The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America announced the start of its nominations period for the Nebula Awards yesterday, so it’s time for me to do what all the cool kids are doing — remind members of the fiction I published last year.

It was a light year for me, with only two stories seeing print — both of which are under 7,500 words, and therefore eligible in the Short Story category.

And they are —

“The Stranded Time Traveler Embraces the Inevitable”

I’m extremely pleased to be part of If This Goes On, an anthology assembled by Cat Rambo for Parvus Press as a form of resistance against “a world shaped by nationalism, isolationism, and a growing divide between the haves and have nots.” Writing this particular piece helped break me from a period of writer’s block brought on by the results of the 2016 election, and I can think of no better place for it to have appeared.

If you’d rather listen to me read it than read it yourself, check out this video recorded at last year’s Readercon.

“Five Years Later”

“Five Years Later” appeared in the Harlan Ellison tribute anthology The Unquiet Dreamer, edited by Preston Grassman and launched by PS Publishing at the World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin.

While the anthology is a tribute to Ellison, as is the story, the story was not written to ape his style, or attempt to channel the man. Rather, it’s one which I hope would not have seemed out of place in Dangerous Visions.

And that’s it for 2019! As for 2020, I already have four science fiction and horror short stories slated to come out in magazines and anthologies, and I look forward to letting you know about them as they appear.

If you’re a voting member of SFWA and would like to receive copies of either of the stories mentioned above, send me an mail.

Thanks for your consideration!

I’ve been attending the Maryland-based indie comics convention SPX — that is, the Small Press Expo — for 15 or so of its 36 years, and this time around took the opportunity to dine with artist Paul Kirchner, who breathed the same comic industry air I did during the ’70s.

Paul broke into comics in the early ‘70s through a fortuitous series of events which had him meeting the legendary comics artist Neal Adams, who introduced him to DC Comics editor Joe Orlando, and within the week getting a gig as assistant to Tex Blaisdell helping him out on the Little Orphan Annie comic strip and stories for DC’s mystery books. He also worked for awhile as assistant to the great EC Comics artist and Daredevil innovator Wally Wood. He moved on from mainstream comics to draw two wonderfully surrealistic strips — “Dope Rider” for High Times and “the bus” for Heavy Metal. His wide-ranging creative resume also includes a graphic novel collaboration with the great writer of detective novels Janwillem van de Wetering, designs for such toy lines as Dino-Riders and Spy-Tech, and much more.

Paul and I had dinner once the con wound down at the nearby and recently opened Commonwealth Indian restaurant, which had been favorably reviewed by the Washington Post.

We discussed how a chance encounter in art school led to him assisting cartoonist Tex Blaisdell on Little Orphan Annie, the life lessons he learned during his apprenticeship with EC Comics legend and Daredevil innovator Wally Wood, the ruse he used to convince the editor of Harpoon into commissioning more installments of his famed Dope Rider strip, how the office of Screw magazine was nothing like you thought it would be and the office of High Times was everything you thought it would be, where he learned “the only thing that’ll kill you bigger than a flop is a hit,” the techniques he uses to dream up new episodes of his surrealistic strip “the bus,” his druggiest fan encounter, our joint memories of “Fabulous” Flo Steinberg, Marvel’s “Gal Friday,” his graphic novel collaboration with famed writer of detective fiction Janwillem van de Wetering, the first person he ever met in comics, and much more.

Here’s how you can eavesdrop on our conversation at Commonwealth Indian restaurant — (more…)