Author Archive

I got a note from Crystalwizard who is the publisher behind the exciting new webzine Abandoned Towers asking me to spread the word about the magazine.

Crystalwizard has singled-handedly done a lot for the short fiction community. She was responsible for re-launching Flashing Swords Magazine, helps out over at Bewildering Stories, is the review editor at SFReader, and is the driving force behind crystalwizard productions (publisher of Tears of Ishtar, a fantastic sword and sorcery novel by my good friend Michael Ehart).

Now, unlike the nearly constant pleas for assistance from struggling writers and publishers, she’s not asking for money. She’s asking us to spread the word about her magazine. That’s right, she believes in her work so much that she knows it will sell if we can just get the word out. Now that’s the kind of passion I can get behind.

So if you’re reading this, please consider reposting the text below on your own blog. Just cut and paste the paragraph below, plop it into your blog, and press “post”. It’s just that easy!

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Have you read anything good today?

Abandoned Towers magazine publishes a wide range of high quality, entertainment — both classics and brand new, never before published pieces. Whether you’re into fantasy, science fiction, westerns, literary fiction, or romances, we’ve got something you’ll enjoy. We also have informative articles on a large number of topics, comics, audio stories, video offerings and an assortment of cool, fun stuff to read. Abandoned Towers print is published 3x a year, Abandoned Towers online is updated on a regular basis, sometimes daily. Remember, what goes into the print issues never goes online and what goes online never goes into print, so if you don’t want to miss something you gotta read both!

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I was just interviewed by Dave Steffen over at Diabolical Plots. Dave’s a good friend and a heck of a writer. I very much enjoyed doing this interview, since it’s my first in written format since I won Writers of the Future, and Dave’s questions were really thought provoking.

A link to the interview also appeared at the Writers of the Future blog. Warning!!! The picture of me they’ve posted makes it look like I’m two seconds away from leaping at the photographer, ripping off their face, and then eating it. Or maybe that I’ve >just< performed the skin-eating and am immensely pleased about it. Either way… sigh.

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Hey guys,

I’ve been tracking my fellow winners on the net, and here are a few links to their workshop experiences:

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Matthew S Rotundo, 1st place winner, 1st quarter, 2008.

Gary Kloster, 2nd place winner, 1st quarter, 2008.

Gra Linnaea, 3rd place winner, 2nd quarter, 2008

Jordan Lapp, 1st place winner, 3rd quarter 2008.

C.L. Holland, 2nd place winner, 3rd quarter 2008.

And that’s basically what I’ve found so far. If you were in Hollywood with me, but I haven’t found your workshop blog, let me know and I’ll add it above!

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It was the last day of the workshop and people began to fly out of LA as early as 4am. My flight wasn’t until 6:30pm in the evening so I got the rare privilege of hanging out in the lobby and saying goodbye to people as they left.

Fiona and I ended up having lunch in the more-expensive-than-average burger joint in the hotel, where we were joined by Joni LeBacqui, who despite being at the center of the WotF hurricane for most of the evening, was looking remarkably chipper.

After that, there was some last minute advice from Tim Powers and much joking about the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, for which I am now eligible (but unlikely to win, since I am neither a novelist, nor as omni-present as Jay Lake and Mary Robinette Kowal). Tim’s advice? Do it for the art. My response: when I’m rich enough. Until then, I plan to sell out like crazy.

Anyways, there were many tearful goodbyes and reunions planned, but it’s my feeling that the twelve of us might never be in the same room together. Still, I look forward to reading everyone, and following their careers. I know there are amazing things in store for all.

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The day after the awards ceremony was extremely well organized. We met near 11:00am (with many of us have just awakened), and set out by bus to Vroman’s bookstore in Pasedena. There, we were arranged in a bit of a random formation and signed tons of books.

Joshua J Stewart and Tobias Fruge were to either side of me, which made my signing feel a little anti-climactic, since people attending the signing could look at their portfolios, but they hadn’t read my story yet (obviously). Still, I talked to a bunch of buyers and I had a blast.

At about 1, we were supposed to head off for lunch, and then to the Barnes & Noble in Burbank, but our driver was nowhere to be found! There was much milling about near the coffee shop for nearly an hour. When he was finally located, we ended up arriving at B&N with only minutes before our signing and missed out on lunch! Tim Powers, however, was absolutely awesome. He located a stash of cookies for us to munch on and brought them over.

On the way back, we passed the Warner Bros studio and saw the smoke coming over the mountains from the forest fires that were only kilometers away. I had a wonderful talk with Rob Sawyer about novels, media fiction, and how to win awards. The man is completely frank and open, and that make him a goldmine for a neo-pro like myself.

We’d planned a poolside party that evening but it was Sunday and the pool closed early, so we ended up hanging out in the lobby where Tim Powers regaled us with Philip K Dick stories. It was one of my favourite moments of the whole week, and it was with great reluctance that I headed to bed around 2 am.

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