Off to Tulsa

Well, I'm off to Conestoga 10 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, so I'll be out of pocket for a few days.

More con news

I recently got my invite to next year's AggieCon, which will be held March 22-25 in College Station. I have happily accepted.

I also received and returned the guest questionnaire for FenCon, which will be held in Dallas Sept. 22-25. Sent that back, too.

The Rocket "shows"

The child bride and I spent a pleasant Saturday visiting the most historic house in Texarkana. It's called the "Ace of Clubs House" because that's what it looks like from above. It had a central staircase with three octagonal rooms and one rectangular room on two stories. It has a nice cupola above the staircase which provided ventilation in those pre-air conditioning days (the house was built in 1884).

We took the tour and also did some shopping. I suggested we do something special because next weekend I will be out of town at Conestoga; the weekend after that we are hosting a Sunday school social on Saturday; the weekend after that is Armadillocon in Austin and I will be away again; the weekend after that is when the local civic festival where I work is held, called Pioneer Days, and I will be quite busy.

When we came home, I checked the mail and found my September issue of Asimov's. I remembered that Sheila Williams had previously said she would be printing the results if the 2006 Readers Awards in that issue, so I flipped it open to see "A Rocket for the Republic" has some in third in the short story category. It's nice to see how well it "showed" up.

Conestoga line-up

I will be guest at Conestoga 10 in Tulsa next weekend. It is being held at the Radisson Tulsa, 10918 E. 41st Street. I will be the moderator for the Saturday 3 p.m. panel on "SF Websites You Should Be Visiting" in Salon F. I am also on the panel for New Writers at 10 a.m. Saturday in Salon G and the panel on "I Made My First Sale - Now What?" at 3 p.m. Sunday in Salon G.
In 1997, Conestoga, Meisha Merlin Publishing, and Yard Dog Press all started up and there will be a heavy slant towards celebrating all three.
This will be my second visit to Conestoga. I enjoyed it immensely last year and am very happy to return. If you can make it, you'll enjoy it. Get a load of the guests:
Bill Allen
David Lee Anderson
Lou Antonelli
Margene Bahm
Paul Batteiger
Marty Belsky
Maggie Bonham
Peter Bradley
Robert D. Brown
Taylor Brown
Warren Brown
james k. burk
Glen Cook
Richard Cox
Sherri Dean
Bradley Denton
Larry Dixon
Linda Donahue
William R. Eakin
Suzette Haden Elgin
Rhonda Eudaly
Randy Farran
Melanie Fletcher
James Fowler
Melea Fowler
Tony Frazier
Tim Frayser
Amanda A. Gannon
John Gibbons
Bennie Grezlik
Talia Gryphon
Beverly Hale
Nikki Hartline
Lance Hawvermale
Carol Hightshoe
James P Hogan
James Hollaman
Gary Jonas
John Kaufman
Lee Killough
Katharine Eliska Kimbriel
Mercedes Lackey
Alexis Glynn Latner
Deborah LeBlanc
William Ledbetter
Greg Lower
Julia S. Mandala
Shay Marion
Lee Martindale
Deborah Millitello
Jim Murray
Paula Helm Murray
Jody Lynn Nye
Cary Osborne
Stephen Pagel
Dana Pattillo
K. Hutson Price
Dusty Rainbolt
M.T. Reiten
Ray Roberts
The Royal Gauntlet
Charles Sasser
Susan Satterfield
Mark Shepherd
Rie Sheridan
Bradley H. Sinor
Susan P. Sinor
Glenn R. Sixbury
Dave Smeds
Frank A. Smith
Caroline Spector
Keith Stokes
Mel Tatum
The Twisted Blades
Laura J. Underwood
Martin (T.M.) Wagner
Steven Wedel
Martha Wells
K.D. Wentworth
Craig Wolf
Janny Wurts
David Drake is the GOH, and the Toastmaster in Robin Wayne Bailey. There are so many guests the SFWA is having a regional meeting at 1 p.m Saturday - which will the first such meeting I will ever attend.

Hey, maybe it's working...

I want to reprint a comment posted at the Asimov's forum by Ahmed A. Khan, right after I mentioned my acceptance at OG.

Ahmed has a story in the first issue and it was his recommendation that led me to submit there.

I don't know that I have a clearly defined goal when I write my s-f. I guess I probably do have some kind of agenda, and this fellow seems to have found me out:

"Hey, Lou, I am happy for you. I like your stories. Your stories usually have that little up-beat swing, that sense of fun, that has become so rare in SF, a genre that has starting taking itself too seriously."

Another sale!

Got good news today. Seth Crossman, the publisher of a new outfit called OG Speculative Fiction, has accepted my story "Berserker". The magazine debuted July 15. Ahmed A. Khan, who is a frequent poster at the Asimov's discussion board, had mentioned that he had a story in the first issue and recommended we check it out. I did, and thought it looked like a nice startup, so I shot them the story. Crossman said he liked it and will publish it in the second issue.
This was the first story I ever took to a Turkey City, in the spring of 2005. I think it was called "Why I Came to California" then. Interestingly enough, it's a monologue (like "A Rocket for the Republic") although its set in the near future.
This will be my 26th story since June 2003. OG will be my 13th venue. It's also a sale; I will get a check for this.
I hope this helps and encourages both other writers and the magazine itself. OG stands for "Opinion Guy" - that's the name of the web site - and apparently is a wing of a larger outfit.
They're certainly off to a good start, in my opinion.

A little explanation

I visited Jayme Blaschke's blog the other day, and saw that he had posted some links to videos from a web site called YouTube. I went there and thought it was interesting, and thought to try it. My story "I Got You" - which was published by Bewildering Stories in 2004 and earned an honorable mention in "The Year's Best Science Fiction, 22nd annual collection" last year - was inspired after I happened to hear this song, so I went to link the video. It worked, too - which kinda surprised me, seeing as how computer-clumsy I am.

A video that inspired an HM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQqnZyj2jaM

Positive response to "The Runner at Dawn"

There been some nice comments aboit my story "The Runner at Dawn" which is on the current issue of "Worlds of Wonder".

This was posted on the Asimov's discussion board tbis week:

#

By bill bowler on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 09:12 pm:

lou - excellent story.

did you happen to see the article in the ny times today about the experiment with brain implants that have a cable that plugs direct into a computer and the subject (tetrapalegic) controls the cursor with his thoughts?

#

Another poster commented on the World of Wonder discussion board:

#

JP Dellova

Re: The Runner at Dawn
« Reply #1 on Jul 5, 2006, 11:25am »

I enjoyed this story a great deal. Hat's off to Mr Antonelli.

Despite trying to fight it, at times I had images of that old Disney movie, Tron , running through my head as I read the various computer as character sections. But the two stories have little in common, as far as I can see, other than having scenes taking place from the viewpoint of living software.

Very thought provoking. The reality of humankind merging, at least in part, with artificial intelligence, is becoming ever more a reality.

In my view, if humans don't incorporate software as part of our adjusted bodies, we'll soon become little more than an inferior pet to our own creations.

#

Nice to please the public.

Regrets to SoonerCon

I got an email from Soonercon today asking to confirm my participation for next weekend, and I had to beg off. My truck is acting funny and I'm taking it to the shop tomorrow. Because of the way it is acting, I am leery of traveling out of town until I get a better handle on the problem. As it is running now, I'm be very worried about trying to get to Oklahoma City. I hope to have a grip on the situation in time for Conestoga, which is three weeks away.

More good news

I'll just reprint the news item I put up on my web site:

St. Martin's Press in New York City has just released "The Year's Best Science Fiction, 23rd annual collection", edited by Gardner Dozois, a collection of the outstanding science fiction short stories published during 2005.
Lou Antonelli was recognized with three honorable mentions in the honors list included in the volume. The stories cited are "A Rocket for the Republic", published by Asimov's Science Fiction (Sept. 2005), "The Cast Iron Dybbuk", published by Andromeda Spaceways In-flight Magazine (June/July 2005), and "Dialogue" published by Revolution Science Fiction (August 2005).
This is the third consecutive year Antonelli has been included in the honorable mention list; he has received eight honorable mentions in three years.

Some possible good news

I got a phone call from a friend today. She knows the owner of a Texas book publishing company. She was one of the guests at a reading of "Rocket" last fall and loves the story.
A few weeks ago, she asked me for a copy. She said she wanted to pass it along to the book publisher. This outfit only publishes Texana, but - as she noted - most of my stories are set in Texas. She said she wanted to see if they would bite at a volume of my fiction.
She called today and said the response was positive and asked if I could collect up three more stories and send them along. At first glance, I think I'll run off "Silence is Golden", "The Cast Iron Dybbuk" and "A Djinn for General Houston".
When the prospect first arose that I might get a collection published, I asked Jayme Blaschke - who was the editor at RevSf who published "Silence is Golden" - if he would be willing to write the intro, and he graciously agreed. Let's hope he gets the chance.
This isn't the first time someone expressed interest in publishing a collection of mine. The editor of another Texana house expressed some interest last year - but she left the company before anything came of it.

"Rocket for the Republic" latest

Mentioning the LACon Report reminded me that last week I got the latest issue of the SFWA Forum, a little chapbook-sized publication put out six times a year by the SFWA for its members. It's much less entertaining than the quarterly slick bulletin - it's where they put official minutes and resolutions and that kind of stuff.
One of the records they use the Forum to keep track of are the Nebula recommendations. Since I am not a full-fledged member of the SFWA, I cannot make recommendations. But I was happy to see that "Rocket" has picked up a couple of recommendations from full members.
From what I can tell, stories are eligible to be nominated for a year from the date they were published. So the way I read the rules, "Rocket" would be eligible for consideration until the end of this August (since it was published in the Sept. '05 Asimov's). I think the ballot closes every year in February.
It's kinda weird to see the story listed when I can't drop in a recommendation myself. Also, there are dozens of stories with a handful of recommendations - lots of good stories by lots of good authors. From what I can tell, you need ten recommendations to make the preliminary Nebula ballot, and from what I see, only one story has done that so far.
Well, it was nice to see a couple of old pros gave the story a thumbs up.

Strange coincidence

I got my LACon Progress Report No. 5 for July in the mail today. While I was flipping through it, something struck me.
I bought a supporting membership back in January, hoping I would be able to attend. But thanks to some unfortunate happpenings afterwards, that plan flew out the window. I simply don't have the money. This year I'm only going to cons in Texas and Oklahoma.
I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO ATTEND A CON I REGISTERED FOR IN ADVANCE.
Back in 2003, after I attended ConDFW in February, I resolved to start attending these things. I sent in a registration for Conestoga, in July. Autombile troubles kept me from attending. Then I sent in my registration for Armadillocon, in August. Car troubles again, plus I started a new job that week and had to move.
After that, I resolved I would never send in my money in advance. I was frantic to get to at least one other con before the end of the year, so I flew to PhilCon, which was held in December.
Despite the potential logistical nightmare (I didn't even reserve a hotel room in advance) I made it to the Con in great shape, found a hotel room within walking distance of its host hotel, got to meet Gardner Dozois, Tom Purdom, Michael Swanwick, amonng others, and listen to the likes of Gordon Van Gelder and David Hartwell.
All because, apparently, I just showed up at the door, money in hand. After that, I resolved (that's the third time I've used 'resolved' in this post) that I would never sign up for a con in advance. Sure, it's a little more expensive that way, but it seems to work for me.
So then I forget myself, sign-up for LACon in advance, and within maybe six weeks we have two accidents, a major hospital stay, and bills out the wazoo. So much for that idea.
Thankfully (and I mean that in the sense that I am thankful) I'm a guest at all the cons I plan to attend this year, except for Armadillocon. So there's no registration to worry about.
And you can be DARN sure I'm not going to sign-up in advance for DilloCon.

"The Runner at Dawn"

The ezine Worlds of Wonder has published its summer 2006 issue. It includes my story "The Runner at Dawn". This is my 25th story published since June 2003. This is also my first appearance in this venue, and I appreciate them giving this little tale a good home. My thanks to editor Sharon Partington.

http://clik.to/wowzine

Book donation

The paper closed early for the 4th of July, so I got
home early. Since the library was still open (my local library is so small it closes at 5 p.m. and is not open weekends) I went across the street and gave them my best copy of "The World Turned Upside Down" I had. I'll pull a replacement out of storage.

Sated on books

Mentioning the collection of books at the estate sale last month reminds me to mention that I think I've finally reached the point where I'm not interested any more in browsing book shops and book sales.
Quite frankly, I have so many books now - and so many of the books I feel I need for my s-f collection - that it's hard for me to think of any books I need any more.
I'm sure I'll think of some while browsing the dealer's room at upcoming conventions -but I have boxes of books in a storage building I can't even shelf for now.

In memory of Jim Baen

Jim Baen, one of the seminal figures in the s-f publishing business, and namesake of one of the major lines of books, passed away June 28 after suffering a stroke the previous week.

A moving and informative tribute was written by David Drake, who was the GOH at the very first con I ever attended, ConDFW in 2003.

Drake suggested at the end of his tribute that a fitting memorial would be to donate a copy of "The World Turned Upside Down" to a young persons or public library.

After my recent purchase of a 500 book collection at an estate sale, I have multiple copies of "World", so I'm walking across the street next week and giving a copy to my local library.