Tag: Nancy Fulda

The Best of Escape Pod 2017

written by David Steffen

Escape Pod is the weekly science fiction podcast.  At the beginning of 2017 it was edited by Norm Sherman, but when he stepped down from the role two co-editors have filled the positions: S.B. Divya and Mur Lafferty.

Escape Pod was already a qualifying market for writers to become members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, but in 2017, its three sister podcasts joined the list as well, making all of Escape Artists’ ongoing publications qualifying markets!

In February Escape Pod once again participated in the Artemis Rising event across the Escape Artists podcasts, publishing fantasy stories written by women and nonbinary authors.

Escape Pod published a total of 52 stories in 2017.

Every short story that is eligible for Hugo nominations this year which were first published by Escape Pod are marked with an asterisk (*).  If the original publisher was someone besides Escape Pod, the original publisher is noted in parentheses for award-eligible fiction.

 

The List

1. “Unit Two Does Her Makeup” by Laura Duerr*
I love a well-thought-out AI story, and this one is great, exploring the interaction between two AIs who have different roles in a company and how that affects nuances of their behavior and many minor choices affected by these values.

2.  “Planetbound” by Nancy Fulda* (from the anthology Chasing Shadows)
Those living off-Earth have joined into a state of ongoing connectedness with their fellow human beings, and have become largely separate from those on the planet.  One of those people come back to Earth so that everyone off-Earth can experience what it’s like.

3.  “Red in Tooth and Cog” by Cat Rambo
A woman discovers an ecology of feral smart devices in the city park.

4.  “Texts From the Ghost War” by Alex Yuschik*
Story told as wartime text messages with a mechwarrior.

5.  “Trash Talk” by Holly Schofield
A story exploring how the economic disparity of the uses of advanced technology.

Honorable Mentions

“That Game We Played During the War” by Carrie Vaughn

“Vegetablemen in Peanut Town” by August Marion*

“A House of Her Own” by Bo Balder

 

 

The Best of Escape Pod 2016

written by David Steffen

Escape Pod is the weekly science fiction podcast, edited by Norm Sherman, what is I think the longest running science fiction podcast out there.

In February Escape Pod once again participated in the Artemis Rising event across the EA podcasts.

Escape Pod published 43 stories in 2016.

Every story that is eligible for Hugo Award is marked with an asterisk (*).

 

The List

1. “Recollection” by Nancy Fulda
A treatment is available for Alzheimer’s, but it can only restore your ability to remember–the memories that have been lost are gone forever.  A man recovering from treatment struggles to fit in with the family that loves him.

2.  “In Their Image” by Abra Staffin-Wiebe*
What do religions make us do?  Examined by looking at alien religions.  Awesome philosophical SF.

3.  “Among the Living” by John Markley*
What if first responders were equipped with power armor?

4.  “Murder or a Duck” by Beth Goder*
Humorous parallel world traveling story.

5.  “Myspace: A Ghost Story” by Dominica Phetteplace*
What happens to all those dead accounts you leave behind on old sites?

Honorable Mentions

“Brain Worms and White Whales” by Jen Finelli*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hugo Picks 2012 (Part 1)

written by David Steffen

This is the first year that I’ve chosen to pay for a supporting membership to Worldcon. This is where the Hugo awards, the fan-based major award of the science fiction community, are presented. Paying for a supporting membership not only gives you the right to nominate and to vote, but also gives you the Hugo packet, a package containing most of the individual Hugo nominated works and examples of work from Hugo nominated individuals and magazines. That’s a load of bargain-priced brand-new fiction at $50.

Now, I should mention that I don’t think that the Hugos are generally indicative of the best science fiction and fantasy out there. Many of the nominees and winners I just find perplexing, often dull or unimaginative, and some authors get nominated every year even when it seems entirely clear to me that they are just “phoning it in” and the fans somehow feel that they are obligated to vote for this person.

Another thing I should add is that I only ended up getting registered on July 19th, a relative latecomer to the registration. The Hugo voting deadline was on July 31st, and I had only read a few of the entries. So to fully vote, I had more reading to do than I had time to do it. So for this first installment I’ll only be covering those categories in which I had a chance to absorb enough of the content that I feel comfortable making an informed vote. For each category I’ll list my first choice as well as any others that I was close to voting for.

 

Best Novella

1. The Man Who Bridged the Mist by Kij Johnson
An Imperial engineer travels to a small town on the banks of a mist-river to connect two halves of the empire. Novellas in general tend to be too slow for my tastes. This one is as slow as most, but I felt like it really used the space effectively. I really felt like I knew the characters by the end and I wanted them to be happy.
2. Kiss Me Twice by Mary Robinette Kowal
This one was a close contender for my top pick. It’s an effective science fiction mystery story, which uses the SF effectively as more than just a backdrop. Mystery generally isn’t my favorite genre or I might’ve picked this as the top instead.

 

Best Novelette

1. Ray of Light by Brad R. Torgerson
Brad’s a friend, but I didn’t pick his story because of that. I truly thought that this was the best of the group. It made me care about the characters. This takes place in a future Earth where inexplicable aliens have come and put up a shield between Earth and the sun so that the earth freezes over. The only humans who lived are those who fled deep below the ocean’s surface to live in underwater colonies. Nobody expects the surface to be thawed for several more lifetimes, but when a group of teenagers goes missing, a father goes to investigate.
2. Six Months, Three Days by Charlie Jane Anders
A story about a romance between a man who can see the future and a woman who can see a variety of possible futures. I enjoyed reading this one as well, though its appeal was more of a thought experiment than the emotional connection I am more typically looking for.

Best Short Story

1. The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu
The story of the son of a Chinese mail-order bride and the emotional connection she tries to make with him. Heartbreaking on several levels, this story really made me watch for more Ken Liu stories.
2. Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book 1: The Dead City: Prologue by John Scalzi
This story was posted as an April Fool’s joke last year on Tor.com, formatted as an excerpt from an upcoming Scalzi novel. It was based on a previous blog post analyzing the most common words used in fantasy novel titles. John Scalzi took this as a challenge, and wrote this beast of a title, and the story itself is just as funny, making fun of all the common epic fantasy cliches. I heard Scalzi read this live at MiniCon 2011, and the live performance made it even better.
3. Movement by Nancy Fulda
The story of a child with “temporal autism”, although the story says explicitly that it is not actually autism but is has some common symptoms. The girl does not think on the same timescale as everyone around her, this story is about her efforts to understand the world around her on her own terms.

 

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)

1. Hugo
Awesome Martin Scorsese movie adapted from the children’s book titled The Invention of Hugo Cabret.ÂÂFollows an orphan boy living in the mechanical depths of a train station in Paris in 1931. The main storyline itself is really great, but it was very effective at showing the magical appeal of early cinema in the few decades before that.
2. Game of Thrones Season 1
I haven’t read any of George R. R. Martin’s books in this series, so this was my first exposure to them. The casting is amazing across the board, the special effects are great, great characters, great plot. Not a lot of fantasy in it, though there are a few select key places of fantasy, as the name implies much of it revolves around political maneuvering to rule countries. Great stuff, and it makes me want to read the books. Now if Martin would only ever finish writing them.

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)

1. Remedial Chaos Theory (Community)

This is one of the best shows on TV right now anyway, but this episode was above and beyond. It begins with a simple enough premise. The study group that the show centers around is at one of their apartments, and have ordered in some pizza. The apartment building’s door buzzer is broken, so when the pizza man arrives, someone has to go down to retrieve it. Nobody wants to, so they roll a die to decide. From there the episode splits into 6 timelines, each one with a different person going down to get the pizza. It doesn’t sound that interesting, but a lot of small variations add up to major and differing consequences between each timeline. I’m hoping for another Hugo nomination next year for the Community episode “Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne”, in which Pierce and the rest of the study group have to play a very complex 8-bit video game to earn Pierce’s inheritance. Brilliant. I wanted to play that game so much!

 

Best Editor (Short Form)

1. Neil Clarke
2. John Joseph Adams
3. Sheila Williams
4. Stanley Schmidt

 

Best Artist

1. Dan Dos Santos

I just think that Dos Santos’s artwork is the best out there today. I have a signed print of his illustration of Moiraine that was published in ebook rerelease of the Wheel of Time series.

 

Best Magazine

1. Apex
2. Lightspeed

 

Best Fan Artist

1. Maurine Starkey

 

Best Fancast

1. SF Signal Podcast
I like the SF Signal site anyway, but I really liked the discussion in the example episode with a lot of recognizable names about the future of the publishing industry
2. SF Squeecast
A Christmas themed episode that was a lot of fun. All of the members of the group are clearly having fun while they tape, and they really comes across.
3. Galactic Suburbia Podcast

 

Best New Writer

1. Mur Lafferty

Strange to think that she counts as a new writer because I’ve been listening to her stuff for years on the Escape Artists podcasts, and hearing about her self-published books. I really like her style though, some of my favorite EA episodes have been written by her.

 

As the year rolls on I’ll be reading the rest of the Hugo packet just for fun, at which point I might have more posts to pick out my favorites. And this is also the first year that I’ve been eligible for SFWA membership, which means that I can now nominate and vote for the Nebula award–so I may have something about that as well.

Daily Science Fiction: March 2012 Review

written by Frank Dutkiewicz

I have been looking forward to this month for a very long time. Why? Read onâ€

 

The protagonist teaches his daughter on the realities of genie-powered electricity in “Genie Electric” by Andrew Kaye (debut 3/1 and reviewed by Frank D). A light bulb has burned out. The genie who powered it, died. This makes the protagonist’s daughter sad but genies are what makes the world go around.

“Genie Electric” is a parallel world where genies are electrically charged beings. A history lesson using the same names who discovered how to harness electricity in our world, as the masters who learned how to harness the magical being’s power. The little girl in this tale becomes regretful that we have used others as slaves to improve our own welfare.

The story is cuter than my harsh synopsis. For a flash story, I found it to be very clever. Well worth a read.

 

“The Sacred Tree” by Mike Resnick (debut 3/2 and reviewed by James Hanzelka) is a story of the Yakima. They are a Northwestern tribe and are threatened by the white man, who has come to claim their land, their women and their souls. When the Indian agent threatens to conscript members of the tribe as scouts, killing two men in the process, the tribe seeks help from the spirits. The medicine man asks for help from the sacred tree, his wish is granted, but at what cost?

I loved this story, but that may be because I grew up in the west and went to school at a university that has a Native American tradition. The lore of the indigenous peoples is strong in the west and this story captures that essence beautifully. The author also manages to drive the tale forward to today, and shows us that powerful gifts often require great sacrifice. I recommend this story to everyone who wants to understand this culture.

 

“The Way” by Frank Dutkiewicz (debut 3/2 and reviewed by James Hanzelka). John and Helen are old and feel they are becoming a burden to their children. They set out on one last adventure, one last memory before all the memories fade. One more spin around the block before life winds down. What they find is themselves and the joy they once knew.

This is a well written tale of life and love. It wraps the reader in the lives of these two people, nearing the end of their journey. While the tale is about John and Helen, most of us will see ourselves in their story. The author has done a superb job of weaving hope and joy into that last stage of life. I can recommend this story to anyone who wants to feel that for themselves.

 

“Painted Haven” by Michael Banker (debut 3/6 and reviewed by Frank D). Light is taking over. Not sunlight but brightness with substances. The strange stuff frightens Alyssa. She runs to her old boyfriend; confident Henry will know what to do. She finds him painting his apartment, a last ditch solution to keep the light at bay.

“Painted Haven” is one of those rare short stories that had me on the edge of my seat in the first paragraph. The strange light that falls like snow had me completely intrigued. I had hoped Henry would have some sort of answer but the guy turned out to be a flake. The promising and intriguing premise quickly became something I hadn’t bargained for when I first dove in. Although the story took a path I’d rather not gone down, a touching moment of the once couple reminiscing, painting scenes of there life together while they cover the walls to keep the unknown at bay.

Although the second half of this tale didn’t turn out the way I hoped, “Painted Haven” still was a nice story. I’m betting more than a few were glad it traveled in the direction the author took it.

 

A man makes it his life long quest to discover “How Love Works” by Stephen Gaskell (debut 3/7 and reviewed by Frank D). The protagonist in this tale suffers a broken heart from his first teenage love and spends the rest of his life recovering from it.

The story is part of the numbers quartet, using Planck’s Constant as its trigger. The lad in this tale lives a full life, full enough to make me envious. The tale thinly links to the trigger.

 

In “Prophet” by Laura Lee McArdle (debut 3/8 and reviewed by Anonymous), a precocious 4 year old is conversing with God about his decision to make a rather unimaginative and orderly woman a pre-school teacher. It is an interesting conversation and is well-written and nicely paced, and, of course, you’d imagine God has all the answers..

Let’s just say God provides the raw materials…

I enjoyed this short story and would give it a 5 and half rocket dragons (out of seven).

 

The main character in “Insomnia” by A.G. Carpenter (debut 3/9 and reviewed by James Hanzelka) is an assassin, but the good kind. His job is to eliminate people who will cause problems for mankind in the future. The side effect is a never-ending parade of hallucinations and endless insomnia. When he is tasked to kill the witness of his latest hit he can no longer stand the strain and saves her. After all, he wonders, how much damage can one person do.

This is a nice story, well setup and neatly plotted. The writing is crisp and clear. There is enough of a twist in the vaguely familiar tale to keep you interested. I also liked the slightly noir overtone in the story. A nice read for a little daily diversion.

 

“The Take” by Alex Shvartsman (debut 3/12 and reviewed by James Hanzelka).

Ever wonder what happens to actors when new technology replaces older forms of entertainment? Like those silent stars that lost their jobs when talking pictures came into being, plays and movies become extinct when real life experiences become possible to experience? What will those involved in the more traditional theater have to give up to stay employed?

The story here is one of confused reality occasioned by new technology. The author has done a fairly good job of giving us some insight to those left behind as science advances. The theme has been handled by better by others, but this is a good effort. It is well written and works on a basic level.

 

A patient is being given some terminal news in “Mortal Coil” by Ian Nichols (debut 3/13 and reviewed by Anonymous). This story is told from the perspective of the doctor. Apparently the patient suffers from a syndrome that causes him to reject some of the technology floating in his bloodstream–tech that keeps living. The doc has to give him the bad news…

A nicely written flash story with a simple twist at the end. I quite enjoyed it and the medical elements were well done. Five out of seven rocket dragons.

 

Space and time separate Vu and Loi. The distance between the two siblings is as great as their link is strong in “The Heartless Light of Stars” by Aliette de Bodard (debut 3/14 and reviewed by Frank D).

Loi was the eldest of his Vietnamese family, keeper of the ancestral shrine. Despite the eight year distance in time, Vu eagerly awaits Loi’s video messages. An ansible station has immediate information but such equipment is out of the reach of ordinary citizens. Vu instead must wait for eight year news, even when he is aware of the eventual outcome in Loi’s destiny.

“Heartless” focuses on the family structure of this sibling pair but the real draw of this tale is the eight year day-to-day information Vu receives even when he knows of his brother’s fate. When the gravity of the story is revealed, the reality of what Vu is putting himself through, turns the story into a voice from the past instead of a letter from overseas experience. The subtleness of Ms Bodard’s ability to spring a twist sets her apart from many other writers. A pity the twist made the backstory almost irrelevant, but then again, that may be why the twist works so well.

 

“The Body Shop” by Devin Wallace (debut 3/15 and reviewed by Frank D). James needs to buy his daughter something important. Body shops need to turn a profit, however. Fortunately, James has just what they need for him to complete a trade.

“The Body Shop” is set in a future where pawn shops we’ll deal with anything. James is a parent who proves he is willing to do anything for his angel. The most impressive thing about this tale was the author is still in high school. I see big things in young Mr Wallace’s future.

 

A girl sacrifices truth to satisfy her vanity in “No Gifts of Words” by Annie Bellet (debut 3/16 and reviewed by Frank D). Afua is ugly. She wishes to be beautiful so attempts a foolhardy theft of a witches’ potion. The witch catches her in the act and condemns her to a life of lies.

“No Gifts” is the tale of a girl living with the consequences of her actions. Afua had hoped to be free from the torment of being different. The potion granted her beauty but a curse of never being able to tell the truth had left her friendless. Her life takes a twist when a handsome king stops near the field in which she works. She declares herself a queen of the lemurs to him. The lie amuses the king. A few days later, a lemur appears. The creature becomes mesmerized by Afua as she tells her lies of amusement to him.

I found this story attractive. Although it drifted, and the twist was predictable, I couldn’t help but to be drawn into this curious tale. A well-written fable.

 

“Memories of My Mother” by Ken Liu (debut 3/18 and reviewed by Frank D). Amy’s mother is dying. She has only a couple years to live but thanks to the miracle of light speed space travel, she can see her daughter grow up.

“Memories” is a collection of short visits Amy has with her mother. Once every seven years, Mom returns for a day. Catching up on seven years in one day is no way to carry out a relationship. Amy is left confused with each visit, caught between resentment and gratitude for a mother she sees briefly.

I can’t imagine a woman, even a dying one, would leave after spending a day with a child , or rebellious teenager. It would feel like abandonment to me and I can’t see how anyone else wouldn’t see it the same way. Original idea, would have been better if lengthened and the premise hashed out in greater detail.

 

“Guaranteed to Work” by Lee Hallison (debut 3/20 and reviewed by Frank D). The magic has gone out of Ruth and Frank’s marriage. Retirement has not turned out as Ruth had envisioned it. Instead of traveling and enjoying the last years of their life, Frank has become crotchety and distant. Resentment builds for her. A kindly old man at the coffee shop has a solution to her problem; a love potion. A powder that make them forget all the petty annoyances that has become their life.

“Guaranteed” is a fantasy story that is frighteningly close to reality. The everyday irritations that bugs Ruth about her husband has crescendo to a constant nails-on-chalkboard nuisance. You can see her feelings toward Frank has become something closer to hate than love. Ruth’s godfather offers her a chance to bring back the love they had in their youth. The choice sounds like a no-brainer until Ruth analyzes what ‘change’ really means.

I confess, I reread the ending several times and I’m still not sure exactly what happened. Although I felt unsatisfied with the conclusion I must say this tale was more of an eye opener than most I’ve read before. Ms Hallison deserves a lot of credit for making a fantasy story read a lot more real than the majority of non-speculative stuff I’ve read before. Well done.

 

“Godshift” by Nancy Fulda (debut 3/21 and reviewed by Carl Slaughter) has something for everyone.

Science discovery: “Ladies and gentlemen, we have just provided experimental validation for string theory.”

Hard science: “String theory predicted that space-time encompassed ten or more dimensions, most of them curled up so tightly as to be unobservable. Even the Large Hadron Collider was unable to generate enough energy to perceive them. Ilyona had first suggested using M-brane topologies to uncurl localized segments of higher-order dimensions.”

Mysterious, global phenomenon: “Over the past three days, there have been 165 cases of criminals brought to justice by natural forcesâ€And all of them, every last one, occurred during one of our five-minute luminosity peaks”

Science debate: “Give up the search for the extra dimensions predicted by string theory, just because a series of absurdities occurred while we were accelerating particles?… Co-occurrence does not imply causality.”

Famous science device: “Large Hadron Collider, world’s largest and highest energy particle accelerator.”

Fundamental science concepts challenged: “All of the results agree with each other if we assume a change in the generally accepted physical constants.” “Physical constants don’t change. That’s why they’re constants.” “Well, yesterday, they did. For exactly five minutes, the gravitational constant decreased by 0.003 Ã’- 10â˒11. The speed of light increased by 512 meters per second. And the weak nuclear force appears to have fluctuated, as well.”

Science premise: “If one supposed that God existed within the fabric of the Universe–was the Universe, for lack of a better description–and if one used the Large Hadron Collider to alter the physical constants that governed the Universe…Then one must, of necessity, have also altered the nature of God.”

Religious-philosophical debate: “Because if you’d ever believed in Him–really believed–you’d have asked yourself, eventually, why He allows horrible things to happen in this world. You’d have asked yourself how God can let children suffer; why He doesn’t come down and do something about it.” “Well, according to every religious nut on a soap box, He did something about it today.”

Office romance, his version: “He probably should not have slept with her. They always got arrogant afterwards. But he had such a weakness for students who were so obviously dazzled by his brilliance.”

Office romance, her version: “It wasn’t smart to snap at your thesis advisor. Especially not when you were sleeping with him to make sure your name actually ended up on the research papers.”

In the midst of all the discussion about data and debate about implications, God manifests. How’s that for an ambitious plot device.

“Godshift” is about the age old struggle between a scientist and a religionist. Both are true believers. Despite ensuring that his name will be a household word for the rest of the history of the human race, the scientist isn’t satisfied. He wants to keep pushing buttons. The religionist cannot accept tampering with God and intervenes to stop the scientist from pushing any more buttons. Judging from the ending, the religionist will probably prevail. Ah, but in the interval, the scientist has enough time to push plenty more buttons.

The presentation is mostly pedestrian, but Fulda ‘s flare that we saw in her two Nebula stories – “Flashback” and “Movement” – peeks through in a few places: “The feeling was back again, a vague sense of wrongness that had permeated each of their research runs over the past three days. It was a fleeting, tentative thing, hard to put your finger on; like walking into a familiar room and finding all the furniture moved one inch to the rightâ€And it was back again: the sense of wrongness, as if all the light in the room suddenly came from a different direction.”

This story is part of a series by 4 established authors who refer to themselves as the Numbers Quartet. Every story is based on a dozen physical and mathematical constants – pi, zero, speed of light, etc. In this case, infinity. The other three authors are Aliette de Bodard, Stephen Gaskell, and Benjamin Rosenbaum. All the stories are short pieces and were published in Daily Science Fiction between January 12 and March 28, 2012. The stories appeared in chronological sequence, with the oldest developed concept, pi, being first.

 

“The Fabulous Hotel” by Sandra McDonald (debut 3/22 and reviewed by Dustin Adams).

In a dystopian future, one man’s vision of a grand hotel is well received. Permission granted, he sinks deep, deeper than anyone should, into his plans. Abandoning everything but his vision, he draws, and draws, and draws.

I liked this story, but I’m not sure if it’s a commentary on never reaching perfection, or a straight tale of futility in a futile world. Read it, decide for yourself.

 

“Frog/Prince” by Melissa Mead (debut 3/23 and reviewed by Dustin Adams).

Normally when a princess kisses a frog, he springs into manly form, fully clothed and with a grasp of language that I’m still working to attain. Thanks to Melissa Mead, we get the perspective of a frog who is, well, a frog. Becoming a man was not on his short list of things to do today. (List provided by the author.)

At first he wrestles with having to become a prince, but later embraces it. After all, the princess – is a princess. Around 3/4 through is where this fairy tale really gets turned on its ear. What happens when a once-frog and a princess have… offspring?

I subtracted one rocket because I felt the ending could have had a little more punch, but the intent is solid, as is the story. Worth checking out.

 

You may want to pay attention to the pre-flight instructions “In The Unlikely Event” by Ferret Steinmetz (debut 3/26 and reviewed by Frank D). This tale is a futuristic look at the hazards of interstellar travel. The story is a friendly announcement from the friendly crew before your spaceship takes part in its decades long journey.

Mr Steinmetz’s inspiration for this humorous piece came to him while he listened to check list of horrible possibilities of air travel the stewardess cheerfully announced before his plane took off. Funny work of flash.

 

“A Different Rain” by Mari Ness (debut 3/27 and reviewed by James Hanzelka).

Mary had spent her life in space and was eager to enjoy her home planet. She wanted to experience everything, especially the rain. She had only seen it once before and when a sudden storm arose she had her chance. She ran to enjoy it, even if it was a different kind of rain.

This is a nice little tale about expectations. Those things we dream of are seldom what we expect when we finally get them. Sometimes they are better, but more often than not they are worse. Mary would find that fulfilling expectations is difficult. I found this story interesting enough, even if it was somewhat expected.

 

She found the dark cloak in her closet, buried in the bottom in “Underneath” by Amelia Beamer (debut 3/28 and reviewed by James Hanzelka) . Now she can go out in public and no one will see the self-loathing, the cloak will hide it. But this cloak has a life of its own and soon she can’t separate it from herself. Maybe if she can destroy it she can be herself again. Or can she?

This is either a tale of madness or magic. Maybe it’s both. The author makes an attempt to draw us into the world of the main character and she does a fairly good job, but in the end it fell short for me. The writing is solid enough, but perhaps the subject matter is too dark and conflicted. Maybe the madness too close to the surface to be fully engaging. Some will find this story to their liking, but I wasn’t one of them.

 

A spaceport employee is “Offering Solace” by Jamie Lackey (debut 3/29 and reviewed by Frank D) to travelers. Her solace is a liquid in a bowl. She offers passerby’s a free whiff. The aroma is unique to each customer. The protagonist feels unappreciated, for she pours herself into her work.

“Offering Solace” was a sweet story that had an unexpectedly dark ending. It left me not knowing how I should feel about it.

 

A Wizard’s loyalties are tested in “The White Raven’s Feather” by David D. Levine (debut 3/31 and reviewed by Frank D). Ibude is a prisoner. A wizard, spoil of a lost war, serves his master , the Karshan Warhalt Kraig. He works on a magical spell he and lost wife had been working on before his home, Ubini, had fallen. He is still a year away from completing his work but Kraig is becoming impatient. Ibude does the only thing he can do to aid his master, reveal the positions of enemy.

But the spell shows Karshan’s enemy and former ally, the Svaargelders, soldiers massing near a cliff. Ibude recognizes the spell the enemy is about to use and realizes his wife and partner in magic, Ejira, work.

“White Raven” is a gripping tale of a man forced to use his genius to aid a people who destroyed all he held dear. An agreement between Karshan and Svaargelder split the married pair. Ibude was told if he were to die or escape his wife would be immediately executed. It is his genius that has kept him alive. He is overjoyed when he learns that his wife is still alive. His plot to be reunited with her takes a turn when Svaargelder soldiers coalesce out of thin air and are within the walls of the city.

I found myself intrigued with this tale. The tension and anxiety Ibude experience’s is brought to life for the reader. He is a pacifist forced to abandon his principles. His belief that Ejira shares his morals is dashed deep in the story. What I really enjoyed was the path Mr Levine chose for a resolution to Ibude’s dilemma.

Good Sci-fi and fantasy use the wide open settings only those genres are capable of bringing to life, as a canvas of commentary of the people we are today. Great writers can do it so well you may not even notice the subtle metaphor they so artfully articulate.

Recommended.

 

Should the name say it all?

I recently turned an avid reader of all types of fiction onto DSF. He said (not first time I heard this) that he didn’t realize DSF published fantasy. He assumed the magazine published only science fiction. He has come to enjoy receiving their daily emails but his confusion brings to light an inherent problem Daily SF has.

Daily SF is one of the most inclusive speculative fiction markets in the industry, but you wouldn’t know that unless you actually took the time to view their library (or read more than a weeks worth of material). A lot of people won’t read science fiction. Too many place the genre in a Star Trek/Star Wars box. The fact of the matter is more lovers of speculative fiction gravitate to fantasy than science fiction, and horror (vampires, zombies, and the like) is quickly coming up the rear. DSF publishes all of this (and a lot more) but too many readers don’t know it.

So, is a name change in order? Would the magazine be more attractive to a wider audience if DSF became Daily Science Fiction and Fantasy? Maybeâ€.

Have you seen Mr Anonymous? His whereabouts are unknown. I haven’t heard from him in a very long time and I am getting concerned. I would give you a description but my arrangement with him forbids me to do so. So I can’t tell you his height, age, race, hair color, if he has hair, where he lives, what hemisphere he resides in, what he drives, if he drives, his spouses description, his sexual preference, or what type of pet he has. I can’t even confirm his real gender. But, if you have seen, him, her, them (?), please let me know.

Daily Science Fiction: January 2012 Review

written by Frank Dutkiewicz

One of my reviewers called me out the other dayâ€

“â€It creates a credibility problem for you when you take Tangent and Locus to task for not covering Daily Science Fiction, then fall four months behind on your reviews.”

Guilty as charged. As I said to him, I could give plenty of valid excuses for falling behind but excuses is all they would be. I made a pledge that I would continue to review Daily Science Fiction as long as I stayed at least six months current. Complacency, and nothing else, allowed me to get lax in my duties. It is my new pledge to be as current as possible. One reason why I have taken on this task to review this much-ignored, but strong in quality, SFWA-qualified magazine is because authors like to see that their hard work has been read, and appreciated.

So to live up to my part of the bargain, here are this month’s storiesâ€

 

“Happy Birthday” by Sara Thursta (debut 1/2 and reviewed by Frank D). A family puts on a show for their father, an astronaut in deep space. It is his birthday, once again.

“Happy Birthday” examines a hazard of space travel, time differential. The astronaut’s dutiful family does their part to keep his spirits up. Cute, but the premise has a huge hole in it. How could any conversation be conducted if the difference in which time travels is as glaring the story suggested?

 

A man misses his wife but believes he’s found a replacement in “Still Life Through Water Droplets” by D. Thomas Minton (debut 1/3 and reviewed by Frank D). Brandon lost his wife to cancer but saved her personality. All he needs is a suitable ‘volunteer’ to download all she was into a fresh body. The local pick-up joint is a good place to find one.

Odette seems to be the perfect woman. Lovely, out of town, and eager to spend some time with him, Brandon finally has the opportunity he has been waiting for, all he needs now is the courage to go through with it.

“Still Life” is a theft, theft of a body for a new soul. The story is clever but predictable once it gets rolling. Mr Minton shows his writing skills off with this brief tale.

 

A Christian spy seeks to discover the secrets ofÂÏ€ (pi) in “The Mind of Allah” by Stephen Gaskell (debut 1/4 and reviewed by Frank D). Emiliano has penetrated the home of a famed Moslem mathematician. Faisal al-Khalsi has calculated pi to a ninth place. Emiliano is eager to find out how he calculates the strange equation and suspects the answers lie in the basement of Faisal’s home.

This historical story reminds me of Harry Turtledove’s alternative history short story collection Agent of Byzantium, both in style and premise. I found it to be well thought-out and clever, although barely speculative. As a lover of AH, I thoroughly enjoy it.

 

Two brothers return to Earth to cash in on a get rich quick scheme in “Saviors” by James Beamon (debut 1/5 and reviewed by Frank D). The protagonist endures MEAT and VEGETABLE rations to join his brother on his hair-brained idea, unaware that mankind’s abandoned home world is their destination. The planet is off limits and empty of useful raw material. What could this locked-in-an-ice age-world possibly hold? It’s been picked clean of everything except thousands of cryogenically frozen people left behind.

This tale was about as appetizing as the ration packs the two characters held. Strong writing but the plot left much to be desired. Points added for the author using himself as a prop though. The only real problem for me was the reveal. Really? That’s what’s going to make them rich? Minor issues with the premise (no one’s enforcing the Heritage Laws?) but as a humor piece, it kind of works.

 

“Calling Down the Moon” by Diana Sherman (debut 1/6 and reviewed by James Hanzelka) Jason Marsten has just lost his mother and now his father is sending him to live with his aunt. The boy wants to stay with his father, in the mountains, by the observatory he loves. Daniel realizes his son needs more. While the father is making arrangements the son goes outside and falls from a tree into a cold dark lake. He is saved by a woman named Cynthia, the embodiment of the moon goddess Diana. The story is about the relationship between father and son, as well as the love they both share for the lure of the moon.

I liked this story a lot. The embodiment of the moon in a woman who serves as nurse, friend, mother and confidant is nice. I thought the opening could have been handled a little more smoothly to bring you into the story better, but that is a small quibble. I found myself drawn in anyway, and I was drawn to the characters. Their feeling for each other and Jason’s son really comes through. In the end this is a story about fathers and sons.

 

“Look Who Came to Dinner” by Susan Franceschina (debut 1/9 and reviewed by James Hanzelka). Marcia’s just had her first close encounter. An alien just walked in on her taking a bath. She calls Randy for sympathy, but he calmly explains that the visitors are just curious and goes over some things she can do next time. Marcia’s still mad and even more taken aback when she discovers the alien is still there.

This was a nice little story. It had some witty, dry comedy and a pretty nice twist at the end that most will appreciate. I was a little put off at the start because the wording was a little like the audience was younger, but after the first few paragraphs it grew up. Nice premise and nicely handled otherwise.

 

“Electric Company” by Melissa Mead (debut 1/10 and reviewed by James Hanzelka). Emily Marcia Stewart’s faithful TV has died. In an effort to replace the loneliness in her house she visits the adoption center looking for a new set. She’s put off by the brash new models, so she journeys to Schenectady, NY., the home of the wild appliance park. After many adventures with wild residents she comes to find a human partner, and a few electrical ones as well.

This is a nice anthropomorphic story, similar to “The Bicycle Rebellion” story of last year. The humor in this piece is front and center and the author has some nice puns included, like the stream of flowing electrical current. The opening was a little too generic for me because it took until she gets to Schenectady for me to realize the main character is female. That small quibble aside, this story was nicely written and the sense of humor came through quite well.

 

“Things Exist by Imitation of Numbers” by Benjamin Rosenbaum (debut 1/11 and reviewed by Dustin Adams). This story is smarter than me. Which is fine, I can accept that. Reading along I tried to find a common ground with a story clearly outside my intelligence. Poetic, yes. But what… else?

In the end, the author comments are the only words that made sense to me. In the end, I didn’t get it, but apparently, it’s there.

What this story is about, is how it goes about doing it. Normally, that’s a huge plus for me, but this time, I was just lost. Hopelessly lost.

 

“Into the Forest” by Dana Dupont (debut 1/12 and reviewed by Dustin Adams). Upon a second reading, I appreciated/liked this story more. I think because I knew the surprise, I could better watch for the set up.

To tell any of the plot, is to give away the plot, but with a story this short, I’d suggest giving it a read. It’s complete in its brevity, and not the worse for it.

Although I rated the story 3 of 7 rocket dragons, due to it’s use of a common trope, I appreciated the writing, and the skill behind it, as I’ve come to expect from DSF stories.

 

“Sixty-one by Seventy” by K. G. Jewell (debut 1/13 and reviewed by Dustin Adams). After Ted Winstead retired, he looked forward into the mundane, boring emptiness and made a decision. He’d visit each of Saturn’s 61 moons, taking a chunk of rock as a souvenir from each, and getting his name in the record books as the first to do so.

No rush. That is, until a bouncy, young student named Elise sets out to beat him to the punch. (Her motivation is classic.)

With two moons to go, there’s a showdown. Whose got what it takes to be the first to all 61 moons?

You’ll have to read for yourself.

 

“Do I Tell Her” by Steven Peck (debut 1/16 and reviewed by Carl Slaughter) is the agonizing thoughts of a husband who is trying to decide whether to tell his wife she’s a clone, copied when the original died in an accident. Classic surprise ending. The author teaches bioethics: “I started wondering what ethical issues might come into play if you could actually make a copy of someone (including their neurology). The technology may be here soon. Already people are making micro-scans of brains and cloning is making progress. It may not be long before the elements of this story could actually take place.”

 

“Dumb as Dirt” by Garth Upshaw (debut 1/17 and reviewed by Carl Slaughter). Two boys play a prank on some zombies. The mother of one boy severely scolds him and punishes him. He doesn’t understand why she takes the situation so seriously. In a surprise ending, she reveals why. The storytelling style is folksy, first person narrative.

 

You might remember Nancy Fulda from her recent Nebula stories “Flashback” and “Movement.” After reading these two stories, I wrote to her to say, “I’ve read only two of your stories, but they both have something in common and I’ve guessing your other stories do too. A lot of writers have talent and experience, so when they get an idea, they can whip out a story. But it’s all formula and no passion. Your stories are loaded with passion.” Well, it’s too early to say, but I might have been wrong. “All or Nothing “by Nancy Fulda (debut 1/18 and reviewed by Carl Slaughter) is cleaver and vivid, but there’s not much passion.

Tommy and Edna are childhood friends. In the opening sequence, she pronounces him a zero. He lets the words affect him and never amounts to anything as a child. He even scores zero on his exams. In the second half for the story, his efforts to romance her lead to inventions and discoveries involving the number zero - frictionless, perpetual motion machine; research paper defining a new mathematical system based on division by zero; architectural diagram for a zero-energy house; industrial method for burning fossil fuels without carbon emissions; existence of the zeroth element on the periodic table; zero-point energy.

“Edna Peterson stood with her hands on her skirt and her feet planted in the dark, rumpled soil of the rutabaga patch. Her eyes scrunched into an expression of righteous fury exclusively reserved for seven-year-old girls.” “Tommy Jenkins borrowed his Dad’s beat-up saw and cut scrap wood into building blocks. He built towers so high he had to stand on a chair to reach the top, with arches and buttresses and entire platforms spanning the length of the kitchen. â€˜It won’t fall down unless you push on it,’ he told Edna when her mother sent her over to borrow a cup of sugar. â€˜All the forces are in equilibrium’. Edna scratched her elbow and didn’t want to admit that she didn’t know what ‘equilibrium’ meant. She edged out the doorway without saying anything.”

These scenes are so well written, I can picture them in my mind almost as well as if they were on a movie screen. It reminds me of the stories in my middle school reading textbook: impressively descriptive, but not terribly meaningful. “All or Nothing” is cute and enjoyable, but I’ll take passionate any day.

This story is part of a series by four established authors who refer to themselves as the Numbers Quartet. Every story is based on a dozen physical and mathematical constants - pi, infinity, speed of light, etc. In this case, the number zero. The other three authors are Aliette de Bodard, Stephen Gaskell, and Benjamin Rosenbaum. All the stories are short pieces and were published in Daily Science Fiction between January 12 and March 28, 2012. The stories appeared in chronological sequence, with the oldest developed concept, pi, being first.

While I would prefer Fulda keep her stories in the passion vein, I applaud her versatility and will continue to follow her career.

 

“The Professor’s Boy” by Erik Goranson (debut 1/19 and reviewed by Carl Slaughter). A knowledge “vampire,” referred to as a “collector,” targets a dying professor. The extraction process - nanomites injected through his IV - involves the death of the “host.” After a surprise encounter with the professor’s boy, the collector realizes he got a bit more than he bargained for.

 

“The Stoker Memorandum” by Lavie Tidhar (debut 1/20 and reviewed by Carl Slaughter) is part alternate history, part horror, part alien, part conspiracy. The prose is tedious and full of 19th century names and the writing style seems like it deliberately imitates 19th century literature, so the story is hard to follow. It has something to do with reptile royalty on the throne in Europe, monsters created by a Jekyll-Frankenstein serum, other monsters that are half machine, and an impending extra-terrestrial invasion. However you define this genre, you have to be hard core to relish this story.

 

Johnny has failed his drug test and may get kicked out of school in “Midnight at River’s Edge” by Ron Collins (debut 1/23 and reviewed by Frank D). His father has given him an ultimatum. John now must make a choice. What he really wants to do is be an artist but drugs and art do not mix.

“Midnight” is so much like a thousand tales in everyday kids these days except it has a speculative twist that was way too obvious considering where it debuted. Mr Collins talents adds a bit of flavor to this vanilla-ish tale.

 

Evolution adapts to pollution in “Inconstant Nature” by Colum Paget (debut 1/24 and reviewed by Frank D). Earth’s species are changing and thriving in the cesspool man has created. Plants and animals are now adding to the toxic environment, making the air unbreathable to man. So many species have died but a few of the lower life forms have adapted. Olisa has created a mixture of tailored species to combat the evolved toxic species and reclaim the Earth, but the new species have adapted to the new environment, and may not give in without a fight.

“Inconstant Nature” centers on two observers, Olisa and Zina. Zina is more at home in this new and dangerous world while Olisa may be homo-sapiens’ last best chance to survive. I found the plot inventive but the storyline began to wander. I did see the twist coming (one hint too many) but I won’t claim it was obvious. I did like the tale but wasn’t overwhelmed with it.

 

“i: the imaginary quantity equal to the square root of minus one–symbol i, first quantified through the work of Rafael Bombelli in 1572 AD.” So begins “The Death and Rebirth of Anne Bonny” by Nancy Fulda (debut 1/25 and reviewed by Carl Slaughter). Neither Anne Bonny nor any of the 3 main characters actually die in this story. Anne Bonny was an 18th century female Irish pirate who operated in the Caribbean . The main character and her father pretend she’s Anne Bonny as they roam the beach in search of pretend buried treasure, pretending they are guided by fake maps. They are accompanied by a pretend parrot appropriately named Aye, as in aye matey, who figures significantly in the story. The catch is, the girl doesn’t know its all make believe. When she realizes her father made the maps and that the real Anne Bonny was just a thief rather than a noble person, her life and her relationship with her father take a tragic turn and the fantasy magic is gone. But in the end, everything is restored. No, not pretend restored, really restored. Thus the title. “The Death and Rebirth of Anne Bonny” is one of three stories Fulda wrote for the Numbers Quartet series. Whereas the other 2 stories rely heavily on math and the drama is skeletal, this includes no numbers at all and relies completely on literary quality. A well told story with a classic theme. Very satisfying.

 

“+1” by James Luke Worrad (debut 1/26 and reviewed by Frank D). Walter greets a man from NASA at the site of a crashed capsule. Walter is taken aback at the man’s indifference, appalled that a dead astronaut would be considered a mere “setback”.

“+1” is very brief with a twist I hadn’t seen coming and with implications I still do not fully comprehend. Nice story and I liked the open-ended question left unasked.

 

“Good Taste” by Derek Ivan Webster (debut 1/27 and reviewed by Frank D) is a tale of uninhibited greed. The elites of the galaxy have gathered for a sol-eating event. The very rich have taken the essence of a star, and made it a drink. It is a symbol of excess, for tasting the center of a star requires wealth entire planets cannot afford. Baneford is neither privileged nor rich, but Earth’s poor inhabitants have scraped their pennies together for him to masquerade as one. For this particular event, the wealthy will be tasting the rarest of treats, the center of a black hole.

I found “Good Taste” intriguing. The premise was unique and with a message the author must have wanted to share. The tale had a political take whose moral could fit into our present day’s issues. Message aside, I found the preachy final commentary to be unnecessary. It turned the narrative into a tale of vengeance instead of work of poetic justice, which was unfortunate.

 

“Visiting Planet Earth” by Eric Brown (debut 1/30 and reviewed by Frank D). An alien returns to Earth, solemn for its mortal inhabitants. The young are pleasing to deal with but the old have trailers that creep out our visitor from the stars.

A very interesting work of flash fiction. The story is told from the perspective of a being who may have been more corporeal than alien. The short tale has a line of withheld information the author gradually reveals. Normally, such a tactic I would frown upon but the author does a good job of making the premise appealing. Not my favorite tale of the month but I did like it.

 

Patience is the key to a well-laid trap in “The Long Con” by Megan R Engelhardt (debut 1/31 and reviewed by Frank D). Rumpelstiltskin has been foiled to take the princess’s child, or has he?

This tale is done from the perspective of the antagonist of the fabled Grimm fairy tale. Its outcome is easily predictable and I can foresee many readers having an indifferent opinion of it. I, however, do not feel that way at all.

Ms Engelhardt tackled the task of retelling a familiar tale using my favorite tactic, exposing the real story from behind the scenes. She successfully showed Rumplestiltskin as a clever con-man. Revealing a carefully laid plan and the inner workings of his mind in the process. Knowing the outcome matter little when we are granted a viewing of the mechanics of a sophisticated trap. Excellent writing, delightfully executed.

Recommended.

Unclear Criteria

ÂAn email correspondence with one of the two leading reviewers of speculative fiction was shared with me by a fan of Daily SF. The email asks why they (the reviewer) have chosen to not review DSF.

“â€But this comes down to the question – what are reviews for? (We) don’t review to promote publications or authors. (We) do it to inform and please readers,

Well, from Diabolical Plots perspective, I can safely assume that the promotional value between us and Daily SF is at best, a two-way street with DP getting the far better end of the deal. In fact, Locus and Tangent Online would both be hard pressed to claim they steer any meaningful readership to any of the venues they cover. I would be willing to bet that the publication with the smallest audience that Tangent and Locus covers beats either reviewing outlet in readership. If there is any promotional value gained from being reviewed by the two big boys, it is for recognition in the awards categories. Way too many stories to read (even without DSF‘s vast library) for the judges to pick the best in class on their own.

But hasn’t Daily SF proved they are worthy of the benefit of pleasing and informing the readers? If awards are an indication of what makes a publication and its authors worthy of informing and pleasing readers, than allow me to promote a few nominated authors.

Mary Robinette Kowal , Nebula and Hugo; novella

Ken Liu , Nebula and Hugo; novella, short story

Ferret Steinmetz , Nebula; novelette

Nancy Fulda , Nebula and Hugo; short story

Aliette de Bodard , Nebula; short story

Mike Resnick , Hugo; short story

Congrats to these 2012 Hugo and Nebula nominees, all of who have appeared in Daily SF. News I finding informing, and pleasing.

We have received numerous complaints and queries, so we would like to make it absolutely clear that our own Anonymous is not synonymous with He Who Must Not Be Named. The former has chosen to reveal no name. The latter has a name that even children somehow know, even though no one says it. The former has reviewed stories for Diabolical Plots. The latter is an evil wizard who wishes to rule over the world. Capice? A notice to Death Eaters in particular: please stop attempting to send messages to him through us. Has it ever occurred to you that he just doesn’t want to talk to you? Thank you.

The Best of Escape Pod 2011

 

written by David Steffen

And here is the final of my “Best of” lists covering the year 2011. Escape Pod published steadily over the year, publishing 59 short stories. Among their usual fare, they also published winners and runners-up from their 2010 Flash Contest, whose winners were decided by forumite polling.

Recently they’ve announced that Nathaniel Lee (of Mirrorshards fame) has been given the position of Assistant Editor. I am very happy to hear this. He has already whipped the Drabblecast slushpile into shape, and he has done an admirable job with the Escape Pod slush as well. So if anyone had been frustrated at slow response times or lack of response to queries when trying to contact Escape Pod, you should give them another try.

And on to the list!

 

1. Rejiggering the Thingamajig by Eric James Stone
read by Kij Johnson
An intelligent spacefaring vegetarian Buddhist Tyrannosaurus Rex, a trigger-happy smartgun that talks like Yosemite Sam, and an ill-defined quest with an incomprehensible talisman at the end of it. Awesome.

2. For Want of a Nail by Mary Robinette Kowal
read by Mur Lafferty
Social and maintenance problems on a generation ship. The title doesn’t tie into the story all that well, but very good stuff.

3. Movement by Nancy Fulda
read by Marguerite Kenner
The protagonist in this story has what her society has labeled as temporal autism (which as even she points out may not have much relation to autism but such are public buzzwords). A very compelling story in a world not quite like our own and told by a very interesting POV.

4. Honor Killing by Ray Tabler
read by Mur Lafferty
This rather reminded my of Tobias Buckell’s Anakoinosis, with fuzzy little aliens demanding to be oppressed. In that case, it was slavery, in this case, murder.

5. Captain Max Stone Versus DESTRUCTOBOT by Angela Lee
read by Josh McNichols
One of the great entries to the flash fiction contest, overall this has a great feel of old-timey radio fiction, pulpy and fun and worth some great laughs.

6. London Iron by William R. Halliar
read by Andrew Richardson
Another entry from the flash contest. I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s an action-packed flash story.

 

Honorable Mentions

Wheels of Blue Stilton by Nicholas J. Carter
read by Christian Brady

Marking Time on the Far Side of Forever by DK Latta
read by Josh Roseman
A robot protagonist who is an incarnation of temporal culture clash.

Many Mistakes, All Out of Order by M.C. Wagner
read by Wilson Fowlie

Renaissance Woman: Nancy Fulda

nancyfulda_and_alexNancy Fulda is a mom, writer, assistant editor of Jim Baen’s Universe, and the creator of Anthology Builder. Anthology Builder is an innovative website that allows customers to choose a set of short stories that are then printed and bound into a printed anthology just for them.

Nancy, thanks for joining us!

David Steffen: You’ve got a lot on your plate with parenting, writing, and editing. How do you budget your time? Do you have to set aside a part of the day for writing time?

Nancy Fulda: Scheduling is probably the hardest thing about working with small children at home. The needs of the children change as they grow, so I’m constantly shifting the schedule to accomodate them.

For about two years I worked every morning from 10:00-12:00, like clockwork, while the older children were in kindergarten. Now that my youngest has started crawling (not to mention climbing the stairs and pulling things off of shelves) I’ve shifted to a “work while the baby naps” approach. It’s a bit helter-skelter, but after a while you learn to maintain your concentration despite frequent interruptions.

David: What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned working on the editorial staff of Jim Baen’s Universe?

Nancy: That there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all story. Before I started working for Baen’s, I had this vision in my head of the perfect story, the one that all readers would adore without reservation. I thought if I just learned the right techniques, I could write a story that would sell anywhere, to anyone.

After working with the reading team at Baen’s, it became clear that there is no such thing. Even in a group as carefully selective as ours — we were all looking for upbeat adventure stories– we still disagreed wildly on which story out of a given set was the best. My top pick was often someone else’s least favorite, and vice versa. We did occasionally find a story we all loved, but that tended to be the exception rather than the rule, and even those stories would probaby have been instantly rejected at publications with a different editorial vision than ours.

David: With Jim Baen’s Universe closing, do you have plans to join the staff of any other publications?

Nancy: No. Getting into editing was probably the best thing I’ve ever done for my writing, but if you’re not careful, editing will eat up your whole life. It’s time for me to narrow my focus and concentrate on my own writing again.

David: Where did you come up with the idea for Anthology Builder?

Nancy: It was kind of an accident. I’d just made my first few pro sales and was hanging out with a lot of other writers in the same boat. I wanted to keep up with what my friends were publishing, but they were selling to such a wide variety of magazines that I would have gone bankrupt if I’d tried to subscribe to them all.

“What I want,” I told them, “Is a do-it-yourself anthology web site where you can pick whatever stories you want and have them delivered as a bound book.”

The response to that quip was overwhelmingly positive and the rest, as they say, is history.

David: How has your experience with Anthology Builder compared with your expectations in terms of difficulty, popularity, and financial?

Nancy: It’s exceeded them on all three levels.

If I had known how much work AnthologyBuilder was going to be, I probably would never have done it. It’s a bit like childbirth, I guess. Starting the ball rolling is easy. By the time you realize what you’ve gotten yourself into, it’s too late to back out. *laughs*

I’m having fun, though, and we’ve seen far more sales in the first few years than I’d expected. Last year AnthologyBuilder paid all its own bills and generated enough excess for two large promotional campaigns. There wasn’t much left after that, of course, but I have high hopes for the future.

David: If you could go back in time and do the startup of Anthology Builder again, what would you do differently?

Nancy: The software. I’m very pleased with the way the system runs, but if I had it to do over again, I’d make some changes in the implementation, particularly the administration tools.

David: What has been the single most memorable moment in your writing career to date?

Nancy: I think it was reading the biographies of the other authors in the back of the first professional anthology I sold to. I remember reading those bios and thinking: “If I can make it into a Table of Contents with these folks, then maybe I have a shot at becoming a real writer after all.”

David: If you could give only one piece of advice to aspiring writers, what would it be?

Nancy: Write what you love. Learn writing technique first, of course: Join an online writers’ group, give and receive critiques, hone your skills. But once you’ve done all that, clear your mind of the ‘Thou Shalt Not’s and just write a story you enjoy. If you love your story, chances are the audience will, too.

David: What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not reading or writing?

Nancy: That depends on the day and, occasionally, the time of the day. Among the things I enjoy are ballroom dance, chess, painting, software development, and singing.

David: What was the last book you read?

Nancy: Tintenherz by Cornelia Caroline Funke.

David: Your favorite book?

Nancy: Isn’t that a bit like asking someone to pick a favorite child?

Some of the books I’ve enjoyed most through the years are Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn, The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, and Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold.

David: Who is your favorite author?

Nancy: Lois McMaster Bujold. Not only because I love her books, but because when I read her keynote addresses she seems like a supremely sensible human being.

David: What was the last movie you saw?

Nancy: Star Wars Episode IV. Amazing movie, that. 30 years since its original release, and it was still able to captivate the attention of my six-year-old.

David: What is your favorite movie?

Nancy: Today, right now? Evita.

David: Do you have any upcoming publications we should watch out for?

Nancy: “Knowing Neither Friend Nor Foe” is coming up in Beneath Ceaseless Skies and “A Song of Blackness” is scheduled for the Fantastical Visions V anthology.

As it happens, both of these are stories with a history. “Knowing Neither Friend Nor Foe” (originally titled “Kitjaya”, but as Scott pointed out, that title does little to hilight the primary conflict) is my first story from a completely alien viewpoint. ÂI never realized before how challenging such a story is, particularly because the reader keeps looking for humans to pop up. ÂDuring the critique process I had to rework several scenes in order to clearly convey that, no, there were no homo sapiens hiding behind the little green curtain. ÂI’m pleased that the effort paid off.

I wrote “A Song of Blackness” right after reading “Bethan’s Garden” by Sandra Tayler. ÂSandra’s story held so much warmth and human connection that it made everything I’d ever written feel like insignificant drivel. ”A Song of Blackness” was my conscious effort to write a story that *meant* something.

David: Can you tell us about your works in progress?

Nancy: I’m finishing rewrites on “Backlash”, which is a novelette about a man who discovers that his daughter is part of a terrorist movement. ÂLots of Bondian action, time travel, and a little family drama all get rolled into the mix.

I’m also working on a novel set on a planet with an extremely slow rotational period. ÂNomadic tribes circle the equator to stay in the habitable bands between Day and Night. ÂIt’s a very fun milieu to work in, and involves riding lizards, space ships, an evil technocratic society, and a plot to preserve all life on the planet.

David: Thanks a lot for taking the time for the interview, Nancy. For all of you out there, I encourage you to check out her writing, and to look into the service she provides at Anthology Builder.

Nancy: Thank you, David. ÂIt’s been a fun interview.

Interesting advice…

<This has previously been printed on my personal blog: http://www.anthonysullivan.net/?p=157>

When I first started this writing thing I often read that it was a lonely craft. So many people wrote about how they felt like no one really wanted them to succeed and that if they did succeed, no one would notice. I thought this was interesting but dispatched it as not my problem. Well it has become my problem. Maybe it’s just me but I feel that more and more, no one around me really cares about my writing. It is frustrating.

Sam Hidaka over at JBU linked to an interesting, albeit old, blog post by Nancy Fulda.

Lately I’ve felt my writing is worse than it was when I started. I’ve noticed boring characters, plot holes and questionable prose more and more frequently, so much so that I’ve been somewhat lax in my eagerness to write. I’ve still knocked out a short story per week but my zeal has been somewhat tarnished. There is no worse feeling than busting your tail to get better at something and finding evidence that you are doing just the opposite.

Nancy seems to think that this is actually a good thing. Read her blog post to learn how she thinks that as we improve at something we may feel like we are getting worse because we are learning to better recognize the mistakes that we make. Nancy has an interesting blog with lots of helpful bits of information and inspiration.

Now I just have to work on recognizing how to fix those mistakes that I can see so readily now.