CHAINS OF THE SEA: The Movie

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Strange and delightful news!

My late friend Gardner Dozois' novella, "Chains of the Sea," has been optioned for a movie. I know that there were nibbles on various works when he was alive, but I believe this is the first story to get this far in the process.

The back-story of how the novella came to the attention of the filmmakers after being discovered by the UFO Disclosure community would certainly have made Gardner laugh. You can read all about it here.

Gardner's story is delicate, haunting, and beautifully written. And it has aliens. You can find it in any of his short fiction collections.

And for those who are interested in literary footnotes . . .

The title for my novel, Stations of the Tide, did not come easily. It had the unfortunate working title of Sea-Change, and I and everyone I knew put a lot of work into coming up with possible alternatives--dozens and maybe even hundreds of them--before coming up with one that made me happy. (All the seasoned writers reading this are right now nodding their heads in wry sympathy.) At one point, while I was writing it, I told Gardner that Chains of the Sea would be the perfect title if it wasn't already his.

"Go ahead, use it!" he said. "It's not doing me any good."

I didn't, of course. But that was so typically Gardner. However, in my novel, in the background of the main plot, there are snatches of a telenovela that everyone is watching while they wait for the sea to swallow up the Tidewater. I never gave the name of the show, but in my mind and in my notes as well, it was called Chains of the Sea. 

I told Gardner that but, of course, he wasn't impressed.

Above: photo credit: Ellen Levy Finch, distributed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.2

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Remembering Frog City

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Look what Sean found in the basement! A plastic tub containing his blocks from back when he was a little boy. Shown above is only a small fraction of them. The rest are still in the tub.

 You'll have noticed that these aren't ordinary blocks. Our friend, Gene Olmsted, was making wooden toys at the time, and he dropped off a huge bag of wood scraps, thinking we could burn them in our wood stove. 

Instead, Sean and I built a towering edifice on the kitchen table (Sean did most of the design work; I was grunt labor), a mighty city hours in the making that involved every single wooden block we had. Then, when it was done, Sean placed an origami frog at its heart explaining that, "The city is so powerful that it can only be ruled by The Frog!"

Imagine Marianne's astonishment when she came home from work that evening.

And, as sometimes happens . . .

Years later, I met Pete Abrams, the illustrious artist-cartoonwriter of Sluggy Freelance. When he offered to draw one of his characters, I requested Frog, who is small, angry, very articulate, occasionally evil, and a frog. Then I told him the above story to explain why.

Pete remembered the story, too. I know because in a later comic, he claims a city, saying that "It is so powerful that it can only be ruled by the frogs!!!"

Alas, Frog's claim on the city only lasted for a panel or two. At the time, I very much wanted to buy the original of that particular strip but couldn't figure out how to get in touch with Abrams. 

Oh, well. At least Sean and I got to make a small contribution to Web comics culture. I'm proud of that.

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"Elle nous a épargné une Troisième Guerre mondiale"

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I'm in print again! Well, sort of. The French SF magazine Bifrost  has a special section in issue 115 dedicated to James Tiptree, Jr./Alice Sheldon with many articles about her work and life. One of which,  titled "Elle nous a  épargné une Troisième Guerre mondiale: Gardner Dozois se souvient," is an excerpt from an interview I did with Gardner about his friendship with Alice Sheldon, by correspondence until her pen name was stripped away from her and she was revealed to be a woman, and also by phone afterward. (She would call him up occasionally late at night when holding a gun and contemplating suicide.) The full interview appeared as a chapbook by Henry Wessells' imprint, Temporary Culture, under the title She Saved Us from World War Three.

The title is not an exaggeration.  Sheldon was working as a photo analyst for the CIA when suddenly missile launchers started appearing across the Siberian tundra. The experts were panicking and prepared to recommend a defensive first strike against the USSR. But Sheldon was able to prove that the "missile launchers" were actually hay ricks.

Which may make her the most important science fiction writer ever--though not for her science fiction, impressive as it was.

 

And if you're curious . . .

 There are still, as of this posting, 26 copies available of the Temporary Culture chapbook. It's an interesting item, containing not only my interview with Gardner but also two letters that Sheldon wrote, one revealing her gender and another expressing her relief that he was still her friend.  The letters are also reproduced (with Tiptree's signature purple typewriter sink) in fold-out form.

If this is the sort of thing that interests you, can find more information here.  

 

And, incidentally . . .

I interviewed Gardner about his relationship with Tiptree and Sheldon in 2015. Three years later, Gardner Dozois was dead. If you know someone whose memories should be preserved, I urge you to hop to it. The years slide by more quickly than you'd think.

 

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Two One-Day E-Book Sales for IN THE DRIFT and THE IRON DRAGON'S DAUGHTER

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As happens pretty often, Open Road Media, which publishes several of my e-books, is having one-day sales:

This Friday, August 16, my first novel, In the Drift, goes on sale for $1.99 in the US only.

And this Saturday, August 17, The Iron Dragon's Daughter, goes on sale for $1.99 in the US only. 

And while you're buying books by me . . .

Don't forget the Dragonstairs Press will place its newest chapbook, Brief Lives, on sale this Saturday at noon, Philadelphia time. This is a collection of five abbreviated biographies and one anecdote of six writers who were among the saints and martyrs of twentieth century literature. Some succeeded and others did not. But they all gave everything.

Only 40 chapbooks were made and several were given away. $11.00, shipping included, in the US. Slightly more outside the country. So be sure to set your alarm clocks. This one will sell out fast.

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Coming Saturday from Dragonstairs Press: BRIEF LIVES

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Dragonstairs Press, the micropress--or as she herself calls it, "nanopress"--owned and operated by Marianne Porter, has announced the impending sale of their latest chapbook, Brief Lives, written by yours truly.

Here's the announcement:

The lives of six writers, some you've heard of and others you have not, are quickly summarized in Michael Swanwick's Brief Lives.  These are the saints and martyrs of literature. Some triumphed, some did not.  All of them gave their all.

Issued in an edition of 50, and first distributed at Swanwick's kaffeklatch at the 2024 NASFiC. 38 are offered for sale at www.dragonstairs.com, on Saturday August 17, 2024, at noon Philadelphia time (Eastern Daylight Savings).

5 1/2” by 8 1/2”, handstitched, numbered, and signed by the author.

The writers, to satisfy your curiosity, are:

     Edward Mott Woolley

    Judith Merril

    William Fitzgerald Jenkins

    Anna Quinsland

    Octavia Butler

    Jack Woodford

Four of these lives were published some time ago in The New York Review of Science Fiction and have since been lightly revised, and two were written to fill out the chapbook. Of these, it must be admitted that the entry for Judith Merril was more anecdote than biography. 

And don't forget . . .

If you want a copy of the chapbook, remember to set your alarm clock. Only 38 copies will be available for purchase, and at $11.00 domestic (postage included) and only slightly more outside the US, it's expected to sell out quickly.

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