Speaking of Reading, as Surely We Always Are...

...I might as well post a list of books I particularly enjoyed reading this year, regardless of whether or not they were published this year. BECAUSE DECEMBER IS FOR LISTS, and you might find something here that you'd like to read or give as a gift. These are books to which I was moved to give five-star ratings (out of five, just so we're clear). According to my way of rating things, that means I would gladly read them again and I imagine I'll get even more out of them upon doing so.

None of these links have anything to do with me and I will not profit even a tiny bit if you click on them, unless there's some karmic system that operates on a different level from financial gain, in which case I'm pretty sure there's no law against it. ENJOY.

Non-fiction

• Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity, by Robert Keith Sawyer - "A science-backed method to maximize creative potential in any sphere of life." 
• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, by Elizabeth Gilbert - "Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the 'strange jewels' that are hidden within each of us."
• The Fire Starter Sessions: A Soulful + Practical Guide to Creating Success on Your Own Terms, by Danielle LaPorte - "We have ambition backwards. Getting clear on how you want to feel in your life + work is more important than setting goals. It's the most potent form of clarity that you can have, and it's what leads to true fulfillment."

Fiction

• Medusa's Web, by Tim Powers - "...a phantasmagoric, thrilling, mind-bending tale of speculative fiction in which one man must uncover occult secrets of 1920s Hollywood to save his family."
• City of Stairs, by Robert Jackson Bennett (my second reading of this one) - Divine Cities #1. "Years ago, the city of Bulikov wielded the powers of the Gods to conquer the world. But after its divine protectors were mysteriously killed, the conqueror has become the conquered; the city's proud history has been erased and censored, progress has left it behind, and it is just another colonial outpost of the world's new geopolitical power. Into this musty, backward city steps Shara Thivani. Officially, the quiet woman is just another lowly diplomat sent by Bulikov's oppressors. Unofficially, Shara is one of her country's most accomplished spymasters — dispatched to investigate the brutal murder of a seemingly harmless historian. As Shara pursues the mystery through the ever-shifting physical and political geography of the city, she begins to suspect that the beings who once protected Bulikov may not be as dead as they seem — and that her own abilities might be touched by the divine as well."
• City of Blades, by Robert Jackson Bennett - Divine Cities #2. Just as outstanding as the first! I'm looking forward to #3 in 2017.
• The Library at Mount Char, by Scott Hawkins - The description of this book is too long to quote, and it also doesn't even begin to explain how freaking weird, dark, awesome, and amazing this book is. Probably because that would be impossible to explain. JUST READ IT.
• The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison (my second reading) - "A vividly imagined fantasy of court intrigue and dark magics in a steampunk-inflected world, by a brilliant young talent. The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an "accident," he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir."
• Uprooted, by Naomi Novik - "Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life. Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood."
• The Severed Streets, by Paul Cornell - "Summer in London: a city in turmoil. The vicious murder of a well-known MP is like a match to tinder but Detective Inspector James Quill and his team know that it's not a run-of-the-mill homicide. Still coming to terms with their new-found second sight, they soon discover that what is invisible to others - the killer - is visible to them. Even if they have no idea who it is."
• The Necromancer's House, by Christopher Buehlman - "Andrew Ranulf Blankenship is a handsome, stylish nonconformist with wry wit, a classic Mustang, and a massive library. He is also a recovering alcoholic and a practicing warlock, able to speak with the dead through film. His house is a maze of sorcerous booby traps and escape tunnels, as yours might be if you were sitting on a treasury of Russian magic stolen from the Soviet Union thirty years ago. Andrew has long known that magic was a brutal game requiring blood sacrifice and a willingness to confront death, but his many years of peace and comfort have left him soft, more concerned with maintaining false youth than with seeing to his own defense. Now a monster straight from the pages of Russian folklore is coming for him, and frost and death are coming with her."

More Is Not Always Better, Unless You're Talking about Kittens

(My new kitten, Annabelle)

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Today's photo has nothing to do with today's topic. BUT LOOK AT THIS SWEET LITTLE FACE.

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I'm really here about the reading challenge I signed up for this year on Goodreads.com. I was possibly a little too ambitious. See, for my 2015 challenge, I said I would read 50 books in 2015 and I did. Just barely. 

Then I thought I should really PUSH MYSELF for 2016, so I signed myself up to read 60 books this year. As of today, December 7th, I'm at 52, and almost done with two more books, but even after those two are done I'll need to finish reading six books by the end of December 31st if I'm going to finish the challenge. I might do it. I might take a couple/few days to just read, and choose some short books so that I can finish them. I've already read more books than I did last year. However, I'm starting to feel that this challenge thing is not helping me, for the following reasons:

• I sometimes avoid choosing longer books, just to get done faster.
• I rush through reading books, just to get done faster.
• I force myself to finish books I don't really like, just to avoid losing the sunk cost of the time I've put into starting to read them.

...and for what? To say I've technically read a large-ish number of books, when I didn't get much out of them due to the rushing though? That's just dumb. The main benefit I get out of the reading challenge is that I end up with a convenient list of what I've read in a given year, in order. To get that benefit, I could sign up for a much smaller challenge--say, 12 books in a year, because I'd have to spend most of the year in a coma to avoid reading that many. So that's what I'm going to do. I'll probably end up reading more, but it will be at the pace I want, because I feel like it. 

The Friday Report for February 12, 2016

One of my images for this week...

You can see more on my Instagram page.

I'm going to have to make this week's report a quick jog through the highlights, because I'm starving AND I have to go drop off books at the library. So here we go!

My projects:

Writing: Last week, I decided that I wanted to have my current story pretty much finished by today--everything but the final polishing edit done. I did not reach that goal. I don't feel too bad about it because I'm about halfway there. I've worked on it every day this week, but it's a weird story and I keep getting new ideas for what to do with it, so that's a bad news/good news scenario.

I did find a couple of anthologies I want to write my next stories for, though. They're both due on May 1st: Ghosts on Drugs, and Survivor. 

Reading: Still the same books as last week, but I've also added two.

• Year's Best Fiction Volume Two, edited by Kathe Koja and Michael Kelly
• Fire Up Your Writing Brain, by Susan Reynolds

February's Other Project: I nailed the back onto my new desk. Next up: assembling and installing the drawers and keyboard tray. DESKS ARE COMPLICATED.

The Friday Report for February 5, 2016

One of my Instagram images for the week!

(I surrender to my need to make more than one per week.)

Hello! This Friday Report is here despite the fact that I had sick kids at home for three out of my five work days, including today. Nothing too serious, just some coughing. It's February. This is what happens in February.

I've even written a decent amount of fiction! I finished a very rough draft of my new story yesterday, at five thousand words. It's a good thing that I went back and checked the guidelines, because I had been thinking it could be six thousand words long, but it could not. Five thousand was, and is, the limit. Does this mean the story is done? Not even close, because when I say "very rough draft," I mean "nobody sees this version but me." But after today's work of starting to convert "rough" to "readable," I feel good about the first thousand words of the story, and I just have the remaining four thousand to turn into prose that I would want to submit.

I feel like it's time to start thinking about what kind of a story I'll write after this one, so that I'll have a project to work on after I finish this draft, while I'm waiting to do the final version. I like to do three drafts: 1) very rough; 2) pretty much finished; and 3) thoroughly polished. After a story is pretty much finished, I like to leave it alone for maybe a week so that I get some distance, and then I print it in a different font from what I used when I wrote it, and I read it out loud while walking around the house. That gives me a few different ways to notice things like repeated words, typos, and most importantly, the way the sentences sound. I mark the printout with any changes I want to make and then incorporate them, and make sure the final file is in Standard Manuscript Format, and then I send the story to its destination. 

So now I must figure out what to write next. I'm currently most interested in writing The Weird as a subgenre of speculative fiction, but that could include all sorts of things. I'm also going to look for themed anthology calls that will involve actual money being paid for stories, because that's been my route to publication every single time, so far.

My Projects:

Writing: I have two weeks to get this Weird West story to the thoroughly polished stage--because that's what I promised my writing buddy--so I'd like to have it pretty much finished by next Friday. And I want to have a new story idea forming by then, too.

Reading: 

• City of Stairs, by Robert Jackson Bennett. I'm re-reading this because I want to refresh my memory before I read his new book, City of Blades. I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU BUY AND READ BOTH.
• Undeniable, by Bill Nye

February's Other Project: Still my new office! This is taking a while! But I have the desk halfway assembled, which is more than I could say last week.

The Double Friday Report for Januarys 29th and 22nd, 2016, Because I Missed Last Week

Double the Instagrams, double the fun!

(Click the link to see so many more, you will be BOGGLED)

Good day to you! Last Friday my eldest son gave a presentation at school, so I went to that instead of blogging. I thought I'd just blog on Monday. GUESS HOW THAT WORKED OUT.

Last week, I did some good work on the story I'm writing. I had the realization that, for once, I had started it at a point too far into the story, and it could use a new beginning that would show the inciting incident. Usually it's far too easy to start a story too early in the character's timeline, which can slow down the pace by including unnecessary information. I felt good about figuring that out, but I still didn't know the ending.

I'm about to do something that's a bit uncomfortable for me, but I've been inspired by Austin Kleon's awesome book, Show Your Work!, so this is his fault. I decided to figure out the ending of my story by writing a sonnet, because I love writing them--they're like making up your own puzzle and solving it as you go along--and I thought it would trick my subconscious mind into revealing a solution for me, which it did. The uncomfortable part is that I don't tend to post this sort of stuff, because it's not finished, it's more like poetic notes, but I'm going to take Kleon's advice and post that sonnet. 

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A young child weeping helpless on the ground,

And half-hid under bushes, turned away,

Reveals a secret, once she has been found,

Her eyes a mix of power and decay.

A kindness met with slash of sudden claw--

A fever builds, unconsciousness, abyss--

Awake anew and see with horrid awe

The world beneath the surface is amiss.

So enter, now, the traveling milieu

Where poison--posed as healing--fakers give,

Then thread the maze, a pathway shown to few,

And heal the sickness, only then to live.

The wound received has turned into a gift,

The wicked ones returned back through the rift.

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This is not a sonnet that tells a story clearly by itself, but it's like a message from my subconscious mind to me. A few of the lines came out as complete surprises that showed me exactly what to do in the story, and now I know my ending. I still have to write it all out, but I do much better with that part once I have an outline, no matter what form the outline takes.

My projects:

Writing: I've written over 3,000 words on the story, and I would like to finish a rough draft of about 6,000 words total by the end of next week. 

Reading: 

• Ruby and the Stone Age Diet, by Martin Millar
• Craft, Inc., by Meg Mateo Ilasco
• Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation, by Bill Nye

January's Other Project: My new office. I've moved furniture around and hung an organizer thingy on the wall--it's a chalkboard on one half, and has wire mesh to clip things on with mini clothespins on the other half. I have yet to assemble my new desk, office chair, and small set of shelves, but there's not much procrastination between me and those tasks!

The Friday Report for January 15, 2016

This is one of the two images I posted on my Instagram page this week. 

(I know I SAID I'd only do one per week, but sometimes I need to make more art!)

This week I had a lot of Life Business to attend to. I AM NOT A FAN OF LIFE BUSINESS. But it has to be done. There's a great big oak tree in front of my house, looming over my roof, which is missing a large patch of the outer bark that's supposed to be on the trunk, and it has dead branches and a tendency to drop chunks of dead branch even when there's hardly any wind blowing. I live in the Midwest. We are kind of KNOWN for wind, and I've been nervous about that tree for several months now, without being able to do anything about it. The rule about oak trees, around here, is that they are not to be trimmed or cut down in the warmer times when the healthy oak trees might catch their diseases. We had pretty warm weather (for Wisconsin) into December, but now that it's well and truly cold I can get the tree, and its buddies that need trimming way back, dealt with. 

Between meeting with the tree guy and dealing with a long list of additional Life Business Items, including car issues, the week has been one of those blink-and-it's-gone weeks. I wrote a little bit and expanded the outline of my new story a little bit, but I'll need to do a lot more of both next week if I'm to reach the goal I set up with my writing buddy: 3,000 words, otherwise known as half of the rough draft of this story.

My projects for the week:

Writing: I'm up to a little over 200 words on the Weird West story, so I will have to basically lock myself in all next week and work on that at my highest intensity setting.

Reading: 

• The New Weird, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

January's Other Project: Setting up my new office. This week I pulled off some of the painter's tape around the newly-painted walls, which is the kind of annoying little job I could avoid forever, because my messy painting makes the tape hard to remove. I am a tidier painter when I don't use the tape! But this time I was nervous about the prospect of intense deep ocean blue paint getting all over the place, so I bowed to my fears and taped around the edges. I'm sure there's a lesson in there. I also assembled a small storage cabinet. There's still a lot left to do.

The Friday Report for January 8, 2016

My latest photo edit for Instagram!

I happen to think it's pretty awesome to have a lot of interests and do a lot of different things. Which I do. Copiously and with thoroughness. But while I get a lot of satisfaction out of that, there's a trade-off that comes with it: very little linear progress in any one area. Because of that, I end up sometimes feeling like I'm getting nowhere, even after I've made bunches of things. 

And I have goals. I do. NO, I DO. I've just been doing my own little butterfly-flight-style interpretive dance method of getting to them. I've decided, though, that this year I want to work on a more linear, forward-going approach, with more emphasis on writing. Instead of making an image for Instagram EVERY DAY, as I was doing for a long stretch of last year, I'm going to make one each week, and apply the 30-to-60 minutes each one usually takes toward story development and writing down words. That way I still get to enjoy that activity, but clear more time for the story-writing.

Here's what I've been working on this week:

Writing: My current story is my first attempt at the Weird West genre. I like the way it's going, but I haven't figured out the ending yet. I'm looking forward to finding out what happens! And I want to finish it by the end of this month.

Reading: I'm in the middle of reading three books:

• The Best American Essays 2014, edited by John Jeremiah Sullivan
• The New Weird, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
• Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity, by Keith Sawyer

January's Other Project: My new office. My office has been in a room next to the kitchen, where I can't completely close off the noise of the household because there's a pass-through window to the kitchen. You would think this would be the dining room, but my house is odd and it is not. Anyway, when I moved in here I set up my art things in another room, and then promptly started to do more digital art than painting, so now I'm giving myself an hour a day to transform that into a combined art-and-office room, with the hope of being able to get more writing done in the evenings, with the door closed. 

2015: I Had a Super-Eclectic Year

I recently read a post by Amanda Palmer, in which she mentioned Henry Rollins. I don't even know if this is true, but what she said is that Henry Rollins is in the habit of taking an Inhale Year, followed by an Exhale Year, meaning that when he inhales for a year he is reading, absorbing, thinking, relaxing, and getting his mental state ready for a year of exhaling bunches of cool artistic output in whatever form it may take for him. I hope that's a fact, but I don't care if it is or not because it is a damn good idea either way. I want to try that system, but maybe on a shorter-cycle plan, like monthly. That's because, in looking back at 2015, I feel like I've been subconsciously trying to make that happen for a long time, but fighting it because I felt guilty about not producing enough. I'm starting to feel that I would produce more if I fought that less. If I planned to mentally respirate in a sensible manner and stopped feeling so stressed about it.

So! What did I actually do in 2015? Here you go:

• Got a pretty decent grasp of how to speak basic Swedish by studying it for a few minutes a day with the FREE, and AWESOME, Duolingo app, which offers bunches of languages you can learn in a very useful, fun format. If you are interested in learning a new language, you should absolutely try this. Jag tycker om Svenska!
• Started the writing of two different novels, and did not finish either (yet). 
• Wrote one story for an anthology after being invited to submit one, and it was published: "Tipping Point," in Ghost in the Cogs, which contains steampunk ghost stories. My story got a nice mention in this very positive review of the whole book!
• Made over 200 digital abstract images that I posted on my Instagram account.
• Put many of those images into my DeviantArt print store, where they're available to buy in a variety of formats. I used my discount to get a framed canvas print of one of them, to check out the quality, and it is BEAUTIFUL. It's printed with acrylic paint and it looks like a very smoothly-rendered painting, and the frame looks good, too. So if you're looking for abstract art, please check it out because your purchase will help me make more stuff to put out there, both for sale and for free.
• I read 50 books for my 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge! And here is my Goodreads Author Page, where you can friend me and follow along as I attempt to read 60 books in 2016.
• Posted a bunch of tweets on Twitter, even though I took a big break from that in the summer.
• Posted different items of interest on my Facebook page. My policy on social media is to diversify my posts so that it's worthwhile for people to join forces with me in more than one place. 
• I blurbed a book for the first time, too! A comment of mine can be found on the cover of Indelible Ink, by Matt Betts.
• Worked at an EXCELLENT and very scary haunted house called The Insanitorium, in New Glarus, WI, for all of the weekends of October.
• That's on top of, you know, getting my kids fed and to school on time day after day and having them at home for most of the time in the summer and taking them to see their grandparents and all the life maintenance stuff that goes on, and whatnot, so I am feeling pretty good about my 2015!

So now I'm thinking about the things I want to do in 2016 (hint: one of them is posting in this here blog on at least a weekly basis), but I think this post is long enough for now! Happy New Year! 

GUEST POST: Jennifer Brozek and her Karen Wilson Chronicles

Jennifer Brozek is an award-winning anthology editor and a talented, prolific speculative fiction writer. Her story, "A Card Given," is part of the anthology I'm editing, WHAT FATES IMPOSE. Jennifer has also very generously offered up a donation of her series of novels, the Karen Wilson Chronicles, as a reward level for the anthology's Kickstarter fund-raising campaign. Jennifer tells the world about her series below, and at the end I'll tell you how you can get it (and my book, too)!

Here's Jennifer:

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Ten Books for a Desert Island

The eternal question: which ten books would you want to have if you were stranded on a desert island for the rest of your life? This is what I'm pondering, as I stare down summer (yesterday, coincidentally, was the last day of the school year for my three sons). I have not yet read and will not ever get to read everything, but for me, today, this is the set of books I would choose.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Take a look at my list and comment below with books you think I would like, based on the books I'd be willing to read over and over for the rest of my life. There are no wrong answers! Your opinion counts around here!

Story Collections

It's a challenge to write a short description of a whole book of short stories, so I'll tell you the things these collections have in common: excellent prose, very strange circumstances in every story, menace and conflict within and without the characters, and my total envy because those people wrote these stories and I didn't.

• Mother Aegypt and other stories, by Kage Baker.
• At the Mouth of the River of Bees, by Kij Johnson.
• Pretty Monsters, by Kelly Link.
• In the Palace of Repose, by Holly Phillips.
• The Bible Repairman and other stories, by Tim Powers.

Five Books for Leveling Up in Writing and Life

There are hundreds of beginner-level writing books available for someone just starting out, but it's harder to find books that help with ongoing improvement after that stage. I have a few recommendations. The nifty thing is that these books all have a lot to offer for developing general creativity. Anyone from beginner through advanced in writing could get something out of reading these. They contain useful stuff for the rest of life as well, in my opinion.

The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle. This is the most generally applicable book on my little list, because it's about the kinds of practice that lead to mastery, and what's happening in the brain as that mastery is growing. It covers deep practice, ignition, and master coaching, each of which are important in reaching high levels of success in creative work and sports, especially. My favorite thing about this book is that it gave me ideas about how learning to be an excellent writer is more like high achievement in soccer than it's like mastering the violin, because the former relies on learning to flexibly access a wide range of options, while the latter is about perfecting the one correct way to play any given note. Anyone interested in developing any kind of talent should read this!

Around the Writer's Block: Using Brain Science to Solve Writer's Resistance, by Rosanne Bane. THIS BOOK IS SO GREAT. I've increased my productivity so much since I started to follow the practices suggested in this one. The great thing is that, although it's a book specifically about writing, the information is EASILY transferable to pretty much any area of life. It's about recognizing the ways in which stress prevents creative thinking, and how to establish easy, helpful habits that will prevent the stress response from taking over and blocking you from doing what you want to do. The book explains how to establish methods of process, product, and self-care to keep yourself in the right state of mind for creative thinking. This gets my highest recommendation.

Making a Good Writer Great: A Creativity Workbook for Screenwriters, by Linda Seger. Okay, I know the title says it's for screenwriters, but really it's for everyone. Who doesn't need more creativity? This book includes chapters like "Pushing Your Mind to Another Creative Level," "Exploring Your Themes and Ideas," and "Mining the Riches from Your Dreams," as well as chapters more specifically dedicated to improving writing skills. The examples are about screenwriting, but any writer can benefit from them. I like to read books about screenwriting to learn from a different angle. They tend to give me a better appreciation of movies, too.

Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence, by Lisa Cron. Why do people enjoy stories? Our brains get interested in stories for specific, explicable reasons which are covered here. Learning what makes people curious, and what holds their attention, is useful for writing fiction. It's also crucial for giving good presentations, getting along with others, and being an interesting person. In a time when social interactions online and in person are more important than ever before, as people become increasingly adept and sophisticated in the social realm, this is valuable information.

2k to 10k: How to write faster, write better, and write more of what you love, by Rachel Aaron, has a really self-explanatory title. All right, this one is strictly about writing. It's especially good for planning and outlining novels, so that you know what you intend to write on any given day. That helps with getting started and allowing the words to flow faster.

I am always looking for good books to read, so I hope you'll comment with your own recommendations!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: None! I have not gotten and will not get any financial compensation for mentioning these books. I don't do affiliate links.

Things You Might Like to Read While I'm Away from the Keyboard

This evening I'm leaving town to go to Mo*Con in Indianapolis, where I expect I will have a fabulous time or get arrested trying. Disclaimer: I have actually never gotten arrested, so I'm not sure I understand the process. But you never know. You never do know.

After the weekend, I'm moving onward for a vacation next week. Since I'm not taking a computer, I don't expect to be posting in this here blog during that time, so I'm going to leave you with some links to read. BECAUSE I CARE ABOUT YOUR NEEDS. I'll have my phone, which means I'll be showing up on Twitter and Facebook. But here are those links!

My two most popular blog posts:

Five Things I've Learned from Reading Slush (July 11, 2011), from back in my days of reading submissions for Clarkesworld Magazine (which, by the way, has a new, free, excellent-looking issue posted for May, so in my opinion you won't be sorry if you click).

Five Great Books for New-ish Writers (July 18, 2011), all of which I still recommend, but this reminds me: Coming Soon: Five Books for Leveling Up in Writing and Life.

Other blogs I recommend:

Start here for a list of blog posts exploring depression and creativity, written by people who will be at Mo*Con. Links to the rest are at the bottom of the post. This year's theme is The Mind and Spirit of the Artist.

Inkpunks, where a bunch of fantastic writers I know post consistently thoughtful and helpful posts about writing. I'm never disappointed when I visit this blog.

Penelope Trunk's Career Blog, where Penelope expresses a huge personality with interesting things to say, bringing in stories from her personal life to illustrate her widely respected ideas about career development. Many people disagree with her conclusions, but she offers a lot to think about. I don't know her, but my cousin does! If you want to see what she's like, here's a post that includes a demo reel from when some people wanted to make a reality show about her life.

Booktrust, where author Matt Haig is the writer-in-residence. He has a blog on his own website, too.

Ferrett Steinmetz's blog, in which he writes about writing, gaming, polyamory, beekeeping, politics, and all sorts of other things. I am solidly on Team Ferrett.

That should give you plenty to choose from! I hope you have a great week. If all goes as planned, I'll be back to blogging in mid-May, which is not terribly far in the future.

Things I've Written and Edited

Here's a list of non-blog things I've written and where you can find them.

My Original Speculative Fiction Anthologies

• What Fates Impose - edited by Nayad Monroe
• Not Our Kind - edited by Nayad Monroe

My Fiction

• "An Assessment of the Incident at Camp Righteous", in Space Grunts: Full-Throttle Space Tales #3, edited by Dayton Ward: Science Fiction. During a militaristic theocracy's invasion of an alien planet full of harsh conditions, a young soldier tries to fulfill his mission while his mind deteriorates.
• "The Emperor Everlasting", in Steampunk World, edited by Sarah Hans. An alternate history story in which the Incas were much more successful in the world than they were in the actual past you may have learned about. Intrigue unfolds as a royal Deviser is thwarted in her every effort to complete the most important job in her nation's history. Features battle llamas!
• "Quintuple-A", in Sidekicks!, edited by Sarah Hans. Science Fiction, Humor. A low-budget academy that trains sidekicks for superheroes is suddenly up for review, and Daltona Doyle has just one day to prepare an athletics-challenged student for testing.
• "Running in Wonderland", in Space Tramps: Full-Throttle Space Tales #5, edited by Jennifer Brozek. Science Fiction. An unwanted homeless woman with medical problems, and no money, has 24 hours to get in and out of a space station full of trouble that's her best option for finding a permanent place to live.
• "Three Transformations", in The Crimson Pact: Volume Two, edited by Paul Genesse. Horror. The owner of a no-kill animal shelter has her worldview and self-image broken all at once when she must cope with an intruder and an invading demon.
• "Tipping Point", in Ghost in the Cogs, edited by Scott Gable and C. Dombrowski

My Non-Fiction

• "An Interview with Tim Powers" in Writers Workshop of Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Michael Knost. A conversation about writing with award-winning author Tim Powers, who has written many extremely awesome books that everyone should read.
• "A Thousand Words You Can Hear All at Once: An Interview with Todd Lockwood" in Clarkesworld Magazine. A conversation with award-winning artist Todd Lockwood about art and writing, because he does both!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I am the author of these stories and articles, so purchasing some of the books listed above will result in me getting a tiny bit of money. They're not affiliate links, though! Use your best judgment. :)

Corrections and Friday Reads

Good Friday! This will be a brief post, but I will fill it with links to make it worth your time.

First, a correction: I know I said in my upcoming schedule that I would be going to Odyssey Con this weekend, but I'm not going to be there due to a need to reallocate my time. I'll miss going, but nobody would want me coughing in the con's airspace, anyway. This recent respiratory ailment has been way too tenacious.

And now for the fun stuff. Books! On Twitter there's a tradition of posting #fridayreads, and I'm bringing it to my blog. I'm currently reading Paper Cities, edited by Ekaterina Sedia (whose website is beautiful. Click!). I have a thing about fantasy set in cities, but not necessarily always the Urban Fantasy category as we know it today with the vampires and the werewolves, so what I am saying is that this anthology is very good for me, so far. I'm not even halfway through it, but I want to recommend three outstanding stories: "The Bumblety's Marble," by Cat Rambo, "Promises: A Tale of the City Imperishable," by Jay Lake, and my favorite so far, "Ghost Market," by Greg van Eekhout. The book is worth its cover price for just these three stories, as far as I'm concerned, but I'm looking forward to reading the rest, because there are amazing writers all over the table of contents.

The other book I just started to read is Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories, edited by James Thomas, Denise Thomas, and Tom Hazuka. I have to admit that I've never paid much attention to flash fiction before, but recently I've read several excellent stories under 1,000 words long, and I've become nearly what one might call "obsessed" with the category. I've developed the ambition to write some, which by all accounts is not easy to do, especially when you're writing a genre story that might need a few words to go toward how the story world is fantastical or science-fictional.

That's it for now. I hope you have whatever kind of weekend you want to have!

Coming soon: Five Important Reasons to Worry about Divination

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WHAT day is it? My Best Reads of 2012

A bunch of lie-mongers are conspiring to tell me it's the day before the last day of January in the year 2013. RIDICULOUS. But just in case that might be possible, here's my list of the books I enjoyed most out of the fifty I read in 2012. Most of the books were not actually published in 2012, but I want to tell you about the ones I liked best. If I took the time to write reviews of each, you might see this list sometime next year or perhaps in 2015, so let's just keep it simple. I can stand behind these with complete confidence, so look them up if you want to read something good!

Novels

The Handmaid's Tale – Margaret Atwood

Thunderer – Felix Gilman

The Dead Zone – Stephen King

The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern

Ready Player One – Ernest Cline

Story Collections

The Universe in Miniature in Miniature – Patrick Somerville

At the Mouth of the River of Bees – Kij Johnson

After the Apocalypse – Maureen F. McHugh

Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight – Cat Rambo

In the Palace of Repose – Holly Phillips

Anthologies

(I didn't read many of these in 2012)

Dark Faith, edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon

Brave New Worlds, edited by John Joseph Adams

Non-fiction

Steal Like an Artist – Austin Kleon

To Each Their Darkness – Gary A. Braunbeck

Adventures in the Screen Trade – William Goldman

500 Ways to Be a Better Writer – Chuck Wendig

Making a Good Writer Great – Linda Seger

October Update with Book Recommendations

Hi there! Here's what's been going on with me this October.

I started the month in a different state: Ohio. A convention I like very much, Context, capped off my September. Unfortunately for me, the throat-aggravating virus I thought I had shaken off before I left actually lingered in my throat, plotting and scheming, until I got to Columbus, where it made a comeback. In other words, I spent the weekend trying not to cough in people's faces, with limited success, and I didn't go to as many convention events as I would have liked. I don't think I was contagious, at least. However, I had enough useful conversations to initiate a nifty project for the first half of next year, which I will write about when I have more details to share. (Hint: It will involve Kickstarter, and lots of words).

While I was there, I also made some changes to my latest short story that (imo) completely fixed it, and since then I've sent it to the Writers of the Future contest. I was a semi-finalist in it a couple of years ago, but it sure would be nicer to win that thing! Or even upgrade to finalist. :)

Since I've been back in Wisconsin, I've made progress on a new short story, and I've gotten a new nonfiction assignment that I'll post about whenever it's published. But my most exciting nonfiction news for this month is that my interview with Tim Powers will be published in Writers Workshop of Science Fiction and Fantasy, because its Kickstarter was funded! I'll post about that when it's available.

I've read several good books this month, too:

The Dreaming Jewels – Theodore Sturgeon

Adventures in the Screen Trade – William Goldman

Screenwriting Tricks for Authors – Alexandra Sokoloff

The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern

Fragile Things – Neil Gaiman

I can recommend all of the above with a clear conscience, but I LOVED The Night Circus.

In entertainment news, I went to a SPECTACULAR Amanda Palmer show in Minneapolis earlier this month. The music is great on her new album, but hundreds of times better when it's performed live. Her new band is made entirely of geniuses. I also watched some movies. Looper is now my favorite science fiction movie, so I recommend that at my highest level of enthusiasm. Frankenweenie is exactly the kind of fun one can expect from Tim Burton, imo. Cloud Atlas is impressively ambitious, and I think it's worthwhile to see for anyone who's looking for something different than the standard movies being cranked out all the time, but it's also challenging to follow at times because of its structure and a couple of choices I can't talk about because of spoilers. Very good, but not flawless. It's several movies in one!

So between all of the above and the standard childcare, household maintenance, and a birthday party for one of my sons, I have had a busy month. I should do a monthly summary, like, monthly. It makes me realize that I actually DO get a few things done here and there. :)

Recommended Short Stories Online

Since I'm focusing on writing short stories this year, I am also dedicating myself to (mostly) reading short stories. The plan is to go beyond a quick, consuming read and study the ones I appreciate the most so that I can see how they work. I'm talking about taking notes, even. I'm that serious. It's hard for short stories to get any attention at all, let alone the attention they deserve, so I also intend to periodically let people know about the recent ones I think are outstanding. I'd be grateful for any recommendations you can throw me in return!

Here's my first list:

"The Art Disease" - Dennis Danvers, Electric Velocipede, Issue 23: A strange and funny look at the artistic life and the outer limits of creativity. I laughed out loud at some of the lines in this one, and I want to read it again, and it also made me want to read more by this author.

"All the Painted Stars" - Gwendolyn Clare, Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 64: Alien contact in the far future, seen through the alien's mind. There are so many great ideas in this story! I especially like the way it explores coping with isolation, and finding a purpose in life.

"The Five Elements of the Heart Mind" - Ken Liu, Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 20: A far-future love story about factors that affect human personality. Afterward, there's a note about the current science that inspired it. Ken Liu has gotten my attention recently as an author whose work I like enough to buy a whole magazine to read his story.

"Sweetheart Showdown" - Sarah Dalton, Apex Magazine, Issue 32: Welcome to the future of competitive beauty! Where the cute must be brutal to survive! This story reveals what beauty pageants will inevitably become.

Book Recommendations from My 2011 Reading

I read 50 books in 2011, and I'm not going to list them all. Here are the ones that stand out in my memory as thoroughly recommendable. They're all great, but the starred ones are super-excellent must-reads, in my opinion. Alphabetically by author:

Anthologies/Collections

In the Forest of Forgetting - Theodora Goss

Unpossible - Daryl Gregory

Novels

The Devil's Alphabet - Daryl Gregory

*The Magicians - Lev Grossman

How to Make Friends with Demons - Graham Joyce

The Silent Land - Graham Joyce

*Embassytown - China Miéville

The House of Discarded Dreams - Ekaterina Sedia

*Mechanique - Genevieve Valentine

Books about Writing

*Plot v. Character - Jeff Gerke

Starve Better - Nick Mamatas

Save the Cat! - Blake Snyder

Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies - Blake Snyder

*The Comic Toolbox - John Vorhaus

The Accidental Creative - Todd Henry (This one isn't strictly about writing, but I've found it to be helpful with my writing. Watch out for the business-speak in it! Still worthwhile, though.)