Artemisin

Sturgeon Award Finalist

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Sat, 29 May 2010 18:43:00 +0000

"As Women Fight" is part of a very juicy group of stories finalist for the Sturgeon Award.
Needless to say, I'm thrilled.

"Slow Stampede" on the short list for The Harper Pen Award

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:32:00 +0000

The Harper Pen Award, formerly known as the Ham-Sized Fist Award celebrates short heroic fantasy fiction published in the previous year. "Slow Stampede" has been deemed short, heroic and fantastical enough to enter and I'm thrilled they chose it as a finalist.
Pretty good bunch of names on that list too... It's always good to keep good company.

Asimov's April/May: Malick Pan

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:38:00 +0000

"Malick Pan" has come out in the April/May issue of Asimov's.
It's a rather more fragmented and techie story than my usual stuff and I can't wait to see how people like it. So far the only review I could find was at the Last Short Story Project and it's a rather good one.
I'm glad I didn't let them down.

Destination: Future is out!

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:34:00 +0000

My story "No Jubjub Birds Tonight" is available as part of the Destination: Future anthology, edited by Eric T. Reynolds and Z. S. Adani. This is my second story in a Hadley Rille anthology and needless to say, I'm thrilled.

You can buy it from Amazon, Barnes and Noble or your usual bookstore

Sins of the Father to Asimov's--my first Spanish story

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:06:00 +0000

Asimov's has accepted "Sins of the Father" for publication. This story has a particularly tortuous history. It was conceived almost two years ago, and slept on one hard drive after another in several larval forms. Then it was critiqued at a Villa Diodati--and promptly allowed to ferment for another year. The reasons are several.

First, it's the first story I've written inspired by Spain. Not real Spain, mind you (I'm an SF writer, I couldn't just go and do something simple like that). No, my Spain is a twisted version of all that was wrong with the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Spain, extrapolated into the future. With mermaids. Because everything is better with mermaids. That mix was bad enough to justify some of the procrastinating.

Another problem was that the themes I was dealing with were way too big for the story: I was trying to talk about poverty and drought and hunger, oppression and sexism, a low-technological lifestyle and the elements of social oppression enforced from within a social group. I also didn't want to give anyone the wrong idea. In my experience, Americans are gloriously ignorant of anything Spanish and I didn't want anyone thinking modern Spain was remotely like the Spain in my story (this may sound exaggerated, but in high school a friend of mine went on an exchange program to the US--his American family taught him how to flush a toilet, just in case, and wondered aloud whether he went to school on a donkey).

I worried about this for a while. Then I stopped. I reasoned that my readers are surely smarter than that. ( :P )

Once I gave up and let the story be what it wanted to be, it came out more or less fine.

I wrote "Sins of the Father" while listening to three songs by Juan Manuel Serrat, but I took all the artistic licenses I could think of, so don't infer too much there, either.

The first song is "Pueblo Blanco". It's a sad song about one of those little villages where the sun beats down on cracked thirsty land and all the young men think only of escape. The second is "Nanas de Cebolla," a song adapted by Serrat based on the poem by the poet Miguel Hernandez. Miguel Hernandez was with the Rojos in the Spanish Civil War and imprisoned by the Nacionales. His wife wrote to him to tell him how she and their baby-son only ate bread and onion--so he answered with this poignant lullaby.

There's a third song by Serrat that inspired the festival scene in the story. It's called "Fiesta".

I thought you might be interested in reading translations of snippets of these songs. I've embeded the youtube videos for the songs in the original version.

Pueblo Blanco

Hanging from a cliff, sleeps my chalk-white town
Under a sky that, from never seeing the sea, forgot to cry
Through its streets of dust and stone not even the War passed, only forget
Walk slowly, bordering the old lamb-road where not even a flower grows, nor a Shepard passes.
(...)
From sowing to harvest, one lives in the tavern
The old women murmur their stories in the doorways
and girls knit lace, looking through the holes for that young man
that they forged in their minds at night
(...)

The girls dream of him and he dreams of going away
and the old men dream of dying under the sun
(...)
open-mouthed like lizards, half hidden under a straw hat.

Run away tender people, because this land is sick
Don't expect from tomorrow what it didn't give you yesterday
Take your mule, your woman and your instruments
Take the road of the Hebrew people
Maybe tomorrow fortune will smile
And if you must cry, it's best to do so near the sea.

Nanas de Cebolla
Onion is frost, closed and poor
Frost of your days and of my nights
Hunger and onion,
black ice and frost big and round

On hunger's crib my child lay
on onion blood he suckled
but your blood,
frosted with sugar, onion and hunger

A dark woman, silhouetted by the moon
pours herself thread by thread over the crib
Laugh child, I bring you the moon
when it's necessary
(...)

Fiesta
Glory to God in Heaven,
they picked up the trash from my street
which was dark yesterday and today strung with lights
(...)
Let's climb the hill, because up there my street
is dressed of Fiesta

Today the noble and the villain
(...)
dance and hold hands without caring who is which
The sun catches them together
drowning in alcohol, hugging some girl.
(...)
For one night we forgot
That each person has a place

These are my own sucky translations, sorry! I hope I've encouraged you to go look up the original songs. They're exhilarating, poetic and tacky. And yes, that defines Spain just fine.

Two more stories and the fun is over

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:34:00 +0000

Way back when I started writing in 2006-2007 (can't remember which) I made a pact with myself: I wouldn't attempt to write a novel until I had written and published ten stories in professional markets. The idea was that by then I'd be a good enough writer not to be wasting my time and energy trying to make a novel work. I did try to write a novel after my fifth published pro story. Hubris! I said, and resolved to wait until I'd completed my goal.

Of course, it works both ways. My total pro stories now number 8 (some of them have been accepted but not actually published yet). I can hear the clock tick, if you know what I mean. The day of Novelizing is 'night, and I hate it.

But, but... (you're saying)... isn't this what you wanted? To write stories to learn the ropes and then write that fantastic novel you've had in your head all along?

Yes, and no. I do love writing stories and seeing them into print, and I have learned a lot since I started, but I'm nowhere near ready for the novel. Plotting is still a stranger to me. I still feel my way around a 5000 word story, spilling it out without logic or reason and then relying on my poor critiquers (sorry Mom, sorry Villa Diodati) to make suggestions. Then I apply their common sense and and think about the plot a bit and collage the stupid thing into some sort of shape. I am occasionally successful with this approach, but the most frequent critique leveled at my stories is still that "they just don't make any sense".

The thought of having to go this route with a novel makes me shudder. I have a monstrous case of cold feet. It's already hard enough to figure out why people do things in a 2000-5000 word story, my current project is aiming at 20000 words and I'm totally and irreversibly lost (or so it seems). How can I even think of spending a whole year (or more) drafting out a 90000 word monster to then have to reassemble it bit by bit?

So, am I happy I've almost achieved my goal? Sure! Will I be terribly sad if my next submissions come back rejected?

Eh--I'll go get some ice-cream now.

The Clockwork Jungle Book (Shimmer #11) is out!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:41:00 +0000

Fans of the minute, delicate and strange, here's the return of your favorite magazine.
My very own "The Story in Which Dog Dies" is in this issue, along with stuff by Jay Lake, Susannah Mandel, Alethea Kontis, Amal El-Mohtar and others.

Purchase a print issue for 8 bucks plus shipping or, if you prefer, download the electronic version for 4$.

I can't wait to get my copies.

Sweet!

Share my Happy

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:48:00 +0000

Things are weird lately at the Hospital (remodeling, shuffling of people around other Hospitals of Madrid, random bureaucratic crazy etc) but I knew this was my day.

I got most of my to do list done for today and went shopping...

And found this. Silly cheap and gorgeous.

Chopped onion and garlic, olive oil, white wine and some 10 minutes later...

The world has been good to me today.

And with a little luck, tomorrow I'll write.

"As Women Fight" Asimov's Dec 09

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:30:00 +0000

The December issue of Asimov's is hitting stores and mailboxes as we speak and, along with stories by some very cool authors, is my own humble offering. "As Women Fight" is another gender story (no, I'm not bored with that yet) set in a pretty alien culture.
I can't wait to see how people like it.

Cool little gremlin story

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:34:00 +0000

Sean Markey's "Shatter Shatter" is up on Brain Harvest.

What a chilling cute little story. Reminds me of gremlins.

"Clapping for the Fairies" in Greek

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 14:32:00 +0000

Universe Pathways has accepted to reprint "Clapping for the Fairies" in the Greek version of the mag (they also have an English version).

This will be my third story published in Greek. I'm thrilled. Since I'm not doing much writing now, I'm putting more emphasis in the foreign reprints. So far, so good.

Reviews for Shoes-To-Run

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:58:00 +0000

Despite the demise of The Fix, there are still a couple review sites and blogs out there. Whenever I have time (which these days seems to be every two leap years) I like to find out what people have to say about my stories.

Overall, I think Shoes-to-Run (Asimov's, July 09) is being well received.

Suite 101 gives the story a "Recommended" and has this to say:

'Shoes-to-Run' by Sara Genge marks her third appearance in Asimovs. This time its the story of a girl who feels like a boy trapped in the wrong body, living outside a domed Paris of the semi-distant future. When Shai-Shai sees her first menstrual blood she makes a desperate gamble and asks to join the men in a hunt, for it is hunting that defines a man. Recommended.

NotfreeSFreader is rarely thrilled with my work but gives me a 3 out of 5.

Over at Garbled Signals, Matt highlights Shoes-to-Run as well as R. Garcia y Robertson and Ian McHugh's stories (yes, I love being in this bunch) and says this:

Sara Genge’s “Shoes to Run” presents another well-developed alien society, this time here on Earth, in the shadow of a future Paris, in fact. Here, environmental disaster has made it impossible for European natives to survive in the open, and even the ethnic Africans who lived in the Paris suburbs required genetic modification for protection from the elements and radiation. Among the descendents of these former immigrants, we meet Shai-Shai, a boy on the brink of manhood, but born in a girl’s body. From this, Genge develops a strong human story about Shai-Shai’s struggle to be accepted as a hunter, and of the survival of humanity by a return to its earliest customs.

Lois Tilton rarely likes my writing, but always has insightful comments on what didn't work for her, find them here:

The world has changed drastically. A dome covers Paris to protect it from the radiation, but the tribes, probably nano-engineered, survive outside as hunters. But such matters as radiation don't concern Shai-Shai today, when she has discovered that, despite all her efforts, she seems to have become a woman.

No, she couldn't be a woman. Not after all she'd gone through, not after all she'd prayed. Girl she could live with—it was temporary anyway. Woman was permanent.

The story of Shai-Shai's hunt could have been told of just about any tribal hunter in Earth's history. The well-told tale of the hunter's bond with the prey may or may not have been the product of nano-engineering, but I could easily accept it without. This leaves Shai-Shai's story only tenuously connected to the SFnal matters of dome and nano and the fact that there are kudu herds just outside Paris. I wonder where the tribes are going to find their shoes, now.

So far, that's all I've been able to find out there. I can't wait to read the other stories (in particular, I've liked Kit Reed's stuff in the past and "Sleepless in the House of Ye" sounds good) but I haven't received my complimentary issues yet which is in no way unusual thanks to the average workings of the Spanish Postal System (aka: submission nemesis). Ah, well, I guess I'll just have to wait a bit longer.

Another foreign sale, "Master Yung" reprinted in Greek in Ennea

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:53:00 +0000

I'm just been informed that "Master Yung" is in the April issue of Ennea, a comic and SF mag that comes out with the Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia.

This is my second sale to Ennea. I wonder how I sound in Greek.

Another gender story: As Women Fight sold to Asimov's

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:40:00 +0000

This is my fourth sale to Asimov's and fills me with glee.

The working title was "Trannies in the Snow". Make of that what you may.

Trailer for Shimmer 10--cause it's pretttttty

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:53:00 +0000

Shimmer 10!

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:37:00 +0000

To celebrate the 10th issue of Shimmer Magazine the editors have launched a free online edition for you to enjoy. As happens, my story "Counting Down to the End of the Universe" is in this issue.

Isn't that cool?

If you haven't had an opportunity to read Shimmer, take the time to do so now. It's one of the quirkiest, shinniest mags out there right now. I'm thrilled they bought "Counting Down...", especially since Sean Markey was chief instigator. I have another story forthcoming in Shimmer "The Story in which Dog Dies" which was also coherced out of me by Sean.

Speaking of which, I haven't been writing too much lately. Sean, care to do anything about that?

My Friends Rock (otherwise titled Aliette de Bodard, Benjamin Rosenbaum and Mary Robinette Kowal rock!)

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 18:22:00 +0000

So, Aliette de Bodard is on the ballot for the Campbell and Benjamin Rosenbaum and Mary Robinette Kowal made the Hugo ballot.

I will not try to share my manic happy, unadulterated, stupid grinning glee. I've known Aliette for a while over the internets and got to meet her in person at the first Villa Diodati, which we've both faithfully attended ever since. I'm a big fan of her work: I find it poignant, twisty and very very different from my own stuff, which I appreciate (I like to be surprised). Ben I met at Villa Diodati 3: he's one of the funniest people I know, and I know a lot of funny people. Also, he talks even more than I do. I respect people who can break my records. Third, I've become a fan of his wacky surrealism and plan on incorporating sentient, saintly oranges in my own work. Mary Robinette Kowal I know only over Internet but she's fun and I love her work.

Aliette has gone through the trouble of putting together a fiction sampler for the Campbell here. Even if you can't vote for the Campbell I recommend downloading it because, hey, it's free! Check out "The Last Xuyan Bride". If you've ever wondered what an Aztec+Chinese detective story might look like, well, this is it. It's also alternate history, in case you were wondering, and the plot snaps right under your eyes. Now, go read!

Evil Robot Monkeys by Mary Robinette Kowal is available as an audiostory. Six minutes of awesome. Free, of course.

Benjamin Rosenbaum is on the Hugo ballot for his novella, True Names, cowritten with Cory Doctorow. This one is also for free! It starts thus:

Beebe fried the asteroid to slag when it left, exterminating millions of
itself.

That's the kind of first line everyone wishes they'd written. And now this blog post will be cut short as my attention has wandered to Ben's novella and the sound of the printer, spitting out page after page of deliciousness which I will shortly read.

Announcement

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:29:00 +0000

I'm still elligible for the Campbell.

Chech out the links on the right for stories you might like.

HAPPY 500th DAILY CABAL!

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 06:26:00 +0000

The daily cabal, a blog of bite sized daily fiction which I contribute to, published its 500th story on Feb 13th.

Here's the official announcement:

Friday the 13th of February, 2009, a group of 13 science fiction and fantasy
writers called The Daily Cabal posted its 500th story online. The Daily
Cabal has posted a free, previously unpublished story of 400 words or less
every weekday without interruption since it launched on March 26th, 2007.

Most Cabal stories are either science fiction or fantasy. Recent stories
include "The Tungsten Lama’s Weekly Webinar," "Hollywood Goddess," "In the
Elevator with Albert Einstein," and "Math for Witches."

The Cabal is the brainchild of writer Rudi Dornemann and writer and editor
Jeremiah Tolbert. Its members are responsible for scores of professionally
published stories in addition to books, articles, and poetry. All 500 Cabal
stories published to date are available on the Cabal Web site at
www.dailycabal.com , and the group can also be found on Facebook.

The Daily Cabal was born almost two years ago and there have been changes to the lineup of writers since then. Some of us are on hiatus (or sort of) and there have been plenty of new additions, people bringing new ideas (and stamina) to a project that all of us believe in. We've gotten good reader response during this time and hope to keep on going until we run out of ink.

If you haven't stopped by before take the time to peek. There are 500 stories in the archives for you to browse through. That's a lot of microfiction.

Enjoy!

"Slow Stampede" mixed reviews

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:04:00 +0000

The March issue of Asimov's is out and "Slow Stampede" has gotten mixed reviews.

Lois Tilton gives me her first RECOMMENDED for this story.

Raj is a bandit, young, ruthless and ambitious to be the next Chief. His village makes its living by raiding the caravans of Swamp Elephants that travel through the Swamp where they live.

From the distance, they looked like Jesus-bugs skimming the mud, but Raj knew that they stood taller than the sequoias that anchored their roots hundreds of yards under the surface. The swampiphant's legs pierced the upper layers of silt, finding purchase further down as the mud served to stabilize their tremendous height.
But the hungry Merfolk also live in the Swamp, and must be reckoned with.

Colorful and imaginative worldbuilding makes this one entertaining.

RECOMMENDED

Garbled Signals has a less than enthusiastic review:

“Slow Stampede”, by Sara Genge, presents a finely-imagined world of bandits raiding caravans of immense “swamp elephants” on a low-gravity planet. The main character is well developed and very realistic, as a young bandit chafing at the authority of his tribe; but maybe he’s too self-confident and amoral to win our sympathy. He is also the only character to really be developed (perhaps reflecting his own self-centered point of view). The story ends with his marrying a character who has not been developed beyond a brief sketch. This, and other loose ends, makes the story feel incomplete. On the other hand, if this is an excerpt from a novel, there is plenty to build on here.

That one goes to show how hard it is sometimes to make unlikable protags work.

Another one:

"Slow Stampede" by Sara Genge is set in a world with swampiphants and Merpeople. Raj wants to be the Chief of his village and plots ways to do it. How things work out for him make for a nicely-told little story--

SFRevu

Overall, I'm pretty happy with what people have been saying about the story. I've finished the copyedits of "Shoes-to-Run" so that one should appear in Asimov's in a few months.

*Edited to add this revue by Colin Harvey, Suite101

Separating them is Sara Genge's 'Slow Stampede.' On an alien planet, Raj and his tribe eke out a marginal existence in a vast swamp also inhabited by cannibal merpeople, through which pass regular caravans of swamp-elephants ripe for the picking. Newcomer Genge skillfully depicts an exotic world peopled by ambitious youngsters, doddering elders and indulgent mothers. Recommended.

Benjamin Crowell's 'Whatness" also gets a recommended and Holly Phillip's 'The Long, Cold Goodbye' gets a highly recommended. Reading all these reviews of the other stories in this issue makes me look wistfully at the mail and wonder when I'll get my copies.

Overall, the issue seems to be sitting well with reviewers.

17h shift

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:55:00 +0000

Not so bad, as far as shifts go but I've slept only 5h in the last 40 and those have been in 45 minute naps (for some reason I couldn't sleep when I got back home and then somebody called on the phone...) Needless to say I'm grumpy and busted and exhausted from my 3 hours of doctorate course (dealing mostly with proteins and antioxidants that are toxic in the doses needed to do their antioxidant business--but these cell biologists wouldn't know that). I haven't written much in the past 6 months and haven't finished a story. So doubly grumpy.

I'm writing a fantasy story now, and it sort of seems to be working even if I'm screwing with the rules more than usual and don't know whether it will see the light of day.

So, if anyone knows of any really cool anthos that could motivate me to write, comment away.
Or, if anyone would like to see some Genge stuff on their magazine/ezine suggest away. I could probably finish something if I were writing with an objective in mind. Or maybe not.

What the World is thinking about the US now

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:07:00 +0000

Oooohhhh, wasn't the speech luvely? And we really liked Michelle's outfits (the white dress more than the suit) and isn't Barack handsome? You can tell he's really in love with his wife by the way he twirls her around and steps on her dress (WTF??? SRSL!) And American's sure know how to throw a ceremony. And isn't the curious mix of formality and familiarity such an American thing? The daaaarlings. Americans are cute and cuddly. Cute and cuddly like a bear eating honey. A feral bear eating honey before he tears your limbs apart. Oh, yes, cute and cuddly Americans.

And best of all, Americans are suddenly not so horrible anymore because Obama's daughters are SWEET!

(By God, you/we better live up to this, people.)

200 subs. Stats

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:54:00 +0000

I've been writing and submitting since 2006. I created an account in Duotrope and logged in my first sub on July 13th 2006. By that time, I'd been subbing for a few months and had sold my first story to Strange Horizons so the stats here are skewed. My 200th submission (to ASIM) came back rejected on December 16th. Anyway, in case anyone is interested, here's some juicy bits of statistical nonsense I thought I'd share.

200 subs, 17 accepted pieces, that's an 8.5% acceptance rate, assuming that all 6 of my pending subs gets rejected. Of course, many of those pieces were subbed multiple times before being accepted and some of them are reprints which get counted several times. I told you the data was wrong!

A total of 12 different markets bought my stories. One market bought 3 stories, 3 markets bought 2 and the rest bought one each. Six of these stories were (or will be) published online only, 7 went to print markets (these may have online pdf copies available, but they're considered mainly print mags) and 4 went to markets like Shimmer who favor neither print nor e-formats but offer both.

Three stories were sold in 2006, seven in 2007 and six in 2008 which shows just how little I've been writing in 2008 (new job, new home, new life basically).

I don't know how useful any of this is, but here you go, my end-of-two-years stats. Enjoy.

Apex Raffle

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:40:00 +0000

Just a quick reminder: it's not too late to enter the Apex raffle. There are plenty of quirky gifts to choose from. If you can't decide, you can always buy a chance to win everything for 25$.

And remember: the small press needs you.

And on the sad passing of Prop 8...

noreply@blogger.com (Artemisin) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:14:00 +0000

... I want to take every demarried person in California, bring them over to Spain, hook them up on the big tit of Social Security (Medicine, pensions, unemployment) and give them a bear hug. Because I just cannot fathom how horrible it must be to have a loving, legal marriage be broken up without consent of the parties actually involved in said marriage. This is spiritual rape. Anyone claiming otherwise is deluded.