Well, not for me, but “The Shipmaker” is obviously getting some massive doses of love this year. It’s been picked up by Allan Kaster for his The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction 3, which is going to be available as an audio book and as a ebook some time in April. Haven’t seen a TOC, but I believe it will include “The Things” by Peter Watts (also on the BSFA shortlist and in Dozois’ Year’s Best) and “Re-crossing the Styx” by Ian MacLeod (also in Dozois’ Year’s Best). Pretty good company so far.
(I’ve actually known this for a while, but clean forgot to post about it due to some RL stuff).

This post brought to you by the department of shameless self-promotion. See previous post if you want actual blog content.

Wow, that was fast. Courtesy of Andy Cox and the Interzone editorial team, you can now find “The Shipmaker” online, over at the TTA press website. Do feel free to come back here and comment on it after you’ve read it–any and all feedback appreciated.

(while you’re at it, you can read another shortlisted story, Nina Allan’s “Flying in the Face of God”, which is definitely worth spending some time with)

I swear there will be actual content on this blog soon, and not shameless self-promotion–but for that, my %%% fever is going to have to come down (`tis the season to be sick, apparently. 39°C and counting…)

Have been sitting on this since yesterday evening: the tireless Donna Scott let me know my Interzone short story “The Shipmaker” has made the shortlist in the Best Short Fiction category. Where it’s, er, up against some very stiff competition by Nina Allan, Peter Watts, and Neil Williamson.

Wow?

While I go for a liedown, you can go congratulate Lauren Beukes, whose Zoo City is on the shortlist for Best Novel. And indeed, everyone else on the list (it’s quite an impressive rollcall).

The Award Ceremony will take place at this year’s Eastercon in Birmingham–any members of the BSFA/Eastercon can vote. I’ll see about getting the story up online.

As usual–many many thanks to everyone who nominated it, to Andy Cox and Andy Hedgecock for publishing it in the first place, and to the BSFA Awards administrator, Donna Scott, for so quickly tallying up the votes.

ETA: an online version is now available here. Thanks for Andy Cox for the sheer reaction speed.

For those who might be interested: my novelette “The Jaguar House, in Shadow”, first published in Asimov’s, July 2010, is now available for free on my website for your reading pleasure. (and, of course, if you happen to be in the right fraction of the population, it’s eligible for the Hugos/Nebulas/Locus Awards/Asimov’s Awards etc.).

Jason Sanford listed it as one of the three best novelettes in Asimov’s for 2010; so did Richard Horton; and it’s already received at least one Nebula nomination.

Go here to read it, and don’t hesitate to pop back here and tell me what you thought!

So, as usual, I discovered my book was out in the UK through other people telling me through twitter :-p

aka the book of Aztec imperial intrigues/serial killer in the palace. More Teomitl and Mihmatini for those who liked those characters, and generally expanded worldbuilding–featuring Texcoco, Teotihuacan and a lovely, albeit hurried trip through the Anahuac Valley. Also, various political intrigues, the election of a new Emperor, and divers alarum and chases of supernatural creatures.

Oh, and star-demons, of course.

More info here, including the real blurb; the first spotted review here at Val’s random comments, courtesy of Rob Weber.

Book seems to be shipping through some of the usual places in the: amazon.co.uk, the Book Depository, Waterstones and WHsmith.

Meanwhile, I have a %%% cold and was up for much of the night–so right now I’m feeling a bit zombified. But consider this my celebration post, while I go on contaminating my colleagues at work with my germs 🙂

Since it seems to be the custom this time of the year… may I point out that:

-my novelette “The Jaguar House in Shadow” (Asimov’s, July 2010 issue) is currently eligible for the Hugos, Nebulas and BSFA. It’s in the SFWA forums for those who want to download it, and also online on my website.

-my short story “The Shipmaker” (Interzone, Nov/Dec 2010 issue) is eligible for the Hugos Awards, and for the BSFA awards (and has received at least one nomination already). Likewise, quite happy to email it to voters.

-for those with more time on their hands, my novel Servant of the Underworld is eligible for the Hugos, Nebulas and BSFA awards (and the email offer still stands). It’s also in the SFWA forums.

-if you hate my guts and/or didn’t feel my stories were great (fair enough), don’t forget to still read and vote. As I understand it, a lot of awards suffer from too few potential voters actually casting their votes, leading to the loudest people winning (Cheryl Morgan had a fascinating article about how a lot of people, especially women, abstained by saying they hadn’t read enough in the voting year; and how they were then drowned out by people who hadn’t read enough either but who voted anyway). So–go forth and nominate!

EDIT: just realised “The Shipmaker” is also eligible for a Hugo, if you feel so inclined.

So… in 2010, I published 9 short stories, 6 novelettes (one in collaboration with the inestimable Gareth L. Powell), and 1 novel.

I don’t keep as much track of my writing as I used to, which is really bad, but I wrote the following:
–Shipbirth (novelette)
–Age of Miracles, Age of Wonders (short story)
–Exodus Tides (short story)
–The Shipmaker (short story)
–Harbinger of the Storm (novel)
-Various non-fiction pieces, including “Science Fiction in Non-Western/Non-Anglophone Countries”, and three pieces for SFnovelists.
–Starsong (short story, currently in redraft)
-Nameless book 3 of Obsidian and Blood (56,000 words out of a projected 110,000)

A great year for sales and publications, but not so much for writing (see below for explanations of why). Hope to do better next year.

In non-drafting news, I got married (part of the reason for the non-productivity, since this was fun but a timesink for both my family and me); attended Eastercon and two Villa Diodati workshops (both in Germany), was translated into French and Romanian; and picked up for Gardner Dozois’ Year’s Best SF.

It’s that time of the year again: beginning of the Nebula voting period, and of the nominations for a number of things (Hugo, Nebulas, BFSA awards)… I haven’t started up my reading yet, but I soon will.

And here’s my 2010 list of published things (which doubles as achievements for the year):

Short stories:
-“Age of Miracles, Age of Wonders”, Interzone, issue 230, September 2010
-“As the Wheel Turns”, GUD magazine, issue 6, September 2010
–“By Bargain and by Blood”, Hub Magazine, issue 108, January 2010
-“Desaparecidos”, Realms of Fantasy, June 2010 issue
-“Father’s Last Ride”, The Immersion Book of Science Fiction, September 2010
-“Father’s Flesh, Mother’s Blood”, Dark Futures, September 2010
–“Melanie”, Realms of Fantasy, February 2010
–“Memories in Bronze, Feathers and Blood”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, issue 45, June 2010
-“The Shipmaker”, Interzone, issue 231, September 2010

Novelettes:
“Eye of the Destroyer”, Blood and Devotion, Spring 2010
“Fleeing Tezcatlipoca”, Space and Time, issue 111, Spring 2010
“Silenced Songs”, Music for Another World, August 2010
“The Church of Accelerated Redemption” (with Gareth L. Powell), Shine: An Anthology of Optimistic SF, Spring 2010
“The Jaguar House, in Shadow”, Asimov’s, July 2010
“The Wind-Blown Man”, Asimov’s, February 2010

-Novel
Servant of the Underworld, Angry Robot, October 2010 (fantasy)

You can find a number of them online (I’ve linked where applicable). If I were to strongly push for something, it would be “The Jaguar House, in Shadow”, my Xuya-cum-Jaguar-Knights alternate history (eligible in the novelette category).
I also like the two Interzone short stories quite a bit, especially “The Shipmaker”, but at the moment they’re not eligible for the Nebulas by virtue of having had UK publication only (though insofar as I can tell, Hugos are fine).

I have also uploaded Servant of the Underworld, “The Jaguar House, in Shadow”, “As the Wheel Turns” and “Desaparecidos” up on the SFWA forums (since to-date, those four are the ones that have received Nebula nominations).

As usual, if you’re voting for any of those and want to read something in there, feel free to contact me.

A small reminder that you can now order The Immersion Book of SF, which contains my short story “Father’s Last Ride” as well as awesome fiction from the likes of Tanith Lee and Lavie Tidhar. Should be shipping everywhere now. I have a shiny copy somewhere, which I still need to read.

And you can also get Dark Futures, Jason Sizemore’s anthology of dark dystopias, which includes my Chinese SF horror “Father’s Flesh, Mother’s Blood” as well as contributions by Jennifer Pelland and Ekaterina Sedia.

Meanwhile, I’m told Interzone 230 (which contains “Age of Miracles, Age of Wonders”, aka the Aztec multi-POV steampunk) has shipped. There’s a comment thread over there, if you’re interested (and have got a copy. I’m still at the “waiting impatiently” stage).

On a matter tangential to Eight Against Reality, the publisher, Panverse, is having a kickstarter funding appeal, where you can win copies of their books–and more importantly support the awesome Dario Ciriello in putting a novella market into orbit. Check it out!