"The Second Labyrinth" appearing soon at Asimov's

I'm delighted to report that my story "The Second Labyrinth" is appearing in the next issue of Asimov's Science Fiction, which has a very cool-looking table of contents. "The Second Labyrinth" is an Eldshore story, though not connected to any previous tale. I hope people enjoy it.

The May/June Asimov's is on sale April 18.

Writing Thought

Years ago I had an experience where an editor I very much admire rejected a story but generously took time to give me detailed comments. I appreciated, and still appreciate, his time. When I was first starting out I probably would have immediately rewritten the story based on those comments. But by then I’d had enough experience to trust myself a little more, and to recognize that fiction is very, very subjective. 

Since this was the story’s first rejection, rather than immediately modify the story based on the comments I sent it unchanged to a second editor I very much admire. I got the wonderful news that he wanted to buy it but had rewrite suggestions of his own. 

Out of a desire to constantly learn new things, during the rewrite process I brought forward editor 1’s suggestions to editor 2 (I didn’t say where the comments came from, just that it was advice from someone I trusted.) Editor 2 was initially open to the ideas but after we’d played around with a couple of revisions he ultimately decided he didn’t care for editor 1’s suggestions.

My sense was, and is, that editor 1 and editor 2 both had valid approaches, but as editor 2 was the one who actually took the story, his approach was by definition the more valid one. I was happy with the results, and the published story got some nice reviews. I continue to admire both editors.

I’m sharing this, for what it’s worth, for two reasons.

The first thing is that self doubt can be really damaging for writers, and words from “on high” can land with a lot of weight, even if, as in this case, everyone involved was being kind. It’s not that editor 1 was “wrong” and editor 2 was “right,” it’s that there are multiple valid approaches for every story, and I’m glad I finally had the confidence to not immediately discard my original work when someone with serious credentials criticized it. (Note also that I was entirely open to learning; I just didn’t accept the first opinion automatically.)

The second thing is more subtle, but maybe I’m not the only writer this applies to. When I was starting out I kept being haunted by the notion of discovering the Platonic ideal of a given story. The universe had given me a cool story idea, I would think, and it was my job — no, my duty — to wrestle out of chaos the best possible implementation of that idea. This wasn’t about crafting a good story, this was about crafting the Ultimate Story for that given idea. Maybe that’s an honorable impulse in a way. But it’s self-defeating. Anyone who reads a lot will find multiple good takes on certain premises. Trying to do, say, the ultimate story of first contact with aliens is not just Quixotic, it’s basically missing the point — a big part of the wonder of the universe is its variety, and if there truly are intelligent aliens they will come in many forms, making each first contact scenario unique.

But I kept looking for perfection, thinking I needed a holy grail when a carpenter’s cup would do. I wish I remembered the name of the poet who said he’d hurt his work by constantly striving for “bulletproof” poems — poems that were so immaculate and gemlike that they were beyond criticism. I relate to that.

The better approach is to try a lot of things, learn as much as you can, and shrug off the success or failure of any given story — and to remember that no matter how good a job you do, some people will think the story succeeded and others will think it failed.

New Gaunt and Bone and More

Hope Halloween found everyone well! I'm delighted to report new Gaunt and Bone stories.

"To the Darkhouse" appears in Tales from the Magician's Skull #8 in the august company of W.J Lewis, James Enge, Sean Crow, Jeremy Pak Nelson, C.L Werner, Daniel J. Ouellette, Alexander James, and Robert Rhodes (and by the way I encourage anyone who loves a mix of great action and beautiful writing to check out Robert Rhodes' story collection Shadow, Light, and Steel.)

"On Magog's Pond" appears in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #367 where it gets to be in the mighty presence of an Angel Azrael story by Peter Darbyshire, "The Angel Azrael and the War Ghosts." The Angel Azrael stories, all of which I believe have appeared in BCS, are what I imagine you'd get if Michael Moorcock's Elric was put in a blender with Stephen King's Gunslinger -- the action is furious, the scenery is bizarre, and the emotions feel true. If that sounds at all up your dusty demon-beset and tumbleweed-haunted alley, check them out!

And in still more Gaunt and Bone news, Black Cat Weekly reprinted the G&B story "A Wizard of the Old School" in their issue #57! It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in the August 2007 issue. Many thanks to the SFF editor for Black Cat Weekly, Cynthia Ward, for choosing it. (And speaking of Cynthia Ward, I recently read her very enjoyable steampunk-ish adventure novel The Adventure of the Incognita Countess. This book brings together various characters with links to classic adventure novels -- expect to see nods to Bram Stoker, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells and many more. It's reminiscent of Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen but with its own distinct style and a nice eye for its early 20th Century setting, namely the doomed voyage of the Titanic. I'm looking forward to reading the sequels.)

Moving on from Gaunt and Bone, I was also over the moon to have a standalone science fantasy story in Clarkesworld #189. "The Odyssey Problem" is an offbeat story for me and somewhat experimental, so I was surprised and thrilled when editor Neil Clarke decided to run it. He also had great suggestions for improving it and clarifying the text.

I also can announce more great news -- Asimov's Science Fiction has just bought my story "The Second Labyrinth!" I'll say more when it's scheduled.

Lastly, I got to contribute to a project that is still under wraps, but I will be excited to share more details when I can.

[Edited to add additional news and reflect that in the title.]

New stories and Eldshore Timeline

Hope you are all doing well and staying safe. I'm delighted to report stories forthcoming in the magazines Clarkesworld, Tales from the Magician's Skull, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. The Clarkesworld story is a standalone science fantasy. The other two are new stories about Gaunt and Bone.

Speaking of Gaunt and Bone, I thought it might be fun to share my draft version of a timeline for their world. I'm getting into the habit of calling the whole setting "The Eldshore," after one of the more prominent countries in it. Its capital is Archaeopolis, home turf of Shadowdrop the black cat, who along with Gaunt and Bone is an important recurring character. Gaunt and Bone often pass through the Eldshore proper as well.

I've been making up most things about the setting story by story. That's just how my brain works. I admire people who can work out a detailed setting in advance but I seem to need a narrative first. By now the accumulated detail is substantial enough that a timeline will help keep it all consistent.

Dates in the Eldshore, and many of the surrounding lands, are reckoned since Eldshore's founding in 0 E.Y., or Eldshore Year Zero. I went through the stories and novels looking for date references. I started with some officially dated events:

313 E.Y. -- A meteor hits Archaeopolis. The immediate area becomes fascinating to alchemists.

744 E.Y. -- A great storm hits Archaeopolis.

797 E.Y. -- "The Lions of Karthagar," in which Eldshore's Empress Nayne leads an army into the far eastern Ruby Waste. Eldshore was never more powerful than in this year.

888 E.Y. -- A great earthquake hits Archaeopolis.

1096 E.Y. -- The Chart of Tomorrows, in which a great many events occur. What most people will have noticed is a balloon-enabled invasion of the region by the nomadic Karvaks.

1096. E.Y. -- "A Manslaughter of Crows," in which the Eldshore experiences a very strange election.

Aside from those dates what I've got is hypothetical, but I think it all fits.

Uncertain, perhaps 1000 E.Y.? -- The events of "How the Wicker Knight Would Not Move."

1091 E.Y. -- "The Thief with Two Deaths," "The Mermaid and the Mortal Thing," "To the Darkhouse" (forthcoming in Tales from the Magician's Skull), "Shadowdrop," "The Sword of Loving Kindness."

1092 E.Y. -- "Eyetooth," "King Rainjoy's Tears."

1093 E.Y. -- "Penultima Thule," "What Lies in Ice," "On Magog's Pond" (forthcoming in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.)

1094 E.Y. -- "A Wizard of the Old School."

1095 E.Y. -- The Scroll of Years and The Silk Map.

1096 E.Y. -- The Chart of Tomorrows and "A Manslaughter of Crows."

That's not set in stone, and I've got more stories in development that might make me change things a bit, but that's the general scheme. I have a tendency to hop all over the place in the timeline, but I'm trying to be disciplined now and finish all my pre-novel ideas before zooming off past 1096! It's easier to keep everything organized if it's linear.

(Although writing out of order has let me do some fun things like having a little bit of the time travel from The Chart of Tomorrows influencing events in "Eyetooth," which I wrote afterward but is set before.)

Shadowdrop returns!

I hope everyone reading this is healthy and doing well. I'm happy to announce that my overly curious black cat character Shadowdrop appears for a new adventure, "A Manslaughter of Crows," in Beneath Ceaseless Skies 241, live now. (Shadowdrop's first appearance is here.)

It's paired with the exciting "The Last Days of Summer in the City of Olives," full of vivid detail and thoughtful character moments, written by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko.

Also, I keep staring at that beautiful cover art. It's called "African Relic" and it's by Godwin Akpan.

Hope you will enjoy the issue!

Vote!

 

Skies and Skulls

My, there are a lot of cobwebs in here. (Cough.)

Just rising from the crypt to say that I have a new story online at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, titled "Shadowdrop," set in the world of Gaunt and Bone. It appears in the 10th Anniversary issue along with the dark and haunting (and wonderfully well written) "Ruby, Singing," by Fran Wilde. Soon more stories will be added, intriguing-sounding stuff by Aliette de Bodard and Kate Alice Marshall.

Gaunt and Bone themselves appear in the first issue of the new magazine Tales from the Magician's Skull, in an adventure titled "What Lies in Ice." They appear alongside many other imaginative tales of magic and mayhem by James Enge, Bill Ward, Aeryn Rudel, Howard Andrew Jones, C.L. Werner, and John C. Hocking.

I need at some point to consolidate this site with my newer site (which I also need to update) but that will have to wait for another day. Thanks for reading!

[Edited to fix a spelling error.]