Since the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America recently announced the start of its nominations period for the Nebula Awards—and the recommendations period for the Bram Stoker Awards from the Horror Writers Association is ongoing—plus all of my 2017 short stories have now been published—well, it’s that time of year again.

Since all the cool kids seem to be doing it, I’ve assembled info about this year’s publications in one place so eligible voting members of both organizations can take them into consideration.

And so …

First up, three science fiction tales—

“After the Harvest, Before the Fall”

This was the story that broke my 44-year dry spell with Analog. It’s an 11,600-word novelette described by the magazine as “people born to die struggling to live.” It takes place in a future in which the rich and powerful get to order new bodies whenever they wish, and the religion those who are harvested have created to deal with their oppression. (more…)

I returned home yesterday from my trip to Helsinki, where I attended the 75th World Science Fiction Convention, but news of what I did there and with whom will have to wait, for today is all about the Nebula Awards weekend which took place in Pittsburgh earlier this year.

There, I brunched with A. Merc Rustad at DiAnoia’s Eatery, which in December was voted one of the best new restaurants of 2016 by Pittsburgh magazine, and was included in Eater‘s list of the city’s hottest new restaurants. And who can resist fried dough filled with nutella?

A. Merc Rustad has published fiction in Lightspeed, Uncanny, Shimmer, and other magazines, and their short story “How To Become A Robot In 12 Easy Steps” was included in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015. They were on that weekend’s Nebula ballot in the short story category for “This Is Not a Wardrobe Door,” which is included in their debut short story collection So You Want to Be a Robot, described by Publishers Weekly as “unmissable.”

We discussed some terrible writing advice which messed with their head and the way they got over it, how the Redwall series by Brian Jacques turned them from a reader to a writer, why some fan fiction doesn’t get the fan fiction label while other fan fiction does, the reason the animated television series Beast Wars: Transformers was such a major influence both professionally and personally, why they almost destroyed their Nebula-nominated story “This Is Not a Wardrobe Door,” the secrets to assembling a short story collection, and more.

Here’s how you can eavesdrop on us — (more…)

The fact the Nebula Awards were handed out in Pittsburgh earlier this year meant I was finally able to visit a restaurant I’d been wanting to check out for years. Which was excellent timing, because as it turned out, I got there only a week and a half before it closed.

Conflict Kitchen was based on a fascinating concept—only serve, on a rotating basis, the cuisines of countries with which the U.S. has been in conflict—such as Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Afghanistan, for example. Unfortunately, after seven years, Carnegie Mellon University decided it would no longer provide administrative support, and so Conflict Kitchen was forced to close its Schenley Plaza restaurant location, perhaps only temporarily, but maybe for good. Luckily, though, not before my guest and I were able to get there for an al fresco Palestinian meal.

Brooke Bolander was on Nebula ballot that weekend in the short story category for “Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies,” and is also on the current Hugo Awards ballot for that same story, one of the most talked-about tales of 2016. Her fiction, which has appeared in Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, Nightmare, Uncanny, and other venues, has been honored by nominations for the Locus and the Theodore Sturgeon awards as well. The Only Harmless Great Thing will be published by Tor in 2018.

We discussed how she ended up as a writer rather than a paleontologist, why the videogame Ecco the Dolphin terrified her but taught her to love science fiction, her early days writing fan fiction, how anger over the electrocution of Topsy the elephant and the deaths of the “radium girls” inspired her newest novella, why she avoids rereading her own writing, what broke the writers block that had gripped her for several years, and more.

Here’s how you can join us for falafel— (more…)

Pittsburgh is home to two bucket list bites for foodies. One is the Primanti Bros sandwich … and the other is the Prantl’s burnt almond torte. I got to taste them both during the recent Nebula awards weekend.

I already told you about my trip to Primanti’s. Only four other SFWA members joined me there, but—because I was in the mood to share—a whole lot more got a taste of what The Huffington Post called “The Greatest Cake America Has Ever Made.”

Which, regardless of how mouthwatering it looks, isn’t this cake.

But let me explain. (more…)

Sometimes, when I’m speaking to friends about my food adventures, they seem to think I’m only about tweezer food, molecular gastronomy, and expensive restaurants. And since any new friends I made during the Nebula Awards weekend might have encountered my previous post about Morcilla as their first entry point into my life, I figured I’d better quickly prove that’s just not so, and describe the sandwich I ate many hours after the banquet, at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday night Sunday morning at Primanti’s.

Though Primanti’s is today a chain which includes locations in Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, and other states, the company began with a single restaurant in Pittsburgh in 1933. Not too long after that, it developed its signature way of serving sandwiches—with the french fries and cold slaw in the sandwich. That style is so much a part of Primanti’s I can recall what a server there said when asked in a video interview how they’d respond to a customer if one asked for the fries on the side—she’d tell them there was a Subway down the street.

Perhaps I’m misremembering, and that’s apocryphal, but Primanti’s commitment to keeping what’s normally outside inside has resulted in one of the most famous sandwiches in the U.S. So I had to have one.

I had to have one at the original Pittsburgh location, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And I had to have one not at a standard meal time, but late. Or depending on how you consider time, early.

Which is how I ended up with a group of friends, including Andrea Tatjana and K. M. Szpara, at 2:30 in the morning, still wearing the purple jacket I’d worn to the Nebula banquet. (more…)

When it came time to decide on a venue for a group dinner during the recent Nebula Awards weekend, one restaurant stood out above all others—Morcilla, which had been named the best new restaurant in Pittsburgh by Pittsburgh magazine and last year’s #4 best new restaurant in the country by Bon Appetit.

And I wasn’t alone in that conclusion—for when I reached out to agent extraondinaire Barry Goldblatt about whether he wanted to join me, he said Morcilla was on his radar as well.

Which is how I ended up there Friday night at a table with, as they say, more stars than there are in Heaven, including Christopher Barzak, Bo Bolander, Joe and Gay Haldeman, and Fran Wilde.

We didn’t quite eat the entire menu—but we came close!

Bay View oysters
(with ramp mignonette)

(more…)

There was no Instagram 10 years ago when we gathered in New York City for the 2007 Nebula Awards weekend—but if it had existed, the festivities might have looked something like this.

Hanging out with John Kessel

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A few days ago, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America announced that the nominations period for the Nebula Awards had begun, and since all my 2016 short stories have now been published—and the recommendations period for the Bram Stoker Awards from the Horror Writers Association is ongoing as well—it’s time to gather info about my publications in one place so eligible voting members of those two organizations can take them into consideration.

First up, two science fiction tales—

“101 Things to Do Before You’re Downloaded”

This 5,850-word far future science fiction story appears in the anthology You, Human, edited by Michael Bailey for Dark Regions Press. With the Earth about to end for our descendants, there are still a few more things that need to get done before it’s all over …

[UPDATED November 27 to add video from Chessiecon, so you may now see and hear me read all four stories I published in 2016. Enjoy!]

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Since all the cool kids seem to be doing this, I figured—why not me? So here are details on the two stories of mine published in 2015, so you can, if you’re a voting member of certain organizations, nominate them if so moved … but only after you’ve read them and judged them worthy, of course.

First up—

Back in March, my 13,000-word zombie story “Becoming Invisible, Becoming Seen” was published in Dark Discoveries #31.

It’s a dark but (hopefully) uplifting horror story of love and obsession, and if you’re a voting member of a group for which that sort of thing seems a good fit, drop me a line, and I’ll be glad to send along a PDF. (more…)

During this year’s Nebula Awards weekend in Chicago, I allowed a (how shall I put it?) indiscreet photo of myself to be taken, and have been waiting since early June for it to appear online. Now that is has, some background seems to be in order.

It all began when Steven Silver approached attendees and asked them to pose with a towel to promote WindyCon 42. Why a towel? Those of you familiar with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy already know the importance of towels to science fiction. (The rest of you should head over here.)

So I held up the towel, smiled, let what was probably quite a mundane photo be taken, and figured that was that.

Until later on during the weekend when I saw Mary Robinette Kowal posing like this …

Well, not exactly like that, as I was behind Mary, and so privy to the truth of the illusion she was presenting to the camera. (Yes, illusion. Sorry to spoil your fantasies, folks!) (more…)