Michael Swanwick's Blog, page 109

Things To Do In Kansas City On a Tuesday

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MidAmeriCon II starts tomorrow. Why not get a jump start on it by going to Rainy Day Books tonight? I'll be doing a reading and chat there tonight at 7:00.

And while you're there, you might as well buy a piping hot and fresh from the presses copy of Not So Much, Said the Cat , my brilliant new collection of short fiction. You know that the bookstore people are secretly hoping you will.

Autograph at no additional cost.

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Beelzebub Bids Farewell to Philadelphia

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I got back home Saturday, which of course means that, as always, I'm on the road again. This time I'm off to MidAmeriCon II, the Kansas City Worldcon, where I'm a guest of honor.

Going with me is Beelzebub, who haas been doing a Cat Tour to support my fresh-off-the--presses collection, Not So Much, Said the Cat. To celebrate his stay in Philadelphia, above is a photo of him, taken at the Rocky statue at the foot of the Art Museum steps.

Beelzebub is going to Kansas City with me, but he won't be returning in my company. Instead, Tachyon Publications will be giving him away to some fortunate cat-fancyer.

You can discover the details at the Tachyon table in the huckster room.


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Beelebub Bids Farewell to Philadelphia

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I got back home Saturday, which of course means that, as always, I'm on the road again. This time I'm off to MidAmeriCon II, the Kansas City Worldcon, where I'm a guest of honor.

Going with me is Beelzebub, who haas been doing a Cat Tour to support my fresh-off-the--presses collection, Not So Much, Said the Cat. To celebrate his stay in Philadelphia, above is a photo of him, taken at the Rocky statue at the foot of the Art Museum steps.

Beelzebub is going to Kansas City with me, but he won't be returning in my company. Instead, Tachyon Publications will be giving him away to some fortunate cat-fancyer.

You can discover the details at the Tachyon table in the huckster room.


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My Worldcon Schedule

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As always, I'm on the road again! And when I get back, I'll be flying off to Kansas City where I'm slated to be a guest of honor at MidAmeriCon II.

I'm not sure how much blogging I'll have the time to do, but I'll try to keep in touch. In the meantime, for those of you who are going to be in attendance, here's my preliminary schedule:


Wednesday
2:00 p.m.Does "Today's" Science Fiction Still Inspire the Future? (Participant)
Heinlein, Asimov, and Bradbury inspired a generation of young minds to become today's scientists and engineers. Where have those "inspired" kids brought us today? What connections can we tie back to the works of these SF icons? Are today's SF authors still inspiring younger generations to pursue technology and science? If so, which authors are inspiring the next generation and in what ways?
2207 (Kansas City Convention Center)
with Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Cynthia Ward, Adam-Troy Castro

5:00 p.m.
Opening Ceremony - Meet the Guests of Honor (Participant)
Heinlein Stadium (Kansas City Convention Center)
with Ms Pat Cadigan, Ruth Lichtwardt, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Tamora Pierce, Ms. Kinuko Y. Craft


Thursday
1:00 p.m.
What's New in the World of Dinosaurs! (Participant)
Dinosaurs are cool! New discoveries are being made every day as we unearth bones from the past. In a recent discovery, scientists believe that a pregnant T-Rex found in Montana may have fragments of DNA preserved in her medullary bone. What else is out there? What other news from the past is there to share? 2205 - A/V (Kansas City Convention Center)
with Bennett Coles, Mel. White, Frank Wu, Ms Rosemary Claire Smith

4:00 p.m.
Being Michael Swanwick (Participant)
Tucker Stage (Kansas City Convention Center)
with Fran Wilde

8:00 p.m.
Literary Beer : GoH Michael Swanwick
Literary Beer space (Kansas City Convention Center)


Friday
8:30 a.m.Stroll with the StarsThe Worlds Most Famous Parking Garage: A tour of the Power and Light District.2.15 km
11:00 a.m.
Autographing: Michael Swanwick (tentative) (Reserved)
Autographing Space (Kansas City Convention Center)

2:00 p.m.Short Fiction of the 1980s (Participant)
2210 (Kansas City Convention Center)
with Gordon Van Gelder, John Kessel, Ellen Datlow, Jo Walton

4:00 or 5:00 p.m.
Placeholder for Coode St (Participant)
2207 (Kansas City Convention Center)
with Jonathan Strahan, Gary Wolfe, Kij Johnson

7:00 p.m.
Hard Fantasy - Does it Exist? (Participant)
2209 (Kansas City Convention Center)
with Mr. Preston Grassmann, Sebastien de Castell, Mrs. Laurel Anne Hill, Courtney Schafer


Saturday
11:00 a.m.
Reading: Michael Swanwick (tentative) (Reserved)
2202 Readings (Kansas City Convention Center)

2: 00 – 2:30 p.m.Autographing at Tachyon Booth
3:00 p.m.
The Secret History of Science Fiction (Participant)
“The first thing I did when I became an editor was to learn all the dirt, who hated who and why,” David Hartwell said. “Because if I was going to do business in this field, I needed to know where the landmines were buried.” Then he told Michael Swanwick a scandalous story. With David’s permission, Michael began transcribing his stories of the early years of the genre. (Stories about living writers were never shared.) "The Secret History of Science Fiction,” would have been a juicy addition to our literary history. Unfortunately, David died and with him the project. There are a few entries that remain and this panel is a forum to share such stories and honor David's humor and intelligence.
2504B (Kansas City Convention Center)
with Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Gordon Van Gelder, Eileen Gunn

4:00 p.m.
In Memoriam; David G. Hartwell (Participant)
3501F - A/V (Kansas City Convention Center)
with Kathryn Cramer, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Tom Doherty

6:00 p.m.
Hugo Awards Reception (Invisible)
Saturday, August 20 2016, 6:00 pm
2501D (Kansas City Convention Center)


Sunday
2:00 p.m.MidAmeriCon I: A Conversation (Participant)
A discussion about the first MidAmeriCon from three authors who were there: Michael Swanwick who was a fan and fledgling writer; George R R Martin who was there as an author and co-founded the Hugo Losers Party, and Pat Cadigan as a committee member (and Heinlein's Guest Liaison).Tucker Stage (Kansas City Convention Center)
with George R. R. Martin, Ms Pat Cadigan

4:00 p.m.
Closing Ceremony (Participant)
Tucker Stage (Kansas City Convention Center)
with Ruth Lichtwardt, Ms Pat Cadigan, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Ms. Kinuko Y. Craft, Tamora Pierce

Hope-in-the-Mist & What Can Be Saved from the Wreckage? E-Books!

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I have a particular fondness for my two Temporary Culture books, Hope-in-the-Mist and What Can Be Saved from the Wreckage? Firstly, because they were both labors of love, critical monographs on two fantasists of great importance to the genre. Secondly because Henry Wessells made such lovely books out of them.

The only drawback to those publications was that because a) there is a limited market for such studies, and b) Henry didn't want to have boxes of unsold books cluttering up his living room, they were issued in editions of 200 copies each, plus a very limited number of hand-bound hardcovers.

Both books went out of print very quickly.

This was a particular problem for Lud-in-the-Mis t because it is the only book dedicated solely to Hope Mirrlees and thus any scholar who wants to write about her must somehow track down a copy.

So I am particularly happy to report that Temporary Culture is making both volumes available as e-books through Weightless Books.

Hope-in-the-Mist: The Extraordinary Career and Mysterious Life of Hope Mirrlees is a slim study of the life and works of a woman known in genre for her magisterial fantasy novel Lud-in-the-Mist and in Academia for her magisterial (and long lost) poem Paris, a Poem. The poem was published by Virginia and Leonard Woolf on the tabletop press and is suspected of being a serious influence on Mirrlees's friend T. S. Eliot. The novel is considered one of the founding works of fantasy by all hte usual suspects, including not only myself but Neil Gaiman. Who, not coincidentally, provided an introduction to my book.

You can find ordering information here.

What Can Be Saved from the Wreckage? James Branch Cabell in the Twenty-First Century is my attempt to make James Branch Cabell accessible again. I read everything that Cabell ever published (roughly fifty books, all told) and then passed judgment on them, holding the praiseworthy up for admiration and explaining why the lesser works are of interest only to the completist.(*) In the course of which, I give a quick sketch of the man's life and career, detailing how he took the most successful career of any fantasist of his times and drove it straight and unerringly into oblivion.

But fondly, I hope. There was a lot to like about JBC.

The introduction, believe it or not, was written by Barry Humphries, he of Dame Edna Everage fame. You can find the ordering information for it here.


(*) Neil Gaiman (and I'm sure he's not alone) believes that I've undervalued some of Cabell's works, the short fiction in particular. This is quite possible. Please feel free to decide for yourself. And if you end up feeling I gave the man short shrift, feel free to say so publicly. Fantasists can use all the publicity they can get. Above: The cover for Hope-in-the-Mist.

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Me, Interviewed

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I've been interviewed! Specifically, I was interviewed about my just-out collection Not So Much, Said the Cat.  Over at mylifemybooksmyescape , DJ asks questions and I answer them.

Here's the first one:

DJ: Hey Michael! Thanks for stopping by to do this interview!  For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?

Michael Swanwick: In 1973, I came to Philadelphia with fifty dollars, a pack-a-day cigarette habit, and the mad conviction I could become a writer. Seven years later, my first two published stories placed on the Nebula Award ballot. Since then, I’ve published nine novels, roughly 150 stories, and countless works of flash fiction. Along the way, I’ve won several awards. I live for literature.

And there is, of course, more. You can read the entire interview here.


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My "Five Things" Thing

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This is the second week in a row I've done a Tuesday blog post. It turns out that when you have a new collection out and are about to be a guest of honor at the Worldon, news tends to accumulate. He said, perhaps just a little full of himself.

Today's tid-bit is that I wrote a post for Tor.com . It's one of those "Five Things" things. And it's called "Five Fantasy Books You Won't Find in the Fantasy Section." I recommend 'em all.


Oh, and also...

Over on YouTube, a young woman named Kalanadi gave a generous review to Not So Much, Said the Cat . This is the first YouTube review I've ever received. You'd think the genre readers/reviewers would be all over the New Media things, but it turns out not. Ricki, over at Bookhaven (2202 Fairmount Avenue here in Philadelphia; one of my faorite ) told me once that e-books had seriously cut into the sale of used mystery books -- but not of science fiction. SF/fantasy fans, it turns out, are not early adaptors.

If you'd like to see the review, you can find it here.


Above: TIlda Swinton in the movie version of Orlando. I haven't seen it, but I really must. That's Orlando to a pippin.

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Here It Is, the Distinguished Thing!

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Eat your heart out, Joffrey Lannister! Beelzebub now sits on a throne superior to anything your royal butt has ever known.

I've received my author's copies of Not So Much, Said the Cat, which means that copies have shipped to the bookstores and my latest collection is now available for sale.

(Gonnabe writers take note: Author copies get shipped last, after all the important people have been taken care of. It's maddening when it's your first book, but it's done to maximize profits so, really, in the long run it's all to the good.)

Not So Much, Said the Cat can be found wherever, as they say, fine books are sold.

And since I've mentioned his name by implication...

I should drop in here the fact that George R. R. Martin is not just the author of pretty successful novels. He's also won Hugo Awards for short story, novelette, and novella (two). To say nothing of his two Nebula Awards for novelette. I've got all his short fiction collections, and they're well worth reading.

Not that I'm lending you mine. That's a good way to lose 'em forever.


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A User's Guide to the Mongolian Wizard Stories

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I'm about a third of the way through the Mongolian Wizard stories, all of which to date have been published at Tor.com.

Recently, I provided some notes on the first seven stories for a friend who had a related project going. They have, in the mysterious way these things have of happening, been published on File 770 . And if you'd like an overview of what's going on the series, you'll find them of interest.

I should caution, however, that the synopses of the stories give away the twists and endings. So if you haven't read them but think you might like to, you should click the links and go straight to the stories themselves.

You can find the material here.

Enjoy!


And if you're a serious collector...

The Dragonstairs Press extremely limited edition of Universe Boxes -- altered cigar boxes, found objects, very small art object, and a handmade book with "Universe Box," an original story by your truly -- goes on sale tomorrow, August 6, at 12:00 noon Eastern Coast Time.

Since there are only ten available for sale, they'll probably go fast.

You can visit the Dragonstairs site and see a video of me unpacking one of the boxes here.


Above: The illustration for "The Mongolian Wizard" is, of course, by Gregory Manchess, who has illustrated all the stories so far. You have no idea how fortunate that makes me feel.

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Universe Boxes are Almost Available!!!

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Breaking News!

I just now received the following email from Marianne Porter, the unquestioned ultimate power at Dragonstairs Press. This is so highly-anticipated an event that I'm breaking precedent by blogging twice in a single day. Those who are interested in today's one-day sale of Vacuum Flowers in e-book format should scroll down to the earlier post.


Universe Boxes is issued in an edition of 13, of which 10 are available for purchase.  Price is $215 for shipping in the United States, $225 for shipping elsewhere.  Universe Boxes will be available for sale beginning Saturday, August 6, 2016, at noon, Eastern time.  Please check at www.Dragonstairs.com.

Universe Boxes is a collaborative project by Michael Swanwick and Marianne Porter. The boxes were assembled over several years by me, and the novelette was written by Swanwick.  It is a significant departure for Dragonstairs, and I hope you will be as intrigued by it as I have been. The project has four distinct elements: The Box Each box is an actual cigar box, lined with astronomical charts and photomoechanicals of paleontological art. (Please note: the boxes have been carefully cleaned, bicarbonate of soda-ed, aired out, and Febreezed, but they originally held real tobacco.) The exterior of each box has a Dragonstairs Press return address sticker and appropriate rubber-stamp-canceled postage for the item to go through the mail. (Out of concern for the contents, the Universe Boxes will be padded and shipped in larger boxes.) When each is sold, an address sticker with its purchaser’s name and address will be added. The whole will then be tied up with string. The Contents A variety of objects have been included in each. Every box has a hand-bound signed copy of Universe Box by Michael Swanwick and a vaccine created by Marianne Porter (more on these below). Contents of one box, identified as Coma Bernices/Pleistocene include:             glass beads            vacuum tube            red gem coral Corallium sp.            sectioned geode            postal reply coupon            vintage German glass taxidermy eyes            winged pin            calling cards Plus, of course, the vaccine and book. Some of the above items are common to all boxes but most are not. The contents of each box are unique to it. Packing material consists of early drafts of the included story, run through a shredder. The Story Universe Box is a previously-unpublished 10,500 word fantasy dealing with cosmic powers, giraffe wranglers, the purpose of existence, and the most boring young man in all the universe. Physically, it is a stab-bound book with decorative paper covers, roughly six inches by four inches, issued in an edition of thirteen plus one printer’s proof. The books are all autographed by Michael Swanwick and a contents list is autographed by both the author and the publisher. The Vaccine One vaccine is included per box. These are individual works of art by Marianne Porter, consisting of a glass serum bottle (2 cm x 4.5 cm) filled with specifics “against what ails you.” The bottle is sealed with a rubber stopper and topped with a crimped aluminum cap. It can be opened, but once opened cannot be resealed. The contents of each vaccine are unique to it. The one included in Coma Bernices/Pleistocene, for example, contains human hair, an agate bead, and wire. The vaccines are part of a larger series, none of which have previously been made available for purchase.  Thank you for your support.
Sincerely, 
  Marianne Porter
 
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