![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
What I've been up to spec fic-wise in 2013
Reading
At the start of 2013, knowing that I'd be nominating for the Hugos in 2014, I decided that whenever I read anything where I thought, "In a sane universe, this ought to be nominated for something", I'd jot it down. That way, when the silly season started, I'd have my ballot all done. (As it has turned out, I'm now also eligible to nominate for the Nebulas but I hadn't thought about that at the time. Fortunately, their eligibility windows now line up.)
Of course, it hasn't worked out that way. Being diligent about this list hasn't been my top priority. For example, I remember a Charlie Jane Anders time travel story in Asimov's that I really liked that I now realize I never jotted down. There have to be other stories that I don't remember which ave been similarly lost. I've made no attempt to read everything published this year. I read maybe one eligible novel this year and only a handful of novellas. Most of my reading has been short stories and novelettes but there are major venues still sitting on my book pile, in my ereader or in my Instapaper queue. (One has to wonder how the valiant editors who compose Year's Best anthologies do it.) Even with glaring omissions, my list has enough short stories to fill several ballots. So much for making it easier for me to nominate the stories I love.
Anyway, these are the stories I really enjoyed this year that I remembered to jot down. They reflect no particular order except when I had the chance to jot them down. Comments or the lack thereof reflect only how much time I had free when I added the story to my list:
Short Stories
Everything Else
In 2013, I narrated one story for Pseudopod, a couple for EscapePod and one for Lightspeed. Remember people, always back up your work in multiple physical locations and on multiple media. 1AM may not be your finest hour for editing audio, especially if you've already been editing non-stop for at least the past 6 hours or so. Sometimes, rather than trying to save it in the edit, you're better off recording it again.
As for podcasts of my own work, EscapePod narrated "Thirty Seconds from Now" This was originally published in Boston Review, Sept/Oct 2011.
I published two short stories in 2013:
At the start of 2013, knowing that I'd be nominating for the Hugos in 2014, I decided that whenever I read anything where I thought, "In a sane universe, this ought to be nominated for something", I'd jot it down. That way, when the silly season started, I'd have my ballot all done. (As it has turned out, I'm now also eligible to nominate for the Nebulas but I hadn't thought about that at the time. Fortunately, their eligibility windows now line up.)
Of course, it hasn't worked out that way. Being diligent about this list hasn't been my top priority. For example, I remember a Charlie Jane Anders time travel story in Asimov's that I really liked that I now realize I never jotted down. There have to be other stories that I don't remember which ave been similarly lost. I've made no attempt to read everything published this year. I read maybe one eligible novel this year and only a handful of novellas. Most of my reading has been short stories and novelettes but there are major venues still sitting on my book pile, in my ereader or in my Instapaper queue. (One has to wonder how the valiant editors who compose Year's Best anthologies do it.) Even with glaring omissions, my list has enough short stories to fill several ballots. So much for making it easier for me to nominate the stories I love.
Anyway, these are the stories I really enjoyed this year that I remembered to jot down. They reflect no particular order except when I had the chance to jot them down. Comments or the lack thereof reflect only how much time I had free when I added the story to my list:
Short Stories
- "I Have Placed My Sickness Upon You" by Karin Tidbeck Strange Horizons 3/4/13
- "The Hanging Game" Helen Marshall Tor.com 3/13/13
- "No Breather in the World But Thee" Jeff VanderMeer Nightmare Magazine 3/27/13
- "No Portraits on the Sky" Kali Wallace Clarkesworld 4/13
- "Deus Ex Arca" Desirina Boskovich Lightspeed 4/13
- "A Fine Show on the Abyssal Plane" Karin Tidbeck Lightspeed 4/16/13(lovely, elegant writing as always.
- "Sing" by Karin Tidbeck Tor.com 4/17/13 (absolutely sticks the landing)
- "The Ink Readers of Doi Saket" by Thomas Olde Heuvelt Tor.com 4/24/13 (it's the structure and the voice that makes the story)
- "Soulcatcher" by James Patrick Kelly May, 2013 Clarkesworld
- "The Wall" by Naomi Kritzer April/May 2013 Asimov's
- "A Love Song Concerning His Vineyard" Megan Arkenberg June 2013 Asimov's (smartly written, vast world building in few words, vivid characters)
- "The Urashima Effect" by E. LIly Yu Clarkesworld June 2013 (short story. Lots of wallop for size. Lovely meditation on memory and loss)
- "Loss, with Chalk Diagrams" by E. Lily Yu Eclipse Online March 2013, (Lots of beautiful writing. Another lovely editation on memory and loss. Note that the link goes to the subsequent EscapePod podcast of the story.)
- "Found" by Alex Dally MacFarlane Clarkesworld August 2013. Nuanced story with big, bold world building. Gender fluid.
- "The Ex-Corporal" Leah Thomas Asimov's August 2013. Searing portrayal of abuse and mental health issues.
- "Bits" Naomi Kritzer Clarkesworld October 2013. Sweet and charming. (somewhat pornographic)
- "The Shore at the Edge of the World" by Eugene Mirabelli F&SF Sept/Oct 2013 Terrific language. Satisfying read.
- "Super Bass" by Kai Ashante Wilson tor.com 5/22/13
- "Hotel" by Suzanne Palmer, Asimov's, January 2013
- "They Shall Salt the Earth With Seeds of Glass" by Alaya Dawn Johnson, Asimov's, January 2013
- "The Fountain" by G. David Nordley Asimov's June 2013 (compelling alien, nicely structured. large scope in relatively few words.)
- "Kormak the Lucky" by Eleanor Arnason F&SF July/Aug 2013 picaresque adventure that does a great job of fusing Nordic and celtic mythos.
- "No Others Are Genuine" by Gregory Frost Asimov's Oct/Nov 2013 novelette wonderful depiction of turn of the century Chicago. Unspoken horror that is all to clearly recognized and its consequences felt.
- "A Rumor of Angels" by Dale Bailey tor.com 9/11/13
- "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" by Ted Chiang Subterranean Press Magazine, Fall 2013
Everything Else
In 2013, I narrated one story for Pseudopod, a couple for EscapePod and one for Lightspeed. Remember people, always back up your work in multiple physical locations and on multiple media. 1AM may not be your finest hour for editing audio, especially if you've already been editing non-stop for at least the past 6 hours or so. Sometimes, rather than trying to save it in the edit, you're better off recording it again.
As for podcasts of my own work, EscapePod narrated "Thirty Seconds from Now" This was originally published in Boston Review, Sept/Oct 2011.
I published two short stories in 2013:
- "Best of All Possible Worlds" at Asimov's in February, 2013
- "The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere" at tor.com 2/2013
- "Incomplete Proofs" (originally published in Bloody Fabulous edited by Ekaterina Sedia in 2012) will be in M. David Blake's 2014 Campbellian Anthology. (Yes, this is my 2nd year of eligibility for the Campbell Award.)
- "Corpse Full of Birds" will be in an (AFAIK) as of yet unannounced flash fiction anthology
- "The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere" will be reprinted in Wilde Stories 2014: The Year's Best Gay Speculative Fiction
- "Repairing the World" will be published at Apex Magazine
- "Bunraku" by David X. Wiggin for Pseudopod, originally published in Bete Noire Magazine
- "The Litigation Master and the Monkey King" by Ken Liu for Lightspeed Magazine
- "The Boy in Zaquitos" by Bruce McAllister for Escape Pod, originally publish in Asimov's Science Fiction
- "Mono No Aware" by Ken Liu for Escape Pod, originally published in The Future is Japanese
- "Good Hunting" by Ken Liu for Escape Pod in Strange Horizons