Interzone reader's poll selections

Interzone's annual reader's poll is now accepting votes. As is tradition, readers can vote positively for as many stories from 2007 as they want, and likewise give a negative thumb down to any stories they truly hate. The winners are based on the combined totals of all positive and negative votes. My positive votes are:

  • "Molly and the Red Hat" by Benjamin Rosenbaum (issue 213). See my review of the story here.
  • "Tearing Down Tuesday" by Steven Francis Murphy (issue 210).
  • "A Handful of Pearls" by Beth Bernobich (issue 212). See my review here.
  • "Winter" by Jamie Barras (issue 209).

And yes, I wimped out and didn't cast any negative votes. But the truth is that I really enjoyed Interzone last year and none of their stories rubbed me the wrong way. The magazine also looks set to have a strong 2008, with Jason Stoddard's novella "Far Horizon" already on my radar for next year's reader's poll.

Update on 2-26-08

Since I can vote for more than four stories, I decided to add in two more positive votes:

  • "Softly Shining in the Forbidden Dark" by Jason Stoddard (issue 208)
  • "Metal Dragon Year" by Chris Roberson (issue 213)

Super editors debate the Nebula Award process and selections

For my money, the Asimov's Science Fiction readers forum is one of the best places for intelligent discussions of SF/F issues. Case in point: A current thread discussing the Nebula Award preliminary and final ballots. The thread was started by Dave Truesdale in reference to his essay "Nebula Apathy Slights Original Anthologies, Or Why I like the Hugos." Since then Gardner Dozois, Rich Horton, Gordon Van Gelder, and John Joseph Adams--along with writers like Tom Purdom and other Asimov's Forum regulars--have analyzed the hits and misses of this year's Nebula ballot, the problems with the Nebula process, and thoughts on how to fix things. In general, the rough consensus appears to be that:

  • While there are some great selections on this year's preliminary and final ballots, the really good stories and novels are not consistently getting nominated and making the ballot;
  • The Nebula script category is a joke since no one actually reads the movie and TV scripts. The category should be abolished or renamed Best Dramatic Presentation;
  • A jury should be used more in the Nebula process because few SFWA members have the time or inclination to read enough works to make an informed selection.

Praise and gripes about the 2008 Nebula Awards Ballot

Even though there's nothing on the SFWA website--after all, why would they want to promote the best SF/F to the readers of the world?--John Scalzi has posted the 2008 Nebula Award Ballot. I'd like to do a little crowing at this point, as a number of the novels and stories I highlighted on the preliminary ballot have made this final ballot. Among these are the novels Ragamuffin by Tobias Buckell and The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon; the novellas "Fountain of Age" by Nancy Kress and "Memorare" by Gene Wolfe; the novelette "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang; and the short stories "Always" by Karen Joy Fowler and "Titanium Mike Saves the Day" by David D. Levine.

I'm shocked that a few items didn't make the ballot, including Blindsight by Peter Watts (possibly the best science fiction novel of the year) and "Alastair Baffle's Emporium of Wonders" by Mike Resnick. At least with Resnick's story I can understand that there were technical issues with the nomination since the story was published in early 2008--too late for this year's ballot--but I can see no reason why Blindsight didn't make the ballot.

Story accepted by Analog Science Fiction and Fact

This afternoon the mailman delivered an acceptance letter and contract from Analog Science Fiction and Fact for one of my short stories. Obviously I'm extremely excited about this and have been doing the happy writer dance for the last few hours. Not that the happy writer dance is anything to write home about--as we all know, writers have less dance ability than your average clown with two left feet.

Story of the Week: Jason Stoddard's "Far Horizon"

My new story of the week is Jason Stoddard's novella "Far Horizon" from issue 214 of Interzone. Stoddard has become an Interzone mainstay in recent years, with stories like "Winning Mars" providing updated 21st century takes on classic hard science fiction themes. This trend continue in "Far Horizon" as Stoddard embraces one of the most important themes of science fiction: How people create their own future.

The novella focuses on wealthy genius Alex Yucia, who creates a nanotechnology capable of--in his view--solving all the poverty and inequalities of the world. Unfortunately for him, the technology can also cause severe harm. As a result, the corporation that has supplanted world governments heavily restricts what Yucia can do with his technology. Instead of fighting for his dream of transforming the world, Yucia conceives a plan to go on a three-thousand-year suspended animation journey, enabling him enter a future where all his hopes for humanity will have been realized.

Naturally, things don't go as Yucia plans.

This story is science fiction in the grand tradition, exploring how the future belongs to those who show up to create it. Unfortunately, this is a truth Yucia realizes far too late. But while the story has a tragic ending, it is the tragedy--and truth--of how the future is created which brings the touch of greatness to Stoddard's tale.

The visual history of F&SF

Via the new Fantasy and Science Fiction blog comes a link to the visual history of their magazine. It's amazing how well the art of F&SF holds up even after almost 60 years. While the artwork of other contemporary SF/F magazines also had their high points, the covers of F&SF show an unparalleled artistic flair which, of course, matched the course set by this ground-breaking magazine. Of particular interest are the surrealistic paintings by George Salter which ran in magazine's the early years, and the many experimental covers of the 1960s and 70s. I particularly love Hannes Bok's 1963 cover for Roger Zelazny's "A Rose for Ecclesiastes." Unfortunately, the visual history doesn't give Bok's complete wraparound artwork, but Wikipedia has it on their site . One of my favorite more recent covers is the 42nd anniversary issue from 1991, which has a true Andrew Wyeth feel to it.

Does the Screaming Flaming Writers Association (SFWA) have a future?

John Scalzi, who ran a write-in campaign for president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) a while back, has this to say about the current race for SFWA president: "This is the year SFWA decides whether it has a future or not." The contest is between Russell Davis and Andrew Burt. Scalzi has no beef with Davis, but says that Burt would only be acceptable if SFWA members want to "publicly and enthusiastically cut the organization's throat." This comment results from Burt's role in last year's copyright controversy.

I personally agree with Scalzi that Burt would be a bad choice for SFWA. However, what troubles me even more is that the SFWA has yet again set itself up for needless infighting and anger. I mean, is it just me or does anyone else see internecine warfare as SFWA's main occupation these days?  Perhaps I should resurrect my previous proposal to rename the SFWA as the Screaming Flaming Writers Association.

Million Writers Award almost here

storySouth's Million Writers Award will be up and running in about a week. I have the preliminary judges all lined up, but a few website programming issues are holding us up. This will be the fifth annual award and it promises to be bigger than ever. For those who don't know, this is an annual award for the best short story published online. The award has previously been highlighted by USA Today, the Utne Reader, and was the subject of a feature interview in Novel and Short Story Writer's Market.

How to depress a million short story writers

Jeff Crook, author of novels and stories and editor of Postcards from Hell and Southern Gothic Online, has decided to depress short story writers across the world. As Crooks states:

"It seems like every day, there are three or four new short fiction markets opening up, and five or six going out of business. Do people even read short fiction anymore, or does the short fiction audience mostly consist of aspiring short fiction writers? Aren't most subscriptions to short fiction magazines sold to writers trying to get published in said magazines?

"It seems to me that we are living almost exclusively off ourselves, feeding off our dwindling fat reserves until such time as public interest in short fiction magically revives -hey presto! I recently read somewhere that back in the days of Hemingway and Faulkner, these guys would sell a short story to a magazine like Harper's for the equivalent of a school teacher's yearly salary. Nowadays, if most writers didn't have non-writing jobs providing a trickle of new money into the publishing ecosystem through subscriptions and purchases of the yearly plethora of anthologies, I imagine almost the entire short fiction market would collapse."

While I am a lover of short fiction--both as a writer and reader--there is a lot of truth to what Crook says (and I've said some similar things in my own essays). That said, I'm more optimistic about the coming years than Jeff is, especially since short stories are so suited for reading on electronic devices like the Kindle e-book reader. I can easily see a short fiction renaissance waiting just around the corner. But I also know there's a fine line between being optimistic and naive, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens. 

The rise of online SF/F magazines

Simon Owens of Bloggasm examines the rise of SF/F e-zines and whether they will ever become profitable.  The article has generated a good bit of controversy, as can be seen in the article's comments section and on the readers forums at Asimov's. Overall, I think it is a good examination of the history of e-zines, although leaving out Jim Baen's Universe and Intergalactic Medicine Show is strange, especially since these are two of the best online magazines and have the best claim to profitability. Still, I give props to Owens for writing an extremely informative article. (If you want to see Owens' article on the Million Writers Award I run, go here.)

Story of the week: Conclusion of Joe Haldeman's Marsbound

A few weeks ago, I selected Joe Haldeman's Marsbound as my story of the week. At the time I mentioned how I was going out on a limb picking a serialized novel without reading the third and final part. Hence my parting comment: "If Haldeman finishes the story as well as he began it, Marsbound will no doubt be one of my favorite novels of the year."

Well, the April issue of Analog contains the novel's finale. And the final verdict: Marsbound is my favorite hard science fiction novel of recent years. Without giving too much away, Haldeman's story of Carmen Dula, one of the first teenage colonists on Mars, contains a perfect mix of character development, intrigue, suspense, sensawunda, and glimpses into the massive scale of our universe--in short, all the things I expect from a great science fiction novel. My only complaint--a minor one--is that the story wraps up too quickly after the explosive conclusion. I had become so connected with Carmen's character that I wanted more of a denouement to wind me out of her fascinating life.

Still, that complaint is not significant. If you can't track down the last three issues of Analog, Haldeman's novel is set for an August release in hardcover.

John Scalzi promises to destroy your writing career if...

Best-selling SF author John Scalzi has this advice for people thinking about falsely using his name to promote their wannabe writing careers: "Certainly if I found out someone was lying about my association with them, I would go out of my way to make sure everyone knew what a lying sack of crap they were. And at this point I have a fairly loud megaphone."

Scalzi's advice comes in response to Justine Larbalestier's wonderful post on asking people for blurbs for a new book. Tobias Buckell also weighs in on the subject of blurbing. The long and short of what these three top-notch writers say: Ask nicely, don't bother the author if they don't respond, and don't be a lying sack of crap.

UPDATE: John Scalzi also gives some excellent monetary advice to wannabe writers. His best financial suggestion: "get the hell out of New York/LA/San Francisco."

Science fiction story idea generator

Writer Julia H. West has created a science fiction story idea generator, something sure to outrage half the SF/F writers in the world while simultaneously pleasing the other half. Click on the generator's links and you will be given all the characters, plot ideas, and emotions needed to complete a story. For example, with a few clicks on the generator I came up with a story about a deformed baby in a monastery who is ecstatic about his job as a xenoarcheologist, perhaps because his wrist radio just informed him the plague is about to hit. I'm sure this story will hit all the best-seller lists!

From my snarky tone you may have picked up that I'm not a fan of this type of writing aid. But as something to play around with, the generator is loads of fun. (Hat tip to Omnivoracious for pointing me to Julia's generator.)

Story of the Week: The Overseer by Albert E. Cowdrey

Perhaps my view of American fantasy and horror is biased. As someone born and raised in the American South, I have always believed that the most native and fully fleshed American fantasy and horror works have owed their very lifeblood to the literary sub-genre of Southern Gothic. William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily." "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" by Flannery O'Connor. The novels of Cormac McCarthy and Dorothy Allison and Anne Rice. The mix of sultry Southern settings of humidity and heat and green and decay, combined with hundreds of years of racial and political turmoil, create a backdrop against which fantasy and horror grow until they seem all too real. Appear all too capable to swallowing us alive.

My new story of the week is Southern Gothic at its best: "The Overseer" by Albert E. Cowdrey, published in the March 2008 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The story follows the life tale of Nicholas Lerner, a rich and powerful one-armed Confederate veteran reaching the end of his life in 1903 New Orleans. The story opens with Lerner's valet Morse prying into the life of the crippled old man even as Morse cleans and prepares his employer for the new day. "Damn him, thought Lerner. He knows I detest conversation with a razor at my throat." Of course, that ironic sentence sums up all of Lerner's haunted life, as every conversation he's ever engaged in has been with a razor to his throat--or him holding one against someone else's very existence. Now Lerner is desperate to free himself from the literal spectre which has propelled him through this cursed life, but equally unwilling to give up the riches his life has granted him.

"The Overseer" is a ghost story of racial conflict, hate, revenge,  war, and survival, but it is also much more. This story forces the reader to ask how many of the world's evils results from our own sinful actions, and how many result from those who overseer our every movement. This story is highly recommended and will no doubt be on many of the coming 2008 "year's best" lists.

Essay: Is There Nepotism in Science Fiction?

Orson Scott Card 's InterGalactic Medicine Show published an excellent essay last month by Carol Pinchefsky called "Is There Nepotism in Science Fiction?" While I suggest anyone who submits to SF/F magazines and publishers read the essay, to summarize Pinchefsky's argument: While the SF/F community is small, nepotism by editors is self defeating. Still, it doesn't hurt to be nice if you meet an editor at a convention. After all, no one likes to purchase stories from raving lunatics who whine on and on about not getting published because of nepotism. (Disclaimer: That last sentence is not in Pinchefsky's essay, but should have been. :-)

InterGalactic Medicine Show offers free stories

Orson Scott Card 's InterGalactic Medicine Show is one of the best online science fiction and fantasy magazines out there, and they're now offering people a chance to read some of their stories for free. According to an e-mail from editor Edmund R. Schubert, "During the month of February we are going to make one story from each of our first four issues available at no charge. Two stories will be set free on February 1st, and two more on February 15th. Just visit www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com and explore the table of contents; the free stories will be clearly marked."

Among the stories slated for a free read on Feb. 15 is "Tabloid Reporter To The Stars" by Eric James Stone, one of the best SF/F stories of the last year (the story will also be featured in the upcoming IGMS anthology from Tor, due out in August). While I'm pleased IGMS is working so hard to attract more readers, I should point out that their current purchase price of $2.50 an issue will hardly break anyone's bank. Issue 7 came out a few weeks back and I'll be reviewing it on my blog in a few weeks, but until then throw a little money on the IGMS table. You'll be supporting a great magazine and gaining a great read.

2007 SF/F magazine circulation numbers

The Feb. 2008 issue of Locus features their annual year in review, including a survey of the major SF/F magazines. For Analog Science Fiction and Fact, overall paid circulation fell 3.2% in 2007 to 27,399 (with subscriptions making up 22,972 of that number), while their sister publication Asimov's Science Fiction saw circulation drop 5.2% to 17,581 (of which 14,084 are sent to subscribers). The numbers for both these magazines are actually pretty good, with sell through on newstands increasing by a few percentage points and the steep drop in circulation seen in recent years leveling out.

Fantasy and Science Fiction saw a startling 11.2% drop in circulation to 16,489, almost all of that from their subscriptions. Realms of Fantasy saw a 2.5% drop in circulation for 2006--their last year for available numbers--to 22,544. The good news, though, is that RoF saw their subscription base grow by over a thousand. The other professional SF/F magazine, Interzone, saw its circulation remain in the two to three thousand range.

There are two interesting things about these numbers. First, newsstand sales remain a problem. New readers discover magazines by first reading them. If they can't find the magazine, they won't subscribe. The good news, though, is that all of these magazines except RoF are now available as electronic downloads from Fictionwise. As electronic reading devices become more accepted, I imagine this will offset the fewer and fewer newsstands which carry SF/F magazines. I'd also suggest Locus provide circulation numbers from places like Fictionwise in next year's overview.

Second, Fantasy and Science Fiction's circulation drop should stand as a testament to how data thieves can harm any business. According to editor and publisher Gordon Van Gelder, 2007 would have been a good year financially if not for the recent postage hike and the theft and abuse of F&SF's subscription list by "rogue subscription agencies, which cost us dearly." This appears to indicate that F&SF's large drop in subscribers last year was due to scammers contacting current F&SF subscribers. As an Asimov's subscriber, I have experienced these same scam artists, who call and try to con you into "renewing" your subscription. While I'd read announcements about these scams and hung up on them with a few choice words, it is understandable that many subscribers would fall for the scam, thereby alienating valuable SF/F readers and causing a deserving magazine to lose subscribers. I hope F&SF bounces back from this no-fault-of-their-own problem. I also encourage people to subscribe and support all these magazines.   

William Gibson sells "whatever"

Even though I'm a big fan of William Gibson and always look forward to reading his books, I still have to laugh at this report in the Jan. 2008 issue of Locus: "William Gibson sold his next novel to Susan Allison at Putnam via Martha Millard. No title, no plot, no outline. Just whatever."

Of course, knowing Gibson's writing ability, I bet even a novel titled Whatever would be amazing.