Agent News!

Earlier this year, I began querying my second novel, Bone Arrow.

I love this book. I worked my tail off on this book.

Even so.

Querying felt like this:

I tried to be compelling:

I waited a bunch.

My friends kept me going, sometimes by sending funny links, sometimes by threatening me with poetry. There’s no way to properly express how thankful I am for you all. Nicole, Kelly, Sara, Chris, Jim, Debra, Greg, Oz, Jon, Alex, Natalie, Ben, Amy, Amy, Beth, Raq, A.C., Eugene, Doug, Wayne, Lou, Cath, Sandra, Lauren, Siobhan, Sue and Chris, and especially Tom and the Urchin – you guys. I can’t even begin to list the ways you helped. Thank you so much.

Because you know what?

It was worth it.

Today, I went to New York to meet the people who have a lot of lovely things to say about this book I love so much. And they’re awesome.

It’s still sinking in. So I’m going to type it out and then it will sink in some more.

I’m truly excited and honored to be represented by Russell Galen and Rachel Kory of Scovil Galen Gosh Literary.

You can read a short story set in the Bone Arrow universe this summer, in the Impossible Futures anthology.

If you could hear the soundtrack to this post, it would sound like:

or possibly (this is for you, Liz):

Sheer Awesome: The Impossible Futures Anthology Cover

It’s been spotted in the wild! The incredible Impossible Futures cover for the anthology edited by Tom Easton and Judith K. Dial. Artist Duncan Eagleson is a genius.

I’m ridiculously excited to be a part of this anthology – the TOC is amazing. The anthology includes stories by Rev DiCerto, Paul Di Filippo, Debra Doyle & James D. Macdonald, Duncan Eagleson, Jeff Hecht, Edward M. Lerner, Shariann Lewitt, Jack McDevitt, James Morrow, Mike Resnick, Sarah Smith & Justus Perry, Allen M. Steele, and yours truly.

And this cover? I want it as a poster / t-shirt / wallpaper, you name it. It’s glorious. Well? It is.

Impossible Futures (Fall 2013, Pink Narcissus Press). Edited by Tom Easton and Judith Dial.

Eeeeeee. So. Shiny!

The Sneaky Lathe of Poetry

Lathe: n. A machine in which work is rotated about a horizontal axis and shaped by a fixed tool.

Reblogged from my monthly column at Apex Publishing.

If you are not the sort who enjoys poetry, you might think April (being National Poetry Month) is the season for eye-rolling over enforced rhyme schemes and cringing at public displays of meter.

But even if you skip town for the month, poetic voice still shapes your experience in sneaky ways. The results will catch you unawares.

Take some of your favorite titles, as one example.

Don’t look at the stories (or poems), yet. Just the titles. The ones that carve meaning and sound into the smallest of spaces. Swirsky’s “If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love” (Apex Magazine), and Valentine’s “A Bead of Jasper, Four Small Stones” (Clarkesworld). Go back further: Ellison’s ”I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream.”

Now look deeper. Look at structure. Poetic forms are reshaping fiction, from the brevity of flash to the use of sectioned prose.

Poetry broke from its restraints a long time ago. (Continue reading…)

Short and sweet: What’s in a Bio?

The author, revealed.

“Please send us a short biographical statement and, if relevant, a few words about your story.”

Words that ring joy and fear in any writer’s heart.  You see that line when you’ve sold a story to an editor – that’s the joy.

Then you realize: you now have to talk about yourself. To an audience. Ah. There’s the fear.

So what’s a joyfearful writer to do?

Behold: several advice-snippets from writers and editors who’ve been here before. (The words ‘funny’ and ‘cheeky’ came up more than once when I asked for tips. But be careful – humor is tough and tone doesn’t always carry over into text. No ironic font for you.) 

Proof of Concept: Flying!

Ah. Flying. Who knew? Jumping into a wind tunnel = hilarious fun and some ridiculous photos.

Things I learned that will benefit the novels I’m working on and probably some short stories as well:

Trains of Thought

So I’m setting out on another adventure this morning, mostly by train. By the time this trip is finished, if all works out as planned, I’ll have cover art to talk about, I’ll have attended some excellent con panels, seen many friends, and I will have flown in a wind tunnel.

You read that last one right.

Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest… – do you need them all?

A question to the floor:
What social media tools do you use and for what purposes? We could talk all day about Facebook (or on Facebook) – where many writers have fan pages, or post most updates – but let’s go a bit further afield too.

• Pinterest – Launched in 2010 as a ‘virtual pinboard,’ Pinterest can be used for research (putting photos in buckets), inspiration, and conversation. Check out some really well-curated pinboards for examples: Arin Dembo, Elizabeth Bear, Holly Black, Jenny Lawson, Sara Mueller, and Craig Engler. Mine’s a bit sloppy, but I’ve found it a useful place to store things in buckets, so I know where to find them. Broadcast type: public.
• Tumblr - Founded in 2007, but rising in visibility recently. The tumblr technique is called short-form blogging by the company. I’m new to this one (which is the reason for this post). In some ways, Tumblr is also a pin-board, though its visual interface is linear where Pinterest’s is more of

SF Squeecast talks about food and fiction (and Cooking the Books!)

This week, the fantastic crew at sfsqueecast talked about food and fiction. They mention several blogs including the amazing Inn at the Crossroads, Food through the Pages, Fictional Food, author Lawrence Schoen’s Eating Authors and my mostly monthly Cooking the Books column.

(I’ve had to go through this post eleventy hundred times removing exclamation points. Dying of squee here. I’m a huge squeecast fan.)

If you’re coming from squeecast, there’s a list to the right – recent interviews include Aliette de Bodard, Steven Brust, and Elizabeth Bear, mentioned on the podcast, as well as the amazing (and somewhat gross) Strange Horizons roundtable.  And stay tuned!  January’s interview is Saladin Ahmed, and Scott Lynch is scheduled for February.

If you’re a regular Cooking the Books reader, get on over to the squeecast. They’re fantastic and great listening each and every broadcast.

Librum Gatherum 2012

When I think back over what I read this year, these are the stories and collections that most come to mind. They’re by no means all of the best, but they’re a good cross-section.

211,508

• In color coding, 211508 is a slightly reddish black. Closest web-safe color is #330000 – which will read as flat black on any PC, and a somewhat more nuanced black on a Mac.
• In Washington, DC – Rule 21-1508 governs illegal dumping and wastewater treatment.
• If you add all the digits of the integer 211508 together, you’ll get 17, which is a prime number. If you add those, you’ll get 8, which isn’t.
• For me, 211,508 is the number of words I wrote (or will, by Monday, have written) in 2012. That includes a 50k revision on novel 1, a 50k start on novel 2 and the 92k re-envisioning, four 5k stories or drafts, one 1k story, and two stories that total 500 words. It doesn’t include interviews and things I forgot to write on my count (I’ll be better about the daily notation next year, after seeing Holly Black’s amazing ‘how I wrote’ posts.)
• 211,508 works out to 594 words a day*, and while I didn’t write every day, I wrote most of them. (*and because I’ve been averaging 2k on weekdays, I suspect I’m missing some words in my count. Will try to be better next year.)
• Included in that 211,508 is my first print sale, half my first novel, and all of my second.
• I’m going to let myself be pleased with that number for a few more days. Then I’m shooting for more words, and better ones, lined up in more pleasing patterns, for 2013.