near and far

The party at WorldCon was so! great! And it helps to have such a nifty book to show off. So I wanted to enthuse a bit more about it and why I’m so happy with it.

1. It’s the old Ace double format. I used to love those whenever I found them in the used bookstores.
2. Vicki Saunders did an amazing job with the book design, including using elements from the interior art to create printer’s ornaments to denote section breaks. In a move I consider above and beyond, they differ between the two books.
3. I have been admiring Mark Tripp’s art for over a decade now. He’s a good friend and I can’t begin to say how much it means to me to use his art, so we’ve got a collaboration other than the game we’ve both worked on for a bajillion years, Armageddon MUD.
4. I found out I had more than enough SF for a collection. In fact, we had to cut some of it. A surprising amount.
5. A favorite editor from Microsoft, Jo Molnar, agreed to do the copy-editing. I’d worked with Jo before and knew he was meticulous and careful, and that he’d bravely face the demands of a spec fic collection, including questions like how one formats telepathic communications.
6. I got plenty of input in how the book looked, the order, the editing and so forth. It’s more than just a collection of my work, it’s an expression of my philosophy regarding books.
7. Publisher and friend Tod McCoy has become one of my favorite people to work with. He solved problem after problem, came up with clever ideas, and was always enthusiastic, knowledgeable and supportive. And fun as hell.
8. The awesome blurbs, including a somehow very Norman-ish note from Norman Spinrad and an unconventional list for an unconventional book by Karen Joy Fowler.
9. Getting to throw a book launch party at WorldCon, the biggest of the SF conventions.
10. It’s appearing in time for World Fantasy Convention, and I know Tod will make sure there’s copies there so I may actually sign more than a couple books at the con.

You can find the book for preordering at Hydra House.

If you’d like to preorder Near + Far from Hydra House, you can do so here. We will have some copies with us at WorldCon. If you’re there and around Saturday night, please stop by our Pink + Blue party, up on the 32nd floor.

I’ve been working on the jewelry, which got pretty much finished up today. We’ll be giving away 30-35 of those at the party, plus books, stickers, CDs, and handmade journals.

Here’s a bunch of the pieces laid out:

And here’s closeups of some of the same image. One thing is for sure — each of these is unique!

I’m working on a piece for the SFWA Blog about promotional giveaways. What are the best — and worst — ones you’ve seen? What resources would you recommend to people? The stickers are the interior art, done in a nice size that’s big enough not to lose but small enough to be able to use in a number of places.

One of the things that’s emerged from the discussion so far is to use things that people will use and keep on using, whether it’s bookmarks, pens, notebooks or a host of other clever items. The fans Mary Robinette Kowal has been giving away with Glamour in Glass were mentioned several times, and I know I thought of her cleverness with temporary tattoos to address an issue with the first edition.

Yay! Yesterday the publisher dropped by to bring me the proof version of Near + Far. It is GORGEOUS. Absolutely GORGEOUS, managing to look modern but still have a touch of that retro, Ace Double feel.

Here’s the cover art for the new collection, NEAR + FAR, coming out from Hydra House this fall. Since we’re doing the tête-bêche format (if you don’t know what that is, think Ace Double), there had to be two covers, one for the NEAR side and one for the FAR side. The artist, who did a great job, is Sean Counley.

This has been in the works for a bit, but I’d like to officially announce that Hydra House, run by Tod McCoy, will be putting out my two volume set of science fiction stories, NEAR and FAR. I’m excited about Samala Coffey, the artist who will be doing the covers and will have more on that once she and I have everything worked out.

Each volume will be 60-70 thousand words of stories, including some unpublished ones, and notes about them. The two books are split up into near future and far future stuff. Hence, the name. 🙂 Story order is still a work in progress.

Among the stories contained in NEAR will be:
10 New Metaphors for Cyberspace (Abyss & Apex); Fists Like Mountains (previously unpublished); Flicka (Subversions); Legends of the Gone (Talebones); Long Enough and Just So Long (Lightspeed); A Man and His Parasite (previously unpublished); The Mermaids Singing, Each To Each (Clarkesworld); Memories of Moments, Bright as Passing Stars (Talebones); Not Waving, Drowning (Redstone); Peaches of Immortality (appeared in Fantasy Magazine under the title “The Immortality Game); Raven (Twisted Cat Tales); RealFur (Serpentarius); Therapy Buddha (2020 Visions)

Among the stories contained in FAR will be:
Amid the Words of War (Lightspeed); Angry Rose’s Lament (Abyss & Apex); Bots d’Amor (Abyss & Apex); Kallakak’s Cousins (Asimov’s); Fire on the Water’s Heart (M*Brane); Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain (previously unpublished); Fungus, Soy, and Beans (previously unpublished); Grandmother (will appear in upcoming anthology); I Come From the Dark Universe (previously unpublished); Mother’s World (Aeon); Seeking Nothing (Daily Science Fiction); Space Elevator Music (previously unpublished); Surrogates (Clockwork Phoenix 3); TimeSnip (Basement Stories); Zeppelin Follies (Crossed Genres)

I’ve tried to be a bit of a completist about this, and include everything Sfnal that’s appeared so far. I think it ends up letting some stories resonate against each other, particularly the five in FAR that involve the same space station.

NEAR:
The Mermaids Singing, Each To Each (Clarkesworld)
Peaches of Immortality (originally appeared as The Immortality Game in Fantasy)
Long Enough and Just So Long (Lightspeed)
Therapy Buddha (20/20 Visions)
Do the Right Thing (unpublished)
10 New Metaphors for Cyberspace (Abyss & Apex)
Memories of Moments, Bright As Falling Stars (Talebones)
RealFur (Serpentarius)
A Man And His Parasite (unpublished)
Not Waving, Drowning (Redstone)
Flicka (Subversions)
Raven (Twisted Cat Tales)
Legends of the Gone (Talebones)

FAR: (much less sure about this order, suggestions welcome)
Zeppelin Follies (Crossed Genres)
Surrogates (Clockwork Phoenix 3)
Kallakak's Cousins (Asimov's)
Five Ways to Fall in Love On Planet Porcelain (unpublished)
Angry Rose's Lament (Abyss & Apex)
Fire on the Water's Heart (Membrane)
Amid the Words of War (Lightspeed)
I Come From the Dark Universe (unpublished)
Seeking Nothing (Daily SF)
Bots d'Amor (Abyss & Apex)
TimeSnip (Basement Stories)
Mother's World (Aberrant Dreams)

(If you're curious about any, all of the online ones are linked to on my fiction page – http://www.kittywumpus.net/blog/fiction/. I know there's at least one A&A link that's broken, glad to hear of any other broken links.)

I've left some stories out, because there's actually enough for a 2nd fantasy antho and a horror one, much to my surprise. I've been more prolific over the past few years than I'd realized.

In my utter arrogance, I am debating whether or not I need to hire an editor, which is normally something I'd urge anyone putting together something for self-publishing to do. My reasoning is a) most of these have undergone multiple editing passes for publication, b) I am pretty sure I can find at least one volunteer proofreader, and c) I will be doing at least one read aloud pass to polish and finetune because I'd really like this to end up looking nice and error-free.

Cover art, I have no clue about yet. If I did it myself, it'd be two stick figures dancing.

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