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10 Reasons I'm So Happy With The Way Near + Far Turned Out

Pink flamingo lights
Part of the party decor for the Pink + Blue party at WorldCon. Flamingos are always appropriate.
I’m prepping for next week and the official release of the book. I’ll be doing some blog posts about the interior art over the next few days as well as trying to tie up a lot of loose ends. (And I’m prepping for the next round of classes – plenty of time to sign up still if you’re interested.) And at the end of the month, I’m off to Baltimore for a few days for the Baltimore Book Festival, yay!

The party at WorldCon was so! great! And it helps to have such a nifty book to show off. So I wanted to enthuse a bit more about it and why I’m so happy with it.

  1. It’s the old Ace double format. I used to love those whenever I found them in the used bookstores.
  2. Vicki Saunders did an amazing job with the book design, including using elements from the interior art to create printer’s ornaments to denote section breaks. In a move I consider above and beyond, they differ between the two books.
  3. I have been admiring Mark Tripp’s art for over a decade now. He’s a good friend and I can’t begin to say how much it means to me to use his art, so we’ve got a collaboration other than the game we’ve both worked on for a bajillion years, Armageddon MUD.
  4. I found out I had more than enough SF for a collection. In fact, we had to cut some of it. A surprising amount.
  5. A favorite editor from Microsoft, Jo Molnar, agreed to do the copy-editing. I’d worked with Jo before and knew he was meticulous and careful, and that he’d bravely face the demands of a spec fic collection, including questions like how one formats telepathic communications.
  6. I got plenty of input in how the book looked, the order, the editing and so forth. It’s more than just a collection of my work, it’s an expression of my philosophy regarding books.
  7. Publisher and friend Tod McCoy has become one of my favorite people to work with. He solved problem after problem, came up with clever ideas, and was always enthusiastic, knowledgeable and supportive. And fun as hell.
  8. The awesome blurbs, including a somehow very Norman-ish note from Norman Spinrad and an unconventional list for an unconventional book by Karen Joy Fowler.
  9. Getting to throw a book launch party at WorldCon, the biggest of the SF conventions.
  10. It’s appearing in time for World Fantasy Convention, and I know Tod will make sure there’s copies there so I may actually sign more than a couple books at the con.

You can find the book for preordering at Hydra House.

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It was Fish Day at Archie McPhee’s.

In another kind of store, Fish Day might have signaled a sale on salmon or fresh herring.
Here in the novelty store, against a backdrop of bins filled with rubber eyeballs and plastic beetles, it meant the appearance of the enormous Wheel of Fish.

The vast, obviously-handmade cardboard construction took up three square yards of space. The clerk kept knocking things off shelves as she maneuvered it among the aisles in order to let customers spin, leaving a trail of hula-shirted dashdboard dolls and a flock of pink plastic flamingoes scattered in her wake.

Each customer she managed to present it to spun, winning, in rapid succession, a rubber shark, a glow in the dark squid, and goldfish earrings.

Casey grinned, watching a teenager don the last item. This was what she loved about Archie McPhee. So wonderfully random.

Picking up a basket, she wandered the aisles, fingering band-aids printed with bacon, an action figure of ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, a golden mustache, an enormous plastic raven that squawked “Nevermore, Lenore” when you pressed a button. While she touched things, she sent her luck sense whispering out, tasting each object’s subtle flavor.

Enjoy this sample of Cat’s writing and want more of it on a weekly basis, along with insights into process, recipes, photos of Taco Cat, chances to ask Cat (or Taco) questions, discounts on and news of new classes, and more? Support her on Patreon.

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Exploring Near + Far's Interior Art: Row 3 (Giveaway Day Three)
Art by Mark W. Tripp for Cat Rambo's Near + Far interior
Row 3

I had to go hunt for my proof copy of the book in order to be able to look up the art this time. Tod snagged all my extras in preparation for the reading this Friday, at the University Bookstore in Seattle, at 7 pm. I’ll be reading with three terrific writers: Alma Alexander, Corry L. Lee, and Roz Kaveny.

So! Here’s day three of the giveaway. Comment to win!

(left to right)

Image #1 goes with the story “Therapy Buddha,” which is about how much we project things onto objects and coincidences. It’s near future, another one of the eyed creatures, this one peering down, a little inquisitively, a little confusedly. It looks like part of an organic machine, like so many of Mark’s images.

Image #2 accompanies the story, “Close Your Eyes,” which originally appeared in Apex Digest. This is the one I have as a tattoo, from back before I moved to Seattle, given to me one night in a Durham tattoo parlor. I like it for its ability to be wing and eye and fish, all in one. Vicki used it with the Table of Contents as well.

Image #3 looks like a rocket ship and a Greek amphora at the same time, perhaps bubbling over with some sort of pine and summer scented wine. I selected it to go with “Peaches of Immortality” because it seemed to me it looked a little like the machine at the end of the story.

Image #4 is a detail of the larger image that goes with “The Mermaids Singing, Each to Each.” I’m glad Mark pulled it out like this for the jewelry, since it makes a lovely little piece. His work often has a tribal feel to it, and this looks like an orca to me.

Image #5 goes with “Legends of the Gone”. Sometimes Mark repeats images and this is a variant of one that I always see as a large flightless bird, standing looking at the viewer. (You may not see it. That’s okay.)

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