T-Shirts Fixed

It was pointed out to me earlier this year that my link to CafePress was not working. It seems that the way I was pulling all my stores together into one web page was not supported by CafePress, but since the system let me do it, they weren't going to chase it down.

Then late last year they updated their servers and decided to 'fix' this 'bug' that let people pull all their stores into one page. You see, I think they want me to sign up for a premium account and pay to have multiple stores in one page. So, while the pages were still pulled together, you couldn't buy anything.

Well, I've create a stop-gap page for now that has each CafePress store as a separate link. You can't look at everything all at once, but you can at least buy stuff if you're so inclined.

So what are you waiting for? Go shop!

Recent-ish Acquisitions

Pursuant to a previous post here is a list of some recent acquisitions. Not the most recent, but things I haven't made mention of before. After this, I'll try to post a weekly update of things acquired, even mentioning if there wasn't anything.

Yesterday I got through 11 submissions (of about 70 that are remaining from this last reading period) and accepted four and rejected seven. Right now I'm reading second round stuff that my slush readers have passed up to me, so it's all pretty high quality. There is still stuff that needs it's first read through, but we should be getting through subs pretty quickly here.

Unlike in the past where it could sometimes take me a year or more to get to a story, we're consistently down into the four to six week range. Although with the holidays and end of year, we've slowed down a bit. However, since we're currently closed, we should have no troubles getting caught up before April when we open to subs again. I would love one more slush reader, so if you're interested, please send an e-mail to editor[at]electricvelocipede[dot]com and tell me why you think you're qualified for the job.

OK, I've nattered on long enough, here's the stuff (excluding the acceptances this week) that I've acquired during this last reading period:

Poems

“October” by Nina Alvarez

“My Past DDves” by Beth Langford

“Retired Shapeshifters” by Beth Langfor

“Among a million Flowers” by Amy Mackiewicz

“South of the woods” by Amy Mackiewicz

“The Glass Girl” by Amy Mackiewicz

“The Price of perfection” by Amy Mackiewicz

“Self-inscription” by David McLean

“The madman” by David McLean

“Bathing the White Stone” by EDDzabeth Barrette

“Fabula” by DDnda Ann Strang

“Kimono Monochrome at Midnight” by DDnda Ann Strang

Short Stories

“Enmity” by K. Tempest Bradford

“White Chair” by Lawrence Greenberg

“Jointed” by Loreen Heneghan

“In the Gingerbread House” by Barbara Krasnoff

“The Lost Continent” by Ian Shoebridge

“The Column That Held Up the Sky” by Matthew Wanniski

“A Mouse Ran Up the Clock” by A. C. Wise

Novelette

“Daughter of Fortune” by Cyril Simsa

There is also poem-suite from Marly Youmans that I haven't put into my notes yet, so that's not in this list, either. Where you see multiple poems by the same author, those poems will appear in the same issue once I decide where they're going.

I Think My Thermometer is Broken

Since Jay Lake has been whinging about his cold weather in Oma-hey for a while now, I thought I would just mention that yesterday morning it was 50 degrees out when I left for work. This morning? -1 air temperature, wind chills at -25 to -30.

Not the coldest weather I've ever been in (during college it seemed we routinely had -50 to -80 below wind chills during finals) but not weather I'm relishing either.

Hang in the dude! The sun will rise again!

UPDATE: while checking some web stats, I noticed someone from Omaha had clicked onto this blog entry doing a search for 'Jay Lake -lakeshore'; I wonder, was Mr. Lake searching for himself? (not that I do that...no, not at all)

Wiscon 2008

I know this is a long shot, but if there's anyone who is in the unfortunate situation to have a room in the Governor's Club and cannot make it to Wiscon, I would be HUGELY interested in your room. In fact, the hotel says that the only way right now for people to get convention rates on the Governor's Club is to take over someone's reservation if they're not able to come.

I have a reservation for a regular room, so I'm set in that fashion, but if there's the opportunity to move that reservation into the Governor's Club, that would all kinds of awesome. As I'm wont to say, if I never ask, the answer will always be no.

Science Fiction Media

It should come as no surprise that I am a big proponent of all things writing in science fiction: stories, novels, editing, publishing, whatever. But perhaps it will come as a surprise to people that I have virtually no patience with science fiction media. And it's only gotten worse as I've gotten older.

I watch almost no science fiction television or movies. I can't remember the last outright science fiction movie I've watched* although I see a fair amount of fantasy-tinged movies (i.e., The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.). I can't stand superhero movies, Star Wars, Star Trek (although I lurve the original tv series cause it gives me warm, fuzzy nostalgia feelings of hanging out with my brother...and drinking games in college), have no interest in ever seeing CLOVERFIELD, I AM LEGEND, and so on.

And as for television, aside from LOST, FUTURAMA, and Twin Peaks (and I'll admit to being a Buffy fan when it was on), I don't think I watch any science fiction television.

I've watched a few episodes of Firefly (and I'll most likely never see Serenity), but I couldn't get into it. I caught a few episodes of the new Battlestar Galactica and thought, "wow, that's really well made," but was never motivated to watch more than three or four episodes total. I've never seen an episode of Dr. Who. Any doctor. I know. I've never watched Heroes (and I don't want to; no link for you!). I've watched about two episodes of The X-Files. And there's a lot more, I'm sure.

The problem is, people assume since I'm fanatically interested in the fiction that I feel the same way about the media stuff, and I don't. People want to talk to me about these shows, and I have nothing to offer. I almost feel left out, but in some ways I don't care enough to seek it out and stay on it, making sure I watch a show week in and week out.

The thing is, when I was a kid, I couldn't get enough: Space: 1999, V, The Bionic Man, The Bionic Woman, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers (Erin Gray, *rowr*), Mork and Mindy, Land of the Lost (all the Sid & Marty Croft stuff was pretty freaky), and reruns of Lost in Space, Star Trek, Wild Wild West (proto-steampunk), The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, My Favorite Martian, and there was a great local double-feature of sci fi (I can't call those campy movies like The Green Slime anything but sci fi, but occasionally they'd show something like Silent Running or Logan's Run) on Saturday after the cartoons. I just lived and breathed it.

But now, I don't like it. Or at least, I don't feel compelled to watch it. The stuff I've managed to catch looks well made, but it doesn't stick to me. Should I be concerned? Is there something I'm missing?

* To be completely honest, I did recently see DAYWATCH, which I thought was brilliant. Again, that's probably more fantasy than science fiction; certainly urban fantasy if nothing else. But other than that...I can't remember. Probably the Matrix movies, which got more disappointing with each one.

World Fantasy 2008

All of a sudden, I'm all set for World Fantasy in Calgary. I bought a membership towards the end of the year before the rates went up.

I got a progress report last night and registered for the hotel (need a roommate...can't afford this on my own!). The hotel is 30% booked at the moment, with Wednesday and Sunday nights being 40% booked. I don't know what that means. All I know is that I have a room.

Today I bought my flight. Apparently I had enough miles for a flight, so all I had to pay were the taxes. Got my flight for less than $50. Nice!

Who else is going? I know it's almost 10 months away, but hey, it's THE event of the year... There aren't a lot of names on the membership list, but I know it's early. But I wonder, will fewer people since it's in Canada?

So You Want to Start A Zine Pt. 8

Time Management

Inspired by a recent post where I want some clarification from a new market, I want to talk to you a little about time management. Not necessarily breaking down how to spend your time, but hopefully talking about how to determine how long it will take to do tasks, how to determine how often you'll publish, and talking a little bit about what sorts of things you'll probably need to be working on at the same time.

First, how long do things take to do? Meaning, how long does it take to edit a story, lay out a zine, blah blah blah. These things are different from person to person from zine to zine. It takes me about a week to edit an issue if I can carve out time to dedicate to it. That's a couple hours a day. Really, the length of time it takes me to read the issue.

Let's say the issue is 48,000 words (which is about average, but that number includes spacing for advertising, table of contents, etc., but that ALL needs to be edited) takes me about 12 hours to edit. That's roughly 66 words a minute, which is pretty slow. But I'm editing, not reading.

Sometimes, however, there are stories that require more work. There are stories that can take 12 hours to edit on their own. Plus you have to factor in the time it takes to send the edits out to people (because EVERY story needs editing) and the time to receive edits back from the writers. I figure about a month for the whole process. It usually never takes that long, but that way I'm not behind should something take longer.

Occasionally, when a story is really strong but needs a fair amount of editing, I'll edit it ahead of being placed in an issue. I don't do this real often, but if it's a complicated story, and I'm going to be making complicated edits, there needs to be enough time for both the writer and me to work on the piece. I'm editing a long, complicated story right now that isn't currently placed in an issue. But it's not fair to either me or the author to try to get it done in the month I normally allocate for editing an issue. This way, too, there can be a little back and forth as the author can refute my changes and give explanation why something was written a certain way. But we'll talk more about editing in another post. Here, we just want to say give yourself enough time to edit the piece, and then double it.

Yeah, double it. You'll almost never run out of time. Right now it's January. The next issue comes out at the end of May. I'm going to put serious effort into editing starting next week. That means I should be done with the editing process by the end of February. Which gives me almost three months to finalize the lay out, get the cover, get ads, proofread the issue, create the new web content, contact reviewers, etc. and not drive myself crazy.

Once you know how long it takes to create one issue, then you can determine how many issues you can put out over the course of a year. I decided on biannual since I knew that six months was plenty of time to make an issue. This year, after six years of publishing and 13 issues, I'm moving to three issues. Part of my problem is that I'm getting very far ahead of what I'm accepting versus what I'm publishing. Meaning that if I stayed at two issues a year, I would be telling people, I'd like to accept your story, but I won't be able to publish it for four years. That doesn't work. And to put it nicely, that isn't fair. I don't pay enough to hold stories hostage for that long.

You would better serve yourself to set up several issues before you announce the zine. That way, you can have the lion's share of the work done before the first issue and get stuff out on a schedule. And be generous to yourself. We'd all like to be monthly or weekly, but you can always increase the number of times you publish during a year and not hurt your good stead in writer's and reader's eyes. However, decrease your publishing schedule and you may find yourself in danger of losing readers and writers.

For new print publications I would never attempt to be more than quarterly to start. Unless you have financial backing and a decent-sized staff...but then why would you be reading this? For a webzine, I would say monthly would be the fastest to go, and don't give a lot of content initially. Meaning, don't plan on publishing the equivalent of a print magazine every month. It takes no less time and effort to put together an electronic magazine versus a print one.

And it is IMPERATIVE that once you give a schedule that you stay on it. People will take you seriously when you say quarterly. They will subscribe and expect four issues over the course of one year. They will be disappointed at best and more than likely angry if that doesn't happen. And writers will not be happy to think that their story will come in issue #4 a year from now, only to learn it's really a year-and-a-half. Don't announce/commit to something you THINK you can do; announce/commit to something you KNOW you can do.

Here's something to consider; this is a rough schedule of what you should be doing month to month if you are going to publish quarterly*:

JAN: Print Feb issue / Select stories for May issue / solicit ads for May issue
FEB: Publish Feb issue / Select stories for May issue / solicit art for May issue
MAR: Edit/layout May issue / Select stories for Aug issue / proofread May issue
APR: Print May issue / Select stories for Aug issue / solicit ads Aug issue
MAY: Publish May issue / Select stories for Aug issue / solicit art Aug issue
JUN: Edit/layout Aug issue / Select stories for Nov issue / proofread Aug issue
JUL: Print Aug issue / Select stories for Nov issue / solicit ads Nov issue
AUG: Publish Aug issue / Select stories for Nov issue / solicit art Nov issue
SEP: Edit/layout Nov issue / Select stories for Feb issue / proofread Nov issue
OCT: Print Nov issue / Select stories for Feb issue / solicit ads Feb issue
NOV: Publish Nov issue / Select stories for Feb issue / solicit art Feb issue
DEC: Edit/layout Feb issue / Select stories for May issue / proofread Feb issue

I don't know about you, but that looks pretty busy to me. And heck, replace print with FTP and that could be the schedule for a quarterly webzine that puts out ~50,000 words of new content with every issue. If you add more issues (let's say monthly), then you could be looking at (I'll do one month for brevity's sake):

JUNE: Print July issue / Proofread Aug issue / Layout September issue / Edit October issue / Solicit artwork for November issue / Solicit advertising for December issue / Select stories for January issue...

Are you ready for that? Are you prepared to be doing all that at the same time? Because that's what monthly means. Maybe you won't have artwork or advertising to worry about and that would help. And maybe you're not going to do 50,000 words of new material every month, maybe you're looking at 15,000 words. That'll help a lot. But you still need to be thinking about future issues while you're putting out the current one.

The big things to take away from this part of the zine series? Determine how long it takes for you to put together one issue. Create a publishing schedule from that amount of time. Stick to the publishing schedule. Work on more than one issue at a time.

It does get easier. As with anything, the more you work at it, the more experience you accumulate, the better you get at it. That's when you can consider increasing your publication schedule.

And don't forget, I haven't factored in things like having a day job, a family, interests (like movies, music, travel), etc. This is just the time you'll need to commit to making a zine.

Are you ready?

* A little side note, since I suspect I'm mostly speaking to a genre crowd, you could use conventions that occur during publication months as a place to debut the issue. For example: Feb = Boskone; May = Wiscon; Aug = Worldcon; Nov = World Fantasy. It's always nice to have something new to show people at a convention. And remember, you can NEVER bring enough copies of the new issue.

Best of the Year Review

In his Best of the Year Review for Locus, Jeff VanderMeer has this to say about Logorrhea:

John Klima's Logorrhea, meanwhile, went with a more narrow focus. It took as its cue winning spelling bee words, with writers from Clare Dudman to Elizabeth Hand, Hal Duncan to Marly Youmans, creating stories around those words. The anthology includes some excellent tales, and readers who might have originally looked askance at the "theme" should take a second glance.

I realize that's about as much as Jeff can say since he's a contributor to it, but knowing Jeff, he wouldn't list it here unless he genuinely felt it should be here.

Jeff provides a great list of some of the amazing things that were published this last year. Jeff concludes with:

Although I read more widely in 2007 than ever before, and reviewed more books, no one can read everything in the field in a given year. My major sins of omission include: Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Sarah Monette's The Mirador, Nalo Hopkinson's The New Moon's Arms, Minister Faust's From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain, Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box, Jack McDevitt's Odyssey, Charles Stross' Halting State, Cory Doctorow's Overclocked, Bruce McAllister's The Girl Who Loved Animals, Wizards edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann, and The Solaris Book of New Fantasy edited by George Mann. In most cases, I simply did not receive these books for review.

Revised Issue 14

I've moved two poems into the issue, rather than re-posting the whole huge list of contents, here are the two additions:

Erin Hoffman - Hyldegarde Speaks to Jacqueline
Sonya Taaffe - Evighed

The issue is still story heavy. It weighs in at 100 pages! Whew! Recent issues have been about 60 pages, so this is nearly twice as long.

If You're Going to Edit a Webzine

...at least tell people who you are. I saw a couple posts today (thanks Ian and Jeremy!) about a new webzine called Oddlands.

Apparently it's edited by someone named Soren Bask. I had to go to their Ralan listing to find that. The point of view thing is weird, but I think it's weirder how hard it was to find out who edits the thing.

As a writer (not that I am one), why would I want to submit to a place that doesn't provide any information about who's behind the thing?

Plus, there's conflicting information about what the webzine is. One post (of three) says it's monthly, another post says the first issue "is due out March 1, 2008(with another issue every two weeks thereafter.)" which sounds biweekly to me.

Regardless, that's a really aggressive schedule. Now, I don't know anything about Mr. Bask, or what sort of time he has, but depending on what an issue is, he's going to have trouble keeping up with his schedule. Particularly when it seems he's just announcing this and potentially doesn't have an initial issue set up.

Along those lines, I'd like to see a more complete description of what an issue is. One story? Two? Ten? A story and a poem? Strange Horizons is weekly, but there's a ton of people that put that together and they only do one piece of fiction for every issue (in addition to lots of other great stuff).

So, if you're thinking of starting a webzine, here are some things to consider:
Tell people who you are and who the staff is (even if you're new, people like to know there's a face behind things)
Explain what an issue is
Be consistent when describing your frequency

You could also read these and get a sense of what editing a zine is like.

Navigational Bar

I'm trying to update the main website and give the navigational bar a little better...well...navigation. I've created a CSS-based rollover menu (inspired from this A List Apart article), but it's not working in quite the fashion I want it to.

Namely I'm not exactly following the instructions and I can't force it to do what I want. I don't want to make Javascript rollover menus since I'm never quite happy with the way those work.

Basically, my current layout doesn't leave me with any more room for additional links on the nav bar, and there are more things I could link to that would help people find things on the site better.

So, anyone have any suggestions for rollover menus?

Issue 14

Here are the current table of contents for issue 14, due out at Wiscon:

Cover
Lisa Snellings-Clark

Fiction

Novelette
Leslie Claire Walker - Your Blood

Short Stories
Elissa Malcohn - Hermit Crabs
Lisa Mantchev - Perfect Tense
Tracie McBride - The Last Tiger
Sandra McDonald - Recipe for Survival
Melissa Mead - Stepsister
Jennifer Pelland - Sashenka Redux
Sara Saab - No Bubblewrap for Little Guys
Michelle Scott - Them
D. E. Wasden - The Artificial Sunlight of Memory
Leslie What - #1
Sharon E. Woods - Bull
Erzebet YellowBoy - Waiting at the Window

Poetry
Lida Broadhurst - Asylum

Having looked at the Table of Contents and done a rough layout of the issue, I've decided I need to add more poetry to this issue. So, I'm going over what's currently slated for the next few issues, and when I get some poetry added in, I'll post a revised table of contents.

This is an all-female contributor list for Wiscon. I'm hoping to have a little something from a Wiscon GoH, but these people are very busy, so I don't want to put something 'in print' and then find out their schedule won't allow. I'll post an update with that, too.

So what do people think about the line-up?

Jay Caselberg = SEXY!

It didn't make the shortlist (shortsightedness? ignorance? who knows?) but Jay Caselberg's story from issue #12, "The Garden of Earthly Delights," was at least nominated for the BSFA (British Science Fiction Award, dontcha know) this year.

Regardless, this just proves to me that Caselberg is as sexy as he acts. Jay's been quiet this past year online, so maybe this will pull him out of the woodwork. The man was a fixture at every convention I went to for a number of years, and now his schedule is too busy to find time to come to the States for conventions.

I, for one, am hoping that will change with 2008.

Some New Content

I've decided that I'm going to post recent story acquisitions here on the blog. In the past, I've put up table of contents of issues as they are nearing publication, but I'll be posting those as I know them. (hopefully I don't change what I've told an author, or post them before I've told an author)

I know the contents of the next three or so issues. I won't be posting them all in the same day. I'll post issue #14 soon, and then every other week or so I'll post the other ones. I also might start posting some about the editorial process. Unlike how Jay Lake blogs about his writing, I think I'll need to get permission of the author before I talk about how I'm editing a story. Or I'll just have to be vague.

So keep watching here to know what's going to be coming out in Electric Velocipede down the road a ways and to get a little inside view on the zine.

Random Thoughts

There are two things that have been driving me crazy for quite a while now.

The first one is the impression that people have that I just recently started this blog. Or even worse, they didn't realize that I blog at all. This frustrates me to no end, but since I never talk about it, I can imagine how it will get any better. If you look in the archives, the first post was in November of 2001, right around the same time I started the zine. This will be the SEVENTH year that I've been blogging.

Second, Electric Velocipede was started and named out of my love for steampunk. I never see enough steampunk submissions (N.B., I am closed to submissions until April 1 [read the guidelines, that's not an April Fool's joke] and at that time, please send submissions to submissions[at]electricvelocipede[dot]com). Now, steampunk is getting hotter and hotter, and it's not helping me any! Maybe I need to have a total steampunk cover or something.

I suspect this is the type of thing that at best I mention to a few people or more likely I grumble about in my head. Not anymore! I will now grumble out loud!

READING: The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes

This is the shortest review ever written: Loved It!

Ok, ok, I'll elaborate. I know I tend to review things here that I like. In some ways, you could just look at the title and buy it if you feel that you can trust my tastes. If, however, you need a little arm twisting, read on.

In a lot of ways, THE SOMNAMBULIST is the perfect novel for me. That is not to say it is a perfect novel, it's perfect for me. Why? Well, it's set in London in something like the Victorian/Edwardian era; it's certainly gaslight and definitely has a steampunk vibe for those of you who like that sort of thing. I love that time period, I love things set in that time period. I love things that FEEL like they're set in that time period. I love the sense of technology that's almost like magic, the feeling that there's a whole world of unknown out there ready to tear our heads off. Just love it.

The protagonist is a fallen detective, so he has flaws, and I like a hero with flaws. Nonetheless, he carries himself with dignity (which is also one of his flaws). In the past he solved flashy crimes, but business has been slow so he's reduced to a magic act with his partner, the Somnambulist. The Somnambulist is a giant of a man who never speaks, drinks only milk, and seems impervious to harm.

Of course, a new crime (a murder!) is committed that requires the detecting skills of our protagonist. Soon the reader is drawn into secret societies, albinos, weird sexual proclivities, Coleridge, shady government agencies, and more. The book reveals layer upon layer with each turn of the page. There was a point towards the end of the book where I literally gasped out loud at a revealed secret.

Now, many people will find this book too light or too pithy for their tastes. If they want to read a piece of new Victoriana, they'll pick up JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR. NORRELL instead. And while I enjoyed Susanna Clarke's book, it was at times too daunting for me. I will admit to having great difficulty reading large, dense tomes. I think it comes from reading so much short fiction.

Where the Clarke novel reads like something from Dickens, the Barnes book has a more pulpy feel to it. And I like that. I like it a lot. The book reminded me of Mark Frost's novels THE LIST OF SEVEN and THE SIX MESSIAHS, but none of you ever read either of those books. Perhaps you read INFERNAL DEVICES by K. W. Jeter? No? Alas.

The great thing is, you can read THE SOMNAMBULIST when it gets published next month. If you like pulpy steampunk books about murder and secret societies, this book will blow your head off. It's not often that I read an advanced copy of the book and still can't wait for the book to be published so that I can buy a copy of it, but this is one of those times.

Baby It's Cold Outside

So last night I'm on my way home from my part-time gig at the public library, and I notice that they've actually plowed our street. Then I realize that I can't see our driveway. I'm a little confused, since most of our neighbors hadn't scraped their driveways.

Then it hit me. The city plow had left me a present at the end of the driveway. We had your typical two foot high, four feet wide snow bank that was left behind as they cleared the street. Unlike most people, this really doesn't bother me. I mean, what else are they supposed to do with it? They're not going to plow everyone's driveway while they clear the street.

So anyway, I gun the engine and sort of force my way over the snow. Then I grab my shovel and start clearing the snow out. I don't really want to shovel after working from 8 AM to 9 PM, but it's better than doing it at 6 AM the next morning.

There's a brisk wind, and I of course don't take time to go inside and grab a hat. I do have gloves, but my head is getting really cold. By the time I'm done, my whole head feels a little numb. Note that I'm not complaining; it's my own fault for being cold.

I head inside for a hot cup of tea and wait for my head to unstuff. It feels like someone punched me in the nose, and the tops of my ears hurt. Hey, I never said I was the brightest bulb.

The crazy thing is, last night when I got home, it was about 5 degrees out. Certainly not warm. But this morning, it was 8 degrees below zero. That's air temperature, not wind chill. The wind chill was something like -30. I have to say that I'm glad I made the effort last night to shovel.

One final thought, I have to give big props to the people at Thermos. I have to park (unless I'm luck) about a quarter mile from work. Most days, it's no big deal. Today, that felt like a long walk. And when I got inside, my coffee was still piping hot inside my Thermos brand travel mug, despite having been carried out in the elements. I could barely hold onto the outside of the mug it was so cold. Mmmm...coffee.

ACQUIRING: Recent Books

Here are two photos of books I recently acquired:

(click through to see titles)
And:

(click through to see titles)
Now, who has some time they can send me so that I can get some reading done?

Chasing into the Rising Sun

(click through to see the list of titles; these are the books I came home with)
OK, I'm still waiting for some photos to be posted about the Philadelphia part of my trip, so I will only speak of traveling to New York for now.

There are several posts that talk about my time in New York. Bill Shunn's is the best/most complete as Bill and I spent nearly all of our time in NY together. Plus he has great photos to illustrate what we did, like eat brains:

But not the Rocky Mountain Oysters:

And there was the whole hookah thing later:

I was in New York mainly for a KGB Reading that I helped set up. The lovely K. Tempest Bradford wrote up the event here. It was an official/unofficial Electric Velocipede thing. Both readers--Marly Youmans and Dan Braum--are EV contributors. Plus we wore the "Tempest EV" t-shirts:

The reading was great fun, as was dinner afterwards. After dinner, we went out for a few drinks. It was awesome to see all these people again. I didn't get much chance to visit some of the places in NY I wanted to see. I guess all that means is that I'll have to go back some day.

A few things I did without my wonderful host Mr. Shunn included having a great lunch with Patrick Nielsen Hayden of Tor Books. We talked about something very interesting that I can't elaborate on here. I also found time to squeeze in a Ramen meal with my uber-talented editor Juliet Ulman.

And despite having a schedule that was more jam-packed than I realized until I got there, I found time to record an interview with Jim Freund for his radio show, The Hour of the Wolf. Jim was very kind to me (mostly due to my schedule) and let me record in advance rather than come into the studio at 5AM to do a live broadcast. I'll let everyone know when it's going to air and when it's available online for listening at your leisure.

It was great fun, but now I'm back in the regular world and back at work. I hope to have a report of the Philadelphia portion of my trip soon.

For the photo-oriented, here's a link to Bill Shunn's photo group of the trip and Ellen Datlow's photos of the reading.

Nebula Awards and Chapbooks

So, the preliminary ballot for the Nebula Awards is available here. Of interest to me and my readers is that William Shunn's novelette "Not of this Fold" from his chapbook An Alternate History of the 21st Century is on the preliminary ballot.

That's awesome! Novelette is probably the strongest category on the ballot, with excellent stories from Ted Chiang, Geoff Ryman, and Kij Johnson among others. I'm obviously pulling for Bill; he's been to the dance before, it would be great for him to get some recognition for the great writing he's been doing.

To that end, I've posted (with Bill's permission) a PDF of the story online here.

If you can vote in the Nebulas, please go read the story before you make any final decisions. Also, please spread the word that this story is available.

Locus Magazine Issue 564 - Vol 60 - No. 1

It's nice to be recognized. Even if it's in small ways. For example, little do they know, but the current issue of Locus, January 2008, is all about me. Oh, it may have Brian Aldiss on the cover, and there's a little article about Arthur C. Clarke turning 90, but I'm there. You might have to squint, and do some feats of Johnlogic to figure it out for reals, but the issue is about ME.

It takes some courage for the editors to get to me (and that's no surprise, noting how important I am in the field), but once they do... But I'll let the evidence speak for itself:

p. 33 I am mentioned twice in the 2007 World Fantasy Convention report. In a section regaling the parties that abounded in Saratoga, I quote, "...the Electric Velocipede High Tea, John Klima's Johncon..."

p. 34 the photo of Allison Baker and Walter Jon Williams was taken by, you guessed it, moi.

p. 44 in the Magazines Received column, Electric Velocipede's cover for issue #13 gets prominent placement between the covers for Black Static and Interzone.

OK, to peel back the cheese and to speak plainly, I was surprised to see so much mention of me in the magazine. I had gone to my PO Box and found my subscription copy there as well as a second copy mailed in an envelope.

In an attempt to unravel this mystery, I took a finer comb to it than normal. I first looked for my photo of Allison and Jon, as I knew that was going to be used in an upcoming issue. I found it fairly quickly. Glad that my photos were actually useful as I am a fairly awful photographer.

Then I decided to read read read the convention write-up. I admit, this was an act of hubris. I wanted to see if I was mentioned at all, since there were no photos of me (apparently I was not in the right places at the right times). I laughed out loud to see my high tea and Johncon get mention. The high tea was an official event, so that wasn't a surprise, but Johncon, well that's a very personal, egoistic event. I mean, c'mon, it's a room party to celebrate me. But it was apparently rocking enough to get mention.

Then when I got to magazines received, my eye was trying to tell my mind that the cover of issue #13 was up there on the top of the page, but I couldn't resolve them together. Finally I stopped and spent time going from cover to cover instead of sweeping across the top of the page. It's not like they don't faithfully report Electric Velocipede when they get issues; I'm just still not used to seeing the cover in places outside of my control.

Now what can I do to get even more coverage next issue?

Submissions to Electric Velocipede

Just to be clear, Electric Velocipede has two submission periods during the year. They are April through June and October through December. We do not accept submissions at other times throughout the year.

Any submissions received after today will be returned and politely asked to resubmit on April 1.

Thank you.

Seth Godin Asks Questions

Specifically, in a recent post, Seth asked, "Who's doing your editing?"

To which I reply, "I'm doing my editing! I is editor!"

From Seth: "Great products, amazing services and stories worth talking about get edited along the way."

Every book needs editing. Putting your book out through Lulu or Booksource without an editor is admitting failure. Talk to any writer you admire, they will tell you about an editor that helped their work.

Hugo Awards 2008

UPDATE: The Jay Lake story IS a novelette.

UPDATE: The Jay Lake story from Logorrhea is a novella. I've updated that below.

It's that time of year again! Time to consider what you would nominate for a Hugo Award. Now that I've savored the elixer of being nominated, I most certainly want to do so again. And for as many different awards as possible. (note to self: start painting to become eligible for art awards) To help out the hordes of people who nominate for the Hugos (like me!), here is what Spilt Milk Press published this past year:

Issue Twelve, Spring 2007

Fiction
Novelettes
Brendan Connell - Dr. Black and the Village of Stones
John Mantooth - Crater Beach

Short Stories
Jay Caselberg - The Garden of Earthly Delights
Bruce Holland Rogers - Look, There He Is
Bruce Holland Rogers - Omens
Luke Jackson - Reduction Descending
Michael Jasper - A Miracle in Shreveport
Paul M. Jessup - The Alchemy of War
Lavie Tidhar - The Prisoner in the Forest

Poetry
Bruce Boston - Make Your Books Well
Bruce Boston - The Money Splicer's Tale
Aurelio Rico Lopez III - haiku
Megan Messinger - Houseguest
Megan Messinger - The Deal


Issue Thirteen, Fall 2007

Fiction
Novelettes
Corey Brown - Obituary for a Living Man
Claude Lalumière - Hochelaga and Sons

Short Stories
Jennifer Rachel Baumer - Until the Wind Changes
Marie Brennan - Selection
Richard Howard - The Dogrog Phenomenon
Philip J. Lees - Sand
Rachel Swirsky - How the World Became Quiet: A Post-Human Creation Myth
Damien G. Walter - Momentum

Poetry
KJ Bishop - The Crone Meets Her Son
Jon Hansen - Under the Garden in Dreams
Mikal Trimm - The Paper Trail
Marly Youmans - When Demons Ruled,
Marly Youmans - Why the People Disliked Art, Circa 2005

An Alternate History of the 21st Century by William Shunn

(Of interest for this are the two new stories)
"Objective Impermeability in a Closed System" (short story)
"Not of this Fold" (novelette)

And not published by me, but edited by me:

Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories

Hal Duncan - "The Chiaroscurist" (novelette, not eligible)
Liz Williams - "Lyceum" (short story)
David Prill - "Vivisepulture" (short story)
Clare Dudman - "Eczema" (novelette)
Alex Irvine - "Semaphore" (short story)
Marly Youmans - "The Smaragdine Knot" (short story)
Michael Moorcock - "A Portrait in Ivory" (short story)
Daniel Abraham - "The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics" (novelette)
Michelle Richmond - "Logorrhea" (short story)
Anna Tambour - "Pococurante" (short story)
Tim Pratt - "From Around Here" (novelette)
Elizabeth Hand - "Vignette" (short story)
Alan DeNiro - "Plight of the Sycophant" (short story)
Matthew Cheney - "The Last Elegy" (novelette)
Jay Caselberg - "Eudaemonic" (short story)
Paolo Bacigalupi - "Softer" (short story)
Jay Lake - "Crossing the Seven" (novellanovelette)
Leslie What - "Tsuris" (short story)
Neil Williamson - "The Euonymist" (short story, not eligible)
Theodora Goss - "Singing of Mount Abora" (short story)
Jeff VanderMeer - "Appoggiatura" (novelette)

And of course, I am eligible for Best Editor, Short Form, and I believe that Electric Velocipede is still eligible for Best Fanzine.

Look Out East Coast!

I'll be flying to Philadelphia on Friday January 11 for the ALA Midwinter Meeting. This is the first big library conference I've ever gone to, so I'll give a nice report about the differences between a library conference and a science fiction convention when I get back.

While I'm looking forward to the big conference, I'm also looking forward to seeing some old friends, hitting the Italian Market, and eating a cheesesteak.

Then, on Tuesday January 15, I'll hop on a NJ Transit train and head into NY. Embarassingly, I don't have definite plans for where I'm staying yet. I have several room offers, so there's no need to offer space. I'm just stalking some hotel offerings and seeing if the price goes down as we get closer to the dates.

I'll be in NY essentially from lunchtime on that Tuesday. I have lunch plans already, but if people are free later, I'm available. On Wednesday, I'm going to the KGB Readings of the Fantastic. This is their loosely Electric Velocipede themed evening. EV contributors Marly Youmans and Dan Braum are doing the reading, and I'm hoping to have a mob of people there in this shirt.

I fly out Thursday from Newark (it was actually cheaper to fly in to Philadelphia and back from Newark than to fly in and out of Philadelphia...go figure). Not too early, but not exactly late, so I'm hoping Wednesday isn't too late a night.

I've already heard from two people that they can't make it to the reading (two HUGE disappointments, although I should be able to see one of them thankfully), but I'm hoping more of you can be there. I'm looking at you Kressel.