My "Five Things" Thing

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This is the second week in a row I've done a Tuesday blog post. It turns out that when you have a new collection out and are about to be a guest of honor at the Worldon, news tends to accumulate. He said, perhaps just a little full of himself.

Today's tid-bit is that I wrote a post for Tor.com. It's one of those "Five Things" things. And it's called "Five Fantasy Books You Won't Find in the Fantasy Section." I recommend 'em all.

You can find it here.


Oh, and also...

Over on YouTube, a young woman named Kalanadi gave a generous review to Not So Much, Said the Cat. This is the first YouTube review I've ever received. You'd think the genre readers/reviewers would be all over the New Media things, but it turns out not. Ricki, over at Bookhaven (2202 Fairmount Avenue here in Philadelphia; one of my favorite used book stores) told me once that e-books had seriously cut into the sale of used mystery books -- but not of science fiction. SF/fantasy fans, it turns out, are not early adaptors.

If you'd like to see the review, you can find it here.


Above: Tilda Swinton in the movie version of Orlando. I haven't seen it, but I really must. That's Orlando to a pippin.

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Here It Is, the Distinguished Thing!

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Eat your heart out, Joffrey Lannister! Beelzebub now sits on a throne superior to anything your royal butt has ever known.

I've received my author's copies of Not So Much, Said the Cat, which means that copies have shipped to the bookstores and my latest collection is now available for sale.

(Gonnabe writers take note: Author copies get shipped last, after all the important people have been taken care of. It's maddening when it's your first book, but it's done to maximize profits so, really, in the long run it's all to the good.)

Not So Much, Said the Cat can be found wherever, as they say, fine books are sold.

And since I've mentioned his name by implication...

I should drop in here the fact that George R. R. Martin is not just the author of pretty successful novels. He's also won Hugo Awards for short story, novelette, and novella (two). To say nothing of his two Nebula Awards for novelette. I've got all his short fiction collections, and they're well worth reading.

Not that I'm lending you mine. That's a good way to lose 'em forever.

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A User's Guide to the Mongolian Wizard Stories

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I'm about a third of the way through the Mongolian Wizard stories, all of which to date have been published at Tor.com.

Recently, I provided some notes on the first seven stories for a friend who had a related project going. They have, in the mysterious way these things have of happening, been published on File 770. And if you'd like an overview of what's going on the series, you'll find them of interest.

I should caution, however, that the synopses of the stories give away the twists and endings. So if you haven't read them but think you might like to, you should click the links and go straight to the stories themselves.

You can find the material here.

Enjoy!


And if you're a serious collector...

The Dragonstairs Press extremely limited edition of Universe Boxes -- altered cigar boxes, found objects, very small art object, and a handmade book with "Universe Box," an original story by your truly -- goes on sale tomorrow, August 6, at 12:00 noon Eastern Coast Time.

Since there are only ten available for sale, they'll probably go fast.

You can visit the Dragonstairs site and see a video of me unpacking one of the boxes here.


Above: The illustration for "The Mongolian Wizard" is, of course, by Gregory Manchess, who has illustrated all the stories so far. You have no idea how fortunate that makes me feel.

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Universe Boxes are Almost Available!!!

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Breaking News!

I just now received the following email from Marianne Porter, the unquestioned ultimate power at Dragonstairs Press. This is so highly-anticipated an event that I'm breaking precedent by blogging twice in a single day. Those who are interested in today's one-day sale of Vacuum Flowers in e-book format should scroll down to the earlier post.

Universe Boxes is issued in an edition of 13, of which 10 are available for purchase.  Price is $215 for shipping in the United States, $225 for shipping elsewhere.  Universe Boxes will be available for sale beginning Saturday, August 6, 2016, at noon, Eastern time.  Please check at www.Dragonstairs.com.

Universe Boxes is a collaborative project by Michael Swanwick and Marianne Porter. The boxes were assembled over several years by me, and the novelette was written by Swanwick.  It is a significant departure for Dragonstairs, and I hope you will be as intrigued by it as I have been.

 

The project has four distinct elements:

 

The Box

 

Each box is an actual cigar box, lined with astronomical charts and photomoechanicals of paleontological art. (Please note: the boxes have been carefully cleaned, bicarbonate of soda-ed, aired out, and Febreezed, but they originally held real tobacco.)

 

The exterior of each box has a Dragonstairs Press return address sticker and appropriate rubber-stamp-canceled postage for the item to go through the mail. (Out of concern for the contents, the Universe Boxes will be padded and shipped in larger boxes.) When each is sold, an address sticker with its purchaser’s name and address will be added. The whole will then be tied up with string.

 

The Contents

 

A variety of objects have been included in each. Every box has a hand-bound signed copy of Universe Box by Michael Swanwick and a vaccine created by Marianne Porter (more on these below).

 

Contents of one box, identified as Coma Bernices/Pleistocene include:

 

            glass beads

            vacuum tube

            red gem coral Corallium sp.

            sectioned geode

            postal reply coupon

            vintage German glass taxidermy eyes

            winged pin

            calling cards

 

Plus, of course, the vaccine and book. Some of the above items are common to all boxes but most are not. The contents of each box are unique to it.

 

Packing material consists of early drafts of the included story, run through a shredder.

 

The Story

 

Universe Box is a previously-unpublished 10,500 word fantasy dealing with cosmic powers, giraffe wranglers, the purpose of existence, and the most boring young man in all the universe. Physically, it is a stab-bound book with decorative paper covers, roughly six inches by four inches, issued in an edition of thirteen plus one printer’s proof. The books are all autographed by Michael Swanwick and a contents list is autographed by both the author and the publisher.

 

The Vaccine

 

One vaccine is included per box. These are individual works of art by Marianne Porter, consisting of a glass serum bottle (2 cm x 4.5 cm) filled with specifics “against what ails you.” The bottle is sealed with a rubber stopper and topped with a crimped aluminum cap. It can be opened, but once opened cannot be resealed. The contents of each vaccine are unique to it. The one included in Coma Bernices/Pleistocene, for example, contains human hair, an agate bead, and wire.

 

The vaccines are part of a larger series, none of which have previously been made available for purchase.

 

 

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely, 

  Marianne Porter

 

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Vacuum Flowers e-Book Sale TODAY ONLY!

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At the risk of making this blog look like yet another Advertisement-for-Me, I feel obliged to share the following commercial news:

Open Road Media, which has published e-books of five of my novels and one collection (listed below*) has arranged a one-day sale of Vacuum Flowers for $1.99 -- today only!

Vacuum Flowers is my half-cyberpunk, half-humanist exploration of the Solar System at a time when human personalities can be bought, sold, chopped and customized. Its protagonist is named Rebel Elizabeth Mudlark and if that doesn't pique your curiosity, then this probably isn't the book for you.

But if you're an e-book reader and have always been curious about this particular title, this is your opportunity to buy it cheap.

You can find this one-time-good-deal-only here.

There are also a few other books briefly on sale. The Sherman Alexei looks like it would be a wise buy


And, yes, I know...

... that the cover is inaccurate since everyone in the novel wears a cache-sexe and nothing else. At the time, I reasoned that when every human habitat is climate-controlled people would either wear next to nothing or else clothes of Victorian complexity. Then I flipped a coin. I didn't take into account the troubles this would cause cover-artists in years to come.

The contradiction, then, falls on me. I apologize for that. Why not buy the book anyway?


* The Iron Dragon's Daughter, Bones of the Earth,  Vacuum Flowers, In the Drift, Jack Faust, and Tales of Old Earth

Beelzebub in Yellow

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How cool is this? Artist Manuel Preitano, inspired by the title of my new collection, Not So Much, Said the Cat, took it on himself to draw Beelzebub as a long-time rival to the arch-grifter and dog of action, Sir Blackthorpe Ravenscairn de Plus Precieux (known to his friends as Surplus).

Admit it. You want to see those two tangle.

Manuel Preitano also did the quite charming cover for the Italian edition of Dancing With Bears, His portfolio page, with that illustration, can be found here.

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"One of the Master Short Fiction Writers..."

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I'm home!

And in the mail to greet me is this month's Locus, with Gary K. Wolfe's review of my just-published new collection Not So Much, Said the Cat. Here's some of what he had to say:

 Michael Swanwick has been one of the master short fiction writers in the field for decades, and one of the most eclectic. He seems to know so many traditions of fantastic literature that you can sense his glee at being able to juggle them, often in the same story, in a way that is somehow both deeply original and playfully allusive.

And also:

Even when a story begins with a sequence that seems familiar from a hundred SF or horror stories, Swanwick opens it out in unexpected ways, and demonstrates as consistently as anyone now working that the craft oft he literary short story and the materials of SF and fantasy can not only be compatible, but impressively synergetic.

I never express gratitude for a review because that seems to me an insult to the reviewer. Thanking one for a positive review would imply that the review had been slanted as a favor to the writer under question. But there's no denying that I found this review very satisfying.


And for those who crave food for literary thought...

Also in the August Locus is an interview with David D. Levine, in which drops this intriguing theory by our old friend Anonymous (but maybe the interview will prompt the theory's creator to step forward and take a bow.):

I read an essay in a fanzine years ago... predicated on the idea that science fiction grew out of a tradition of sea stories that started in the 1700s...The idea that you can travel from one planet to another in a matter of weeks or months rather than days or decades. The fact that the captain of the starship is the one who is in charge, that there is no effective communications between captains and their bosses back home, the relationships of people within the ship, the relationships of people on the ship to the places they arrive, the idea that each island has a single culture -- a single climate, a single religion, a single language -- all of these science-fiction tropes come directly from the sailing mechanics and realities of 1700.

Which, true or not, you have to admit is pretty nifty. I could argue it both ways.

This is, incidentally, one of many reasons I subscribe to Locus -- to be surprised by intelligent discourse.


Above: Beelzebub, minor prince of darkness, checking out his reviews.

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