Acceptances & Publications | Alex Shvartsman's Speculative Fiction

New Publication: An Indelible Feast (aka the Kosher Pig story) at Stupefying Stories Showcase

November 15, 2013

I don’t remember exactly how it came about, but one day I got it into my head that I should write a kosher pig story. Challenge accepted! From this silly notion, “An Indelible Feast” was born.

I’m a foodie. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, and I don’t party — but I love a good meal. So it was only natural for me to write a story laden with foodie references. Ferran Adria is a real chef, by the way. I guess he better open a fancy molecular gastronomy restaurant by 2015, or my story will become dated!

Read the story here:

Stupefying Stories Showcase #10

Some other exciting news to report:

Mike Resnick accepted my cybernetic-assassin-who-can’t-feel-pain story “Doubt” for an upcoming issue of Galaxy’s Edge magazine.

“Coffee in End Times,” a story I co-wrote with Alvaro Zinos-Amaro was accepted at Nature and will run sometime in early 2014.

“The Keepsake Box” was accepted at Daily Science Fiction and will also likely appear in early 2014 (though their schedule varies).

My volume of sales is likely to slow down a lot in the near future, as I concentrate on the novel instead of pumping out more short stories and I will miss it terribly. Because receiving that acceptance in my inbox never gets old!

#SFWApro

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

New Publication: In the Wake of the Storm

October 22, 2013

This October is flying by faster than any month has a right to. I’ve been incredibly swamped with a variety of projects, but wanted to pop in and post a quick update.

New Publications:

“In the Wake of the Storm” is live today at BuzzyMag.com

This is a modern fantasy story about the aftermath of super-storm Sandy in NYC. The opening scene was inspired by my own experience helping my stepfather deal with the flood damage while trying to get around in the borough deprived of electricity and gasoline. This is the actual photo I took inside of his house:

Water surge flooded most basements or even ground floors in Rockaway. The high-water line in this photo is at nearly six feet.

I loved playing with the voice and tone of this story, but the best part was that publishers at Buzzy were kind enough to schedule it to go live just before the one year anniversary of Sandy! I hope it will be well-received.

#SFWApro“A Man in an Angel Costume” is live at Horror d’oeuvres.

This one is behind a pay wall but may be well worth for horror fans, as they provide lots of content including a weekly flash story. I read a handful and enjoyed most of them, even though I am not typically a horror reader.

“A Man in an Angel Costume” is one of my oldest stories that haven’t sold previously. But I never gave up on it — I love the prose poetry opening that transitions into a more traditional narrative as the story develops. Some editors really hated this format while for others it came very close, but I never gave up and kept submitting it, until the story found a right home.

New Sales

If I had to choose one signature story to represent my writing, I would definitely go with “Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma,” a humor fantasy piece about a magic pawn shop which was published at InterGalactic Medicine Show earlier this year. I’m extraordinarily pleased that IGMS also picked up its sequel, “High-Tech Fairies and the Pandora Perplexity.” It will appear in an upcoming issue, though I don’t have the exact time frame yet.

There are also a handful of reprint sales (two instances of markets taking three reprint stories each!) One is a printed magazine and another a mobile platform. I will be able to talk more about both sometime in the near future, but I’m glad to find more ways to share my stories with readers.

Conventions

I had a wonderful time at CapClave and hope to return next year. My next convention will be PhilCon in November and I will post my panel schedule once I have it.

Unidentified Funny Objects 2

The book launched on October 7 and the sales are solid. In fact, we’ve sold more copies of UFO2 so far than we did copies of UFO1 in its first month! So definitely moving in the right direction.

Coffee

I’m woefully behind on this project, but the good news is that the stories have been copy-edited and should go out to book designers for e-book and physical layout later this week. It’ll be really tough to meet the November goal, but I still expect to have them out to all Kickstarter backers before Christmas.

Dark Expanse

This project is chugging along on schedule, and the anthology should release in the first quarter of 2014.

Unidentified Funny Objects 3

I am already laying some groundwork for the third volume of the series, such as inviting headliners, lining up a cover artist, etc. So far I have two stories in already from two Big Name authors. But I won’t tell you more until I’m ready to make an official announcement, because I am mean and I like to tease people.

And that’s all the updates I have for now. Back to the pixel mines for me!

Comments Off on New Publication: In the Wake of the Storm | Acceptances & Publications, Publishing | Tagged: anthology, buzzy magazine, Hurricane Sandy, publishing, Sandy | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

New Publication: The Rumination On What Isn’t in Nature

September 26, 2013

I’m thrilled to have what I consider my strongest flash story to date to be published in the journal of Nature this week. You can read the story on the web. You can also listen to it — they were also nice enough to podcast it (read very nicely by Kerri Smith).

I wrote “Rumination” in one hour-long sitting. I woke up very early in the morning, and my son Josh’s health was weighing heavily on me. He was five years old, and began experiencing some stomach problems. We had a strong suspicion that he was becoming gluten-intolerant, and were waiting to see a specialist in a few days.

Mind you, I have a number of friends who live with various degrees of gluten sensitivity. I certainly don’t mean to imply that such a diagnosis would in any way be equivalent to what the characters in this story are going through. However, it is not something I would wish on any five-year-old, and my dark mood helped produce a much more emotional story than I am normally capable of,

Josh’s stomach problems thankfully proved to be far less severe; he isn’t allergic/sensitive to anything so far, and I hope it remains that way. But the story went on to earn first place in a Codex anonymous flash-fiction contest among fifty-odd competitors, and went on to become my fourth story to be accepted and published at Nature — all with virtually no revision at all from that version written in the early winter morning this January.

Earlier this week I had another flash story — “Worldbuilding” — published at Daily Science Fiction. It was e-mailed to the subscribers and will go up on the web in a few days, and I’ll make another post about it then. Meanwhile, I’ll take this opportunity to remind folks that I am going to be doing a live reading of my humorous fiction at the Enigma Book Store this Saturday, along with two other funny writers: Russ Cochamiro and Aaron Rosenberg. Details are posted here.

1 Comment | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: nature, podcast, science fiction | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Podcast of You Bet

September 15, 2013

“You Bet,” the short humor story I wrote to explain what’s happening in the wacky cover art of Unidentified Funny Objects volume 1 was released as a Podcast today by Cast of Wonders. You can listen to it here. As usual, the CoW team and particularly reader John Meagher did a wonderful job with producing this story. I really wanted to see this one produced in audio because there is a nice ensemble cast of characters in it, all speaking in wacky voices. The episode is just over 15 minutes long. and I encourage you to check it out.

This is my second story at Cast of Wonders (with the third one on the way). My previous story with them was “The Field Trip,” the translation of which happened to have been released in Romanian today. If you speak the language, you can check it out in the current issue of Revista SRSFF.

It’s really cool to have stories published in the United Kingdom and Romania at the same time. I’m also excited that one of my stories will be published in my native Russian soon. I will post details about that when I can.

Comments Off on Podcast of You Bet | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: Cast of Wonders, fantasy, humor, podcast, Revista SRSFF, UFO | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Spidersong on Booktrack

September 4, 2013

#SFWApro

There’s a new and interesting way to read books that is currently launching, and I got to be a part of it.

A web software called Booktrack allows authors to publish their e-books with a soundtrack. The soundtrack can be customized with a gazillion options, including music, ambiance, and sound effects. You can change things up from paragraph to paragraph or chapter to chapter. So that, if the scene you’re reading takes place in a haunted house the reader can hear creaking doors and spooky ghost wails. The folks at Booktrack were kind enough to invite a small handful of authors (myself included) to beta-test their site.

As a reader, I enjoyed checking out several of the books. Although I usually read without any music on, such precisely targeted tracks definitely enhance the experience. As a writer, I am excited about a way to add an extra dimension to how a reader is able to interact with the worlds I imagined.

I am not very musically inclined, and yet the software was both sophisticated and simple enough to use that I was able to upload a story and create a soundtrack I both enjoy and feel fits the story with relative ease. The story is Spidersong, originally published in Daily Science Fiction. Click here or on the picture above to check out the end result of my efforts!

The only catch? You must currently use the Google Chrome browser, or it won’t work.

Enjoy the story! I hope to post a few more soon. Particularly, The Epistolary History might be a good candidate, with each entry given its own soundtrack.

Comments Off on Spidersong on Booktrack | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: Booktrack, daily science fiction, soundtrack, Spidersong | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Cthulhu and I

August 27, 2013

This little bundle of tentacled evil arrived in the mail from Sylvia Spruck Wrigley and totally made my day.

Sylvia was both an inspiration and the namesake for the main character of “Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma” (and its sequel, which is patiently awaiting its chance at an editor’s desk right now). And now I have a visual aid to help explain Cthulhu to grandmas everywhere and, more importantly, to oversee any and all future live readings, of which several will be coming up before the end of this year. The plush Cthulhu (Pthulhu?) will grace mortals with its presence at WorldCon this weekend.

In a few short days I’ll be attending my very first WorldCon in San Antonio, and I’m absolutely stoked. I look forward to meeting many online friends face to face, as well as some of the authors I grew up reading, who are partially responsible for my love of the genre. I didn’t get to be on any panels at this con — after all, they’ve got nearly the entire SF/F community to pick from — so I’ll be roaming and trying to take it all in. I am co-running one of the Writer Workshops and have several meetings set up, but this trip is definitely more about experiencing as much of what WorldCon has to offer as possible.

And although I have few responsibilities at this convention, I do have one duty to discharge which is beyond awesome. My friend Ken Liu, who is nominated for a Hugo award in the Short Story category this year but is unable to attend himself, has named me as his designated acceptor at the Hugo ceremony. This means that, if Ken wins, I will go up on stage and accept the award on his behalf. I’m both incredibly honored and stoked to do this. Regardless of the outcome, I’ll get to sit at the front during the ceremony, attend the afterparty, and hold a Hugo (at least during the practice run on Sunday afternoon).

My wife and I even went out and bought a new suit for me to wear to the event. It’s Hugo Boss. No other brand would do. Although I’m sure no one else will notice, wearing a Hugo Boss suit to the Hugos was way too amusing for me to pass up.

In other news, I have several sales to report. Buzzy Magazine accepted “In the Wake of the Storm” — my urban fantasy story which takes place in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Cast of Wonders will podcast both You Bet and Nuclear Family. You Bet should come out in October while Nuclear Family is scheduled around Christmas.

And, just today, Stupefying Stories Showcase published The Storyteller — a flash fantasy story.

If you are going to WorldCon, please find me and say hi! You will get to meet Pthulhu, and — if you run into me on Sunday — you will get to see me wearing a suit, which — I assure you — is an even more exceptional occurrence than running into an Elder God.

3 Comments | Acceptances & Publications, Event Appearances | Tagged: Buzzy, Cast of Wonders, cthulhu, hugo, stupefying stories, Sylvia Wruck Wrigley, worldcon | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Publication: The Sgovari Stratagem in Intersteallar Fiction

August 1, 2013

#SFWApro

Interstellar Fiction is a semi-pro online magazine edited by Adam Crouse which launched in August of 2012. The inaugural issue included my story “A Better Tomorrow,” and I’m happy to return to the virtual pages of IF with another tale for its one year anniversary issue.

“The Sgovari Stratagem” is a sequel to “The Dragon Ships of Tycho.” Both are stories about a team of human diplomats whose job it is to secure alliances with various alien species to help humans prevail in a galaxy-wide war. The complication? Pretty much the entire universe already hates our guts.

You can pick up a copy of “The Dragon Ships of Tycho” for your favorite e-reader or buy the Galactic Creatures anthology it originally appeared in.

“The Sgovari Stratagem” is available to be read for free on the Interstellar Fiction web site.

2 Comments | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: Interstellar Fiction, science fiction, space opera | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Milestones

July 26, 2013

#SFWApro

Earlier this week I sold two more stories. Stupefying Stories picked up “An Indelible Feast” and “The Storyteller.” And while every new sale is sweet, what makes these special is that they are my 50th and 51st original short stories accepted for publication.

I made my first short story submission on May 10, 2010. I submitted “The Skeptic,” my first story, which I wrote the month prior, to Clarkesworld, from which it was promptly and politely rejected.

It has been 41 months since I began writing that first short story. This means I’ve averaged more than one original short story sale per month over the course of my writing career so far! And that’s not even counting reprints, podcasts, and translations.

I am incredibly thrilled to be so far along the writing career path after just a few short years. There are plenty more milestones for me to conquer, and I’ll be gleefully working on those in the coming months!

3 Comments | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: acceptances, Rejection, stupefying stories, Submissions | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Publication: The Far Side of the Wilderness in Beyond the Sun

July 21, 2013

#SFWApro

Beyond the Sun, an anthology of space exploration edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt, is out. It includes a story of mine titled “The Far Side of the Wilderness,” a dark tale about an interstellar colonist’s quest to bring his people back to Earth.

This story is heavily inspired by the Biblical tale of Moses. The title is a quote from the book of Exodus, though not a very well-known one. Even the title of the colony planet, Kemet, is the ancient name for Egypt. Having said that, it greatly amused and surprised me to find how many of my beta readers missed the Biblical connection entirely. The important thing is, they enjoyed the story!

Beyond the Sun features fiction from such heavyweights as Robert Silverberg and Mike Resnick, as well as award-winning or -nominated short fiction authors like Cat Rambo, Brad Torgersen, and Nancy Fulda, to name just a few. I’m in really good company, and I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys space opera.

The book is available at Amazon now. You can also find it at B&N and elsewhere.

Also, I heard back from Cast of Wonders over the weekend — they accepted a reprint of “You Bet” and will be podcasting it, probably sometime in early 2014. This story has lots of dialog by wacky characters and so it seems perfect for audio. I can’t wait to see what the Cast of Wonders crew does with it!

Comments Off on Publication: The Far Side of the Wilderness in Beyond the Sun | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: acceptances, anthology, beyond the sun, Bryan Thomas Schmidt, Cast of Wonders, publications | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Good News Galore

July 15, 2013

So many good news to report lately, so little time to blog. I’m going to use this post to catch up:

* “A Gnomish Gift” was published in issue 361 of Weird Tales, out this week. Weird Tales has been around for approximately ever, and has published the likes of Howard and Bradbury, so appearing on their pages is a special treat for me. Having cool original artwork drawn for my story (love the angry little gnome!) and sharing the TOC with the likes of Peter S. Beagle and Tanith Lee? That’s just a bonus:

* Sold “Worldbuilding” to Daily Science Fiction.

“Worldbuilding” is a tongue-in-cheek flash story that makes fun of the common SF tropes. Daily SF is a great home for it, and it will be my sixth story appearing under the DSF rocket.

* “A Shard Glows in Brooklyn” will be reprinted two more times. In September it will appear in an e-book anthology Urban Harvest: Tales of the Paranormal in NYC edited by Donna Ansari. This is a charity project and all proceeds will be donated to City Harvest. This same story is also going to appear in the Write1Sub1 anthology, whenever that ends up getting put together.

* The Coffee anthology reached its initial funding goal on Kickstarter! There is approximately a week left in the campaign, and any additional contributions will help me buy more original fictions at professional rates. If we reach $2000, a cool final stretch goal will be unlocked!

* In related news, The Coffee anthology is open to both reprint and original submissions. I am getting a steady stream of stories and responding promptly, so send something while there isn’t a long queue 🙂

* UFO2 is off to the designer. I hope to have ARCs ready by the end of the month.

* Beyond the Sun anthology is off to the printer and should be shipping in August.

* I return to the DJ Grandpa podcast this week and we talk about Coffee, anthologies, and the challenges of crowdfunding. DJ Grandpa is one of the best–if not the best–crowdfunding podcast around. Be sure to check it out!

* There’s a new book store opening up in NYC (in Astoria, Queens to be precise), specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and mysteries. The owners want to build it up it as a cool local hangout, where people can not only buy books, but also socialize and participate in fun special events. The soft launch is this coming weekend, and while they’re still working on a web site, you can visit their Facebook page for updates. Local book stores are a rare breed these days, and local stores specializing in genre even more so. So stop by the Enigma Bookstore and help support these brave entrepreneurs!

Well, there you go. It’s been a busy week. I hope to report more good news soon, but for now — back to writing!

2 Comments | Acceptances & Publications, Publishing | Tagged: beyond the sun, City Harvest, coffee, crowdfunding, daily science fiction, DJ Grandpa, Donna Ansari, kickstarter, podcast, UFO, Weird Tales | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman