If you're interested in writing F&SF, flash fiction, or editing

As you may or may not know, I’ve got a short story collection coming out this fall, Near+Far. It’s all SF, and we’re using the Ace Double format for it: one side features all near-future stories; flip it over to find the far future ones.

I’ve been plugging away at a g’normous spreadsheet: compiling reviewers and book bloggers and interviewers and all that sort of stuff. Whew. So what am I doing to ramp up to publicize the book?

• Finding reviewers interested in speculative fiction, particularly short stories.
• Organizing a six week blog tour leading up to the book launch.
• Organizing interviews and guest posts.
• Writing a “How you can help” sheet to send to people who might help publicize the book.
• Making give-away items using some of the interior art. They will be supercool!
• Setting up podcasts for some of the stories.
• Planning book-related events for September and October, including readings in Indiana and Maryland.
• Working on some electronic stuff that is still Top Sekrit. 🙂

And then there’s getting the book together, too…It’s like a little circus, all contained on a single spreadsheet.

If you’re a blogger or reviewer interested in participating in any of that, please let me know!

The excellent Folly Blaine reads one of the stories from Near + Far, “Zeppelin Follies.” I’m hoping that link works; WP is being recalcitrant about hosting large files.

Here’s the afternote for the story:

This story was written for Clarion West, during the week that L. Timmel DuChamp was our instructor, and is my attempt at a screwball comedy, combined with the idea of the Bodys, which was inspired by a long walk in which my foot began to hurt, making me think about what it would be like to be able to switch body parts easily.

The story appeared in the final issue of Crossed Genres, a magazine which I was pleased to support during its existence and which went away far too quickly (although at the time I’m writing this, a Kickstarter projector looks as though it may succeed in reviving the magazine.) “Long Enough and Just So Long,” which appears in the Near volume of this collection, was originally written for a contest of theirs, but got purchased before I could send it to them.

“Zeppelin Follies” remains a story I’m fond of, particularly since I can remember the three am, story-due-tomorrow moment that led to the line, “Look, is that a zeppelin?”