-I blog over at Futurismic on belief in science vs. religion
-GUD issue 6 is out, containing my Chinese reincarnation short story “As the Wheel Turns” (special thanks go to Chris Kastensmidt on this one, for never stopping to believe in it). You can read a sample here, and get more information about the current issue here.

And in the wake of my title-spread for my Aztec steampunk “Age of Miracles, Age of Wonders”, here’s the complete TOC for Interzone 230, out in early September, with excerpts and art.
I get to share space with Patrick Samphire and fellow AR author Lavie Tidhar. W00t.

Mark Harding’s awesome music-themed anthology, Music for Another World, is now available (here on the Mutation Press website, or on amazon). It includes my novelette “Silenced Songs”, as well as contributions from friends like VDer Stephen Gaskell, LJ friend Vaughan Stanger, Neil Williamson, and Jim Steel .
You get discounted shipping if you order via the Mutation Press website, BTW.

Also, Carl Rafala’s The Immersion Book of SF is available for pre-order on amazon. It contains my story “Father’s Last Ride”, aka the one with aurora riders and weird aliens. Sharing a TOC with Tanith Lee (I will not hyperventilate I will not hyperventilate…), Lavie Tidhar, Gord Sellar, Chris Butler, Gareth Owens, Eric James Stone, Jason Erik Lundberg and Al Robertson . (OK, I’ve just realised I know, in one way or another, 70% of the TOC. Wow).
ETA: apparently, The Immersion Book of SF already ships from some booksellers like Barnes & Noble.
ETA2: it would seem the cover is inspired by my story. *speechless*

Ok, this is the bit where I jump up and down (and possibly throw some squeeing, too). This was the news I was sitting on last week, which was killing me (I’ve known for a while, but the signed contracts arrived last week, which made it even harder to wait).

My awesome agents at Zeno Agency have sold French rights to all three Obsidian and Blood books to Mathieu Saintout of Bibliothèque Interdite (the aptly named “Forbidden Library”). Bibliothèque Interdite is currently publishing Games Workshop books, but is planning to launch their new imprint at the end of the year.

I’m going to be translated in French. For French bookshops. This is going to be so weird. But so great.

This clearly calls for leaping Bubble Bobble dinosaurs:

And here’s the cover to go with the blurb! Isn’t it so pretty? (note that I have different bloodstains on my covers–you can now collect them all *g*).

Coming January 2011 in the UK/Australia and February 2011 in the US/RoW. With star demons, conniving high priests and generalised political plotting. Oh, and more ahuizotls, because fingernail-eating monsters always make everything better.

Pre-order on Amazon.co.uk|Amazon.com|Barnes and Noble|Book Depository|Amazon.fr

And while I’m at it, another (very nice) review of Servant of the Underworld at Cold Iron and Rowan-Wood.

Writing is by nature a solitary activity; and writing in a language that’s not your own in a country where it’s barely spoken is pretty much as solitary as it gets. Living in Paris, writing in English, I knew I wasn’t going to have a face-to-face workshop (no critical mass), and I speedily turned online, to big places like Hatrack, Critters and OWW. The trouble is that people outgrow them, move on, and that after a year or so your crit partners might have radically changed (assuming you ever had them in the first place). I was lucky to find some awesome people there (rcloenen-ruiz, to mention only one), but they never had the tightness and cohesiveness I was looking for.

Then I got an invitation from writing buddy T.L. Morganfield to join Written in Blood, a new group with the avowed aim to keep its members together and committed through thick and thin. Three years later, we’re still here, still going strong. We have critted a dozen novels and a host of short stories. Members have had pro sales, been nominated for awards, published novels–and even, in founder Dario’s case, started up a small press, Panverse Publishing. We figured it was time to celebrate our achievements, and to do what writers do, which is put some of our fiction out there. Accordingly, here is our first anthology, Eight Against Reality:

Stories run the gamut from humorous SF to mythical fantasy. Some have been published in pro and semi-pro markets; some are all-new, but they’re all fantastic.

If you like the excerpts below, you can order a copy here. Or… you can win one.

Dario very kindly provided us with two contributors’ copies, and, like fellow WIB Janice Hardy, I’m throwing it into the pot. Leave a comment here, at my website or on LJ (anything that’s clearly not spam will do, like “I want a copy” :D), and you can get a copy (signed and personalised if you feel like it). The offer is good wherever you live in the world; you have a week from now (until the 6th of July). [*]

Afterwards, I’ll put together my best impersonation of a pseudo-random algorithm and pick a name out of the metaphorical hat.

And here are the shiny excerpts:
Continue reading →

It’s not every day that I find a very long and loving blog post dissecting a short story I’ve written (in this case, “Memories in Bronze, Feathers and Blood”, my latest at BCS), and calling it the best of 2010 so far…

I need a liedown, but the universe being what it is, I will go and look for supplies instead.

My Aztec steampunk short “Memories in Bronze, Feathers and Blood” is now up at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

This is what we remember: the stillness before the battle, the Jaguar Knights crouching in the mud of the marshes, their steel rifles glinting in the sunlight. And the gunshot—and Atl, falling with his eyes wide open, as if finally awakening from a dream…

Read the rest here.

It will also be podcast in a later issue, if you prefer your Aztecs to come in audio rather than in text :=p

Any comments/discussion on the story can be left here or at the Beneath Ceaseless Skies forums.

Very literally, in this case….
My Aztec steampunk weird alt-hist “Age of Miracles, Age of Wonders” has sold to Interzone (with mechanical creepy man, imprisoned god, blood magic, and a mining town in the Old West). Many thanks to the VD6 crew, Nancy Fulda, Stephen Gaskell, Sara Genge and Ralan Conley, for the crits that helped me fix the ending of this.

And I would also seem to have sold my Aztecs-in-space SF story “Shipbirth”, part of the Xuya continuity, to Asimov’s (do you detect a trend in story themes? :=) ). Many thanks to everyone who took a look at it on OWW: Allison Starkweather, Cécile Cristofari, Terra LeMay, L.K. Pinaire, Christine Lucas, and Ilan Lerman. And an extra dose of thanks to Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, who read it in record time and helped me fix a very important plot point.

I will be going for a liedown and more novel brainstorming.

As the radio silence might indicate, I’ve been fairly busy, though most of it wasn’t writing. Had a fun and busy weekend with friends and family, saw Neil Williamson on his way through Paris, tried an Asian recipe (cha siu, which turned out awesome and which I heartily recommend. There will be pics next time, I swear), and worked my way through more Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries.

And now it’s back to the grind–aka researching the next Obsidian and Blood novel. I’ve already got a fairly good idea of what it’s about, but now I need a detailed outline and a plot that (hopefully) makes sense. Got a pile of books on the sofa, a full teapot, and my trusty notebook…