Thought on the Nebula-nominated Novelettes

Posted on April 1, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

I finished the last of the Nebula-nominated novellas over the weekend, just in time to get my ballot in before the voting deadline.  I finished the short stories last week and posted my thoughts on them earlier.

Unlike previous years, I enjoyed the novelettes better than the short stories this year.  Not surprisingly, Aliette de Bodard’s  “The Waiting Stars”  was very good, mixing some high-concept science fiction with a personal story of family.  I also enjoyed Henry Lien’s “The Pearl Rehabilitative Colony for Ungrateful Daughters,” an amusing story of figure skating and kung fu told from the delightful perspective of an “ungrateful daughter.”  The other stories were also strong, but I was disappointed with “They Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass.”  The first two-thirds of this story were spellbinding—impressive world-building, interesting characters, and an intriguing plot—but I thought the story fell apart with an ending that answered none of my questions, saw no real character development, and thus felt anti-climactic.

The Nebula Award winners will be announce on May 17th.  If you haven’t read them yet, I recommend you do.  While not every story with appeal to everyone, you’re sure to find something you like.

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“Thief of Futures” Goes Nordic

Posted on March 27, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

I haven’t had a great March I terms of writing, but I did manage another sale.  This one is a reprint sale (“Thief of Futures,” originally appearing in Lightspeed Magazine), but it’s still special for me because it’s to a Finnish magazine called Spin.  This will be the third language in which “Thief of Future” will appear—English and Galacian being the other two.  The editor expects my story will appear this year, although the exact issue (they publish quarterly) will depend on how long the translation takes to compete.

I don’t know much about Spin, but they are published by the oldest science fiction society in Finland (the Turku Science Fiction Society), and are among Finland’s premier science fiction magazines (it’s also Finland’s oldest science fiction magazine).  They only publish a few short stories a year, and even fewer translation, and those have gone to some well-known writers (Tobias Bucknell, for example), so it looks like my little tale will hobnob in some fine company.  I’m also really pleased that this story will get a new audience, and I’m excited to see what my words look like in Finnish.

 

 

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Thoughts on the Nebula Nominees: Short Story

Posted on March 25, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

March has been a lost month in terms of my fiction writing.  The day job picked up incredibly and ate into my designated writing time.  I’ve written over 100 pages of scientific reports in the past month—which I actually enjoy doing, but it hasn’t left much time or energy for fiction writing.  I’m disappointed.

About the only significant writing thing I’ve done this month is work my way through the Nebula Award nominated short stories and novelettes.  As a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, I get to vote for the Nebula Awards, which is a privilege, but also something that is important to me.  But it also means I have a lot of reading to do every March, and I’m a notoriously slow reader.

I finished the five nominated short stories over the weekend, and I must admit that in general, I was underwhelmed by them.  Unlike last year, none of this year’s nominees felt like a sure-fire winner, like last year’s “Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard.  That’s not to say these aren’t good stories.  They are.  They’re well-written with rich characters, interesting settings, and compelling plots.

Sylvia Spruck Wrigley’s “Alive, Alive Oh,” was a wonderful story of longing and nostalgia and probably my favorite of the five nominees.  “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love” by Rachel Swirsky packs a lot of story into only a few words, and Kenneth Scheyner’s “Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer” is a fascinating, experimental tale told as program notes for a museum exhibit—yes it sounds weird, but it works.

I think I know which story will get my vote this year, but I’m going to let these five stories stew for a while as I work my way through the novelettes.  I have a few days left until the ballot deadline.  In the meantime, I have more reading to finish (and I hope some writing to do, too).  March may be lost for me, but maybe I can salvage some momentum going into April.

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2013 Nebula Nominees: Novella and Novel

Posted on March 8, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

A few days ago, I posted the Nebula Award nominees in the novelette and short story categories.  I saved the novella and novel categories for later because, while I’m interested in the longer works, I won’t have time to read them before the voting deadline (March 30).  I’m a woefully slow reader and my time is always limited.  Even so, I’d like to recognize the nominees for best novel and novella.

Best Novel:

• We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane byNeil Gaiman
• Fire with Fire by Charles E. Gannon
• Hild by Nicola Griffith
• Ancillary Justice by  Ann Leckie
• The Red: First Light by Linda Nagata
• A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar 
• The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

Best Novella:

• “Wakulla Springs” by Andy Duncan & Ellen Klages
• “The Weight of the Sunrise” by Vylar Kaftan
• ‘‘Annabel Lee” by Nancy Kress
• “Burning Girls” by Veronica Schanoes
• “Trial of the Century” by Lawrence M. Schoen
• “Six-Gun Snow White” by Catherynne M. Valente

Congratulations to all of the nominees.

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Inspiration: Wheat King

Posted on March 5, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

My flash story “Wheat King” appeared today at Every Day Fiction.  I wrote this piece a long time ago, and it found its way almost immediately into the trunk.  It simply didn’t work, and at the time, I wasn’t a good enough writer to diagnose why.  Slide forward about fifteen years or more, and I found a hard copy of this one stuffed in my writing folder.  I thought it had some good stuff in it, so I tore it down and rebuilt it, focusing on the fears and dreams of farmer John McIntosh and his son and their mystical connection to the crop that was their life.  (A little piece of writing trivia: “Wheat King” is the only story I’ve ever written in the third person omniscient point of view.)

I still remember very clearly what inspired this story.  I’m a fan of the Canadian band The Tragically Hip and one of their songs is called “Wheat Kings,” which tells the story of David Milgaard, who was wrongly convicted of a horrendous crime and served 23 years in prison before gaining his freedom.  My story has no connection to the narrative; it was the song’s title that inspired my story of the McIntosh family and their connection to the wheat they grow.  From there, a few strong images drove the story—the prairie sky being like the dome of a great chapel, the wheat bent as if in prayer, and the way the stalks whisper when the wind moves through.

If you haven’t had a chance to read “Wheat King” yet, please stop by Every Day Fiction and take a look.  It’s short—won’t take more than five minutes to read.  You can then spend the rest of your coffee break checking out some of the other stories.  If you’re so inclined, let me know what you think

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Asimov’s Makes its Nebula Nominees Available

Posted on March 4, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

A quick update on my post from yesterday about the Nebula Award nominees.  I had links to all of the short fiction pieces except the two published in Asimov’s, which originally appeared in print only.  I’m happy to announce that editor Sheila Williams has decided to make their Nebula nominees available on the Asimov’s website for free reading.  I’m not sure how long they will be posted, so if you missed them the first time around and want to read them, I suggest you get them now.  Incidentally, I also corrected an error in which I listed Ken Liu’s “The Waves,” as a nominee in the novelette category, but it was actually nominated for last years award.

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SFWA Announces 2013 Nebula Award Nominations (with links)

Posted on March 3, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

It’s award time again, and I’m not talking about the Oscars.  My little segment of the fiction-writing world has two major awards: the Hugo Award presented by the World Science Fiction Society and the Nebula Award presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).  This week, the SFWA announced the Nebula Award nominees for 2013, and I’m happy to seem some familiar faces, some news ones, and even a few I know.

While the Nebulas cover many categories, I’m most interested in the short fiction categories, so I’ll cover those today and get to the other award categories in another post.  Where possible, I’ve supplied links to the stories so you can check out the ones available for free online reading.

The nominees for best novelette are:

• “Paranormal Romance,” Christopher Barzak (Lightspeed)
• “The Waiting Stars,” Aliette de Bodard (The Other Half of the Sky) 
• “They Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass,” Alaya Dawn Johnson (Asimov’s) 
• “Pearl Rehabilitative Colony for Ungrateful Daughters,” Henry Lien (Asimov’s)
• “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King,” Ken Liu (Lightspeed)
• “In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind,” Sarah Pinsker (Strange Horizons)

and for short story:

• “The Sounds of Old Earth,” Matthew Kressel (Lightspeed)
• “Selkie Stories Are for Losers,” Sofia Samatar (Strange Horizons)
• “Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer,” Kenneth Schneyer (Clockwork Phoenix 4)
• “‘If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love,” Rachel Swirsky (Apex)
• “Alive, Alive Oh,” Sylvia Spruck Wrigley (Lightspeed)   

While none of my stories were nominated, it’s nice to see publications where I’ve had stories appear get recognized, with a special congratulations to Lightspeed Magazine (and editor John Joseph Adams), which published a quarter of the stories nominated in the short fiction categories!  Very impressive for such a (relatively) new online venue.  (I  also notice that, with the exception of Asimov’s, the other two “Big Three” print publications are conspicuously absent in the short fiction categories.)

As a member of SFWA, I’m eligible to nominate and vote for the Nebula Awards.  I’ve only read a couple of the nominated stories, so I’ve got some reading to do before the voting closes on March 30th.  The winners will be announced in mid-May.

 

UPDATED 3/4/2014: I updated this post to remove Ken Liu’s “The Waves” from the list of the nominees.  Ken’s story was nominated last year; sorry about the error.  I also added links to the two stories published in Asimov’s, which made their nominees available for free reading on their website (temporarily I would assume, so read them while you have the chance).

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Every Day Fiction Accepts “Wheat King”

Posted on March 1, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

For a variety of lame reasons (e.g., travel, the day job has gotten busy, been sick, etc.), I’ve fallen behind on writing things I want to post here.  The Nebula Award nominations came out this week and I’ve got my 2014 writing goals set, but those will have to wait, because I’d rather announce a sale.

Every Day Fiction has accepted my flash story “Wheat King.”  For those not familiar with EDF (as they’re often called), it’s a token market with a large, loyal readership.  When I looked at electronic publications last year, EDF ranked above several pro-rate markets in terms of visitation and other measureables, which is impressive and one of the reasons I decided to send something their way.  I thought what I might lose in terms of pay (but really, does sacrificing ~US$15 really matter these days?), would be worth it for lots more readers.  Fortunately they liked my somewhat sentimental flash story about a wheat farmer and his son.

EDF has a fast turn around time, too.  I just checked their table of contents for March and see my story has been slotted in for March 5th!  Holy dirt and bejeezus, that’s four days from now!  Good thing I didn’t wait a few days to post this or it would have been a publication and not a sale announcement.

While you eagerly wait for my story to go live, check out EDF.  As their name implies, they publish a piece of fiction everyday.

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Starship Sofa Welcomes “The Schrödinger War”

Posted on February 26, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

I got word late last night that the podcast of my story “The Schrödinger War” was going live at Starship Sofa.  I haven’t had a chance to hear what narrator Josh Roseman has done with it—and I’m always a little nervous to hear one of my stories read aloud—but I’m sure he and the rest of the Sofa team have done a great job with it.

If you haven’t already taken in this story and if listening to a story isn’t your bag, you can read the “The Schrödinger War” at Lightspeed Magazine, where it originally appeared last year.  So now you have no excuse to miss this one, which is a personal favorite of mine.

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A Great Find and Some Writing News

Posted on February 22, 2014 by D. Thomas Minton

So it’s been almost two weeks since I’ve posted anything.  I managed to get unstuck in the snow and catch my flight to warmer climes for the day job.  Whenever I travel for work, things get exceptionally busy—I have to maximize limited time in the field, after all.  This trip was particularly hectic because during some survey work we found a large number of colonies of a rare coral species, potentially quadrupling the known population size (we need to do more work to determine if the colonies are clones or separate “individuals”).

My writing slowed down this trip (which happens every time I travel), but I still made progress.  I nearly finished revisions on a short story set in the same world as “Thief of Futures.”  It’s a stand alone story, but if you enjoyed the setting of “Thief of Futures” and would like make another visit, this new story might be for you . . . assuming I can find a home for it, of course.  It needs a little more polishing before it heads to the slush piles, but I hope to have that done soon.

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