Balticon 2017 and New Story

May 26, 2017

I’m driving to Baltimore this morning and will be attending Balticon Friday through Sunday. Here’s where you can find me:

Saturday, 10am – 5th Floor, Guilford – The State of SFF Publishing panel

Saturday, 12pm – 5th Floor, Mt. Washington – Editing the Short Story panel

Saturday, 2pm – 6th Floor, St. George – Author reading (with John French and Elektra Hammond)

Saturday, 6pm – 8th Floor, Room 8006 – Contracts for Writers panel

Sunday, 9am – 8th Floor, Room 8029 – Kafeeklatsch (30 minutes)

Sunday, 10am – 6th Floor, St. George – Jews… In… Space… panel

Sunday, 12:30pm – 5th Floor, Autograph tables – Autograph session (with Starla Huchton) (30 minutes)

Sunday, 1pm – 8th Floor, Room 8029 – The Business of Short Fiction workshop

 

Meantime, read my latest SF flash fiction piece which came out from Daily Science Fiction this week:

Parametrization of Complex Weather Patterns for Two Variables

#SFWAPro

 

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Cover and TOC reveal – The Cackle of Cthulhu

May 22, 2017

The Cackle of Cthulhu, an anthology of Lovecraftian humor, is forthcoming from Baen Books in January, 2018.

It will include the following stories:

“The Shunned Trailer” by Esther Friesner

“The Captain in Yellow” by David Vaughan

“My Little Old One” by Jody Lynn Nye

“Tales of a Fourth Grade Shoggoth” by Kevin Wetmore

“Friday Night at Brazee’s” by Mike Resnick

“To Whatever” by Shaenon K. Garrity

“The Doom that Came to Providence” by Brian Trent

“Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma” by Alex Shvartsman

“The Call of the Pancake Factory” by Ken Liu

“The Innsmouth of the South” by Rachael K. Jones

“WWRD” by Yvonne Navarro

“In the Employee Manual of Madness” by G. Scott Huggins

“Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar” by Neil Gaiman

“HP and Me” by Gini Koch

“The Greatest Leader” by Aidan Doyle

“But Someone’s God to Do It!” by Konstantine Paradias

“Call of the Uncopyrighted Intellectual Property” by Amanda Helms

“Cthulhu, P. I.” by Laura Resnick

“A Stiff Bargain” by Matt Mikalatos

“The Shadow Over My Dorm Room” by Laura Pearlman

“The Tingling Madness” by Lucy Snyder

“The Girl Who Loved Cthulhu” by Nick Mamatas

#SFWApro

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

100th Story Sale!

May 22, 2017

Woke up this morning to find an acceptance in my inbox. That’s always an exciting development, but this one is special, because it is my 100th original short story to be accepted for publication! (That’s not counting translations, podcasts, reprints, etc.)

It’s rather fitting that my 100th sale is to the venue that I’ve been submitting to my entire writing career and which also published my first professional sale — Daily Science Fiction. They’ll be publishing “The Practical Guide to Punching Nazis” in the coming months.

Another DSF story, “Letting Go,” will be appearing as a reprint on the 600 Second Saga podcast in the coming weeks; I’ll share a link when it goes live.

#SFWAPro

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Some Recent and Upcoming Releases

May 6, 2017

I’ve been extremely busy with UFO6 submissions, but various stories have been traveling on the slow road to publication. My Canopus-nominated story “The Race for Arcadia” was podcasted at StarShipSofa. I also received a couple of contributor copies. The recently-published Tales from the Miskatonic University Library (PS Publishing) edited by Darrell Schweitzer and Josh Ashmead includes my Lovecraftian humor short “Recall Notice.” The second anthology received, The Sum of Us from Laksa Press includes my “Ambassador to the Meek,” a post-apocalyptic SF tale, and will be published in September.

 

I’m also very happy to announce that my translation of “Untilted” by K. A. Teryna has been accepted by Apex Magazine. Several of my translator friends called this particular story “untranslateable” because of how much of it relies on linguistic cues to work. even the Russian title (Бес Названия) is a pun. Challenge accepted! This was the most fun I had translating a story, too, because it was so challenging, it felt like solving puzzles. I can’t wait to share it with the English-speaking readers.

#SFWAPro

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Canopus Award Nomination and Storybundle

April 12, 2017

I’m thrilled to find myself on the list of Canopus-nominated works for the second time! Canopus is an award for excellence in interstellar writing and it’s given out by 100 Year Starship think tank. I’m in really good company, too. Last year I lost to Ken Liu, who is nominated as a translator in a different category. But this year I will most likely be losing to Alastair Reynolds or perhaps a number of other really awesome nominees. This is one of those “I’m definitely honored to be nominated” situations. 🙂

The nominated story is “Whom He May Devour” and it was published in Nautilus. You can read it for free by clicking on the link.

You can read the 2016-2017 Canopus nominees announcement press release here.

Another cool thing is that UFO1 is included in the SFWA Sci-Fi Storybundle along with all the other great books listed above.

This is my first experience with Storybundle but it’s a very cool model where you can pay what you want to get these books and you get to decide what portion goes to the authors and what to Storybundle itself, and whether a cut gets donated to SFWA. Check it out!

#SFWAPro

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Lunacon 2017 Schedule

April 7, 2017

First, I’d like to thank everyone who pledged to the UFO6 Kickstarter campaign or helped spread the word. We funded last night in a nail biter, with only 90 minutes or so to go. Focusing on the submissions now to try and keep our response time down below a week.

I will, however, be taking a one-day break to attend Lunacon tomorrow. If you happen to be at this convention here’s where you can find me:

10am – FUNNY STORIES panel – Grand Ballroom C

(with Anatoly Belilovsky, Elektra Hammond, Alisa Kwitney, and Darrell Schweitzer)

12pm – MYTHOLOGY IN THE MODERN WORLD panel – Grand Ballroom F

(with April Grey, Ef Deal, and Jordana Max Brodsky)

3pm – GAME MAKERS REPRESENT! panel – Grand Ballroom G

(with roughly half the game designers in New York I think? Seriously, there are 10 of us on this panel.)

7:30pm – Reading

(with just me. Who did you expect, Orson Wells?)

Should be a ton of fun!

#SFWAPro

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

UFO6 Kickstarter Final Hours

April 6, 2017

The UFO6 kickstarter campaign is ending tonight. 250 readers have already backed it and we’re approximately $1100 from the finish line as I type these words. Please help us with a last-minute push by letting others know about the campaign and, of course, consider backing it by pre-ordering a copy of the book and possibly availing yourself of other backer rewards.

#SFWApro

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Albacon 2017 Schedule

March 29, 2017

I’ll be in Albany this weekend hanging out with lots of awesome people at the 2017 Albacon. Here’s where you can find me:

Friday, 7pm – Troy – The Golden Age of SF TV panel

Saturday, 1pm – Colonie – How NOT to get published panel

Saturday, 2pm – Lobby – Autograph session

Saturday, 3:30pm – Bar – Reading

Saturday, 8pm – Colonie – Chuck Gannon roast

Sunday, 10am – Colonie – Tales of the Less-than-Consolidated Tech Republic panel

Sunday, 11am – Troy – Twisted History panel

Meanwhile the UFO 6 kickstarter has a week left to go. Have you checked it out yet?
#SFWAPro

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Podcasts Galore

March 15, 2017

This appears to be a District of Wonders week for me!

Yesterday’s episode of Far Fetched Fables includes an excellent narration of “Dante’s Unfinished Business” by Anthony Babington, which starts at about the 10:30 mark. This story originally appeared at Galaxy’s Edge last year and I think it’s one of the funnier pieces I’ve written to date.

And today’s episode of StarShipSofa includes an interview with me, where I talk about UFO6, Kickstarter, and editing small-press anthologies. The interview begins around the 38:00 mark.

Meanwhile, the UFO6 Kickstarter campaign is approaching the 50% mark. Don’t forget to back it!

#SFWAPro

 

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Heliosphere 2017 schedule

March 8, 2017

Since yesterday was so busy with the launch of the UFO6 kickstarter (have you backed it yet? If not, why not?) I missed the chance to promote the release of Little Green Men — Attack! anthology which includes “First Million Contacts,” a story I co-wrote with Bryan Thomas Schmidt. There are many awesome authors there and it’s a humor anthology which is the sort of thing–I have to assume by now–readers of this blog like. So, pick one up? 🙂

This weekend I’ll be attending the first-ever Heliosphere convention in Tarrytown, NY.  My detailed program is posted here.

These are the times/items where you’ll be able to find me:

Friday, 3:30pm-5pm, Ballroom 5 – Reading
(with Anatoly Belilovsky, Mike Ventrella, Grant Carrington, and Keith DeCandido)

Saturday, 12pm-1:30pm – Ballroom 5 – Starting Your Own Small Press panel
(with Mike McPhail, Ian Randal Strock, and Carol Gyzander)

Saturday, 3:45-4:45, Tarrytown Room – Funny Horror book launch
Giveaways, signings, and readings from the latest UFO Publishing anthology.

Sunday, 12pm-1:30pm, Ballroom 6 – Books ‘N’ Brews (Kaffeeklatch)

Sunday, 2pm-3:30pm, Ballroom 3 – Injecting Humor into Science Fiction panel
(with David Gerrold, Richard Herr, and Ken Gale)

#SFWAPro

 

 

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