Yesterday evening was devoted to preparing for Balticon: making sure I had all my books together, all the propaganda printed, and so on. By the time I was done, it was today (for some value of 'today').

So I posted up the first chapter of Kudzu, A Novel.

This thing was spawned out of a conversation on facebook a while back about satellite graveyards, and the fact that a story needed to be told about them. And, as one gentleman stated, "what might be living in them." It's a story about invasive species and genetic modification. It's also a story about loss, and survival in the face of loss.

Kudzu, a Novel will be updated every Friday, with lush illustrations by Linda Saboe.

And now, I'm off to Balticon.

Because my brain is fried, and because Ms. Wise has already used all the ones I'd have, plus a few I'd not have thought of, on her blog, I'm simply going to gank her words into my blog.

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I’m so very pleased to announce that the Journal of Unlikely Entomology Issue #3 is now live! Not only is it our third issue, it is our anniversary issue. The line-up is as follows:

My Day Came by Conor Powers-Smith, Illustrated by Eleanor Leonne Bennett
War Beetles by J.M. McDermott, Illustrated by Linda Saboe
The Performance by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Illustrated by Mariusz Siergiejew
The Familiar Buzz of Gone by Cate Gardner, Illustrated by Kyle Conway
Dragonfly Miscalculations by Steven L. Peck, Illustrated by Rhiannon Rasmussen-Silverstein
Skitterings in Corners by Juliet Kemp, Illustrated by Svetlana Sukhorukova
Drift by Amanda C. Davis, Illustrated by Natasha T-Z. P

I can hardly believe it’s been a whole year. I’m amazed and gratified at the response the Journal has received thus far. We’ve been lucky enough to publish work by incredible authors and artists, gotten positive reviews, and even earned some wonderful accolades. Recently, Ellen Datlow included John Medaille’s So Speaketh the Trauma Gods on her list of Honorable Mentions for the Best Horror of the Year Volume 4. Not only that, the Journal of Unlikely Entomology’s Art Director, Linda Saboe, received a shout-out in Ellen Datlow’s introduction to the aforementioned anthology for her artwork.

Furthermore, the Story South Million Writers Award recently announced its list of Notable Stories for 2011. Not only did Mari Ness’ Love in the Absence of Mosquitoes, and J.M. McDermott’s Arachne make the list, but the Journal of Unlikely Entomology itself snagged a runner-up nod for best new online magazine of the year!

So… Thank you to all the authors and artists who contributed to the Journal of Unlikely Entomology in its first year. And thank you to everyone who submitted work, and everyone who read our first few issues. We look forward to bringing you more incredible fiction and artwork in the year to come, and we hope you’ll continue to stick with us, reading our stories and sending more wonderful work our way!

On a related note, I’d like to point out (in case you didn’t know) the Journal of Unlikely Entomology has a facebook page. We also just launched a brand new twitter account. We’re @GrumpsJournal if you’re so inclined to follow us.

Again, thank you to everyone who has helped make our first year so fantastic, and please stick with us for year two! Now, if you haven’t already, and even if you have, get on over to the Journal of Unlikely Entomology and read Issue #3!

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See, I'd have just mumbled something about a new issue being up and mebbe you should go visit.

There IS one thing I'll add: Special thanks to Cynthia Baumann for her astute proofreading skills.

Just last week it seemed that Balticon was months away. Time's a funny thing, no?

Just got my Balticon schedule, and for the first time I think I have nothing on the last programming slot of the last day of the event. ~grin~


R-21. Early Favorite Authors
Friday at 5:00 pm in Chase
Panelists discuss who their earliest favorite authors were, and where they think that affinity may had lead them in their literary preferences or in their own writing.
Moderator: Trisha J. Wooldridge
Speakers: Mark L. Van Name; Bernie Mojzes; Lyle Blake Smythers

R-66. Wisdom of The Plebes
Friday at 7:00 pm in Pimlico
A panel of new, up and coming authors. What have they learned in the last few years? How has being published changed their life? What has impacted upon them as authors? How does it feel to have fans?
Moderator: James Daniel Ross
Speakers: Nathan O. Lowell; Emilie P. Bush; Bernie Mojzes; Barbara Friend Ish

R-60. The Role of Anthologies -- Roundtable Discussion
Friday at 10:00 pm in Parlor 1041
As both a source of fiction and a means of promotion, what do anthologies have to offer? Fan and author panelists discuss.
Moderator: Danielle Ackley-McPhail
Speakers: Michael A. Ventrella; Joshua Bilmes; C.J .Henderson; Trisha J. Wooldridge; Bernie Mojzes; Pete Prellwitz; Jean Marie Ward

R-32. When does an alien or a magic-wielder become a god or a demon?
Saturday at 6:00 pm in Pimlico
What is the difference between Q and YahweH? Between Voldemort and Satan?
Moderator: Barbara Friend Ish
Speakers: Neal Levin; Justin R. Macumber; Bernie Mojzes; Joshua Palmatier/Benjamin Tate

P-12. Dragon Moon Press Presents Spells and Swashbucklers!
Saturday at 10:00 pm in
Ahoy, mateys! Join Dragon Moon Press as we launch the second anthology of pirates, magic and ne'er-do-wells, Spells and Swashbucklers! There will be readings from several of the authors, as well as cake and the chance to win your very own copy of both Spells and Swashbucklers and Rum and Runestones, the first book in the series. Come, bring your best pirate outfit, and your sense of danger! (Also listed as BL-6. in Literary: Book Launch Program).
Speakers: Bernie Mojzes; Gail Z. Martin; Danielle Ackley-McPhail; Danny Birt; Robert E Waters

BL-6. Dragon Moon Press Presents Spells and Swashbucklers!
Saturday at 10:00 pm in Salon A
Ahoy, mateys! Join Dragon Moon Press as we launch the second anthology of pirates, magic and ne'er-do-wells, Spells and Swashbucklers! There will be readings from several of the authors, as well as cake and the chance to win your very own copy of both Spells and Swashbucklers and Rum and Runestones, the first book in the series. Come, bring your best pirate outfit, and your sense of danger!
Moderator: Val Griswold-Ford
Speakers: Bernie Mojzes; Gail Z. Martin; Danielle Ackley-McPhail; Danny Birt; Robert E Waters

R-10. The Technology of Steampunk -- A Round Table Discussion
Sunday at 9:00 am in Parlor 1041
What does and doesn't fit into a steampunk world? How does the setting shape technology and how people relate to it?
Moderator: Emilie P. Bush
Speakers: Elektra Hammond; Rebecca K. Davis; Danielle Ackley-McPhail; Bernie Mojzes; C.J. Henderson; Andrew Fox

W-7. Editors Looking For Submissions
Sunday at 10:00 am in Belmont
Meet editors who are actively looking for writing and/or artwork for their publications. Get tips on what they like and dislike. Find out what kind of work they need right now.
Moderator: Vonnie Winslow Crist
Speakers: Bernie Mojzes; Brian Koscienski; Michael A. Ventrella; Kate Kaynak

R-61. The Hot Seat
Sunday at 3:00 pm in Salon B
Panelists give fans and aspiring writers a chance to ask any questions whatsoever about writing, motivation, character building, selling your work, agents, et cetera.
Moderator: Bill Fawcett
Speakers: Hildy Silverman; David Sherman; Bernie Mojzes; D.H. Aire

FTV-7. Philip K. Dick -- Hollywood's Favorite Author
Sunday at 5:00 pm in Parlor 3041
A LOT of Phillip K. Dick's work has ended up on the silver screen. Panelists discuss what makes his work so Hollywood-sympatico and talk about the ones that were great, not so great and, well, blaghhh!
Moderator: D. Douglas Fratz
Speakers: Michael D. Pederson; Billy Flynn; Andrew Fox; Bernie Mojzes; Daniel M. Kimmel; Marty Gear; Richard Allen Leider

BL-5. The Eternal Launch Party
Sunday at 7:00 pm in Garden Room
The Dark Quest Books release of Danielle Ackley-McPhail's Eternal Cycle Series of urban fantasy novels, including Yesterday's Dreams, Tomorrow's Memories, and the newly released Today's Promise, as well as other 2012 titles, to be announced. Be sure to stick around long enough to hear the music of SJ Tucker and Jonah Knight!
Moderator: Danielle Ackley-McPhail
Speakers: Jonah Knight; Mike McPhail; C.J .Henderson; Jeff Lyman; Neal Levin; Elektra Hammond; Keith R. A. DeCandido; John Hemry (Jack Campbell); Patrick Thomas; James Daniel Ross; Charles Edward Gannon; Bernie Mojzes; S.J. (Sooj) Tucker


The two other places I'm likely to be is 1) in the dealers room (come, buy books, etc.) and 2) the bar, staring at the weird glowing mushrooms.

See you there, hopefully.

Some months back we received a story in our slush pile at the Journal of Unlikely Entomology. I really liked it, and we held it for further consideration.

In January, we were choosing stories for the Valentine's Day mini-issue. We'd planned on three stories, and had five contenders for those places. This is the first time since we'd started the zine that we hadn't independently come up with the same list. Two we agreed on, and we bickered over which would be the third. In the end this particular story got cut.

We sent the rejection letter on January 9th.

The author, Reesa Brown, died on January 12th, after a long fight with cancer.

I just found out today.

And all I can think is, I hope she never saw our email.

I ran in to my parents at the cafe today; they were sitting with one of my father's former students, one of the Bosnians that had come to the US to study, and to escape the war. She's returning to Bosnia in a few days, and had come back to the area to visit before she left the country.

In the course of the conversation, my parents told a piece of the story of how they had come from Yugoslavia. My father was, I believe, the first student allowed to exit the country to study in a western country after WWII and the establishment of Tito's dictatorial communist state (an interesting story in itself). But when my father received the invitation and the permission to go, he was torn - he and my mother were very seriously in love, and he didn't want to leave her. Eventually, his mother paid a visit to the Jelinek household to plead with my mother and her mother to encourage my father to take this opportunity.

So, my father came to the US. They wrote each other all the time; the first letter my father sent was immediately after arriving after a ten day ocean voyage. After ten days with nothing to do but write, the resulting letter was a tome. He included a souvenir ship's flag in the envelope.

The letter was not delivered to my mother.

Instead, there was a summons from the police.

My mother was put into a room with the letter - which had been opened and the contents thoroughly examined - and five police officers, and the interrogation began. What did he mean when he wrote this? What about that? What flag was this, and what did it mean? Tell us the code.

My mother started crying and couldn't stop, and eventually after a few hours, the police determined that she really didn't know anything, and let her go.

Fantastic Erotica: The Best of Circlet Press 2008-2012 will be coming out in print and in ebook on October 1.

Happy News part 1: My story, "Ink," which originally appeared last year in Whispers in Darkness, an anthology of Lovecraftian erotica, has been selected as one of the 19 stories. The selection process took some time; first the editors read through the hundreds of stories Circlet has published and nominated sixty-some stories for the short list. That was then presented to the readers to vote on, and the final selection was done through a combination of reader input and editor input. (Read more about the anthology: http://www.circlet.com/?p=3902 )

Happy News part 2: The three top stories from the selection process were announced. I did not win (nor did I expect to). That honor goes to Vinnie Tesla, and N.K. Jemisin scored one of the two runner-up positions. The second runner-up? "Ink" :) Which, I have to say, really surprised me, as there are a lot of great stories and great writers in this book, and I can't lay claim to any special knowledge of how to write good smut. But apparently it was good enough. (Read more about the Fantastic Erotica Award: http://www.circlet.com/?p=3936 )

Happy News part 3 (the best part): I have a new blurb to add to my website: "'Ink' is one of the best stories I've read." - Cecilia Tan

Ellen Datlow released her full list of Honorable Mentions for the Best Horror of the Year. We're very pleased to see that John Medaille's "So Speaketh the Trauma Gods" made the list.

http://ellen-datlow.livejournal.com/tag/honorable%20mentions%202011

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grumbly-edit:

I keep forgetting to specify that this is supposed to be in the bugzine community...

Today we bring to a close week one of a Year of Bugmusic. The playlist is as follows:

YOB1 - Ant - They Might Be Giants
YOB2 - Firefly - Over the Rhine
YOB3 - Kingdom of the Flies - Legendary Pink Dots
YOB4 - Centipede Sisters - Dolores O'Reordan
YOB5 - Insects - Oingo Boingo
YOB6 - Gestation of the Sacred Beetle - Mirah
YOB7 - Insect/Suspect - Pigface

Go to our facebook page to hear/see youtube vids of the songs.

Stay tuned for next week's exciting lineup!

We have two announcements today for the Journal of Unlikely Entomology.

First, we have finalized the table of contents for Issue 3: http://grumps-journal.livejournal.com/8737.html

Secondly, we are starting a Year of Bugmusic on the JoUE facebook page.

Announcement here: http://grumps-journal.livejournal.com/8702.html

The first entry is "Ant" by They Might Be Giants - http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Journal-of-Unlikely-Entomology/184985971537791

It's been a while. I'd not meant that to happen.

I last posted on the 7th. I remember finding myself becoming increasingly more grumpy as the night went on. Woke up at 5am the next morning and gakked up everything I'd eaten the day before. Spent the next three days wishing I was dead. By the time I mostly recovered, it was time to travel for work.

And when that was done, I couldn't get my brain working on the novel. Or on anything.

I've come to the determination that the Mongol Steampunk story isn't destined to be a short story. With nearly 7000 words written, and me not even near getting into the meat of the plot, there's no way it'll be a short story, or even a novelette. It might eventually become a novella or a novel. But not right now.

So the steampunk mongols go onto a shelf with the other shiny ideas whose time hasn't come.

The pirate novel - I got myself into a place where I was having a hard time getting through a scene, and what happens in this scene will strongly influence what path we take to get to the end of the story. I beat my head against it for days, and wrote and deleted dozens - perhaps hundreds - of words.

So I turned to something entirely unrelated. The web-comic-that-wasn't. Hard to have a comic sans art. So I have re-envisioned the story as a serial novel and gotten Linda to agree to doing an illustration per chapter. Just finished the rough draft of "Book I," which would have been the first 24 pages of comic, but is now the first 7 chapters of prose. Once we have the illustrations ready, I'll start posting chapters, one per week.

I do have a question for writers who have done this, and for readers who have read serialized fiction online - what is your experience of the various services and communities for serialized storytelling? I've only just started looking, and there's webcomic hosting sites that might work (as there will be illustrations), and fiction sites. I can, of course, use wordpress or blogger or whatever, but there's also sites that do indexing, etc., like digitalnovelists.com. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Tonight: back to banging my head against the pirates...

[side note: one of the baristas put on Lark's Tongues in Aspic (part 1) on the cafe sound system. we'll see how long that goes on, before the other two drag him to the basement and beat him to a pulp.]