Michael Swanwick's Blog, page 23

Under A Harvest Moon - Part 7

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CONTINUED TOMORROW

And while you're here . . .

I'm looking for pithy statements to write upon leaves. Summations, observations, wit--you name it. Post your sentence below and let me know if you'd rather your contribution be credited to "Anonymous." I'll leaf-write, photograph, and post the thirty-one best next October.

(If you're unable to post here, you can write me at miswanwick@aol.com)

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Under A Harvest Moon - Part 6

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CONTINUED TOMORROW

And while you're here . . .

If you were to sum up your life in a single sentence that could be written on a leaf, what would it be? Post your sentence below and your name if you'd like it to be credited. I'll leaf-write, photograph, and post the thirty-one best next October.

(If you're unable to post here, you can write me at miswanwick@aol.com)

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Heady Praise Indeed! (But Keep In Mind It's Not My Book)

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It is rare for anyone to get the glowing review that Rich Horton gave Alvaro Zinos-Amaro in Black Gate for his extended interview with me about every work of short fiction I ever published, Being Michael Swanwick.

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro is, as Horton writes, "deeply familiar with Swanwick's work, and his readings and questions are extremely perceptive." To which I can add that he did a great deal of intensive background research and then spent something like two years on the interviews. Earlier, he had a series of conversations with Robert Silverberg, published as Traveler of Worlds and short-listed for the Hugo Award. The man is intellectually acute and linguistically deft. 

So all praise for this Fairwood Press book properly belongs to him. Along with my undying gratitude to him for spending so much of his time on this project. There were times he amazed me with his insight.

You can find Rich Horton's review here. 

And as long as we're speaking  about me . . .

In the review, Rich Horton gave me the kind of shout-out that we all of us who  labor in the vineyards of literature hope one day to receive. To wit:

The book is organized chronologically, in five-year chunks, beginning in 1980, when Swanwick’s first stories, “Ginungagap” and “The Feast of Saint Janis,” appeared. I remember the excitement at the time about the Special Science Fiction Issue of the prestigious literary magazine TriQuarterly, and the surprise that a brand-new writer had a story (“Ginnungagap”) in it, amidst heavyweights like Le Guin, Wolfe, Delany, and Disch. Obviously the judgment of the editors has been vindicated — Swanwick would perhaps blush to read this, but his fiction fully stands with those great writers, and he is also clearly a writer of considerable literary merit, but also a writer who loves SF and Fantasy and inhabits the genre world enthusiastically.

Could this possibly be true? Me up there in the pantheon of my literary heroes? I will admit that such has always been my ambition. But have I gotten there? 

I don't know. All I know is that there is an unfinished story in front of me and another tapping its toes impatiently after that one. These glowing moments of praise are very pleasant and even nourishing for a working writer. But a month later, they will fade to nothing in the rear-view mirror and the only thing that matters then will be the road ahead as empty and unfeatured as a blank sheet of paper.

And speaking of the publisher . . .

Being Michael Swanwick doesn't come out until November 21. But if you pre-order directly from Fairwood Press you can save three dollars. 

You can order it here.

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Under A Harvest Moon - Part 5

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CONTINUED TOMORROW

And while you're here . . .

If you were to sum up your life in a single sentence that could be written on a leaf, what would it be? Post your sentence below and your name if you'd like it to be credited. I'll leaf-write, photograph, and post the thirty-one best next October.

(If you're unable to post here, you can write me at miswanwick@aol.com)

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Under A Harvest Moon - Part 4

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CONTINUED TOMORROW

And while you're here . . .

If you were to sum up your life in a single sentence that could be written on a leaf, what would it be? Post your sentence below and your name if you'd like it to be credited. I'll leaf-write, photograph, and post the thirty-one best next October.

(If you're unable to post here, you can write me at miswanwick@aol.com)

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Under A Harvest Moon - Part 3

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CONTINUED TOMORROW

And while you're here . . .

If you were to sum up your life in a single sentence that could be written on a leaf, what would it be? Post your sentence below and your name if you'd like it to be credited. I'll leaf-write, photograph, and post the thirty-one best next October.

(If you're unable to post here, you can write me at miswanwick@aol.com)

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"Timothy: An Oral History"

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I'm in e-print again!

My story, "Timothy: An Oral History" was inspired by science fiction positing all-female human societies such as James Tiptree Jr. classic "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" and Brian K. Vaughn and Pia Guerra's quite wonderful graphic novels Y: The Last Man." What if...  I asked myself. That's a bit of a spoiler for the first page or two, but I don't think it ruins anything.

I think it's a terrific little story and I don't think I've ever written anything quite like it. But you be the judge.

You can find it in the October issue of Clarkesworld.

Also in the issue (I haven't read them yet, but I will tonight) are the following stories:

 Possibly Just About A Couch by Suzanne palmer

The Blaumilch by Lavie Tidhar

Down To The Root by Lisa Papademetriou

Such Is My Idea Of Happiness by David Goodman

De Profundis, a Space Love Letter by Bella Han

Post Hacking for the Uninitiated by Grace Chan

Rafi by Amal Singh

And it's free! The twenty-first century may have been a  disappointment on the flying car front, but it has its compensations. Click here to go to Clarkesworld.

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Under A Harvest Moon - Part 2

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CONTINUED TOMORROW

And while you're here . . .

If you were to sum up your life in a single sentence that could be written on a leaf, what would it be? Post your sentence below and your name if you'd like it to be credited. I'll leaf-write, photograph, and post the thirty-one best next October.

(If you're unable to post here, you can write me at miswanwick@aol.com)

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Under A Harvest Moon - Part 1

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CONTINUED TOMORROW

And while you're here . . .

If you were to sum up your life in a single sentence that could be written on a leaf, what would it be? Post your sentence below and your name if you'd like it to be credited. I'll leaf-write, photograph, and post the thirty-one best next October.

(If you're unable to post here, you can write me at miswanwick@aol.com)

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E-Book Sales! Today and Tomorrow Only! (Also, Free Stories)

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It's not just you. Open Road Media has been running promotion-sales of my e-books rather a lot lately. No idea why. But if I can't cooperate with the people who are working hard to earn me money, then what a I doing in this business?

So here's the deal: Today, Thursday, September 21, my first novel In the Drift, is on sale for only $1.99. One day only, and only in the United States.

Tomorrow, Friday, September 22, my dinosaurs-paleontologists-and-time-travel novel Bones of the Earth, goes on sale for one day only. Again, it's just $1.99 and, again, available only in the US.

And what's this about free stories . . .?

Over at Tor.com, they're offering a free download of their Summer 2023 Short Fiction Bundle, containing all the short fiction they've put up online over the last several months. It includes my story, "The Star Bear," so I think it's a terrific deal.

You can find it here. 

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