Sue Burke's Blog, page 16

The secret of love

Foster Beach, Chicago. https://www.weatherbug.com/weather-camera/?cam=CHCMB

Lost your love?

I’ll tell you a secret. You lose people, not love. We all love people who died. Your love for them does not die until you do, and then we’ll say, oh, but how he loved his mother! And your love will still live, although you and she are dead.

What you need, what we all need, is the means to face another day that will not ask for courage like a soldier in battle, nor daring like an explorer heading into the unknown, nor love like the day your mother dies, but just another day, maybe gray. It will ask you to work in an ordinary job with minimal accomplishments and to eat another meal that is not a feast: an average day that counts for little and yet must be lived.

We lose days and people. Our lives unfold, tending toward average. And yet we can live extraordinary days amid irreplaceable people by giving what was not asked: courage and daring and love.

Starting today.

At last! Cover art for “Dual Memory”

Here’s the cover for my next novel, Dual Memory, available May 16 (but you can pre-order now).

I love the art by Mike Heath—the combination of organic and inorganic minds tells you a lot about the novel. The colors and motif suggest a frigid island with waves whipped by a stormy winds. Under the stars, someone and something are thinking together.

The art was delayed because at first my editor at Tor suggested using art from an AI, since there is an aspiring artificial intelligence artist in the book. Then problems with AI art were revealed, and it didn’t seem like such a good idea. So the process started over with a human artist.

A review by Library Journal sums up the novel well, I think:

Antonio Moro, climate change refugee, undercover mercenary, and self-taught artist, teams up with a chatty rogue AI with ADHD and a whole lot of attitude in this cli-fi techno-thriller. After the “Anthropocene Tip,” the economies and social networks of Earth are collapsing. The Arctic island of Thule, bastion of the wealthy and almost militantly neutral Sovereign Practitioners Association of medical oligarchs, is under attack by global pirates. Antonio and the sophisticated band of machine intelligences led by his AI will bend the laws of humans and robotics to save themselves—and save the islanders from their own selfish consequences as well. A story of human greed wrapped in a thriller, fronted by a confused and frequently petrified human who sees all too clearly that the machines are already running the world and that the best thing he can do is to strap in for a wild ride.

VERDICT This rollicking thriller from Burke moves at a fast pace but manages to maintain its focus on the true threats of climate change and human hubris, all the while keeping readers riveted and entertained.

“Rollicking thriller.” I love that, too. Who doesn’t want to rollick?

Where to find me at Capricon

I’ll be at Capricon, a Chicago science fiction convention that’s been held annually for the past 43 years. This year it will be downtown from February 2 to 5 in the Sheraton Grand Chicago. The theme is “Eternity Awaits…”

“For centuries, writers and artists have speculated on What Comes After; some with smug anticipation, others in abject terror; with abated breath or baited curiosity. Often with a degree of bald humor — gallows, or otherwise. Mythologies and entire religious experiences have been built around these themes, as have stories, novels, poems, plays, movies, and television shows. The Afterlife has become not only a subject for contemplation, but also for entertainment, social commentary, and even adventure. At Capricon 43, we will embrace it all. At Capricon 43, Death is where the story begins.”

What will we do? Capricon describes itself this way:

“We celebrate the best of science fiction and fantasy, with a focus on literature. We are part of the world-wide fannish community, where diversity is encouraged and all are welcome. During the day, members attend programming on a variety of topics: books, movies, television, anime, space exploration, and science. There’s something for everyone including a special children’s track for our young fans and a teen lounge. Visit the dealer’s room, see the art show and attend the auction, get into gaming, karaoke, filk, or party all night long!”

The program of activities and events is here. You can attend for the whole weekend or just one day. Registration information is here.

I’ll be on some panels:

Saturday, February 4, 1:00 p.m. – Flash Fic Meets Scribble Art: A flash-fic/scribble-art challenge: A prompt will be presented and the authors will write a few paragraphs while the artists do quick sketches. Perhaps some will actually go together. Tammy Coxen (moderator), Dex Greenbright, Gene Ha, Tina Jens, Alessandra Kelley, Christine Mitzuk, and Sue Burke.

Saturday, February 4, 2:30 p.m. – I’m a Writer! Now What?: Writing is a solitary act that has few rules of the road. Measuring success and setting expectations as a writer is hard when often we try to compare ourselves to the giants of genre. This session is about how to set your own writing career goals, growing your own audience, and staying on a path of success without having self-defeating expectations. Mary Mascari (moderator), Jonathan Brazee, Sue Burke, Heshe Leontess, and Donna J.W. Munro.

Saturday, February 4, 4:00 p.m. – Writing Short Fiction: What are the beats to a short story? How many plots should you have? Learn why a short story is more than just a smaller novel.    Jonathan Brazee (moderator), Sue Burke, Brendan Detzner, Donna J.W. Munro, and Sophie Partlow.

Sunday, February 5, 1:00 p.m. – Killing Characters for Plot Reasons: No matter how well loved a character is, sometimes they need to die. Shaun Duke (moderator), Jonathan Brazee, Sue Burke, Reina Hardy, and Jeri Sherpherd.

***

By the way, my report about Chicon 8, the World Science Fiction Convention held in Chicago from September 1 to 5, 2022, has been posted at Concatenation.

Barnes & Noble pre-order sale, 25% off

From January 25 to 27, Barnes & Noble is taking 25% off the price of all pre-orders: dead-tree books, audiobooks, and ebooks.

This includes my next novel, Dual Memory, available May 16. The coupon code for checkout is PREORDER25

Soon, my novel will have cover art. I’ll explain the delay later. Meanwhile, it’s a good time to pre-order all the books you’re waiting for if B&N is your bookseller. You can find a listing of some great upcoming books here.

By the way, Dual Memory is included in The Most Anticipated Chicago Books of 2023 by Chicago Review of Books!

Review: “The Apex Book of World SF 5”

The Apex Book of World SF 5 by Cristina Jurado
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For me, the strength of an anthology is in its variety as well as its quality. These eighteen stories cover a variety of countries, cultures, and nations; a variety of story-telling styles; and a variety of speculative fiction — which includes science fiction, fantasy, and horror. The editor, Cristina Jurado, and I have worked together on other projects, and I can see her hand in the choices. A fair number of stories show her fine sensibility toward horror, not with blood and gore, but with dread.

I’ve checked some other reviews, and different readers have loved a story that others found meh, and I think the variety of reactions means that there’s something in the anthology for a wide variety of readers. Here are my favorites, but you may have different choices:

“A Series of Steaks” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad: The story has fun with technology, and it could only have taken place in China.

“Violation of the Truenet Security Act” by Taiyo Fujii: I admit I didn’t follow all of the technicalities of a computer programmer falling afoul of a dystopian internet failure, but I understood the plot. The story could only have happened in Japan.

“Ambiguity Machines: An Examination” by Vandana Singh: Three accounts of unnerving encounters with impossible machines. It ends with a haunting twist.

“An Evolutionary Myth” by Bo-Young Kim: This tale about something like a shape-shifter is steeped in Korean culture.

“You Will See the Moon Rise” by Israel Alonso: A war turns out to be something else. As an aside, I knew the translator, Steve Redwood, and delighted in his anarchic humor; he died in 2022.

“The Seventh” by Eliza Victoria: Truly creepy horror.

“Screamers” by Tochi Onyebuchi: A series of murders leads to a transcendent conclusion.

“Ugo” by Giovanni de Feo: An odd romance takes a philosophical turn that subverts genre expectations.

Again, you might enjoy different stories, but they’re all worth reading. More than ever, speculative fiction plays out on a world-wide stage, and language barriers and national borders give us only glimpses. Here’s a chance to take a closer look.

View all my reviews

We are all illiterate

In my novel Dual Memory, which comes out in May, the main character is illiterate (he had a rough childhood), but he lives in a society much like ours: everybody reads, and he’s surrounded by writing. Some beta readers of the manuscript thought he couldn’t survive if he couldn’t read. I ignored that advice.

I knew better. A long time ago, I taught reading to adults at Literacy Services of Wisconsin, where I learned a few things about reading and about people who can’t read.

People can’t read for many reasons. Some never get much education. I remember an elderly Black man who grew up in the South when people who looked like him were barred from quality schools. Some people fall through other cracks in the educational system. Many, though, can read, but not English.

These are people just like you in that sense. Can you read Chinese, Russian, and Arabic? I can’t even read German, and it uses a familiar alphabet. Drop me in Japan, and I will be utterly illiterate. Of course, your phone and computer have AI programs that can help by translating and reading aloud, but first you have to figure out the software.

So, how do non-readers survive? Often they face frustration, but they find work-arounds. A friend or family member can read for them. They might memorize facts and procedures, like recipes, that readers would look up. In addition, the world offers subtle help.

The photo with this post shows some packages of food with the words describing the content erased. Can you guess what’s in them? Yes, because the artwork, photos, and clear panels tell you. Manufacturers know that not every customer can read, but they want every customer’s money.

I once worked in an ice cream store, and at first I got annoyed at some old ladies who would come in, point, and say, “What’s that? And that?” Then I realized they couldn’t read the labels on the tubs of ice cream. They spoke with an accent, so maybe they came from somewhere with limited education, at least for girls. Maybe they just never learned to read English. But they enjoyed ice cream, and my job was to get them what they wanted.

That elderly Black man had made his living as a professional tap dancer, and he was one of the most charming people I’ve ever met. He was hard to teach because rather than get to the reading lesson, I would have rather listened to his stories about his career and all the fun he’d had. He’d made it through life with his extraordinary people skills.

You meet illiterate people all the time, and they manage to survive.

“Myself and my circumstance”

José Ortega y Gasset, from The New York Review of Books

My novel Immunity Index opens with a quote from the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset: “Yo soy yo y mi circunstancia y si no la salvo a ella no me salvo yo.” I am myself and my circumstance, and if I do not save it, I do not save myself.

If you know nothing else about José Ortega y Gasset, remember that sentence, his most famous, written in 1914. The Spanish philosopher died in Madrid on October 18, 1955, at age 72. He was active in the Second Republic and went into self-exile at the outbreak of the Civil War, although after 1945 he returned frequently to Spain.

For him, “Yo soy yo y mi circunstancia” expressed the constant conflict between every person and the time and place where they are born: the drama and tragedy between necessity and freedom, of living with a reality that “forms the other half of myself.”

For him, freedom meant “being free inside of a given fate,” with a necessity to act: “if I do not save it, I do not save myself.”

 “Life is what we do and what happens to us.” Within fate, we can choose our destiny and create “a project of life.”

Some may find their philosophy of life in religion, existentialism, or nihilism. He created a philosophy based on pragmatism:

“Living is a constant process of deciding what we are going to do.”

What are you going to do?

José Ortega y Gasset, from The New York Review of Books

My plans for 2023

Grid from Scrabalize: https://wordsmith.org/scrabble/

I have a book coming out in 2023: Dual Memory, on sale May 16 (and you can pre-order it now). What’s it about?

Antonio Moro stops running from the people who killed his family and friends, and he starts fighting — but he has no home, no job, no money, and no clothes. He doesn’t even know much about where he is. But when he gets an ally as powerful as it is naive, they find an efficient strategy: lies and deceit. If they can avoid arrest, they can create a fighting force of unbeatable strength that no one must ever detect.

 I’ll have a lot more to say about the novel in the coming months.

Meanwhile, I’m writing the third book in the trilogy that began with Semiosis and Interference. This book, Usurpation, tells what happens to the rainbow bamboo on Earth — or rather, what happens to the Earth because rainbow bamboo is growing there. It should be published in May 2024. I’ll have more to say about that, too.

(Just a reminder, my novel Immunity Index is still available.)

A book I helped translate is coming out soon — Canyonlands: The Ballad of a Quarantine. It is a fictional and deeply lyrical account of the Covid-19 quarantine in Madrid, Spain, by JB Rodríguez Aguilar. It will be published in the first quarter of 2023 by Olympia Publisher, and I’ll keep you posted.

A short story, “The Virgin Who Rescued Dragons,” will be published this fall in the Best of NewMyths Anthologies Volume 4, The Cosmic Muse. When I have more details, I’ll let you know. Yes, there are fire-breathing dragons! It was fun to write.

As always, I’m working on other short pieces, and as there’s news, you’ll find it here. I love to write, and I’m not good at New Year’s Resolutions, but I’ll try to write even more in 2023.

I also enjoy going to science fiction conventions.

From February 3 to 5, I’ll be at Capricon, one of two major Chicago-area science fiction conventions. It will be held downtown, and I’ll be on some panels. At one of them, you’ll be able to watch me write! Tammy Coxen is the panel’s moderator, so it may not sound like fun, but she’ll make it fun for all of us.

I also plan to virtually attend SFWA’s Nebula Awards weekend conference, which will be held from May 12 to 14. Details are coming.

The World Science Fiction Convention will be held this year in Chengdu, China, from August 16 to 20. I love Worldcons, but I don’t expect to attend in person this year due to scheduling conflicts. Because I voted in the 2023 Worldcon site selection, though, I’ve been granted automatic virtual membership, so I might visit online.

I’m likely to attend Pemmi-Con in person, July 20 to 23, in Winnepeg, Canada. This is the North American Science Fiction Convention, which is held whenever the Worldcon takes place outside of North America.

Windycon, Chicago’s other major science fiction convention, will be held in Lombard, a western suburb, on November 10 to 12. I hope to be there.

Finally, I plan to be on the staff of the Speculative Fiction Novel-in-Progress Bootcamp August 13 to 19 at the Siena Retreat Center in Racine, Wisconsin. It’s a supportive but rigorous week-long retreat to help early-career novelists improve their craft and their business savvy.

By the way, all these events are open to everyone, although there may be registration requirements. Check the websites for more information. I’d love to meet you there.

Words of the Year 2022

Wikipedia photo

What single word encompasses the suspense, dismay, and surprises of 2022?

Merriam-Webster makes its choice based in part on what people look up the most. This year it’s gaslighting: “the act or practice of grossly misleading someone, especially for one’s own advantage.” The runners-up are oligarch, omicron, codify, LGBTQIA, sentient, loamy, raid, and queen consort. There’s a story behind each word, especially loamy.

For Collins dictionaries in Great Britain, it’s permacrisis: “one of several words Collins highlights that relate to ongoing crises the UK and the world have faced and continue to face, including political instability, the war in Ukraine, climate change, and the cost-of-living crisis.” Colins also considered Kyiv, Partygate, splooting, warm bank, Carolean, lawfare, quiet quitting, sportswashing, and vibe state. Not all the words, though, refer to crises.

Also in Great Britain, goblin mode is the Oxford University Press 2022 word of the year, chosen by a popular vote. It means “a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations.” Apparently, that’s a popular response in the UK to its permacrisis. In the running were metaverse and #IstandWith (as in #IstandWithUkraine).

Because I speak Spanish, I’m interested in the palabra del año declared by FundéuRAE, an arm of the Spanish Royal Academy. This year it’s inteligencia artificial (artificial intelligence) because of the ethical implications in the development of machine intelligence. “Questions about when and how this technology might be able to replace certain kinds of professional work has been one of the great debates of the year 2022.”

The other choices were apocalipsis (apocalypse), criptomoneda (cryptocurrency), diversidad (diversity), ecocidio (ecocide), gasoducto (gas pipeline), gigafactoría (gigafactory), gripalizar (to treat like the flu, referring to covid-19), inflación (inflation), sexdopaje (chemsex), topar (to create an upper price limit, such as for gasoline), and Ucraniano (Ukranian). It’s been a tough year in Spain, too.

But there’s more year-end excitement! Time’s Person of the Year is Volodymyr Zelensky. I think he earned it simply by surviving.

Publishers Weekly has its People of the Year: The Defenders. These are “the librarians, booksellers, authors, publishers, and allies standing tall in the face of an unprecedented attack on the freedom to read.” As a writer, I second that nomination.

Finally, Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2023 will be Viva Magenta, which I would call very dark pink, but they call “brave and fearless, and a pulsating color whose exuberance promotes a joyous and optimistic celebration, writing a new narrative.” Indeed, Viva Magenta “galvanizes our spirit, helping us to build our inner strength.” That’s extraordinary power.

A few aphorisms

An aphorism, according to Merriam-Webster, is “a terse formulation of a truth or sentiment.” I don’t promise that any of the following express true or worthy sentiments, but they are terse. Let’s prepare for the year 2023 with these nuggets of wisdom:

• It is easier to forgive an enemy than forgive a friend.

• Life sends endless gifts of love to Death, who keeps them forever.

• According to the rain, floods are good and just.

• It is easier to fool someone than convince them that they have been fooled.        

• A liar should have an outstanding memory.

• You cannot wake someone pretending to be asleep.

• Stupidity is a terrible opponent to wrestle.