Thursday Quick Notes

Locally, the negotiations over a contract for BART workers continue, with thousands of people watching the news or keeping an eye online for updates—a strike has been teased for the next day every evening this week. If the unions really wished to play hardball, there is a tactic staring them right in the face: forget walking away from the table at the end of the day and declaring a strike for midnight—walk off in the morning and declare a strike for 3PM, trapping 100,000+ people in the city. The board would roll over instantly.

In other political news, my 2007 novel Under My Roof has come true, in Germany:


Minus the nuke. It's always minus the nuke. Wimps.

Aspiring writers should check out Wonderbook, a lavishly illustrated writing guide by Jeff Vandermeer, with essays and sidebars by many others, including meeee! At the Wonderbook online annex, you can also check out this editorial roundtable, in which I, Ellen Datlow, Gardner Dozois, Sheila Williams, and other editors critique an unsuccessful short story. You can even download our comments and line edits singly or all together.

Kindleheads can now buy the e-anthology Whispers from the Abyss, which features short (3000 words or under) stories with Lovecraftian themes. A reprint of my "Hideous Interview with Brief Man"—now with the footnotes as midnotes for easy e-reading—is including, as are new stories. A fave, as predicted, was Erika Satifka's Cordwainer Smith/Lovecraft mash-up “You Will Never Be The Same”. Only $3.99, cheap!

Finally, Sarah Hoyt explains that we're already living under full communism. Try to look surprised when I come for you in the night.