How'd I miss that?

It would appear that "The Whale Below," my story from Ann & Jeff VanderMeer's pirate anthology Fast Ships, Black Sails, has earned an Honorable Mention from Gardner Dozois for 2008. That means I'm 2-for-2 on Cibola airship stories, with "The Final Voyage of La Riaza" almost getting picked up for two best-of reprints (both bids fell through, unfortunately).

I really, really need to finish "The Shoals of Cibola," but where to find the time?

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Love, Kilma

The lovely and talented John Klima, who had the singular good taste of purchasing my short story "A Plague of Banjos" for his excellent publication Electric Velocipede (more on that to come), has given yours truly an enthusiastic shout-out for my piece "The Whale Below" in the über-awesome pirate anthology, Fast Ships, Black Sails currently available at a bookstore near you:

The top two stories from the book, in my opinion, are the Garth Nix story, “Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarsköe,” a wild conglomeration of pirates, ancient technology, clockwork robots, general steampunkery, gods, and other whatnot with a dash of humor, and Jayme Lynn Blaschke’s “The Whale Below” (also a tale of steampunkishness, but with airships, whaling, gibbering beasts, and other good stuff). Both stories give a unique perspective on pirates as well as having a great deal of world-building that’s gone into them. As a reader, I appreciate when an author has put the effort into creating a world that I feel like I could step into and experience. Both writers have done this here.

Ah, such love is always welcome when you're an angsty, dithering writer with esteem issues. Which pretty much describes the lot of us, doesn't it? The rest of Klima's thoughtful review may be found over at Tor.com.

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Fast Ships, Black Sails -- The Video!

You know you've been waiting for this.



Available now wherever fine books are sold. Or keelhauled. Whichever comes first.

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That pirate thing again...

In further observance o' Talk Like A Pirate Day...



So, does this be a cover to shiver yer timbers or no? Arrr, I thunk it might be! Word has it that advance copies be slipping out, and scalawags on the internets be starting to make favorable comments about it. Since this ship's available for pre-order, I thinks it may be good to remind you lubbers what sort o' crew be manning this vessel:

Introduction: "Raising Anchor" - Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
"Boojum" - Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette
"Araminta, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake" - Naomi Novik
"Avast, Abaft!" - Howard Waldrop
"I Begyn as I Mean to Go On" - Kage Baker
"Castor on Troubled Waters" - Rhys Hughes
"Elegy for Gabrielle, Patron Saint of Healers, Whores and Righteous Thieves" - Kelly Barnhill
"Skillet and Saber" - Justin Howe
"The Nymph's Child" - Carrie Vaughn
"68˚06'N, 31˚40'W" - Conrad Williams
"Pirate Solutions" - Katherine Sparrow
"We Sleep on a Thousand Waves" - Brendan Connell
"Pirates of the Suara Sea" - David Freer & Eric Flint
"Voyage of the Iguana" - Steve Aylett
"Iron Face" - Michael Moorcock
"A Cold Day in Hell" - Paul Batteiger
"Captain Blackheart Wentworth" - Rachel Swirsky
"The Whale Below" - Jayme Lynn Blaschke
"Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarskoe" - Garth Nix

So, is yer gonna buy one now? Aye, I thought so...

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Speaking of pirates

See if this doesn't get your juices flowing for that new Fast Ships, Black Sails anthology. Look! Kage Baker!



Good stuff, matey! So good, in fact, that I've been inspired to revisit my unfinished "The Shoals of Cibola" (which takes place in the same setting as "The Whale Below" and is a direct sequel to "The Final Voyage of La Riaza"). I remember being less than enchanted with my prose when I abandoned it earlier this year, but now that I've got some distance, it reads smoothly and at a good clip. Not bad at all. A few little tweaks and I was back to writing like a madman. That's a good feeling. Now let's see if I can get it finished before my fall class schedule chews up all my free time...

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Ahoy! Pirates off the port bookshelf!

And I only thought Armadillocon, blogging and photography had me busy. What's one more tight deadline amongst friends? Last night I had the happy discovery of the VanderMeers-edited pirate anthology proof for Fast Ships, Black Sails show up in my inbox. Ooooh! Lookie here--there's Kage Baker, Michael Moorcock, Howard Waldrop, Garth Nix... Uh oh. Suddenly my name and story there in the table of contents is looking mighty small and pretentious. This is one ringer of an anthology, and I feel like a AA utility infielder called up to the show just before the playoffs. I feel the need to re-watch "Bull Durhan" and take notes on Crash Davis' words of wisdom to Nuke.



Pretty darn sweet cover art tho, ain't it? And the stories--those I've managed to read, so far, at any rate--are mighty impressive. You will simply not believe what Waldrop does with his alotted pages... although if you're familiar with Howard's literary M.O., you'll probably see it as the only story Howard could've possibly written given the subject matter.

Anyway, no more time for idle blogging. I've got to get my edits back to the editors post-haste.

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