Electric Velocipede Blog

A Change in Plans

2009-11-06T09:00:00.003-06:00

(image from Flickr user Robert S. Donovan)

We're going quarterly next year. Expect Issues 20, 21, 22, and 23 in 2010. This is all part of the plan for world domination... um... I mean, becoming a semiprozine. That means EV in February, May, August, and November.

It also means John or I will be posting the TOC for #20 sometime soon.

For advertisers: If you got the 2009 ad rates, the new PDF is adjusted now to show the schedule breakdown -- when ads can be reserved, when they're due, and when the issue itself will be on sale.

And I'm moving to Ohio this weekend, so I'll be briefly offline and/or somewhat distracted starting this Sunday.

Anne*---

2009 World Fantasy Report

2009-11-04T19:04:00.006-06:00

(Electric Velocipede #19 on the Night Shade Books table at World Fantasy)

This is pretty long, and a lot of it is devoted to talking about with whom I had meals. You can skip down to the highlights at the end of the post if you want.

Thursday October 29

I leave my house at 7:00a to drive to my parent's house in Oconomowoc. On the way there, I miss/overlook/am distracted by driving and don't notice that the speed limit is 55mph. A $175 speeding ticket later, and I'm back on the road. I get to my parent's house and we rush off the Milwaukee airport.*

Everything is delayed. With bad weather from TX to WI (I'm flying to Houston) my flight is late to leave AND we're told the flight will take a half-hour longer than scheduled. Since I had barely 50 minutes of connection time, it's likely I will miss my connection.

No surprises, I do miss the connection.

I'm told by the nice woman in the airport (and I was nice, honestly nice, she didn't make me late and yelling at her only makes her day harder and adds stress to mine) that I can get to San Francisco that evening but I've missed the last flight to San Jose. I decide to stay overnight in Houston and catch the first flight out at 9:30a.

I'm overprepared for the trip, but now everything has fallen apart.

Instead of reading submissions or editing, I go to bed at 11:00p and get my first full night's sleep in more than a year.

Friday October 30

I arrive in San Jose at 12:00p, the same time as the one panel I was on. I get out of the cab and am greeted with a bear hug from Chris Roberson. It's like he's on the welcoming committee. And hey, given that Chris is World Fantasy's biggest proponent, I guess he is. I check in, register for the convention, drop off my stuff, and head down to the bar.

While this isn't strictly true, some of the first people I see are Jonathan Strahan, Ellen Datlow, and David Hartwell who were all on the panel I missed. I get (deservedly) varying levels of chiding/crap from the three of them.

The afternoon is a blur like all first days at a convention are. Seeing all your friends you haven't seen in a year, meeting a bunch of people for the first time, learning where everything is in the hotel, etc. I got a lot of belated and in-person congrats on the Hugo win.

Getting in late means all my well-crafted Friday plans are thrown out the window. My panel? Arrived too late. Interview with John Joseph Adams about Lightspeed? He's sick an unavailable. Oysters with Minz? Couldn't find him. And so on. There's a liquor run with Allison Baker and Mark Teppo (and I forgot my jigger so we have to improvise) at some point.

I head out for 'Moroccan' with Jason Williams, Jeremy Lassen, Mark Teppo, Chris Schleup, Fleetwood Robbins, Kris O'Higgins, and Ross Lockhart. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet with free sangria. (it's actually where I was supposed to go the next night, but I wrecked those plans)

After too much food and too much sangria (wherein the serving staff was bringing us pitchers and trays of shots of sangria AND drinking with us by the end of our meal) we stumble back to the hotel.

I go to a reading for Jetse's web magazine (he was giving out Scotch) and then up the Night Shade Books party. Upstairs is Locus and Tor. Across the hall is...I've forgotten, but they had a TON of pizza (seriously, about 40 pizzas were delivered to them). At some point Allison starts making sidecars in the bathroom (video here).

Allison wrecks a whole bunch of people.

I'm up until 5:00a or so with Chris Roberson, Allison Baker, Jason Williams, Jetse de Vries, and others. Chris and Allison have a room on the same level as the pool so they have an outdoor seating area. (I know I ran into Jeremy Lassen, Amelia Beamer, and Liz Gorinsky somewhere in there) I've been up for more than 24 hours straight at this point. I get back to the room and crash.

Saturday October 31

I don't wake up until almost 12:00p. I head out to lunch at Gordon Biersch with Chris Roberson, Matt Sturges, Dave Justus, and we are later joined by Allison Baker. I was supposed to lunch with my agent Kris, but he was feeling the effects of the night before too strongly to be up to eating.

I honestly don't remember what I did that afternoon. I suspect I spent time between the bar and the dealer's room. I know at some point I talked to Kristin Livdahl of Rabid Transit Press (they had their new book: Under the Mere by Catherynne M. Valente) and Victoria Blake from Underland Press (she had Jeff VanderMeer's Finch, Brian Evenson's Last Days, Will Elliot's The Pilo Family Circus, and more with her). While hanging out in the bar, I help Gigi Gridley pick out her shoes (via text message) for her birthday party.

Dinner was oaxacan at Mezcal, where we had excellent moles and Chapulines (grasshoppers). In attendance was Mark Teppo, Daryl Gregory, Adam Rakunas, Nancy Hightower, Fleetwood Robbins, Chris Schleup, Alex Irvine, Alex's brother-in-law, and the brother-in-law's friend.

We get back right around the time the Gigi's birthday party is supposed to start, so Teppo and I head upstairs for that.

And then, I don't know. I just wasn't feeling it. I didn't want to be around people. I didn't want to drink. I didn't want to talk. I head back down to the room and work on the computer for a bit. I turn on the tv and lay back on the bed.

I went to sleep and it wasn't even 10:00p.

Sunday November 1

I make myself stay in bed until 7:00a. When I get up, I'm promptly reminded by Teppo that it's actually 6:00a due to 'falling back.' Mark's WELL under the weather. But he soldiers on and goes to breakfast with me. After breakfast he decides to go back to the room and lay low.

I go to find Garth Nix and interview him.

My camera isn't working the way I expect it to, so the interview will be done via e-mail later. We grab a latte and sit outside for a bit. John Picacio and his wife Traci join us and we have a nice visit (that sounds like something my grandmother would say!).

Now I just burn time while I get ready for the banquet. I show up, dressed slightly fancier than the year before. However, nowhere near as fancy as these guys. (that's l-r John Joseph Adams, Graham Joyce, Rob Bland, Jeremy Lassen, Jim Minz, and Ross Lockhart)

Without a doubt this is the best WFC banquet meal I've ever had, although the competition is not tough. It's actually pretty good. Most of the meal I get to listen to Graham Joyce talk about the kick-ass year he's been having. This is a good thing. My favorite moment is when this year's judges are being thanked for their efforts and being asked to stand up and Chris Roberson doesn't just stand up, he jumps into the air with his hands held high. I saw a photo of it somewhere, but I can't find it right now.

When the awards start, my category is up first. I don't expect to win, and I'm pleased to see Michael Walsh take home the award. He's been doing great work for years. Locus took a photo of me trying to wrest the award away from Michael, so watch upcoming issues for an image of me being a 'sore loser.' LOL

More time in the bar, getting no sympathy for the World Fantasy Award loss as I won the Hugo a few months ago. Nonetheless, people buy me drinks anyway. The Packers lose to the Vikings. Garth Nix insists that I help him eat some of the food he's ordered so I eat a slider. I don't want to be impolite.

We head out for tapas, we being Jim Minz, Paolo Bacigalupi, Jason Williams, Chris Scleup (who is apparently my new meal companion), Fleetwood Robbins, Alex Irvine, and Bill Shunn. We get plate after plate after plate after plate of tapas.

And then we're back at the bar. I go to bed fairly decent because I have a 6:15a flight the next morning.

Monday November 2

I get down the lobby around 4:30a to wait for Nora Jemisin and Daryl Gregory to catch a cab to the airport. Jeremy Lassen is there going on and on about Clive Barker naked. He sees me and insists on pouring me a vodka tonic. I take a sip to be polite.

For the record, I don't see Chris Roberson on this day and it feels a little empty for that.

We get to the airport with plenty of time and then, see ** below.

Post Con Thoughts

This was a strange WFC for me. I almost didn't want to be there. My body just wanted to rest. I had no desire to hang out and drink/talk/whatever. I just wanted to sit in the room...honestly, I wanted to head home.

And that's pretty shitty of me.

I only see these people once a year, and I love them all to death, and I wasn't taking advantage of being together. And now I won't see them again until next year in Columbus.

I'm not sure how I feel about the convention. I do know that my travel trouble getting down there screwed things up for me. I also know that there's a lot going on at my full-time job that I wasn't able to leave behind for this trip.

Definite highlights include:

seeing Jason Williams again
meeting Zoran Zivkovic (for too short a time), Kij Johnson, Bill Willingham, Brendan Connell, Gail Carriger, Damien G. Walter, Deb Biancotti, Nancy Hightower, Matt Sturges, Adam Rakunas, Dave Justus, Tim Powers, Sean Williams, and I'm sure more people that I'm forgetting at the moment
re-introducing myself to Liza Trombi (so embarrassing!)
Allison's sidecars (Teppo has instructed Allison that she isn't allowed to mix him drinks any more)
introducing Norman Partridge and Jeffrey Ford to each other
listening to Tim Powers spin tales of adventures he had with Phil Dick
giving Jetse a bear hug that lifted him off the ground
seeing Jeremy in the lobby at 4:30a when I was leaving for the airport and he was still up from the night before
talking to all the people I haven't seen in forever like Tempest, Teppo, Chris Roberson, Allison Baker, Bill Shunn, Derryl Murphy, Rani Graff, Gigi Gridley, Deb Layne, Kristin Livdahl, Jeff VanderMeer, Victoria Blake, Ann VanderMeer, Jim Minz, Jude Feldman, Heidi Lampietti, Alex Irvine, Chris Schleup, Fleetwood Robbins, Steven H. Segal, Deanna Hoak, Kris O'Higgins, Peter Straub, Garth Nix, Tim Akers, Paolo Bacigalupi, Daryl Gregory, Amelia Beamer, Alan Deniro, Tim Pratt, Mary Robinette Kowal, Jeffrey Ford, Norman Partridge, John Douglas, Laura Anne Gilman, Jay Lake, Liz Gorinsky, Ken Scholes, Neil Williamson, Patrick Swenson, Robert Freeman Wexler, and....many many many many more (I know I've forgotten someone, or some ones). Most of them I didn't get nearly enough time with.

________________________
* When I booked the flight, it was half the cost to fly out of Milwaukee versus flying out of Moline. At the time, I thought I was being thrifty; it's not until later** that I realize how this will backfire on me.

** On the way home I realize that I will be flying from San Jose to Houston (4 hours) and then Houston to Milwaukee (3 hours) and still need to DRIVE from Milwaukee to home (4 hours). What a crappy day.

WFC in San Jose

2009-10-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

(image from Flickr user mrkathika)

Yes, I do know the way to San Jose. That's where I'm heading right now. Things may be quiet here until next week.

Play amongst yourselves in the comments.

Once Upon a Time

2009-10-26T09:00:00.002-05:00

(image from Flickr user crackdog)

Since we've signed the contracts, I'm happy to announce an anthology of fairy-tale reprint stories called Happily Ever After that will be published by Night Shade Books some time in 2011 (publication date, as you know, subject to change). I'll give more details as they come.

For now, I'd like to point people towards the Happily Every After story recommendation website. I'm going through a bunch of material and pulling together stories, but I'd like to solicit recommendations of science fiction and fantasy versions of fairy tale stories from readers and writers.

I'm looking to have a solid list of contributors by the end of the year, but I'll take recommendations through the end of February 2010. If you have questions, just e-mail me (contact information on recommendation page).

The Reveal

2009-10-22T18:13:00.004-05:00

(was it worth the wait?)

Here's the full cover of Electric Velocipede #19. There will be copies at the World Fantasy Convention next week (October 29 - November 1 in San Jose, CA). In case you've forgotten, here is the table of contents:

Poetry
"When the lamps are lit" by KJ Bishop
"My Past Lives" by Beth Langford
"Retired Shapeshifters" by Beth Langford
"Kimono Monochrome at Midnight" by Linda Ann Strang

Fiction
Novelette
"The Lost Technique of Blackmail" by Mark Teppo
"A Mouse Ran Up the Clock" by A. C. Wise

Short Story
"Frayed" by Jonathan Brandt
"Darkest Amber" by Erin Hoffman
"Nightlight" by Celia Marsh
"The Boy Who Could Bend and Fall" by Ken Scholes
"Life at the Edge of Nowhere" by Kjell Williams

Nonfiction
Sampling the Aspic by Penelope O'Shea
Blindfold Taste Test with Elizabeth Bear

If you're going to be at the convention I hope to see you there!

More Teasing

2009-10-17T00:21:00.004-05:00

(another piece of the cover)

Just for fun, another tease. I got a proof from the printer, so I'm tempted to take a photo of myself holding a copy of the new issue...and maybe I will! There will be copies available at World Fantasy Convention at the end of the month, with subscriber and contributor copies going out some time after that.

And because I'm stupid, I've fixed the image's file name so it isn't called what it is. Duh. I fixed the old one, too, so if you missed it, nyah.

ETA: Anne's rec.

2009-10-15T23:40:00.002-05:00

Paul Witcover's column in the November 2009 issue of Locus begins with exploring the difference between an author of the spec fic persuasion writing spec fic, and a mainstream author writing spec fic.

I think his observations are fascinating. I'm wanting to quote them out of context, which would be unhelpful... but it's a gauge of how cool something is. (Can you tell if it still makes sense? If not, then someone else may not find it as cool. But I still think they're cool.) Hmmm.

OTOH, now I understand why people are reading Gravity's Rainbow and discussing it. :D

Me and My Hugo (Together, at Last!)

2009-10-13T21:53:00.003-05:00

(photo by me)

Since people have been asking, here's a photo with me and my Hugo. We're having breakfast. If I look bored, it's because the darn thing is NOT a conversationalist.

How many things can you identify in the photo? And what could I possibly be eating that requires all of those things?

While we're on the subject of food, someone had asked in the comments of my WFC 2009 t0-do post what I had found for food options in San Jose. There are a lot. And there are a lot near the hotel. There are a few options I recommend:

Yelp! San Jose. Works great since it has a map and you can center it on the hotel to see how close stuff is to it. Gives reviews (which may or may not be impartial) but also hours, payment options, links to restaurant sites, etc.
Google Maps. Actually very similar to Yelp! but no reviews. Also, Yelp! lets you choose cuisines while Google is just a power search.
SanJose.com. It's not impartial, but it has nice write-ups and (for the most part) good links to the restaurant sites.

From those things (and to be honest, mostly Yelp!) I found more than enough dining options.

Anne's 2009 recommendations

2009-10-13T18:30:00.003-05:00

(image from Flickr user purplemattfish)

Except for possibly the last entry, and those marked 2008, these are all from 2009. And I do work for all of these (except IGMS) -- and also Locus, which has no entries here.

2008 stories:

"Dresses, Three" by Angela Slatter. Shimmer 8, Winter/Art Issue 2008.
"20th Anniversary Caveman" by Grá Linnea. Shimmer 9, Spring 2008.
"Blood and Water" by Alethea Kontis. InterGalactic Medicine Show July 2008.
"The Dragon's Tears" by Aliette de Bodard. EV 15/16.
"The Floating Order" by Erin Pringle. EV 15/16.

2009 stories:

"What to Do with the Dead" by Claude Lalumière. Shimmer Issue 10.

"Sun's East, Moon's West" by Merrie Haskell. EV 17/18.
"The Leaf Gatherer" by Damon Kaswell. EV 17/18.
"Setting My Spider Free" by Caroline M. Yoachim. EV 17/18.
"In the Gingerbread House" by Barbara Krasnoff. EV 17/18.

"Shedding Skin" by Jay Lake. Shimmer CJB Issue 11.
"And How His Audit Stands" by Lou Anders. Shimmer CJB Issue 11.
"The Jackdaw's Wife" by Blake Hutchins. Shimmer CJB Issue 11.
"The Mechanical Aviary of Emperor Jalal-ud-din Muhammed Akbar" by Shweta Narayan. Shimmer CJB Issue 11.
"The Wolf and the Schoolmaster" by James L. Cambias. Shimmer CJB Issue 11.

"For Want of Chocolate" by J.F. Lewis. InterGalactic Medicine Show September 2009.

"The Lost Technique of Blackmail" by Mark Teppo. EV 19.
"Darkest Amber" by Erin Hoffman. EV 19.

Novels:

ReVamped by J.F. Lewis. Can't say enough good things, and refuse to give spoilers. I think there's something in Alabama, because the writers there that I've read are awesome.

Saturn's Children by Charles Stross. Nominated for Hugo, Best Novel.

Other:

Essay: "POD Self-Publishing: Caveat Emptor" by Judith Moffett. NYRSF #246, February 2009. Hard numbers, which I appreciated: why POD is extremely costly, and how it works for the web-savvy, plus what books [and authors] are appropriate for the process -- and why she is glad that she did so.

There's a follow-up letter in NYRSF #248, April 2009; Darrell Schweitzer defines POD technology versus vanity press [see Screed]. Per Darrell, vanity press is a publishing strategy that fleeces the writer; POD technology is not vanity press.

Rejection problems in the slush pile, aka "A Comprehensive and Totally Universal Listing of Every Problem a Story Has Ever Had," is also in NYRSF #248, April 2009. This is one of the funniest lists I have ever read -- and fabulously useful as well. I wish I'd found it online before now, but it was a joy to read during March 2009. Scared away my cat by laughing so hard.

And I enjoy Tom Purdom's ongoing series in NYRSF. I think it comes out every quarter.

A Tease

2009-10-11T21:44:00.004-05:00

(a piece of the cover for Electric Velocipede #19)

I've seen the whole thing, but I'm only showing you a little bit. This is part of the cover of the next issue of Electric Velocipede, which, barring a huge catastrophe, will be available at the end of the month at the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose.

What do you think that is on the cover? It's rather odd-looking, isn't it? Post your ideas in the comments.

Getting Things Done October 2009

2009-10-09T15:36:00.004-05:00

(my son eating his first apple)

Well, if you haven't looked (and who other than me would look?) I'm getting stuff crossed my 2009 WFC to-do list. Still have a few things to do (heck, I think half the list is remaining) but considering that I'm project manager on a software migration at my work that went live last week, I'm up for probationary review, and I'm getting a new issue together, I think I'm doing a pretty good job, right?

And that guy in the photo is starting to crawl, so there's a lot of hoopla happening in my house.

Support Our Zines Day, October 1

2009-09-30T08:03:00.004-05:00

What are you doing tomorrow? Well, it's Support Our 'Zines day (SOZD). What does that mean? To quote Damien G. Walter (SOZD's creator):

But our ‘zines need support. Professional ‘zines rely on subscriptions to pay their staff and the writers who make the stories. Smaller ‘zines often rely on donations just to cover their costs. But with the speed of life in the 21st Century it can be difficult to remember to renew subsciptions or make donations to the ‘zines who’s work we enjoy.

Damien is including everyone in this, from Asimov's and F&SF down to Shimmer and Sybil's Garage to Kaleidotrope and Brain Harvest. He knows that in a traditional zine sense, many of those publications are not zines, but he feels that they all need our support.

So what can you do to support zines?

Tomorrow, which is the official SOZD, go to your favorite zine and buy a subscription, or a sample issue, or donate some money, or just even e-mail them and let them know how much you enjoy what they do.

You'd be surprised at how rarely magazine/zine makers get positive feedback from their fans.

Taking ads for issue 19, 20, 21...

2009-09-24T17:01:00.002-05:00

(image from Flickr user StartAgain; that number is not ours, don't call it)

Arranging ads for Issue 19 got delegated... urm, wrested forcibly from John's grasp. ;>

I have the updated advertising info. Please write me and I'll send it along. I will know soon whether any ad space remains for Issue 19.

Ads for 2010 are now open.

Anne*---

Issue 19 Table of Contents

2009-09-21T15:53:00.004-05:00

(my production notes for issue 19)

Poetry
"When the lamps are lit" by KJ Bishop
"My Past Lives" by Beth Langford
"Retired Shapeshifters" by Beth Langford

Fiction
Novelette
"Blackmail Boxes" by Mark Teppo
"A Mouse Ran Up the Clock" by A. C. Wise

Short Story
"Frayed" by Jonathan Brandt
"Darkest Amber" by Erin Hoffman
"Nightlight" by Celia Marsh
"The Boy Who Could Bend and Fall" by Ken Scholes
"Life at the Edge of Nowhere" by Kjell Williams

Nonfiction
Sampling the Aspic by Penelope O'Shea
Blindfold Taste Test with Elizabeth Bear

Planned release date: World Fantasy 2009 (end of October 2009)

Once I have cover samples, I'll share those with you. I know people just got their hands on issue 17/18, but we're trying to move things along and get these great issues out into the world. Our plan is to go quarterly next year.

On the submission front, we're seeing some great stuff, and we're slightly overwhelmed. If you're in the queue, we're getting to you; please be patient.

World Fantasy 2009 To Do List

2009-09-18T12:49:00.014-05:00

(image from Flickr user Great Beyond)

UPDATED 10/13/2009; other than the website, all that's left is packing for the trip!

As I've had the past few years, I've got a list of things to do before the World Fantasy convention. Without further ado, here is my list for 2009:

~~send out editorial notes for issue 19~~
~~get cover for issue 19~~
~~get nonfiction articles for issue 19~~
~~get bio information for issue 19~~
~~try to get ads for issue 19~~
~~layout issue 19~~
~~proofread issue 19~~
~~print issue 19~~ (it's at the printer)
~~ship issue 19 to San Jose/Night Shade Books~~ (the printer ships it)
~~create electronic version of issue 19~~
~~contact issue 20 contributors~~
update EV website
create promotional materials
~~devise sekrit plans?~~ (I'm going to make these up on site)
~~make announcement about upcoming issues~~ (Anne will be making the announcement after WFC)
~~write interview questions~~
~~investigate dining options for San Jose~~
~~write acceptance speech (hey, you never know)~~
~~see if nominee who couldn't be there did want me to accept or if they've found someone else~~
pack (bring notes for that thing with JJA, bring notes for that other thing with NSB)
~~get hair cut~~
~~announce that other thing with NSB~~ (contracts being signed)
~~ask for recommendations for that other thing with NSB~~ (I've built the site for it, I just need to make it live once the contracts are signed)
~~make post about to do list for WFC 2009~~

Anything else I should be getting done?

My Hugo Award

2009-09-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

(it sure is shiny, isn't it?)

In 2001, I published the first issue of Electric Velocipede. At the time, I certainly had no pretensions about a Hugo Award, or any award for that matter, for my efforts. I had worked on magazines, I had worked with any number of science fiction professionals, but making your own publication is a whole different kettle of fish. I knew the pieces, I just had to put them together.

I still think I'm learning. I do something different with each issue. I try to make the magazine better with each issue. I've gone from a crudely laid-out, hand-collated, embarrassing-covered zine to something that's perfect bound, professionally laid out, with full-color covers. Stories from Electric Velocipede have been nominated for the World Fantasy Award, and been reprinted in several year's best anthologies.

And now Electric Velocipede has won a Hugo award. I never, ever, ever thought this would happen. I never thought I would get nominated. With the huge number of great publications and talented, hard-working people putting them together, I just figured I'd do my best, complain a little online, but never actually get on the ballot.

Once there, I never never never never thought I would win the thing. Never. I can't say it plainly enough. What I do is so different from the traditional Best Fanzine winner. Perhaps that worked in my favor. The final tally of the votes shows how close it was. I only won by seven votes. And whomever those seven were, thank you.

I've said this before, but I'll say it here, and I think I should make a separate post just to be clear: I am declaring Electric Velocipede a semiprozine. I had intended to make this declaration after the Hugo Awards this year, going on my normal assumption of not even getting nominated much less winning.

But this year was different. I won the Hugo Award. It's been very surreal. With the award here, it is much more real, but still surreal. We'll see how long it takes to crack the Semiprozine ballot; that's a tough crowd, but I'm ready for it.

It's Here!

2009-09-11T09:32:00.004-05:00

(how long until I can go home and put this together?)

Or: Ever Have Your Day Just Crawl By?

The Hugo Award rocket sitting on my desk at work. I took the photo looking towards the cleanest area of my desk so I wouldn't appear too slovenly.

Nonetheless, I'm very excited to have both parts in my possession. I'll have a more thoughtful post later about the Hugo Awards when the thing is assembled. I really hadn't planned on waiting more than a month to make a post about it, but I wanted to have it in hand before I started talking about the whole process.

Half Way There

2009-09-05T20:45:00.002-05:00

(Hugo Award base, waiting for its rocket)

Thursday, when I got home from work, there was one of those 'we tried to deliver something to you, but we decided it was better to inconvenience you by having come to the post office between 9 and 3 to pick it up instead' slips of paper. Luckily, I was off work on Friday. Other than waiting like a kid who ordered something out of the back of a comic book, the sender was the person who e-mailed me to tell me my Hugo was in the mail.

I was surprised it was one package. You see, I had been told it was shipped in two packages, so I knew that one package would not be the whole award. They assured me there was only one package there. I knew it was the base from the weight and the size of the package.

So, I'm still waiting to get the rocket part of my Hugo. I've been told I'm not the only one who get the two packages on different days. I was also told that it might take another week for the rocket to arrive.

Unraveling the Submission Tree

2009-09-02T20:31:00.003-05:00

(image from Flickr user HandMaid Liset)

On August 1, 2009, we re-opened Electric Velocipede to submissions after more than a year away (almost exactly a year-and-a-half away, actually). I wasn't sure what to expect. Would the submissions be a deluge or a trickle? I figured that it would be somewhere in between.

Let's just say that submissions have exceeded my expectations. Since I notoriously set my expectations low, this isn't hard. There was a deluge of submissions that weekend and then a nice steady stream. No real trickle in sight. We got about 300 submissions last month, which is more than I typically got in any reading period (I used to be open for three months then closed for three months) in the past. So far we're running about 72% guys to 28% ladies for submissions.

We've read and responded to about 100 of the submissions so far. Our new system from true mensch Neil Clarke makes the whole process run so smoothly it's a little scary. If you're still waiting in the queue, we'll be getting to you shortly.

Thank you in advance for your patience.

Picture a distracted man.

2009-09-01T23:04:00.004-05:00

I don't know if John's got his Hugo yet, although I know Scalzi got his. =grin=

Anyway, I bring this up because if you do ping John about something and find him a bit distracted, do feel free to ping me [anne -at- electricvelocipede -dot- com]. I'm here to help fix things. :>

Anne*---

Picture a Sad Pathetic Face

2009-08-21T10:28:00.003-05:00

(the base of the 2009 Hugo Award)

I feel like the kid who ordered x-ray specs or something out of the back of a comic book while I wait for my Hugo to arrive.

Every day I check the front step and then ask my wife if anything arrived in the mail. She rolls her eyes and says no.

Every time.

At least I'm not alone.

Electric Velocipede 17/18 Fiction

2009-08-17T00:35:00.003-05:00

I hear a rumor that copies of the issue have made their way to the Night Shade Books warehouse and will be shipping shortly. While you wait for your issue, check out a few of the stories here:

The Bear Dresser's Secret by Richard Bowes
Enmity by K. Tempest Bradford
The Spaces Between Things by Matthew Kressel
Setting My Spider Free by Caroline Yoachim

There is a lot of other great stuff in the issue. If you like these stories and are not a subscriber, go to the Night Shade Books Electric Velocipede page and consider subscribing.

Electric Velocipede Won the Hugo Award!!

2009-08-09T21:08:00.004-05:00

(John Joseph Adams holding the Electric Velocipede Best Fanzine Hugo)

Holy crap! I won the Hugo! That's so awesome! And unexpected! And awesome! Here's the acceptance speech that I sent to John Joseph Adams:

'Stunned’ aptly describes how I would feel if I was in the room with you. I’d likely remain in my seat until someone nudged me to get up and accept the award. Once there, I’d either launch into an ill-advised improvised attempt at being funny about being the future of short fiction or I’d just stand and mumble some thank yous and ‘a project like this can’t be done without the help of others.’ But, since I am writing this well in advance so that Mr. Adams doesn’t have to improvise, I can provide you with something more coherent.

Thank you, so much, to the members of Worldcon and it’s constituent Hugo voters. I cannot explain to you how much this means to me. Thank you first, for finding me worthy of nomination and second, worthy of the final prize. Thank you to my mother and grandmother for nurturing my love of the written word from an early age. Thank you to Jim Frenkel for getting me into publishing in the first place. Thank you to Gavin Grant for inspiring me to create Electric Velocipede. Thank you to my wife for putting up with this craziness for so many years. And finally, thank you to all the authors and artists who make the content for Electric Velocipede; without them, there would be no award to accept.

How freaking awesome is this?

Year's Best Science Fiction, 26th Annual Edition

2009-08-05T12:00:00.001-05:00

Gardner Dozois' annual Year's Best Science Fiction recently hit the shelves, and I went to the bookstore to see if any Electric Velocipede stories made the recommended reading list at the back of the volume.

My content is more suited to the late Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, so I never know if there'll be anything to make Dozois' cut. Of course, many of the year's best editors make note of the fact that I'm more prone to publish science fiction than similar magazines, so take this all with a grain of salt.

From Electric Velocipede #14

Elissa Malcohn - Hermit Crabs
Sandra McDonald - Recipe for Survival
Jennifer Pelland - Sashenka Redux

From Electric Velocipede #15/16

Corey Brown - Child of Scorn
Aliette de Bodard - The Dragon's Tears
Patrick O'Leary - The Oldest Man on Earth
William Shunn - Timesink

Congrats to everyone who made the recommended reading list! Not too bad for a little speculative fiction magazine, eh?

Third Time's the Charm?

2009-08-04T09:32:00.002-05:00

(image from Flickr user ferrous)

World Fantasy nominations were announced today and I find myself on the ballot for the third year in a row! You can click on the link for the complete list, here is where I am nominated:

Special Award—Non-professional
Edith L. Crowe (for her work with The Mythopoeic Society)
John Klima (for Electric Velocipede)
Elise Matthesen (for setting out to inspire and for serving as inspiration for works of poetry, fantasy, and SF over the last decade through her jewelry-making and her "artist's challenges.")
Sean Wallace, Neil Clarke, & Nick Mamatas (for Clarkesworld)
Michael Walsh (for Howard Waldrop collections from Old Earth Books)

Congrats to all the nominees!