tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-307645092024-03-16T03:08:34.766-04:00Side-Show FreaksMedicine shows (especially intergalactic medicine shows) have a lot of freaks. Over the coming weeks, months, and years, this blog will introduce you to a few of them.
Well, maybe more than a few...Edmund R. Schuberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457235064917031318noreply@blogger.comBlogger485125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-62890862364608509692014-06-13T06:52:00.001-04:002014-06-13T06:52:59.873-04:00Salt and Sand, by Kate O’Connor<p>My father taught me to build boats. Sailboats were his thing, but the first boat we built together was a little cedar-strip canoe – just my size. He measured me so the boat would fit with a little more room <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-hTQGg54YdTg/U5rYAI-QleI/AAAAAAAAAsM/pvg4Mv-Ldh4/s1600-h/salt-and-sand%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="salt-and-sand" border="0" alt="salt-and-sand" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-tMMRCOQcHmM/U5rYA5E9alI/AAAAAAAAAsU/nIJubn9BlHA/salt-and-sand_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="104" height="244" /></a>for me to grow into it. All these years later, it’s still a beautiful boat. I named it <i>Pooka</i>, which made him laugh. He asked if I thought it was going to dump me at the bottom of the lake. I said, with all of my ten-year-old indignation, that other people might need to watch out, but she wasn’t ever going to dump <i>me</i>. Funny thing is, she hasn’t, and we’ve travelled some rough waters together.</p> <p>Fifteen years after we built that boat together, he died of cancer. The summer before he got sick, we put <i>Pooka</i> on his big sailboat and used her to ferry us back and forth to shore as we sailed up and down Barnegat Bay. The only thing was, <i>Pooka </i>only had room for one, so whoever lost rock-paper-scissors-best-two-out-of-three had to swim behind. I usually lost. Dad was like that – cards, darts, coin-tosses – luck (and no small amount of skill) was always on his side with those kinds of things (though not at all when it came to car repairs or plumbing or trying to re-wire the house – there’s a whole novel’s worth of stories in <i>those</i> adventures).</p> <p>Dad was a storyteller and a teacher. He sang dirty Irish drinking songs to me and my brothers and sister and explained all the words and innuendos we didn’t know. He travelled all over the world and brought back stories of his adventures. Often times, he took us with him. He spent an entire summer telling us about the Voyage of St. Brendan, one island a night. I’m pretty sure Dad’s version had a lot more to do with what would keep us entertained than the traditional story. On the other hand, the old monk just might have sailed to an <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-8d04DUkWTl0/U5rYB71hlwI/AAAAAAAAAsc/pNGzT3WllDw/s1600-h/salt-and-sand%25255B6%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="salt-and-sand" border="0" alt="salt-and-sand" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-nbjYIiBoqYQ/U5rYCvHR7hI/AAAAAAAAAsg/9NbqfpfpL-E/salt-and-sand_thumb%25255B7%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="163" /></a>island with a winged unicorn: an orange one with flames for a mane, because I wasn’t a pink kind of girl and white was boring.</p> <p>I wrote <i>Salt and Sand</i> for my father. It took a long time to get it right. It is a fantastical adventure, because he preferred a good healthy dose of the surreal in his stories. In his defense, some of the adventures we had together travelled well into “they’re never going to believe this back home” territory. There are monsters who are not monsters and heroes who happen to be real people who have kind of messed up the personal side of things because they were busy being heroic.</p> <p>Dad’s heroes were realistic. When he was telling stories, he didn’t try to hide the fact that people weren’t perfect and most are born with a full range of emotions (even the uncomfortable ones). They didn’t always make it out of the story alive and whole. What made them heroic was that they kept trying.</p> <p>With <i>Salt and Sand</i>, I wanted to write a story that would have kept him entertained. I wanted it to feel like one of his stories and one of mine too. Because this one’s for him, the vehicle for transformation is a small sailboat. Without the boat, there is no story. It is rough and worn with distance travelled, but it’s sturdy enough for another journey. It was made to safely carry its occupants beyond the world and back again. It will take them as far as they have the will to go.</p> <p align="right">--Kate O’Connor</p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-15174826989442864632014-06-05T06:59:00.001-04:002014-06-05T06:59:46.211-04:00Memory of Magic, Jacob A. Boyd<p>Some years back, my wife, friends, and I rented a house in Hood River for a long weekend of wind surfing, brewery hopping, and <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-0FLw4cqUCOY/U5BNmUhIv5I/AAAAAAAAArk/Rc912rV9Nqs/s1600-h/memory-of-magic%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="memory-of-magic" border="0" alt="memory-of-magic" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-NjoGyHS_Sq4/U5BNnIBAaxI/AAAAAAAAArs/hof6KFnTFVc/memory-of-magic_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="132" height="244" /></a>elaborate home cooked meals. This was around the time my friends had begun starting families. One couple had started sooner than the others, and that couple brought their son. He was maybe two years old, perhaps younger. He was mobile, curious, and very hands-on.</p> <p>The idea around which “Memory of Magic” eventually formed came from observing him, the lone child among our friends, during that long weekend.</p> <p>He grabbed things and got into things and demanded things. His parents vacillated through wild pangs of joy and shock and worry and delight. In short, he was a little kid. They were new parents.</p> <p>Once, he yanked a potted jade plant from its soil and shook it like a dirty pom-pom. It should be noted that this was a very nice rental house, so nice that there was an abiding sense of how-did-we-land-this-place? We were guests, paying guests, but guests nonetheless. Someone lived there. They were coming back. With that in mind, his parents descended on the situation and tucked the jade plant back into its pot, all the while calmly explaining to their son that this was a plant, and it needed soil, and it shouldn’t be handled like that, it was alive.</p> <p>To me, the way they were saying it sounded like they were reminding him of something he knew, but he didn’t quite remember. I thought, <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-_h5JilzKt-Q/U5BNnn1inQI/AAAAAAAAAr0/xZ0CMY6SPUk/s1600-h/memory-of-magic%25255B6%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="memory-of-magic" border="0" alt="memory-of-magic" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-39Y5GayUi4U/U5BNoEPp4EI/AAAAAAAAAr4/zP-aanY7QVc/memory-of-magic_thumb%25255B7%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="202" height="244" /></a>wow, he’s powerful but he doesn’t understand that he’s wielding power. He doesn’t remember. He’s like a little wizard who forgot his magic. While growing up, he could turn out any number of ways, and his parents were working to ensure that he’d turn out good, that he’d nurture things rather than destroy them just to see how they could be destroyed.</p> <p>The first draft of “Memory of Magic” was titled “Little Wizards.”</p> <p>Some years earlier, before my friends with the son had started their family, my wife and I visited them while they worked as caretakers and guides for Independence Mine State Historical Park in Alaska. Independence Mine is a beautiful site set at the end of a valley where two mountain ridges converge to form a horseshoe of peaks. The mine is quite literally at the end of the road. Memory of the mine complex remains vivid for me: the schoolhouse, the bunkhouses, the array of non-affiliated miner shacks, the offsite “relaxation” shacks, the assayer’s office, and the mine itself. It seemed like a place with a wealth of buried mysticism, which had been tempered by hard living, hard weather, and hope.</p> <p>The memory of Independence Mine eventually wrapped itself around the idea for what was then “Little Wizards” and they worked off each other for “Memory of Magic.”</p> <p align="right">--Jacob A. Boyd</p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-26593253175051392232014-06-02T14:17:00.001-04:002014-06-02T14:17:38.860-04:00Free Tonic from InterGalactic Medicine Show!<p>From Edmund Schubert's Letter From the Editor this issue:</p> <p>Starting this month, IGMS will make the most recently published previous issue free on a rotating schedule. This means that from now on, during the same time that the current issue is live, the entire issue that was published right before it will be free for anyone and everyone to read. For as long as Issue 39 is the latest one out, Issue 38 will be available for free. Then when Issue 40 is published, Issue 39 will be free, and so on. You still need a subscription to read the latest issue, and you still need a subscription to have full access to our entire archive of issues and all the stories contained therein, but we believe in the authors and stories we publish and we want a wider audience to have a chance to sample them. So tell your mother, tell your best friend, tell that co-worker of yours who's a closet SF-fanatic but doesn't want the boss to know; tell everybody: free fiction from IGMS!</p> <p><a href="http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/index38.html">Link to the free issue (issue 38)</a></p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-76940446905262113172014-05-01T14:03:00.001-04:002014-05-01T14:03:14.957-04:002014 BAEN FANTASY ADVENTURE AWARD ANNOUNCED<!--[if !mso]>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></b><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New Contest for Best Fantasy
Adventure Story </i></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Debuts in 2014 at Premier Gaming
Convention Gen Con</i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">April 30, 2014, Riverdale, New York</span></b><span style="background: white; color: black;">—</span>Baen Books, in association with the
popular gaming convention Gen Con, has launched a new annual fantasy genre
contest that will present the winning entrant with the inaugural Baen Fantasy
Adventure Award. The contest will be centered on adventure fantasy short
stories, whether epic fantasy, heroic fantasy, sword and sorcery, or
contemporary fantasy.</div>
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“We are very pleased to be
presenting this award in association with Gen Con and its Writer’s Symposium,”
said Baen senior editor Jim Minz. “Gen Con is the best-attended gaming
convention in the world, and it is the perfect place to seek out and showcase
great fantasy talent.”</div>
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The contest opens for submissions
on May 1, 2014 and all entries must be received June 30, 2014.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each entry is limited to a short story of no
more than 8,000 words, and there is one entry per author.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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“We're looking for the best piece
of original short fiction that captures the spirit and tradition of such great
storytellers as Larry Correia, Robert E. Howard, Mercedes Lackey, Elizabeth Moon,
Andre Norton, J.R.R. Tolkien, David Weber and Marion Zimmer Bradley,” said
Minz. “We want fantasy adventures with heroes a reader wants to root for. We're
looking for warriors, either modern or medieval, who solve problems with their
wits as well as their swords.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
“We're delighted to be working with
the leading independent SF publisher in the US,” added Marc Tassin, Director of
the Writer's Symposium at Gen Con. “Baen Books is synonymous with strong,
action-oriented adventures featuring the kind of heroes that hook readers from
the moment they take the stage. It's an honor to us that they chose to take
part in our program's 20th Anniversary. Along with welcoming Guest of Honor Jim
Butcher, and Special Guests Larry Correia & Scott Westerfeld, we anticipate
2014 to be the biggest Writer's Symposium's we've ever had.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Baen Books is known for its <i>New
York Times</i> bestselling science fiction and fantasy, including David Weber’s
Honor Harrington series, Eric Flint’s Ring of Fire alternate histories, Larry
Correia’s Monster Hunter International urban fantasies, and Lois McMaster
Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga. Baen’s paper titles are distributed by Simon &
Schuster.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Gen Con is the original,
longest-running gaming convention in the world. Last year, more than 49,000
people attended, with more than 10,000 events, making it truly <i>The Best Four
Days in Gaming</i>™! In 2014, Gen Con will be held in downtown Indianapolis, from August
14<sup>th</sup> through the 17<sup>th</sup>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
For more information
visit <a href="http://www.baenfantasyaward.com/">www.baenfantasyaward.com</a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span></div>
Edmund R. Schuberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457235064917031318noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-61776237437166531722014-04-22T09:17:00.001-04:002014-04-22T09:17:31.481-04:00Rights and Wrongs, by Brian K. Lowe<p>Sometimes when you speculate about the near future, events will overtake your story and render it irrelevant. So if you're going to write a story about the near future, write it fast.</p> <p>"Rights and Wrongs," on the other hand, took five years. It started<a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-4CuzUUd3rBA/U1Zr2wtIVOI/AAAAAAAAAq8/emXlCu9DhdE/s1600-h/rights-and-wrongs%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="rights-and-wrongs" border="0" alt="rights-and-wrongs" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-WrnW8GDHq24/U1Zr4ESF4ZI/AAAAAAAAArE/A-FvVKTICLg/rights-and-wrongs_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="171" height="244" /></a> 9000 feet high in the New Mexico mountains, at the 2008 Taos Toolbox workshop, where Walter Jon Williams gave me some of the most valuable advice I've ever gotten: "Write what you care about."</p> <p>What did I care about? I cared about being a writer. Why else was I spending two weeks at a ski lodge so high in the air it took two days before I could walk to my car in the parking lot? But stories about writers are a dime a dozen, so what <i>else</i> did I care about?</p> <p>In 2008, the War on Terror was everywhere. Enemy combatants were being locked up for years without charges. Rumor was that the government might try to do the same with American citizens, shelving <i>habeas corpus</i> for the duration. And once the government can imprison you for anything, leaving you to rot without charges, democracy is dead.</p> <p>Of course, it didn't happen, but that was my thinking when I sat down the next day and penned the first line of what you eventually read (or will read). When I was done, I had a story about an attorney for a shape-changing alien who <i>might</i> be a terrorist who had been given a sham trial and was about to be dragged off to be shot and/or <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-9X3K1blzIv0/U1Zr48GMVvI/AAAAAAAAArM/rt3jsQ3DqKQ/s1600-h/rights-and-wrongs%25255B6%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="rights-and-wrongs" border="0" alt="rights-and-wrongs" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-BB6Hmy0-MY0/U1Zr5fe-ekI/AAAAAAAAArU/NdLxu5V0rk8/rights-and-wrongs_thumb%25255B7%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="205" height="244" /></a>dissected. In desperation, he switches bodies with his lawyer and tries to escape. But the lawyer manages to alert the guards to the switch, and the alien is killed attempting to escape. The lawyer comes out okay, but feels bad about the whole thing.</p> <p>   The story bombed. Sure it did--it was depressing with a capital D. But even then, it received just enough positive comments for me to try revamping it. I re-wrote the escape scene. Still depressing, I changed the ending to a courtroom drama with a 2000-word explanation by an anthropologist about how the alien wasn't responsible for his own actions because he was driven solely by biology. Very science fiction. Very dull. But the esteemed editor of this magazine, showing the kind of faith that moves mountains, thought he saw something in the story. All I had to do was re-write a small part--as in, the entire second half.</p> <p>It took two years of re-visiting the story every few months, beating my head against a wall, before I finally realized that to re-write the second half, I had to re-write the first half, too. I started almost from scratch, filling in some characters, re-engineering the plot, struggling to find a way to present what I cared about without making judgments and without being boring. And I did.</p> <p>       But the important thing isn't how I came to write this story. It's that this near-future story took me five years to write, and unfortunately, it's still relevant.</p> <p align="right">--Brian K. Lowe</p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-45982735116245461672014-04-14T09:47:00.000-04:002014-04-14T09:47:08.368-04:00Camila Fernandes wins the Second Hydra Competition<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">With three female
finalists and over one hundred and fifty entries, the second edition improves
upon the success of the first...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Once again, the
judges of the Hydra Competition received stories published by Brazilian authors
during the last two calendar years (2011 and 2012) and chose three finalists to
send to author Orson Scott Card, who defined the winner. This time around, the
chosen tale was “The Other Bank of the River” by Camila Fernandes, announced
last weekend during the Fantastic Literature Odyssey III, an annual convention
held in Porto Alegre. The story will be published in both text and audio by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine
Show.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The winning story
was first published in Camila’s single-author collection <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reino das Névoas</i> (“Misty Kingdom”) by Brazilian publisher Tarja.
Camila is a writer, editor, and illustrator. She has published stories in many
Brazilian anthologies, but “The Other Bank of the River” will be her first
publication in English.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In second place
came “Sun of the Heart” by Roberta Spindler, first published in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Solarpunk</i> anthology by Editora Draco.
Roberta is a publicist and audiovisual editor. She has written since her teen
years, and along with many published short stories, co-wrote the novel<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Contos
de Meigan</i> (“Stories of Meigan”).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The third place
story, “Mary G.” by Nikelen Witter, was first published in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Autores Fantásticos</i> (“Fantastic
Authors”) anthology by Editora Argonautas. Nikelen Witter is a writer and
history professor. She has published many short stories and one YA novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Territórios Invisíveis</i> (“Invisible
Territories”).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">IGMS editor Edmund
R. Schubert writes: “I was greatly looking forward to this year’s contest—many thanks
to Christopher Kastensmidt for translating all three finalists so I could read
them as well (Orson is fluent in Portuguese but I am not)—and the quality and
variety of ideas was a treat. It’s a privilege for IGMS to be involved in this
partnership, to showcase the best of speculative Brazilian short stories, and
we all send our heartiest congratulations to the winner, Camila Fernandes, as
well as the other finalists, Roberta Spindler, and Nikelen Witter.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Tiago Castro, competition
organizer writes: “Brazilian speculative literature is making great strides in
quality, diversity, and discovering new authors. This second edition brought us
a pleasant surprise, with three female finalists. I’m glad to have been able to
participate and organize this important prize for Brazilian fantastic
literature.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Christopher
Kastensmidt, contest founder and translator of this year’s stories, says: “I’d
like to thank <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">InterGalactic Medicine Show</i>,
the participating authors, the judges, and this year’s organizer: Tiago Castro.
Brazilian speculative literature is rarely seen outside the country’s borders,
so every chance we have to make that literature available to readers of other
cultures is a huge victory for our community.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-language: PT-BR;">The Hydra
Competition is a partnership between Brazilian website <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Universo Insônia</i>, Christopher Kastensmidt’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Elephant and Macaw Banner</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Orson
Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show</i>, seeking to expose Brazilian
fantastic literature to the English-speaking world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This edition also counted on the
participation of Brazilian judges Claudia Fusco (</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Nerdices - Superinteressante</span></i><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-language: PT-BR;">) and Daniel Borba (</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Além
das Estrelas</span></i><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-language: PT-BR;">).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<strong><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">About </span></strong><em><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine
Show</span></b></em><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Founded by multiple-award winning author
Orson Scott Card, and edited for the past eight years by Edmund R. Schubert, <em><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">IGMS </span></em>is an award-winning bimonthly online magazine
publishing illustrated science fiction and fantasy short stories, audio
stories, interviews, reviews, and more. Authors range from established pros
like Peter Beagle and David Farland to first-time authors making their
professional debut. IGMS can be found at <a href="http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com</span></a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<strong><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">About </span></strong><em><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Elephant and Macaw Banner</span></b></em><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<em><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Elephant
and Macaw Banner</span></em><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> is a fantasy series
set in sixteenth-century Brazil. The stories tell the adventures of
Gerard van Oost and Oludara, an unlikely pair of heroes who meet in Salvador.
News, artwork, and in-depth explanations of historical and cultural
references from the series can be found at the website <a href="http://www.eamb.org/2011/06/" target="_blank"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">www.eamb.org</span></a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">About <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Universo
Insônia</i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The site Universo
Insônia (Insomnia Universe) publishes articles, news, and reviews on fantastic
literature, cinema, comics, TV series, cartoons, and fantasy pop culture in
general.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The site’s principal objective
is publicizing and supporting professionals in the area of Brazilian fantasy
culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The site also contains content
about traditional and international productions.</span></div>
Edmund R. Schuberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457235064917031318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-83628063500662831632014-04-01T07:08:00.001-04:002014-04-01T07:08:49.303-04:00The Sound of Death, by Gareth D Jones<p>The Sound of Death started life as a 600 word story in response to a <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-No1oaQyKIyo/UzqeN83WmrI/AAAAAAAAAqU/V-sSVe_wotY/s1600-h/the-sound-of-death%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="the-sound-of-death" border="0" alt="the-sound-of-death" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-96VLuMZf4iM/UzqeORbU0sI/AAAAAAAAAqc/dNEwSABqq-o/the-sound-of-death_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="148" /></a>flash fiction challenge – basically just the opening scene of this alien murder mystery. Right from the start I wanted the cause of death and the scene of the crime to be as non-human as possible. As I started expanding the story I realised this principle had to apply to the whole society, their social interactions and motivations. It was soon clear that everything I had learned from watching several seasons of CSI was also useless. I needed to invent entirely new forensic procedures and investigative methodology. </p> <p>I found Inspector Ek-Lo-Don to be the most interesting character I have written, not only because of who and what he is, but because I was forced to give far more thought to him than I usually would to a human character. The story only briefly scratches the surface of his society – which is just as well because when I was writing it I wasn’t <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-b6gC0VUQ_9Y/UzqeO14F9PI/AAAAAAAAAqk/uFVscgTOpWI/s1600-h/the-sound-of-death%25255B6%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="the-sound-of-death" border="0" alt="the-sound-of-death" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-96Fxk5moogY/UzqeP-mVivI/AAAAAAAAAqs/ZidKP5uuczQ/the-sound-of-death_thumb%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="148" /></a>entirely sure what might be below that surface. Since completing The Sound of Death I have been back and analysed the story and put together detailed notes on every aspect of Ek-Lo-Don’s world as revealed so far. It’s all too easy when you’re creating a new world to get carried away and lose track of what you’ve already established. </p> <p>I’m currently writing a second, longer, Ek-Lo-Don story that explores many more aspects of his world, and a third story is biding its time to be written too. Hopefully you’ll find it as intriguing as I have.</p> <p align="right">--Gareth D. Jones</p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-11674443081442395452014-03-05T07:39:00.001-05:002014-03-05T07:39:52.000-05:00High-Tech Fairies and the Pandora Perplexity, by Alex Shvartsman<p>It started on Twitter.</p> <p>My friend Sylvia Wrigley posted something along the lines of “I’m <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-hsStWSew0eg/UxcbDOE7X9I/AAAAAAAAAps/vBePT-7CVtw/s1600-h/high-tech-faeries%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="high-tech-faeries" border="0" alt="high-tech-faeries" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-0R865XxOMKo/UxcbD8A4eCI/AAAAAAAAAp0/UfCj-e9-zz0/high-tech-faeries_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="148" height="244" /></a>having a difficult time explaining Cthulhu to Grandma.”</p> <p>To which I responded by saying that “Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma” would make a great short story title.</p> <p>Sylvia was kind enough to let me have it, and I came up with a family-run magical pawn shop (loosely inspired by the History Channel’s Pawn Stars), and named the protagonist Sylvia, as a thank-you to my friend for inspiring the idea.</p> <p>The resulting story was one of the funniest I have written, and I was very proud that it became my first short story to be published in IGMS (you can read it in issue #33). This story has since gone on to receive some great reviews, and was even included in Tangent Online’s Recommended Reading List for 2013, with the maximum possible rating of three stars.</p> <p>I had so much fun playing in the magic pawn shop sandbox, that I knew I would have to come back to this setting and characters, again and again. In the first story, Cthulhu trapped in a snowglobe-like <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-9pc_9fz2nrQ/UxcbFBZBCiI/AAAAAAAAAp8/_0WeWKgNcrw/s1600-h/high-tech-faeries%25255B6%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="high-tech-faeries" border="0" alt="high-tech-faeries" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-MibdVXMyRoY/UxcbFggaRAI/AAAAAAAAAqA/yZJCHMIipu8/high-tech-faeries_thumb%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="148" height="244" /></a>pocket dimension was brought into the pawn shop. So I got to thinking, what other interesting items might show up at its doorstep? Excalibur? Holy Grail? A mint Alf action figure, still in original packaging? The Pandora’s Box was definitely on the short list, and that’s what I went with.</p> <p>Of course, I wanted the title to be as over-the-top as “Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma,” which is how I came up with “High-Tech Fairies and the Pandora Perplexity.” It sounds like an episode of the Big Bang Theory which, to my mind, is a good thing. I was especially pleased with the play on words – in addition to its popular meaning (bewilderment), perplexity is also a mathematical term, dealing with the probability of distribution. Which sort of makes sense for this story – you’ll know why once you read it.</p> <p>I intend to keep writing funny magic pawn shop stories, so this hopefully will not be the last you’ve heard of Sylvia.</p> <p align="right">--Alex Shvartsman</p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-77335254464094295752014-02-20T06:58:00.001-05:002014-02-20T06:58:33.967-05:00Underwater Restorations, by Jeffrey A. Ballard<p>“Underwater Restorations” was born out my love of all things <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-WLMKTyHqcYY/UwXt5alNxyI/AAAAAAAAApU/KPEBAGreP78/s1600-h/underwater-restorations%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="underwater-restorations" border="0" alt="underwater-restorations" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-_-Qk5Wd3urc/UwXt6AI_3AI/AAAAAAAAApY/wknuq8Rew8I/underwater-restorations_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="222" height="244" /></a>underwater.  As a kid, I used to spend hours snorkeling in Keuka Lake in upstate New York, until I was blue and my father had to pull me out for safety.  I often wished that our house was underwater and imagined how much fun it would be to snorkel and dive down into it—of course, I wasn’t a homeowner then, and now it isn’t something I would wish at all.</p> <p>Right before I wrote “Underwater Restorations,” I had been attempting to write literary fiction and came to the decision that it wasn’t for me.  Undeterred from giving up writing, I thought back to all the stories I loved to read and movies I enjoyed to watch as a kid, which were all Science Fiction and Fantasy.  And there waiting for me after the genre shift, was the childhood desire to go snorkeling through an underwater house.  These two came together seamlessly and produced “Underwater Restorations.”</p> <p>Writing “Underwater Restorations” was an easier experience than some I’ve had, and whole lot of fun—which was my intent in writing it: to just have fun.  It is my hope that the reader enjoyed in some of that fun and I plan to come back to Isa, Puo, and Winn sometime in the near future and see what they’ve been up to in my absence.</p> <p align="right">--Jeffrey A. Ballard</p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-87398218653680184932014-02-10T08:34:00.001-05:002014-02-10T08:34:46.967-05:00Into the Desolation, by Catherine Wells<p>There are stories that come to you complete, and there are stories that you have no idea are there until they play themselves out. "Into the Desolation" was definitely one of the latter.</p> <p>I started off in third person past tense, as I usually do, and I thought the story was going to be all about the Imogene character and her adventures in the Time Wastes. Gus was just a tool, a point-of-view for the reader to see Imogene. But then his voice began to take over, and I realized the story would be better told with his vocabulary and rhythm, and that was first person present tense. I'm not a fan of present-tense stories, but for Gus, it just worked.</p> <p>I still thought getting into the Time Wastes would be just the first part of the story, and then something would happen. But as I went about motivating Gus to go--as I remembered what it was like to grow up in a small town and imagined how it would feel if a smart kid like Gus stayed--I realized he was subconsciously aching for Imogene to convince him to go. He was a blister waiting to be popped. But I honestly didn't realize what the trigger would be until she asked him, "What makes you think I want to come back?"</p> <p>I have a friend who lost a child. I've seen how that pain continues to haunt her. But what binds Imogene is the what frees Gus. I wonder what adventures they will have together in the Time Wastes? And how will they grow?</p> <p align="right">--Catherine Wells</p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-31135751166467746682014-02-04T07:48:00.001-05:002014-02-04T07:48:54.970-05:00Seven Tips to Enjoy Your Time in the Unreal Forest- Van Aaron Hughes<p>“Seven Tips to Enjoy Your Time in the Unreal Forest” is my most <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-qG2nsBas8Ig/UvDhrnVKnMI/AAAAAAAAAos/OMccZKU2iUI/s1600-h/seven-tips-to-enjoy-your-time%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="seven-tips-to-enjoy-your-time" border="0" alt="seven-tips-to-enjoy-your-time" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-24wEPaFORHM/UvDhsDc9NGI/AAAAAAAAAow/e0dK2O3picc/seven-tips-to-enjoy-your-time_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="203" height="244" /></a>autobiographical story so far. Like my character Jordan Hudson, I grew up on Mercer Island, Washington, I went to North Mercer Junior High, and I waited for the school bus at a little clearing surrounded by a dense curtain of fog. My memories of that time and place inspired this tale, but just to be clear, all the characters in the story are made up. I never had a brother; my father is not the rat-bastard depicted here (sorry, Dad!); and if you happen to know a gorgeous woman named Traci who went to North Mercer in the late 70s, I never made out with her, much as I would have liked to.</p> <p>Oddly enough, the key to getting this story to come together was the title. I outlined the whole piece and started writing, even though I feared the story was too episodic and missing something at the end to give the reader a sense of resolution. Also, I didn’t have a title.</p> <p>Looking for something to seize on for a title, I researched fog and stumbled across this passage from T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” which I had read years ago and long since forgotten:</p> <blockquote> <p align="left"><em>Unreal City,</em></p> <p align="left"><em>Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,</em></p> <p align="left"><em>A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,</em></p> <p align="left"><em>I had not thought death had undone so many.</em></p> </blockquote> <p>I proceeded to rip off T.S. Eliot shamelessly. The opening line of my <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-xm9yWfwQnXA/UvDhslShOsI/AAAAAAAAAo8/GfOEOiwOHig/s1600-h/seven-tips-to-enjoy-your-time%25255B6%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="seven-tips-to-enjoy-your-time" border="0" alt="seven-tips-to-enjoy-your-time" align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-tU6P0gMC1VE/UvDhtJ5ImUI/AAAAAAAAApE/66CeMHW2hNk/seven-tips-to-enjoy-your-time_thumb%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="204" height="244" /></a>story is paraphrased from this passage, there are several other allusions to “The Waste Land,” and most importantly, Eliot gave me the idea that the unreal forest was a place the dead might reappear. I added that near the end, hoping it would create the feeling of resolution the story had been lacking.</p> <p>Continuing to lean on Eliot, I made my working title “The Unreal Forest.” But somehow I wasn’t satisfied with that. I started thinking about how to embellish it, and hit upon the idea of adding to the title the concept of “tips,” pointers that the narrator is giving to someone else who encounters a similar “unreal” location. I liked the title better with that addition, and it prompted me to divide the story into seven specific tips, hopefully turning the episodic nature of the narrative into a strength. I’d love to hear what people think!</p> <p align="right">--<em>Van Aaron Hughes</em></p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-7423605550385120362014-01-29T07:24:00.001-05:002014-01-29T07:24:13.205-05:00Big Al Shepard Plays Baseball on the Moon—Jamie Todd Rubin<p>There comes a point in your life when you realize that you will never play baseball in the majors. I’m not talking about in high school, or <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-HYfzlH3boMM/Uujy4CFHsNI/AAAAAAAAAoE/SncRwfWae18/s1600-h/big-al-shepard%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="big-al-shepard" border="0" alt="big-al-shepard" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-YKEkmsHfgrY/Uujy4jnBZhI/AAAAAAAAAoI/Frlagy_7VmI/big-al-shepard_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="210" /></a>even college. I’m talking about when you turn 40 and watch a game on TV with your 4-year old and think, “He still has a shot one day, if he wanted to play, but me, not in this lifetime.” You are resigned to watching the game, wishing you could play, but aware that your decades of baseball knowledge, to say nothing of your curveball, will go untapped by the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, or let's face it, even the Royals or Astros.</p> <p>There comes a point in your life when you realize that chances are pretty good you won’t ever make it to the moon. In my twenties I decided I wanted to be an astronaut. I got as far as earning my private pilot’s license. In the course of educating myself on what it took to be an astronaut, I learned that most of the astronauts NASA selects into its program are over-achievers, even by the standards of mainstream over-achievers. It wouldn’t do to have just a pilot’s license. You also needed 3,000 hours in 20 different types of aircraft. Having a Ph.D in some physical science might improve your chances a little. Two Ph.Ds and a medical degree and now you might be in the running. Throw in competitive rock climbing and HILO parachuting, and you’re probably a shoe-in.</p> <p>All I had was a pilot’s license.</p> <p>But the great thing about being a writer, and specifically, a science fiction writer, is that age and decrepitude are inconsequential. My characters can be young. My characters can be experts in their field. They can play baseball, and they can fly to the moon.</p> <p>It isn’t often that a writer gets to write a pure wish fulfillment story <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-dOV9rfDJjsM/Uujy5OIIqhI/AAAAAAAAAoU/UjSD0vGYrR0/s1600-h/big-al-shepard%25255B6%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="big-al-shepard" border="0" alt="big-al-shepard" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-9wf4GqDBOCk/Uujy7EQrFBI/AAAAAAAAAoc/JVwwPfkCShU/big-al-shepard_thumb%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="228" /></a>and see it published. For me, telling a good story is my most important job, and that sometimes means setting aside what I wish would happen, and allowing the narrative to unfold in such a way as to make the best possible story. In the case of “Big Al Shepard” I tried my best to tell a good story, and it turned out to also allow me to play for the Red Sox and fly to the moon.</p> <p>I spent much of 1998 reading all I could about the Apollo moon missions, and marveling at the fact that men walked on the moon before I was born. (Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt, the last two men to walk on the moon, did so when I was 9 months old.) At the same time, I’m a lifelong baseball fan, and thinking about how Alan Shepard swung a golf club on the moon got me thinking about an alternate history in which he might swing a baseball bat instead. A title popped into my head, “Big Al Shepard Plays Baseball on the Moon” and I imagined it as a headline on the New York Times or Washington Post. That was all I had. I sat down to write, and the story emerged mostly as you see it.</p> <p>I’d never written an alternate history before, and I had more fun writing this story than I’ve had on any previous story. It was wonderful creating an alternate timeline where Apollo 1 doesn’t end in disaster. I wanted one of the original Mercury astronauts to be first on the moon--something that Deke Slayton, in his role as director of crew operations, really wanted as well.</p> <p>The baseball angle was just as much fun to write. Although I’ve made baseball references in my stories before, I’d never written a scene that involved any sort of sports drama. Writing the scene where Big Al Shepard is attempting to break Joe DiMaggio’s record was some of the most fun I’ve had as a writer. It also took me out of my comfort zone. As a lifelong New York Yankees fan, could I write credibly and positively about the Boston Red Sox? Or New York Mets?</p> <p>This story was different in one other way. Usually, I have an idea, a “what if,” as well a good idea of how the story will end. Then I just write. In “Big Al Shepard” I had the idea, “What if, in an alternate history, Al Shepard was a major league baseball player before he landed on the moon?” But I had no idea of how it would end. Discovering that ending  was a big part of the fun I had with this story.</p> <p>Finally, I want to give a shout out to my friend, and trusted beta-reader, Ken Liu. Ken read this story in an earlier draft, and identified things that helped make it into a much better story.</p> <p align="right">-- Jamie Todd Rubin</p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-85710483527955855852014-01-14T07:32:00.001-05:002014-01-14T07:32:48.136-05:00Light Crusader’s Dark Dessert, by James Beamon<p>The idea for "Light Crusader" came to me in Afghanistan.  I was in Helmand Province, where landscapes range from rugged mountain streams to sparse, flat desert.  It was both desolate and beautiful.  Nothing new existed; the entire populace seemed to be experts in the art of gerry-rigging, giving the place a reassembled, post-apocalyptic feel.  <br />I wanted to bring this feel back to the States, so instead of a <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-ZOxCYfEulEQ/UtUubdSxxhI/AAAAAAAAAnw/e5rbeQR5MxE/s1600-h/light-crusaders-dark-dessert%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="light-crusaders-dark-dessert" border="0" alt="light-crusaders-dark-dessert" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-XnIzhZTYLlk/UtUub5CUu8I/AAAAAAAAAn0/mgau1_HDlBk/light-crusaders-dark-dessert_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="148" height="244" /></a>convergence of cultures on the other end of the world we have a convergence of gods at the end of the world.  All I needed was a spot to stage the story when I ran across the Dismal River on Google maps, with the small town of Tryon sitting twenty some odd miles down.  Yep, all the places in the story exist today in some form; since I've never been to Tryon in person it'd be nice to know how close (or far) I came to depicting it here. <br />Research and inspiration aside, what I like most about "Light Crusader" is the world as a host for all doomsdays.  We tend to imagine the end of the world as an instantaneous, nuclear flash bang or a two minute infectious bite frenzy.  I like the end of the world on the timetable of the gods, beings unconcerned with age or years or fitting all the action into a single movie scene.  Life still goes on for a humanity forced on an immortal schedule, forced to deal with a multitude of pantheons the world over and their competing notions of what the end is.  Like the province of Demeter, it feels like fertile soil for my imagination.</p> <p align="right">--James Beamon</p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-68267490929053979912014-01-07T13:34:00.004-05:002014-01-07T15:19:50.885-05:00Heading Into Convention SeasonStarting 2014 with a flurry of activity, I've got conventions on back to back weekends. This coming weekend I'll be at IllogiCon, along with GOH's Mary Robinette Kowal and Lawrence Schoen, plus other luminaries such as James Maxey, Misty Massey, Ada Brown, Gail Martin, Mark Van name, John Kessel, and Gray Rinehart.<br />
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IllogiCon is held Jan. 10 - 12, though I won't be there on Sunday because of another commitment. It's at the Embassy Suites Raleigh-Durham/Research Triangle, which is actually in Cary, NC (just a smidge south of Raleigh).<br />
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The following weekend I'll be at MarsCon, which is at the Fort Magruder Hotel and Conference Center in Williamsburg, VA, Jan. 17 - 19. I will be at the whole con, no conflicts. Guests at MarsCon include YA GOH Carrie Ryan, who got me invited in the first place (it's important to know who to blame for these things), as well as Princess Alethea Kontis, Mike Pederson (who helps run RavenCon in Richmond in April), and a whole slew of people whom I've never met before. This is my first time at MarsCon, so I'm looking forward to meeting lots of new people.<br />
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Actually, it's also my first time at IllogiCon, but that one is close to where I live and I already know a lot of those folks... which is a whole other reason to look forward to going.<br />
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Hope to see you there. Or the other there. Or both. (I'm flexible.)<br />
<br />
EdmundEdmund R. Schuberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457235064917031318noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-85212340679347968872013-12-31T07:07:00.001-05:002013-12-31T07:07:03.717-05:00At the Old Folks Home at the End of the World, by John P. Murphy<p>Like many avid readers, I harbor some small secret desire to live forever. Maybe not forever-forever, but enough time to get through <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-arGZq2mcNOE/UsKzXeAF2UI/AAAAAAAAAnI/cH4pLvnyInY/s1600-h/at-the-old-folks-home%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="at-the-old-folks-home" border="0" alt="at-the-old-folks-home" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Vp9kANvsBs0/UsKzYj8FBHI/AAAAAAAAAnQ/mXdpmVgFImI/at-the-old-folks-home_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="103" height="244" /></a>that growing stack of books on my bedside table, y'know? And my Amazon wishlist. And maybe catch up on Doctor Who, and... Look, long story short, I always kind of identified with those fantasy villains who are, shall we say, in it for the long run.</p> <p>Feeling that kinship, I started to wonder at some point how many immortality seekers in a given fantasy world might have succeeded. Statistically, some of them had to, right? And what happened to them? I figure, under all the skull fortresses and forbidden tomes and dramatic armor, deep down they're really just people like me with too many good books on their bedside tables. So what would I do?</p> <p>I had all that in the back of my brain at the start of the yearly Weekend Warrior flash fiction contest in the Codex writers group. One of the weeks, I got the prompt, what if everyone in the world had the same super power? I thought about immortality, and realized that even if only a handful of people had it, eventually they would be everyone. I remembered the character Ed the Undying<a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-X0KZ6gnY7BY/UsKzZGDI-5I/AAAAAAAAAnU/oFBI6acLCTg/s1600-h/at-the-old-folks-home%25255B6%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="at-the-old-folks-home" border="0" alt="at-the-old-folks-home" align="right" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-W8lLVBcE90Y/UsKzZrr1frI/AAAAAAAAAnc/EzMf9iFQfp0/at-the-old-folks-home_thumb%25255B7%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="138" height="244" /></a> from the online game Kingdom of Loathing, and then a friend of mine's father-in-law who retired from business only to start fights in his homeowners' association, and it all kinda clicked. The story came together quickly as a series of mental images of people thrown together by virtue of being the only ones left, lonely and bored and ornery and just sort of making do. As I jotted them down, I liked the effect, and with some polishing and going back-and-forth about a few passages, I wound up with something very close to this end result.</p> <p>I guess "At the Old Folks Home at the End of the World" is at its heart a "be careful what you wish for" story. Even so, I think some of Old Folks aren't yet all that sorry. As they might say, it beats the alternative.</p> <p align="right">--John P. Murphy</p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-4550644702666437702013-12-23T07:59:00.001-05:002013-12-23T07:59:07.328-05:00The Sturdy Bookshelves of Pawel Olizewski, by Ferrett Steinmetz<p>The Sturdy Bookshelves Of Pawel Olizewski is a unique story in my pantheon, mainly because I live-wrote every single draft of it live, to raise funds for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop.</p> <p>Now, let me explain what Clarion is to me; at age 38, I’d been writing for twenty years, and despite four novels, at least a hundred short stories, and some poetry that’s just as soon well forgotten, I had only published three stories in very small venues. My total writing revenue was just over $15 – which, at less than a dollar a year, not promising.</p> <p>Then I got accepted into the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, a six-week intensive where the best writers in sci-fi train you to be better. And I learned exactly how terrible I was. Which was traumatic but a good thing. And since graduating in 2008, I’ve sold twenty-five short stories, many to markets where (like this one) I’d read for years and am now proud to be a part of.</p> <p>(In 2012, I even got nominated for the Nebula, which still feels like a weird dream I’m going to wake up from any day now.) </p> <p>So every spring, I live-write stories to raise funds for my alma mater in a closed community called “The Clarion Echo,” which you can only get access to by donating $5. I write, post what I wrote - and then more importantly I explain what I liked and what I didn’t like about my work. Basically, I’m critiquing my own prose, explaining all the shortfalls I’m going to have to fix on the next draft.</p> <p>Except that the Sturdy Bookshelves story was written entirely for Clarion Echo. I didn’t plan it that way, but over the three years, every spring I went back to that story and said, “Well, time to rewrite it,” and so I did. So <a href="http://clarionwriteathon.org/members/profile.php?writerid=995551">if you feel like donating $5</a> and emailing me at theferrett@theferrett.com, you can get access to the archives and literally see this whole story come together, with about 4,000 additional words of commentary.</p> <p>Which isn’t a pitch. I’m just saying, is all. </p> <p>The hardest thing to get about this story was, weirdly enough, the voice. Because the initial draft was 2,800 words, very tight, and almost character-free – more like a news report than a story, focusing on Pawel. I soon realized a tale with no character arc is really hard to do unless you’re Ted Chiang, and so I wrote a 5,000-word version of this which focused on the Nameless Narrator (or, as I took to calling him, the NN) but lost a lot of the oddball details that people found compelling. It felt bloated, and the NN really isn’t interesting enough to carry the tale.</p> <p>Yet I loved the internal arc of this – and why wouldn’t I? If you think about it, the tale is really about me spending twenty pre-Clarion years writing and making the same old mistakes over and over again, hoping like heck that I’d somehow ignite my inner spark. Yet I struggled to find a narrative tone that matched. People loved this one, asking about it more than any other Clarion Echo story that I’ve written – “Did you finish it? Did that one sell?” – but I didn’t feel I’d really nailed it.</p> <p>And it’s a hard balance to get. Because the NN is boring, but the <i>story</i> cannot be. And so in writing this you have to walk this high-wire act where the prose is snappy enough to pull you along and get you invested, but not so snappy that you could never believe that the NN was once a nebbish. Eventually, I realized that I had to err more on the side of “quirky prose and weird characters,” pulling Agnes out as a major character to counterbalance the NN, and making her oddball enough that she could tug us past a little dullness, and making the dullness not part of the prose but part of the way other people react to the NN. </p> <p>For me, the secret of Clarion is revising. Like Pawel, I was making the same bookcase over and over again with each story I wrote, never learning, just sort of doubling down. What Clarion taught me was to dismantle my bookshelves, break them up and make new things out of them. If you could see all the revisions, you’d see how radically this story changed, rotating around the central heart of it.</p> <p>And I hope, if you’re wandering around like Pawel, like me, some day you’ll realize how to rearrange that workshop to produce an entirely different kind of magic.</p> <p align="right">--Ferrett Steinmetz</p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-56198406554474061592013-12-11T07:27:00.001-05:002013-12-11T07:27:22.593-05:00Once More to Kitty Hawk, by Greg Kurzawa<p>"Once More to Kitty Hawk" began as a simple "what if?" What if people <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-RwdK8oJjOkk/UqhaJ_42OnI/AAAAAAAAAmw/B3oyQ5uTk6M/s1600-h/once-more-to-kitty-hawk%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="once-more-to-kitty-hawk" border="0" alt="once-more-to-kitty-hawk" align="left" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-NaSeFAWSGtk/UqhaKchkyhI/AAAAAAAAAm0/DWHHVTLm3-g/once-more-to-kitty-hawk_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="203" height="244" /></a>didn't really die? What if they simply faded out of this existence, leaking their selves and their memories into the world around them? Its original title was "Transitions," and in the earliest draft it was a young couple suffering the transitioning of the fellow. Right away I thought that was too maudlin, so I rewrote it as a father/son relationship. Upon reflection, I don't think that made it any less tragic.  I'm not ashamed to admit that I shed a tear or two while writing it.</p> <p>I've only been to Kitty Hawk once, but I remember enjoying it.  I'd very much like to go back someday.</p> <p align="right">--Greg Kurzawa</p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-50762208938433643152013-12-04T19:15:00.001-05:002013-12-04T19:15:51.665-05:00The Saltwater Wife, by K.C. Norton<p>"The Saltwater Wife" has its origins in the selkie legends, wherein <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-8hHwWNCU-C0/Up_Fsd9MOxI/AAAAAAAAAmY/3TcYpNXMqYY/s1600-h/the-saltwater-wife%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="the-saltwater-wife" border="0" alt="the-saltwater-wife" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Hfy0UEnnjVw/Up_Ftr_upOI/AAAAAAAAAmg/gHcz06rib6s/the-saltwater-wife_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="191" /></a>certain seals could turn into beautiful women. Men could 'catch' these inhumanly beautiful creatures by stealing their sealskins, and thereby trapping them in their (did I mention incredibly beautiful?) human forms.</p> <p>I wanted to tell a story in which some of these women retain their agency, but I also wanted to tell a story about being human. This isn't a story about some battle of the sexes; it's a story about personas. In my experience, we are all pretending on some level. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing, just that it gets complicated. I don't like to tell stories about Strong Female Characters. I like to tell stories about human nature. Even if my characters aren't always, you know, technically human. Thus, selkies and shifting identities were in. Sexy fish-ladies were right out.</p> <p>One final note: In reality, eels and groupers do hunt together. They're one of the few common inter-species hunting pairs found in nature. The eel swims into tiny crevices to flush out prey; the grouper snaps up the victim, leaving some nibbles for the eel. They're an insanely efficient hunting team. Is this a metaphor? Perhaps.</p> <p align="right">--K.C. Norton</p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-79628712076335416002013-11-22T17:15:00.004-05:002013-11-22T17:15:48.358-05:00Now Live - IGMS Issue 36<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=issue&vol=i36&article=_fromeditor" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=issue&vol=i36&article=_fromeditor" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVO1zZk-rUJlNQLbwBD0PEPT-kcUMzD-LVU6LytVP5WKT-gJEUH_8kcCvRc4AokhEb-XakRyRc1rotm7kehkXMZcH8BveZMPGN0spxU0tT6DyRpOpf8RHfFnKZ3DlQA-2Vk9o/s400/Cover+Illustration+-+Escape+from+the+Andromedan+Empire.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Ready for your reading pleasure, <a href="http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=issue&vol=i36&article=_fromeditor" target="_blank">IGMS issue 36.</a>Edmund R. Schuberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457235064917031318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-78493494166946389832013-11-21T15:45:00.001-05:002013-11-21T15:45:44.895-05:00IGMS Issue 34 & 35 now on Kindle and Nook, etc.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8b2RMGT_z2EJFwil4uE7iady2wZGg1-tXlfx5lCjTWN_xKT278OKWpLHj2QWzdtX_EksTI91A5ToouYz6M6kORalc91uQo9EHfmbX6DpWpXHz3CDZCpo6X9tZgD-cvEejGFE/s1600/Cover+Illustration+-+What+the+Sea+Refuses+-+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8b2RMGT_z2EJFwil4uE7iady2wZGg1-tXlfx5lCjTWN_xKT278OKWpLHj2QWzdtX_EksTI91A5ToouYz6M6kORalc91uQo9EHfmbX6DpWpXHz3CDZCpo6X9tZgD-cvEejGFE/s320/Cover+Illustration+-+What+the+Sea+Refuses+-+small.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The ebook version of the last two issues are now ready.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH7eh8s3a8tk_f8ZP9ECfCrCZtnVc0TIKYJSJlmIe5AIbEiXIA8IzjmV5MFPF6FlpzFSUGlI5oZwXLQPfSfLBa4gRJBQOKAA_ZlVlxa87nElZuYnAUSqcCR8cl1B1R89TbXlk/s1600/Illustration+-+Tangible+Progress+-+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH7eh8s3a8tk_f8ZP9ECfCrCZtnVc0TIKYJSJlmIe5AIbEiXIA8IzjmV5MFPF6FlpzFSUGlI5oZwXLQPfSfLBa4gRJBQOKAA_ZlVlxa87nElZuYnAUSqcCR8cl1B1R89TbXlk/s320/Illustration+-+Tangible+Progress+-+small.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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If you have a subscription, just go to your account page and select the version you'd like delivered.Edmund R. Schuberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457235064917031318noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-76874595771721416802013-11-19T11:13:00.000-05:002013-11-19T11:13:07.054-05:00IGMS Issue 36 cover teaserCouldn't resist (not that anybody said I really ought to)...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaqUZ2JxWxKwBrg66OPhIaRij5gF5NdtZvKXuzH5WsqpFs-FjFO2iONSUTAvaEt3VJUYHIX9hsuIX5tCdOFBq1IFs4beV8GcOVTCRtal554g3FWaY_V2psRNKszgK_TJDJ0zg/s1600/Cover+Illustration+-+Escape+from+the+Andromedan+Empire+-+partial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaqUZ2JxWxKwBrg66OPhIaRij5gF5NdtZvKXuzH5WsqpFs-FjFO2iONSUTAvaEt3VJUYHIX9hsuIX5tCdOFBq1IFs4beV8GcOVTCRtal554g3FWaY_V2psRNKszgK_TJDJ0zg/s640/Cover+Illustration+-+Escape+from+the+Andromedan+Empire+-+partial.jpg" width="475" /></a></div>
<br />Edmund R. Schuberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457235064917031318noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-43834739127123224502013-11-18T16:29:00.001-05:002013-11-18T16:29:32.178-05:00Almost Ready: IGMS Issue 36<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Coming soon: Issue 36 of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">IGMS</i>, my favorite
number for any issue we’ve ever published.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Our
cover story this issue is "<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Escape from
the Andromedan Empire” by Ian Creasy. “Escape” is a smart SF extrapolation of
the current digital piracy landscape, projecting the theft of not just an author’s
work, but of authors themselves—in a digital sort of way.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDyzkt8NiDyTLalw_EpMhTjBpdsvrol4tQYk60RNj1RGdpmOjJJIjj8U4dW751dK3uRSoLV5OhKRhijdIaqeBTSMe5cyBsuopyGzsipl7JBP1irztpIWWSnevYPjLCYgrSumo/s1600/Illustration+-+Light+Crusader%27s+Dark+Dessert+-+cut+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDyzkt8NiDyTLalw_EpMhTjBpdsvrol4tQYk60RNj1RGdpmOjJJIjj8U4dW751dK3uRSoLV5OhKRhijdIaqeBTSMe5cyBsuopyGzsipl7JBP1irztpIWWSnevYPjLCYgrSumo/s200/Illustration+-+Light+Crusader%27s+Dark+Dessert+-+cut+2.jpg" width="153" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><b> </b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">"The
Saltwater Wife," by K.C. Norton continues the theme of very personal kinds
of theft, except this time the story is dressed up in the garb of fantasy (both
literally and figuratively) and explores not just the theft itself, but questions
of identity.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">John
Murphy’s "At the Old Folks Home at the End of the World" takes a brief
but deft look at the pros and cons, the light and the dark, of mortality, but
turning it inside-down and upside-out.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
"Once More to Kitty Hawk," Greg Kurzawa also explores the theme of
end–of–life, but in a quieter way, fading to almost nothing…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGSgmn12qNm2CeuqLab93esSXhyphenhyphenHpYmiocY7NRgBlug6P5ZenHvhbIDiYCstoKgWQuvGXC5fXOnuj1NrY2p9szZZqX_zVoQ-sf53z2tt-r51SMkO8DkD64W5xk_JQVFd_lnbA/s1600/Illustration+-+At+the+Old+Folks+Home.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGSgmn12qNm2CeuqLab93esSXhyphenhyphenHpYmiocY7NRgBlug6P5ZenHvhbIDiYCstoKgWQuvGXC5fXOnuj1NrY2p9szZZqX_zVoQ-sf53z2tt-r51SMkO8DkD64W5xk_JQVFd_lnbA/s200/Illustration+-+At+the+Old+Folks+Home.jpg" width="82" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">"The
Light Crusader's Dark Deserts" is a rollicking adventure through the lands
of many kinds of death, right up to the point where the protagonist has to sit
down to dinner with his deceased wife and child, which answers several
necessary but unpleasant questions.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
also have several bonuses for you this issue. First is an audio production of "At
the Old Folks Home at the End of the World," read by none other than Orson
Scott Card. We’re always tickled when we can get Uncle Orson reading our
stories.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Second,
we have an additional audio production, “The Sturdy Bookcases of Pawel
Oliszewski,” written by Ferrett Steinmetz and performed by Philip Powell. “Sturdy
Bookcases” is a sneaky story that repeatedly asks the simple but compelling
question, “Are you interested now?” There’s only one way to know what it all
means: Read the story. Or else listen to it. You decide. “Are you interested
now?”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
be sure not to miss Darrell Schweitzer’s InterGalactic Interview with author
John Hemry, who you may know better by his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nom
de plume</i>, Jack Campbell. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Plus
the next installment of our newest feature, an article by our regular
movie-reviewer, Chris Bellamy. Be sure to check out his next At The Movies, Extended
Cut.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issue
36, chock full o’ goodness, as befits the issue featuring my favorite number. ;-)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Edmund
R. Schubert <br />
Editor, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic
Medicine Show</i></span></div>
Edmund R. Schuberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457235064917031318noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-64322981256041889432013-11-07T08:30:00.001-05:002013-11-07T08:30:03.208-05:00Tangible Progress, by Edmund R. Schubert<p>For several years now I’ve been turning over in my mind an idea: a mythical race of people who trace their origins back to ancient Rome <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-8P-mcq3ynjM/UnuVzapa-gI/AAAAAAAAAlg/9oiSHVdyfps/s1600-h/tangible-progress%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="tangible-progress" border="0" alt="tangible-progress" align="left" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-QdY0iG4txXc/UnuV0r7qrtI/AAAAAAAAAlo/d9AU9c06qQ0/tangible-progress_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="148" /></a>and even beyond, to Rome’s founding legend of Romulus and Remus. These people are werewolf hunters, cursed by the Roman gods. Under this curse they will find their tangibility waxing and waning with the moon, until they have hunted and killed every last werewolf. That is the big idea. I think it has the potential to be a series of novels.</p> <p>Of course, a series of novels will take years to write, and I wanted (needed, really) to start smaller, exploring these people and their lives, so I’ve begun writing several short stories set at different points in time. “Tangible Progress” is the first of these. I’m also working on one set in modern New York City, with some subtle but not unimportant difference. We’ll see which, if any of them, strike a chord with readers.</p> <p>Regardless of the specifics, I also knew I wanted to start with the people, the Rem’n, but without the added baggage of werewolves. Werewolves are everywhere and, frankly, of limited interest to me. We’ve all seen plenty of werewolves during recent years, along with plenty of vampires and zombies. Even the first idea I had for writing about these people that was big enough to be a novel was actually set after the last werewolf had been killed. It seems odd, I know, even extreme, but I was fascinated by the idea of a werewolf-hunting people far more so that by the werewolves themselves.</p> <p>As for Gabrielle and the gang in “Tangible Progress,” it took many <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-8_ngUFADUa0/UnuV01kNZMI/AAAAAAAAAls/v_qBJC15vH8/s1600-h/tangible-progress%25255B6%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="tangible-progress" border="0" alt="tangible-progress" align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-AhI-rC0NaFA/UnuV1cXITKI/AAAAAAAAAl4/La_AbL4HdZE/tangible-progress_thumb%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="148" /></a>drafts and help from several people (including but not limited to key input from Brad Beaulieu, Faith Hunter, and Scott Roberts) to get to a final draft. It was also balancing act of weaving in the necessary information about this race of werewolf hunters (that readers had never seen or heard of before), along with an actual story with a narrative arc and characters with their own agendas. Whether I’ve succeeded in that or not is up to the reader, but without Faith, Scott, and Brad’s help, this first story would only have been worse, not better.</p> <p>I chose to set the story during the Great Depression because in addition to taking the werewolves out of the story, I also wanted to take the technology out of the story. I’m not sure that I can fully articulate why I wanted to do that, only that my instinct was to focus things as much as possible on people and nothing else. I suspect, however, that the time period is one I will revisit, regardless of which aspects of the mythology I am creating I choose to keep and which I choose to jettison. 1938 in particular is a year that intrigues me. So much happened that year, from the first Superman comic book and H.G. Wells radio “War of the Worlds” broadcast hoax, to Hitler’s invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-niCHnmEaahI/UnuV2LtG0MI/AAAAAAAAAmA/Akh135bXFPE/s1600-h/tangible-progress%25255B10%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="tangible-progress" border="0" alt="tangible-progress" align="left" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-NCZFrdUDVts/UnuV2cN-vDI/AAAAAAAAAmI/0i1ikHtZrnA/tangible-progress_thumb%25255B10%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="164" height="244" /></a>As for the individual characters in “Tangible Progress,” I hadn’t originally intended to revisit them after I started finished this particular short story, but having now spent time with the Rem’n children Gabrielle and Dianna and Celia, as well as her parents, tribal elders, and the some of the humans they encounter, I can easily see their story expanded and continued (though their story in IGMS is entirely self-contained). I particularly like Gabrielle’s independence of thought, even as she recognizes in the end her dependence on the Rem’n around her.</p> <p>On a much broader note, I also feel compelled to mention that although I am the editor of IGMS, I have not and never have, selected my own work for inclusion in the magazine. I’m not delusional enough to claim that my role here doesn’t play a part in getting published in our digital pages, but any time I have a story that I’d like to see published, it goes first to our managing editor, who them passes it along to Uncle Orson. I’m comfortable saying that if he didn’t think that the story was good enough, he would at least send me some notes and say “Fix this up before you embarrass us all.” ;-)</p> <p>So that’s the story behind my story. I’m hoping there will be many more, but first and foremost, I hope you enjoy this one all by itself. It has quite a load to carry, bearing the weight of this writer’s hopes and dreams for many future projects.</p> <p align="right">-Edmund R. Schubert</p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-51834261785199757522013-10-16T09:00:00.001-04:002013-10-16T09:00:26.742-04:00The Sweetness of Bitter, by Beth Cato<p>A story may die but from the ashes a far better tale may emerge. <br />In its first incarnation, "The Sweetness of Bitter" told much the same story. It featured the same characters, with the same names. I sent it out to a few magazines and it garnered higher tier rejections. I knew there was something special about the story, but it obviously wasn't quite there yet.</p> <p>Therefore, I submitted it for group critique at the Cascade Writers <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-j0VQ4rSUXx4/Ul6N596rvKI/AAAAAAAAAlI/9KiK1e9IHng/s1600-h/the-sweetness-of-bitter%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="the-sweetness-of-bitter" border="0" alt="the-sweetness-of-bitter" align="right" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-4XHmf_oG2dQ/Ul6N6ZJAYII/AAAAAAAAAlM/kYO92IKcGww/the-sweetness-of-bitter_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="148" height="244" /></a>Workshop--where it was eviscerated. I have received hundreds of critiques and given as many, but this was my first time enduring it all in person. Mind you, my fellow writers had plenty of nice things to say about it, too, but I left feeling dizzy and overwhelmed at the depth of the experience.</p> <p>I returned home and stared at the stack of marked-up manuscripts. I was at an absolute loss at how to start revising. So, I didn't. <br />I started from scratch. Blank document. As I went, I copied in bits of the old story. The process endowed me with an epic migraine. At a few points, I was so frustrated that I cried. I debated trunking the story entirely. "Maybe I'm not good enough to do this idea justice," I thought. I could bury it on my hard drive for a few years, maybe return to it someday.</p> <p>Maybe. That was the key word. Deep down, I knew that if I set this story aside, I'd never pick it up again.</p> <p>I sent the story for more critiques. I tweaked it more. I judged it as ready to submit.</p> <p>My old story, like the phoenix, had been incinerated by critiques and born anew. I retitled it in a way that not only described the story, but the frustrating process of its evolution--and the end result, as you see here on Intergalactic Medicine Show.</p> <p>It's worth enduring the bitter to get that sweetness.</p> <p align="right">--Beth Cato</p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30764509.post-67713160491281716042013-10-04T06:53:00.001-04:002013-10-04T06:53:36.973-04:00Working on Wet Work—by Matthew S. Rotundo<p>Some days, I feel like I'm in control of my writing.  On others, the muse lets me know who's the boss.  Such was the case with "Wet Work:  A Tale of the Unseen."<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-CUdEkzsLFKM/Uk6eKzjbi5I/AAAAAAAAAkg/7N0REgHbQiY/s1600-h/wet-work%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: left; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="wet-work" border="0" alt="wet-work" align="left" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-yqo-Ne8_-jo/Uk6eLFJOUVI/AAAAAAAAAko/OKHMXJ03mdQ/wet-work_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="148" height="244" /></a></p> <p>It started innocently enough.  I'm a member of Codex, an online writing group, and every year, we have a Halloween story contest.  Strictly for fun, you understand.  You get a seed from another member, and you're supposed to use it in a spooky story.</p> <p>For "Wet Work," my seed consisted of a couple of photographs from Ireland--one of a castle gate, complete with portcullis, and the other of an abandoned factory.  The two pictures were taken from the same spot, at a crossroads.</p> <p>So I embarked on a story involving a castle (later a Long Island mansion) in a contemporary setting, and some sinister doings within.  I originally conceived of it as a darkly satirical version of The Apprentice, with contestants vying to work for a powerful demon instead of Donald Trump.  I know, right?  The jokes just write themselves.  Hilarious.</p> <p>But the muse had other plans, as she often does.  She's funny that way.  For one thing, "Wet Work" became much heavier on the dark than on the satire.  In fact, it's one of the nastiest pieces in my repertoire.  What that says about me is an exercise I leave to the reader.</p> <p>For another thing, the story decided it wanted to be a novel.  <br />Which, you know, can be a problem for a short story contest.  <br />What can I say?  Something about the Unseen and their evil machinations drew me.  The muse visited me with a flash of inspiration, in which I saw not only a much longer story, but a series, and maybe even a career.</p> <p>"Hold your horses, there," I said to the muse.  "We're getting a bit ahead of ourselves, aren't we?"</p> <p>She agreed that we were--not that it mattered.  The tale of Ellie <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-zY90ngPhHqM/Uk6eLhEyEgI/AAAAAAAAAkw/0AdSipPsu0k/s1600-h/wet-work%25255B6%25255D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="wet-work" border="0" alt="wet-work" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-ifW0kOareik/Uk6eLzR9Y8I/AAAAAAAAAk0/J5NA5HhefOY/wet-work_thumb%25255B5%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="226" /></a>Gibson's encounter with Dontur kept trying to swell, and I kept wrestling with it to keep it at a reasonable length.  I finally managed it, as you can see, but the muse was not satisfied.  The story would not let go of my imagination. </p> <p> <br />So shortly after completing it, I expanded it into a novel.  Like you do.</p> <p>Book #2 in the series wants to be written, but I'm holding off for the time being.  We'll see what kind of reception the short story gets first.  Call it proof of concept.  Who knows?  If the readers enjoy it, and if the publishing gods are good, you may one day get to read what happened to Ellie after that fateful Halloween night.</p> <p>Now if you'll excuse me, I think I hear the boss calling.  Time to get back to work.</p> Intergalactic Medicine Showhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04195238802014713388noreply@blogger.com0