Just a little housekeeping today as I added a link to my recent publication of “Before the Wind” to the Writing page.  I added a PDF copy of my short story “In the Great City” as well.  “In the Great City” was published in the first edition of Sybil’s Garage; what a long way the magazine has come since then.

All changes made to the Writing page.

The good folks at Eschatology have published my flash-fiction piece “Before the Wind”.

Check it out here.

A few months back I and several others that were involved with the latest issue of Sybil’s Garage sat down with Jim Freund on The Hour of the Wolf radio show and talked about the magazine and our process.  Thank you to Jim for the audio file and for the Creative Commons license.

Click on the microphone to download the MP3 of the show.

The Fantastic Fiction Reading Series, a monthly reading held at the KGB bar in lower Manhattan, is holding an auction of some really cool items to raise funds for the coming year’s expenses.  Item’s include Neil Gaiman’s signed keyboard, an early draft manuscript of a William Gibson novel signed by the author, a short story critique by Nancy Kress, and many other items, including a critique of your short story by the multi-talented Altered Fluid writing group.

Head over to the website, buy a ticket or two, and help support this long running speculative fiction reading series.

Earlier this season, which seems like a lifetime ago, I read as part of the NYRSF Reading Series here in Manhattan.  N. K. Jemisin and E.C. Myers, both fellow Altered Fluidians, read short stories, while I read the first chapter of an as-yet unnamed novel.  It seemed to be well received, and I had a lot of fun.

The audio file is only of my portion of the evening (I don’t want to be presumptuous and post anything by Nora or Eugene).  And, since everyone always asks, yes, that is my real accent. I don’t make it up just for reading my material.  Also, thank you to Jim Freund for hosting the reading and hooking me up with this recording.

Click on the microphone to access the reading.

Jeremy Jones of Clarkesworld Magazine sent some questions over to Altered Fluid, and we did our best to answer them in a completely serious manner.

Well, maybe not completely, but we did answer them.

The interview can be seen HERE.

Today sees the release of the latest edition of Sybil’s Garage. With issue #7 the format has changed to a larger anthology format, allowing for 18 fiction pieces, nine poems, and one non-fiction piece.

I read submissions for this issue as always and the caliber of work was exceptional. It was difficult to pick what to send on to other editors for consideration and what to hold back. I’m particularly fond of Avi Kotzer’s “Glourious Homage: Quentin Tarantino’s Love Letter to Cinema” (an essay on “Inglorious Basterds”, easily last year’s best movie) and Kathryn E. Baker’s “By Some Illusion” (a piece that sneaks up on you with its emotion and originality).

Another issue for Senses Five Press to be proud of.

Available from Senses Five Press, Amazon.com, BarnesAnd Noble.com and other fine bookstores.

For more information click here.

Table of Contents:

Fiction

 “By Some Illusion” – Kathryn E. Baker
“Suicide Club” – Amy Sisson
“The Noise” – Richard Larson
“A History of Worms” – Amelia Shackelford
“Thinking Woman’s Crop of Fools” – Tom Crosshill
“The Unbeing of Once-Leela” – Swapna Kishore
“How the Future Got Better” – Eric Schaller
“The Telescope” – Megan Kurashige
“Under the Leaves” – A.C. Wise
“The Ferryman’s Toll” – Sam Ferree
“The Tale of the Six Monkeys’ Tails” – Hal Duncan
“The Poincaré Sutra” – Anil Menon
“Kid Despair in Love” – M.K. Hobson
“My Father’s Eyes” – E.C. Myers
“An Orange Tree Framed Your Body” – Alex Dally MacFarlane
“The Watcher Thorn” – Cheryl Barkauskas
“Other Things” – Terence Kuch
“The Dead Boy’s Last Poem” – Kelly Barnhill

Poetry

“Seven League”s – Lyn C. A. Gardner
“One October Night in Baltimore” – Jaqueline West
“Indian Delight” – Alexandra Seidel
“Candle for the Tetragrammaton” – Sonya Taaffe
“Emigrant” – Linsdey Duncan
“Schehirrazade” – Amal El-Mohtar
“The Hyacinth Girl” – Adrienne J. Odasso
“Pathways Marked in Silver” – Marcie Lynn Tentchoff
“Rain ” – Juliet Gillies

Non-Fiction

“Glourious Homage: Quentin Tarantino’s Love Letter to Cinema” – Avi Kotzer

ReaderCon 21 has come and gone. Overall it was another great weekend in Boston with most of the Altered Fluid crew, and a lot of other writers from other places about the globe that I’ve come to know while in the spec. fic. writing community.

The arrival on Friday morning from Midtown Manhattan was delayed by a few minutes due to the car rental office being in the same vicinity as the Today Show’s free Lady GaGa concert. Many people, gridlocked sidewalks, and I nearly punched a tourist or two in the head. But I digress…

I kept true to form and only attended one panel this year. Elizabeth Hand gave a presentation on her time at the National Air and Space Museum, where she worked on a project cataloging all of the museum’s photos, at a time when Laser Disks and film cameras were still cutting edge technology. Her focus was on the odd designs that only existed on paper (paper that was more aerodynamic than most of the concepts). Fascinating material.

Later, I attended readings by Matthew Kressel and Alaya Dawn Johnson (Alaya read from MOONSHINE, her recent vampire novel that I’ll write more on later). The rest of the weekend was taken up with meeting and greeting people at the pool, at the bar, going out to dinner, and an Altered Fluid/Sybil’s Garage party that just would not end.

Overall a great weekend that left me tired yet enthusiastic on Sunday evening, sad to be back to the grind of work yet inspired to write. Already looking forward to next year.

Click here for photos by Matthew Kressel (Yeah, I took my camera, but I kept forgetting it in the room).