For any French-speakers who might happen to be around…

My report on the Worldcon in French is up on Elbakin:

Reportage au coeur de la World Con avec Aliette de Bodard

Again, thanks to the staff for the opportunity–especially to Emmanuel Chastellière for the time and patience.

Got the news from Beth Wodzinski when I was in the Internet Black Hole that is Spain: my story “Within the City of the Swan”, first published in the Art Issue of Shimmer, is on the Recommended Reading List for the Best American Fantasy, vol 3.

It’s not a lengthy list, either. And it includes one other story from Shimmer, MK Hobson’s “The Hand of the Devil on a String” in issue 9, in addition to Kuzhali Manickavel’s “Flying and Falling”, also from the Art Issue, which is in the actual TOC of the book.

Wow. Go Shimmer!

To celebrate, Shimmer is having a promotion of $3 off the cover price of both issues: you can have a PDF copy of the Art Issue or of Issue 9 for only $1!

Monday
Well, this one is going to be short, since it was only half a day of con. I started off by getting up for a 8:30 breakfast with Sheila Williams (unfortunately, this was the only time where our schedules were empty). Ouch. Rolling out of bed when the alarm clock sounded was extra-hard.
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Back, and knackered (24-hour road trip from the southern end of Spain to Paris–albeit in two 12-hour chunks broken by a 1-day pause in the South of France).

I am currently contemplating how best to tackle the huge pile of laundry that’s taking over the corridor.

(also, I have a loong list of writing-related things to do, which I should get started on. Thank God I have Wednesday off.)

Sunday
Ah, Sunday. Aka the big day, and not only because of the Hugos, but also because this particular day had me programmed on 2 panels, a reading, and a Hugo rehearsal–in addition to the pre-Hugos reception, the Hugos and the Hugo Losers party.
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Meant to post about this earlier, and then it slipped clean out of my mind (July wasn’t a good month for my brain-alignment).

I’ve sold “As the Wheel Turns” to GUD for their issue 6 (Spring 2010), a short story of multiple lives in a Chinese universe (complete with karmic wheel of rebirth, psychopathic ancestor spirits, and random Barbarian invasions).

It was workshopped on OWW under the title “Dai-Yu’s Choice”, where it received feedback from the usual suspects: Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Linda Steele (who was kind enough to crit it in tremendous detail), and Chris Kastensmidt (whose unshakable faith in that one proved right). Thanks everyone for helping me whip it into shape!

EDIT: posted this a little too quickly, and forgot about the uber-awesome Marshall Payne, whose line-edits were super-helpful, as usual.

Prologue: the Wheel
In the Tenth Court of Hell, stands the Wheel of Rebirth.

Its spokes are of red, lacquered wood; it creaks as demons pull it, dragging its load of souls back into the world.

And before the Wheel, stands the Lady.

Every soul who goes to the Wheel must endure her gaze. Every soul must stop by her, and take from her pale hands the celadon cup, and drink.

The drink is herbs gathered from the surfaces of ponds, tears taken from the eyes of children, scales from old, wise dragons. To drink is to forget; for no soul can come back into the world remembering past lives, or the punishments meted out to it within the other Courts of Hell.

No soul.

Save one.

In case you’re wondering where I’ve gone…

Andalucia is delightful, the pool is lovely–however, the only Internet access I have is very much sporadic. Email checking and blog postings will occur intermittently, when I can propitiate the wifi gods.

Meanwhile, have fun 🙂

Saturday

I couldn’t make it to the Codexian breakfast Saturday morning because I had an early panel about medieval technology. I had expected it to be sparsely populated like my previous panels–however, no such luck, as I found when arriving that the room was packed…
After a brief introduction, the moderator suggested that my co-panelist (Phil Nanson, an expert in medieval weaponry) and I each started out by giving a 20-minute talk on the subject, and follow up with questions.

Arg.
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Strange Horizons is having their annual fund drive, raising money to support the magazine. Thanks to John Scalzi‘s prompting, they have already raised a whooping $12,000, but if you want to donate, there’s still time. Lots of nifty prizes (including signed books), and you’ll support a very good magazine.
If you need more convincing, might I suggest heading over and read one of the following fine stories?

• “The Spider in You” by Sean E. Markey
  • We kept our god under the sink, in an old aquarium, so it wouldn’t spill its web all over the house. We didn’t tell you because you were so curious. Our daughter: you are like an otter, or a hummingbird. How would you stand against such a monster as our god?
• “Nira and I” by Shweta Narayan
  • Nira and I are with Hemal on the day she dies. She is teaching us a clapping song game, a remembering game. She is winning.
• “Another End of the Empire” by Tim Pratt
  • He sighed. “So I’m expected to send my Fell Rangers to the mountains, raze the village, leave no stone upon a stone, enslave the women, and kill all the younglings to stop this dire prophecy from coming to pass.”

You can donate here.

So, we’re back. Arg. Zombie-jetlagged (the plane landed in Paris at 3:00 am Canada time), and frustrated (we waited one hour for our luggage), but home.

At least, temporarily. We’re leaving again tomorrow for the last leg of the summer holidays (after the Worldcon and the week in Montreal). Destination: Spain, in the Sierra Nevada. Program: pool lounging and book catching-up. Also, writing catching-up.

I’ll have Internet access, but it’s likely to be intermittent, so if you haven’t heard from me in a while, that’s why. (I’ll continue to post con reports, probably more once every two days or something like that).

Speaking of which, books bought in Montreal:

• The Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages, Brandon Sanderson
  • Bought both at con, finished on the plane home. It’s very much traditional fantasy, despite what the hype says on the cover, but it’s nicely done. Reminded me of my nights reading books with a light under the cover
• An Autumn War, Daniel Abraham
  • Very much looking forward to this one. I loved both previous books in the series (A Shadow in Summer and A Betrayal in Winter), and this looks really good.
• Blood of Elves, Andrzej Sapkowski
  • Aka winner of the David Gemmell Award. A Polish book and one of the rare ones published in English translation. I’m usually not a fan of that type of fantasy, but I have to admit I’m curious. (I was also looking for the Night Watch tetralogy, but couldn’t remember Sergei Lukyanenko’s name while actually in the bookstore, and I was already carrying a hefty pile of books…)
• Mark of the Demon, Diana Rowland
  • Again, I’m usually not a fan of urban fantasy. However, fellow Codexian Diana was a cop and worked in a morgue, so I figured this would be grittier than the average. Also, I was intrigued by the first chapter posted online.