I’ll be attending three conventions over the next two months—Escape Velocity, Readercon, and Worldcon—but before those roll around, I have a couple of things to share with you about the two most recent conventions in the rear view mirror.

First—I already shared pics of the remarkable suit I wore when the Horror Writers Association handed out its Bram Stoker Awards in Las Vegas last month. But would’t you like to see that suit in action?

Here I am with Weston Ochse, handing out the award for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel … and immediately becoming a punchline for one of Jeff Strand’s jokes. Wait for it!

In another video recorded last month, I was captured wearing clothes of a decidedly darker hue. Check me out as I read the opening to my story in the latest issue of PostScripts, “The Man Without the Blue Balloon and the Woman Who Had Smiles Only for Him.”

And if you happen to be at Readercon next month, you might hear me read the entire thing!

Back in February, I revealed the title of a story of mine which was to appear in the next issue of Postscripts. It’s my second-longest title ever, falling one word short of my longest—”How Amraphel, the Assistant to Dream, Became a Thief, Lost His Job, and Found His Way.”

Well, the issue containing “The Man Without the Blue Balloon and the Woman Who Had Smiles Only for Him” is now available from PS Publishing, and here’s the cover, which eerily captures the volume’s subtitle, “The Dragons of the Night.”

For the full Table of Contents, check out my earlier post, or take a look at this full cover spread, which includes the authors and story titles on the inside front cover flap.

The marks my fifth short story publication in Postscripts. Pete Crowther and Nick Gevers have been good to me. I hope that when you read “The Man Without the Blue Balloon and the Woman Who Had Smiles Only for Him,” you’ll feel that confidence has been justified.

I received the latest PS Publishing Weekly Newsletter this morning, and in it, the full Table of Contents for Postscripts #36/37—which has been given the subtitle “The Dragons of the Night”—has been revealed.

Which means I now feel free to share the title of my story therein—one of my longest titles ever—as well as the names of the other writers and the titles of the other stories which will be surrounding mine.

And here they are!

Darkness, and Darkness by Robert Freeman Wexler
S.K. by James Cooper
A Reverie of Time by Allen Ashley
The Wedding Photographer by Robert Guffey
Machinists by Andrew Jury
The Second Runner by John Grant
Surfacing by Lisa L. Hannett
In Passing by Robert Reed
The Dragons of the Night by Darrell Schweitzer
Last Post by Robert Edric
Texas by James Cooper
Untanglement: The Leaving of the Quantum Cats by John Gribbin
Karen Coxswain, or Death as She is Truly Lived by Paul Di Filippo
Rewrites by Keith Brooke
Everything Finishes by John Grant
The Day My Heart Stood Still by Andrew Hook
Madam, I’m Adam by Gary Fry
In the Macabre Theatre of Nightshade Place by Cate Gardner
Happy Sands by Stephen Bacon
The Man Without the Blue Balloon and the Woman Who Had Smiles Only for Him by Scott Edelman
Blesséd by Bruce Golden
The Hutchison Boy by Darrell Schweitzer
Abundances Above by Brian Aldiss
The Beachcomber by Lavie Tidhar

What wonderful company I’m keeping!

Since it’s not self-evident from my title, “The Man Without the Blue Balloon and the Woman Who Had Smiles Only for Him” is a post-apocalyptic tale set an unspecified number of years in the future. Should you read it, I hope you enjoy it.

While I don’t yet see a link so you can order a copy of Postscripts #36/37, you can reach the full PS Publishing site here, where I’m sure purchasing information will be listed once it’s available.

If what I’ve been told by various editors and publishers comes to pass, I may have more stories published in 2016 than any single previous year. Fingers crossed!

Since all the cool kids seem to be doing self-promotion this week, I might as well do it, too. So here are my awards-eligible stories that saw print in 2013. It was a light year for Scott Edelman fiction, with only two stories coming out.

“The Trembling Living Wire” appeared in Psycho-Mania! (note that the exclamation point is part of the anthology’s title), and is a contemporary horror story inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Israfel.” It’s approximately 8,500 words long.

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A new short story of mine is just out, the second this month. You can find “Things That Never Happened” in the new issue of Postscripts. It’s the fourth story of mine to be published in that hybrid magazine/anthology.

When the editors asked for a note to introduce the story, here’s what I had to say:

“We’d all like to be forgiven, and we all wish we had the capacity to forgive, but what if true forgiveness was an impossibility? Could we still find a way to grant or receive it anyway? I set up a situation to examine that theme, and came up with a scenario which many of us might someday find ourselves facing, mixed with aspects I hope none will ever have to face anywhere but in the pages of a story.”

If the thought of reading new fiction by me isn’t enough to get you to pick up the new Postscripts, then check out the full table of contents: (more…)

My short story “Things That Never Happened” will soon appear in Postscripts #30/31 from PS Publishing. The issue, which carries not just a number, but also the title Memoryville Blues, will be out once the signature sheets pass through the hands of all the contributors and make their way back to the publisher.

I’m not sure how long that whole process will take, but while we wait, check out the cover below (which might not be the final design).

Here’s the complete Table of Contents:

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My short story “The World Breaks” has just been accepted by Pete Crowther and Nick Gevers for Postscripts, which marks my third sale to that magazine. (Though according to this recent announcement from PS Publishing, Postscripts will be turning from a magazine into a quarterly anthology in the spring of 2009, at the same time increasing its word count from the 55-60,000 words range to around 70-80,000 words.)

The Postscripts gang was, as usual, amazing in its response time. I submitted it to Pete yesterday at 1:20 p.m., and today, in an e-mail sent at 2:41 a.m., only 13 hours later, he accepted it with a note saying that I’ll have contracts and a check shortly.

“The World Breaks” is my third sale to Postscripts. Add in my sales to the anthologies Moon Shots, Mars Probes, and Forbidden Planets, and Pete has been my most supportive editor ever.

Thanks for all the love, Pete!

In what as far as I know is its first review, Aliette de Bodard tackles Postscripts #15 over at The Fix and has this to say about my story:

In “A Very Private Tour of a Very Public Museum” by Scott Edelman, the robot narrator was once the curator-in-training of a museum but was promoted to curator when the Visitor, an alien robot, arrived and decreed that robots should not be the subject of art. While a clever story, I remain not quite convinced by the ending, which felt too easy to me.

Pete Crowther has just released the final cover to Postscripts #15, which will debut next month at the Denver Worldcon. The cover illustration is by EC great Al Feldstein.

I appear on the cover under my famous pseudonym “many others,” a pen name which is being shared this issue by the likes of Brian Aldiss, Terry Bisson, Paul Di Filippo, Jay Lake , Robert Reed, Mike Resnick, Steve Utley, and, well, many other writers.

What a killer cover!

Publisher extraordinaire Pete Crowther has just announced the complete contents of Postscripts #15, which will debut in two months at the Denver Worldcon.

Contributors to the double-sized, all science-fiction issue will include such heavyweights as Arthur C. Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Ray Bradbury, and Michael Moorcock, multiple stories from featured author Paul McAuley, plus tales from Terry Bisson, Jack Dann, Brian Stableford, Robert Reed, Ian McDonald, and many others—including me, with a story titled “A Very Private Tour Of A Very Public Museum.” (I’ve already shared a word cloud for that story here.) This will be my second short story to appear in Postscripts magazine.

The cover will be by classic EC Comics writer, artist, and editor Al Feldstein.

For a complete list of stories and writers for this special issue, click on the link above.