"The Zombie of His Early Days" to Flash Fiction Online

Jake Freivald at Flash Fic­tion Online has picked up my story “The Zom­bie of His Early Days” for pub­li­ca­tion in April. I'm very excited about this as I love the mag­a­zine. Fur­ther­more, this marks my third pro sale under SFWA rules. That means I’ll be able to join that orga­ni­za­tion as an Active mem­ber, some­thing I first dreamed about at the age of 12 or so.

The story was writ­ten for a Flash Chal­lenge at Liberty Hall in August 09. Thanks to every­one who read and cri­tiqued it. Here's the briefest of snippets:

Every morning Bobby visits Chuck. He goes down to the basement and rattles Chuck's cage with his cane. Chuck only snarls and spits, and grinds the rotten stubs of his teeth--gnish, gnash, gnish, gnash. He's a real codger, Chuck is. Should have seen him back in the day, though. World ain't got zombies like Chuck anymore.

Now back to working on my novel.

2009 & 2010

I've been battling a reluctance to make an end-of-the-year post for a few days. Still, 2009 was such a pivotal year for me in so many ways that it seems fitting to pause and reflect. A few highlights from the past 365 days:

- I changed jobs and moved from Stamford, CT to New York, NY. I won't dwell on the respective qualities of the two as hometowns, but let's just say, my life is better now. By a lot. As in, I come home from work at night and there are alternatives to a) writing or b) firing up the big old TV (which I've since sold - yes, I'm TV-free now!)

- I won Writers of the Future, and then made my second pro sale to Beneath Ceaseless Skies. As a result of WotF, my productivity has skyrocketed, as has the pace of my learning. I finally feel like I'm starting to get it -- like I have the basic tools to craft a story now, and can start focusing on generating actual original content. Attending Dave Farland's excellent novel writing workshop in Dallas helped with this too.

- I started exploring the American SF/F scene. In my teens I was very active in European fandom, but I'd only gone to one American con before 2009; almost everybody I knew in the field I know only online. Once I moved to NY, I started attending the KGB and NYRSF readings and was thrilled to meet so many folks whose work I'd followed and admired on the interwebs and in print -- as well as fellow travelers on the road to fame, glory and publication. I was also able to make it out to Lunacon, Readercon, Worldcon and Orycon, each a very enjoyable experience in its own way.

- I learned to play softball under the tutelage of the illustrious John Norwood. Yea.

- I got into improv comedy, taking classes together with a fabulous group of folks at the Upright Citizens Brigade. It's been a lot of fun. Not only that, I can actually feel it changing the way I interact socially (for the better, one hopes). But most importantly, and this is the last point,

- I met many, many, many wonderful people this year, whom I hope to know for a long time to come. Fellow travelers in the SF/F world, up-and-coming comedians, new colleagues, fellow New Yorkers, Liberty Hall & Codex comrades, seatmates on plane rides -- I'm glad to know you all. And all you old friends whom I was lucky enough to see in 2009 -- let's get together again in 2010. (And if we didn't see each other, let's try harder this year!)

Speaking of 2010, I won't be making any public resolutions, but here are a few anticipatory high points:

- I'm very excited about my brainpunk novel. I've bounced the SFnal ideas off a few folks I trust and the response has been encouraging; now I face the task of fleshing my world out with Characters and Story. Happily, I already have a detailed outline, so, again - excited! Setting a deadline for myself to finish it by the time I leave for the-

- WoTF workshop this summer. Really, really hyped to have this learning opportunity - and to meet those fellow winners whom I haven't yet.

- I'm back on the mat doing aikido, and it feels good. While I can only commit so much time, I'm making an effort to be consistent about the time that I do commit.

- I'll be taking more classes at UCB. Yeah!

It's been a good year. Here's to a better one.

"To Be Alone Again" up at Dunesteef Audio Fiction

An early story of mine, "To Be Alone Again", is now up at The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine. Thanks to the Dunesteef crew for a great job recording. (Also, they compared me to Homer Simpson. . .very perceptive.)

This story was my first foray into the world of my WOTF-winning story, as well as my novel-in-progress. The world-building was still pretty light at this stage, but some of the main elements were already in play. Here's a snippet:

Paul Daverey awoke with the blood of his boss on his hands.

In truth, to say that he awoke was not entirely accurate. Rather, his conjunction ended, and he found himself alone in his own body again. But the fact remained that Paul had been gone and now Paul was back, the corpse of Bill Finners lying at his feet.

The end of a conjunction always startled and often saddened. It hurt to give up an existence of shared experience and rich memory. But this time was different. He'd been had.

Head on over and enjoy!

Book roundup: Doctorow, Pratchett, Sanderson

My reading tends to swing from short fiction to long and back; recently I've been reading novels almost exclusively. Below are some thoughts on a few - no plot recaps, just my reactions.


Cory Doctorow's "Makers" (serialized here; for sale here): A fresh, inventive and poignant look at a DIY future. 3D printers, hardware modding, locked down vs. open hard- & software -- familiar debates extrapolated to new and interesting places. Also, Doctorow revisits the world of Disney (previously featured, in a very different incarnation, in Down and Under in the Magic Kingdom). It's a smooth, engaging and emotionally powerful read. There's a fresh idea on every page, and they're all presented via a story about people I could care for. The characterization did strike me as false in a few places, but that's my only complaint. There's so much sheer truth in this book, anyone serious about SF -- or interested in, well, the future -- should read it. A choice quote:

“[...] Turn the place around?” He snorted. “It’s like turning around a battleship by tapping it on the nose with a toothpick.”

“I hate working with assholes.”

“They’re not assholes, that’s the thing, Perry. They’re some really smart people. They’re nice. We have them over for dinner. They’re fun to eat lunch with. The thing is, every single one of them feels the same way I do. They all have cool shit they want to do, but they can’t do it.”

“Why?”

“It’s like an emergent property. Once you get a lot of people under one roof, the emergent property seems to be crap. No matter how great the people are, no matter how wonderful their individual ideas are, the net effect is shit.”

So true! Get it, read it.


Terry Pratchett's "Unseen Academicals": A worthy continuation of the Discworld saga, much stronger than the previous installment, "Making Money". One of Pratchett's greatest strengths is his mix of outrageous hilarity with serious moments that can be bittersweet and true. This book really delivers in that way.


Also by Pratchett, "Nation", a young adult piece _not_ set in the Discworld universe. It's an intelligent alternate history tale set on an exotic island in the 1870s. Imaginative, engaging and, again, bittersweet. Pratchett's skeptic beliefs come across loud and clear (see here for a recent summary of his views on religion), but not in a terribly didactic way. His narrative style has some of the same humor as in the Discworld series, but overall there are fewer outright jokes here - the humor is more situation- and character-driven. Very enjoyable.



Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson's "The Gathering Storm", Book 12 in the Wheel of Time series. For all its flaws, the WoT series has always had a dear place in my heart. After Robert Jordan's passing, I, like many fans, was afraid no writer would be up to the task of finishing his work. Perhaps we needn't have worried. With TGS, Brandon Sanderson has pulled off a monumental task -- a strong continuation of the series that maintains not only a familiar voice but also integrity of character and world. The plot moves along handily, plot arcs are satisfactorily -- and very, very satisfyingly -- resolved, and the story lives on. Yes, there were a few moments where the characterization seemed a bit off, a few lines of dialogue here and there that didn't seem to ring true to the world, but for the most part I could have thought Robert Jordan wrote this. (It did also help that I listened to the audiobook version, which was read by the same readers -- Michael Kramer and Kate Reading -- as the previous 11 volumes. They did a fantastic job as always).

I've read a few other books recently, but this is all I have time for now. I'm currently in the midst of enjoying Ian McDonald's "Brasyl", which I may or may not end up writing about -- pick it up if you haven't yet; it's a blast.

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In other news, I'm hard at work outlining my brainpunk novel. It's set in a much, much evolved version of the world featured in the story I won Writers of the Future with. It will feature hive minds, Escherian landscapes, organic quantum computers and other delights, all against the backdrop of a post-oil, "travel-free" world. I'm on schedule to start writing Jan 1. I may or may not mention it again before it's done, but I won't be doing wordcount updates.