About five years ago I started work on a novel based on ideas that had been germinating for at least a few years. People close to me knew I was working on a new book, but I didn’t tell anyone what it was about. I’d learned (the hard way) that when I spoke about my fiction ideas, I somehow lost the drive to develop those ideas in writing. So I had fun working on my secret project.
Category: Creative Work/Career Page 8 of 23
Last year when visiting our journalist friend Eve Conant in D.C., I asked Eve for advice in getting my own writing career started. She passed on some advice that had been given to her at one point by a mentor, and that advice stuck with me. While I don’t remember her exact words, the gist of it was to think about building my writing career on three pillars:
I just returned from the 2018 Nebula Conference in Pittsburgh. It was my first writing con of any kind, and going in I was nervous. When I signed up (and reserved my hotel, and purchased my flight) I knew literally zero people who would be attending the con. Some I followed on Twitter (and some of those even followed me), but in terms of people I’d actually met in person–none. I was that unconnected with the sci-fi/fantasy writing community. And I knew that was something I needed to fix.
I’ll be reading an excerpt from my sci-fi chapbook The Icelandic Cure (winner of the 2016 Omnidawn Fabulist Fiction contest) at Moe’s in Berkeley this Friday (March 30th), alongside some fine poets. The event is a combined book release party for Omnidawn Publishing’s Spring 2018 releases.
Here’s the Facebook event page. The event starts at 7pm. Moe’s Books is at 2476 Telegraph Ave, in Berkeley.
If you’re in the East Bay or can get there easily, I hope you join us. No cover charge, and there will be food!
I had two new short stories published in January/February. “The Equationist” appeared in the Jan/Feb issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I’m pleased not only because of the wide circulation and legendary status of this magazine, but also because I’m a huge fan. Editor C.C. Finlay has excellent taste (and not just because he bought one of my stories–I savor every issue).
You can pick this one up at your local magazine shop, or online. I’m also interviewed by Stephen Mazur re: the story’s origins. This story and the entire issue have been reviewed widely and (mostly) favorably (all linked on my Published Fiction page). Here’s one from Filip Wiltgren in Tangent Online: