It only took me four years to hit the 100th post on this blog. Pretty sure I had a hundred posts on LiveJournal within the first six months.Anyway, plug first: My short story "The Silent Ones" is in the new issue of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet! You can get it here. It's a story of interplanary travel, alien invasion, dudes in robes, and... okay, it's kind of a hard story to summarize. This was the only story I wrote between 2009 and late 2011. Here's a sample:
Not everything happens all the time, everywhere.
That’s the first line on every bit of literature dealing with the alternate worlds. Want to visit a world where the triple World Wars never happened? You can. Want to see a place where computers run on steam power and even the horses wear corsets? Go for it.
Or you can just muck about in a world full of beautiful hillbillies or debauched Atlanteans. That’s more your personal speed, anyway.
Most of the planes open for travel aren’t that different from your world. The atmosphere has to be breathable, at least, and it’s helpful if the inhabitants are roughly human, and mostly your size. Nothing will destroy a plane’s Yelp rating quite like a tourist crushed by forty-foot-tall giants.
LCRW has published so many amazing stories over the years, and I'm ecstatic to have a piece in it.
In other news, you've all been keeping track of #Ferguson on Twitter, right? One of my zine friends summed it up perfectly on Facebook: "Using McDonald's milk as an antidote for cop-fired teargas at a protest that was supposed to be peaceful but turned violent. If that's not an image of our century, I don't know what is." This is your science fiction future, people. And if you think it can't happen to you because of where you live or the color of your skin, you are sorely mistaken. (Not that race isn't an important part of what's going on in Ferguson, because it absolutely is. But it's not all of the story. Even your lily-white town or city police department has tanks and canisters of tear gas, you know.)
Last but not least, if you're going to Worldcon next year, better sign up now before the rates increase on September 1st. This will be my first Worldcon, and I'm excited! It's in Spokane, only a medium-sized bus ride away, so I'm pleased that I'll be able to attend my first one without shelling out hundreds of dollars for plane tickets. Come help me keep Doctor Who from winning another Hugo.
