I am plagued by the problem of having too many things in my head that I want to discuss. In times like these I’m working on just taking a deep breath, analyzing, prioritizing, and then saying “let’s just do whatever we want, okay?”
So I’ll start by noting the Third Flatiron anthology, Lost Worlds, Retraced is available now, which is important because it contains my story “Schrödinger’s Soldier.” It’s a story set in the 1960s, but deals with the end of the world, alternate universes, and whatever. I guess you just have to read it. [grin]. You can find it on Amazon and on Smashwords.
I’m also pleased to see some commentary coming in about “Bugs,” the short story that recently saw print in this month’s Analog, and that bought me the tasty experience I wrote about a few days back, wherein I saw my name on a cake (tasty … name on a cake … hehehe … sometimes I just slay myself). Anyway, here are a few links as they roll in:
Back a few weeks ago, Brandon Crilly (I’m making a guess on the link, so apologize if I get that wrong) and I had a brief exchange about reviews wherein I characterized myself as being insanely curious about what people think of my work. I assume this is a fairly common point of view among writers. But I also admit that I’m not overly worried about them. I’m merely curious, which may not be as common. I don’t know. Bottom line, I find reviews of my work to be interesting. Of course, it’s possible my view is a little skewed because I also don’t remember having particularly terrible reviews. By that I mean that while some commentary over the years has been, perhaps, dismissive in ways I might find annoying in the moment, I’ve never had a critic totally dismantle my work in any deep fashion. And as criticism goes, I’ve had … well … considerably more positive than negative.
So I look at reviews with great curiosity, and sometimes while looking for things people are saying, I come across the most wonderful things.
For example, in this this totally fun case of seek-and-accidentally-find, I came upon this totally kick-tail cool, delightful Easter Egg of a review of “The Day the Track Stood Still,” which is one of my collaborations with John Bodin. (I’m not certain the direct link works perfectly, so you may need to scroll pretty far down or do a search for our names to get to it directly). The site is a comprehensive overview of time-travel fiction throughout history (or at least since 1838, which seems “throughout” enough for me). Finding this page is, to me, one of the definitions of cool. I mean, here’s a page that has my name (and John’s!) discussed in the same very long breath as Asimov and Heinlein and all the greats–even Mark Twain fer cryin’ out loud. And beyond that, WE GET 5 STARS!
Absolutely freakin’ cool, eh?
Here’s the pull quote:
Did I spot a smidgen of time travel in this delightful story of a race where Babs the car is certainly in love with the driver and vice versa, all in the tense context of knowing that if the race is lost, then the car will be forfeited?
And, yes, Michael, that is most certainly a smidgen of time travel.
The bad news about this find, though, is that now I have to set aside an afternoon sometime to actually dig though the site. I can’t wait.
(Mandatory commercial break) I must, of course, note that you can get a copy of that story (and two others from John and me) in either print or e-form by following the “3 Days in May” links to the right of the screen or in the “shop” page.