Almost to 2022!

 What a year it's been. I kept hoping I joked when I'd say, "Year Two of the pandemic" while I feared I was not joking. And sure enough, it was not a joke, just a faint hope, swiftly disproved. 

Angry Robot's female writers: 2013.

Considering how some outcry existed this year about oh noes, men don't get into the Hugo awards anymore, but they write! as if it was men and not everyone else who had been kept out for so long, I thought it was a nice theme to discover sff by women. Maybe I'm biased?

Nah!


So back when I was freelancing for Angry Robot Books, sometimes I'd read their blog a lot, sometimes not.

I am rather an erratic person on stuff like that. Also, have you been on the Internet? It's wicked huge!

I missed this post back in 2013: Discover some great SF by women writers.  Where Lee said, "We’d like to help promote some great science fiction by our own female writers, to show the incredible quality of SF that can be enjoyed, whatever your gender."

Two books, alike in... something.

The first book I officially proofread was a long time ago now. :)

And it was this book. In late 2007, Brothers in Arms was the only Vorkosigan novel I hadn't read. I got a copy of the original novel from PaperbackBookSwap, and set to proofreading.

I had a blast.

The first hardcover edition of Brothers in Arms was published in August 2008 in time for the Worldcon, Denvention 3, where Lois was the GoH.

Copyediting: 2008+...

Tom Lehrer talks about people advertising what they've done... and as y'know, I too can do that. 8)

Back when I was starting out, I did more pro bono work. Not only because it is what TNH recommended to me, it was also that I had more free time in 2008.

I'd done nonfiction proofreading since 1989. I was anxious to do fiction next.

What I didn't know... was that inside of two years, I'd be proofreading and/or copyediting two nonfiction magazines, and two fiction 'zines. I started working on fiction novels barely four months after becoming the freelancer who proofread Locus.

Some c/e highlights...

I do work on a wide variety within genre. Horror, dark fiction, GLBTQ sf/f romances, fantasy, sf/f alternate universes, YA, urban fantasies, paranormal fantasies, and much more. Just because I enjoyed working on a project doesn't mean you'll automatically like reading it, of course.

So I highly recommend checking genre first -- unless you, like me, have widely catholic tastes in reading (catholic the adjective, not the religion). If you like being surprised, then just leap in. That's what I do. :D

=-=

In 2014, I was offered Tekken: The Dark History of Mishima. That was fun. Only time I've ever been allowed to use "cartoon physics" as a guideline.

Tekken was translated into English, by an editor I knew... and who'd recruited me for my first paying gig as a freelancer. I really enjoyed working again with her.

Artemis Rising: submit through Dec. 20th!

The submissions address is submit@escapepod.org; we're taking Artemis Rising submissions through December 20 because we hate our producer.
— Escape Pod (@escapepodcast) November 11, 2014

Electric Velocipede 27.

Here are the mini-interviews from our final issue, EV 27.

TOC here (for both issues 26 and 27). 

Goodbye, Electric Velocipede.

Electric Velocipede and Icarus Closing

Electric Velocipede has a story in the Year's Best SF, 31st edition.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies blogged about our final issue.  Locus has a long review of EV 27, which includes spoilers for some pieces (I like to read my short fiction without knowing anything about it, myself, but YMMV, of course).

"I’m unhappy to bid goodbye to Electric Velocipede, of which we have the last issue here. A loss to the field." - Lois Tilton
— Electric Velocipede (@EV_Mag) December 27, 2013

You can buy issue 27 as an ebook for Kindle or Nook.  All the poems and stories were posted 30-January-2013.  [Will link to second post presently.]

"The Soviet Union needs beasts... Is a beast what you want to be?” http://t.co/d1Imh8TZMW @sentencebender in @EV_Mag
— Lara Elena Donnelly (@larazontally) December 30, 2013

Come to ConFusion next month (17-19 January 2014) and help us remember Electric Velocipede!  And if you're in NYC during February 2014, they're throwing a party too.  Huzzah to Matt and Sam!

Electric Velocipede (@EV_Mag) final issue release party, Feb 28th at Bluestockings Books. http://t.co/chnxMkUamU
— Matthew Kressel (@mattkressel) December 23, 2013

But we're having a wake in Michigan.

I am particularly proud of this as it was somewhat my idea, you see.  And I wanted John to enjoy ConFusion 2014; what better way than a party?  Celebration and farewell.  Come raise a glass with us -- there will be door prizes and raffles and STUFF.  Really!

I loved working on EV.  I'm proud to have been part of the team for 2008-2013.  I'm grateful for the others who became part of the team too -- for a little while or a long time, depending on their lives.

I'm thankful for them all, every one:  Adam, Patrick, Damien, Jamie; and all our slushreaders and proofreaders and support staff and... you.  Thank you.  It's been a wonderful ride on Electric Velocipede.

I'm so glad I got to hitch a ride.  With John and with all of you.

Snippet.

The lovely Wayback Machine had this interview of Sean Wallace by The Fix.

Lots of good stuff. One bit is where Stephen Segal defines the three audiences for Fantasy Magazine, H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror, and Weird Tales.

Whenever anyone wants me to explain what I like about dark fiction, I must send them hence!

But I love what Sean says when asked about writing fiction himself. :D

Other June links

Some small presses through Paper Golem.

(Is it a little disturbing that ten years ago I only knew one of those, unlike now?)

Stacy at Tu Books: What kind of fantasy is Tu looking for? And what kind of synopsis?

This brings you back to research and how you really need to look at a publisher. I like how Stacy reminds the author querying that YA work of decades ago isn't necessarily what teens today are reading. Me, I loved how Las Vegas had a What's New endcap. That's how I discovered Frances Hardinge's debut novel.

Moonie and why not to bring in your MS personally... and along with the Reader Child, there's an appeal for editor Alyssa Smith, who lost everything in a fire. :/

Wheatland Press in need!

Polyphony is an anthology done by a small press, which perhaps you've heard of. Perhaps not, also.

The Clock Ticks on Polyphony 7.

We lost several anthology series this year. :<

Such as The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror... although Horror was resurrected as the Best Horror of the Year by another publisher, Night Shade Books. Just when it looked like we readers were going to have so many lovely choices and always be happy... the crunch everywhere is, of course, affecting anthologies [and collections]. Remember, if you don't buy books, authors don't eat. It's that simple.

The same applies to editors, agents, and publishers, particularly small presses. Printing paper books is not cheap.

Please pass the word along. Thanks!

(Cross-posted, with some added bits.)

Electric Velocipede proofreading

I just wrapped up part of Electric Velocipede 15/16.

This was my first issue, and it's a double issue. I was assigned a quarter, but since some selections were still in editing, I elected to make up for that by starting sooner in the issue.

Wow. Some really lovely stories in EV. When I get back from Clave, I mean to read the earlier half, since I had other projects this week (sf novel, workshop, con arrangements).

Proofreading reprint

My electronic files came in for another project. (Hard copy to follow.) I am proofreading a 2008 reprint of a mass market paperback.


Special thanks to Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Robert Legault and Deanna Hoak, who have all given me advice...