Some time ago, I'd posted about San Francisco's Bay Bridge. One half of it is being rebuilt and I had a chance to fly over it and get some photographs. (If you don't want to bother with the link, here's the relevant photograph - it's rotated so you can see the bend more clearly.)


It turns out that shallow S-bend in the picture above is murderous. On Monday, a big-rig went over the side, killing the driver. Apparently there have been 43 accidents there since Labor Day, when the bridge re-opened with this temporary modification.

Part of the problem is that the speed limit on the bridge is 50 mph, and on the bend it's 35. People come in at 50, and can't slow in time - especially, I suppose, if they're driving full-laden big-rigs. (I blogged earlier about a Safeway truck that overturned. Thankfully, that driver was okay.) The Caltrans people are on it, though why they're resisting the most obvious fix - reducing the speed limit to 35 on the whole bridge  - I don't know.

Back in 1989, the Bridge was closed for month after the Loma Prieta earthquake damaged it. I heard that the engineers installed a Kokopelli figure as a protective talisman, though I can't find the reference now.

Anyway, I'm giving the Bridge a Kokopelli on this blog. Maybe it'll help. (But I hope they fix the speed limit.)

Today I took off from Denver in clear weather, and got a window seat.  Here are layers of clouds and mountains above the airplane wing...


Here are the mountains below, snow-capped.


And finally, I landed in San Francisco airport. That bright line is the San Mateo bridge, and the bright mass is the East Bay.

Of course I already knew that Clarion was awesome, but in case I needed proof - one of my classmates arrived with a signed book contract in hand! That was Matthew Cody, in August 2007, for his middle-grade book Powerless.  It's about Daniel, a "powerless" boy who finds himself in a town full of Superkids. "You don't need superpowers to be a hero."

WFC. Delia Sherman said that she finds it's like a great family reunion. It's so true, at least the reunion part. (I'm too much of a newbie to be "family" yet, I think. One of these years...)

A list of everyone I met would read like a particularly marvelous phone-book: People from Clarion (2007, and 2008), two writing groups, two online communities, and the magical Borderlands bookstore that hosts interesting spec-fic events from time to time. People I know but hadn't met in a while, people friends introduced me to, and people I'd 'met' online but not in person. In particular: I met, for the first time, Janice Hardy, a recently-published member of one of my writing groups.

WFC felt like the agora for the Spec Fic community. It definitely contributes to a sense of being in another world. It's as though Clarion opened a portal, and now I can spend part of my time on the other side of the wardrobe.

(I think I'm babbling. And mixing metaphors.)

Anyway: two lovely pieces of art to round out this post. The first is a Smiley Ball, given me by my friend Kater. She also does other kinds of awesome art, has a weekly webcomic about chickens, and writes spec fic.


The second is a little bronze eagle pendant, made by Laurie Toby Edison, who sells her handcrafted jewelry only at cons. I wasn't planning to buy, but it was too unusual to resist.

[ETA: Mild case of con crud afterward, or I'd have gone to Borderlands for a couple of neat-sounding book signings.Stayed home and decided not to spread it around.]

There's so much to like about this Con, mostly to do with friends. I didn't realize I know so many people in the Spec Fic writing community.   The very well-run Con Suite is decorated with a Poe-lynesian theme...


It's wonderful meeting up with friends I haven't seen in years, including Clarionites Kater, Drew, Kari, and Shweta. (Shweta's not in the photograph below... I somehow couldn't seem to get one of everyone. But as a bonus, Kari's boyfriend is in the photo. ETA: Kari's costumed as a Molotov Cocktail, I'm a Nature Magician.)


I've attended some panels, though not all the ones I wanted to go to. The funniest was the one on religion and fantasy; Robert Silverberg explained the obstacles to his career aspiration to be Pope, starting with being born into a Jewish family.

Compared with Wiscon, there seemed to be fewer panels, and each one drew a larger audience. This was good in part, but it did limit the interactivity. I also found one on the future of publishing very interesting, if just a touch depressing. The industry is undergoing a shift, but all the directions and implications aren't yet clear.

I've attended some great readings, hung out with friends,  been out for two lunches and a dinner with lovely people, and attended several parties. The Vandermeers were there of course, and Delia Sherman and Ellen Kushner, and Karen Joy Fowler.


There's a surfeit of good snacks - fruit plates, vegetable crudites, a variety of cheeses and cold meats, and crackers. Drinks of all kinds. Free books, lots of free books. Cake, lots of cake. (The Hot air Balloon below and the book-cakes are all cakes.)


At the Halloween parties on Saturday night, there were some awesome costumes.



So what's not to like?

I'm not sure. The hotel is very big, so just moving around is tiring and time-consuming. I'm finding many of the spaces very loud, mainly because of the acoustics. Too many hard surfaces. And the slow and expensive internet is a bummer. [ETA: When I grumbled about expensive and slow internet on checkout, they graciously reversed the charges! Definitely improves my opinion of the hotel. Though the real fix would be free internet that works.]

Saturday was a lot better than Friday. The key seems to be a good night's sleep;  hanging out in quiet spaces with friends; and the recognition that you just cannot manage to do everything that looks cool on the program, or manage to spend time with everyone you'd like to. Plan in things that are the top priority, and look to luck and opportunity for the rest.

I'd been wondering about me and anthologies. A number of my stories have been selected for anthologies, but none of the books had actually been published. Was I jinxing them?

Well, the first one is here! (So maybe it's not a jinx.) It's the Book of Tentacles, from SamsDot Publishing. It has my story, Blood Amber, and around thirty others. They all sound like fun, and I look forward to reading them soon in about 3 weeks.

Here's the blurb:

"It's a perfect bound trade paperback, and if it has something to do with tentacles, it's in here: science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Yes, there are Cthulhu stories. Yes, there's interspecies romance [between writer and squid, for one]. Yes, there are suckers, graspers, vermicelli, carapaces, and strange adventures on land and in water. Come see what Scott Virtes and Edward Cox have assembled for your reading enjoyment. "


And here's what the website says:


( And here's the Table of Contents under the cut... )</div>

It's always been difficult for me to celebrate Diwali in the US. The festival comes mid-week, it competes with Halloween and/ or Thanksgiving, and so few others are celebrating. There's no buzz. In India, it's different. Think of Christmas crossed with the 4th of July, with added rice-flour artworks.

This year, between facebook, Obama's Diwali celebration and greetings, and Live Journal (Thanks, Shweta!) the buzz is definitely in the air. I went out to an Indian restaurant for dinner, where there manager greeted us with "Happy Diwali." 

And I followed Shweta's advice and lit some candles.

Last night, I drove around Twin Peaks to look at the fog. It's called the Marine Layer, and it knows nothing about little cat feet.



It flows in like the sea it's named for, and covers the lights of the city. Mt Davidson pokes up through it like an island.

Michelle M. Welch is launching her new podcast anthology, Theme and Variations, on October 28th. The stories, read by their authors, are being made available under a Creative Commons License. I believe there's also going to be a CD.

I have a story in there, "She Shall Have Music." It's my first ever podcast recording.  (I blogged about it here, here, and here.) This story has also been selected for the "Cheer Up, Universe" print anthology.

The theme music  is by Jack Mangan and Michelle M. Welch.

And isn't the new artwork by Zach Reddy gorgeous? I'm not sure what it's meant to represent, but to me it has overtones of Nero playing while Berkeley burns, music at the end of the world, and songs to blow stuff up. [ETA: Michelle said it illustrates one of the stories.]

My writer friend Dario Ciriello thinks there aren't enough markets for spec-fic novellas, even though it's a very appropriate length for speculative fiction. So he started one.

Panverse Publishing just brought out its first anthology of novellas, Panverse One. Janice Hardy, herself a brilliant new author, designed the logo and the book.



It's got stories by Alan Smale, Uncle River, Reggie Lutz, Andrew Tisbert, and Jason K. Chapman. 
(Reggie: I couldn't find your website, if you have one. If you'd like a link, let me know.
ETA: Dario tells me Reggie doesn't have a website, but offers her Facebook page instead. Reggie, hope this is okay with you.)

And it's on sale now. Click on the cover picture above.

(ETA:  I've started reading it. It's very convenient, since each story is a different world. I'll post more later but for now the Panverse slogan says it all:

WONDER. STORY.

THEY'RE BACK.

This season is brilliant in Yosemite: Warm days, chilly nights, clear air. 

On a moonlight ride around the valley floor,  I discovered that my camera battery was flat. I'd carefully plugged it in the night before. I was so confident it was full I didn't bring my charger to Yosemite. Someone suggested I go round to the Ansel Adams Gallery, where they had all kinds of chargers. They did, but not one that worked for my camera.

So instead I bring you the pictures that I would have taken on a clear night with a waxing moon:

• The late-season river in cool night, with the stars reflected in the dark still water;
• The huge granite mountain, Half Dome, lit by the moon;
• The sheer cliff of El Capitan above us, starred with the lights of the climbers spending the night high on its walls;
• The valley, in shades of gray and white and black, lying before us from the Tunnel lookout;
• The tunnel on the Wawona mountain road, a half-circle of light, ending in a small half-circle of blackness.

And then the pictures from the next morning:

• Half Dome, fenced by spiky redwoods, reflected in the barely-rippling river;
• Two deer, cropping leaves and grass, ignoring a tourist passing before them;
• The back end of the two deer bounding away, startled, when the same tourist passed behind them;
• The alpen-glow on Half Dome at sunset, with the moon rising above its shoulder.

Of course it's quite possible that the actual pictures would not have been as lovely as the ones in my mind now - and I hope, in yours.
 
ETA:
And from our last day there: 

• The strange rocky wonderland of domes and boulders and peaks from Glacier Point.

But all was not entirely lost: My $8 disposable produced at least one of the pictures listed above:

(And no, Kater, I didn't take your suggestion - though I was tempted!)

San Francisco is re-building its Bay Bridge. Work on the east span is under way. I flew over it yesterday.

This thing is going to be gorgeous, a graceful curve of concrete from Yerba Buena island to Oakland.
In this first picture, you can see how it's going to align when it's all done.



And the second picture shows the work that's going on now.


I hope someone remembers to put back the Kokopelli that was added after the repairs following the Loma Prieta earthquake. It's supposed to defend the bridge.

ETA: Maybe they should have put in a bunch of Kokopellis while the construction's in progress. The temporary S-bend is taking out a bunch of cars. Yesterday (Oct 14, 09) a Safeway truck went over. The driver wasn't hurt, but apparently the roadway looked like an explosion in the produce section.

ETA2: They really need the Kokopelli. Yesterday during commute-rush, a bracket broke, damaged three cars (but apparently not the occupants), and has the Bridge shut down until further notice. (Oct 28, 09). They are inspecting it to see what else might break.

ETA3 (3 Nov 09): The Bridge reopened yesterday morning, but now they're talking about another, longer, closure to do a more durable fix.

Two of my Clarion friends have absolutely awesome stories up this week.

Keffy Kehrli, whose Advertising at the End of the World is up at Apex was also at Clarion, but in 2008. We met for the first time at Wiscon, but we'd 'met' online before that. This is the first Keffy story I've read, and I am greatly looking forward to more. It's a story that's charming and creepy simultaneously, which is quite an achievement.

And. I generally don't like post-apocalyptic stories, but I did this one. I may have to start making a compilation of exceptions. (Another was Ramsey Shehadeh's story in Strange Horizons, Jimmy's Roadside Cafe.)

... is a story with a past.

I wrote it years ago, inspired actually by the oratorio form.

The internet had just been made accessible to the public at large, and the main public forum was Usenet. (It still exists, incidentally, but most groups are so spam-filled that they're unusable.) I converted the 'oratorio' into a usenet format, and sent the story out. I wasn't living in the US, there were no electronic submissions those days, and no online zines. Sending stuff out was difficult. The story came back and sat around. Every so often, I took it out, and revised it. When Andrew Burt started Critters, I joined, and other members (including yhlee ) gave me some very encouraging feedback. That was in 1998.

Eventually, the world changed.  Blogging arrived, and was clearly an even more suitable frame for the story than Usenet. The story morphed into "The Rumpelstiltskin Retellings: A Series of Poetic Blogs."

I ran it by my critique group. One of the members was my Clarion classmate, Justin Whitney, who said "That would make a great short film!" I thought it was just a comment, but a few days later, he asked for permission to try. When he showed me the script he'd written, I was delighted.  Meanwhile, the story was accepted by Les Bonnes Fees (LBF), an online fairy-tale magazine.

Things happened. The editor of LBF was expecting a baby, and the magazine went into hiatus. All the planned time-lines got pushed out. Justin left San Francisco. I thought the story was buried, both as text and as video.

It was when Justin sent me an e-mail saying the film would be showing at the Scary Cow film event that I realized he had actually completed it. I promptly bought tickets, informed people who I knew might be interested, and e-mailed LBF. I was hoping to co-ordinate the release of the story with the film, but it was not going to happen.


Expanded Horizons has perhaps the most author-friendly contract I've encountered. The only rights they buy are the right to put your story on their website. They are okay with reprints and simultaneous submissions. They pay promptly.

And they publish promptly, too. Here is the story in the Expanded Horizons magazine.

It's been sent off! To Michelle!

To recap: My short story, "She Shall Have Music" is appearing (is that the right word?) in the Theme and Variations podcast anthology, edited by Michelle Welch. (This is the same story selected  for the 'Cheer Up Universe' print anthology, edited by Ahmed A Khan.)

For this, I had to make my first ever MP3 recording, starting with "First buy a microphone."

I finally figured this out  (yes, I can chew gum at the same time - not while reading, of course). The podcast went out to several First Listeners, who gave me useful feedback. Particular thanks to J and N, who told me where I needed to fix it. Then I re-recorded it, and it's gone off to Michelle. Now I'm waiting to hear back, and hoping the thing works properly.

I am really looking forward to listening to the anthology.

A few days ago, I posted that I had no idea how to make an MP3 recording. Well, some twenty hours on the learning curve later, now I know.

1.  Buy Podcasting for Dummies. Read at least some of it.

2.  Download Audacity and LAME.


I have to say I love this mic. Aside from doing a pretty good job as a mic, it's just plain beautiful. It's well-made. The styling, the balance, the handling - it's a nice piece of modern art+tech.

Tachyon Publications celebrated its 14th birthday at Borderlands Books , a jewel of a spec-fic store San Francisco. As has become the tradition, they also gave out the two Emperor Norton Awards. I went last year, so knew what to expect: Interesting people, wonderful bookstore ambiance, great food.

Two of my writing group buddies were there, and a number of authors and people from the spec-fic community. We were surrounded by more good books than were good for us. All around me, people were looking for specific titles, and trying to stick to resolutions to buy only a reasonable number. (Pre-party, my reasonable number was one; post-party it was six. I suppose it meets some definitions of 'reasonable.)

Rina Weisman had put on a great spread, much of which she made herself. I could hardly believe someone could have that quantity and variety of snacks without potlucking or catering it. It was all delicious. Too delicious, including the grand finale, which was Tachyon's birthday cake. I hereby report I did full justice to all the snacks.


Alan Beatts, owner of Borderlands, told the story of Emperor Norton, and explained why the award was named after him. There are two: One for a book set in the Bay Area or by a locally resident author; and the other for significant contribution to the community.

The first went to Doug Dorst for his book Alive in Necropolis, set in Colma. (A friend collected it for him; he was out of town.)  The second went to Charlie Jane Anders. She's best known for her "Writers with Drinks" series of "spoken-word variety shows" but is also an author and community figure.


I wore this necklace I had bought at the Art Show at Wiscon this year, and a lot of people admired it. I couldn't recall the name of the artist. If anyone recognizes it and lets me know, I'd be happy to put a link here.


The only problem I had was that there was very little seating. I'm not so good at standing around, so was pretty tired by the time I left. Still, it was a great afternoon.

My friend Dario Ciriello is launching Panverse Publishing with a couple of anthologies: Panverse One, a collection of novellas; and a short-story collection, Eight Against Reality. (Incidentally, subs are open to novellas for Panverse Two, planned for next spring.)

'Eight Against Reality' is an invitational anthology, and one of my stories is in it: "Spoiling Veena", first published in Expanded Horizons. I'm in amazing company: Aliette de Bodard; Dario Ciriello; Janice Hardy; T. L. Morganfield; Doug Sharp; Juliette Wade; and Genevieve Williams.

Janice Hardy designed this intriguing cover, based on the art of Vladimir Krizan (from Bratislava in the Slovak Republic).

The spec-fic magazine, Expanded Horizons, has announced a Fairy-Tale issue and put out a call for submissions. They're thinking of running it as early as September. If you're thinking of contributing, do look at their Mission; they seek stories that fit with that.

They have already accepted my story, The Rumpelstiltskin Retellings, and on their Live Journal, there's a link to Rumpled, the ten-minute movie adaptation by Justin Whitney!

(I should mention that Expanded Horizons will consider reprints and simultaneous submissions. They had no objection to my putting my story on my website prior to their publishing it. I plan to take it down once they do publish it, though.)

ETA: It's been published! In the September issue of Expanded Horizons. And I've taken it off my website. If you want to read it, it's linked above to the magazine publication.