Goblins in the Library

A New Story, and Reappearances of Old Stories

2025-11-05T19:31:00.000-08:00

Hope you are all doing well. I wanted to announce a new story at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, "A Random Walk Through the Goblin Library." This one is set in my "Eldshore" series, though it's a standalone. (Gaunt and Bone are somewhere in the vicinity but they don't make an appearance.) Thanks to BCS editor Scott Andrews for his advice and to the amazing author Yoon Ha Lee for an early read.

Also, my story from Reactor magazine, "Nine Billion Turing Tests," has been reprinted *twice* recently in two cool anthologies: The Year's Top Robot and AI Stories, 6th Annual Collection, edited by Allan Kaster, and Think Weirder: The Year's Best Science Fiction Ideas, edited by Joe Stech.

Last but not least, I'm thrilled to announce that actor and audiobook narrator Wil Wheaton chose to record my story "The Odyssey Problem" from Clarkesworld magazine for his podcast "It's Storytime with Wil Wheaton." He has narrated audiobooks by John Scalzi and Ernest Cline and many others and has featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Picard as well as the movie Stand By Me and many other roles. As an old Star Trek fan I'm over the moon that he wanted to narrate something of mine.

That's all the news for now. Be well, take care, stay safe out there.

Three Recent Stories

2024-10-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone who reads this is doing well. Since I last posted I've had a few stories appear. "Hausferatu" is a fantasy story at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, a reminiscence of my recurring character Imago Bone from the days before he met Persimmon Gaunt. "Nine Billion Turing Tests" is a near-future science fiction story about AI, cats, grief, and climate change. It's at Reactor (formerly Tor.com.) And back at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, "To Hunt the Grey Lady" is out today. It's a standalone fantasy set in Gaunt and Bone's world, a tale of memory, self-discovery, and magic sea battles. Hope you enjoy them, or anything else you're currently reading!

Lots of Good News

2023-05-16T12:34:00.001-07:00

I'm delighted to announce that my story "The Odyssey Problem" from the June 2022 Clarkesworld has been selected by guest editor R.F. Kuang (author of The Poppy War, Babel, and Yellowface) for the anthology BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY 2023. Series editor John Joseph Adams has posted the table of contents, and what a star-studded lineup it is, and though I got the news a while ago I'm still shocked and honored to be in this company. For that matter the list of notable stories for the year is also full of amazing work. I'm so over the moon I can see lunar farside from here. The book is available for pre-order and will be out October 17. I'm also excited to share that contracts are signed for two upcoming stories, but I will let all that percolate a bit before talking more about them. (Edited to italicize R.F. Kuang's book titles.)

New story and upcoming anthology

2023-04-18T10:18:00.001-07:00

I'm thrilled to report the new issue of Asimov's Science Fiction containing my story "The Second Labyrinth" is out now! The issue has a great lineup and I'm looking forward to reading it all. I hope people enjoy my oddball story. Although it's in the same setting as most of my other fantasy stories, it's much more in the line of "weird fiction" than my usual work.

I'm also delighted to announce I've got a story in the upcoming fantasy anthology Tales from Stolki's Hall, edited by Lou Anders. The stories are all set in Lou's Scandinavia-inspired setting of Norrøngard, which he first explored in his "Thrones and Bones" children's fantasy trilogy from Penguin Random House, and then adapted into a roleplaying game setting from Lazy Wolf Studios. Although the Norrøngard novels are children's books, this anthology is aimed at adults. I had a great time working a new story into Lou's fascinating setting. The anthology has ten stories from eleven contributors. More info is here.

(Edited because it took me this long to see I typed "trilled" instead of "thrilled.")

Verisimilitude: Who and What Is It For?

2023-04-06T10:33:00.003-07:00

(The above image is by Corey A. Potter and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.) A stray thought, and maybe this is the right place to put it.

I was recently looking up a detail on ships and boats for a story. I'm fascinated by things nautical, even though my actual experience is very minor (I was briefly a deckhand on a harbor cruise ship.) As is often the case when I'm researching something, I've really enjoyed learning some new facts and sharing them.

Grounding fiction in fact can make it more convincing. The fancy term for this is "verisimilitude," a semblance of reality, a different word than "realism." Why the distinction? "Verisimilitude" acknowledges that we're not reporters conveying real events; we're storytellers trying to hook readers into believing in a story, at least for the duration of reading it. So the goal isn't conveying real information but making the story seem real through careful use of detail.

As a side note, this is why science fiction writers often can't resist using numbers ("the alien ship's nine kilometers off our bow -- point blank range") even in situations where there's no need for numbers and they increase the chance of error (say if you've already specified that your heroes' ship's lasers have a maximum effective range of eight kilometers.) Numbers just sound authoritative. 73% of Americans can't resist making them up. (I made that up.)

So the goal of verisimilitude is to convince, not to report on the world, whether the fictional one or the real one. Excessive use of detail is, in fact, generally looked down upon in writing as overdone exposition, or "info-dumping." To convince readers is an important practical goal for writers -- a convinced reader is more likely to be an entertained reader, and an entertained reader is more likely to be a return customer. More detail can actually work against this goal, by taking a reader out of the story.

But should our investigation of the real world in fiction begin and end with verisimilitude? Should we only present facts as a kind of sweetener to make the reader swallow the medicine of our fine literature? And what is that medicine? Characterization? Philosophy? Social commentary? Pure entertainment?

Nothing wrong with any of the above. But something nags at me: the thought that maybe we shouldn't limit our use of facts to a kind of sales job. Because the real world is an interesting place! A science fiction writer can include concepts from real-world science; this indeed is part of the draw of science fiction. A fantasy writer can include realistic details drawn from history. A mystery writer can include slice-of-life detail from interesting professions or parts of the world. A thriller writer can include details of actual espionage. And so on.

The risk, if you want to call it that, of using more real-world detail in fiction is that it will de-rail the story you have in mind. Say you want to have a character cross a redwood forest and you have a great scene in mind where they climb a tree to escape wolves. But on learning more about redwood trees you realize the trees aren't all that easy to climb.

But if your story doesn't jibe well with your own observations of the world, maybe it's the story that should bend, not the facts?

I want to chew on this idea a bit, so I'm putting it here.

Ship of the Imagination, the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701: A “Star Trek” review series

2023-03-23T11:10:00.001-07:00

Cover of the ninth set of "Star Trek" story adaptations by science fiction legend James Blish.

“We’re going to explore the cosmos in a ship of the imagination, unfettered by ordinary limits on speed and size, drawn by the music of cosmic harmonies …”

— Carl Sagan, “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage,” episode 1, “The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean”

This will be a quirky occasional series of “Star Trek” reviews/meditations/tangents. There are times when I need to write but circumstances are so distracting that I have trouble focusing on fiction — I can spin sentences out but I can’t enter “the fictiive dream” in the phrase of novelist John Gardner. But maybe at those times I can write about some of my favorite geeky subjects, like, say, “Star Trek.”

So, the high concept here is that I’m reconstructing the fictional history of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 — The Original Ship if you will. This is not authoritative and will include a lot of suppositions by me. It will also include a lot of digressions where I talk about other fictional works, history, science, pop culture and whatnot. Hope it’s fun.

If you know my fantasy writing it might surprise you how big a “Star Trek” nut I am. But I’m as fond of science fiction as I am of fantasy, and “Star Trek” has a lot of both elements. It tries to keep a toe-hold on science and rationality but quite often it’s as fantastical as anything in Tolkien.

I remember watching “Star Trek” reruns from such an early age that almost all of it went over my head. Originally I just liked seeing the spaceships. In fact I’d go off to play with blocks or something until a musical cue told me I’d see the Enterprise again. But in time the situations started blowing my mind. A disease that turns you into crystals! The ship trapped by an energy web! A monster that disguises itself as people you trust before sucking all the salt from your body! A war fought by computers where if you’re declared a casualty you have to step into a terrifying disintegration booth!

Gradually the characters starting seeming cool. I loved Uhura’s poise, Sulu’s eagerness, Spock’s calm, McCoy’s gruff compassion. I think later I learned to appreciate Scotty’s passion for his work and his ship, Chapel’s calm competence even as she pined for Spock, Chekov’s determination to do well despite making mistakes and getting clobbered by the universe again and again. Kirk seemed too perfect to relate to at first but I’ve warmed up to the character as I’ve gotten older and felt the weight of more responsibilities.

Why the narrow focus on the “first” U.S.S. Enterprise? Trek fans sometimes talk about “their” “Star Trek,” the series that first got them interested in the franchise. For me it’s actually a weird mix of The Original Series, The Animated Series, and some of the novels and lore that existed in the days between The Original Series and 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I love a lot of what came afterward but the stuff of my personal “Golden Age of Science Fiction” was TOS and TAS and the apocrypha that accumulated around them.

By narrowing the discussion to a “history” of the NCC-1701 (“no bloody A, B, C, or D” as Scotty might say) I get to focus on a manageable but varied set of productions. These are: TOS, TAS, the first three original cast movies, and the new series “Strange New Worlds.” I’ll also consider “Star Trek: Discovery” season 2, as it gives the Enterprise a lot of screen time. And I’ll refer a bit to the “reboot” movies because despite taking place in another timeline I think they can illuminate the original characters. I’ll also cover some related works but not in an exhaustive way.

Why focus on the ship? I think the Enterprise — all of them, but particularly the “classic” one — is emblematic of a particular kind of science fiction, the kind that tries to evoke a sense of wonder in the possibilities of the universe and of life and existence. For all I know a faster-than-light vessel like the Enterprise can never exist; there are plenty of physicists who would say so, often with great regret. But that’s not really the point. It’s less a serious proposal for a vehicle and more a storytelling vehicle, a contrivance that can get our characters into new adventures and mysteries and wonders and terrors.

In this it’s akin to “Doctor Who’s” TARDIS or Carl Sagan’s (and later Neil deGrasse Tyson’s) Ships of the Imagination from the two “Cosmos” science popularization series. Indeed, trimmed to its essential function the Enterprise is like the mysterious doorway that accompanies Rod Serling’s narration in some episodes of the original “Twilight Zone” — it’s our ticket to wild speculations.

Warp drive, duotronic computers, transporters, vliewscreens, shuttlecrafts — as interesting as they can be in the end they’re just a kind of plating on a “ship of the imagination,” a ship whose real purpose is to give us wild tales of the wide universe.

Let’s see what’s out there.

Next: Enterprise predecessors Part 1 — Clark Ashton Smith’s tales of the starship Alcyone.

"The Second Labyrinth" appearing soon at Asimov's

2023-03-22T19:42:00.000-07:00

I'm delighted to report that my story "The Second Labyrinth" is appearing in the next issue of Asimov's Science Fiction, which has a very cool-looking table of contents. "The Second Labyrinth" is an Eldshore story, though not connected to any previous tale. I hope people enjoy it.

The May/June Asimov's is on sale April 18.

Writing Thought

2023-03-17T12:44:00.001-07:00

Years ago I had an experience where an editor I very much admire rejected a story but generously took time to give me detailed comments. I appreciated, and still appreciate, his time. When I was first starting out I probably would have immediately rewritten the story based on those comments. But by then I’d had enough experience to trust myself a little more, and to recognize that fiction is very, very subjective.

Since this was the story’s first rejection, rather than immediately modify the story based on the comments I sent it unchanged to a second editor I very much admire. I got the wonderful news that he wanted to buy it but had rewrite suggestions of his own.

Out of a desire to constantly learn new things, during the rewrite process I brought forward editor 1’s suggestions to editor 2 (I didn’t say where the comments came from, just that it was advice from someone I trusted.) Editor 2 was initially open to the ideas but after we’d played around with a couple of revisions he ultimately decided he didn’t care for editor 1’s suggestions.

My sense was, and is, that editor 1 and editor 2 both had valid approaches, but as editor 2 was the one who actually took the story, his approach was by definition the more valid one. I was happy with the results, and the published story got some nice reviews. I continue to admire both editors.

I’m sharing this, for what it’s worth, for two reasons.

The first thing is that self doubt can be really damaging for writers, and words from “on high” can land with a lot of weight, even if, as in this case, everyone involved was being kind. It’s not that editor 1 was “wrong” and editor 2 was “right,” it’s that there are multiple valid approaches for every story, and I’m glad I finally had the confidence to not immediately discard my original work when someone with serious credentials criticized it. (Note also that I was entirely open to learning; I just didn’t accept the first opinion automatically.)

The second thing is more subtle, but maybe I’m not the only writer this applies to. When I was starting out I kept being haunted by the notion of discovering the Platonic ideal of a given story. The universe had given me a cool story idea, I would think, and it was my job — no, my duty — to wrestle out of chaos the best possible implementation of that idea. This wasn’t about crafting a good story, this was about crafting the Ultimate Story for that given idea. Maybe that’s an honorable impulse in a way. But it’s self-defeating. Anyone who reads a lot will find multiple good takes on certain premises. Trying to do, say, the ultimate story of first contact with aliens is not just Quixotic, it’s basically missing the point — a big part of the wonder of the universe is its variety, and if there truly are intelligent aliens they will come in many forms, making each first contact scenario unique.

But I kept looking for perfection, thinking I needed a holy grail when a carpenter’s cup would do. I wish I remembered the name of the poet who said he’d hurt his work by constantly striving for “bulletproof” poems — poems that were so immaculate and gemlike that they were beyond criticism. I relate to that.

The better approach is to try a lot of things, learn as much as you can, and shrug off the success or failure of any given story — and to remember that no matter how good a job you do, some people will think the story succeeded and others will think it failed.

New Gaunt and Bone and More

2022-11-01T19:45:00.005-07:00

Hope Halloween found everyone well! I'm delighted to report new Gaunt and Bone stories.

"To the Darkhouse" appears in Tales from the Magician's Skull #8 in the august company of W.J Lewis, James Enge, Sean Crow, Jeremy Pak Nelson, C.L Werner, Daniel J. Ouellette, Alexander James, and Robert Rhodes (and by the way I encourage anyone who loves a mix of great action and beautiful writing to check out Robert Rhodes' story collection Shadow, Light, and Steel.)

"On Magog's Pond" appears in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #367 where it gets to be in the mighty presence of an Angel Azrael story by Peter Darbyshire, "The Angel Azrael and the War Ghosts." The Angel Azrael stories, all of which I believe have appeared in BCS, are what I imagine you'd get if Michael Moorcock's Elric was put in a blender with Stephen King's Gunslinger -- the action is furious, the scenery is bizarre, and the emotions feel true. If that sounds at all up your dusty demon-beset and tumbleweed-haunted alley, check them out!

And in still more Gaunt and Bone news, Black Cat Weekly reprinted the G&B story "A Wizard of the Old School" in their issue #57! It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in the August 2007 issue. Many thanks to the SFF editor for Black Cat Weekly, Cynthia Ward, for choosing it. (And speaking of Cynthia Ward, I recently read her very enjoyable steampunk-ish adventure novel The Adventure of the Incognita Countess. This book brings together various characters with links to classic adventure novels -- expect to see nods to Bram Stoker, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells and many more. It's reminiscent of Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen but with its own distinct style and a nice eye for its early 20th Century setting, namely the doomed voyage of the Titanic. I'm looking forward to reading the sequels.)

Moving on from Gaunt and Bone, I was also over the moon to have a standalone science fantasy story in Clarkesworld #189. "The Odyssey Problem" is an offbeat story for me and somewhat experimental, so I was surprised and thrilled when editor Neil Clarke decided to run it. He also had great suggestions for improving it and clarifying the text.

I also can announce more great news -- Asimov's Science Fiction has just bought my story "The Second Labyrinth!" I'll say more when it's scheduled.

Lastly, I got to contribute to a project that is still under wraps, but I will be excited to share more details when I can.

[Edited to add additional news and reflect that in the title.]

New stories and Eldshore Timeline

2022-05-31T20:34:00.000-07:00

Hope you are all doing well and staying safe. I'm delighted to report stories forthcoming in the magazines Clarkesworld, Tales from the Magician's Skull, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. The Clarkesworld story is a standalone science fantasy. The other two are new stories about Gaunt and Bone.

Speaking of Gaunt and Bone, I thought it might be fun to share my draft version of a timeline for their world. I'm getting into the habit of calling the whole setting "The Eldshore," after one of the more prominent countries in it. Its capital is Archaeopolis, home turf of Shadowdrop the black cat, who along with Gaunt and Bone is an important recurring character. Gaunt and Bone often pass through the Eldshore proper as well.

I've been making up most things about the setting story by story. That's just how my brain works. I admire people who can work out a detailed setting in advance but I seem to need a narrative first. By now the accumulated detail is substantial enough that a timeline will help keep it all consistent.

Dates in the Eldshore, and many of the surrounding lands, are reckoned since Eldshore's founding in 0 E.Y., or Eldshore Year Zero. I went through the stories and novels looking for date references. I started with some officially dated events:

313 E.Y. -- A meteor hits Archaeopolis. The immediate area becomes fascinating to alchemists.

744 E.Y. -- A great storm hits Archaeopolis.

797 E.Y. -- "The Lions of Karthagar," in which Eldshore's Empress Nayne leads an army into the far eastern Ruby Waste. Eldshore was never more powerful than in this year.

888 E.Y. -- A great earthquake hits Archaeopolis.

1096 E.Y. -- The Chart of Tomorrows, in which a great many events occur. What most people will have noticed is a balloon-enabled invasion of the region by the nomadic Karvaks.

1096. E.Y. -- "A Manslaughter of Crows," in which the Eldshore experiences a very strange election.

Aside from those dates what I've got is hypothetical, but I think it all fits.

Uncertain, perhaps 1000 E.Y.? -- The events of "How the Wicker Knight Would Not Move."

1091 E.Y. -- "The Thief with Two Deaths," "The Mermaid and the Mortal Thing," "To the Darkhouse" (forthcoming in Tales from the Magician's Skull), "Shadowdrop," "The Sword of Loving Kindness."

1092 E.Y. -- "Eyetooth," "King Rainjoy's Tears."

1093 E.Y. -- "Penultima Thule," "What Lies in Ice," "On Magog's Pond" (forthcoming in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.)

1094 E.Y. -- "A Wizard of the Old School."

1095 E.Y. -- The Scroll of Years and The Silk Map.

1096 E.Y. -- The Chart of Tomorrows and "A Manslaughter of Crows."

That's not set in stone, and I've got more stories in development that might make me change things a bit, but that's the general scheme. I have a tendency to hop all over the place in the timeline, but I'm trying to be disciplined now and finish all my pre-novel ideas before zooming off past 1096! It's easier to keep everything organized if it's linear.

(Although writing out of order has let me do some fun things like having a little bit of the time travel from The Chart of Tomorrows influencing events in "Eyetooth," which I wrote afterward but is set before.)

Shadowdrop returns!

2021-10-22T11:11:00.001-07:00

I hope everyone reading this is healthy and doing well. I'm happy to announce that my overly curious black cat character Shadowdrop appears for a new adventure, "A Manslaughter of Crows," in Beneath Ceaseless Skies 241, live now. (Shadowdrop's first appearance is here.)

It's paired with the exciting "The Last Days of Summer in the City of Olives," full of vivid detail and thoughtful character moments, written by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko.

Also, I keep staring at that beautiful cover art. It's called "African Relic" and it's by Godwin Akpan.

Hope you will enjoy the issue!

Vote!

2020-11-03T07:33:00.003-08:00

Skies and Skulls

2018-09-28T19:11:00.001-07:00

My, there are a lot of cobwebs in here. (Cough.)

Just rising from the crypt to say that I have a new story online at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, titled "Shadowdrop," set in the world of Gaunt and Bone. It appears in the 10th Anniversary issue along with the dark and haunting (and wonderfully well written) "Ruby, Singing," by Fran Wilde. Soon more stories will be added, intriguing-sounding stuff by Aliette de Bodard and Kate Alice Marshall.

Gaunt and Bone themselves appear in the first issue of the new magazine Tales from the Magician's Skull, in an adventure titled "What Lies in Ice." They appear alongside many other imaginative tales of magic and mayhem by James Enge, Bill Ward, Aeryn Rudel, Howard Andrew Jones, C.L. Werner, and John C. Hocking.

I need at some point to consolidate this site with my newer site (which I also need to update) but that will have to wait for another day. Thanks for reading!

[Edited to fix a spelling error.]

Trolls and raiders and dragons, oh my!

2015-07-07T13:44:00.001-07:00

Just a quick note to say the third Gaunt and Bone novel, The Chart of Tomorrows, is on sale. This one wraps up a trilogy concerning our heroes' rather difficult quest to retire from adventuring and raise a family. Along the way they will face dangers inspired by Scandinavian history, mythology, and folklore. Oh, and did I mention that steppe nomads are invading via balloon? This story takes us into epic fantasy territory, but Gaunt and Bone, in true sword-and-sorcery style, mainly just want to survive with their family intact as the world teeters on the brink.

Corrections and Congratulations

2014-08-17T07:27:00.001-07:00

(cross-posted from chriswillrich.com)

Reader John Banister points out that the author's note on distances in The Silk Map has things exactly backwards -- a li is usually assumed to be around a third of a mile, not three miles as the note states. The map in the book, and the text as far as I can tell, follow the rule of a li being a third of a mile. But, embarrassingly, the author's note is out in front saying something different.

I apologize for this glaring error. I hope it doesn't hurt anyone's enjoyment of the book.

Speaking of the map, John Banister also notes it's possible to expand the view on the Kindle version: "To zoom the map, hold your finger on it until the magnifier icon appears, and then tap that icon. Also, images have more contrast at higher brightness settings." Many thanks to Mr. Banister for both comments.

I also want to share the happy news that Kerem Beyit has just won a Chesley Award in the category of "Best Cover Illustration: Paperback Book" for his wonderful cover for The Scroll of Years. I still remember my first reaction to seeing that artwork, which was that I merely wrote about that world, while Kerem had obviously been there. Congratulations to Kerem and to all the winners and nominees. See: http://www.asfa-art.org/pages/06-currentawardspage.html

Maps and Starships

2014-05-06T15:56:00.000-07:00

Nice news to report here. Gaunt and Bone #2: The Silk Map (Pyr Books) is on sale as of today. This adventure sends the rogues on a quest along a trade route inspired by the real world's historical Silk Road. Their goal: a new source of ironsilk, a mysterious substance that Gaunt and Bone have been employing now and again since their first appearance. If they can find it, a demigod is prepared to reunite them with lost family. But there are many competitors, and the road is long ...

I'm also delighted to have a story included in the reprint anthology Space Opera (Prime Books), edited by Rich Horton. "The Mote-Dancer and the Firelife" first appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies Online Magazine, and you can read it there. However, I've read many of the other stories in the anthology before, and if you enjoy a good space adventure I think this book will be a great read!

"The Cloak of Belonging"

2014-01-24T10:15:00.003-08:00

Just resurfacing to report that my new Pathfinder Tales story "The Cloak of Belonging" is now complete and free to read at paizo.com . See:

http://paizo.com/pathfinder/tales/serial/theCloakOfBelonging

This story features Gideon Gull, a down-on-his-luck bard in the world of the Pathfinder Tales roleplaying game, an unlikely hero about to be swept into a career of fantastical intrigue. His story continues in my new book The Dagger of Trust, about which you can learn more here:

http://paizo.com/products/btpy93qy?Pathfinder-Tales-The-Dagger-of-Trust

I hope the new year is treating everyone well. More later!

Three Quick Things

2013-08-19T10:44:00.002-07:00

First, the official on sale date for The Scroll of Years is September 24! (Amazon and B&N have been listing September 10, so I thought I'd better get the word out.)

Second, Paizo Publishing has added my Pathfinder novel The Dagger of Trust to their catalog. There's no hard date as yet. I had a lot of fun with this one.

Third, thanks to the hard work of Matthew Kressel, I have an author web site! I am still moving in, so to speak, but you can look at it here. Thanks to Matt, to my agent Joe Monti for recommending him, and to Kerem Beyit for kindly letting me incorporate his cover art for The Scroll of Years.

Now Far Ahead the Road Has Gone

2013-07-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

Took this photo last month when we hiked beside the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Thought it made a good companion piece to the one below.

Over Rock and Under Tree

2013-04-12T07:06:00.001-07:00

Picture from a family hike a while ago in the Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve.

"Book Bomb" to help Ben Wolverton

2013-04-10T07:40:00.001-07:00

Buying a book by David Farland (aka Dave Wolverton) today will support a good cause. Details via Lou Anders here.

[Edited to make the link actually work, sorry.]

Writing Updates

2013-04-03T16:14:00.000-07:00

I'm preoccupied with many things right now, including a family illness. But it's time I posted an update on my writing news.

First, I'm pleased to report that this week my science fiction story "Waiting for a Me Like You," (F&SF November/December 2012) is appearing in audio format at the award-winning StarShipSofa, as narrated by Jonathan Danz.

Second, in recent months I've been working on some fiction for Paizo Publishing, makers of the Pathfinder roleplaying game. As a longtime gamer myself, I have been having a lot of fun with this. More on that as things develop.

Last, but far, far from least, that cover above is by the amazing Kerem Beyit, for the upcoming Gaunt and Bone novel The Scroll of Years, to be published in September by Pyr. The book takes place after the story "A Wizard of the Old School," (F&SF August 2007) in which our semi-heroes finally looked to be settling down. Alas, life for sword and sorcery characters is rarely that simple, and Gaunt and Bone find themselves fleeing from assassins, all the way to the Far East of their continent.

I hope to be more talkative in the future, but this is probably the last post for a little while. A satisfying post to make, though!

Sometimes You Just Have to Cast "Zot!"

2013-02-15T14:17:00.000-08:00

Just being silly, and playing with Apple's "Paper" application. I took a break from revising a big project ... and unfortunately there is no "Zot" spell for that!

Four Story Ideas About Books

2013-01-21T15:33:00.000-08:00

Bookstalkers

Magic exists, and you need to destroy books to make it happen. More than that, the books need to be powerfully-written and have something to do with the effect you want. Fiction works better than nonfiction. Worst of all are books of nonfiction that purport to be divine or supernatural in any way. Goodnight Moon is good for a sleep spell. Agatha Christie books are good for poisonings.

Sleepers

Librarians dedicated to keeping sorcerous books out of the wrong hands hide the books in plain sight, in a large university library. The books sit openly on the stacks, but they are not cataloged. Their spine labels indicate call numbers that do not actually exist in the Library of Congress cataloging system. Our protagonist gets suspicious because he's a cataloger, and he passes by a book that Doesn't Seem Right. Alas for him, his activities have been noted. A hidden camera watches every forbidden book, though at a distance, since mechanical devices tend to fail around the strange tomes. For that reason there's also the Sleepy Student brigade, slumped at strategic positions with Secret Service style earphones and cell phones. Their job is to identify, follow, and perhaps delay the perusers of the forbidden texts until a senior librarian can arrive. (Other permutations: Books with UV markings and librarians with special dark glasses for reading them; dummy books; books composed of tomes sliced up and spliced together, making it difficult for one peruser to check out a whole text without serious effort.)

Zombie Book

A device that has stored a group of photons, "frozen" them so they cannot propagate. The photons encode the locations and passwords to critical computers on the global net, computers which have already been infected by a virus, but lack only the proper trigger to become "zombies," at the command of the device's master. The device has the appearance of an ancient grimoire, bound in dubious leather.

A Thousand and One For All

A librarian in a fantasy world is charged with weeding books. One ancient book refuses to go gently and promises to tell the librarian a new story each day the librarian keeps it in the library...

Unamerica

2012-11-05T21:21:00.000-08:00

I wonder how they vote
In the Americas that are unreal
In the blank spaces of Grover's Corners
In the ancient streets of Arkham
In the graveyard of Spoon River.

I wonder how it looks from the sea-foam of Klatsand
And the dandelions of Green Town
When our candidates Etch-a-Sketch reality
And drone away
What Gotham City thinks of the gold standard
How San Narciso sees Guantanamo
Who will carry the state of Utana
Or Area Code 555
On election day.

Maybe their candidates are fictions too
And it's Jed Bartlet versus Lex Luthor,
Martha Kent versus Mr. Smith.
Maybe their issues are our fever dreams
Of Manchurian candidates or super-mutants,
Mayan calendars or killer comets.

Or maybe it is we who are becoming more like they.
We dream of dystopia and world's end
Instead of paving the potholes.
It's more exciting that way.

The line can be blurry
For this is the country of Oneida and New Harmony,
Thoreau and Emperor Norton.
We like our utopias
And it can seem we're always rolling our stones
Upslope to a city on a hill.

I wonder if tomorrow's America
Looks like a lost Atlantis under rising waters
Or the broken land of Williams' Urstadge
Or King's dusty Gilead
Or all of the above.
I wonder about our ghost Americas
In this witching week of autumn light
Before the votes are all unsealed.

And in the throwing of the switch and the touching of the screen
The checking of the box and the drawing of the line
Which ones we are making real.