News
December 19, 2005
Good news! I've just sold my story "What We Still Talk About" to editor Peter Crowther's upcoming DAW anthology Forbidden Planets, which I believe is scheduled for sometime in late 2006.
Also, over the weekend, I completed updating my list of the short stories I wrote during the 1980s, so the site now reflects all 52 short stories I've published to date.
December 6, 2005
Here's my schedule for this weekend's Philcon 2005, to be held at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown:
Friday, Dec. 9 at 8:00 p.m.: "From Start to Finish"
Saturday, Dec. 10 at 12:00 p.m.: "Fiction Based on Dreams and Nightmares"
Saturday, Dec. 10 at 2:00 p.m.: "Why America is Lost"
Saturday, Dec. 10 at 3:00 p.m.: "Writing Mistakes I've Made"
Sunday, Dec. 11 at 11:00 a.m.: "Fiction as Autobiography/Autobiography as Fiction"
Sunday, Dec 11 at 3:00 p.m.: "The Politics of Writing Groups"
Maybe I'll see you there!
In other news, one of my early comic-book stories has just been reprinted in the hardcover book Marvel Visionaries: John Romita Jr. The five-page story, titled "Chaos at the Coffee Bean," originally appeared in the back of Amazing Spider-Man Annual #11 in 1977, and was Romita's first publication.
Back then, his Dad, John Romita Sr., was the Art Director at Marvel Comics, and some felt that if any work was given Jr.'s way that it would be seen as nepotism ... but since I felt reverse nepotism to be just as deadly, I lobbied for him to be allowed to illustrate this one. For a story written when I was 22, it's not that bad. (Though I'm willing to admit that I could be fooling myself ... )
October 11, 2005Here's my schedule for Capclave in Silver Spring, Maryland this weekend:
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 11:00 a.m.: "New Markets for Short Fiction"
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m.: Reading
Saturday, Oct. 15 at 9:00 p.m.: "Romancing the Savage: The Retreat from Reason and Science in Speculative Fiction"
As you can see, all of my panels are scheduled for the same day, but I'll be dropping by the con Friday as well.
In other news, I have updated my short stories pages to reflect the fiction I published before I began this Web site. My short stories are now sorted into Recent Short Story Appearances, Short Stories: 2000-2003, Short Stories: The '90s and Short Stories: The '80s. There are actually 18 more stories from the '80s that I still have to add. I'm not sure when I'll get around to uploading the covers and details of those publications, partially because from this distance, those stories seem a lifetime away. But I'm sure that I'll make the listing complete someday.
August 17, 2005
I've just been informed by Mike Heffernan, editor of the zombie anthology Aim for the Head: 25 Tales of Zombie Terror & Mayhem, that he's chosen my short story "The Human Race" to start off the book. Heffernan hopes that it will see print by next summer.
Max Brooks, Simon Clark, John Shirley, Tim Waggoner, Tim Curran, Lawrence Santoro, Christine Morgan, Gary Brandner, Harry Shannon, Gord Rollo, John Everson, Yvonne Navarro, Brian Knight, Michael Marshall Smith, Robert E. Vardeman, Steve Niles, David Dvorkin, Michael McCarty, Mark McLaughlin, P.D. Cacek, Elizabeth Massie, Bob Fingerman, Cody Goodfellow, Carlton Mellick III, Michael Laimo, and Gary A. Braunbeck will also be appearing.
August 14, 2005The final photos from Interaction are now up.
August 4, 2005I've just added the first few photos from Interaction. There'll be more to come.
July 31, 2005
I've been added to another panel at Interaction, the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, so in addition to the panels I mentioned back on June 22, I'll also be pontificating here:
Sunday, August 7 at 3:30 p.m.: "What Did the New Wave Do For You?"
And just to show how time wounds all heels, here's a photo from one of my panels at Intersection, the 1995 Glasgow Worldcon. I can no longer remember what I was talking about while sandwiched between Gwyneth Jones and Martha Soukup ... but I'm sure that we were all fascinating.
July 4, 2005Here's what I'll be doing at Readercon 16 in Burlington, Massachusetts next weekend:
Friday, July 8 at 3:00 p.m.: "The True and Secret History of Clarion"
Friday, July 8 at 4:00 p.m.: Reading
Friday, July 8 at 9:00 p.m.: "If They Were Alive and Writing"
Saturday, July 9 at 1:00 p.m.: Kaffeeklatsch
Saturday, July 9 at 3:00 p.m.: "The New Cordwainer Smith Winner: An Introduction"
See you there!
June 22, 2005Today is the first day of summer, which means that convention season is in full swing. I've just received my schedule for Interaction, the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow. (I haven't been to Glasgow since the last time the WorldCon was held there, back in 1995.)
Here's the programming I'll be on from August 4th through the 8th:
Thursday, August 4 at 1:00 p.m.: Autographing
Friday, August 5 at 5:00 p.m.: "The Current State of SF on TV: Picking From the Potentials"
Saturday, August 6 at 11:00 a.m.: "From Spider-Man to Justice League: A Look at Recent Comic Dramatizations"
Saturday, August 6 at 1:00 p.m.: "Social Science and Social Satire: The Work of Robert Sheckley"
Sunday, August 7 at 1:30 p.m.: Reading
I will also be attending Readercon 16 in Burlington, Massachusetts, from July 8-10 and the San Diego Comic-Con International from July 14-17, and will post further information about those events shortly.
May 25, 2005If you'll be attending Balticon at the Wyndham Baltimore Inner Harbor Hotel this weekend, here's where you'll be able to find me:
Saturday, May 28 at 4:00 p.m.: "Do the Major Magazine Editors Create the Current Trends in SF?"
Saturday, May 28 at 5:00 p.m.: "Character, Event or Plot Driven Stories: Which Are Best?"
Saturday, May 28 at 8:00 p.m.: "Hard SF: What Makes It Work?"
See you there!
May 13, 2005 I just learned that my short story "My Life is Good" has been nominated for a Southeastern Science Fiction Achievement Award in the category of Best Short Fiction of 2004. The story was originally published in the anthology Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic.As they say in Chicago, please vote early and often.
May 8, 2005 I just put up 21 photos taken last weekend at the 2005 Nebula Awards weekend. A good time was had by all. (Actually, the ones who walked off with the trophies seemed to have had a better time.) April 4, 2005
I've just received my contributor copy of the new issue of The Journal of Pulse-Pounding Narratives, which contains my metafictional short story, "This Is Where the Title Goes." Unfortunately, it seems as if the editors have decided that this will also be the final issue of that magazine—but I am accepting no responsibility for that.
February 17, 2005
I've added the last of my pictures of Antarctica. Winnowing down over 2,000 of them wasn't quite as easy as I thought it would be—not after I tried to take a picture of every penguin on the continent.
February 2, 2005
I've just added the first few pictures of Antarctica. Check back, as there'll be many more to come.
February 1, 2005
I am just back from a trip to Antarctica, and will try to add some photos from the journey to this site over the next few days. (Currently, the only photos on the Web can be found in yesterday's Science Fiction Weekly editorial.) Check back over the next few days as I attempt to whittle down several thousand images.
Until then, here's where you can find trip reports written by the naturalists aboard our ship covering our departure from Ushuaia and the crossing of the Drake Passage south, our landing on Aitcho Island, our visits to Paulet Island and Brown Bluff, a walk across an ice flow in the Weddell Sea, a visit to Deception Island, our cruise through the Lemaire Channel to Damoy Point, a stop at Torgersen Island and Palmer Station, our visit to Port Lockroy and Cuverville Island, the return north in the Drake Passage, and our final moments at sea.