Fair on Sunday, and paintings will be free, so come on by.)

Overheard at the Garlic Fest:

Mother, to painted child: "Oh, is *that* the painting you picked? I don't like that one. You should've picked this one."

One girl to another: "That painting looks really good on you. I think because your face is fat."

And my favorite:

Young boy walking by: "This is the booth where you get a makeover and they take your picture."

Last day at the Elephant Garlic Festival! (Take 26 to North Plains, follow the signs.) Turned out to be a nice event, with lots of bouncy castle-y things for the kids and some interesting artsy vendors. And plenty of garlic things that look good, like pizza and mashed potatoes and so on. Also, garlic ice cream. Did not try.

Best painting so far: Girl who wanted a word balloon on her cheek with "?!" in it.

Do you use Flickr for writing inspiration? Felicity Shoulders suggests ways flickr can be a research tool as well.

Hi! So I've been busy. We took our first vacation in a loong time and drove all around Oregon and down to the bay area. We saw caves and ocean and Ashland theatre (the excellent Equivocation, recommended by joshenglish), drove through the drive-thru redwood, and so on. Also, therinth graciously picked me up in San Jose and I got to attend the Clarion West reading at Borderlands. Probably more later when I have pictures.

Anyway, for now: My story from Strange Horizons, "On the Eyeball Floor", is up today at Escape Pod. It sounds really really cool and I am super pleased.

I will be in Seattle this weekend for the final Clarion West party - see some of you there!

You don't have to be cool, just nice (oh thank goodness) - Editorial Ass on author behavior.

Another End of the Empire - hilarious evil lord story at Strange Horizons by Tim Pratt

Recommendations for some of the good 'bad fairies' novels, over at kblincoln.

I haven't done a WIP in ages, so here you are, from the current novel-in-progress:
( Read more... )

So my Choose Your Own Adventure flash that was published at Brain Harvest last month? Kaolin Fire at GUD turned it into a flash game*, so now you can actually play it! Pretty cool, methinks.







*So it's a flash flash game?

When the family was here, we went to Silver Falls State Park. You can go on a 9 mile ridge hike past (and behind) ten waterfalls. OR, wimp out and go on the 2 mile hike that gets you to 2 and a half. I think we could have made it farther if we'd hadn't started out on the hike at noon, without lunch.

Dad pointed out that if this park were in Kansas, it'd be our star event, but here in Oregon, it's only one of many lovely places. Definitely recommended.