Michael Swanwick's Blog, page 147

Listen To This!

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I'm in audio again!  My story "The She-Wolf's Hidden Grin" (no points for finding the Gene Wolfe reference hidden in the title) has been picked up for Allan Kaster's audio anthology, The Year's Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction 6.  It is, as I've said before, a gender-switched take on Gene Wolfe's novella, The Fifth Head of Cerberus. 

Gonnabe writers can learn a lot by reading or listening to my story and then looking up the original -- and reading it over and over again.  It really is one of the most brilliant science fiction novellas ever written.

The other stories in this more than nine and a half hours long anthology are:


Which you've got to admit is a pretty tasty lineup.


And this weekend . . .

As always, I'll be on the road again.  I'm going to be at Readercon in Burlington, MA.  I'm not on any of the programming, but I'll definitely be there.  If you are too, feel free to stop me and say hi.


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The National Science Fiction Light Bulb Joke

.I forget which convention it was -- maybe Boskone? -- where I was the toastmaster or emcee or such for the banquet and began by saying, "Please rise for the national science fiction light bulb joke."  But it went over well, and though I doubt you'll laugh at it here -- blogs are a terrible context for jokes -- if you've got a good delivery, you ought to be able to use it to wring a chuckle out of the unsuspecting.

Here's how it goes:

"How many science fiction characters does it take to change a light bulb?"
"I don't know.  How many?"
"Two.  One to change the bulb and the other to say, 'As you know, Fred, the light bulb was invented by Thomas Edison and operates under the principle of...'"

This joke was invented by the late Sarah Purdom, wife of science fiction writer Tom Purdom.  I've known a lot of clever people, but this is the only formal joke whose creator I've ever known.  Prior to hearing it for the first time, I always wondered where jokes came from.  Now I know.

They're made up by elegant, witty women.


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She-Wolves and Dragonstairs

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I long ago arrived at that happy state where I don't bother keeping track of what stories I have coming up in the year's best anthologies.  I usually have at least one, so that's good enough for me.

It also means that when such a volume arrives in the mail, it comes as a pleasant surprise.

Pleasant and surprising in yesterday's mailbox was The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection , edited by Gardner Dozois and containing my story, "The She-Wof's Hidden Grin."


This story was written for Shadows of the New Sun, a festschrift (great word, innit?) honoring Gene Wolfe .  For it, I took the opening paragraphs of his very great "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" and reversed everything.  I turned evening to morning, summer to winter, the north wing of the house into the south wing . . . and, most significantly, the two brothers to two sisters.  Then I wrote a story that I imagined in some alternate reality the great female writer, Jean Wolfe might have.

It would be pompous of me to expand on all that I learned about writing in my close study of the original story and arrogant to expand on all I learned about Gene's story.  Suffice it to say, Wolfe's work is thronged with hidden virtues.  I learned much from it, and had I had the time to write a novella-length work, I would have learned even more.

But because I should say something about my story, I'll give you the following short paragraph from it:

That was the summer when Susanna conceived a passion for theater.  She went to see Riders to the Sea and Madame Butterfly and Anthony and Cleopatra and The Women and Mrs. Warren’s Profession and Lysistrata and Hedda Gabler and The Rover and I forget what else.  She even got a small part in The Children’s Hour.  I attended one rehearsal, was not made to feel welcome, and never showed up again.

I'll bet most readers breezed right past that without giving a thought to what those particular plays had in common.  But writers almost never craft such lists without purpose.  It's one way of keeping ourselves amused in what can be at times a long and dreary task.


And since the book is already open . . .

One of Gardner Dozois' many innovations over the year is his honorable mentions list of stories he found particularly worthy over the previous year but could not include in his  volume.  This was born, I'm sure, from the long handwritten list he keeps on a lined yellow legal pad.

Not to sound immodest, but I usually have a couple of stories listed there.  (Seriously, I'm not braggingt; I have nowhere near the number that Robert Reed has listed every year; and this year Ken Liu has nine stories listed, Nancy Kress has eight, and Lavie Tidhar has eleven.)

This year, however, I'm particularly pleased that one of my two listed stories is Tumbling , which was published as a small, cunningly cut-and-folded booklet by Dragonstairs Press. in an edition of 50 signed and numbered copies.

The founder, publisher, editor, and sole proprietor of Dragonstairs is Marianne Porter .  Who commissioned the story from me.  And who is my one true love and my wife to boot.

You can visit the Dragonstairs Press website here.


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I'm In E-Print Again!

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Every two months, Mike Resnick takes a break from his regular novel-every-ten-days writing schedule (okay, it only seems that frequent -- but  the man is prolific!) to edit an issue of Galaxy's Edge magazine.

Let me repeat that:  Mike\ puts out a bimonthly science fiction in addition to his novels, novellas, novelettes, and short stories.  Just thinking about how much energy that must involve exhausts me.

Nevertheless, in issue 9, the July issue, forthcoming on the Galaxy's Edge website (I'm guessing) tomorrow, I have made my own small contribution to this impressive accomplishment, in the form of a reprint of  "The Very Pulse of the Machine."  This was the first story of mine ever to win a Hugo, so I have a particular fondness for it.

If you're reading this on June 30th, the same day I'm writing this post, you can go over to the magazine site and read the May issue for free.  Then, if you would be so kind, come  back tomorrow to read the new issue.  Both are recommended.

Click here for the site.

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[Dream Diary]

June 29, 2014

I dreamed that the Hugo Awards ceremony had been split in two.  Most of the awards, including those for short fiction, were given on a Saturday night in a drab hotel space with an audience made up mostly of those who had been nominated for the awards.  An air of drab resentment hung over the event.

The Sunday awards, however, were a televised, glitzy event, covering a handful of awards deemed to be the most important.  Because I was scheduled to present one of these awards, I was standing near the dais when Neil Gaiman announced that the Hugo Award for Best Novel had been won by -- Gardner Dozois!  Who came up the aisle as all the audience, movie stars and all, gave him a standing ovation.

Neil observed publicly that this reaction was a "love fest" for Gardner.  Nobody present was petty enough to resent that he had not only won the award but was once again young and thin.

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[Dream Diary}

June 29, 2014

I dreamed that the Hugo Awards ceremony had been split in two.  Most of the awards, including those for short fiction, were given on a Saturday night in a drab hotel space with an audience made up mostly of those who had been nominated for the awards.  An air of drab resentment hung over the event.

The Sunday awards, however, were a televised, glitzy event, covering a handful of awards deemed to be the most important.  Because I was scheduled to present one of these awards, I was standing near the dais when Neil Gaiman announced that the Hugo Award for Best Novel had been won by -- Gardner Dozois!  Who came up the aisle as all the audience, movie stars and all, gave him a standing ovation.

Neil observed publicly that this reaction was a "love fest" for Gardner.  Nobody present was petty enough to resent that he had not only won the award but was once again young and thin.

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Things Nobody Tells New Writers #1

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This is going to sound like a puff piece at first, but bear with me.

Rogues , the anthology with the self-explanatory theme, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, went on sale June 17th and has already hit the New York Times bestseller list.  The reviews are glowing.   Kirkus loves it, noting that it's "without a dud in the book."  Niall Alexander at Tor.com called it "awesome."  And so on.  Everybody loves this book.

I have a story in it.

I haven't seen it yet.

This is normal.

Here's something that new writers are never told, but you really should know:  Before a book is published, advance copies go out to reviewers, to help get the word out.  Then, when it ships, copies go out to all the bookstores.  Contributor's copies to the writers go out last.  If the gods of publishing are in a benevolent mood, the lag time is only a matter of days.  If not, it can take weeks.  The same thing goes for magazines:  They ship to subscribers first, then outlets, and writers dead last.

When this happens to you, it's important that you know that you haven't been singled out for cruel and unusual punishment.  This happens to all writers, including your heroes. The publisher is simply in the business of making money and putting all best efforts in that direction.  Ultimately, this will work to your benefit.  

So when your first story hits the stands, don't feel too proud to buy a copy to wave in the air while you brag to your friends.  You're going to need it, and more, after all.  Because no matter how many free copies you get (usually three for a magazine or anthology, ten for a novel but the numbers can on occasion be tweaked), you've got enough friends and relations expecting you to give them one that you're going to have to dig into your own pockets to cover them all.


And speaking of Tom Purdom . . .

In honor of Tom being named Philadelphia's newest Geek of the Week (see Wednesday's blogpost), Fantastic Books is releasing his collection Lovers & Fighters, Starships & Dragons, as an e-book.

Here's the press release I just received:

Author Tom Purdom has just been named Geekadelphia.com’s Geek of the Week, and in honor of this distinction, Fantastic Books is releasing the ebook version of his collection Lovers & Fighters, Starships & Dragons, which we published in trade paperback in February. The newly released ebook is (or will soon be) available in a wide variety of formats from all major ebook retailers, including BN.com, Amazon, Smashwords, Apple’s iBook store, and many more.

The 130,000-word volume—which Kirkus Reviews named a Best Bet for Speculative Fiction Books in February—is Purdom’s first collection, capping (though by no means completing) a writing career that’s been running more than half a century.

The stories in Lovers & Fighters, Starships & Dragons cover century-spanning life spans, biohacking, personality modification technology, and more. Purdom likes to quote Frederik Pohl’s prescription for a good science fiction story: “interesting people doing interesting things in an interesting future.” He began his writing career over 50 years ago, selling stories and novels to legendary editors like Pohl, John W. Campbell, H.L. Gold, and Donald Wollheim. And for the last twenty years, he’s been roving space and time with an acclaimed string of stories in Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine, which included his first Hugo Award nominee.

In announcing Purdom’s selection as Geek of the Week, Chris Urie writes that the book “is a stunning array of stories that surprised me at their breadth of concepts and topics. They could explore interpersonal and philosophical ideas of a community living on an interstellar asteroid or debate the reasons of war. All of these ideas come wrapped up in a cocoon of thoughtful sci-fi concepts and stellar writing. At their core, they’re idea driven stories that not only entertain but expand your thinking into new territories, which is what the best science fiction always does.”

In his introduction to the book, Michael Swanwick wrote “It is a cascade of brilliant ideas worthy of Greg Egan or Stephen Baxter at their best. On my first reading, I could all but hear the plates of my skull creaking as my brain swelled with the effort of following his characters’ thinking. Yet the writing is smooth and the narrative flows naturally from beginning to end. It is a genuine tour de force and a terrific introduction to the pleasures of Purdom’s fiction.”

Lovers & Fighters, Starships & Dragons by Tom Purdom (introduction by Michael Swanwick)
Print: $15.99, 356 pages, trade paperback, 978-1-61720-943-7.
Ebook: $7.99, 130,000 words.

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Tom Purdom -- GEEK OF THE WEEK!!!

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Long-term residents of Philadelphia have a problem with the notion that our city can be in any way, shape, or form, cool.  There are cool people here, sure.  But they exist in hiding, essentially, within a vast urban matrix of dowdy.

Which makes it ironic that Philadelphia's community of hackers, makers, and suchlike technological savvy people have made the city world-famous as "Geekadelphia."  Ironic, but unexpectedly pleasant.  And here in Philadelphia, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon one of the tribe is to be named Geek of the Week.

This week, it's local legend Tom Purdom, the dean of Philadelphia science fiction.  Tom has been writing and selling science fiction since the 1950s and he's still going strong.  His collection Lovers &  Fighters, Starships & Dragons, is fresh out this year and highly recommended.

The honor takes the form of quite a nice article about Tom by Chris Urie, which you can read here.   It includes an interview with him which includes the following not at all geeky advice to young writers:

Resist the social pressure to consume and rack up debt. Be content to live on a lower middle class income. A writing career is an adventurous, unconventional, financially insecure enterprise. Learn to save and invest—but remember you are trying to maximize your financial independence, not amass wealth for its own sake. Your satisfaction with your life will be based on achievement and personal independence, not the size of your house or the labels on your possessions.

This is, I am here to tell you, the single most helpful thing you could hear if you're planning to devote your life to the pursuit of the word.


Above:  Photograph by Kyle Cassidy.  Damn, but that guy is good.

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A Flower For Daniel Keyes

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There are times when this blog feels like a morgue.  The only satisfaction I can offer you is that I hate it even more than you do.

Daniel Keyes died a week ago, and I put off writing anything about the man for the reason I've just stated.  I never met Keyes, though I was present when SFWA gave him its Writer Emeritus award.  As the award was presented, I saw one of the giants of science fiction clench his fists in fury and a look of absolute hatred cross his face.

No, I won't tell you who.  But I mention this fact to remind you that it is not an author who has died but a human being.  One who lived, loved, dreamed, aspired-- and made enemies.

The relevant thing to remember about him is that his fame as a science fiction writer and indeed as a writer at all is based on a single work:   Flowers for Algernon .

Go ahead.  Name another work of science fiction he wrote.  If you can, you are and should be justly proud of your mastery of science fiction trivia.

This fact, that one need only write a single work of genius to be a great writer, is what keeps so many of us going.  Yes, the odds are against it happening to any individual.  But it approaches certainty that there is a writer today known for competent entertainment who will someday between now and the grave make her or his mark upon eternity.

For which reason, you should treat all honest writers with respect.  One of them may someday become the next Daniel Keyes.  All of them are doing their damnedest.


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The Annotated Me: The Feast of Saint Janis

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There is a band playing in Gorgas Park, a block away from our backyard as I write this, and the lead singer has clearly studied her Janis Joplin.  Which puts me in mind of my first published story, "The Feast of Saint Janis."  So I thought I would begin a series I have long considered running here of facts not personal enough to be considered autobiographical nor significant enough to be in any sense revelations.  Let's call them annotations.

My first published story was "The Feast of Saint Janis, about a Janis Joplin impersonator in a future, diminished America.  At that time, it was very difficult to publish a sf story about rock and roll, so it made me popular among fans who loved --and lived -- the stuff.  One day I was sitting, talking with a batch of the folks and Avedon Carol started talking about Joplin, whom she had known.

But Avedon didn't call the singer Janis.  She called her JJ.  "JJ did this... JJ said that..."

Listening, I thought:  If only I knew this when I was writing the story.

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