"A fast-paced, suspenseful dystopian picaresque, part Huck Finn and part bizarro-world Swiss Family Robinson..."
---Kirkus
Long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and finalist for the Crawford Award. Title short story listed for the 2000 O. Henry award.
As we announced a little while ago, those of us behind the Rabid Transit chapbooks decided to switch our focus to publishing a line of novellas with the same standards of quality and innovation. We are pleased (with our rechristened press, Rabid Transit Press) to announce the debut volume of the Electrum Novella Series-The Sun [...]
Sun, March 23 2008 » Fiction » 1 Comment
Wanted to pop in on this chilly February morning (and when is it not, up here? Right.) and give a shout out to my new agent, Colleen Lindsay, and agency, FinePrint Literary Management. I couldn’t be more thrilled! I’m really looking forward to the partnership. Publishing, and its related endeavors, can be strange ones in [...]
Sat, February 16 2008 » Fiction » No Comments
3800 comment spam down to 0. I’m sure this is fascinating. I don’t think it’s a permanent solution, so I’ll figure out…something. In other news, my really long review of the anthology The New Space Opera is up online at Rain Taxi. It’s…well, read the review. Feel free to comment!!
Fri, January 25 2008 » Fiction, Meta/Logistics » No Comments
Dogpatch was a theme park based on the Lil’ Abner comics that existed from 1968-1993. It’s been defunct since that time and its abandoned grounds have become overgrown, crumbling. Here are some amazing pics of Dogpatch. What is oddly affecting about this is how cultural forces that seem like juggernauts can become relics in a [...]
Thu, December 27 2007 » Fiction, Polis » 2 Comments
I wanted to get some notes on the design of Deadline Enchanter, since it seemed a couple of reviewers were interested in the genesis and thought behind the game. (I don’t even know if it can be called a game. But more about that later.) So as always, these opinions are solely my own, and [...]
Mon, December 24 2007 » Fiction, Games » 4 Comments
John explains what is going on here.. It’s probably better to read this first, and then pass on to here. Thanks to John and the other writers in the anthology, who I know put a lot of hard work into the anthology. Logorrhea was a great, great anthology which I was thrilled to be a [...]
Thu, December 6 2007 » Fiction » No Comments
“Language is simply the cheapest tool for carving up space and time.” -Sheldon Pacotti (quoted here) “The paper ship dominates our age,” he notes. “It is the nature of the ship to float and tear and turn like a page. A certain formality obtains on these vessels. Once elaborated, they are able to anticipate the [...]
Wed, October 17 2007 » Fiction, Poetry » 1 Comment
Well…until this morning I’d totally forgotten that I’d forgotten to renew my SFWA membership. And then I read this. Seriously, the last straw. It’s over. I non-renewed just in time! I really don’t want my money, however obliquely, going into the next scheme that Andrew Burt concocts to “help” and “advocate for” writers. Next thing [...]
Thu, September 6 2007 » Fiction » 1 Comment
(Mumpsimus is the central clearinghouse for Barzak Day info!) I first met Chris Barzak more than nine years ago (?!?) at Clarion. He’d brought with him the coolest books-all of these Arkham House short story collections-and he also raved about this writer who no one else had heard of named Kelly Link, who had only [...]
Tue, August 28 2007 » Fiction, Life Studies » No Comments
Oh noes! Someone got their paws on the anti-literary Mad Libs! “Today’s ______ [name of your imaginary, super-scary enemy in quote marks] crowd, ________, _______, _________ [three derogatory adjectives] (______________) [half-hearted aside at equanimity regarding a form of literature you know nothing about], never has to fight such battles because they never simply dare to [...]
Mon, July 23 2007 » Fiction » 3 Comments
The shift from “What if?” to “What now?” (in all senses of that phrase)
Mon, July 16 2007 » Fiction » 3 Comments
Okay, I give in. TEN IMPRESSIONSTIC HIGHLIGHTS (in no particular order, with leaving out highlights as well) +Talking to Rick Bowes with his couple of encounters with Basquiat back in the day. +Every year, just like American Idol, a newcomer comes out of nowhere and seizes the crown of, uh, best karaoke newcomer. My nomination [...]
Wed, May 30 2007 » Fiction, Life Studies » 2 Comments
So very very tired today. Very! I started drifting off “only” once on the road yesterday, but thankfully Mr. Schwartz was driving with me and I’m sure would have prevented DOOM. (He thought I was making a very lazy lane change.) But the reason for that exhaustion was, of course, Wiscon and meant an excellent [...]
Tue, May 29 2007 » Fiction, Life Studies » 3 Comments
Please distribute far ‘n wide. ____________ Velocity Press Announces New Electrum Novella Series Fans of the acclaimed Rabid Transit anthology series will be excited to hear that, here at Velocity Press, we’re evolving for your reading pleasure. Our purpose has always been to bring interesting and hard to classify fiction into print, work that might [...]
Wed, May 23 2007 » Fiction » 3 Comments
Whirlwind. Landing in some miserable rain in Boston, driving through that rain, nearly accidentally sideswiping someone! Which was unnerving. Walking through Northampton after said rain running into Holly and then Kelly quite accidentally. At first reading of the night, ran into Kelli from my MFA program, who I hadn’t seen in 10+ years. Experienced readings [...]
Wed, May 2 2007 » Fiction, Poetry, Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead » 1 Comment
This is from Gordon Van Gelder regarding the Truesdale column: One reason I gave the gig to Dave Truesdale is because his columns tend to be provocative, so I didn’t see any need to shy away from this provocative piece. But it does editorialize and I realize now that people might see my publishing an [...]
Thu, April 26 2007 » Fiction » 14 Comments
This is from Truesdale’s latest “column”: “But to extrapolate from the two books on the overwhelmingly white, pussy-laden PKD ballot that I have read, this year’s contenders are a solid pussy pride of tail-twitchin’ novels.” Not surprising that he’s saying stuff like this, I guess, although this is worse than usual for him. More surprising [...]
Fri, April 20 2007 » ?!?!?, Fiction » 14 Comments
“The Micro-VAX 3900 wholeheartedly endorses the current method of information distribution by SFWA and CATEGORICALLY REJECTS any attempt at new-fangled ‘web-blogging.’” “I say! ‘Little Professor’ here, and by gum, I’m quite happy…just the way things are. Just so! My calculations tell me that one of my ‘inventions’ could land me a princely sum! Indeed!” “Aw, [...]
Tue, March 27 2007 » ?!?!?, Fiction » 5 Comments
I’ve been thinking of the divide between generalists and specialists a lot lately, and to me there are two competing forces at work. Where the poptimists get it wrong is the assumption that we want to basically live lives of divine frivolity, that effectively we are consumers first and foremost who want an endless array [...]
Tue, March 6 2007 » Fiction » 2 Comments
Fri, February 16 2007 » Fiction, Poetry » No Comments
