"The unit of civilization is the city." — Guy Davenport
What could be more exciting than to see your long-neglected backlist titles reincarnated as E-books with new covers by Bay Area artist Lisa Roth, at only 2.99?
My World Fantasy Award loser Talking Man is a solid book filled with practical tips for all those planning an auto trip to the North Pole. Costs less than a gallon of gas. The bureaucratic saga Pirates of the Universe is about a Disney-Windows employee trying to hold onto his perks. The Pick-Up Artist is about a guy who makes room for new art by destroying the old. All now E-vailable from Kindle, Apple, etc. All with new covers by LIsa Roth.
MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE REAL (PRINT) WORLD ...
Any Day Now is not exactly science fiction and not exactly not. It's an alternate history of 1968. John Crowley was kind
enough to say, "If you were there then, this is where you were."
Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review and made it a Pick of the Week. It also got a good review in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Bay Area literary icon Richard Wolinsky gave me a generous interview on KPFA.
And it has been nominated for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science fiction novel of the year. I'm hopeful, as the other nominees are the usual pack of has-beens, wannabees and lesser lights.
My most recent collection of short stories TVA BABY is from PM Press. It includes a little shop story, a starship story, a noir detective story, a time travel tale (with paradox), an un-mundane adventure, a retro romantic comedy (with cigarettes and lingerie), and a plundering of pirates.
My utopian novel FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN (also PM) is about what might have been if abolitionist John Brown's 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry had succeeded. It has a generous (and perceptive) introduction by Mumia Abu Jamal.
I am editing a cool SF series for PM called Outspoken Authors. Each volume includes a story, a rant, an interview and an argument by a Lefty scribbler with Something to Say. Eleanor Arnason's unforgettable (It's about memory) Mammoths of the Great Plains was shortlisted for the Sturgeon Award, the Sidewise (alt-history) Award, and the Carl Brandon Award as well. That's her in the gimme hat below, waitin' for a train.
Ken MacLeod's The Human Front just touched down, and John Shirley, Karen Joy Fowler and Charles Stross are in the works. I'm proud of the Outspoken Author list which looks like a science fiction Who's Who or Hall of Fame, except that I included myself. Because I could.
Good news: the Paul Robeson film I scripted with Richard Akel of Four Stars International is getting some traction. Actor David Harewood, director Darrell Roodt, and the legendary Lou Gossett Jr. have signed on. Production scheduled for Fall 2013. Fingers crossed.
My lunar junkyard adventure, "The Hole in the Hole," has been optioned by the Brooklyn film team of John Ramaine and David Capurso. I think these guys have what it takes.
My day job is writing a regular feature, THIS MONTH IN HISTORY, for Locus magazine. It's the longest-running trade magazine fiction feature in the history of the Universe.
I also host a monthly author reading series in downtown San Francisco called SFinSF. That's fun.