Context this weekend went very well despite some major personal disasters suffered by members of the con committee and some of the guests. I got to catch up with a lot of people -- didn't get to spend as much time with several folks as I'd hoped -- but it was a lot of fun. I'm pretty tired today, and will post a more in-depth convention report later.

In the meantime, my short humor story "In the Shadow of the Fryolator" is up at The Town Drunk. A somewhat longer version of the story is in my collection Installing Linux on a Dead Badger, which should be shipping in a couple of weeks.

My story "The Great VüDü Teen Linux Zombie Massacree" is in a new anthology to benefit the American Diabetes Association entitled Voices for the Cure ... the book also contains stories by Robert J. Sawyer, Mike Resnick, Cory Doctorow, Ernest Hogan, Gary A. Braunbeck, Eugie Foster, Mur Lafferty, James Palmer, and Davey Beauchamp.

Weird Tales is picking up "Home for the Holidays", and Star*Line is taking "Babel's Children".

(Still haven't sold That Poem. But I just realized haven't sent it anywhere in a half a year. Funny how stuff stays unsold if it stays in the bottom of your hard drive, innit? People just don't show up at your door waving a $20 bill saying "I heard you done writ some a' them poems. Think ah wanna learn me some verses I can recite t' tha guys on lunchbreak. Gimmie two!" Silly world.)

I just found out I sold my poem "Subtlety" to Greatest Uncommon Denominator Magazine.

In other news, I'm off to InConJunction today -- I hope to see some of you there!

My narrative sestina "Flyboy" is up at Strange Horizons.

(If you aren't familiar with sestinas, Wikipedia has a decent explanation.)

CGP just announced my humor collection Installing Linux on a Dead Badger on their website blog. If all goes well, we're looking at an October release date.

Beyond Centauri will be running my poem "The Evil Overlord's Lament" in their January 2008 issue.

I found out last night that Strange Horizons is buying my sestina "Flyboy".

It was great seeing everybody at the WHC! We had a wonderful, productive time.

Unfortunately, Gary and I both caught some kind of crud either at the con or on the plane -- my voice keeps going out and I wasn't worth much more than sleeping yesterday.

In better news, Poe Little Thing is buying my poem "Loop: Girl With Black Eye". It should run in their fall issue.

The latest issue of Spacesuits and Sixguns contains my story "The Great VüDü Teen Linux Zombie Massacree".

It's a sensitive exploration of the cross-generational dynamics of a mother-daughter relationship in the antebellum South ... oh, wait, April Fool's was two days ago ;-)

It's got teen zombies, linux, dead badgers, shotguns, and fabulous hair! The editor says he snorted soda out his nose reading it the first time.

Table of Contents

"The Long Step Backward" - Mike W. Barr
"The Time Eater" - Lee Battersby
"Fable Fusion" - Gary A. Braunbeck & Lucy A. Snyder
"Sunday Afternoon, 848,988 AD" - Paul Crilley
"Life from Lifelessness" - Keith R.A. DeCandido
"Nanomophosis" - Stephen Dedman
"Spoilsport" - Paul Finch
"Gold and Black Ooze" - Robert Hood
"The Dogs of War" - Brian Keene
"Men of the Earth" - Kevin Killiany
"Strings of Love" - Mary Robinette Kowal
"Strange Attractor" - Paul Kupperberg
"War in a Time of Peace" - Steve Lockley & Paul Lewis
"The Dragons of Prague" - Todd McCaffrey
"Room for Improvement" - James A. Moore
"Omegamorphosis" - Stel Pavlou
"The End of Now" - Chris Roberson
"Lady of the Snows" - James Swallow
"Leap Second" - Bev Vincent
"Across Silent Seas" - Tim Waggoner
"Midnight in the Café of the Black Madonna" - Sean Williams

My limited-edition softcover collection Sparks and Shadows is coming out in late April or early May.

Nalo Hopkinson wrote the introduction, and each copy is signed by both of us. The book is 356 pages long and contains 17 stories, 7 poems, and 4 humor essays.

If you'd like to reserve a copy, just send a brief email to Nanci Kalanta.

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And now, another cat picture:


You'd think we lived in a one-room house or something, wouldn't you?
We had five other windows open around the house, but they all crowd at this one.
(The cat-toppled book stack was rescued shortly after I took the photo.)
(Monte did the toppling; apparently he hates Donald Barthelme)

Horror World is running my short story "Wake Up Naked Monkey You're Going To Die" as their fiction feature this month. (Yes, the story is intentionally over-the-top. If it makes you laugh, my mission is complete.)

I just found out that Raven Electrick will be publishing my sonnet "Uncanny Valley Girl" next November.

"The Great VüDü Teen Linux Zombie Massacree" was gleefully accepted by Spacesuits and Sixguns for their next issue. (I'm serious, there was real glee involved)

"The Cold Blackness Between" (which previously sold to but was never run by the erstwhile print mag Foxfire) has been picked up by Aoife's Kiss.

"Wake Up Naked Monkey You're Going To Die" will appear in a super sekrit publication in March.

I checked my story list ... and I'm out. I just sold everything I had left to sell, short fiction wise.

I do of course have a swak of other stories in varying unfinished stages. Right now I'm focusing on writing poetry and Finishing The Damn Novel, and then I will be writing the new stuff I have planned for the linux badger humor collection.

Erm. I really do need to get those humor collection stories done before the month is over ....

The folks at The Town Drunk just posted my story "Authorities Concerned Over Rise of Teen Linux Gangs"

Strange Horizons just posted my poem "Sympathy".

My humor story "Graveyard Shift", illustrated by grendelsden, is now up at The Town Drunk.

Context went well (Gary's workshop seemed well-received), but dear God I was tired when it was all over. I woke up Monday morning and everything hurt ... I called off and then went back to bed.

I'm feeling much better today, though I'm still dragging a bit. This morning I got comments back from Mark Lancaster, who's proofreading Sparks and Shadows ... overall he seems to really like it, and fortunately he caught some continuity goofs here and there that are easily fixable. It looks like everything's still set for launching the book in early 2007.

Mid-August through the whole month of September was largely a bust as far as working on my novel Spellbent went, but with Context over and the Doctor Who story off to the publisher I should be back on track to have it done by mid-December.

Our Doctor Who novelette, "Fable Fusion", is the 5th story Gary and I have written together but the first we've collaborated on since we got married. This one was the most satisfying of the bunch from a writing process perspective. I have enjoyed Doctor Who in the show's various incarnations, but I am by no means a hardcore fan. I hope those who hold the series near and dear enjoy our story when it comes out in Doctor Who Short Trips: Destination Prague.

I just found out Strange Horizons is buying my poem "Sympathy".