Even Dragons Dance

Scarce around these parts

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:55:42 GMT

The best way to find me these days is at Facebook. If we're not linked there, please add me (Christopher Kastensmidt).

I just haven't had time for both here and there, and a lot more people I know are there.

Catching up...

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:47:18 GMT

I wish I could catch up, I really do. There's so much to share about Lynx and everything else going on in my life, but time continues short.

But I now have just ten weeks to write my dissertation, which I have to do between consulting and teaching, not to mention my #1 priority, Lynx, so I'm going to have to stay off the Internet as much as possible. Fiction writing and related activities also need to go on hold, unfortunately.

But before I go, here are a few happy things to share that have happened over the last month or so.

1) First up, book covers! Here are the Brazilian covers for Gerard and Oludara adventure #2 ("A Parlous Battle"), and for an invite-only anthology called The Witch Hammer with my story "As They Appear...":

The books were launched simultaneously in São Paulo a few weeks back, so they share the distinction of the first time I've had a story published in another language before it was published in English.

I am very pleased with both stories, they've been getting excellent reviews all around. They are two of the best I've written, the kind of stories that make me go and trunk all my older work. I hope to publish both in English next year, but while publishing in Brazil has become much easier (I've turned down three anthology invites recently for lack of time), publishing in the U.S. seems to be getting harder. Go figure.

2) I've been receiving a lot of honors lately. The city council of Novo Hamburgo (one of the places I teach) gave me a "vote of congratulations" for winning the Realms of Fantasy Readers' Choice Award. That's not something you see every day.

And I also recieved a gorgeous trophy for participating in the National Literary Journey, where "Fortuitous Meeting" was named as a "work of distinction in forming new readers". Beautiful.

Writing hasn't been financially rewarding this year, but it has been just plain old rewarding.

There are some opportunities on the horizon, though. As soon as I wrap up the dissertation I can focus on those, and see if I can't turn writing into more of a career in 2012.

Fiction Bibliography

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 23:27:49 GMT

Last update: February 27, 2013

Fiction

Novelettes from the world of The Elephant and Macaw Banner

"The Discommodious Wedding of Oludara and Arani"
Duplo Fantasia Heroica 3, September 2012
    In Portuguese
    Editor: Roberto de Sousa Causo
    Translator:Roberto de Sousa Causo
Publisher: Devir Livraria
Coming soon in English...
Coming soon in Romanian...

"A Parlous Battle against the Capelobo"
Duplo Fantasia Heroica 2, August 2011
    In Portuguese
    Editor: Roberto de Sousa Causo
    Translator: Ana "Death" Duarte
    Publisher: Devir Livraria
Coming soon in English...
Coming soon in Czech...
Coming soon in Romanian...

"The Fortuitous Meeting of Gerard van Oost and Oludara"
    Kindle Edition
Realms of Fantasy, April 2010
    Fiction Editor: Shawna McCarthy
    Editor: Douglas Cohen
Duplo Fantasia Heroica, December 2010
    Portuguese reprint
    Editor: Roberto de Sousa Causo
    Translator: Leonardo Nahoum
    Publisher: Devir Livraria
StarShipSofa (audio), #180, March 16, 2011
    Ed.: Tony C. Smith
     Listen Free
Pevnost, April 2012
    Czech reprint (as "Osudové setkání Oludary a Gerarda van Oosta")
Translator: Andrea Peprlová
    Foreign Ed.: Martin Šust
Revistă de Science Fiction şi Fantasy românesc: proză, arte vizuale, critică şi teorie literară, July 2012
Czech reprint (as "Întâlnirea întâmplătoare a lui Gerard van Oost cu Oludara")
Translator: Antuza Genescu
    Foreign Ed.: Cristian Tamas
Find it here

Short Fiction - Book format

The Faery Taile Project Book One, November 2008
    Co-written with Jim C. Hines
    Publisher: CatsCurious Press
    Ed.: Sonya M. Sipes
      Purchase at Amazon

Short Fiction - Magazines and Anthologies

"A Joia de Évora"
Ficção de Polpa: Aventura, December 2012
Publisher: Não Editora
    Ed.: Samir Machado de Machado

"Hidalgo Vile and his Damn Monkeys"
Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Issue #56, September 2012
    Eds.: ASIM Hivemind

"Geniuses"
Daily Science Fiction, November 2011
    Eds.: Jonathan Laden and Michele Barasso
    Read it free

"As They Appear..."
Sagas 3, August 2011
    In Portuguese (as "Cada história tem...")
    Publisher: Argonautas
    Eds.: Cesar Alcazar and Duda Falcão

"Dragon Dreams on Cardboard Wings and Tiny Scraps of Yellow"
Daily Science Fiction, November 2010
    Eds.: Jonathan Laden and Michele Barasso
    Read it Free
Not Just Rockets and Robots: Daily Science Fiction Year One, September 2012
    Eds.: Michele Barasso and Jonathan Laden

"The Creation of God"
Burst, Summer 2008
    Ed.: Kevin Struck
    Read it Free

"Sky Dive"
Spaceports & Spidersilk, Vol 1.2, June 2008
    Ed.: Marcie Tentchoff

"Kroop and the Master of Games"
Beyond Centauri, January 2009
    Ed.: Tyree Campbell

"The Master's Eggs"
Third Order , June 2008
    Ed.: Karen Osborne
    Read it Free

"The Perfect Couple"
Every Day Fiction , Dec 10, 2007
    Eds.: Jordan Lapp and Camille Gooderham Campbell
    Read it Free

"Between the 'Sheets'"
Every Day Fiction , Sep 24, 2007
    Ed.: Jordan Lapp and Camille Gooderham Campbell
     Read it Free
The Best of Every Day Fiction , December 2008
    Ed.: Jordan Lapp and Camille Gooderham Campbell

"Heart to Heart"
From the Asylum , Feb 2007
    Ed.: Kate Sanger
    Read it Free
Drabblecast (audio), #49, January 30, 2008
    Ed.: Norm Sherman

"Even Dragons Dance"
Forgotten Worlds, #6, November 2006, pg. 4-7
    Ed.: John Cooper
Universe Pathways, #4, January 2007, pg. 269-272
    Ed.: George Sotirhos
Nowa Fantastyka, 3/2007, March 2007, pg. 30-31
    Polish reprint (as "Nawet smoki tańczą")
    Ed.: Maciej Makowski, Foreign Ed.: Paweł Ziemkiewicz
    Translator: Małgorzata Strzelec
Dragons, Knights, & Angels, 45, June 2007, pg. 11-17
    Ed.: Selena Thomason
Συμπαντικές Διαδρομές, #10, December 2007, pg. 18-21
    Greek reprint (as "Ακόμα και οι δράκοι χορεύουν")
    Ed.: George Sotirhos
    Translator: Γ. Σωτήρχος
Pevnost, #2, February 2008, pg. Special insert
    Czech reprint (as "I draci tancují")
    Foreign Ed.: Martin Šust
    Translator: ...
Himmelskibet, #17, July 2008
    Danish reprint (as "Selv drager danser")
    Foreign Ed.: Thomas Winther
    Translator: Lea Thume
Anthology Builder
    Ed.: Nancy Fulda
    Create personalized anthology with this story

"Wizard's Study"
Beyond Centauri, IV.1, July 2006, pg. 22-23
    Ed.: Tyree Campbell

"Daddy's Little Boy"
Deep Magic , #41, October 2005, pg. 23, 57-60
    Ed.: Jeff Wheeler, Pages: 23, 57-60
Nowa Fantastyka, 3/2006, March 2006, pg. 13-16
    Polish reprint (as"Ukochany synek")
    Ed.: Maciej Makowski, Foreign Ed.: Paweł Ziemkiewicz
    Translator: Paweł Ziemkiewicz

Translations

"By a Thread", original story by Flávio Medeiros Jr.
Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, Issue 27, March 2012
    Portuguese-to-English translation
    Read it here

"Story with Pictures and Conversation", original story by Brontops Baruq
Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, Issue 26, January 2012
    Portuguese-to-English translation
    Read it here

Fiction-related

Prefácio (Preface)
Passado Imperfeito, Abril 2012
    In Portuguese
Org. Ademir Pascale
    Publisher: Argonautas

Guest Editorial
    Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, Issue 27, March 2012
    Read it here

The best moment as a writer...

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:54:23 GMT

Not this:

Nor this:

No, not even this:

It was this:

Connecting with young readers at the Nacional Literary Journey last week.

It made it all worthwhile.

Porto Alegre

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:35:39 GMT

This is where I live:

Come by and visit sometime!

My writer's journey

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:07:21 GMT

I have an important journey coming up. Three events in two weeks, starting Friday. Over 15,000 miles of travel.

If you'd like to know more, I wrote up a post on it here:
http://www.eamb.org/2011/08/two-weeks-three-events/

And my Worldcon schedule is here (and it's BIG):
http://www.eamb.org/2011/08/worldcon-2011-schedule/

So I'm going to be busy. Don't expect to see me around LJ much until September. If you need me, drop me a private message here and it will find me.

And I hope to see a bunch of you at Worldcon!

LJ Backup - follow up

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:25:26 GMT

Props to vaughan_stanger for convincing me to give ljArchive another try.

Whereas yesterday it failed bizarrely every time I ran it, today it is working. You need at least one good sync for the tool to start working properly, so you may have to try many, many times...

Here's the link:
LJArchive

It's not perfect. I don't think it downloads images locally (seems to leave them on LJ, even when I export to an HTML file), but it is a well-organizaed backup of all the text.

LJ Backup

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 21:58:32 GMT

I'm trying to do a LiveJournal backup.

I tried two tools already:

1) ljArchive - Doesn't seem to work at all
2) ljBook - This produced a fantasic hyperlinked PDF. Problem is, it doesn't find a ton of posts, including almost everything from 2009-2010.

Any other recommendations?

Is it time to crack open each others skulls and scoop out the goo within?

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 21:10:46 GMT

I wanted to put up some posts to LJ recently, but... well, you all know what's going on here.

Is it time to move on? If so, where is everyone going?

Congrats to the WFC nominees!

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:26:13 GMT

Big congrats to all the nominees, especially LJ friends rachel_swirsky , johnjosephadams , matociquala , nojojojo and kijjohnson! You rock!

Jaw... drop

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 14:19:51 GMT

Had a double jaw drop this week, both times in relation to the Jornadinha Nacional de Literatura (National Literary Journey).

First, I found out I'll be speaking to 11,000 adolescents from 10 to 17 years old. I'll be speaking to groups of 1,100 at a time over two days.
*gulp*...
And I'll also be speaking to an auditorium full of "non-participants". I'm not sure yet what that entails.

Second, I saw the activity book that was put together for the event. It's here, with suggested activities for my work on pages 17 and 18. It's in Portuguese, but the suggested activies include watching The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and splitting the students into groups to play an RPG!
:O

My work is also referenced for teachers to open discussion about the different genres of speculative fiction: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.
:O :O :O

Wow... just... wow... This is territory where even my dreams have dared to tread. A chance to make a difference when it counts.

Quickies

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:14:23 GMT

A Dance with Dragons just appeared on my Kindle. Damn. That's going to be nagging at me for a few months, because I don't have time to read that monster right now.

---

I am now a Srivener adept. I took advantage of the Write-a-Thon to get myself a little organized with The Elephant and Macaw Banner stories. I have to keep track of nine of them just for the first novel. Characters come in and out of them, and between notes, backups, and revisions (and waiting years between writing them), I just started getting lost.

So I tested out three writing softwares I've been wanting to try for years: Celtx, Liquid Story Binder and Scrivener. I went with Scrivener and what a difference! I've unified all the stories and notes into a single file. I can access anything I want with a click.

I bow to the many writers who have recommended it over the years.

Now, back to writing!

SALE to Daily Science Fiction!

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:36:33 GMT

Today I sold flash "Geniuses" to Daily Science Fiction!

I referred to this story in a post about a month ago. Very happy to make this sale. Persistence pays off, as does actually learning how to write.

This is my second sale to DSF. Many thanks to Michele and Jonathan!

Keeping busy

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 21:18:53 GMT

Haven´t had much time around here lately.

1) Because of this (for anyone who hasn´t seen it):
Hydra Competition for Brazilian Literature
I´ll also be one of the judges, meaning I´ll have hundreds of stories to read (not the worst problem in the world :).

2) Because I need to get some serious work done on my dissertation.

3) For the Clarion Write-a-Thon.

It´s going to be a busy couple of months, but hopefully very productive ones!

Interview at SFWA website

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:17:19 GMT

There's an interview of me up at SFWA.org today which discusses "Fortuitous Meeting", The Elephant and Macaw Banner and living in Brazil, among other things.

HUGE thanks to marshallpayne1 and charlesatan for making it happen!

Busy week

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:42:14 GMT

Been busy preparing the last classes for the semester and getting my keynote ready. I'm off to Rio in the morning and will be mostly offline for a few days.

In other news, I signed up for the Clarion West write-a-thon. My page is here. I had fun with it.

That should help me get back into writing mode a bit.

Gotta run, I have classes this afternoon and this evening. More news next week.

Today's news bites

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:17:25 GMT

Douglas Cohen shows me the shiny. :)

===

Alastair Reynolds interview up at From Bar to Bar. For those keeping up, my part in the conspiracy is mentioned in passing.

===

Received my preliminary Worldcon programming. I'm on five panels, including two that I suggested. It's going to be a blast! I'll post that information once it's official.

===

EDIT: Wrote a poem today and sent out two. Now I'm up to two stories and two poems submitted. A far cry from the days of having fifteen stories out, but much better than the total of one I've had out since last year...

Getting back on the horse

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 23:11:53 GMT

I revised a story today that I wrote in 2005 and trunked in 2008. At the time of trunking, the story had racked up 20 rejections. However, half those rejections contained nice comments about the story, and at least three times I came very close to selling it, including a rewrite request I never got around to doing. I never gave up on the story though, I just needed some time off from it.

So today I dusted it off, gave it a massive revision, and sent it out. The basic plot is still there, but I improved the telling dramatically. What a difference three years makes...

Time to do a lot more of that.

===

In another bit of news, it's now official, I'm an invited guest to the first ever Literary Festival of Paracatu!

Paracutu is a small town in the middle of Brazil and is a national heritage site, so I'm very much looking forward to the visit. This invite is a huge honor for me.

More on that later.

My favorite pictures

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:12:35 GMT

This is one of my favorite pictures ever:

Why? Because it's one of the first ones Lynx ever took.

Here's another one from the same batch:

Sometimes, it's not what's in the picture that's important.

Woo-hoo!

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 22:22:55 GMT

The readers of Realms of Fantasy have chosen "The Fortuitous Meeting of Gerard van Oost" for the 2010 Readers' Choice Award!

I'm sharing this year's award for "Best Fiction" with Scott Dalrymple's "Queen of the Kangeullas".

Now I have a reason to love RoF and its readers. :)

Many thanks to everyone who voted!

For those who grew up playing computer role-playing games...

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 18:19:07 GMT

This site is made of awesome:

The CRPG addict.

The blogger is playing his way through every CRPG ever made. Wizardry, Phantasie, Ultima, Bard's Tale, Might & Magic... all the way up to the present day. He plays them, comments on them, beats them, and then ranks them on a spreadsheet.

Right now he's on Pool of Radiance, one of my old favorites.

He also throws in some interesting thought pieces from time to time on the genre:
CRPG Tropes
What were they thinking?
Ultima IV and virtue

Realms of Fantasy's hundredth issue

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:26:04 GMT

Realms of Fantasy reaches issue 100! How many short fiction magazines can share that claim to fame?

In Shawna McCarthy's editorial, she mentions RoF will soon begin taking electronic submissions and poetry submissions. Great news for readers and writers!

As long-time readers here know, I've been a fan of RoF for many years, and I'm extremely thankful I've had the chance to be published there. I'm also a big fan of douglascohen and shawnam

So huge congrats to everyone at Realms of Fantasy!

And best of luck with the next hundred. ;)

Two SALES in Brazil!

Fri, 27 May 2011 14:14:56 GMT

I don't have the contracts yet, but both of these have been announced by the publishers, so...

1) I sold first Brazilian Portuguese rights to "The Parlous Battle of Gerard and Oludara against the Capelobo" (hereafter to be known in this blog as "Parlous Battle") to Devir! This is the same company that published "Fortuitous Meeting" as a pocket book in Brazil, and "Parlous Battle" will come out in the same format, again coupled with a story by Roberto Sousa de Causo.

This will be the first time I've sold a story first to a publication outside the English-speaking world. I'm also in discussions with another country, so it could conceivably published multiple times before finding a home in English.

This is a story I finished back in 2008, but I didn't send out until "Fortuitous Meeting" hit the shelves. I wanted to make sure the characters got a fair introduction. After that, one U.S. publisher held it close to a year, so it still hasn't made the rounds. But I didn't want to hold it up any longer in Brazil, because a lot of people are asking for it. In the meantime, I'll continue to look for a publisher for the English version who wants first English rights and not first world rights.

2) Argonautas accepted my invite-only anthology submission entitled "As They Appear", a fantasy set during the Brazilian inquisition. It will be published in the third volume of the Sagas series.

Thanks again to aliettedb , remus_shepherd , idiosyncreant , and xjenavivex for the emergency critiques! Great suggestions, most of which made it into the final draft.

- I'll be participating in launches for both these books at Fantasticon in São Paulo in August. Fantasticon is Brazil's largest conference dedicated to fantasy fiction, and one of my favorite cons, so I'm excited to get two signing slots there.

Photos from the Nebs

Tue, 24 May 2011 16:25:20 GMT

I just posted a some photos from the weekend over at the EAMB website:
http://www.eamb.org/2011/05/photos-from-the-nebula-weekend/

I'm not going to repost them all here for lack of time, but I will put up my favorite as a teaser:

Note: I left out a lot of pics and just posted the ones which came out the best. I think I have close to a hundred total. If you took a picture with me over the weekend and would like it, drop me a PM or e-mail and I'll send it over.

Please don't beg...

Tue, 24 May 2011 13:22:34 GMT

I'll do it for you.

I got back from my trip to discover ballots for the Hugos and World Fantasy Awards in my inbox. Since I still have awards on the brain, I'd like to mention a few friends up for them (even though most of them need no introduction).

I'm not asking for votes. Quite the opposite, I'm not even going to discuss the merits of their works. That is for you to decide. What I am going to ask is to please consider their work before you cast your ballot. It's easy to just leave out categories, especially on a long ballot like the Hugo.

- Best Fan Writer
Stephen H. Silver has been nominated 12 times for the Hugo and never won one. He is one of the nicest people I know, giving his time over and over again to the community. It would make me infinitely happy to see him take home a trophy for so many years of hard work.

- Best Novelette
Aliette is another wonderful person, and has been a huge influence on me as a writer. You will see me sing her praise for many years to come...

- John W. Campbell
The Campbell only comes around once, and this is Saladin Ahmed's last year in the running.

Other friends on my ballot:
- Rachel Swirsky "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window"
- Mary Robinette Kowal "For Want of a Nail"
- N.K. Jemisin "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms"
- Eric James Stone "That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made"

Best of luck to all!

As for World Fantasy, I am going to toss out a couple of recommendations not on the Hugo ballot. Finder by Terri-Lynne DeFino is a great novel which probably hasn't been read nearly as much as it should.

For Special Award - Professional, I'd say that Shawna McCarthy (Realms of Fantasy) and Scott A. Andrews (Beneath Ceaseless Skies) both deserve a lot more recognition for the work they've done with fantasy.

My favorite short fantasy of last year was Caroline M. Yoachim's "Stone Wall Truth". And a wonderful story that has been ignored for the awards is Jason Sanford's "The Never Never Wizard of Apalachicola". Both those last two fall into the short story category for WFC, as does a certain story I published last year...

And on that note, I'll finish up with my final offer of a free electronic copy (PDF, MOBI, or EPUB) of "The Fortuitous Meeting of Gerard van Oost and Oludara" to anyone who is nominating this year. Or, if you're on my friends list, you don't even have to be nomininating. :)