Tuesday Pimpery, 3/25/08, Plus a Open Pimp Thread

I’m in the mood for promotion, both in the “self” and “other” flavors, so here we go:

* First, the final print edition of Subterranean magazine is available for pre-order, and for Old Man’s War completists, it includes the magazine debut of “Questions for a Soldier,” my short story which was previously only in chapbook form (and which is currently available, when it is available, for like $100). “Q4aS” slots in between Old Man’s War and The Ghost Brigades in the OMW timeline, and features the first appearance of places of and characters that recur in The Last Colony (and Zoe’s Tale). So if you love series continuity — and I know you do! — this is where to get it. Plus, the magazine also features new fiction by Sarah Monette, Jason Erik Lundberg, Michael Marshall Smith and a bunch of other folks. All for $6. I tell you, that’s value for your entertainment dollar.

* Second, my pal Mary Robinette Kowal has been nominated for the Campbell Award this year, which is awesome, and recognizes that as the only short-story writer in the bunch, she has an uphill battle for reader recognition, which is sad. So she’s hand-picked a selection of stories for you to peruse, for free, which tips the scales back into “totally awesome” territory once again. Enjoy, and if you’re a voter for this year’s Hugos and Campbells, please give her due consideration.

* Third, but wait! Here’s more Campbell-nominated goodness! Campbell-nominated author Jon Armstrong’s novel Grey has been released in free eBook form, also presumably for your awards voting consideration. Go here, and then scroll down to the bottom for the link to the downloadable version.

* Fourth, for those of you starting the rest of your Hugo story consideration, SF Signal is keeping track of and updating the list of nominated fiction available online — here’s where it stands at the moment, and if you go back from time to time, you may see it updated with new links.

(For those of you wondering when I’ll make The Last Colony available to Hugo voters in electronic form: It’s coming. Have to do a few things first.)

Having now primed the pump, I declare this an open pimp thread, in which you can feel free to promote the stuff you like right now, and/or promote something you have out there in the world. Promote friends! Promote yourself! Promote good dental hygiene! Because, really, there’s not enough of that in the world.

(Standard note: adding more than one link per comment may punt your comment into the moderating queue. Don’t panic if that happens; I’ll release it sooner or later.)

So: What do you want to tell us about?

68 Comments on “Tuesday Pimpery, 3/25/08, Plus a Open Pimp Thread”

  1. Tim Pratt:

    What? A guy named Ted? I am so all over that.

    Congrats on the new book!

  2. Ok. Straight forward self-pimpery.

    The Friday Flash Fictioneers (disclosure: I am one) have an anthology out from Odd Two Out called Illuminations: The Friday Flash Fiction Anthology collecting the best of our Friday Flash Fiction from the last nine months.

    It includes SF, Fantasy, horror and stuff in between.

    All profits go to the NSPCC and you can buy the book here:

    http://www.oddtwoout.co.uk/buybooks.html

  3. Peter Hodges and I interview Patrick Rothfuss, author of ‘The Name of the Wind”.

    You can find the first part here.

    The second part will be up this friday!

  4. My 13-year-old daughter and I are raising money this week to send her to an awesome camp (http://explo.org/intermediate/academics2.shtml) by writing reimagined fairy tales. Every day, I post her version and mine and encourage people to vote with their dollars.

    http://shadesong.livejournal.com/tag/wind+tunnel+dreams

    Sponsors will get a bonus story by the winner.

    I also have an ongoing project – an urban fantasy world online, with a story unfurling (and tendrils shooting out everywhere).

    http://www.shayara.com

    :)

  5. The 36th roleplaying game book I’ve contributed to for White Wolf Game Studio, World of Darkness: Innocents, is due out shortly. It’s out April 16th. It’s a full and complete horror RPG in which the protagonists are children. All of the authors are parents, which means it’s a realistic look at kids-as-protagonists, not a whitewash.

    I’m really looking forward to its release, I haven’t enjoyed an RPG project this much in years.

  6. Self-pimp, indeed.

    I write music for film and have done sound design as well. The link in the name leads to my “business” site where you’ll find my demo reel and an Improv of the Week, a series I started last month where I post a new improvised (mostly-piano) work each Wednesday, or thereabouts.

    My most recent film work is Spidertron, a student-produced sci-fi comedy action flick. ‘Twas much fun, and turned out really, really well. I have a feeling this crowd would enjoy it.

    Long-time lurker (pre-creashun).

  7. If you haven’t already, definitely read Dauntless by Jack Campbell. I couldn’t put it down. It’s about a fleet captain whose life pod goes missing for 100 years. He’s found and awakes to find the fleet engaged in a ruthless war, and you guessed it, he’s now the most senior commander.

    It’s book one of six, but don’t let that bother you. You won’t be able to put these books down.

  8. Cincinnati Writers Project is accepting submissions for their 2008 anthology “You’re not from around here are you?”. If you are a fledgling writer in the Greater Cincinnati area, or can at least pass for one in semi-good lighting if the editors stand on the heads and squint, check out their Yahoo site for more details.

    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CWP_Fiction/message/17

  9. Tim Pratt:

    The book looks awesome but could you tell me what page(s) have the sentient mold? That stuff really freaks me out. I nearly put away OMW for good when the stuff took Thomas.

    Congrats and Thanks.

  10. If you’ve ever wondered why you’ve never seen a Middle Grade fantasy with alpacas as the lead characters and a prophetic mouse to keep things interesting, it’s probably because you never saw Cavern of Babel. But if you check out this site, then all your alpaca fantasies can be fulfilled.

    Well, most of them anyway.

    Sicko.

  11. I’m about to catch a plane to New Orleans, but I have to take advantage of our host’s gracious offer to do a little crowing: I just got promoted!

    I’m the new Executive Editor for Fine Arts and Elementary Health (weird combo, I know) for a major multi-national ed publisher. AND I get to do it in the California sun instead of the Midwest snow. Unfortunately, I am not an acquiring editor (and we are not a trade imprint. sigh.), so I can be of absolutely no help to you brazen careerists, but I’m still dead pleased.

    This is an example of the good things that can happen when you put some faith in the universe and take a risk.

  12. I’d like to pimp my long time friend and current boss Phil Foglio, who is one of the nominees for the Hugo for Best Professional Artist. Back in 1977 he was the youngest person to ever win the Fan Artist Hugo. He and his wife Kaja produce Girl Genius, a really wonderful free webcomic.

  13. Speaking of Sarah Monette, you should check out the utterly cool website/series she has created with Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, Amanda Downum, and Will Shetterly. Welcome to Shadow Unit!

    http://www.shadowunit.org

  14. It’s not exactly pimping, but Subterranean Press just surprised the heck out of me. My copy of Richard K Morgan’s Altered Carbon just came in, and when I opened it, I about freaked out. My copy was “1/500”. I guess I always assumed that the really early copies went to the author, or the publisher’s SO, or something.

  15. I’m pimping Google Checkout – because if the Subterranean Press site used it (or PayPal, to be honest), I’d have bought the magazine then and there… but yet another registration, and yet another fly-by-night database with my credit card details is an EPIC FAIL for me, sadly. (Full disclosure: I work for the Goog).

  16. Delia Sherman’s The Changeling.

    I absolutely adore it. It is New York Between, and Sherman balances the Between of Faerie with a terrific young heroine named Neef, ringing changes on every single New York and Faerie trope you can imagine, and a few you can’t. It’s fresh and funny and charming, for ages 9-14, probably.

  17. I’m pimping my new webcomic, Save Hiatus! When a group of friends come together over love of a TV show, what happens when that show gets cancelled? Firefly and Jericho fans, this should seem awfully familiar…

    I’m writing it, art is by Adam Levermore-Rich, creator of the Serenity Travel Posters and the “How to Spot a Cylon” poster.

    http://www.savehiatus.com

  18. At Dear Author, a romance review/discussion blog, there’s a discussion going on about how romance books aren’t “serious literature” because of its “often cavalier treatment of important life topics.” Serious issues such as war and its effects are often just swept under the rug as soon as the hero and heroine meet.

    I want to show that my genre does tackle issues and that there are many sides of romance besides the cliches often rained on its covers and sex scenes. If you would like to try a free romance book, one that covers SEALs, war, military espionage, the KLA, human-trafficking, AND LOVE (yes, that’s the romance), I’m giving away a few of my books THE HUNTER at my blog, A Low Profile today. Just put your name in the comment area.

    Thank you, Mr. Scalzi, for the opportunity to pimp myself and my genre.

  19. Next Monday (3/31), some of us are having a starting a little communal writing game. Think of it as a giant Ficlet with glandular problems. For details on how its going to work and to sign up, go here.

    The more the merrier.

  20. Anyone know if Subterranean is sold in Canada on Magazine racks? At Chapters?

    And also does anyone know when it is going to come out on the newstands so I get a copy before they disappear?

    Thanks.

  21. Well, I ordered the magazine, or at least attempted to. I have really wanted to read “Questions for a Soldier” but no way is one short story worth $100 to me. Thanks for making it available at a more reasonable price.

  22. I’m pretty sure that Subterranean will take PayPal, but I think you have to email them to get them to send you a PayPal invoice, Alexander. At least I vaguely remember reading this at some point.

  23. I’ll pimp my new(-ish) website dr-phil-physics.com, which includes some amusing stuff and some of my SF stories, including Friday Fiction, which amazingly enough, gets updated every Friday. There’s even a couple of stories for kids — more will be coming with my next scheduled upgrade on 04.04.2008. (grin)

    Dr. Phil

  24. The fine folks at Intrada have released the cheesetastic soundtrack to Buck Rogers on cd. Intrada’s a great lable who’ve been releasing some amazing stuff recently, if you’re at all interested in soundtracks. Jerry Goldsmith’s Alien and Alex North’s original rejected score for 2001 are just some of the cool things they’ve put out recently.

    On the heels of all that, I discovered that Amazon sells the complete two season set of the whole crappy show for fifteen bucks. What better way to learn how not to write science fiction than to watch that show?

  25. I want to pimp my favorite podcast: Rick Kleffel’s Agony Column podcast:

    http://trashotron.com/agony/indexes/tac_podcast.xml
    and
    http://trashotron.com/agony/index.htm

    Rick talks to many F&SF authors, as well as mainstream authors. He also talks to bookstore owners and booksellers, and podcasts neat stuff from the SF in SF (http://www.sfinsf.org/) meetings.

    Rick is smart and interesting to listen to, and he asks good questions and talks to neat people. Check him out.

  26. @Skip#27 – that kind of defeats the purpose of instant online gratification! I wanted to impulse-buy a magazine that would arrive and (probably) surprise me some time in the future. In insano-non-rational terms in my head, the cost of sending them an email asking for a better payment system in time far exceeds the $6 I want to drop *now* on a future magazine, and makes the transaction feel like it’s not worth my time. Which is sad.

  27. Canadian singer songwriter Bryan Adams has released his 11th studio album, and wow is it good. Best stuff he’s put out in a long time.

    Check it out, aptly titled “11” at http://www.bryanadams.com.

  28. If you are down with Iannis Xenakis and the Xeelee, check out my new blog on fringe music and F/SF:

    http://opus45.blogspot.com

    Sample posts include a capsule review of George R.R. Martin’s The Armageddon Rag, info on a reissue of Moorcock’s New Worlds Fair, an interview with NZ avant-musician Antony Milton, etc.

  29. An open thread to promote our work? Excellent!

    My short story collection “I Remember the Future” will be coming out from Apex Books this September. The fifteen story collection includes ten Hugo nominees and three Nebula nominees, and Apex will be taking pre-orders in two weeks. All pre-ordered hardcovers will come autographed.

    Information at http://www.apexbookcompany.com/news/2008/03/final-toc-for-i-remember-the-future/ ; pre-orders start on April 7 at http://www.apexbookcompany.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=30

  30. SFScope is doing very well at keeping readers coming back once we’ve attracted them. Now we’re on a quest to attract more of them.

    At the same time, we’re now trying to make it a paying concern, so we’re trying to attract advertisers. And for like next-to-nothing, you too can advertise on SFScope.

    Oh, and as long as you’re reading and advertising and self-pimping, remember: it’s ALWAYS self-pimping time at SFScope. There’s a “contact us” link on the top of every page; click one and send me your news, and I’ll share it with our (incredibly loyal) readers.

  31. You can read the SFTV Blog via the link on my name, an occasionally updated blog with SF TV News bits and other stuff as I find time to actually post something there.

    What I actually want to let people know about is a convention I am chairing, the First North American Discworld Convention happening over Labor Day weekend 2009 (Sept 4-7) in Tempe Arizona. We will have Terry Pratchett, Esther Freisner, Diane Duane, Peter Morwood as guests (with others in the works). It is being sponsored by Leprecon, Inc., that has hosted World Fantasy in 2004, World Horror in 2004, the Nebula Awards in 2006 and the 2009 WesterCon (FiestaCon). The initial membership rate of $60 goes up at the end of March (and we do take Paypal). Full details at http://www.nadwcon.org. We are looking into doing some sort of essay/tribute book for the convention, and are on the lookout for authors who are Pratchett/Discworld fans who might be interested in contributing. Send me an email to chair at nadwcon dot org if you are interested.

  32. I got some Stumbles in the past couple weeks (like to Blogging for Writers: 4 Principles for Packing a Punch with Unique Content, one of the most unsubtle titles out there) that lead to 700 extra hits last week, and of course keeps a nice trickle of hits coming through everyday.

    I have discovered Mushi-shi, which is a stunning and different anime. I get tired of all the harems and mechas and magical boys/girls and so on out there; Mushi-shi is something very different. Like a breath of freaking fresh air. Reminds me a bit of Sandman in storytelling approach, except that Ginko isn’t a drama queen.

  33. In the days leading up to St. Patrick’s Day I perfected my version of Irish Coffee which, of course, I blogged.

    (I’ll get back to work on feats of writing and getting published and all that now, ’cause I’m feeling a little out of my league.)

  34. Dave at 2:

    Yeah for the glass thing! My dream retirement job is to be a glass blower and make beautiful marbles. The is still far in the future but I can dream.

    I finally have something to promote. I’m not going to use the other “p” word because this is about my eldest daughter doing her best to save the world: Kelsey in Kenya

  35. This is really sort of pre-pimpery, since we’re not quite ready for prime time yet, but, inspired by someone purporting to be a fan of science fiction who declared that the internet is strictly for “crackpots and perverts” and “isn’t anything worth bothering with”, I’ve worked at gathering together a dedicated group of crackpots and perverts to start Science Fiction L.A., which is intended to be a place where fans of science fiction can talk about, well, sf stuff. While it’s largely a literary slant (at least on my part), film, TV, anime, manga, pantomime using technological devices as props, and other such esoterica are welcome.

    It’s still in very early days, as in a couple of days old, and slowly shaking off the default Joomla install template. There are only a handful of articles up so far, but the comment system is in and working, and we’re creating content as quickly as a small group of dedicated nutballs who all have day jobs can. So, disclaimers duly given, I invite you all to stop by and complain about the decor.

  36. I just went to Subterranean Press and ordered the mag thru paypal! It gave it as one of my options when I went to checkout. .maybe they just added it? Anyways, those of you who wish, check back. Yee!

  37. Well, I just got the cover for my book coming out in November titled The Black Ship (go to my website and see it. It’s pretty: http://www.dianapfrancis.com ). Epic fantasy with tall ships. And then I just sold a new Urban Fantasy to Pocket books (two book deal). Which will be sort of epic urban fantasy and involve much war and strife and magic.

  38. I’m pleased that I can finally pimp Robert Reed’s novelette “Five Thrillers”, the cover story of the current issue (April) of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I desperately wanted to read it after he related it to me (in some detail) last July, despite knowing the ending and my slight unease with the probability that all the decent folk around us overhearing the conversation thought I was just terrible for laughing at such awful, awful things. It follows his idea of what a guy who could do the kind of stuff Jack Bauer does on 24 would really be like psychologically through five steadily escalating science-fictional scenarios, and pretty much gives what the title promises, in a grim, extravagant way.

    You can find links to some of the reviews at the link below, though you’ll have to scroll up an inch or so:

    http://robertreedwriter.com/bibliography.html#forthcoming

    He also has a few other stories out this year, with short stories in the current (April/May) Asimov’s Science Fiction and The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Vol. 2, a novella in Garner Dozois’s Galactic Empires, and another short in the next issue of F&SF.

  39. (I love pimping threads! Here’s three things I’ve read recently that I’ve loved.)

    Black Ships by Jo Graham

    Graham more or less recounts the story of the Aeneid, Aeneas’s journey from Troy to the founding of Rome. The story is about a few people in a few ships traveling around the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Two related images came to mind while I was reading the story: holding the candle of civilization in cupped hands, and the famous photo of the blue and green earth hanging in the void of space. One of the achievements of the book is to link the power of heroic myth to a modern sense of fragility. The smartest thing I read on Amazon was the reviewer who said the book was erotic and beautiful. And all this with hardly more than a handful of characters. It’s an amazing first novel.

    The Engineer trilogy by K.J. Parker

    Parker populates a fantasy in a medieval world with what are obviously cardboard characters (the king, the queen, the knight, the engineer, the wife) and then hides real people behind them. Some of the Amazon reviews have suggested that the protagonist, the Engineer Vaatzes, is evil or an anti-hero, but that’s misleading. ALL of the characters are drawn in shades of gray. The conceit is in building characters from the cardboard that are as complicated and interesting as “real” characters, as complicated as people. It’s a little like watching Pinocchio turn into a real boy. You have to be patient — the trilogy is more than 1800 pages, and the books don’t really stand on their own — but it pays off in the end. The result is that Parker can ask big questions with the symbols (does the end justify the means? how do wars start?) and personal questions with the people (how would you feel? what would you do?). The only thing I can compare it to in scope is space opera. So this would be sword and chain mail opera? Great stuff!

    China Road by Rob Gifford

    If you’re looking for some background on China in preparation for the Olympics, this is a great place to start. Gifford describes a three-thousand mile journey along a single road from Shanghai to the Chinese border in Turkestan. Gifford was NPR’s China correspondent, so he knows China well, and does a nice job of linking the characters he meets along the road with more general remarks about China’s history, current situation, and future prospects. I’ve been to China for several months total, over ten or so trips, and recognized a lot of what Gifford describes. What impressed me about the book was just how plain smart Gifford is. He can briefly describe, say, the differences between India and China, and my immediate reaction is, “yeah, that makes a lot of sense”.

    (… Did I mention that I love pimping threads?)

  40. What if Dickens had hired C. Dupin to investigate the death of Edgar Allan Poe? The idea came to me when I was on deadline to hand in a story to the beautiful and uber-talented Rachel Resnick (my writing teacher at the time)–and so I sat down to bang it out. And what I came up with was an old-school quasi-noir with a conceit as though Chandler had written “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”

    I was happy with the piece, and then the afore-mentioned Ms. Resnick, in challenging me to revise, told me to cut Dickens out of the story completely. So what had begun as a slightly madcap, kind of winking noir piece became quite a bit darker, complete with a laudanum addiction and Franklin Dixon (Hardy Boys FTW!).

    Both stories (“Raven Noir” and “Addicted to Praise,” respectively) are in my debut story collection. Which is free.

    Oh, and I blog, too.

    Awesome is a state of mind.

  41. I kind of want to pimp this science fans and skeptics group thing we’re doing up here in Anchorage I’m kind of involved in (showing up constitutes involvement, right?)

    Details!

    Attendance is pretty much open, really.

  42. Hey, if it wasn’t for self pimpery, I wouldn’t have any!

    So, like bad horror movies? Think they’re better the more cheese the contain?

    Then check out my horror blog, http://www.cinemafromage.com! And remember, we watch crap so you don’t have to.

    Grats to you all with books coming out! I’m envious, and definitely checking out the links posted above!

  43. Thanks for mentioning SubMag #8, John, and for the shout-out as well. I’m incredibly chuffed (as the Brits say) to be in such fine company, and that naturally includes you. ToCmates!

    As for pimpage, Two Cranes Press (the indie publisher that I run with my wife Janet Chui) will be releasing its fourth book next month, A Field Guide to Surreal Botany, an anthology with almost 50 contributors from all over the world. More info here:

    http://www.surrealbotany.com

  44. I am going to pimp my blog.

    I am a mom to three, one which I homeschool, who has Asperger’s Syndrome and is a physics genius. No, I’m not kidding.

    I also have 2 chronic diseases, Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis, and in June ’07, I hit what I like to call the Trifecta from Hell, when I was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. However, so far so good, the tumor isn’t doing much, it’s the other two things messing with me. lol

    Anyhow, I chronicle my life – being a mom and coping daily with chronic illness.

    And, today was my 3 Year Blog-iversary.

    Link to follow siggy…

    be well,
    Dawn
    http://journals.aol.com/princesssaurora/CarpeDiem/

  45. My name’s Ellen, and I’m here to pimp Hub magazine. It’s a great magazine which went online-only after the first couple of issues, due to lack of advertising revenue. It publishes a weekly piece of fiction and reviews/articles, and is short enough to be read on a lunchbreak. Hurrah!

    Hub published my first-ever pro sale story in their first-ever issue, so I’m a big fan! I’m now their some-time proofreader, and they also published a flashfic of mine in their flashfic special. And they have a subscription base of over 7,000 (twice that of Interzone, iirc) so they must be doing something right.

    So. That’s my pimpage. Hub Magazine. http://www.hub-mag.co.uk

  46. I would like to promote Jennifer Estep’s “Bigtime” novels. These are a combination of romance and superheroes, and written with more than a touch of humor.

    The first two novels, KARMA GIRL and HOT MAMA, came out last year. The third, JINX, is scheduled for release later this year. More information can be found on the writer’s website:

    http://www.jenniferestep.com

  47. In preparation for a requested review, I’m working my way through SPACE VULTURE by Gary Wolf (the Roger Rabbit guy) and his boyhood friend the Archbishop of Newark, NJ. (www.spacevulture.com).

    Its so pulpy I’ve been sneezing all day…

    (And that’s a GOOD thing!)

  48. DRUG YOUR CAT LIKE JOHN SCALZI!

    For all those who have seen John’s cats in various states of a catnip-induced stupor on this site, you can hook-up your own felines the very same way…with Organikat organic catnip.

    Just go here:

    http://www.organikat.com/shop/premium-organic-catnip/

    I’ll even give interested kitty peeps a 20% discount.

    Just enter “Scalzi” in the coupon section at checkout :)

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