Documents of Tabat: An Instructive and Useful Listing of the Chal Shops of Tabat

I’m working on a novella set in the world of The Fathomless Abyss, a shared universe project with authors Mike Resnick, Brad R. Torgersen, Jay Lake, Mel Odom, J.M. McDermott, Philip Athans, and myself. We’ve all done stories set in it, and each of us will be producing novellas set there over the course of this year.

If you’re interested in finding more about the oddities of the Fathomless Abyss world, check out the From the Fathomless Abyss anthology, which contains a story of mine that I like very much called “A Querulous Flute of Bone,” a somewhat odd retelling of O. Henry’s short story, “The Pimaloosa Pancakes.”

This project, which will appear as a stand-alone, is a mash-up of William S. Burrough’s Junky and H.P. Lovecraft’s “Dreams in The Witch House,” a story which terrified me as a child. Here’s how it begins:

His earliest memory was fearing the nightmares. He never slept well, all his life, even in that first moment, so long ago he remembered remembering it more than actually remembering it.

Knowing that if he slept, they’d come crawling out from underneath his cot, or spawn in the cavern shadows outside their hut only to come creeping in.

He didn’t remember what the nightmares were. Were they what they would be later, that room, over and over again? Or were they more childish ones, a ghost chasing him around a table, its breath rot-damp, or a fiery lizard curled in the stove’s belly?
The second earliest memory was the couple. Or rather, first the light on his face. They were going Outside, out to the walls of the world and he could see the light ahead of them.

Then, in the shadows, movement, squirming like a worm in a mushroom box, but much larger. Flesh twined with flesh, limbs sliding together slick and naked against the weed-choked rock.

What was that in the woman’s stringy blonde hair? A tiny rat of shadow. Its face was human, pugnacious jaw slung forward, brow pronounced. It looked at him and he nearly pissed himself.

His mother yanking his hand along so he stumbled, nearly fell. He tried to stop her, tried to ask, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes or acknowledge his tugging hand. Her face red in the light as they went onward towards the market Outside.

Later, she said to his father, when she thought him out of earshot, “Shameful junkers! Rutting there beside the path with their dreams frolicking on them where any passerby could see!”

“There ought to be a law,” his father said in a mechanical tone.

Or was that his mind interpreting the memory, ascribing the tone his father always used, the tenor his mother, a thwarted councilwoman, habitually took?

It was the first time he’d seen a junker.

Not even close to the last.

I announced new online classes as well as the next round of classes and news about my teaching schedule for 2014.

For Writers:

• I discussed how to write in order to have an impact on the reader and made some observations about collaborations.
• Having trouble getting a non-SF reader to enjoy your favorite SF book? This may explain why.
• Charles Coleman Finlay talks about the slush pile for his guest editor issue of the Magazine of F&SF.

I talked about these books:

• Classic feminist text Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her by Susan Griffin
• Poetry collection The Essential Rumi, translated and arranged by Coleman Barks
• Nonfiction book A Biography of the English Language by C.M. Millward
• New space opera novel Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
• Classic animal fantasy novel Watership Down by Richard Adams

Time Wasters!

• A review of several books about the OWS movement talks intelligently about the history and implications of the movement.
• Scientists discover new poems from Sappho.
• G. Willow Wilson will be writing the Ms. Marvel comic.
• How moles dig. Because you always wanted to know.
• Some absolutely stunning photographs by Russian photographer Elena Shumilova of her children and farm animals.

Interesting Social Media Links

• A piece I did for the SFWA blog on Shelfari.
• Not social media related, really. but if you are working on the Internet, I strongly recommend two-factor authentication.

This video can be read as an inspiration for writers:

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