Rick Wilber's Blog, page 3

Rick Wilber posted an entry

  "The Secret City," my story from the September/October 2018 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, has been named a finalist for the Sidewise Award, which each year honors the best alternate-history stories in both Short Form and Long Form. I'm delighted to be shortlisted for this great award! The story is also included in my recent collection called The Moe Berg Episodes, available in all the usual online places.

     The story follows my fictional version of famous baseball player and Word War II spy Moe Berg as he battles fascism by the side of a mysterious time-traveling woman who guides him through mission after mission as they work to stop the Nazis and their allies from developing the weapons to defeat America. In the story, Mexico is allied with the Germans, Erwin Rommel's tanks are rumbling toward the Texas oil fields, and somehow the woman and Moe have to find and save physicist Enrico Fermi, help him build a bomb, and then figure out how to use it before the Nazis use theirs.

Here is the list of finalists for the Sidewise Award for material written in 2018. The winners will be announced in mid-October 2019.

    Short Form
• Rick Wilber: The Secret City, Asimov's, 9/10, 2018
• Oscar (Xiu) Ramirez and Emmanuel Valtierra, Codex Valtierra

Long Form

• Mary Robinette Kowal, The Calculating Stars, Tor
• Hannu Rajaniemi, Summerland, Tor
• Charles Rosenberg, The Trial and Execution of the Traitor George Washington, Hanover Square, 2018
• Lavie Tidhar, Unholy Land, Tachyon Publications

http://www.uchronia.net/sidewise

Rick Wilber's WiP #2

There's a happy moment in the novel-publication process where your publisher accepts the revisions and the book goes into the pipeline. That's where things stand now with Tor Books and Alien Day: Notes from Holmanville . I haven't heard about a publication date yet, and may not for a while, but you'll be the second or third to know once I do hear.
Meanwhile, I'm staying busy with a new novelette about ancient Rome and dirigibles and a novel proposal or two. A lot of time right now is going into promotional work on the brand-new anthology I've edited for New Word City, Making History: Classic Alternate History Stories that features reprints of a lot of great alternate-history stories from award-winning writers like Karen Joy Fowler, Gregory Benford, Kathleen Goonan, Maureen McHugh, Ben Loory, Louise Marley, Alan Smale, Sheila Finch, Eileen Gunn and Michael Swanwick, Nicholas DiChario, Michaela Roessner, Nisi Shawl, Harry Turtledove, Rich Larson, Michael Bishop and Lisa Goldstein. It's truly a great collection and I hope you'll give it a read.

Rick Wilber's Work in Progress #1

Here's the first post of the new Work-in-Progress reports I plan to make on Goodreads and on my Typepad blog (they're synced here).
First, I've turned in a new solicited short story, "Donny Boy," to the two fine editors of the Alternate Peace anthology for ZNB publishing. The story involves a certain multiverse-hopping baseball player turned spy who I've written about a lot, and a certain young boy who might, if things don't change, become president. Oh, and it mostly takes place in October 3, 1951, which baseball fans will recognize as the day of Bobby Thomson's famous "Shot heard 'round the world." It was a lot of fun writing about an alternate-history hinge point that makes the world a better place, even it is (sadly) just a work of fiction.
Next, I'm working with co-author Brad Aiken on a piece of futuristic baseball fiction that involves a high-tech wrist for a pitcher with what the story's title notes is an "Unfair Advantage." The story needs some tightening, we think, and then expect you'll see it one of the major magazines in the field.
Finally, I spent much of 2018 working on the novel, Alien Day: Notes from Holmanville and the word from my editor(s) at Tor is that they like it a lot, which usually means there's some more editing to be done. The novel is the sequel to Alien Morning and adds some emphasis on two characters who appear in that first novel but come to prominence in this sequel.

Rick Wilber posted an entry

   I'm delighted to report that I am the editor of a reprint anthology, MAKING HISTORY: CLASSIC ALTERNATE HISTORY STORIES, that is now out in ebook form from New Word City publishers. A print edition will follow in a few weeks. I am the editor. Many of the stories were award finalists and winners when they first appeared in print. You may find some old favorites of yours in this collection, along with stories you haven't seen before. Here's the promo blurb and the table of contents:

                                       Making History: Classic Alternate History Stories

              A dazzling display of history as it might have been, this impressive array of award-winning writers explore the histories that were never were, from Ancient Rome to Imperial China and much, much more. The book features classic alternate-history stories by Karen Joy Fowler, Kathleen Goonan, Gregory Benford, Nisi Shawl, Harry Turtledove, Michael Bishop, Lisa Goldstein, Alan Smale, Louise Marley, Maureen McHugh, Michaela Roessner, Rich Larson, Sheila Finch, Ben Loory, Walter Jon Williams, Nicholas DiChario, Michael Swanwick and Eileen Gunn, and editor Rick Wilber.            

                                                                                                                                                          

                        Table of Contents

Introduction by Rick Wilber “Game Night at the Fox and Goose,” by Karen Joy Fowler “The Lincoln Train,” by Maureen McHugh “Zeppelin City,” by Michael Swanwick and Eileen Gunn “Manassas, Again,” by Gregory Benford “Kamehameha’s Bones,” by Kathleen Goonan “P Dolce,” by Louise Marley “ A Clash of Eagles,” by Alan Smale “The House That George Built,” by Harry Turtledove “Something Real,” by Rick Wilber “Vulcanization,” by Nisi Shawl “James K. Polk,” by Ben Loory “Foreign Devils,” by Walter Jon Williams “Every So Often” by Rich Larson “It’s a Wonderful Life,” by Michaela Roessner “The Winterberry,” by Nicholas DiChario “Miriam,” by Michael Bishop “If There be Cause,” by Sheila Finch “Paradise is a Walled Garden,” by Lisa Goldstein

Rick Wilber posted an entry

   The Moe Berg Episodes: Alternate Histories of the Ballplayer and Spy, is available now in the Kindle store on Amazon and at other digital bookstores. The book reprints, in order of their appearance in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, my four alternate history stories featuring a fictional version of the famous baseball player and spy, Moe Berg. The first, the novelette "Something Real," won the 2012 Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History -- Short Form in 2012. The second, the novelette, "At Palomar," ran about a year later in the magazine. The third story, the novelette, "In Dublin, Fair City," ran in 2017, and the fourth story, the novella, "The Secret City," ran in the September/October 2018 issue of the magazine.

    The stories are each individual episodes and don't necessarily connect to each other, though the last two, "In Dublin, Fair City," and "The Secret City," do work together to tell a complete story. There have been a lot of great reviews of the stories over the years. See what you think, and let me know if you'd like to see more Moe Berg stories! Meanwhile, here's a picture of the book's cover and here is the link to the Amazon.com Kindle store site for the book: https://www.amazon.com/Moe-Berg-Episo... 

 

 

Rick Wilber posted an entry

I don't pay any attention to reviews except, when, like, you know, I do. So I'll admit to being pleased when a reviewer seems to find the same sweet spot in reading the story that I found when I writing it. In this case, over the past two or three days, three different reviewers really liked two different recent stories.

"Today is Today" is a multiverse story about a retired football player with a Down syndrome daughter. It ran in the Stonecoast Review #9, and the reviewer for the print edition of Locus magazine said, "The story is in the end about a father and his daughter – and quite movingly so – and the SFnal apparatus is an enabling element, but used quite effectively." He gives it a Recommended.

"The Secret City" is a novella, and it's another of my alternate-history stories about famous baseball player-spy Moe Berg. It's in the current September/October Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. It may be be the last of my Moe Berg stories. Or not. 

The reviewer in SFRevu  talks at length about the story and ends with "I enjoyed this one immensely and it is a great end to the story. But I wouldn't mind seeing another series with Berg and his lady friend sometime in the future." So, hmm, maybe I wouldn't mind that either.

And the reviewer in Tangent Online said of "The Secret City, that it was "a gripping story as it interlaced an eclectic mixture of historical figures with alternative facts. Well worth the read."

I'll admit to liking those kinds of critical reactions: "a gripping story," "I enjoyed this one immensely" and the emotional story is told "quite movingly" and then gets a "Recommended". So that's not a bad couple of days.

Rick Wilber posted an entry

I'm delighted to see my "The Secret City" novella out in the September/October 2018 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. It's my fourth alternate-history/Moe Berg story. All four have appeared in Asimov's, and they'll be out as an ebook with a print edition sometime this fall. In the Asimov's website there's an extensive excerpt from the story, which you can find here: http://www.asimovs.com/current-issue/....  My Moe is similar to, but different in some significant ways, from the real Moe Berg. My fictional Moe goes places and does things the real Moe didn't, in a world that's very different from ours. There's even an alternate Erwin Rommel invading the Texas Republic! Take a look at the current Asimov's to see how crazy things get. Here's the Asimov's website for that current issue: www.asimovs.com

 

 

Rick Wilber posted an entry

   About the most pure fun I've had in writing in many years came from working with writer Alan Smale to create "The Wandering Warriors," a novella that was the cover story for the May/June 2018 Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, and will be out on its own as a short ebook and paperback in July or August of 2018. The story follows a barnstorming baseball team in an alternate 1940s that wakes up one morning to discover they've been brought from Illinois to Ancient Rome by the Empress Julia Domna, to provide some entertainment for the masses, and perhaps cool off the tempers of her two sons. The empress is one of the most powerful women in Roman history, but with the untimely death of her husband (the famous Septimius Severus) she's caught in a power struggle between those sons, who both want the top job and aren't interested in sharing. So it's baseball in the Colosseum (and elsewhere around Rome), in games where the stakes are very high, indeed. There's some Roman politics, a little baseball action and a wild, wild finish to the story that left Alan and I both chuckling with enjoyment over the zany action. It's a romp, for sure, with a Mad Dash to home for the baseball insiders, a lot of Roman intrigue in a surprisingly accurate Ancient Rome for those history buffs (yes, the Romans played a game they called "small ball"), and a closing scene that we think really hits the strike zone. We hope you like it, either in Asimov's (where you can read it now!), or in a month or so when you'll see it for sale on Amazon and elsewhere. 

Rick Wilber posted an entry

    I'm delighted to report that a new edition of my novel, The Cold Road, from New Word City, Inc., is now available in ebook form on Amazon and elsewhere. 

    In The Cold Road, young Melissa O'Malley has inherited a strange obeah sensitivity from her Jamaican mother and grandmother, and it is this unusual sensitivity that allows Melissa to come to grips with some deeply unsettling revelations about her past. The story is set in Minnesota, where a series of brutal murders remain unsolved; and on the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean, where Melissa is building a career in public relations and a relationship with a man who turns out to be trouble. Things spiral downward into danger for Melissa, but her courage, her friendship with a couple of island locals, and her trust in a hardworking detective back in Minnesota ultimately help her to do what must be done both in the heat of the islands and the brutal cold of a Minnesota winter. 

     The Tampa Bay Times said The Cold Road is "a hugely metaphoric novel about "murder and mayhem," where  "Wilber ties cold -- and heat -- to his characters and their motivation so skillfully that the pages set in Minnesota almost seem to be encrusted with snow and ice and those set in the Caribbean drip with humidity."

The Science Fiction Chronicle reviewer called The Cold Road an "intriguing first novel," that "feels more like a mainstream novel than a genre work. I wouldn't be surprised if this attracts a wider readership, both from fans of the fantastic and those who like mainstream suspense."

 

Rick Wilber posted an entry

    I'm delighted to report that Alien Morning (Tor Books, 2016), has been named a Finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of 2016. You can read about the award and see the list of finalists here:  http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/campbell-f... .  Frankly, it's a great list and I'm really humbled to be a part of it. The winner will be announced at the annual Campbell Conference at the University of Kansas, June 16-18.  The complete list of finalists, in alphabetical order by author, is:

Alastair Reynolds and Stephen Baxter. The Medusa Chronicles

Don DeLillo: Zero K

Kij Johnson: The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe

Paul J. McAuley: Into Everywhere

Nisi Shawl: Everfair

Tricia Sullivan: Occupy Me

Tade Thompson: Rosewater

Lavie Tidhar: Central Station

Colson Whitehead: The Underground Railroad

Aliya Whiteley: The Arrival of Missives

Rick Wilber: Alien Morning

Ben Winter: Underground Airlines

Nick Wood: Azanian Bridges