Michael Swanwick's Blog, page 80

Dragonskin!

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Marianne took a notion into her head not long ago and commissioned me to write four flash essays on creators of fiction about dragons. So I wrote about Lucius Shepard, Ursula K. Le Guin, Anne McCaffrey,  and (ahem) me. Then I added a fifth short essay tying them all together and handed them off to her.

Hence Dragonskin.

Marianne created one of her usual hand-sewn, craftily-made chapbooks in an edition of 50 signed and numbered copies, plus another ten half-bound in boa constrictor skin. They went on sale yesterday.

The ten ultra-limited chapbooks went in five minutes.

Of the remaining 50, only 16 are still available for purchase.That's them up above, in their natural habitat--the Dragonstairs kitchen table.

So this will be the softest of soft sells: If you're a collector of Dragonstairs Press publications, or if for some other reason, you desperately want a copy, you should go immediately to the website at www.dragonstairs.com.


And speaking of the Image Book . . .






I'm rather pleased with this one. Usually, I can't draw that well.



Above: For those who came in late, my latest novel, The Iron Dragon's Mother, will be published in 19 days. To draw attention to this fact, I'm serializing the Image Book I made to help me imagine a strange world for the book.
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Free Library Reading Next Tuesday!

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After a long hiatus from such public appearances, I'll be doing a reading at the Free Library of Philadelphia next Tuesday. If you're in the city then and have the free time, why not attend? It'll be fun.

I'll be reading from my soon-to-be-published novel The Iron Dragon's Mother. I don't know what Leanna Renee Hieber  will be reading, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

Here's the info from the Free Library website:

Galactic Philadelphia Speculative Fiction Reading Series | Leanna Renee Hieber and Michael Swanwick Tue, June 11, 2019 7:00 P.M.
Philbrick Hall at Parkway Central Library
Cost: FREE

First Floor Heim Center - Room 131

Leanna Renee Hieber is an actress, playwright and the award-winning author of Gothic Gaslamp Fantasy novels for adults and teens. Her Strangely Beautiful saga hit Barnes & Noble and Borders Bestseller lists and garnered numerous regional genre awards, now in new revised editions from Tor Books with Miss Violet and the Great War completing the series. The Eterna Files trilogy is now complete from Tor Books and The Spectral City launches a new Gaslamp Fantasy adventure with Kensington Books. Leanna’s books have been selected for national book club editions, translated into many languages, and her short fiction has appeared in numerous notable anthologies. A proud member of Actors Equity and SAG-AFTRA, she is a presenter and panelist nationwide, residing in New York City where she is a licensed ghost tour guide and has been featured in film and television on shows like Boardwalk Empire and Mysteries at the Museum. She is the creator and performer of By the Light of Tiffany, a one-woman show channeling 19th century artist and designer Clara Driscoll.


Michael Swanwick has received the Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, World Fantasy, and Hugo Awards, and has the pleasant distinction of having been nominated for and lost more of these same awards than any other writer.  He has written ten novels, over a hundred and fifty short stories, and countless works of flash fiction. His latest novel, The Iron Dragon’s Mother, will be published by Tor Books in June, 2019. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Marianne Porter.


And from the Image Book yet again . . .




A collage. Just another face in the crowd, I'm afraid.



Above: For those who came in late, my latest novel, The Iron Dragon's Mother, will be published in 20 days. To draw attention to this fact, I'm serializing the Image Book I made to help me imagine a strange world for the book.

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Image Book 54

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This one I like. I wonder who she is.


Above: For those who came in late, my latest novel, The Iron Dragon's Mother, will be published in 21 days. To draw attention to this fact, I'm serializing the Image Book I made to help me imagine a strange world for the book.
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Always Flying Home

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If all goes according to schedule, I'll be flying home today. I love China, but my heart lies at home. With Marianne.

All the pictures are in some sense or other of Caitlin.

The text reads:

Pilot to Warrior

Warrior to Refugee

This is the ship of fear which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main,
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer air its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings
And coral reefs lie bare,
And cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

So the plot is afoot.

You'll note that I haven't even tried to make the lines above scan. "Purpled," indeed.


Above: For those who came in late, my latest novel, The Iron Dragon's Mother, will be published in 22 days. To draw attention to this fact, I'm serializing the Image Book I made to help me imagine a strange world for the book.
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Image book 52

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"Trouble," as Marianne says, "on the hoof."

I'm quite pleased with this one. It captures the essence of my world.


Above: For those who came in late, my latest novel, The Iron Dragon's Mother, will be published in 23 days. To draw attention to this fact, I'm serializing the Image Book I made to help me imagine a strange world for the book.
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Walking West Lake

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 Yesterday I was going to spend loafing. Then it occurred to me to take a short walk along West Lake. One sight led to another and next thing I know I was walking across Su Causeway. Then I went to Yufei Temple, took a boat out to Three Pools Mirroring the Lake, an island with a lake in the middle with an island at the center of the lake and elaborate stone bridges quartering the island-lake, and by the time I got back to the hotel, I'd put in eleven miles.

I am very sore below the knees and very happy above.


And speaking of the Image Book . . .

 Now this is creepy. It appears that horses too can occupy the Uncanny Valley.

A collage, of course.

Text: Daymare.


Above: For those who came in late, my latest novel, The Iron Dragon's Mother, will be published in 24 days. To draw attention to this fact, I'm serializing the Image Book I made to help me imagine a strange world for the book.
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Image Book 50

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What does it look like to see through the eyes of a dragon?

Something like this.


Above: For those who came in late, my latest novel, The Iron Dragon's Mother, will be published in 25 days. To draw attention to this fact, I'm serializing the Image Book I made to help me imagine a strange world for the book.
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A Notebook is a Laboratory

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It's Thursday morning in Hangzhou and I have a whole day to myself to read and loaf. Mostly, I plan to wander about the astonishingly beautiful West Lake, and possibly return to the Sidu Causeway, a public works project that's still paying dividends today.

And yesterday, I got to sit and talk for some time with Zhou Haihong, an old friend and a very fine writer.

So I am happy and my life is blessed.


And speaking of the Image Book . . .

The image of a woman in her underwear using a public pay phone was surreal enough it felt like it should have a place in my world. I didn't much like the sexualization of the image, however, so I added a dragon head.

Still not happy with the results, but a notebook is a laboratory. Not everything in it is going to work.


Above: For those who came in late, my latest novel, The Iron Dragon's Mother, will be published in 26 days. To draw attention to this fact, I'm serializing the Image Book I made to help me imagine a strange world for the book.
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Image book 48

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This is a good one. Pictures of Egon and young Esme--from before she sold herself to the Year Eater. Esme is a lot more charming in person than in fact.

Egon eventually got rolled into Fingolfinrhod.


Above: For those who came in late, my latest novel, The Iron Dragon's Mother, will be published in 27 days. To draw attention to this fact, I'm serializing the Image Book I made to help me imagine a strange world for the book.
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Image Book 47

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Above: For those who came in late, my latest novel, The Iron Dragon's Mother, will be published in 28 days. To draw attention to this fact, I'm serializing the Image Book I made to help me imagine a strange world for the book.
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