Beyond words

Beautiful cover by Erik Mohr. Coming May 2014 from CZP!

#SFWApro

#SFWApro

Ottawa, Ad Astra, Aurora

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin.

And so ends a month of pretending to be a real writer! First was my reading at the Toronto ChiSeries where I was proud to be part of a lineup including Peter Watts, Kari Maaren and Kate Story. I had a good time and for once I was able to stay late and hang out with people. Then came Ad Astra which started, for me, with a panel on The Walking Dead that led, somehow, to jokes about Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey and Venn Diagrams. (If there's a bad Venn Diagram joke, I haven't heard it.) Later the same night was my reading with Matt Moore. The room was nearly full and I got to read "Beyond the Fields You Know," a story from my upcoming collection which only one person in the room had seen before; Matt read his great story "Delta Pi".

About five seconds before I give up on my Kobo

The next morning I had panels on two different flavours of alternate history and then went to do my turn at the Bundoran table. This is the first time we've had a table at Ad Astra so it was as much about building awareness as selling books; fortunately we did sell more than a few books, and it was gratifying to have people come looking for my book after they'd seen me on panels. Saturday night was the launch of "The Salt and Iron Dialogues" as well as the e-book of "Blood and Water" so I got to read alongside Kate Heartfield, Derek Kunsken, Ryan McFadden and oh, yeah, Julie Czerneda!

Then with just a day to recover I got to help launch ChiSeries Ottawa. Matt Moore was once again to blame, though this time I wasn't reading with him but with Violette Malan and Charles de Lint. We couldn't have asked for a better turnout and the audience was great. (Thanks to Jonathan Crowe for taking the pictures you see here.)

Last up: There are three days left before Aurora nominations close. I haven't done any particular promotion of the two stories I have that are eligible, but on the off chance that you plan to nominate and haven't yet done so I'll just remind you about "The Last Islander" (Asimov's, September 2012) and "The Afflicted" (Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August 2012).

Now back to reality!

You heard it here second

News! News! So much news I've been too busy actually doing stuff to talk about it. But here are a couple of cool things coming up in the next few months:

On March 13, I'll be reading at the Chiaroscuro Reading and Workshop series along with Peter Watts, Kate Story and Kari Maaren on the ukulele. As with all the readings in the series it'll begin at 8 PM at the Augusta House at 152 Augusta Ave., Toronto. I'm not sure what I'll be reading yet, but I'm leaning towards "Heroic Measures" since it's a good length and is going to be in Prime's Superheroes anthology coming out next month.

In April, Bundoran Press is going to be launching The Salt and Iron Dialogues, a novella-length prequel to Fall From Earth, as an e-book at Ad Astra in Toronto. I'll write a bit more about it closer to the event but for now I'll just say that this is a story that's been percolating for a long time -- since I started the first draft of Fall From Earth, in fact -- and I think works both as a further insight to the world and characters of that book and as a standalone work.

Catching up

After some weeks of not much news there's been a whole lot in just that last few days. First of all, Kazka Press has released At Year's End, a collection of holiday-themed flash fiction that includes my story "A Visit, A Gift." It's e-book only for the time being, but that means it's the perfect stocking stuffer if you haven't finished your Christmas shopping yet -- instant delivery! You can buy it online at a bunch of places.

Second, my story "Heroic Measures" is going to be included in Rich Horton's collection Superheroes from Prime. The full TOC hasn't been released yet but it's got stories by Peter S. Beagle and Kelly Link, so you know it'll be good.

Finally, Bundoran Press, publishers of my novel Fall From Earth, is changing hands, having been sold to Hayden Trenholm, author of the acclaimed Steele Chronicles series. I'm sorry to hear that Bundoran's founder/publisher/editor Virginia O'Dine is leaving: aside from having the obvious good taste to buy my book, she's been a terrific editor, advocate and promoter for my work and that of many other Canadian writers. It's in good hands with Hayden, though, plus we'll now have an SF publisher based right here in Ottawa.

Aaaaand we're back

Had a great time at SFContario -- many fun panels and other interactions. I did a reading Friday night of "Heroic Measures," which you can listen to under the "Audio" heading in the right margin.