Blogs

I'm a tad late in posting this one. My award-winning story, "Scream Angel," was reprinted this past summer as the lead story in the anthology, Survivor, edited by J J Pionke and Mary Anne Mohanraj. About the antho:

Speculative fiction is often about a sense of wonder and escapism, but the realities of life and its traumas can make wonder elusive, and escape difficult to even imagine. 

Editors Mary Anne Mohanraj and J J Pionke bring you stories of people who have endured serious emotional and physical challenges, and who have found new paths forward, learning to both survive and thrive.

The authors featured in this anthology offer more than simple catharsis. These are stories that will evoke wonder, yes, but will also inspire us to look up, full of determination, seeing our spirits lifting higher than the stratosphere.

"Scream Angel" first appeared in the anthology Low Port way back in 2003, published by Meisha Merlin and edited by the fine writing team of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. The story won the Aurora Award in 2004 and is often mentioned by fans as their favourite story of mine. 

It was the first of my Merged Corporate Entity stories, which include "Enlightenment" (a sequel to this story), "Memories of the Dead Man," "Murphy's Law," and "Jigsaw." "Scream Angel" also appears in my collection, Chimerascope, and is available as a stand-alone ebook at all major retailers.

I was a guest on the genre writing podcast, The Panic Room, two weeks ago. The podcast episode is now up on YouTube here. My bit starts at about the 19:30 mark.

We chat about my writing, werewolf and shapeshifter movies, my shapeshifter novel The Wolf at the End of the World, Steven King, and baseball, specifically the Blue Jays. I had fun, and if you get a chance, give it a listen.

This is just too cool not to share. In the fall, I contributed free books to help with a GoFundMe campaign that Amazing Stories was running to help them relaunch as a paying fiction magazine.

I'd had one of my first big pro story sales to Amazing when I started writing ("State of Disorder"), and I wrote a column for them when they resurrected as a web presence a few years back. So I have a fond spot for Amazing and was only too happy to help out.

When the campaign ended, the new fiction editor, Ira Nayman, sent me the list of the people who had claimed my offered books, asking me to autograph and personalize the copies (which he kindly shipped to the winners). I was blown away to find that my collection, Impossibilia, had been claimed by none other than Spider Robinson.

Yeah, that Spider Robinson. Winner of the John W. Campbell, Nebula, Robert A. Heinlein, and multiple Hugo awards... and basic science fiction legend.

I signed his copy and included a note saying I'd been a fan of his for years and was thrilled he'd selected one of my books. And there I thought it would end.

A few weeks later, I received an email from Spider, saying how much he was enjoying the stories. Nothing is better than hearing from readers but to get that feedback from a writer you admire is about as good as it gets. He was kind enough to provide the following, which I now proudly display on my website:

"The man is Sturgeon good. Zelazny good. I don’t give those up easy. I’m not certain the man is a Martian—I haven’t yet grokked the fullness—but his name is Smith."

And if I have to tell you who Sturgeon and Zelazny are, or explain the Martian and grok reference, you're probably on the wrong website.

The podcast science fiction site, StarShipSofa, recently featured my shapeshifter story "A Bird in the Hand" on their monthly podcast of narrated short fiction. This is the second of my short stories in the Heroka universe, and the first to feature Lilith Hoyl as the protagonist. Lilith appears again in the short story, "Dream Flight."

In "A Bird in the Hand," Lilith awakes to find herself a prisoner in a top-secret government laboratory. To win her freedom, all she needs to do is prove she’s human.

“A very interesting turnaround story, in which our expectations are upended at the last minute. ...a good read, and sadly, far too relevant to our own present world.” —The Billion Light-Year Bookshelf

“...great fun to read” —Dreams and Speculations

“...has a woman fed chemicals to prove whether she’s human or a shape-shifter ... well worth reading.” —SF Crowsnest Reviews

The story is narrated by Nikolle Doolin, and I am really thrilled with the excellent job Nikolle did on the reading. You can listen to it for free here.

If you like the story, it's included in my collection, Chimerascope, and is also available as a stand-alone ebook.

I wrote in my October newsletter of how I'd sold three reprints to the new Re-Imagined anthology series, edited by Kelly A. Harmon and Vonnie Winslow Crist. The series features reprints of previously published stories, many of which are award winners or finalists (like my stories) or from big name authors (like Robert E. Howard and Nancy Springer).

Each anthology is for a different genre. I wrote earlier that my space exploration story, "Symphony," appeared in the SF-themed Re-Launch, the first in the series.

This month, my Japan martial arts / love story / fantasy, "The Red Bird," appears in the fantasy-themed Re-Quest. "The Red Bird" first appeared in the Canadian magazine, On Spec, and was a finalist for the Aurora Award. Check out the awesome cover at the right. Very cool to see my name listed below the great Robert E. Howard of Conan fame.

And also this month, my supernatural horror story (which inspired an indie short film), "By Her Hand, She Draws You Down," appears in the horror-themed Re-Terrify. "By Her Hand" first appeared in The Third Alternative magazine in the UK and was later selected for The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror #13.

All of these anthologies are available at major retailers:

Re-Quest

Re-Terrify

Re-Launch

I hope you'll check them out and support the series.

My Aurora Award-winning novelette, "Scream Angel," will be translated and reprinted in the new Chinese professional speculative fiction magazine, Future Affairs Administration.

This will be the third time I've been published in China, and it's always a thrill to have my work available in such a huge market.

I will be on the Panic Room podcast on BlogTalk Radio tomorrow (January 3) at 10:30pm EST (9:30pm CST). You can listen here. Hope you'll tune in!

My urban fantasy story "Out of the Light" is included in Crazy Town, a new anthology from Rogue Blades Entertainment. If you've been a subscriber to my monthly newsletter for a while, you would've had a chance to download a free ebook version of "Out of the Light" back in June.

From the editor: "Crazy Town is an anthology of hardboiled tales – crime and suspense tales; gritty, grimy, sexy, and bloody film-noir type tales with a fantastic twist. Think of the kind of stories that you would expect in Black Mask or True Detective, but with just enough speculative elements to steer toward Weird Tales or Twilight Zone territory."

Crazy Town is edited by Jason M. Waltz, considered one of the best editors in the adventure fantasy business. I'm thrilled to have one of my favourite stories included in one of Jason's anthos. If this type of fantasy appeals to you, you can pre-order Crazy Town here.

I seem to be doing these things in threes lately, because, similar to a triple for consecutive appearances in Black Infinity (see previous blog entry), I will have three stories in the new Re-Imagined reprint anthology series, edited by Kelly A. Harmon and Vonnie Winslow Grist.

My first-contact story, "Symphony," recently appeared in Re-Launch, an SF anthology (in case the name and cool spacey cover to the right didn't give that away). I will also have stories in the sister reprint anthologies: Re-Quest (fantasy) and Re-Terrify (horror). More to come on those when they appear.

"Symphony" first appeared in the Winnipeg-based Canadian literary magazine, Prairie Fire, in a special SF issue dedicated to former Winnipeg SF writer of the Golden Age of SF, A.E. van Vogt. The issue was run as a contest, with stories judged by Robert J. Sawyer. "Symphony" won second prize and was an Aurora Award finalist the next year.

You can purchase Re-Launch here.

My supernatural horror story, "By Her Hand, She Draws You Down," was recently reprinted in issue #3 of the UK anthology series Black Infinity.

"By Her Hand..." was my first horror story and was selected for The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror when it came out. It also was made into a short indie film that won several awards when it toured festivals around the world.

This is my third appearance in Black Infinity, one story in each of their first three issues. My dystopian SF story "Going Harvey in the Big House" appeared in Black Infinity #1, and my urban fantasy tale "Out of the Light" was included in Black Infinity #2. 

I love the art design of their retro covers (see right), but the biggest thrill is to have my name appear on that cover along with some of the giants of the SF field, like John W. Campbell, Lester del Rey, Jack Williamson, Harry Harrison, and Philip K. Dick.

You can buy Black Infinity #3 here.