Shared Worlds: Hand in Hand

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Mar 192013

Here’s some handy (and inspiring!) advice from a stack of great authors, including Gene Wolfe, Neil Gaiman, Jane Yolen, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, Joe Haldeman, etc. etc. etc.  I am also somehow mixed up in there, and very very honored to be so.

Shared Worlds: Hand in Hand

Shared Worlds is a great program, and supported by some extraordinary people.  Speaking of extraordinary, the tireless Teri Goulding organized this Hand in Hand project, as well as last year’s very very cool Critter Corral.

Update: the ever-generous Mr. Gaiman blogged about the Hand in Hand project and Buzz Feed picked it up and it’s all gone a bit virus-y.  Here are some pages with my hand and/or quote on it.  And a video.  Wacky.  I’m even misquoted, which I find inordinately pleasing.

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Myster Odd

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Oct 122011

For maximum oddness watch this fullscreen at 720p HD!

I made this video to celebrate the release of the ODD? anthology series from Cheeky Frawg Books.  The first volume features a odd and awesome story from my Clarion classmate Karin Tidbeck, as well as stories from Amos Tutuola, Nalo Hopkinson, Jeffrey Ford, Rikki Ducornet, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Hiromi Goto, Stacey Levine, and Jeffrey Thomas and many more.

For more information on the video, check out my film & music website: www.SuddenSound.com

 

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Clarion Write-a-Thon: Week Two

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Jul 102011

The second week of my Clarion Write-a-Thon effort was somewhat the reverse of the first week.  My first week story at Clarion 2010 had seemed like a complete loss at the time, but last week I stripped it down to the basics of motivation and conflict, and found what feels like a way forward.  My second story at Clarion 2010, titled Goner, was perhaps my favorite at the time, but I’ve really struggled with revising it over this last week. Continue reading »

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Clarion Write-a-Thon: Week One

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Jul 032011

For the Clarion Write-a-Thon, I am revising the six drafts I wrote during Clarion 2010.  My first week story is titled “The Last Cup”.  I came up with the idea Saturday while driving down to San Diego with Clarion-mates Jennifer Hsyu and Dallas Taylor, and wrote it up over the next two days for my first critique that Tuesday.

Because Delia Sherman and special guest Ellen Kushner were the first week instructors, I went with a fantasy: just my second attempt at the genre up to that point.  And for reasons that surely made sense at the time, e.g. delerium, I decided to go for comedy, which was entirely new for me.  But the real test wasn’t the genre, it was the deadline: I had only written six stories ever up to that point, and each one had taken many weeks to complete.  I got myself in a bit of a panic, and started just typing wildly; as it turned out, both the panic and the wild typing would continue for the next six weeks…!

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Clarion Write-a-Thon

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Jun 272011

I am proudly participating in the 2011 Clarion Write-a-Thon, both as a sponsor and as a writer.  My writing goal is to revise the six stories I wrote when I attended Clarion 2010, and get them out the door and submitted somewhere.  Here’s an overview of the six stories; I’ll post more details each week.

I think the Clarion Writers’ Workshop is a marvel–the UCSD incarnation and its Clarion West sister–and worthy of support from both writers and readers.  Take a peek at my other posts on Clarion to get an idea of how wonderful, challenging, crazed, and successful the program and my classmates have been.

The Stories:

Continue reading »

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Borderland Lives

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May 272011

When an idea is is startling and original, we say “it comes out of nowhere”.  But the best of those ideas feel like they did in fact come from somewhere, someplace that had been previously hidden.  It’s a thrill not so much of innovation as it is of discovery; you stare with Keats’s wild surmise, and say “of course it is”, and feel like the world is both wider and a little more complete.

That’s how I felt when I picked up the first Borderland book in 1986.  The blending of punk and faery, the idea that the border with the fée might cut through through our modern cities as easily as it does through the countryside distant in place and time, the grimy half-starved reality of faery’s traditional peril, it all was manifestly, essentially right.

Continue reading »

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Clarion: Jennifer Hsyu's first sale

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May 262011

And it’s a doozy: her story “The Hungry Ghost” will be appearing in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword & Sorceress XXVI, edited by Elisabeth Waters, from Norilana Books.

The Sword & Sorceress series has been running since 1984, and over those years has been one of the few places to find strong female characters at the sword-swinging, spell-flinging end of Fantasy.  Past volumes have featured many of my favorite authors, folks like CJ Cherryh, Glen Cook, Emma Bull, Charles de Lint, and Steven Brust, an august company of which Jennifer is a well-deserved member!  Keep an eye out for the book — it should be in stores in late autumn — and for more stories from the brilliant Ms. Hsyu!

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New One Minute Weird Tales!

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May 172011

I’m delighted to be working on the latest set of One Minute Weird Tales videos for the award winning and thoroughly wonderful Weird Tales Magazine.

You can find the most recent videos on their web site.  This new series includes the educational “To the Nearest Tenth” by David R. Hughes (it’s a word problem), the cautionary “The Nightmare Jar” by Scott Emerson (which reminds us that cleanliness can be next to deadliness), and the healthful “A Visit to the Dentist” by John Walters (why, what a beautiful smile!).

My part in this is to create the video, animate the logo, write and perform the music, and mostly to try not to mess up these great (very) short stories.

These vides are also available on YouTube for viewing on your favorite portable device, so you can amaze and terrify random strangers on the street.

There are many more great episodes in the queue, so keep an eye on Weird Tales.  Actually, keep both eyes on it, just to be safe, and watch out for tentacles…

Clarion: New Stories from Leah Thomas and Samuel R. Delany

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Apr 102011

My Clarion-mate Leah Thomas’s story “Shards” will be featured this week on Daily Science Fiction.  If you sign up for their (free!) emails, you can get it on on April 12, 2011; it will appear on their website a week or so after that.  DSF has been publishing great stuff, like this currently featured story from Jason Sanford; it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on!

And don’t miss Lawn Order, Leah’s ongoing web comic about suburban life, gardening, oh yeah, and the evil vegetative dead!

Clarion-ite John Chu has a story upcoming in the Boston Review, but in the meanwhile, they are featuring new fiction from Clarion instructor Samuel R.Delany.  This is an excerpt from the novel on which he is currently working, but it stands on its own.  We heard Chip read a different section of this work at Mysterious Galaxy; his ear for precise, nuanced description is, as always, extraordinary.

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Clarion: New Stories from Dustin Monk and Adam Israel and...

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Mar 012011

I’m struggling here to keep up with the announcements of new stories coming out from my Clarion classmates!  Dustin Monk’s “Shiny Things”, written at Clarion, will be featured in the inaugural issue of Prime Mincer.  And Adam Israel’s story “Dog Days” is online now at Crossed Genres.  And make sure to pick up Karin TIdbeck’s story in Weird Tales (and a second from her in the next issue), Kali Wallaces’s in F&SF, Tamsyn Muir’s story and interview online at Fantasy Magazine, and keep an eye out for John Chu’s upcoming story at the Boston Review.

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