Tim Pratt's Blog, page 3

A Secret Beach

Podcastle has an audio version of my story “The Secret Beach” up this week, read by the inimitable Dave Thompson. It’s one of my favorite stories to perform at readings, since it’s basically a monologue, so I think it lends itself to listening.

The Kickstarter for my new collection, Antiquities and Tangibles, sailed past $7,000 over the weekend, which means I’m doing the Complete Stories e-book, too. I’ll also write some story notes, because I am incapable of doing any collection without adding a certain amount of authorial blathering. Anyone who kicks in at least $10 gets the new collection and the complete stories. About a week left to go.

Originally published at Tim Pratt. You can comment here or there.

The Couch of Transition

After much thought I figured out a new stretch goal for my collection Kickstarter: if I hit $7,000, I will create a Complete Stories e-book, containing all my published short fiction (minus a couple of work-for-hire things; but if I own the rights, it’ll be in the book). Everyone who donates enough to get the collection e-book (a mere $10) will also get the Complete Stories. And at least for the foreseeable future, the Complete Stories will be available only to Kickstarter backers. It would be a ton of work, but I think the end result — more than 100 stories! — would be pretty cool, so I hope it happens.

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This is my son’s last week at his preschool. In a mere two weeks, he starts his new life at public school. It’s kind of mind-blowing. He’s super excited, though. He doesn’t quite grasp the melancholy aspects, yet.

We bought a new couch this weekend (our old one had busted springs for two-thirds of its width, so using it was like sitting on a melting marshmallow), and it came disassembled in several enormous boxes, so I created a vast outdoor box palace for the kid, dubbed his “houseroom.” It’s so nice to make that kid happy.

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I haven’t quite finished all my work for the year. I’ve got a short story to write, and an anthology to finish up, and a review I promised to write, all due on September 1 — but after that, I don’t have any particular writing responsibilities (besides putting together the new collection), so I might start writing a new book, Heirs of Grace, just for my own enjoyment. I’ll have my Thursdays free, now, with the kid in school, and I can’t spend all those hours napping or getting daytime drunk. (Or rather, I could, but I wouldn’t enjoy it as much after the first few times.) I even came up with a name for my main character, so, hell, that’s the hard part taken care of.

Originally published at Tim Pratt. You can comment here or there.

More on the Constantine Affliction

My alter-ego T. Aaron Payton talks about The Constantine Affliction over at The Night Bazaar, and then he talks about it some more.

Y’all know I pretty much never post reviews anymore, but I did like these lines from one of the Amazon.com reviews (all 5-star so far; I’m enjoying that while it lasts):

What begins as a murder mystery in an odd steam punk London opens up into a fantastic world of Science Gone Wrong, and a love story too! This book has everything, Prostitutes, Robot Women, Tentacle Monsters, Transgender Disease, Lightning Swords, and a love sick Frankenstein.

I cannot dispute any of those characterizations. (Well, I wouldn’t call it a “transgender disease” really, and it’s more like Frankenstein’s monster, but I know what the reviewer means, and can’t dispute the flair of phrasing.)

Originally published at Tim Pratt. You can comment here or there.

Secret No More

Today, I get to reveal a pseudonym!

I wrote a book called The Constantine Affliction, under the name T. Aaron Payton. Ta da!

I’ve been dying to talk about that book for ages, but had to wait until it was actually available for sale. Later today I’ll point you to a blog post over at The Night Bazaar, the Night Shade Books blog, where I talk a bit about the book and the pseudonym and such.

In other excitement, the Kickstarter for my collection Antiquities and Tangibles passed $5K yesterday, which means I get to commission some interior art! Still 20 days to go, too.

 

 

Originally published at Tim Pratt. You can comment here or there.

Impossible Dreams Film Live

The short film adaptation of my story “Impossible Dreams,” directed by Shir Comay, is now available to view in its entirety! (In Hebrew, with English subtitles.) Take 22 minutes and enjoy. Previously seen only at film festivals, a couple of small screenings, and in my living room a few times.

Shir took my basic story and very much made it his own, but if you want to read my original version, it’s online at Wired.com.

Speaking of short stories, we now enter week two of the Kickstarter fundraiser for my next collection, Antiquities and Tangibles, which is doing better than I’d hoped. If you’d like to read the book when it comes out, $10 gets you the e-book.

I’ve finished writing a couple of stories in the past few weeks — “Snake and Mongoose” and “A Cloak of Many Worlds,” both related to the Marla Mason series. (The first is set immediately after Grim Tides, and the second is about some secondary characters in the series.) They were both written as prizes for Grim Tides Kickstarter donors, but fear not, they’ll be available in a future collection of Marla Mason stories. Which I’ve got nearly enough stories to fill, now.

Originally published at Tim Pratt. You can comment here or there.

Love Alone

Miscellaneous things:

The anthology I’m co-editing with Melissa Marr, Rags and Bones, is going to be amazing. We received another fantastic story for it this morning, and at this point we’re just waiting on a couple of final contributions. I’ve been blown away by the quality of work we’ve received. And in a bit over a year or so, you should all get to read it too!

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Bizarro author Spike Marlowe is donating all August royalties for her book Placenta of Love to Planned Parenthood. It’s a fun book — I don’t consider myself a bizarro fan, but it made me laugh aloud, and is even kind of sweet, in its twisted way — so pick up a copy and amuse yourself and do some good.

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The Kickstarter for Antiquities and Tangibles, my next collection, is zipping along marvelously. If I get another $160 or so, I’ll write another new story for the book. $10 gets you the e-book, $30 gets you a paperback, and if you’re feeling more generous, there are other rewards too.

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There’s other excitement bubbling around. In a week or so I’ll be revealing myself as the True Author behind a book that’s coming out this month under a pseudonym. And there’s some audiobook awesomeness that will soon be yours too. These are wonderful times.

 

Originally published at Tim Pratt. You can comment here or there.

Monkeybars

The Antiquities and Tangibles Kickstarter is going well. 150% funded in the first day! And I hit my first “stretch goal,” so I’ll be writing two new stories for the collection. (I do have a way of creating work for myself.)

I just have to figure out which reprints to include in the book. I know some — the award nominees, the ones that have been in year’s bests. Still thinking about which other ones to include. I want a good balance of long/short, light/dark, sentimental/brutal, etc. (Here’s my bibliography. Anything published in 2007 or onward is fair game. Suggestions/demands are welcome.)

On an unrelated note: This morning Officeboy said, “Do you know why I’m excited to go to school today? Because I get to do the monkeybars! I learned to do them yesterday! I couldn’t do it before and then I could! I can go up and down! Do you know how long it took me to learn? Zero minutes! I just watched people who could do it, and then I did it!”

I appreciate his enthusiastic joy in the little things, and seek to emulate it in my own life.

 

Originally published at Tim Pratt. You can comment here or there.

Antiquities and Tangibles Collection Kickstarter

I’ve just launched a Kickstarter for my third collection, Antiquities and Tangibles!

A mere $10 gets you a digital e-book bundle, and $30 gets you a print version. More gets you… more. Details available at the link above. I hope you can support it, either monetarily (mmm, monetary) or by spreading the word.

Originally published at Tim Pratt. You can comment here or there.

Officeboy Dialogue: You’d Prefer an Astronaut

While driving home today:

Officeboy: I want to go to the moon. Also to Mars!

Me: Well, people have been to the moon before, and we’ve sent robots to Mars. We might send people to Mars before too long.

Officeboy: I want to go!

Me: Okay. Study hard in school and work hard, and maybe you can be an astronaut. It’s a hard job, but if you want to do it, you should try.

Officeboy: I will do good in school.

Me: Especially math and science.

Officeboy: What’s science?

Me: Well, it’s a way of learning about the world –

Officeboy, confidently: I will learn about the world and be an astronaut. And I already know math! Five plus five is ten! Ten plus ten is twenty!

Me: Very good!

Officeboy: Seven plus seven is… that’s hard. [Inaudible mutterings.] Fourteen!

Me: Perfect!

Officeboy: Am I an astronaut now?

Me: You’re on your way.

Originally published at Tim Pratt. You can comment here or there.

Project Manglement

I don’t force myself not to work, if I want to work, when I’m taking a break; the point is to do what I want, after all, and the intrinsic motivation of making something cool is often invigorating, while the extrinsic motivation of racing a deadline can be stressful. (It doesn’t have to be, really, if you manage your time well, but I had some unavoidable crunch times this year.)

So I’ve been thinking about projects. And project management. Here are some things I want to do, or have been approached about doing, or need to do, put here largely for my own organizational reference… but also as a glimpse into the mind of a working writer who can’t really remember how not to be working:

A story for the Rags and Bones anthology, “The Cold Corner,” which I expect to get drafted this weekend.

A Marla Mason story (for a chapbook promised to my Kickstarter backers), “Mongoose,” which is already half-written, which I will try to finish by month’s end.

A story about Marla’s cloak, “The Cloak: A Selective History”, for the incredibly generous Kickstarter backer who gave me crazy amounts of money in exchange for a new story about a character of his choice produced as a single-copy chapbook. (I will probably also send him some other goodies, as he funded a third of my goal singlehandedly…) I imagine I’ll write that one in early August.

A story about Mecha-Cthulhu (Of course there’s already a steampunk Lovecraft anthology in the works; nothing new under the sun, etc.) purely for my own amusement.

A story about Mr. Li (of “Captain Fantasy and the Secret Masters”) that I promised my friend D I would write for him. To do sometime this fall.

A new story — I’m not sure what yet, the ideas are still vague — for my next collection, which I will probably call “Antiquities and Tangibles and Other Stories.” Then I get to see if I can sell a collection again.

A contemporary fantasy novel, Heirs of Grace, which I will fiddle around with for the next year or so, probably. It’s not sold, so there’s no hurry.

A new Marla Mason novel, tentatively titled Bride of Death, which will be (I hope) funded by a Kickstarter, which I’ll launch either this fall or next spring, depending on when some other projects get scheduled.

Another Pathfinder Tales novel; maybe two, if I come up with a good idea. And there’s a chance I might be asked to do a sequel to another work-for-hire book I just finished.

I like that to-do list. It’s a good mix of self-indulgence and actual jobs. As opposed to my earlier list, which was all actual jobs, with actual expectations.

Originally published at Tim Pratt. You can comment here or there.