Two MRK Novellas and Hugo Considerations

Mary Robinette Kowal has two novellas I would like to bring some attention to, especially since we're in the Hugo nominating period.

The first is "Kiss Me Twice", originally published in the June 2011 issue of Asimov's and now available on her website.  MRK has a great voice for the detective story and the use of the AI personality actually works here rather than seem an unnecessary anachronism as it might in other stories.  I like it.

The second is "Water to Wine".  I love this story.  It's not the first time Kowal has built a story around wine, and I don't drink wine or understand anything about it, but she does a fantastic job in telling this story that isn't really about wine.  This is a lock for my Hugo ballot.  There's just a big question about its eligibility.

See, "Water to Wine" was originally published in the audio anthology METAtropolis: Cascadia in November of 2010.  In the author's note for the print edition of the story on Subterranean, Kowal writes

Because I wrote the story specifically for audio, I had given “stage directions” for how I wanted lines to be read by the actress, Kate Mulgrew. For the Subterranean version, I went back through the story and wrote additional material to cover the emotional content that a narrator’s voice can deliver. The story is the same, but it is adapted for a different medium.

I couldn't find anything concrete regarding the eligibility status of the story (since fiction tends to go from print to audio, not the other way around), I reached out to Kevin Standlee, the former Hugo Administrator who can often be counted on to provide sage advice and clarification regarding details of the Hugo Awards. 

Unfortunately, I seem to have run into a grey area that won't / can't be answered unless it becomes an issue.

Well, I don't have a definite answer to this. It might be eligible, if the Administrator were to rule that the revisions were sufficient to make it a new work. Unfortunately, the Administrators are loathe to make rulings without a specific case before them. That means that they probably won't tell you in advance, and they won't rule at all unless the work receives enough nominations to appear on the short list.

As such, I'm just going to put the novella on my ballot, recommend "Water to Wine" to you for the same.  After all, it doesn't take many votes to get on the ballot.  I'd love to see a ruling on this (and that the ruling state that Kowal's story is eligible).  If it isn't, well,  you just got to read an awesome story.

Now, if only METAtropolis: Cascadia was available in a print edition like the original Metatropolis ended up being.  I'd totally buy that. 

Dear Subterranean Press: Make it happen.

Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal

Shades of Milk and Honey
Mary Robinette Kowal
Tor: 2010

The elevator pitch for Shades of Milk and Honey is “Jane Austen with magic”, and had this not been the debut novel from Mary Robinette Kowal, the elevator pitch would have induced me to run the other way. Screaming. Not a fan of Jane Austen, though Sense and Sensibility wasn’t bad. But, since this is the debut novel from Campbell Award winning writer Mary Robinette Kowal and because I am such a fan of her short fiction and have been for a number of years, I eagerly (if nervously) opened the book.

The elevator pitch is entirely truthful. Shades of Milk and Honey is a novel of society and manners and appears to be set in late eighteenth century England. The heroine of the novel is Jane Ellsworth, a “plain” woman who has resigned herself to a life of spinsterhood (Jane is twenty eight) and hopes for little more than to be able to care for her younger and much more beautiful sister’s children when Melody finds a suitable match. What makes Jane remarkable, however, is her sharp intelligence and her skill at “glamour”. Glamour is the only supernatural element to Shades of Milk and Honey and it is a magic used in society as an art to entertain at parties and is something that is taught to the children of privilege.

The conflict in Shades of Milk and Honey is that of emotion, family, honor, and relationships, much as can be found in the novels of Jane Austen and other writers of that ilk. Mary Robinette Kowal is able to overcome my natural aversion to the form by creating a compelling heroine on whom to hang the narrative. Jane Ellsworth is a character readers will feel they know already. She is a woman of integrity and competence and while she understands propriety and is a woman of her day, she is no shrinking violet. When a dishonorable man attempts to take advantage of Melody’s naivety and only Jane knows something is amiss, it is up to Jane to protect her sister’s honor.

No matter whether one comes into Shades of Milk and Honey as an unabashed fan of Jane Austen or, like me, avoids the stuff like the plague, Mary Robinette Kowal has delivered a debut novel to satisfy any and everyone. Shades of Milk and Honey is silky smooth and beautifully written. Kowal uses, on occasional, the style, spelling, and formality of Austen-era fiction, but does so in a modern manner to ease the reader through the novel. It works and works to the point that not only can I recommend Shades of Milk and Honey to readers who would never otherwise pick up this book, but I can also state that after finishing Shades of Milk and Honey readers will be ready for Glamour in Glass now and won’t want to wait for next year.


Reading copy provided courtesy of Tor.

Mary Robinette Kowal issue over at Apex Online

(via Mary Robinette Kowal)


The latest issue of Apex Online is a Mary Robinette Kowal issue. Y’all know how I feel about Mary’s work, right?

There are two new stories and two stories from the vault.

The New
"The Bride Replete"
"Beyond the Garden Close"

The Less New
"Scenting the Dark"
"Horizontal Rain"

“Horizontal Rain” is one of the first of Mary’s stories I read and I’m a big fan of that one. Dude, it has trolls and it's set in Iceland. What more do you need?

So – here’s your chance to catch two stories you may have missed the first time and also to read two brand spankin’ new stories from Campbell Award winning author Mary Robinette Kowal.

Go now.

Scenting the Dark and Other Stories, by Mary Robinette Kowal

Scenting the Dark and Other Stories
Mary Robinette Kowal
Subterranean Press: 2009

Scenting the Dark and Other Stories is the slim debut collection from Campbell Award winning writer Mary Robinette Kowal. Astute readers of this blog will realize that I’ve been a fan of Kowal’s work for several years now, but the surprise here is that I had only previously read three of the eight stories collected here. So, despite being familiar with the work of Mary Kowal, Scenting the Dark and Other Stories offers surprises and discovery.

This collection opens with “Portrait of Ari”, a story which can be viewed as a college conversation, but with a twist. It’s a quick and simple story, but certainly an enjoyable one. The second story, however, is the one which really sets the standard for Scenting the Dark. Kowal writes in the Postnote to “Death Comes But Twice”, “I also admit that I wanted to see if I could write an epistolary tale where you know the narrator dies but still worry about him.” She could and she did, and it is a fascinating story. There is a Victorian feel to this story and it is a wonderful piece of fiction.

The title story is a science fiction horror tale where the protagonist is blind and the sense of smell is all-important. What “Scenting the Dark” demonstrates so well is how scent can impact a story, that while readers frequently don’t think about the smells of a world or a story, those scents really enrich the story. Here they are essential, but in general smell can very much enhance a story. Kowal uses scent to great effect in this fantastic and heartbreaking story.

Mary Robinette Kowal closes the collection with “Jaiden’s Weaver”. This is a story born of the question “Could a habitable planet have rings, too?” and then wondering how that would impact life and culture on that planet. The thing is that despite how central the world is to the story, “Jaiden’s Weaver” is a story of a girl and her desire for a “teddy bear spider”, a pet nothing like what we would imagine. “Jaiden’s Weaver” is the newest story in this collection and it is absolutely wonderful, but that can be said about so many of Kowal’s stories.

There are only eight stories in this 80 page collection from Mary Robinette Kowal, but there is not a wasted word here. The stories of Scenting the Dark and Other Stories should delight readers as much as they delighted me. With two novels and more short fiction pending, you’ll want to pay attention to Mary Robinette Kowal.

"First Flight", by Mary Robinette Kowal

Why, oh, why did I wait so long to read “First Flight”? It is not as if I needed to be convinced that Mary Robinette Kowal is a fabulous short story writer. “First Flight” is fantastic, charming, whimsical (sort of), and wonderful. This is a story which features time travel, only the farthest back anyone can be sent is to the day of their birth. Eleanor Louise Jackson is, according to the story, well over 100 years old and was born on the day of the Wright Brothers first flight. Not the second and more famous one, but the one that really proved it was possible.

Eleanor is sent back to covertly get footage for the future of that first, truly historic flight. The story has Louise interacting with the Wrights, as well as a younger boy from the era and how she talks and what she reveals is quite interesting. Even more fascinating is her conversations with the scientists from her time.

“Young lady,” Louise snapped at Dr. Connelly like one of her own children, “I’ve lived through two World Wars, the Great Depression, the Collapse. I lived through race riots, saw us put men on the moon, the Spanish Flu, AIDS, the Titanic, Suffrage and the Internet. I’ve raised five children and buried two, got twenty-three grandchildren, eleven great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren with more on the way. And you have the nerve to say I don’t understand history?”

In the end, though, what makes “First Flight” such a charming delight is the ease of Kowal’s prose and the storytelling. This is just a delightful story and it is one readers will wish was longer. While it is questionable if there could be any more Jackson stories, Kowal’s handling of time travel and the sorts of stories that would inevitably come from this. It’s reminiscent of Kage Baker’s Company stories, only better. And no cyborgs. But that’s okay.

Hugo Award Nominee: "Evil Robot Monkey"

“Evil Robot Monkey”
Mary Robinette Kowal
Nominated for the Hugo Award: Short Story


“Evil Robot Monkey” is a heartbreaking and surprising story. The title might suggest a little robot monkey being destructive and nasty, but Mary Kowal tells a different and unexpected story. The titular monkey is introduced working a potter’s wheel, making a vase. Then…

Someone banged on the window of his pen. Sly jumped and then screamed as the vase collapsed under its own weight. He spun and hurled it at the picture window like feces. The clay spattered against the Plexiglas, sliding down the window.

Though the monkey sometimes gives into his more animal urges and rages, Sly can think and express emotion like a human. Sly can speak.

Sly scowled and yanked his hands free. “I’m not like the other chimps.” He pointed to the implant in his head. “Maybe Delilah should have one of these. Seems like she needs help thinking.”

Oh, this is a beautiful and heartbreaking story. In fewer than 1000 words Mary Robinette Kowal just killed me. The opening paragraphs paints a picture of a monkey in a pen trying to do nothing more than make pottery but because Sly is a monkey, people think it is okay to hit the glass walls of his pen. The pottery brings the monkey peace. The other aspect of the story that wrecks me is the conversation between Sly and Vern, the handler, about what happened and why and what the consequences are.

Damn, “Evil Robot Monkey” is good. It’s so short, but the story is exactly as long as it needs to be. The story lingers.

Evil Robot Monkey available

Rather than be a pest and e-mail Mary asking when, exactly, her Hugo nominated story would be available to read for free, I decided to wait like a good boy.

Per this post at Mary Robinette Kowal's blog, "Evil Robot Monkey" is freely available to read.

Except, because Mary is all creative and stuff, we've got three options.

Read some plain text on the blog post itself.

Read a PDF chapbook beautifully designed by Mary herself.

Or, listen to Mary read the story (link on her blog).

Awesomely awesome. I'm going to read it tonight. And then probably listen to it.

Scenting the Dark now available for pre-order

Now, I don't think I engage in a whole lot of blatant pimpery and promotion 'round here, though I certainly might be wrong about this - but there are certain writers for whom I will.

Mary Robinette Kowal's first collection of stories, Scenting the Dark and Other Stories, is now available for preorder at Subterranean Press.

The announcement from SubPress (with art)

Read Mary's annoucement here.

Only 500 copies. Perhaps you'd like to pre-order. Hmm?

Mary Robinette Kowal sells Shades of Milk and Honey

Mary Robinette Kowal, she of the Campbell Tiara, has just recently sold her first novel Shades of Milk and Honey to Tor.

The elevator pitch for Shades of Milk and Honey is "Jane Austen with magic".

If you don't know that I very much like Mary's work, well, you've been reading someone else's blog.

What makes this even sweeter...it's a two book deal. Mary's editor will be the same one who works with Cherie Priest's novels (which shows just how good the editor's taste is).

And the icing - as I previously mentioned, Mary has her first story collection, a chapbook, coming out from Subterranean Press later this year.

Its, uh, been a really good year for Mary Robinette Kowal.

Congrats, Mary, can't wait to read it!

And to readers of this blog - you haven't heard the last of this here.

a good week for MRK

I'll say this has been a pretty good week for Mary Robinette Kowal.

Her story "Waiting for Rain" is up at Subterranean Online (one of my favorite markets). In a recent post, she mentioned her short fiction collection forthcoming from Subterranean Press (I mentioned this a while back), and keeping with the Subterranean theme, there is also an interview with Mary over there. I read the story a few months ago and it's a good one.

Today Mary announced her first sale to Asimov's!

I'm very happy for her. Not to get ahead of myself (or ahead of Mary), but it is worth noting that despite several years of very good stories from Elizabeth Bear, she didn't pick up her first Hugo nomination (or win) until "Tideline" was published in Asimov's. I'm just saying. First the Campbell, next the world!

sometimes it pays to listen

On the heels of her Campbell win, Mary Robinette Kowal was interviewed by Liz Gorinsky of Tor.com. The interview is available as an audio file, so take a listen and hear Mary talk about her experience at Worldcon, the Campbell, the Campbell dress, and her fiction.

After talking about a forthcoming story in Apex Digest ("Scenting the Dark", I believe, it's a good story), Mary quietly mentioned something that she did not elaborate at all on and that I just had to get confirmation on before linking the interview.

Just before she won the Campbell, Mary Kowal sold a short story collection to Subterranean Press!!!! Go Mary!

According to Mary, the collection will bring together some of less available previously published fiction. I think it's awesome. Subterranean puts out great work in beautifully bound books, and perhaps this will help expand Mary's audience a bit.

Plus, there are actually a few stories of hers which I don't believe I've read yet and I'm guessing / hoping this collection will include those earliest stories as well as some newer stuff.

Mary also has an original story coming up in Subterranean Online (the exact issue is unknown for the moment), so this has been a very good year. It'll be wonderful to actually hold a book of Mary's in my hand. Her fiction is good enough and she definitely deserves it.


There's also some other unannounced goodness to look forward to in the future.


(and yes, I did get confirmation that the news was fit for public consumption and that it wasn't just a slip of the tongue)

"Cerbo en Vitra ujo", by Mary Robinette Kowal

In honor of Mary Robinette Kowal's Campbell win, I wanted to write a little bit about one of her stories I've meant to read for the last year or so but for some reason never got around to: "Cerbo en Vitra ujo".

The story was originally published in the Summer 2006 issue of Apex Digest.

Sometimes when you read a story you should really take note of what the cover of the magazine says. See, right above the big word "Apex" are four smaller words: "Science Fiction and Horror". Somehow having those four words on the cover of Apex Digest simply did not register and I was not prepared for "Cerbo en Vitra ujo". The story is science fiction and it is horror.

Grete is about to lose her boyfriend / brother / lover. The story is not clear as to what exactly Kaj is to Grete. Kaj is an illegitimate child and in this science fiction setting, illigits have to struggle to earn scholarships to go to school. Kaj was fortunate enough to win one and Grete will miss Kaj deeply. My initial thought was brother, but I think the story intends boyfriend / lover.
There is mention early on about body harvesting, but that Grete's Station doesn't have truck with that, so we briefly put it out of mind.

Kaj never contacts Grete after leaving for school so Grete attempts to find him without letting her mother know, as Grete's mother does not support Grete's relationship with Kaj. This is where the story turns dark.

"Cerbo en Vitra ujo" turns downright disturbing and nasty and it doesn't get better (better in terms of good things happening, not in terms of quality). Yet, the more disturbing the story gets, the more impressive it is. Kowal does the horror of "Cerbo en Vitra ujo" quite well. Yes, once the body harvesting is introduced we have a good idea where the story is going but it doesn't matter. Kowal is good enough to take the expectation of what Grete will find, deliver it, and have it not matter.

Disturbing story.

Good story.

My reviews of other Kowal stories:
"The Bound Man"
"Horizontal Rain"
"Rampion" (well, just a brief line or two as part of the Prime Codex anthology)
"The Clockwork Chickadee"

To read some of Kowal's stories, go here. Kowal has made quite a few available.

2008 Hugo Award Winners

Thanks Larry for the list (and to David Anthony Durham for the heads up about MRK's Campbell!):

Best Novel:
The Yiddish Policeman's Union, by Michael Chabon

Best Novella:
"All Seated on the Ground", by Connie Willis

Best Novelette:
"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate", by Ted Chiang

Best Short Story:
"Tideline", by Elizabeth Bear

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
Mary Robinette Kowal


Excitement!!! Seriously, I couldn't be happier for Mary Robinette Kowal right now. I love her short fiction and I've had the opportunity to advance read some of her stories and she's just awesome (and rather nice over e-mail, I might add). I want to see pictures of the official Campbell Tiara. I believe both Bear and John Scalzi have previously worn it. :)

Further Excitement! Elizabeth Bear wins a Hugo! Bear's fiction is also awesome, and rather nice in person. That this isn't the story of Bear's I would have chosen for a Hugo does nothing to lessen my happiness that Bear's getting to put "Hugo Winner" next to her name.

Can't say I'm too surprised about Ted Chiang's win. Great story, as one would expect from Chiang.

Some folks don't like Connie Willis, but obviously the Hugo voters do. I thought the story was delightful.

Never finished the Chabon novel, but not surprised about that one. It's been winning everything else, so why not this one, too?

Oh, and John Scalzi beat some chap named Langford for Fan Writer. I read an Ansible column once and didn't see what the big deal was.

Folks I like won, that makes me happy. A couple of stories I liked one, that makes me almost as happy as seeing people I like win.

Text Message Stories

Inspired by the Japanese phenomenon of cellphone novels, Mary Robinette Kowal has started a text message story: "The Case of the White Phoenix Feather".

Hey, the first line already has ninjas in it, so its gotta be good. Plus, MRK is awesome.

Worth a shot? Absolutely!

The first four sentences of the story are available via the above link. To get more of the story, whenever MRK writes it, you'll have to contact her with your cell number and future installments will show up like magic on your cell phone. Just like magic.

The Clockwork Chickadee

Clarkesworld Magazine will publish Mary Robinette Kowal's story "The Clockwork Chickadee" in its June issue. I had the opportunity to read Mary's story in advance of publication, and like I have found with so much of Mary's work, it was really good.

"The Clockwork Chickadee" is, simply, a story of deceit and trickery as a little windup Chickadee plots her revenge on the little windup Sparrow.

Chickadee kept her head down when she could so as not to give him the satisfaction of her notice. It was clear to her that any bird could fly if only they were attached to a string like him. The flight, of which he was so proud, was not even an integral part of his clockwork. A wind-up engine hanging from the chandelier spun him in circles while he merely flapped his wings. Chickadee could do as much. And so she thought until she hatched an idea to show that Sparrow was not so very special.

The story is, in turn, playful and charming, well thought out and deliberate, and Kowal appears to have written her own version of an O Henry story.

It works.

It should come as no surprise that I quite enjoyed "The Clockwork Chickadee" as I am a noted fan of Mary Robinette Kowal's work, but written with a simplicity which likely masks the work that went into crafting the story and making sure that what happens at the end is, in fact, set up at the beginning "The Clockwork Chickadee" is as good as anything she has published before.

Thoughts on Hugo Nominees 2008: John W. Campbell Award

Joe Abercrombie (2nd year of eligibility)
Jon Armstrong (1st year of eligibility)
David Anthony Durham (1st year of eligibility)
David Louis Edelman (2nd year of eligibility)
Mary Robinette Kowal (2nd year of eligibility)
Scott Lynch (2nd year of eligibility)


The SFF award I find most interesting is not specifically from one of the three major awards (Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy), and it has nothing to do with any individual story or novel. The award that is most interested is the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. The award is given at Worldcon with the rest of the Hugos, but it isn’t a Hugo. Not really.

The John W. Campbell Award is given to the best new science fiction or fantasy writer whose first work of science fiction or fantasy was published in a professional publication in the previous two years. (via Writertopia)

Past winners include Naomi Novik, John Scalzi, Elizabeth Bear Cory Doctorow, Ted Chiang, Jo Walton, Nalo Hopkinson, Jay Lake, Lucius Shepard, Orson Scott Card, and others stretching back to 1973 (Jerry Pournelle).


I’ll start with Jon Armstrong. Everything I know about Armstrong is that he wrote a novel titled Grey. It was published by Night Shade Books. It’s supposed to be good. I haven’t read it. I’m sure I’ll get to it, but for the moment Armstrong is pretty well taken out of the conversation for the Campbell. As an added bonus, Grey is available for free download. Thanks, Night Shade!

This brings me to David Louis Edelman. Edelman is the author of the much heralded Infoquake (which, naturally, I have also not read) and the forthcoming Multireal. While I haven’t read Infoquake, I have seen a great deal more buzz for Infoquake than I have for Grey. Obviously buzz does not equal quality, but the Campbell nomination does suggest it. Moreso than Grey, I definitely need to read Infoquake. Infoquake was published by Pyr.

Not having read either Jon Armstrong or David Louis Edelman, it is impossible to guess how likely either would be to go home with a Campbell in hand.

David Anthony Durham is a beneficiary of having written three prior novels but no fantasy until he brought us Acacia last year. Durham was able to hone his craft before we got our first taste. But, given that the Campbell is for new SFF authors, Durham qualifies. Lest I come across as being slightly petty or petulant, let me say that this is not my intent. I thought Acacia was a damn fine novel, one of the better releases of 2007, and Durham more than deserves his place on the Campbell list. I only hope that he will be able to turn Acacia II quickly so he is better able to build a readership. If I see Durham’s name on a new fantasy novel, I’ll be sure to read it.

Joe Abercrombie. What can one say about Joe Abercrombie without being assassinated? Thus far I have only read The Blade Itself and thought it was a very strong fantasy debut. Abercrombie is working with some rather stock characters (barbarian warrior, cripple, naïve lordling, etc), but writes the characters in such a way that they feel fresh. Plus, he is putting these stock characters into much grittier situations than we normally see, and given the character perspectives in the novel I think that Abercrombie is starting to twist these stock characters into forms and shapes we do not normally get. Inquisitor Glotka is no mere shade of Tyrion Lannister.

Then there is Scott Lynch. Mr. Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies. As much as I admired Acacia and enjoyed the hell out of The Blade Itself, I think that the two Lynch novels are good enough and popular enough that Lynch has the best chance of winning the Campbell in his second and final year of eligibility. But this is by no means a sure bet. I’m not one of the Hugo voters, so I can’t put down a name. Without having sales figures in hand, I don’t know who sold how many books, but the sense I have is that Lynch outsold the rest...but Durham may have put up solid numbers himself. So who knows? Scott Lynch is by no means a lock (get it? Locke!? Sorry...), but along with Abercrombie and Durham, I would say he is a solid contender. Because we don’t necessarily know the makeup of the voters for the Campbell, it is difficult to say who will take home the award.

I have not forgotten Mary Robinette Kowal. I just saved her for last. Mrs. Kowal is my sentimental favorite. The other five nominees are all novelists. Mary Robinette Kowal is a short story writer. If you have been reading this blog for the last year or so you will know that I think very highly of Kowal’s fiction. Kowal is probably as dark a dark horse as you can get in this category as the Campbell tends towards novelists (with a couple of notable exceptions), but I think Kowal’s short fiction is every bit as strong as the novelists’ in this category. If she comes out with a short story collection, I’d probably buy it. If she published a novel, I know I would buy it. My biggest hope is that MRK gains a wider readership for her fiction as a result of the Campbell nomination.


I would be tickled if Mary Robinette Kowal was awarded the Campbell, but my expectation is that Lynch or Durham will walk away with it. Abercrombie will likely draw the same readers as Lynch and I think that some of those who would otherwise vote for Joe Abercrombie will cast their votes for Scott Lynch. Durham’s the guy who I can see upsetting the proverbial apple cart. I think he has just enough popularity and notoriety to get through.

The most important thing here, I think, is the nomination itself. It gets people (me) talking about the writers and that provides greater awareness of their work...which can only help.

But how cool would it be if Mary Robinette Kowal won? Seriously.

Patrick Rothfuss NOT eligible for Campbell?

Patrick Rothfuss, author of The Name of the Wind, may not be eligible for the John W Campbell award for Best Writer. (info cribbed from Joe Abercrombie and David Louis Edelman)

This is news because I had expected this year's Campbell Award to be between Patrick Rothfuss and Scott Lynch, with some Joe Abercrombie and perhaps David Louis Edelman thrown in.

From Abercrombie's post:

It would appear that, regrettably, Patrick Rothfuss isn't elligible because of some short fiction published way back when (Yes! Yes! Fist Pump!)

Now, I found an interview where Rothfuss reveals that he hasn't published short fiction before, but his webpage does reveal that he won the Writers of the Future contest in 2002 with a short story that was really an excerpt from the book which would be come The Name of the Wind.

Confused? Me, too.

Here's where it gets easy. Edelman linked this page about the Campbell. Follow over to the eligibility rules here.

To qualify for the award a writer must have published in the last two years in a qualifying market. Publishing includes short fiction (so, should I sell to Strange Horizons I'm eligible) and in 2002, that winning story which constitutes the entirety of Rothfuss's short fiction output? It was published in the Writers of the Future Anthology: Volume 18.

Which means that Rothfuss was eligible for the Campbell in 2003 and 2004. Before anyone else had heard of him or The Name of the Wind.

What does this mean? That Lynch / Rothfuss scrap fight for the award? It ain't happening.

My Lineup (based on name recognition and actually reading some of the work:
Scott Lynch
Joe Abercrombie
David Louis Edelman
Mary Robinette Kowal
Alex Bledsoe

Lynch doesn't need the bump, so I'll give it to Kowal over Bledsoe. Haven't read Abercrombie or Edelman (makes things unfair, huh?)

This Just In: Apex Digest #6

Thanks to Jim over at Shamus Writes I won a copy of Issue #6 of Apex Digest. This issue features stories by Ben Bova, Christopher Rowe, and, the reason I entered the contest in the first place - Mary Robinette Kowal.

I like receiving books and magazines and stuff in the mail. Makes me happy.

Short Fiction Read: July - September 2007

My original plan was to log all short stories I have read, not counting those collected in book form, and earlier this year I listed all the stories I read from January through June. I intended to do another six month stretch and then next year break them out in quarters. But the list is getting unwieldy.

So, here are the stories I’ve read from June through September. I was originally going to link, but linking that many stories would be overly cumbersome. I think what I'm going to do in the future is list them like the novels: Monthly. I can handle monthly.


The best of the bunch are as follows:
A Letter Never Sent - Rachel Swirsky
Dead Man's Holiday - Nicholas Seeley
The Way He Does It - Jeffrey Ford
Questions for a Soldier – John Scalzi
The Bound Man – Mary Robinette Kowal


The Full Listing
73. Galatea - Vylar Kaftan (Heliotrope #2)
74. They Play in the Place of My Dreaming - Gerard Hoarner (Heliotrope #2)
75. Unrequited Love - Gene Wolfe (Subterranean: Summer 2007)
76. A Letter Never Sent - Rachel Swirsky (Konundrum)
77. I'll Gnaw Your Bones, the Manticore Said - Cat Rambo (Clarkesworld: July 2007)
78. Honey Mouth - Samantha Henderson (Heliotrope #1)
79. On the Air - Edward Morris (Heliotrope #1)
80. American Gothic - Michael Colangelo (Heliotrope #1)
81. Brazos - Jerome Steuart (Strange Horizons: July 2, 2007)
82. Transtexting Pose - Daniel Speegle (Clarkesworld: July 2007)
83. Dead Man's Holiday - Nicholas Seeley (Strange Horizons: October 30, 2006)
84. Scenes from a Dystopia - Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean #4)
85. Snowball's Chance - Charles Stross (Subterranean: Summer 2007)
86. The Thief With Two Deaths - Chris Wilrich (Fantasy & Science Fiction: June 2000)
87. Carnival Knowledge - Mike Resnick (Subterranean: Summer 2007)
88. Under the Beansidhe's Pillow - Sarah Monette (Lone Star Stories: Issue 22)
89. The Captain is the Last to Leave - Caroline Lockwood Nelson (Strange Horizons: July 9, 2007)
90. Love. &c. -- From 506 JB - Toiya Kristen Finley (Lone Star Stories: Issue 22)
91. The Way He Does It - Jeffrey Ford (Electric Velocipede #10)
92. Wake Up Call - Leslie Brown (Strange Horizons: July 30, 2007)
93. The Taste of Wheat - Ekaterina Sedia (Clarkesworld: August 2007)
94. The Last Reef - Gareth Lyn Powell (Interzone #202)
95. The Ballad of the Sinister Mr. Mouth - Catherynne Valente (Lone Star Stories: Issue 22)
96. The Girl From Another World - Leah Bobet (Strange Horizons: August 13, 2007)
97. The Perfume Eater - R. J. Astruc (Strange Horizons: July 16, 2007)
98. Artifice and Intelligence - Tim Pratt (Strange Horizons: August 6, 2007)
99. Limits - Donna Glee Williams (Strange Horizons: July 23, 2007)
100. Siege of Cranes - Benjamin Rosenbaum (All Star Stories: Twenty Epics)
101. The Third Brain - Charles Coleman Finley and James Allison (Subterranean #4)
102. A Finite Number of Typewriters - Stuart MacBride (Subterranean #4)
103. Horrible Historians - Gillian Polack (Subterranean #4)
104. Hesperia and Glory - Ann Leckie (Subterranean #4)
105. What a Piece of Work - Jo Walton (Subterranean #4)
106. The Last Science Fiction Writer - Alan M Steele (Subterranean #4)
107. Stone Shoes - C.S.E. Cooney (Subterranean: Summer 2007)
108. The Beacon - Darja Malcolm-Clarke (Clarkesworld: August 2007)
109. Make a Joyful Noise - Charles DeLint (Subterranean: Summer 2007)
110. Shoah Sry - Tobias S. Buckell and Ilsa J. Bick (Subterranean #4)
111. Labyrinth's Heart - Bruce Arthurs (Subterranean #4)
112. The NOMAD Gambit - Dean Cochrane (Subterranean #4)
113. The Mayor Will Make a Brief Statement and Then Take Questions – David
Nickle (Chiaroscuro: Issue 33)
114. The Vine that Ate the South – Bill Kte’pi (Chiaroscuro: Issue 33)
115. The Conviction of Praxis – Eugie Foster (Spaceships and Sixguns #3)
116. In Search of Ellen Siriosa – Ron Hogan (Subterranean #4)
117. Tees and Sympathy – Nick Sagan (Subterranean #4)
118. Last – Chris Roberson (Subterranean #4)
119. Refuge – David Klecha (Subterranean #4)
120. The Infinite Heat Death of the Universe – Elizabeth Bear (Subterranean #4)
121. Questions for a Soldier – John Scalzi (Subterranean Press)
122. Ladders - David Sakmyster (Chiaroscuro: Issue 33)
123. Waiting Period – Sunil Sadanand (Chiaroscuro: Issue 33)
124. Horizontal Rain – Mary Robinette Kowal (Apex Online)
125. The Acquaintance – Kealan Patrick Burke (Subterranean: Fall 2007)
126. Tiger, Tiger – Liz Williams (Electric Velocipede 11)
127. Milk and Apples – Catherynne M. Valente (Electric Velocipede 11)
128. Moon Does Run – Edd Vick (Electric Velocipede 11)
129. The Duel – Tobias Buckell (Electric Velocipede 11)
130. How to Get Rid of Your Monster: A Series of Usenet Postings – Scott William Carter (Electric Velocipede 11)
131. Quitting Dreams – Matthew Cheney and Jeffrey Ford (Electric Velocipede 11)
132. A Punctuated Romance – Mary Turzillo (Electric Velocipede 11)
133. Last Bus – Jennifer Pelland (Electric Velocipede 11)
134. Sometimes I Get Lost – Steve Rasnic Tem (Electric Velocipede 11)
135. Nine Billion and Counting – John B. Rosenman (Electric Velocipede 11)
136. Bar Golem – Sonya Taafe (Electric Velocipede 11)
137. The Geode – Marly Youmans (Electric Velocipede 11)
138. Sweetness and Light – Nicole Kimberling (Electric Velocipede 11)
139. Little Ambushes – Joanne Merriam (Strange Horizons: August 20, 2007)
140. All Kinds of Reasons – Katherine Maclaine (Strange Horizons: September 3, 2007)
141. Practicing My Sad Face – Marc Shultz (Strange Horizons: August 27, 2007)
142. In Stone – Helen Keeble (Strange Horizons: September 10, 2007)
143. A Darker Shade of Green – Robby Sparks (Apex Online: September 2007)
144. House of the Rising Sun – Elizabeth Bear (elizabethbear.com)
145. Little Conversations – Caitlin R. Kiernan (Clarkesworld: September 2007)
146. Follow Me Light – Elizabeth Bear (Scifiction: January 2005)
147. Harvey's Dream – Stephen King (The New Yorker: June 30, 2003)
148. Sounding – Elizabeth Bear (Strange Horizons: September 18, 2006)
149. The Four Hundred Thousand – Livia Llewellyn (Subterranean: Fall 2007)
150. The Cold Blacksmith – Elizabeth Bear (Baen's Universe #1: June 2006)
151. What's Expected of Us – Ted Chiang (Nature: July 6, 2005)
152. One Eyes Jack and the Suicide King – Elizabeth Bear (Lenox Avenue: April 2005)
153. All the Wonder in the World – Lavie Tidhar (Apex Online: September 2007)
154. The Company of Four – Elizabeth Bear (elizabethbear.com)
155. Lost Soul – M P Ericson (Clarkesworld: September 2007)
156. How the Little Rabbi Grew – Eliot Fintushel (Strange Horizons: Sept 17, 2007)
157. The Jerusalem Theatre – Lavie Tidhar (Apex Online: September 2007)
158. The Bound Man – Mary Robinette Kowal (Twenty Epics)

So, January through September I have read 158 short stories, not counting those collected in anthologies and single author collections where I have read the entire anthology.

Not bad.

Next month we'll have better tracking. When I started reading short fiction this year I didn't think I'd read this much.

Far Territories

The news is a couple of days old, but Subterranean Press is launching a trade paperback imprint sometime next year called Far Territories.

The first two titles:
Rite, by Tad Williams (a collection of his short fiction)
New Amsterdam, by Elizabeth Bear


1) Very Good News. Subterranean Press publishes excellent limited edition work and having some of that work available at a cheaper price is a great thing. For me.

2) Obviously Subterranean will only republish the best selling volumes because they wish to continue to make money, but I wonder how much of their catalog they will republish in trade paper. Does this include John Scalzi’s The Sagan Diary, or only longer works and collections? Will there be trade paper only publications and not the limited edition hardcovers?

3) Note on the announcement page that I linked that Rite will only include the fiction from the limited edition. The nonfiction and the screenplays will not be included. Thus preserving the specialness of the limited editions, but potentially frustrating for fans.

This could be a pretty good deal, I think, and the price is good:

Each of the Far Territories titles are just $14.95, with Free Shipping on US Preorders.

Being a big fan of much of what is published by Subterranean and having discovered quite a few writers via Subterranean Press, this sounds like good news to me and there is a good chance I might pick up some of the Far Territories. Possibly New Amsterdam because, well, Elizabeth Bear kicks ass.

And...just as I was getting ready to post this entry (written over lunch break today), I discover via the Bloglines reader that the logo was designed by the multi-talented Mary Robinette Kowal. Kowal says:

See that logo?

I made that.

Pretty cool, that.