Incident on a Small Colony is now available on my website, for reading or download, Creative Commons license and all that. I like this story, and I'd like it to be read.

That is all.

Misspelled, which contains my light fantasy story "8 rms, full bsmt," officially hits the shelves tomorrow.

It also contains stories by jimhines, connerybeagle's Dogmom, and Kristen Britain, among many others.

My Jani novella, Incident on a Small Colony, is now available on Anthology Builder.

...which is why I spent the odd off-moment this morning sketching out dialogue. It's the first thing that usually comes to me, along with opening impressions.

I have no time for this.

Dreary day. Cloudy. Drizzly. Never got much above 40F. ( food porn and pretty book cover behind the cut )

Update: due to popular demand...well, two three folks asked...I have posted the recipe behind the cut.

MISSPELLED, the fantasy antho edited by Julie E Czerneda, in which Yours Truly has a story.

I was doing an ego-search on Google, and found that Incident on a Small Colony made the storySouth list of Best Online Stories of 2006!

I'm thrilled that the story is receiving notice, especially since it's up against stories in other genres. Given that it's behind a subscription wall, I doubt it will get enough votes to make the Top 10 list, but I'm still happy.

UPDATE: Didn't make the Top Ten. Only about a week behind in digging this out.

Congrats to all who did!

sartorias reviews "Incident on a Small Colony" for Tangent Online's current issue, and liked it:

The tech stuff is neat, the atmosphere tense, with vivid description and convincing detail, the action pretty much non-stop, and the emotional tension builds inexorably. Three whammies before the end, all different: the thing that makes memorable stories is not just nifty skiffy, great pacing, but the electricity between human beings. One of my favorites.

Incident was my first short work to see print, virtual or otherwise. I'm very pleased with how it's been received so far.

::happy::

I didn't get near as many votes as I would have liked for the LoS snippet completion, especially given that a couple hundred folks read the thing. I will finish it, and post the result. No timeline, but I will finish that story.

Rich Horton liked "Incident on a Small Colony" enough to put it on his list of favorite novellas for 2006!

A very nice review of Incident on a Small Colony in this month's Internet Review of Science Fiction. Registration required.

This one is full of the elements that a military adventure tale should have: a rapid pace, a hard edge, high tension, deadly secrets, neat skiffy gizmos, and even aliens somewhere in the background. Readers should enjoy this longish story.

It is longish. It's a damned 1/3 of a book. But I enjoyed writing it.

Back to work now...

The December issue of Jim Baen's Universe, featuring a story by Yours Truly, is online.

Just thought I'd mention it.

It's my first published short work.

Not that I'm trying to guilt trip anyone or anything.

::inserts mt_yvr's halo here::

In her LJ, matociquala talks about JBU's current subscription drive. Many levels of membership available, including the Universe Club, membership in which enables you to read e-arcs of upcoming issues and access selected books for downloading. I joined, which is why I was able to go in and dig out the Incident artwork.

A wide range of stories, both SF and F. Check it out, if you can.

In other news, I guess northern Illinois could be in for some Weather-with-a-capital-W Thursday night into Friday. Snow, anywhere from 6-12 inches. The storm's path isn't set in stone yet, but I will have the shovel on the deck just in case. I already put away the garden hoses, and checked the level in the bin of deicer.

Why couldn't it have waited one more day? I do have all-wheel drive, but still.

At least I don't have to drive on the tollway.

Received permission from the artist who illustrated Incident to use the illo as an LJ icon and show the artwork. The artist's name is Lee Kuruganti. Some of her work can be viewed here. Of those illustrations, I think Ghost Sea (page 2) is my favorite. The cover of Staticmovement VI (same page) is pretty neat, as well.

A larger version of the Incident illo is behind the cut.

( Read more... )

One more day of long weekend to go. Could use a month.

I noticed a few days ago that the Incident E-arc at Universe possessed something that looked suspiciously like artwork. It doesn't blow up well--I tried--but it's sized perfectly for use as an icon.

And once again, Jani-of-the-baggy-coveralls is poured into second skin Spandex. And the weapon's too big. But her hair is short, which is a nice change of pace**. And Annalise (the young girl/other main character) looks pretty much as she ought, from what I can tell.

Artwork, be it covers or other first page stuff, is designed to attract readers. I know this. The Jani covers, which some folks have really liked and others have labeled "Baen surplus", imply certain story elements--adventure, violence, crime, explosions, some sort of military/espionage/whatever. Not quiet. Not a cozy. I'm not sure if the Spandex-clad limbs imply sex. Female characters in space opera have worn revealing clothing for as long as I've read the books and watched the movies/programs. I tend to think it's more anatomy as scenery as this point than 'come and get your love'. As an aside, that's one reason why I enjoyed Alien and Aliens so much. Ripley and the other women dressed appropriately for messy, physical jobs. No makeup. Functional haircuts. Not that miniskirts and knee-high boots don't have their place, but I'd hate to have to shimmy up a ladder in them.

But I digress.

I'm not sure if anyone would buy a Jani book if it bore what I would consider a true representation of Jani Kilian. A Claudia Black look-a-like with short, black hair, brown-gold skin, and green-on-green eyes, wearing a functional trouser suit or baggy coverall, holding a sidearm that would actually fit into a holster, and staring out at the reader. Glaring, maybe. Or just waiting to see what their intentions were. The image might make me feel better, but whilw it would imply much on a character level, I'm not sure it would telegraph all the information to the prospective reader that they would need to see in order to determine whether it was a book they wanted to read.


**although the possibility exists that the cover for J5 may feature Jani-with-short-hair.

Here's the tentative-but-likely-final ToC for Misspelled, the fantasy antho that comes out in late 2007, from DAW, ed. by Julie E. Czerneda.

Introduction by Julie E. Czerneda

Trippingly Off the Tongue by Lesley Livingston

Reading, Writing, Plagues by Kell Brown

8 rms, full bsmt by Kristine Smith

Cybermancer by Janet Elizabeth Chase

Eye of Newt by Marc Mackay

Chafing the Bogey Man by Kristen Britain

A Perfect Circle by Kent Pollard

Eye of the Beholder by Kevin Maclean

Totally Devoted 2 U by John Zakour

The Mysterious Case of Spell Zero by Rob St. Martin

Crosscut by S.W. Mayse

Bitch Bewitched by Doranna Durgin

The Witch of Westmoreland Ave. by Morgan S. Brilliant

A Spell of Quality by Kate Paulk

Demon in the Cupboard by Nathan Azinger

Untrained Melody by Jim C. Hines

Yours for Only $19.99 by Shannan Palma

Light rain this morning, and cloudy. Could have slushy snow toward week's end. Yea!

( J5 stuff )

( Shameless self-promo )

( The rest of the weekend )

Thanksgiving is the weekend after next. Four day weekend! Should get some writing done.

For some reason, I have this dream of selling a story to The New Yorker. I nursed it along before I started writing short work, even though I felt that there was no way in hell that they would be interested in anything I wrote. Still, I bought a few issues of the magazine over the past couple of years. Read the fiction offerings. Some of it ranked with the worst stuff I had ever read, although I've read enough similar stuff to think that some literary style was passing me by and I simply didn't get it. Some of it was "eh." They didn't publish "Brokeback Mountain" every month.

So I was curious when I saw that one of their stories won the World Fantasy Award for Short Story, CommComm, by George Saunders. I read it. It falls into the section of the styleverse that I don't quite have a handle on, which may simply mean that I need to read more non-genre short stuff. I liked the ending. I don't think I could write a story like that, with that feel. I'm not sure my brain works like that.

I know. I'm supposed to write what I write, and let it find its own home.