Having managed to stay clear of the whole Scalzi payment debate, I arrive at this special date (on which I turn 34) in a relaxed mood.  Overall, the last year has been a good one, both on the writing side and on everything else. 

In 2009 I broke all my records for writing income (still beer money, but getting there) sold a short novel, and broke into a couple of those markets that had been taunting me for years (there are still quite a few that are making faces at me and mocking my attempts to climb their slush mountains, but I'm confident I'll get them this year!).  I also completed my second full-length novel, and my first full-fledged space opera.  Most importantly, I made loads of new friends in the writing world - some bought my work, some read my work, and others did neither, but I enjoyed interacting with you all!  I can't complain at all. On the personal side (and you all know that I'm not into talking about it all that much online), the year had its ups and downs, but nothing truly serious.  Every door that closes opens the possibility of exploring a different path, and some doors make an extremely saisfying thunk as they shut behind you.  I'm currently walking away from one of those doors now, and I feel about five hundred pounds lighter - and truly enthusiastic about what the future holds for the first time in a while.

So...  much more good than bad in my 34th year, and I'm hoping for more of the same! Writing-wise, I haven't been doing much updatery because I've been polishing Siege.  First chapter done and no truly serious idiocies encountered.  This should change as I get deeper.

Despite rumors to the contrary, rejections are not the only way the publishing industry lets you know that you are a writer (and neither, strangely, are restraining orders...). Today was a case in point.

I received my contributor's copy of The World is Dead. Nice looking book, this one, and I'll be reviewing it once I clear a little more of the backlog. I'm very happy that the postal system down here didn't swallow it...

I also got my $30 gift certificate from Anthology Builder, because my story "Rain Over Lesser Boso" was a finalist in the "Match that Artwork" competition.

Both cool things, of course, but not necessarily what writing is about. What really makes me feel like a writer today is that I just flattened the city of Riga (actually, this happened off-camera, and the rest of the world suffered a similar fate, but Riga hurt a lot because it is one of the prettiest cities on the planet), and dumped my characters in an untenable situation. And I did all of this in 250 words - imagine the damage I could do in a thousand or so...

Guess we'll find out. More writing planned on this short story later today.

How about you guys? Done any serious harm to the planet in the course of your writerly adventures?

I have plenty of short work in stock, so I'm haven't been concentrating on it over the past few days, and instead advancing my humorous fantasy novel about ancient Greeks entitled The Malakiad. after 400 words yesterday, the seventh chapter is complete and the novel currently stands at around 30K. This one might be a hard sell, but I'm having a ball writing it, and it contains some of my favorite characters.

I really need to hunker down and start the revisions on Siege, especially since it hits the current marketplace right between the eyes. It does need a certain amount of rewriting, but it isn't a trainwreck, so I'll have material to send out in relatively short order.

I also need to put together an MS of an SF story collection which needs to have at least 25% unpublished work. I agonize over these selections more than the rest, because with the published pieces, I know they got to the top of the pile and into the light. With unpublished work, I always feel that no matter how much I like a story, it's just the author's opinion - and we all know what that's worth!

So I have some busy evenings ahead of me.

I found the first online review of Albedo One #37 here (scroll to the entry for November 6th). It's in German, but my translator program tells me that the reviewer picked my story - "Offline" - as the best of the issue, which completely blew me away, considering the names on the ToC.

In other news, I got slightly back into the writerly swing of things with a couple of submissions last night.

Yet another review of The World is Dead has come online (thanks to jennifer_brozek for the tip!). The reviewer here seems quite impressed with both the premise and the execution, which seems to be a common thread running through all these reviews. This seems to be a book that I'm eventually going to be extremely proud to have been a part of! No mention of specific stories, but the overall tone makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I also plugged about 1400 words into a story, finished it and sent it out, prior to a computer hard disk crash. I need to check my records, but I believe my hard disk died on November 20th for the second year in a row, which would make a pure hardware problem (despite the obvious lack of quality in this Compaq / HP product) hard to believe. Will check the records.

The ever-entertaining jongibbs has agreed to do a guest blog here. So mark your calendars for Thursday, November 26th! I know you'll enjoy the topic he's chosen... but I'm not going to tell you what it is, you'll have to come and see! He is a writer and an Englishman, and his thoughts on how to use one's blog are always spot-on (if I took his advice more often, I would have a million readers).

Siege has gone out to beta-readers (thank you Fred and Chris for signing on at the last minute), and writing has resumed on other projects: 330 words into a story about Etruscan zombies and 1160 into The Malakiad, a humorous fantasy novel about ancient Greeks which is now on the front burner since The Curse of el Bastardo has sold, and this one is very similar in style, if not plot.

Thursdays have, for various reasons, been my favorite days of 2009. So even though this particular Thursday won't include some of the things that I love about the day, I still think it deserves a mention...

In my neverending quest to read everything ever published, I finished reading The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 11. This is a book published by DAW in 1985, and collects the stories published in the previous year that its editor, Arthur W. Saha, felt were the best of the bunch. I can't honestly say that I agree with his choices in this particular case. Not much ground-breaking work here in my opinion, just a bunch of stories that left me thinking: so what? At least the book did contain a few second-world S&S tales that gve us some action to break up the monotony of the urban fantasy therein. S&S is nearly always entertaining, and these werre well-written, to boot. The urban fantasy was also well-written, but felt a little bleak.

Best of the bunch by a long margin was a posthumous story by Clark Ashton Smith called "Strange Shadows", in which a man sees forms in other people's shadows - and only later comes to realize their significance. It was a bit predictable, but the prose overcame the shortcomings of the plot.

There was one story I absolutely hated, and it was the one I'd read before. Gene Wolfe's "A Cabin on the Coast" is a story I dislike a lot (which is strange because I believe Wolfe is one of the greatest writers of our time). But there must be something about this story that got it included both in this book and in Dozois' Best of the Best, which is a science fiction antho for the best stories from his Year's Best series. Seriously? Best of the best? I must be missing something...


Other news: 1150 words into a fantasy story last night.

I finished a story last night. I don't feel it quite clicks, but that's OK. It was an ambitious piece, and I was expecting to have to do a little rewriting when it was done. So now I'll do that.

There was also a good review of The World is Dead (which contains my story "Bridge Over the Cunene") on the Horror Fiction Review. The reviewer enjoyed both the antho itself and my story in particular, so I'm happy with it. She also enjoyed jennifer_brozek 's story.

A good review almost makes up for the lack of sales over the past few weeks! (I told you guys these things go in cycles!!).

The ToC for M-Brane 11 has been announced, and you cansee it here. I've seen a couple of issues of this mag, and I can say I'm really happy to be back in there. Great look and feel, and some familiar names iin the mix as well!

In other news, I did a tiny bit of writing last night. Life is beginning to get in the way in a big way - I think you can expect to see the productivity take a hit over the next couple of weeks (nothing life threatening or even very serious, but distracting)... Still, I've written a lot this year, I can survive a bit of a dip.

I plugged the final 4000 words into Siege last night.  And now, the novel is done, coming in at 98.4 K words!

I will take a few days to feel very pleased with myself, dance a little jig and howl at the moon for a bit before the polishing and rewriting begins.

So, anyone want to beta-read an uncorrected first draft?  I generally try to get all comments in before I begin the process of polishing the novel.  Drop me a line here or at gbondoni (at) hotmail (dot) com.

One of the main reasons (other than the talent of the writers here and the interesting posts) I like my flist is that we can have discussions of things in which we disagree, sometimes strongly and keep them civilized.  Thanks to everyone who chimed in on yesterday's post.  Had a great time exchanging opinions with everyone - I kne when I wrote it that not everyone would be happy with it, and I'm glad you came forth in the comments!  We can all learn from each other.

On the writing side, I got 2400 words done last night.  This got me to the end of chapter 24 of Siege and a third of the way through chapter 25.  The novel should be done in 6K words or less!  So close!

A conversation I had over the weekend got me thinking about the future of humanity, the present of humanity, what this has to do with the genre and why there's lots and lots of hope in some ways, and things are worrying in another.

I have always believed - quite firmly - that humanity has only one future if it is to remain relevant, and that is the conquest of space.  Humans have always been an exploring species, and this must continue.  I have a hard time understanding people who believe that money spent on space exploration would be better employed elsewhere.  No matter what example, humanitarian, infrastructure or whatever, they cite, I always end up thinking that the thinking behind it is completely limited, and shows a huge lack of big picture thinking.  I have been told in no uncertain terms that I am completely wrong, but I still don't see it.

We live in a world in which the scientific achievements are such that much of our currrent tech wasn't even imagined by science fiction writers as late as the sixties, and yet, the things they saw as important have not come to pass.  We still haven't even reached Mars...  It's terrible to think that mankind's greatest achievement, the Apollo XI moon landing, ocurred before I was born.  Nothing since has come anywhere near that.  So much for progress.

Of course, there are reasons for this, and most of them have to do with tendencies in the western world.  Consumers have come to expect comfort and entertainment, and the west's best minds have moved away from real engineering challenges to the safe confines of computer science.  They don't care that another doubling of processor speed really doesn't matter - they just know that the sheeple buy into it and that they, the designers, get paid.  Meanwhile, humanity has better video games and larger and more unwieldy operrating systems.

Another social tendency that is keeping the west back is the slashing of funding to go to social plans, wars or whatever other politically expedient issue comes along.  This is the very definition of short-sighted.  They go after immediate goals while forgetting the really important things.  Particularly unsettling is the situation in the US, the traditional leader in space, where science has been under siege for years, and where any sense of adventure seems to have been crushed under the weight of the PC nightmare (TM).  I don't think this will be reverted any time soon - most people just aren't interested.

This lack of interest is also affecting the genre. As people move away from an interest in science and progress, fantasy becomes more popular than science fiction (sound familiar?), and the genre suffers for it.  You see, fantasy is fine (I personally love fantasy), but it isn't, in my opinion, as significant as SF, which requires knowledge and the capacity to work within a scientific restrictions to make it work.  It's the difference between what might be, and what never will.

So, is the trend irreversible?  Is there no hope?

Well...  I would actually say that not only is the trend reverisble, there are people already working on it.  Except that most of us won't be comfortable with the way it's being done.

You see, most of the world's people live in Asia.  They do not speak English.  They are not Europeans.  And they are not constrained by western thinking on political issues.  They are well on their way to leading the world economically, and after that they will do so politically. 

The Western world will become irrelevant on a changed world slate (except as a problem, something akin to today's middle east).  If China, for example wants to go to Mars as a question of national pride, they will (they have already sent men into orbit with no help from the west).  If India wants to establish, in response, a base on the moon, they will as well.  Eventually, someone will go beyond that.

The west and its limited imagination will be confined to Earth, and that is a good thing.  The limited thinking that is leading to the decline is not something we want to take with us.  I really hope that it isn't too late to revert it, but I see nothing coming out of the US or out of inward-looking Europe, spending more and more on social plans, to give me hope.  All I can do right now is to root for the Taikonauts.



In spite of all this, I still wrote 600 words into Siege last night.  A science fiction novel!  So I guess I should be looking for a good Chinese translator!

A socially supercharged weekend meant that my writing binge was limited to 1900 words (still great for fri-sat-sun) onto Siege.  I'm not really sure what I'll be writing this week.  On one hand, I'd love to finish the first draft of the novel and get it out to beta readers, but on the other, there are a couple of anthos that I'd love to write something for, and they are the "until filled" kind, so I need to get moving!

I also need to research a good potential home for a Sci-Fi reprint collection that (because of rights reversions) could be released in October 2010.  There are two important things to consider here.  The first is that books take quite a while to get done if they are done right, so a year's lead time seems about right for a pitch to a small press (a year at the very least).  The second thing is that not every publisher wants to look at collections, so it will take a while to narrow it down to 2 / 3 to send the pitch to (suggestions, of course, are always welcome).

Despite concentrating on the golden age of science fiction, I'd never read Bradbyury's The Illustrated Man.  Why?  Well, there are a couple of reasons.  The first is that Bradbury always seemed to be a little off, a bit of a lyricist, more concerned with beautiful language than beautiful concepts (there's no need to tell me I'm wrong.  I know I'm wrong, that's why it's a prejudice!).  The second reason has to do with the book itself - I'd always thought it was urban fantasy.

Both preconceptions were proven wrong when I read the book.  The Illustrated Man is a collection of science fiction stories, extremely pulp-era in feel (as they should be - they're from 1948-1950). There are some fantastic elements, and some magical ones, but even they are set in SF settings.  There was one story I'd read before (a good one): "The Fire Balloons".  

As for the reading experience, the most jarring element is the fact that both Venus and Mars are generally considered to be habitable, with breathable air.  You have to be able to ignore this in order to enjoy the book.  On the other hand, these stories are not about the science, but about people in extreme situation, and most of them hit you right between the eyes (Bradbury isn't allergic to the occasional low blow or cliché, but always elegantly written).  All in all, an effective and enjoyable voyage back into the pulp era, with one in particular, "The Concrete Mixer", being absolutely, gloriously funny and brilliant!

As for the framework offered by the Illustrated Man himself, I felt it added little to the book.  I might have enjoyed it more, and read it earlier, if it had been presented as a collection of SF shorts.


With regards to my own writing, 300 words into Siege means I no longer stare at a blank page when I look at chapter 24.

I'm nearing the end of Siege.  Last night's 1200 words got me to the end of the 23rd chapter, and to nearly 90K overall.  This makes me a happy camper (although the wisdom of finishing a novel in November, when everyone else in the world is also writing novels is questionable).  Just about 10K left - that's a longish short story!

In other news, for those curious to see the complete list of Anthology Builder competition finalists, here's the list!  Congrats to all, and I'm looking forward to crossing swords with you in the definitive round.  May the best story win!

I received word this morning that I am a finalist in the Match That Artwork Contest over at Anthology Builder.  For obvious reasons (in case the judging is anonymous), I won't mention the name of my story or say what it was about, but I'm very happy to be there, and the list of judges is simply amazing.

The reason I entered this one is that I believe that the business model in which you create your own anthologies with only the stories you select and they send you a printed copy of the book is a brilliant combination of what consumers want: flexibility and printed books.  For the first time since Henry Ford's production lines, technology is making it possible to get customized products at a comparable cost to mass-produced items, and the companies that take advantage of this in an intelligent way are likely to become the standard bearers in the 21st century.

The publishing world is in the middle of a great change.  Identifying which technologies are worth attacking and which aren't is going to be very important in the next few years.  Writers actually ahve it easy.  The oonly thing that keeps us from exploring new media is the quantity (and quality, of course) of our output - we don't have to take financial risks.

So what do you think the publishing world will look like in five - ten year's time?




Wordcount check:  450 into Sioege, 240 into a new fantasy story, and I also worte a review for SF Reader.

Bunch of fun stuff since my last writing post.

In the first place, the S&S story I was writing was completed, polished and turned in under the deadline.  I'm happy with getting that one done, because I had very little time to write it.

I also received my contributor's copy of Shadows & Light.  Good looking book, hope it reads well, too.

My story "Ménage à Trois",  a spy story set on the moon in the relatively near future, has been reprinted in Abandoned Towers.  You can read it here (click on my name and the story title).

Also, the Harvest Hill anthology has been released!  This one contains my story "Teeth", a horror tale set in colonial Appalachia.

Also finished reading Rage of the Behemoth, an S&S antho which I will be reviewing for SF Reader.

Yesterday was a good day on the writing front for various reasons.  Most importantly, Abandoned Towers has accepted a reprint of my story "Ménage à Trois", which originally appeared in 2008 in Return to Luna.  The nice thing about working with AT is that they requested, read and accepted the story in the course of about two hours.  I'll let everyone know when it comes online.

I also had very positive interactions with no less than four publishers regarding four different book projects.  They are at different stages - a couple have been purchased and are in first edit, a couple are at the proposal / query stage.  The thing all of these interactions had in common is that the editors in question were all extremely friendly and professional, including the one I've not worked with before.  2010 is shaping up to be a great year on the book front with two on line to be published even if other projects fall through.

I also went through my list of publications, and I notice that I nearly have enough SF stories published to put together a second SF reprint collection, with a few original stories tossed in to make it a little more attractive to wide-reading readers. This is probably something I'll be shopping around in early 2010 as well.

As for the S&S story, I didn't get it done last night, but I did give it 2000 more words, and have a tiny scene to write this evening.  It will be in on time.

Of course, all the good had some karmic effecct on other things, with disappointments in other areas.  But then, that's life!

Managed another thousand words into the S&S story last night, and will do everything humany possible to wrap it up tonight. Then polish and send it out.

Other WiPs currently being ignored for the sake of this piece consist of two novels: Siege (which, as you all know is a space opera and nearly done) and The Malakiad, which is a humorous fantasy about ancient Greeks about a quarter of the way through.  I'm aiming to have a first draft of Siege ready to beta read and polish by late November.  The Malakiad? Well, I've been writing that one on and off for a few years, but would like to get it complete in 2010. 

After that, I have a couple of other projects I'd like to complete.  There is a mainstream novel that keeps bouncing around in my head (and has subsequently been outlined).  Think Sidney Sheldon meets The Da Vinci Code.  This one will probably become my major project after Siege.  I'd also like to complete a series of interlinked literary stories for a planned book, and a collection of the adventures of Sangr and Yella which I have some candidates for.  And then there's the novel set in my Etruscan setting.  This one was recently revived by the sudden sale of two of the stories from this world...  And then there's the humorous corporate novel I discussed with a friend over lunch on Monday, and the short stories, and...

I think I have enough to stay busy for now...