Sensawunda

"The Magic of Dark and Hollow Places" Sells to Beneath Ceaseless Skies

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:43:00 +0000

I just got the word yesterday that Beneath Ceaseless Skies will be publishing a second Lacuna story by me, titled "The Magic of Dark and Hollowed Places." If "Walls of Paper, Soft as Skin" or "Pulped and Bound Monsters" interested you in Lacuna, the City of Missing Letters, then this one will make you never want to leave. This will also be the first time (hopefully first of many) a very important figure in Lacuna history makes an appearance: The Inked Man. You'll just have to wait until it's released for more information on that one.

I couldn't be more excited or more happy to have another story in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, which for my money is the best fantasy magazine publishing today. This is the longest short story I've had published to date and my second SFWA-qualifying sale. One more sale and I can become a full member of SFWA, which means I will have Nebula voting rights, and, unlike 4 years ago when I turned 18, this time I'll be excited to have voting rights.

Stay tuned for future updates.

Some Big "Walls of Paper, Soft as Skin" News!

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:12:00 +0000

Words.

"Walls of Paper, Soft as Skin" was my first SFWA-qualifying short story sale. Not only that, but it was to my favorite fantasy mag: Beneath Ceaseless Skies. It received a "Recommended" from Lois Tilton at Locus, and then was also mentioned as one of her favorite stories of 2011.

But this. This news is big. Real big.

"Walls of Papers, Soft as Skin" will be in The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2012, edited by Paula Guran. Yes, that is correct. Me, Adam Callaway, 22, white, male, married (sorry), of Superior, Wisconsin will have a story in a Year's Best anthology.

Words. There are words to describe how I feel about this but they can not be described with this limited 26-character alphabet we use.

And if that wasn't enough, Gene Wolfe -- posthuman, demigod, engineer, and author -- also has a story in it. So not only am I in a Year's Best, but I'm in a Year's Best with Gene ****ing Wolfe.

Words.

SF Book Review: The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:03:00 +0000

Publisher: Spectra
Release Date: 1995
Title: The Fall of Hyperion
Author: Dan Simmons
Subgenre: Planetary Romance
Pages: 528

The Good: Great characterization. Good pay-offs. Mind-bending ideas.

I start many series, but I don't finish many. Even rarer, I don't normally go right to the 2nd book in a series after I read the 1st. I lose steam. I get bored. Not so with the Hyperion Cantos.

The Fall of Hyperion is miles away from Hyperion in structure. Where Hyperion was 3rd person limited in between the cornucopia of styles and structures of the pilgrim's novellas, The Fall of Hyperion alternates rapidly between 1st person present tense as the Cybrid (like an organic android) Joseph Severn/John Keats assists CEO Gladstone in trying to stop the Ouster invasions, to 3rd person in the past when the Cybrid dreams the realities of the Time Tomb pilgrims. It's wild stuff, leading to an interesting reading experience. If it seems daunting to you, I can promise you it's not.

Hyperion had some of the greatest ideas I've ever read. From the Time Tombs moving backwards in time, from the paingod Shrike, to the godlike AIs of the Technocore, to the weapons called the Deathwand and the Hellwhip. Simmons is one of those rare writers, like Rajaniemi, Mieville, and Wright, who through away more ideas than most writers have in their careers.

The Fall of Hyperion, though, brings all of those disparate ideas together, creating one of the most wild, fast-paced endings I've ever read. Paingod, I wish I could tell even just a little, but the plots are wound up in such a complex series of knots, unraveling one of them unravels them all.

The Bad: Somewhat pretentious.

So, one of the main conceits of the Cantos is this whole plotline with the resurrected personas of John Keats and his poem Hyperion and how poets aren't gods, but gods are certainly poets, and what-have-you, but at times, it seems less like a plotline and more like showing off.

This duology is one of the best structured, most interesting series I've ever read, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

SSR SF: Her Husband's Hands by Adam-Troy Castro

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 02:10:00 +0000

Magazine: Lightspeed
Issue: October 2011
Title: Her Husband's Hands
Author: Adam-Troy Castro
Subgenre: SF Strange
Words: 5892

The Good: Incredible idea. Well-executed. Heart-breaking.

Arvies turned me on to Castro's writing in a big way, and this story reinforces my admiration. Castro has a mind that takes the most strange ideas and turns them into brilliant works of classic science fiction.

Her Husband's Hands is the story of Rebecca, a war widow, but not really. Her husband was the victim of a terrible attack, and all that could be salvaged was his hands. These hands are artificially animated and given a pair of silver cuffs where they should attach to arms, and in these silver cuffs, her husband's last memory backup is held. Over the story, Rebecca tries to accept how her husband has become, and looks in herself to see if she still loves him.

The story will make you heart in all your pity-zones. It pulls just the right strings, being sad without melodrama, hopeless without depression. The events Castro decides to include in the story are perfect for delivering the characterization needed, as this story is essentially plotless in the way all good character driven stories are.

The Bad: Terrible title. Easy ending.

I do have complaints with this story. The minor one is that the title is rather lame. Her Husband's Hands. Hmm. I wonder what the story will be about?

The other complaint is major: the ending is easy and cheap. The whole story long, Rebecca's disgust at her husband's disembodied hands touching her is made clear. So what happens at the end? Rebecca lets her husband make sweet hand-lovin' to her because she finally can remember the man the hands had been attached to. It's the obvious ending, and you don't get vested enough in the characters for it to pay off. Also, on a personal preference note, I always hate stories with elements of romance ending with the main characters having sex. Sex is the easy part of the relationship. Sex is the obvious direction. Either end right before or far after, but not during the act.

Of course, a very popular book series made quiet a bit of money just because fans wanted to read about two divergent creatures doing the dirty deed, so maybe I'm wrong.

Despite a flawed ending, this is still a strong, and highly recommended read.

Award Notice Post

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:33:00 +0000

Both the Hugo and the Nebula awards are open for nominations and I have a few stories that are eligible to be nominated. Why should you do this? Because I want to bring the award back home to Wisconsin. Also, Chicon being only 10 hours away, I might actually be able to attend it, and I need a good excuse to go. Also also, they're pretty damn good.

Short Stories:

Walls of Paper, Soft as Skin, Beneath Ceaseless Skies 73 (Lois Tilton Recommended, so you know it's good)
Resolution AE Scifi
Pulped and Bound Monsters Flurb 12

So go nominate me. Hack the system and nominate me twice. On a much more real note, nominate the stories you really feel deserve the award. Think less about the name of the author and more the content of the story. Nominate the stories that made you laugh, cry, and through your Nook across the room. Nominate the stories you think we can point to in 20 years and say, "Now that is a great goddamned story!"

And for crissakes, only single novels this year please.

PRL: Redstone SF (6)

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 03:53:00 +0000

It's only a matter of time.

"Thank you for submitting "Eileen Lied" to Redstone Science Fiction. We have decided to pass on your story.
This is the best story you have submitted to us. It was passed on by our assistant editor/slushreader to us, which accounts for the delay. The near future of ubiquitous computing is well-done and something I really like. The story/conflict, however, is essentially a dead wife story with an unusual, but semi-happy, ending. So, it's not the type of story we're looking to add to RSF right now. Congrats on doing so well with your writing. I was pleased to see your work featured in the M-Brane SF Quarterly #3 that contained my story.

We will reopen for submissions in February and certainly hope to hear from you again then.

Yours,
Michael Ray
Editor
Redstone Science Fiction

http://www.facebook.com/redstonesf/
http://www.twitter.com/redstonesf/"

2011 in Review

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 23:48:00 +0000

So 2011 was pretty awesome for me writing wise. I made my first and my second professional short story sales to AE Scifi and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, respectively. Not only that, but Walls of Paper, Soft as Skin was recommended by short fiction reviewer extraordinaire Lois Tilton at Locus Online as one of her favorite stories from BCS in 2011.

Beyond pro sales, I also had stories in Flurb and The Orphan, and even my first legit poetry sale to Scifaikuest. Definitely my most successful year since I started writing seriously 5 years ago during my senior year in high school.

Reading wise, I'd say it was a bit of a fail. I didn't get nearly enough done. I read some great novels and some great short stories, but not enough. This will be rectified in 2012; I promise. Some of the highlights of the reading year was finally getting into A Song of Ice and Fire, The Kingkiller Chronicles, and The Hyperion Cantos. All three series are recommended to the utmost degree.

I honestly can't remember if I went to a single movie in 2011. I did watch a lot of anime though. Highly recommend Bleach, Honey & Clover, Eden of the East, Clannad, Samurai 7, and Samurai Champloo.

I formed The Stinkbeatles writing group, along with Eldritch Otter and other Lesser Insects too, which was the single most productive decision of 2011. The sheer amount of profanity-laden throwdowns on wordcount wars urged me to get back in the swing of things.

Life wise, 2011 was pretty awesome. Married life continues to be awesome. I graduated with my degree in English Lit (diploma still hasn't arrived after 8 months though), and I got a full time job. The latter might not be so awesome, but it does put pizzas on the table and NOS in the hand.

Even with all of this, 2012 can only get better.

SF Book Review: Hyperion by Dan Simmons (Spectra)

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 21:00:00 +0000

Publisher: Spectra
Release Date: 1989
Title: Hyperion
Author: Dan Simmons
Subgenre: Planetary Romance
Pages: 482

The Good: Incredible ideas brilliantly realized. Intriguing as all get out. Great characterization at times.

Straight up, Hyperion is one of the all-time great science fiction novels. Let's just get that conceit out of the way. It won the Hugo back when the award meant that your work was truly superior and would be read 20 years in the future and still ring pertinent.

Hyperion is written as a series of interconnected novellas, ala The Canterbury Tales. It's been common practice in literature for decades to write novels as a series of short stories, but most of the time, the whole feels less than the sum of its parts. Hyperion gets it right however. From the greatest use of Crucifiction in the last 2000 odd years (see The Priest's Tale) to the heart-wrenching account of a man's daughter aging backwards through time (see The Scholar's Tale), every story offers something different and amazing. Read on their own, each story warrants the cover price of the book, but taken together, and a flat-out insane (that's the only word I can use to describe the over-arching plot) picture begins to form in your mind. I kept finding myself going, "No, no, no, no," as I was reading it, not believing in the magic that was so obviously in front of me, but, just like seeing Stigmata bleed for the hundredth time, there comes a point where you can't deny it any longer.

Good writers build a rigorous world and explore it through their stories. Great writers drop hints at the world beyond, describing just enough to hold the story together. Simmons hits the extreme upper edge of Greatness. He builds a future history of an AI-controlled-but-not-controlled universe, a galaxy spanning ecopolitical organization headed by a CEO, a paingod made of knives who can control 4-dimensions simultaneously, and mysterious artifacts called Time Tombs, of which, little is known.

Beyond the wonderful content executed to the highest degree, the actual prose of the book is something to marvel at. Each story is told differently. The Poet's Tale is a first person, stream-of-conscious ramble trying to encompass hundreds of years of life. The Detective's Tale reads hard-boiled. The Consul's Tale hits at his worldweariness. The Priest's Tale is epistolary and evokes a cynical sensawunda. You'll see every point of view, every tense, every literary device that you could possibly imagine somewhere in its pages, and it's all done with an effortlessness that makes us lesser writers tear our hair out trying to emulate.

The Cons: Characterization falters in places. Only half a book.

This is a con that is more a personal preference than an actual slight on the book. Anyone who's read Sensawunda knows that my least favorite cliche in science fiction is an uber-sexualized future; where people are as likely to have sex as shake hands. It doesn't ring true to me.

Some characters in Hyperion seem to see sex as a very minor action in relationships, and by that token, boink constantly. Even though it does, to an extant, serve the character and the world, it bothers me. By no means, however, is it a major concern or even happens all that often. It just made me tut my head once or twice.

Oh, and of course, the main slight is that you need to read The Fall of Hyperion to receive any sort of resolution.

I honestly can not recommend this highly enough. If you have fallen out of love with science fiction, this will fire your loins. If you want to learn how to write short stories or novels, this will teach you. If you just want to have a flat out good time, then by Shrike, buy this book.

Lois Tilton's Year in Review

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 02:23:00 +0000

So, yeah, I'm a big deal.

Well, maybe I'm not a big deal, but this is a big deal for me. Out of all the wonderful Beneath Ceaseless Skies stories published in 2011, my story "Walls of Paper, Soft as Skin" was the one Lois chose to highlight. When I got the coveted "Recommended" from her earlier in the year, I almost couldn't stand it. Now, I am truly beyond words. Just a good, happy day for me. Even if my name is spelled slightly wrong.

2011 was a great year.

How to Get Me to Ignore You Forever: Magazine Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 21:59:00 +0000

I, like many authors, subscribe to Duotrope's Weekly Fiction Wire, the e-newsletter which lists updates in markets, whether they be new, closed, hiatus, or reopened. The section I pay attention to is the section that details new, paying markets. Usually, I read up on the markets that have interesting, genre-related trials, check their pay rate and modus operandi, and move on. Nine out of 10 times, I pass on the market within a minute (incredibly low rates being the main reason), and never give it a second thought.

This week's Fiction Wire included a market called Scout & Engineer. It sounded like possibly a new SF mag by the title. It's not specifically SF (actually the concept of the mag sounds rather pretentious) but it pays pretty wall. The reason, however, I won't submit to Scout & Engineer is because they charge $3.00 per online submission.

Now, I am a firm believer in Yog's Law; the notion that money is supposed to flow to the writer. It's the reason why I won't submit to mags that only take mail submissions. Even in that case, though, you aren't actually paying the publication. Also, it's why I won't submit stories to contests with entry fees. Again, entry fees for contests usually go to the prize purse.

Scout & Engineer charges the author money for convenience. How in the hell does this makes sense? The mag is using the free tool Submittable to handle their submissions too. It's not like their pay rates are so extravagantly high that they need to stockpile cash, or maybe they just want to severely, severely limit the number of authors willing to submit their work? I can't for the life of me figure out what would possess a new online journal, publishing in this age, to make this decision.

Please, someone out there, explain this to me.

NaNoWriMo Warjournal: Day 4

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 23:02:00 +0000

Day 4 Wordcount: 439
Total Wordcount: 6324

This post is late and only begrudgingly written. Last night was not a good night for writing. I hit the wall in my story known as the "Hate Wall." I can't stand to look at my novel now. I know this happens to a lot of people, but not to me.

I dunno. We'll see what happens today.

Day 4: Utter failure.
Mood: Despair. Melodramatic.

NaNoWriMo Warjournal: Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 03:37:00 +0000

Day 3 Wordcount: 2027
Total Wordcount: 5885

So today was a weird day. I decided to take my novel in a different direction; that direction being 1st person. So I went from Martinesque to Wongesque, and the novel seems about ten times better for it. It's much funnier, more visceral, and has a better pacing. I'll have to go back, restructure chapter 1 and restructure chapter 2, but it'll be totally worth it.

I'm running at about a chapter a day and am happy with the results so far. I'm three days in to my first legit NaNo and I am feeling great. I wonder when the first true hurdle will hit?

Day 3: Success
Mood: Confident

NaNoWrimo Warjournal: Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 03:32:00 +0000

Day 2 Wordcount: 1794
Total Wordcount: 3858

Day 2 was a bit bumpier than day 1, even though it should not have been. I edited during every free second I had at work today, roughing out chapters for multiple characters. Today's assignment was to get the first chapter done for one of my main female characters. It took place during a larp battle, and should have been fun to write, but I felt myself stumbling through it. I think it has to do with my inability to build. I try to write in the "in late/out early" style, but sometimes I think it works to my disadvantage. Still, after I got going, the chapter began to work itself out and I was happy where it ended, but I hope day 3 will be a bit better.

Day 2: Success
Mood: Satisfied

NaNoWriMo Warjournal: Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:51:00 +0000

Day 1 Wordcount: 2064
Total Wordcount: 2064

Day 1 went smoothly, especially considering I had no momentum going in, having no written in the latter part of October, preparing for NaNo, but the creative flywheel spun up like a superfluid torus. I got a good chunk of Jack Batty's (one of the five main characters) first chapter done. Considering it takes place in real-world Superior, Wisconsin -- a notoriously difficult setting for me to write about -- I'd say this is a good sign. I have a really good 7 Point outline down for this character. His arc is a thing of beauty, and should be pretty easy to pull off. It's the other four characters that I'm still having trouble with.

Hopefully I'll get Jack's first chapter done tomorrow and get a good start on Blair Wright's, one of the main female characters, and the first section of larping in the book. It should be quite a bit of fun.

Day 1: Success.
Mood: Optimistic

PreNoWriMo: The Preparationing

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 01:54:00 +0000

One of the keys to winning NaNoWriMo is outlining. I've wasted so much time staring into the wood-paneling of my office, trying to find my next plot thread in the whorls of the pine, that I could have written a book just in the interstitials. Outlining is essential to NaNo success.
Yeah, I didn't outline.
Why? Could it be because I believe in the sanctity of spontaneity? Can art only be made by the random short circuits of the mind? Or maybe because I just came up with the idea on Friday? Who knows? Who can say? Also I'm writing a book about larpers, so no matter what I put into it, art will be done. It's called The 300 Acre Kingdom, and yes, it will be awesome.
Brief synopsis: five people converge on Farveil, a permanent larping establishment on 300 acres of old Wisconsin farmland. That's all you need to know, because that's all I have so far. It's a character-driven larping dramedy, structured like ASoIaF. Probably should do that outline thing soon.
Less than 4 hours. I still have time.

NaNoWriMo 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 19:51:00 +0000

Like hordes of other pasty, introverted writers, I will be holing up and putting down 50,000 words in November. The Stinkbeatle Writing Group, which I am the founder of (along with Shaun Duke, but this is the local, active chapter), has been preparing for it for months, building progressively higher wordcounts for months.

This will by my second time attempting NaNo. I tried a few years ago, got about 10k words in, and then quit, citing "life getting in the way." Now I know that is no excuse. Life will always be there. Until publishers start burying me ankle-deep in gold bullion, writing will be a delightful intrusion into life. The realization that there will always be excuses not to write really increased my output in recent months. Also, constant chiding from my fellow Stinkbeatles makes it damn near impossible to go hours, much less dies, without updating the communal wordcount tracker.

That's really the key to writing a lot: constant fear that your supposed writing buddies will e-mail you with an entirely-too-clever h8r-gram. I could write 5000 words a day, but they all would figure out how to write 5001 and let me know about it in a series of progressively more vulgar letters.

So to help keep me level-headed during NaNo, Sensawunda will become my War Journal. It'll be where I vent and exhault; where I ponder and scream. I'll try to get something up daily about what I accomplished or fail to accomplish during that day, and I'll start tomorrow, with the Pre-NaNo Rundown, where I'll go over my project and how I plan to complete this right-of-writerly-passage.

Fellow Stinkbeatle, Eldritch Otter, will also be using his blog for similar purposes during NaNo. And yes, he is one of the entirely-too-clever insects.

If you're NaNo-ing, you can find me on www.nanowrimo.org at, you guessed it, Sensawunda.

Stay tuned, and watch the inky carnage unfold.

GoneReading

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 19:58:00 +0000

As you loyal readers know, I'm an amazing person. Brilliant, handsome, a damn fine lover, et cetera. However, I also like to do good. Perpetuating that myth, I bring to your attention GoneReading.

'GoneReading – the lifestyle brand of gifts for readers – pledges 100% of profits to charity. Gone Reading International – maker of the GoneReading brand of gifts for readers – was founded to bring the magic of reading to places where it doesn’t exist. “We believe that when people have open access to great reading materials, life always changes for the better,” says founder Brad Wirz.That’s why GoneReading uses all year-end profits to fund new reading libraries and other literacy projects in the developing world. By purchasing GoneReading brand products, you’re changing the world while treating your friends and family to great gifts. During a volunteer trip to Central America in 2010, Wirz helped to build a library in the middle of the Honduran jungle. “Hundreds of villages, thousands of people, had basically no access to books or reading materials at all. That just blew my mind,” says Wirz. The result is GoneReading and its unique brand of gifts for the reading lifestyle. GoneReading gifts feature original designs and slogans, examples of which are shown below. Each design is available for purchase on an array of apparel, drink ware, book bags, baby clothing, pet products and more.'

Besides being a kick-ass charity, the GoneReading store has some nifty items that will tickle any book lover. Go check it out. Go do some good and maybe you can be like me someday.*

*Results not guaranteed.

Flurb 12 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 02:43:00 +0000

SF Revu gives Flurb #12 some well-deserved love, including a very good review of "Pulped and Bound Monsters" by yours truly.

Go read the issue then check out the review.

Procrastabation

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:35:00 +0000

I have been neglecting Sensawunda. There, I said it. Mostly it's because Eldritch Otter has been keeping me chained to my keyboard, hammering out prose under pain of fiscal losses. Fear not, however, Sensawundaers, I will return with the ground-breaking, heart-wrenching, bowel-liquefying prose you have come to know and love within the week.

Stay tuned. You might miss something.

Market Update: Result Jelly

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 17:30:00 +0000

Like most writers, I subscribe to Duotrope's weekly fiction wire, always on the look-out for new, paying markets. Usually, the markets in the new listing section pay under one cent a word and fold within an issue or two. These are below my notice for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, however, markets promise pro payments and pique my interest. Again, a lot of these close down after an issue or two (FaePublishing, I'm looking at you). I still like to give these brave souls who offer to actually pay authors for their work a little free publicity love.

This week, in the wire, I clicked on a link for a magazine called "Result Jelly." It's a spec fic mag that offers five cents a word up to, and get this, 15,000 words. And that's not even their upper word count limit. They also accept poetry and comic subs.

Here's the description they have posted on their website:

"Result Jelly is for lovers of the fantastic, the weird, the alien, and the epic. We are currently curating and editing our first issue for release both in print and Kindle/Tablet friendly editions.

We are accepting fantasy, science fiction, comic, generally creative and adventerous fiction, and poem submissions. We want imaginative work, the kind of stories that convince us to ignore bed times and introduce us to fantastic places, people, and creatures. Length is not of importance, as we are just as interested in serializing long works as we are in publishing short stories.

Comic submissions should be original characters and stories. Comics should be ready to be submitted digitally, we will not scan/edit your comic for you. We are open to all kinds of poem submissions, but keep in mind the goal of the magazine.

Pay for story submissions is 5.0 cents per word up to 15,000 words, stories longer than 15,000 words we will provide an offer upon acceptance. Comic and poem pay rates will also be provided upon acceptance. Please send your submissions via e-mail to: submissions [at] resultjelly.com"

I will definitely send a piece there way, and if they can manage to stick around for three issues, I'll put them on Sensawunda's market list.

Stay tuned. This just may get exciting.

Updatery

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 01:07:00 +0000

I know the blog has been quiet as of late. I'm still getting adjusted to working a full time job and still squeezing in writing and family life. It's getting easier, but I still need to figure out how to get blogging regularly again. Another reason it has been so quiet is that I'm not too keen on doing many reviews anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'll still review. I have The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, The Magician King by Lev Grossman, and Innocents Abroad by Gene Wolfe all up for review soon, but I want to take the blog in a more personal, more writerly direction. I want to do posts on character and structure and genre more than I want to give an arbitrary score to a piece of fiction.
So look forward to a blog redesign, rebrand, and refocus. In short, look for a more interesting Blog-Formerly-Known-As-Sensawunda soon.

"Pulped and Bound Monsters" Out Today in Flurb

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 00:17:00 +0000

Here's the 2nd published Lacuna story. This one has 100% more metafiction and 233% more anthropomorphism. Also, it has a great title that I came up with. Go read it for free and expound on my awesomeness.

I'm also tickled blue to be called Flurb's "house Surrealist." Something I've been striving toward for a long time.

Pulped and Bound Monsters
FLURB 12

Lockdown Giveaway Winner

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 02:35:00 +0000

And the winner is:

Michael C. of British Columbia.

Thank you all for entering!

PRL: Redstone SF (5)

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:59:00 +0000

This is what we refer to in the biz as "failing upwards."

"Adam,

Thanks for submitting 'The Suicide Artists'. We are going to pass on it, but we definitely got a chuckle from your epistolary letter.

Congrats on your recent sales. We feel pretty certain that it is just a matter of time before we match up with the right tale of yours for RSF.

Best Regards,

Paul Clemmons

Publisher and Co-Editor

Redstone Science Fiction"

I guess I better get going on more SF shorts!

Cover Art: Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway

noreply@blogger.com (Adam Callaway) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:54:00 +0000

Nick Harkaway secured me as a lifelong reader with his debut The Gone Away World, one of the most madcap, digression heavy, interesting, well-plotted, twisty, bugf***in fun books I've ever read. Years later, and his second book finally has a (tentative) release date of March 20, 2010 (via Amazon) and cover art.

Via Amazon:

Also via Amazon:

"From the author of the international best seller The Gone-Away World--a new riveting action spy thriller, blistering gangster noir, and howling absurdist comedy: a propulsively entertaining tale about a mobster's son and a retired secret agent who team up to save the world.

Joe Spork repairs clocks, a far cry from his late father, a flashy London gangster. But when Joe fixes one particularly unusual device, his life is suddenly upended. Joe's client, Edie Banister, is more than just a kindly old lady--she's a former superspy. And the device? It's a 1950s doomsday machine. And having triggered it, Joe now faces the wrath of both the government and a diabolical South Asian dictator, Edie's old arch-nemesis. With Joe's once-quiet world now populated with mad monks, psychopathic serial killers, scientific geniuses, girls in pink leather, and threats to the future of conscious life in the universe, he realizes that the only way to survive is to muster the courage to fight, help Edie complete a mission she gave up years ago, and pick up his father's old gun..."
Fingers crossed that tentative turns actual. I. Can. Not. Wait.