Editor nominations for best online short story of the year

The Million Writers Award for best online short story is almost halfway through its March nominating period. Of particular interest at this point are the large number of editors from online magazines and journals who have nominated stories. The complete list can be seen here. While there are way too many magazines there to list everyone, a sample of the nominating publications include Identity Theory, HOBART, Thieves Jargon, The Mississippi Review, Eclectica Magazine, ChiZine, Clarkesworld Magazine, Fantasy Magazine, Weird Tales, and Farrago's Wainscot. Editors wishing to add nominations have until March 31st to do so. Readers wishing to nominate a single story should do so on this page.

More singularity and SF discussions

Quite a few comments around the web about my post the other day on the singularity. One of the best is from Jay Garmon at Geekend, who examines my point about science fiction not going extinct. After giving some excellent analysis which I agree with in general, Garmon asks people what they turn to science fiction for: the futurism, or the characterization?

Speaking for myself, characterization is vital to all fiction. But what takes SF to the next level is placing believable characters into situations where the depth of human character is measured against the larger backdrop of space and time. When this is done properly, as in books like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stranger in a Strange Land, A Canticle for Leibowitz, and The Stars My Destination, the effect on a reader is almost beyond description.

How science fiction and humanity might survive the singularity

As usual, there's tons of discussion bouncing around the web about the looming singularity. Jay Garmond at Geekend agrees with Charles Stross--one of the foremost proponents of the singularity movement--that the shrinking times for technologies to achieve cultural saturation demonstrate both the coming singularity and why the science fiction genre will soon go extinct. Basically Stross and others say that rapid technological change makes predicting the future impossible. Since in their view the purpose of SF is to predict the future, the genre can't possibly survive (along with human society as we know it).

For me, though, these beliefs about the looming singularity aren't all-concerning, at least as far as the singularity taking place over the next decade or so. After that I could see it happening, although I believe cultural issues will play a larger part than most SF authors currently predict.

My reason for believing this?

First off, science fiction has a lousy record of accurately predicting the future. If one looks at the classic novels and stories of the genre, they aren't considered classics because they accurately predicted the future. Instead, those SF stories which have achieved canonized status--2001: A Space Odyssey, Brave New World, Stranger in a Strange Land, Fahrenheit 451, A Canticle for Leibowitz, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Stars My Destination--examine themes such as how humanity survives amidst the vastness of space and time; how we as a people adapt to technological change; how technology changes us; how we might be doomed by technology; how biological and other scientific processes make us who we are.

But accurately predicting the future? No. Science fiction which focuses exclusively on predicting the future simply doesn't hold up over time. So forgive me if I question the predictive powers of singularity fiction and don't agree that SF is doomed just because it fails at predicting the future.

Another problem with the singularity movement is that the evidence for it is cherry picked (as Capt. Zerox mentions in so many words). All this talk about technological change moving faster and faster doesn't factor in those examples of technologies which have been extremely slow to change, such as space flight, artificial intelligence, and solar photovoltaic panels. But I guess singularity supporters don't want to consider examples of slow technological change because that would mess up all those pretty graphs predicting the looming singularity.

In addition, I am not convinced that technological change in the coming years will occur at the pace of the last few decades. For example Moore's Law, from which people extrapolated the groundwork for the singularity belief, is not a true natural law such as gravity or the speed of light. Instead, Moore's Law is a simple prediction based on past experience. There are already real-world constraints on Moore's Law which scientists believe will slow down the growth of computer processors. It's highly likely this slowdown will spill over into other aspects of technological change. And when one looks at the entirety of human history, you also find a fascinating pattern of relatively rapid technological or societal change followed by longer periods of stability. If I was a betting man, I'd place my money on current times being part of a rapid burst of change to be followed by a longer period of stability.

Finally, one major issue which singularity boosters overlook is human culture, which doesn't only refer to "patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance" (per Wikipedia). Human culture also has a protective function, which is to make sure that the human propensity for change doesn't endanger a culture's existence. Fiction often mocks this cultural role, such as when the big city rocker of the movie Footloose arrives in small town America and outrages the prudish moral sensibilities of just about everyone. But this defensive mechanism is still a part of our culture. If the singularity actually began to occur, does anyone really believe that humans wouldn't react violently against it? One of the few authors to address this issue is David Marusek, who in his novella "The Wedding Album" showed humans destroying certain aspects of their technology instead of allowing a singularity-like event to happen.

So I don't waste much time worrying about the singularity occuring in the very near future (say the next decade). After that, all bets are off, but don't underestimate the cultural reaction humanity will have to uncontrollable technological change.

As a final note, Paul Kincaid states in an excellent new essay that "Science fiction is a genre that lives and dies by novelty." The result of this is that SF continually supports one literary movement after another. But when SF becomes too wedded to a particular movement, the entire genre risks stagnation. The singularity movement has brought fascinating ideas and perspectives to the genre. But the movement is now becoming stale and, in a few years, could be seen as one more wrong prediction of the future. Until that happens, SF writers would do well to avoid becoming so engrossed with this movement that they forget the other ideas, explorations, and themes which make SF unique. Because if that were to happen, then the genre truly would be in trouble.

Interzone challenge: Write an optimistic SF short story

Jetse de Vries has reprinted an essay he wrote for the BSFA's magazine for writers, Focus, discussing how optimism in SF appears to be dead. As Jetse writes, with only a few exceptions "In the last couple of years, SF short stories have been predominantly dark and pessimistic . . . it's almost as if it's forbidden to write an uplifting story." Jetse then points out part of the problem is that writing a convincing optimistic story is very difficult. He even quotes Gardner Dozois on the subject: "As someone who has written post-apocalyptic stuff myself, I can tell you that it IS easier. It's easier to write about how the current world went wrong than it is to come up with believable ways how the current world is going to survive and prosper (to say nothing of changing in unexpected ways)."

Jetse has also set a challenge for SF short story authors: "Write an ambitious story about how the future changes for the better: one that is convincing, as well. As realistic and plausible as you can get it. Then send it my way when I re-open Interzone for email submissions (probably May 2007, but keep an eye on our website and Ralan.com)

Ordinary life and SF

James Wallace Harris has a very good post called "Ordinary Life and Science Fiction" in which he laments how science fiction stories rarely feature details of ordinary life. He focuses the point around the recent serialized novel Marsbound by Joe Haldeman, but expands the issue by showcasing how The Road by Cormac McCarthy merged both exciting vistas and drama with slices of ordinary life. Other science fiction stories which I believe do a good job of this include A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller and "Pump Six" by Paolo Bacigalupi. I don't know if it's significant that the first two stories which jumped to mind as combining SF and ordinary life are both variations on post-apocalyptic views of the future, but that's something I'll have to reflect on.

As a final note, I highly recommend people bookmark Harris's excellent blog Auxiliary Memory. Rarely a day goes by in which he doesn't post something which forces me to stop and reflect on his words.

Million Writers Award update

The Million Writers Award nomination process appears to be going well, with a large number of reader and editor nominations coming in over the last few days. In fact, the only problem I've seen is the attempt by certain people to stuff the reader nomination box with the story "The First Fire" by David Andrew Stoler (originally published in Carve Magazine.) Please stop doing this. The story has already been nominated by several readers and was one of the three official nominations by Matthew Limpede, editor of Carve Magazine. Nominating a particular story over and over doesn't gain anyone anything--aside from making me irritated at having to spend time deleting all the redundant nominations.

Who cares if Star Trek Phase II is professional or not

I thought last week's comment by Marc Scott Zicree would put to rest the controversy around a script from Star Trek Phase II (formerly Star Trek New Voyages) becoming a finalist for the Nebula award. Zicree stated that from the point of view of the script's creation, the production was professional, which is a requirement for this particular Nebula award. However, now Karl Hodge at Den of Geek reports that James Cawley, Star Trek Phase II producer and super-fan, has released a letter stating the production is absolutely not professional.

I'm not going to get into a legal argument over whether or not this production meets some contrived definition of professional. The larger issue is whether or not this script is the best one under consideration for this Nebula award. Attempts to deny an award to a worthy script through a legal maneuver at best reeks of being wrong and at worst throws even more doubt on the entire Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, which is not something the organization needs at this time. The Star Trek Phase II script should win or lose fairly, not because of some movement to deny it a shot at the award because the way it was produced offends--or more likely, scares--certain professional script writers.

Interview with fantasy author Jim C. Hines

Fantasy writer Jim C. Hines--author of the humorous novels Goblin Quest and Goblin Hero, along with numerous short stories--has a new book out. In honor of this, Monsters and Critics has published my new interview with Hines in which we discuss everything from whether psychology helps one understand humor to whether or not the United States is ready to elect a goblin as President. M&C has also published my review of Hines's new novel Goblin War, which is (to quote myself) "laugh-out-loud funny."

When fantasy and fiction are abandoned for fake realities

First came news that Misha Defonseca's horrific memoir Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years--in which she describes living with a pack of wolves as a child, treking 1,900 miles across Europe in search of her deported parents, killing a German soldier in self-defense, and oh, yeah, being Jewish--wasn't true. Now it turns out that the author of another high profile memoir, Love and Consequences by Margaret B. Jones (a pseudonym for Margaret Seltzer), isn't a "half-white, half-Native American girl growing up in South-Central Los Angeles as a foster child among gang-bangers (and) running drugs for the Bloods."

So these authors turn out to be liars who conned a reading public into believing fiction as fact. Personally, I haven't read either of these two authors so I can't evaluate the stories they told. Still, I find it funny that people are using the terms "fantasy" and "fiction" to describe these women's fake lives. Aside from the obvious pun, these terms hint at a bigger problem with these memoirs: that the authors felt the only way their stories could get attention was to pass them off as real.

A few millennia ago, there was no division between fiction and nonfiction, fantasy and memoir. Storytellers felt free to mix amazing events with real life happenings, such as occurred in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Audiences readily accepted this practice, enjoying the stories and seeing the truth that existed within them. Then humanity became more sophisticated and began to see myth for myth and reality for reality. Soon came the demands that our stories adhere to this artificial division. The result of this is that in the pantheon of truth-telling, fiction and fantasy are now considered the bastard stepchilds to "real" writings like journalism, memoir, and nonfiction. To understand the truths of the world, people turn to these newer genres. The irony, though, is that people who have written in these "real" genres know that fiction and fantasy still abound. Show me one piece of so-called real writing, and I'll show you any number of fantasies within the piece.

I haven't read these two author's memoirs, so I won't vouch for their stories (let alone condone their lies). They deserve all they crap that's now falling upon their heads. But I also know that a world which demands nothing but absolute accuracy in its nonfiction, and considers fiction and fantasy to have little relation to reality, are setting up all these story-telling genres to fail. There are truths which can only be told through fiction and fantasy. There are truths which can only be told through nonfiction and memoir. And there are truths which can only be expressed through the intersection of all of the above. Both writers and readers would do well to remember this.

Best short SF/F fiction of 2007 (Dave Truesdale edition)

Dave Truesdale's online short fiction review magazine Tangent is in the midst of a website overhaul, so he's posted his 2007 recommended reading list on Black Gate. Truesdale's list contains "214 stories from various 2007 print publications only: magazines, single author collections containing one or more original stories, and original anthologies." Quite an undertaking and Dave deserves a big word of thanks for doing this.

The Grandmaster and the SFWA president

On the Asimov's readers forum, Gardner Dozois and Tom Purdom were discussing how the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award is dependent to a large extent on the SFWA president. As Purdom says, the SFWA "president picks the Grandmaster, with the concurrence of the current officers and the past presidents." Dozois concurs and adds that "I know for a fact that who the President was pushing for was the key factor in who got the Grandmaster on several occasions--sometimes against stiff oppositionfrom other SFWA officials." Purdom requested that someone compile a list of SFWA presidents and the Grandmaster picks for their terms. Here's that list, which is based on data from Wikipedia:

Obviously, there might be minor discrepancies with the list since there are occasional overlaps between presidential terms and the year a Grandmaster was selected. Still, the list points to possible stylistic, political and philosophical patterns between the SFWA president and the Grandmaster(s) chosen during their terms. However, I'll leave it to the readers to draw their own conclusions on these points.

Final word on professional status of Star Trek New Voyages episode

There has been a good deal of controversy about the Star Trek New Voyages episode "World Enough and Time" making the final SFWA Nebula Award ballot, with quite a few people screaming that the production wasn't truly "professional." I include that word in quotes because viewing the episode is ample proof that the production is more "professional" than most of what passes for television these days. Now via the Science Fiction Awards site comes this public statement from Marc Scott Zicree, co-author of the episode's script along with overall director and executive producer. In my view the statement should end all debate about the professional status of the episode and Paramount's "knowledge and approval." Personally, I see the debate over all this as further proof of how out of touch a segment of the SFWA membership is with regards to the new media opportunities and avenues which exist today.

Million Writers Award and SF/F stories

Now that the 2008 Million Writers Award for best online short story is open for nominations, I wanted to touch on the subject of a recent e-mail I received: Why have science fiction or fantasy stories won the award for the last two years? Specifically, this e-mailer wanted to know if I was biased toward SF/F, and as a result had biased the award toward SF/F since that is the genre I write in.

As background, let's review the overall Million Writers Award winners for the last four years. These winners are "You Are a 14-Year-Old Arab Chick Who Just Moved to Texas" by Randa Jarrar from Eyeshot magazine (2004 award), "Toggling the Switch" by Alicia Gifford from Narrative Magazine (2005 award), "There's a Hole in the City" by Richard Bowes from SCIFICTION (2006 award), and "Urchins, While Swimming" by Catherynne M. Valente from Clarkesword Magazine (2007 award). That means half the overall winners, and the last two winners, have been writers of SF/F stories. So at first glance the e-mailer seems to have a point.

However, in my defense I should point out that the award's overall winner is based on a public vote. As a result, it's not possible for me to pick that winner. In addition anyone looking at each year's top ten stories will see a broad array of stories, authors, and genres represented. Finally, a few months back Scott Boyan completed a wonderful meta-analysis of the Million Writers Award. Basically, Scott crunched the numbers from the first four years of the award to see which online magazines placed the most stories in the notable and top ten listings. According to his analysis, Strange Horizons and Clarkesworld Magazine came in with a #9 and 11 ranking respectively. This indicates that while SF/F stories are well represented in the Million Writer Award, they are not all dominating.

I believe the reason SF/F stories have won the two most recent awards is because those two stories resonated with readers. One of the award's goals is to showcase top writing across genres; to show that great literature is not bound by genre conventions. As a writer and reader, I love all types of writing. I edit a journal of Southern literature. I read stories from every genre. I write science fiction and fantasy stories, along with so-called "literary" stories. So in response to this e-mailer's question, the award is not biased toward SF/F. But unlike most literary awards, the Million Writers Award allows all genres to compete against each other. In the end the best story wins, no matter what genre it's in.

2008 Million Writers Award now open

The 2008 Million Writers Award for best online short story is now open for nominations from editors and readers. Once again, the Edit Red Writing Community is sponsoring the contest, which means there is a $300 prize for the overall winner. For those who don't feel like wading through the rules, here's the award process in a nutshell:

  • Any story published during 2007 in an online magazine journal is eligible. The caveats are that said online mag or journal must have an editorial process--meaning no self-published stories--and the story must be at least a 1,000 words in length. Readers may nominate one story for the award. Editors of online publications may nominate up to three stories from their publication. All nominations are due by March 31.
  • A group of volunteer preliminary editors will go through the nominated stories--along with other stories that catch their interest--and select their favorites. These will become the Million Writers Award notable stories of the year. I will then go through all the notable stories and pick the top ten stories of the year. The general public will then vote on those ten stories, with the overall winner receiving the award and cash prize.

Complete information on all this, along with links to where people can nominate stories, is available on the award website. I hope people enjoy this year's award process.

SFWA selects Michael Moorcock as grand master

After all of the drama surrounding the SFWA in the last year, it's great to see them get one thing right as they name Michael Moorcock the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master for 2008. Interzone recently published a special issue devoted to Moorcock (talk about being timely). In honor of this honor, let me quote from the excellent interview with Moorcock in that issue:

"I don't like being too safe, too comfortable, too predictable or to have too much of a routine. Still, I'm doing my best with what I have. And I still think of good stories in response to contemporary events and I still keep my optimism, which has always been rooted in the pleasure I take in the kindness of strangers."

Congratulations to Moorcock on a well-earned honor. And thanks to him for the excellent writing and perspective he has provided to the world.

Story of the week: "Pump Six" by Paolo Bacigalupi

Monsters and Critics just published my review of Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi. Without giving too much away, I believe this is the best speculative fiction short story collection since Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others (but you can read the review for more on all that).

My intention here, though, is to highlight one of the stories in the collection: the previously unpublished title story of "Pump Six." The story focuses on Travis Alvarez, a maintenance man who helps keep the sewage pumps going in a future New York City. Because of ever-present pollution, the intelligence of the city's residents has plummeted to incredible lows. Even Alvarez himself is not an intelligent man, being at best average by today's terms. However, he has enough knowledge and concern left to know it is vitally important that the city's ancient sewage pumps keep running, or else a toxic mess will kill millions. But most New Yorkers don't see what harm can come from a few backed up toilets. Even his girlfriend, who almost blows up their apartment searching for a gas leak with a lit match, tells Alvarez not to take his job so seriously. Why worry about things like sewage pumps when there are so many parties and drugs to be had?

In many ways "Pump Six" is a reverse echo of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, a 21st century warning about how societies exist because people like Alvarez do their part to maintain them. Just as in Huxley's novel, everyone Alvarez encounters seems to care little beyond using sex and drugs to tune themselves into nothingness. While Alvarez is attracted to this sensual oblivion, he also knows what's at stake and that, tragically, he's not equal to the task thrust upon him. Still, reaching for that hallmark element of humanity--the endless struggle against hopeless odds--Alvarez strives to find a way to keep the pumps going.

Bacigalupi has previously been nominated for a number of Hugo and Nebula awards. If there is any justice in the world, "Pump Six" will be the story that wins him one of those coveted awards.

Stirring the banning pot at Clarkesworld

Nick Mamatas, editor of the excellent online magazine Clarkesworld, has over the last week banned several authors from ever submitting again, as featured in banned author exhibit one, two, and three (and for a special encore, author exhibit three responds to the banning on her own blog). I'd suggest people submitting to Clarkesworld or elsewhere read up on these exchanges because they are very educational with regards to what not to do when submitting your fiction. Nick also has some helpful suggestions on how Clarkesworld handles author revisions.

Interview with Robert Sawyer

Science Fiction Quarterly has an excellent interview up with Robert J. Sawyer, whom they call the "dean of Canadian science fiction and a publishing machine." For those who don't know, Sawyer is a Hugo Award winning author who generally sets his science fiction novels in contemporary times or deals with contemporary events. I totally agree with Sawyer's view that the science fiction genre is amazingly nostalgic, even though some of the best work being done in the genre's history is being published right now. I also love how Sawyer says his recipe for science fiction is to "combine the intimately human with the grandly cosmic." One point I disagree with, though, is when Sawyer laments how no science fiction authors are famous enough to be the public face of science fiction (like Arthur C. Clarke was in the 1960s and 70s). I'd say William Gibson fills that role nicely, although not to the extent of Clarke. I also find it amusing that Sawyer says in Canada he is the public face of science fiction. Since Gibson claims Canadian citizenship, I'd probably place him as the public face of SF in both countries. But I'll leave that for others to argue and merely point out that Sawyer's interview is a fascinating read.