First, a reprint of my novelette “Horses” will be appearing in Paula Guran’s After the End: Recent Apocalypses. The full cover and table of contents is posted right here.
Second, my short story “Furnace” will appear in Joseph Pulver’s The Grimscribe’s Puppets – an anthology of all new stories inspired by the fiction of Thomas Ligotti. No word on the final ToC, but I’ll post it as soon as I find out. The cover is here, for the curious.
Hopefully I’ll have a bit more news about upcoming publications by the end of the month. 2013 is shaping up to be a pretty nice year already. Well, writing-wise, at any rate. I have no doubt that the ants have other plans for me…
]]>Commuting? Yes, well, that’s something different. I can walk four blocks to the local light rail and take that into Hoboken, and I can get into Manhattan via PATH from Jersey City, but the fact that the PATH shuts down at 10pm every night (so they can continue repairs) means that I’m effectively curfewed from being in NYC every night. It means I can go to the KGB readings, but I can’t go to the dinner after. I’ve had to cancel a few theatre dates because I’d have to walk out of the performance at 9 or 9:30pm. It’s a bit annoying. On the other hand, I have a place to live and the building I didn’t work in has power, so there you go. When I walk to the light rail every morning, I pass by a 20-story office building that is completely black, surrounded by truck-sized generators and portable computer servers. You can hear the engines rumbling from blocks away. I don’t know if the people who worked in that building still have jobs. There are little stores and big companies all over the waterfront in the same situation. Things are improving, but very slowly, and only for a few people at a time. I’ve donated money and food to local charities to help, but I don’t know how much help it is, in the long run. Probably not a lot, but it’s something.
I’ve also been battling the flu and a constant cold for a couple of weeks. Using the light rail means more walking, which is healthier, right? Not if you’re sick. But this is the first day in almost a month when I haven’t felt sick, so maybe I’m turing a corner. Honestly, I don’t understand how the Victorians handled walking miles every day to their jobs and back without dropping dead. They didn’t have a choice, though. They were badasses. I’m just half a badass. So, that makes me bad… or an ass…
Tomorrow, a writing update!
]]>Home is… uncomfortable. I have power again, finally, but almost no internet reception whatsoever. Also, no heat or hot water – the furnaces and water heaters in the basement need to be replaced, and a lot of wiring needs repairs. The apartment super says that it’ll be about two weeks before we get hot water or heat. Understand that “two weeks” is most likely “super speak” for “you won’t get heat until the end of the month, maybe, I don’t know, whatever.”
However, I won’t be moving into a shelter or staying with friends in NYC – it’s the commute that kills it for me. I just wouldn’t be able to handle taking multiple subway lines and ferries every morning and evening for four-six hours out of the day. Also, I freak out in large crowds crammed into small spaces, and that just described every piece of public transportation currently running. So, I’m fine with walking to work in the morning and taking the light rail home in the evening. Not having internet at home is driving me crazy, but I’m coping with no heat – I bake a lot, and boil a lot of water for bourbon-laced nightcaps. And when I got to work this morning, I went online and ordered a couple of ceramic space heaters and a whole fuck-ton of expedition weight thermal underwear, socks and gloves – the kind of shit climbers wear when they’re scaling Everest. I’m going to look like a fucking ninja when I suit up for bed. Which, might be sad or cool. I guess it’ll depend on my mood.
FYI, none of this is complaining: many people at work still have no power or water at all, or they’ve lost their houses completely. Lots of people lost their cars to downed trees, and are trapped in areas where there’s no public transportation. Some live in areas where grocery stores aren’t open, and they’re running out of food and water. And a lot of those people may not have jobs and steady paychecks that would help ease them out of their situation. It’s bad here – it’s really as horrific as you’ve heard it to be. When I go to bed, sirens keep waking me up. Police, fire and EMT sirens go off all throughout the night, and most of the day. It’s unsettling. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, and realize I’ve been crying in my sleep. But the worst hasn’t happened to me, not this time. I’ll be ok.
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The bridal veil of Frankenstorm is sweeping across the Eastern Seaboard – outside the sky is a very bright pearl-white, and wind and rain are lashing against the building. Thanks to one hundred and fifty years of WEATHER! and colony activity, there’s a lot of cracks for wind and rain to pour through – right now it sounds like someone’s trapped in the walls, weeping and moaning. I like it.
Of course, later this afternoon, the storm surge should hit the NYC area in full force. I anticipate a power outage, so I’m prepared – lots of food, candles, water, books, and all my various computers and devices are powered up. Helpfully, I get paid on the 31st – helpful, because I imagine I’m going to be getting a lot of take-out and deli food until the power is back on. Other than that inconvenience, everything’s fine here. I’m watching terrible movies, drinking wine, and writing. Theses are not the worst days of my life.
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Just a few general updates – the first being the shocking (to me, anyway) signs that after two years of what appeared to be complete inactivity, it looks like the Mort Castle anthology is finally, actually happening. This is the antho that has the reprint of “The Engine of Desire” (it’s been so long, I had to check my records to confirm that that was the story I’d sold him). I’ve been Googling it every couple of months since 2010, and finally this week stumbled across not only what looks like the cover (it may not be the final version), but the Amazon listing as well. So, yay!
Second, it appears that The Book of Cthulhu 2 is now shipping. My story “Take Your Daughters to Work” is reprinted in it, but you should really buy it for Molly Tanzer’s scrumtrulescent story “Hour of the Tortoise”, which is a continuation of the story of the rather moist and squamous family she introduced in “The Infernal History of the Ivybridge Twins” in Historical Lovecraft, published by Innsmouth Free Press.
Which segues nicely into this signal boost for IFP’s Kickstarter project, created so that they can pay pro rates for another anthology, Sword and Mythos. Innsmouth Free Press has published some great anthologies the last few years, so I highly recommend contributing, if you can.
A small Livejournal update – I’ve transferred all of the LJ’s I follow over to Google Reader (meaning, I’ve “unfriended” a lot of people). I still plan on no longer updating there, but if anyone wants to add a feed of this blog to LJ, feel free – I’ve tried several times now, and every feed I create refuses to actually post anything, so I give up. Again, I have to stress that leaving LJ had nothing to do with anyone I had friended there – it was solely because I feel LJ is so much a ghost of its former self, that it genuinely saddened me to be there anymore.
Lastly, I have some story sale news, but I’ll hold off until there’s an official announcement. Editing and cursing continues apace on Powerhouse. The cursing is occurring both in the novel and in my office, in case you were wondering. Which, knowing me, you probably weren’t.
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In the meantime, I’ve made a few significant changes IRL and online. As of last week, I am officially no longer on Livejournal. My account will still be active, so that I can comment on a (very few) journals, and so that people who are interested can read my old posts. But I won’t be posting anything new there. I think my problem with LJ is that when you link to (“friend”) other people there, your blog becomes less of your own personal space, and more a sort of forum where the people who friend and read you feel they have a right to dictate what you can and cannot say, and how you are supposed to present that content (i.e., trigger warnings, LJ-cuts, etc.). I don’t feel comfortable doing those things, and I cannot guarantee that anything I say won’t “trigger” someone or create an “unsafe” space, so I think it’s time I leave. I’ll remain here, where I’ll blog about what I want to because this is MY space, and where people aren’t forced to read it and be permanently traumatized and violated by whatever I have to say. I’m pretty sure the five people who read this blog know what I write about (insects, shitty apartment, writing, occasional traveling, bitching about my health and the inevitable heat-death of the universe) – if those subjects haven’t already violated you, then nothing else I write here will. And, so now I’m here. To be honest, I feel as if a great weight has dropped off my shoulders.
I’ll be making some changes here over the coming months, too. I know, this website has a boring-ass design, but I’m not making that change until sometime next year. But I’ll slowly add a section with links, to publishers, people, organizations, etc. I know I don’t participate in that many cons, readings and events, but I’ll be adding a page for upcoming appearances, few as they are. Maybe seeing a blank page will compel me to actually get off my ass and do some shit. Who know, greater miracles have happened, right?
And, as of next Friday the 7th, I’m going to start posting bits of the FrankenNovel, which is officially titled Powerhouse. I don’t know how long each bit will be, but I’m just going to keep posting until all of the first and second chapters are up. For those who still give a shit, which I think is maybe down to one person now (but I know who you are and you mean more to me than ten thousand), I’m now in the revising/polishing/telling myself I wrote an unpublishable mess that will never sell phase. Plans are to finish this phase on Thanksgiving Day, when I shall traverse across the rabbity marshes of Jersey and over the iron grey waters of the Hudson River into Ye Old Manahatta, buggy across the soaring arches of the Bridge into the quaint cobblestone and brownstone-lined streets of Breukelen, where I will hand the manuscript over to my bff Robert Levy (along with some crackers, cheese, and an egg-shaped bar of Lady Gaga FAME soap). Once I get his crit and comments back, I’ll make final changes, and hopefully send it out sometime in January. Or, burn it and salt the keyboard of my laptop with my tears. And then, start again…
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I never did get around to posting a report of my own, but to be honest, there wasn’t much too it. Also, I’ve been battling some horrific post-con depression, which I’m not going to go into except to say that it’s difficult to blog when I’m going through that kind of shit.
So, anyway. I’d much rather you pay attention to the following: Genevieve Valentine’s Readercon experience – basically it’s like Animal Farm, where some con-goers are more equal than others…
Two weeks later…
Nick Mamatas gives his opinion on The Readercon Creeper
Rose Fox says: This is the opposite of what I wanted
I’m not a big deal in the writing world, so I know my opinions and actions aren’t much of an influence, but for what it’s worth, I can’t continue to go to Readercon with their decision standing as it is. My going, in my opinion, would make me feel like I’m ok with people being harassed at cons, and that I’m also ok with harassment being taken lightly and/or written off if the harasser is someone who has professional contacts and connections. By continuing to support and attend Readercon, I’d feel like I was both in support of harassment and putting myself out there as someone who doesn’t mind being harassed – because, hey! It’s Readercon! Grope my ass and you’ll just get a little slap yourself, no biggie! Yeah, really, no.
I’m going to buy a membership for Necon next year, and see if I can also swing World Fantasy Con in Brighton. If I can get the time off, I’ll also try to go to Boskone. There are plenty of cons I can and will be happy to attend. Until things change, Readercon won’t be on that list anymore.
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