Michael Swanwick's Blog, page 52

Was There EVER a Cyberpunk?

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I was just now reading Paul Di Filippo's glowing review of Bruce Sterling's new Tachyon Publications collection Robot Artists & Black Swans: The Italian Fantascienza Stories, in which Paul reflects on  how much cyberpunk (by which he means, chiefly, Bruce) has changed in the past 35 or so years.

Cyberpunk, the movement, which was created by Sterling, served him well in the early years, though he never much cared for the name and I doubt he's entirely pleased with how it's still stuck on him, however much his fiction has changed. But thinking about the Old Days brought up a memory of a genial argument that Ellen Datlow and I had back then.

I posited, for various reasons that no longer matter, that there was no such thing as cyberpunk, but that if there were, William Gibson wasn't a part of it. Ellen smiled and said that she was absolutely certain that there was such a thing as cyberpunk and that Bill was its only practitioner.

All these years later, there's been an ironic reversal. The world has decided that cyberpunk exists but that Bill Gibson is no longer a part of it. Meanwhile, I've decided that Ellen was right on both counts.

 I can't say I'm surprised. Ellen is a very insightful woman.

You can read Paul's review here.  

 

And as long as I'm here . . .

I haven't been promoting my own books with all the egotistical vigor I should have. Mea culpa. So this is just a reminder that the ebook of Vacuum Flowers is still on sale and will remain so for the rest of the month of March.

You can find the details here. 

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Annie Without Crow

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I have a new story coming on Tor.Com, this April 7! That's the title and the cover illustration up above. The artist was Wylie Beckert. Who did, I think you'll agree, a great job of it.

Yes, "Annie Without Crow" makes "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-O" the first story of a series. No, I don't expect there to be any more . It's a two-story series. 

Here's how it came about:

Years ago, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman came to the Main Line for a reading. Marianne and I of course went to listen. Afterward, Ellen hit me up for a story for an anthology she was hoping to sell of fantasies based on border ballads. She suggested a few possible titles.

"None of these really sing to me," I said dubiously. "But if you can come up with two vivid images that don't fit together, I'll give it a try." This is the way I write.

Alas, Ellen couldn't get into the game. It's not the way she writes. But on the way home, I said to Marianne, "One element is a trailor truck full of Deinonychus. What's the other?"

Quick as a flash, Marianne said, "A basket full of dead puppies."

"I can write this bastard!" I crowed.

And so I did. "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-O"was the story of how Trickster fell in love with another man's wife and the price he paid to win her. I like the story a lot. It has some rough moments, but it's romantic.

But it bothered me that, though Annie is, in the story, obviously worth everything that Crow goes through for her, she never really got to show how ruthless she could be in her own right. Hence, "Annie Without Crow."

At the end of the first story, after all, Annie became an Avatar and a particularly dangerous one at that. She's nobody you'd want to cross.

But odds are you already have. When you read the story, you'll see what I mean.

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Every Day is a Small Adventure

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On Monday, the governor of Pennsylvania eased travel restrictions, making it possible to leave the state without having to quarantine oneself for fourteen days upon re-entry. (There's not actually any mechanism for enforcing this; but once you start cutting corners on safety...) So I decided to play hooky from work. Marianne and I went down to Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware. This is as safe an activity as can be had in pandemic times. Mostly, we were inside a car and, when we weren't, we were outside and (with one exception) never within six feet of another human being. 

Then, maybe two hours into the refuge, we stopped to look at a great blue heron (that's it above) and when we tried to start up the car again... nothing.

As adventures go, this was a small one, within the hour, a cheerful auto mechanic was telling us that Bombay Hook was his favorite place on earth and that he was grateful to have the call because not only was it a beautiful day but, being on call, he didn't have to pay admission. So he got us going, we curtailed our day and we made it back to Philadelphia on an almost-empty tank of gas.

But it reminded me of how, before Covid-19, almost every day was like that one. Full of unexpected events and strange occurrences. I'm looking forward to being in that situation again.

Also, the great blue was a sport about the whole thing. It stayed in the pond the entire time, stalking its prey and filling up on small fish and creepy-crawlies. So we had something to watch while we waited.

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Vacuum Flowers E-Book Sale ALL MARCH!!!

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 There are a lot of one-day pop-up e-book sales happening these days, but this one is different from the others in that it lasts all month! I think this is a first for me.

At any rate Vacuum Flowers whose protagonist has the undeniably charming name of Rebel Elizabeth Mudlark will be on sale for $1.99 through the month of March. 

Here's the boilerplate, as it was emailed to me:

 
We are pleased to let you know that the following ebook(s) will be featured in price promotions soon.

ISBN13 Title Author Promo Type Country Start Date End Date Promo Price 9781504036504 Vacuum Flowers Swanwick, Michael Amazon - KMD US 2021-03-01 2021-03-31 $1.99

Open Road will promote the feature via social media. We hope you can share the deal with your network as well. You can subscribe to the newsletters at the links below so that you will get the direct link to the deal on the day that it appears.

Newsletter Link   Early Bird Books     Subscribe Now   The Lineup Subscribe Now The Portalist Subscribe Now Murder & Mayhem Subscribe Now A Love So True Subscribe Now The Archive Subscribe Now The Reader Subscribe Now

 

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The Book of Blarney

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Dragonstairs Press, Marianne Porter's one-woman  nanopress, has just announced its latest chapbook, with flash fictions written by yours truly.

 Here's her press release:

The Book of Blarney is being published in a small limited edition this Friday afternoon and is pretty much guaranteed to go out of print within the hour. 

Dragonstairs celebrates St. Patrick's Day! 

Four whimsical, cynical vignettes on the theme of Ireland's religious and literary history.

5 ½ by 4 ¼ inches.  Wrapper of Nepalese lokta paper, in two different states. Decorated with an applied harp label and green ribbon.   Numbered and signed by the author.  Issued in an edition of 50, 11 of which were distributed to participants of Michael Swanwick's virtual kaffeklatch at 2021 Boskone.  36 will be available for sale on Friday, 3 PM EST, at dragonstairs.com.

 Since the run is small, this is pretty much guaranteed to sell out within the hour. Marianne hates it when I point that out. But I mention it just to give you some advance warning.

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Dream Atlas

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I'm in print again! That always makes me feel good. And in good company too. 

Here's how ""Dream Atlas" begins: 

This is new , she thought. Remember it.

 

In her dream, a red-and-white bird with sharp little teeth was fussing over its eggs, turning them with its beak. They were ivory, speckled with brown, and nestled atop a bed of ferns inside a shallow dirt cave. Eleanor heard ocean waves crashing and the sharp cries of other toothbirds as they flashed by. She smelled the salt air, the ferns, the dirt, the sweet tang of droppings—and that was unusual. All within a bright circle of light in the gloom. It was like peering down a long, dim tunnel.

 

Eleanor knew it was a dream because she was a lucid dreamer and…

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To read more, of course, you'll need a copy of the March/April 2021 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction. 

But you already have a subscription, don't you?

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Bones of the Earth E-Book Sale! One Day Only!

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I spent a year researching Bones of the Earth--interviewing paleontologists, viewing fossils, and of course reading intensely. As I wrote, I called paleontologist Dr. Tom Holtz at least once a week with a long list of questions. Then, as I finished each chapter, I ran it pas dinosaur reconstruction artistt Robert Walters, who would return it to me with an insultingly long list of corrections to be made. After which I ran it past paleontologist Ralph Chapman, who returned it to me with an insultingly long list of yet more corrections to be made. When I turned in the manuscript to my publisher, it was the most accurate dinosaur novel in existence.

When the book was published, some months later, it was less accurate. Because new discoveries had overturned some of the novel's presumptions. I don't think I'd date run a rigorous fact-check on it today.

Nevertheless, it's a lot of fun and, I dare to say, a pretty accurate look at what paleontology would be like if only its practitioners had access to time travel. 

And, for one day only, the e-book is coming up on sale! Here's the details as they were given me:

We are pleased to let you know that the following ebook(s) will be featured in price promotions soon.

ISBN13 Title Author Promo Type Country Start Date End Date Promo Price 9781504036467 Bones of the Earth Swanwick, Michael ORM - Portalist NL US 2021-02-10 2021-02-10 $1.99 9781504036467 Bones of the Earth Swanwick, Michael ORM - Portalist NL CA 2021-02-10 2021-02-10 $1.99

Open Road will promote the feature via social media. We hope you can share the deal with your network as well. You can subscribe to the newsletters at the links below so that you will get the direct link to the deal on the day that it appears.

Newsletter Link   Early Bird Books     Subscribe Now   The Lineup Subscribe Now The Portalist Subscribe Now Murder & Mayhem Subscribe Now A Love So True Subscribe Now The Archive Subscribe Now The ReaderSubscribe Now

 

And it's back to work with me . . .

 In the past several days, I've gone over proofed copies of three stories, "Hugin and Munin--and What Came Next," "Dreadnought," and "Annie Without Crow."  Coming out from three different zines. I'll be letting you know which ones, as they are announced.

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Artificial People in China

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Once again, I'm in print in China!  That always gives me a particular pleasure because I've visited the country several times and I have friends in the science fiction community there. 

The magazine in question is Science Fiction World and the story is "Artificial People," which was published not that long ago in Clarkesworld. The story is about an artificially created being coming of age in a difficult era and trying to come to terms with life. So that's pretty much universal.

The late and very brilliant writer Thomas Disch eventually came to the conclusion that science fiction was a children's literature--or, to put it a little close to the bone, a literature for adolescents. Many science fiction writers took umbrage at this. But I gave it serious thought and decided that, whatever Disch's intentions, the claim is not the insult he meant it to be.

For most readers, the most intense period of their reading lives is in their teen years and shortly thereafter. They're still trying to figure out life, to understand what's going on, and as they re ad they're looking for clues. So if you have something to say about the cruelties and wonder, the glory and despair of existence... well, often enough an adolescent will be your ideal reader.

I found myself thinking about this today in part because of the nature of the story. But also because of the nature of Chinese science fiction fandom. For the longest time, SF was seen as a YA literary form. Readership peaked senior year of high school, declined in college, and went to zero on graduation. Cixin Liu was the first writer there to become an adult best-seller. But he's certainly not going to be the last.

Right now, Chinese science fiction is where American science fiction was not so long ago. But they're catching up fast and I applaud them for that. This is an exciting time for SF in China and, as I've often said before, I'm happy to be an extremely part of that.

 

Above: The Dragonstairs Press rug dragon is delighted with my newest foray into print.

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Ending February 4!!! The Iron Dragon's Mother e-Book for $2.99

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This is a first! The Iron Dragon's Mother ebook is on sale! It's available for $2.99 sale today and tomorrow--Febrruary 3 and 4--on BookBub. 

So if a) you read ebooks, b) you'd like to read The Iron Dragon's Mother, and c) you can afford to spend three bucks, well... this is your chance.

People tell me I don't push my books aggressively enough. But that's why I'm in Creative and not Sales--so I won't have to. 

I have people who do that for me.

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Another Day, Another Life Bird

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All the birding community has been atwitter (sorry) about a tundra bean goose (Anser serrirostris) which, though it properly belongs in Siberia, has been wandering about Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. It's an opportunity to add a bird to one's North American life list that will probably never recur in this lifetime.

The goose had earlier been seen on the Schuylkill River, off of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, so Marianne and I hopped in the car Wednesday... Only to discover that the road was closed, for repairs I think. We tried spotting it from the far side of the river but no luck.

This morning we tried again and achieved success by the time-honored method of looking for a group of birders with their binoculars pointed in the same direction. And achieved almost immediate success. Those are some of the birders up above, carefully examining every bird in a flock of Canada geese. Among them, center front, was the tundra bean goose.

If I had the enormous telephoto lenses that some of the birders had, I'd have a great picture to share with you. The tundra bean goose is a handsome bird, with striking features. But I haven't. So I'll just share the pic that Marianne took with her cell phone:

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