I’m listening to Lady Gaga’s Alejandro and pondering a foray through World of Warcraft with Brightweed the Tauren warrior, who is only a bubble away from leveling, but first I thought I’d catch up with recent news. I’ve got quite a few publications coming out next month, and there’s some that I’m really looking forward to seeing.
In video gaming, I’ve been (as noted) working on WoW. Wayne and I were talking about and agreed that the more we played, the more we were liking this new Cataclysm expansion. The goblin starting area is a ton of fun, even if a little sketchy and unfilled-out in places, archaeology has been not only fun but a clever way for Blizzard to encourage people to go back and explore changed areas, changes to lower level quests in terms of number of things slain quests are well thought out, and the journey from 80 to 85 has been pleasant. I will say that the financial rewards from the water area seems all out of whack compared with, say, the Twilight Highlands.
But enough of that! Here’s some writing-related news.
- “Close Your Eyes” will appear in the February issue of Apex Magazine. Here’s the origin of the story: we watched “Paranormal Activity,” which was generally stupid, but did have a few genuinely scary moments. I went to bed and was thinking about how I would have rewritten the movie to make it scarier and managed to work myself up enough envisioning terror that I had to get up and go read Winnie the Pooh for a half hour to cleanse my mind. I finished getting it out of my head by writing this, and I’m glad to see it find a good home. I’ve liked many of the stories I’ve read in Apex, and I’m looking forward to appearing there for the first time.
- That’s not February’s only notable publication: “Long Enough and Just So Long” will be appearing in Lightspeed Magazine, while “Karaluvian Fale,” which is an Armageddon story, will be published in Giganotasaurus. The first is near future sf, while the second is heroic fantasy.
- At the same time, February’s Seattle Woman Magazine will run a piece I did on local female science fiction writers, which focused on L. Timmel Duchamp, Louise Marley, Vonda McIntyre, and Cherie Priest. I tried to list as many of the local sf illuminaries as possible, but there was limited space and they trimmed some stuff. But! I’m really pleased with the way it turned out and am looking forward to seeing the accompanying photos, which were taken at Seattle’s SF Museum.
- I’ve continued writing reviews for HelloSeattle.com, and am working on some profiles for them, a new feature which allowed me a chance to swap e-mails with local figures Nancy Pearl and Greg Bear.
- Upcoming book reviews include a review of the excellent anthology Destination:Future for Rise Reviews.
- Tomorrow I’m headed into the city for a screen-writing class with Michael Cassutt at the Richard Hugo House. I’m looking forward to it – the Hugo House classes are usually great.
I have enough coming out in 2018 that some of the different campaigns are colliding a bit. Some are self-pubbed projects, others are with presses but I’m helping with the marketing where I can.