New SFWA Market

I heard from the editor of Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show that they are now a SFWA approved professional market, retroactive to issue #1. I mail my application for associate membership tomorrow morning. Two more sales for full membership.

New Story Out

My story "Oh, Mallary!" is now live and available for free at The Martian Wave.

Novel Completed

I finished my redraft of Neanderthal Swan Song friday evening. The revision I finished in spring of 2005 was around 74,000 words. The one I finished this year ended at around 114,500 words. The question came up about how I managed to write 50% more when I killed a subplot. The answer is simply that I am a better writer now.

I'm taking a few days off from the novel before I do my read-through and corrections. In the mean time, I have a backlog of short stories to write.

Book Review - Bitterwood

Book Review: James Maxey's Bitterwood

I recently had the opportunity to acquire my first uncorrected proof of a novel before its release. The novel is Bitterwood, by James Maxey. I thought I'd share my reaction to this book with you.

If you like dragons, this story will be a treat. On the surface, it's a fantasy involving dragon kingdoms, wizards, and subservient humans. Dig a little deeper and Maxey explains the dragons and all the magic with future history and scientific advancements. Even more to the point, the story is one of bitterness and anger, love and joy, tenacity and jealousy, and a bit of obsession.

The story begins as a prologue in the year 1070 of the Dragon Age, in the 39th year of the reign of Albekizan, a ruthless sun dragon. It begins the story of Bant Bitterwood, a human who ultimately becomes obsessed with killing all dragons, and as a result, becomes something of a living legend across humanity.

As the story gets going, King Albekizan is preparing his sons for succession. In trying to keep to a minimum of spoilers, I'll just say that Bant Bitterwood interferes, and that had the ramification of Albekizan becoming motivated to kill every last human, just as Bitterwood has sworn to kill every last dragon.

Maxey manages to build several sides to the conflict. He uses almost everyone's point of view at one time or another, a little more than I would prefer, but he does it to great effect. By doing this, he lets the reader see the whole story. We get inside for a taste of rage, jealousy, intrigue, backstabbing, love, hate, mixed emotions, and loss of hope.

Bitterwood, published by Solaris Books, is Maxey's second novel. His first novel is Nobody Gets the Girl (Phobos Books, 2003). It's been a long struggle for Maxey, who attended the Odyssey Writers Workshop a number of years ago, and almost quit writing after receiving a critique from Harlan Ellison. Maxey didn't quit. After publishing a short story in a major fiction market several years later, he received a congratulatory call from the same Harlan Ellison. Harlan told Maxey that he made it. Bitterwood is more evidence in his favor.

Maxey has a clean style that makes his prose very readable, and his language is approachable by the average Joe. He weaves a clever tale with a style that reminds me of Arizona's own Alan Dean Foster. It makes for a smooth ride and a book that holds the reader's interest to the end.

Bitterwood will be released in July of 2007.

Chaos Theory is Live

My story Chaos Theory went live at Darker Matter on June 1st.

You can read it for free right here.

Sale - Contractual Obligation

Wow. I finally found a home for the most travelled and the second-oldest story in my inventory. Sells in its 23rd market. It's been on the market constantly since October of 2004. Here's where it's been:

Weird Tales
Zahir
The Iconoclast
Short Stuff Magazine
Apex
Alien Skin
Shimmer
Story House Coffee
Son and Foe
Cabinet Des Fees
The Pedestal
Flash Me
Lone Star Stories
The Dream People
Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine
A Tangled Script of Intangible Soul Engravings
All Possible Worlds
Susurrus
The Shantytown Anomaly
Space Squid
Sybil's Garage
Chimaera Serials
The Written Word

The Written Word bought the story. No word, written or otherwise, on when it will appear.

Fun Little Quiz

See if this quiz can accurately detect your accent. I'm originanlly from Wisconsin and live in Arizona, so I think this quiz averaged my accents together.

http://www.youthink.com/quiz.asp?action=take&quiz_id=9827

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far) Midland ("Midland" is not necessarily the same thing as "Midwest") The default, lowest-common-denominator American accent that newscasters try to imitate. Since it's a neutral accent, just because you have a Midland accent doesn't mean you're from the Midland.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Free Fiction

A bit of a disagreement within SFWA has lead to Monday, 23 April, being dubbed International Pixel-Stained Tehnopeasant Day. It stems from a disagreement about posting work in the internet for free. I'll not go into the sordid details. If you really want to know, you can google it.

What does this mean for you? Many writers will be posting free work online. If you'd like to read mine, click the link at right to go to my home page. You'll find my story What a Difference a Day Makes there.

Two More Sales

Heard friday that the new online magazine "Darker Matter" wants my story "Chaos Theory" for issue 4. Heard today that online magazine "The Martian Wave" wants my story "Oh, Mallary!" I'll post when they are available as both are free publications.

Story Live at Alien Skin

My flash parody went live this evening at Alien Skin magazine.

http://www.alienskinmag.com/flash5.htm