I was talking with a friend who wanted to know when my novel was coming out. “I don’t have a real date yet, just sometime in 2010.”

The funny thing is that 2010 sounds like it’s decades away and it’s not. It’s just next year.  I think I’ve just spent so long with 2010 being a science-fictional date that it’s hard to make sense of it as a real date.

SFWA is proud to announce the nominees for the 2009 Nebula Awards. The awards will be presented at the 2009 Nebula Awards® Weekend, April 24-26,2009 in Los Angeles, California. For more information on the awards and the Nebulas Weekend, please visit the Nebula Awards website.

Novels

Little Brother – Cory Doctorow (Tor, Apr08)

Powers - Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt, Sep07)

Cauldron - Jack McDevitt (Ace, Nov07)

Brasyl - Ian McDonald (Pyr, May07)

Making Money – Sir Terry Pratchett (Harper, Sep07)

Superpowers – David J. Schwartz (Three Rivers Press, Jun08)

Novellas

“The Spacetime Pool” – Catherine Asaro (Analog, Mar08)

“Dark Heaven” – Gregory Benford (Alien Crimes, ed. Mike Resnick, SFBC, Jan07)

“Dangerous Space” – Kelley Eskridge (Dangerous Space, Aqueduct Press, Jun07)

“The Political Prisoner” – Charles Coleman Finlay (F&SF, Aug08)

“The Duke in His Castle” – Vera Nazarian (Norilana Books, Jun08)

Novelettes

“If Angels Fight” – Richard Bowes (F&SF, Feb08)

“Dark Rooms” – Lisa Goldstein (Asimov’s, Oct/Nov 07)

“Pride and Prometheus” – John Kessel (F&SF, Jan08)

“Night Wind” – Mary Rosenblum (Lace and Blade, ed. Deborah J. Ross, Norilana Books, Feb08)

“Baby Doll” – Johanna Sinisalo (The SFWA European Hall of Fame, ed. James Morrow & Kathryn Morrow, Tor, Jun07 )

“Kaleidoscope” – K.D. Wentworth (F&SF, May07)

Short Stories

“The Button Bin” – Mike Allen (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, Oct07)

“The Dreaming Wind” – Jeffrey Ford (The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales, ed. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Viking, Jul07)

“Trophy Wives” – Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Fellowship Fantastic, ed. Greenberg and Hughes, DAW Books, Jan08)

“26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss”- Kij Johnson (Asimov’s, Jul08)

“The Tomb Wife”- Gwyneth Jones (F&SF, Aug07)

“Don’t Stop” – James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s, Jun07)

Scripts

The Dark Knight – Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, David S.Goyer  (Warner Bros., Jul08)

“WALL-E” Screenplay – Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter (Walt Disney June 2008)

The Shrine – Brad Wright (Stargate Atlantis, Aug08)

Norton

Graceling - Kristin Cashore (Harcourt, Oct08)

Lamplighter - D.M. Cornish (Monster Blood Tattoo, Book 2, Putnam Juvenile,May08)

Savvy - Ingrid Law (Dial, May08)

The Adoration of Jenna Fox – Mary E. Pearson (Henry Holt and Company, Apr08)

Flora’s Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) -  Ysabeau S. Wilce (Harcourt, Sep08)

via 2009 Nebula Award® Ballot | The Nebula Awards.

During my birthday retreat, my dad treated us to a quick musical saw recital, complete with an intro to how to play the saw.

Thanks to Alethea Kontis for recording it.

My new AMC column is up and this week we look at teens in Fantasy.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the growing process lately, as we’re getting ready for my fifteen-year old nephew to come visit. The task of finding things that will be fun for him to do in New York is an interesting one, because it requires me to actively remember what it was like to be a teenager. So, I thought that this week, we would take a look at the unique ways fantasy can shed light on the desires and conflicts of growing up.

Swing by and let me know which films capture being a teen best.

Lately, my schedule has been keeping time with Rob’s which means that we’re often up until 2 a.m.  The advantage to this is that when he goes to bed, I can continue recording in the quietest time.  The downside is when I have to be up early the next morning.  Like today.

I had a rehearsal this morning for a show that Jodi and I are doing on March 12th. It’s a very short piece which involves me being a dish, a fork and a bowl.  Jodi plays a spoon, a knife and a plate. The tension and high drama!  Actually, I think it’s a good little piece and I’ll post a link to the show information later.

I went straight from that rehearsal to a production meeting for a different show where I’m building some crows and a box of entrails.  Really, I have the best job.

I was just introduced to the work of the amazing Bruno Torfs. He lives in Marysville, Australia and creates art that is inspired by and inhabits nature.  The slide show is truly beautiful.

But then as I was looking through the site, I came upon this.

On Saturday the 7th of February 2009 The Township of Marysville and the surrounding area was ravaged by bushfires and is still in a state of emergency. Firstly I would like to say that Bruno and his family are safe and well.

Unfortunately the family home and the gallery have been destroyed. The sculpture garden has sustained severe damage, but hopefully a good portion of the sculptures will be able to be salvaged.

I feel as if I just learned that there was a real fairyland and it’s been razed.

via Puppeteers Unite.

I’ve seen a number of people saying that they don’t know who to put down for the Campbell so I thought I would take a moment to mention some writers who have caught my eye.

To start with, Jon Armstrong and David Anthony Durham, who were finalists last year, are still eligible this year. I enjoyed both of their debut novels and am anxiously awaiting the sequels.

The rest of my recommendations are short story writers, quite naturally.  Aliette de Bodard has been rocking the short fiction world.  Aliette is a Writer’s of the Future winner and has a fiction sampler up if you want to give her a try.

Livia Llewellyn writes the type of fiction that is literary, seductive and drags cold fingers down your spine.  Check out her Four Hundred Thousand at Subterranean. Last year Tony Pi missed making the ballot by a single vote. Try his Metamorphosous in Amber.

Of course there’s a full list of eligible writers online and the number of them that deserve to make the ballot outweighs the number of slots, people like Alethea Kontis, Sara Genge, Doselle Young, Genevieve Valentine, Felix Gilman, and Alex Wilson.  Check them out. Even if you don’t pick them for one of your Campbell slots, these are amazing new writers who are worth paying attention to.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to my first collection, Scenting the Dark and Other Stories.  I’ve loved Subterranean Press for a long time now and can’t describe how ecstatic I am about this little book. The cover art is an original by Sandro Castelli and the book design is by Gail Cross. You can’t see the interior yet, but in pdf form it makes me long to have the pages in my hands. So beautiful.

We here at SubPress are fans of elegant small collections such as Antiquities by John Crowley or The Devil in the Details by James P. Blaylock and Tim Powers. Our latest offering fits solidly in that mode. Scenting the Dark and Other Stories, the debut hardcover by Campbell Award-winner Mary Robinette Kowal packs a powerful 25,000 words into its roughly 100 pages. Do yourself a favor and check out one of our finest new short story writers — and novelist, as Mary just sold a pair to Tor (Congrats!)

I’m just delighted.

Shimmer has reopened to submissions! Spread the word. I’ve uploaded Issue 10 to the printer and typically we release the new issue about two weeks after that, so keep your eyes out.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but my plate is getting consistently fuller.  For the past couple of months, we’ve been getting ready to relaunch Shimmer and one of the major changes is that I’m stepping down as art director.

This is a very hard decision, because I love the magazine and am proud of the work that Beth does with it.  But the sad truth is that, as a free-lancer, paying gigs always came first. Shimmer kept getting pushed to the back burner and that delayed the issues from coming.  With the novel sales, well, you can see where things were heading.

Fortunately, the wonderful Stephen Stanley has signed on as Shimmer’s new art director.  He has had illustrations in several issues of the magazine and is also an Illustrators of the Future winner, as well as having had a long career in graphic design. I can’t tell you how delighted and relieved I am to be handing the reins over to him. I look forward to seeing the new and exciting work to come out of the magazine.

As a bonus for me, I can finally submit to a magazine that I have loved. I sent a story in to Shimmer this morning and you should too.

I’m delighted! I won a Tuckerization by Laura Anne Gilman.

And my early draft of Shades of Milk and Honey goes to Mark Huenken of Germany.

The rest of the winners are listed at Matt Kressel’s LJ.

Charlie Jane Anders has given my audio recording of Evil Robot Monkey a gloooooowing review at io9.

It’s a great examination of art and the creative process, and what it feels like to be an artist who’s looked at merely as a curiosity or as a momentary amusement for child barbarians. And art as a containment device for impotent rage.

Also, you have to check out the illustration that goes with the review.

via Afternoon Listening: The Evil Robot Monkey Just Wants To Create.

Just a reminder that the Shirley Jackson Awards close tonight at midnight, eastern.  I’ve donated an early draft my forthcoming first novel Shades of Milk and Honey. Raffle tickets are only $1.00.  If the manuscript isn’t appealing, you could also own a carniverous terrarium or Neil Gaiman’s old keyboard — autographed.

I spent most of the day tending to SFWA matters, including getting my platform for re-election turned in.  Yes, I’m running for Secretary again. Why? Because contrary to popular belief, it’s really not so bad. It helps that the board is active, engaged and generally gets along.  We’re also doing good work and it’s exciting to be a part of that.

Other than that, it was a fairly quiet day. Rob ironed and listened to opera, which was his Saturday routine back when we were courting.  I know. The boy likes ironing, what can I say.

Anything else exciting?  I cut his hair?  Yeah, when I’m between shows life is pretty dull.

There’s actually not that much to tell this time, except that he has managed to schedule an appointment to get the new nerve conductivity test. Somewhat amazingly, it’s this coming Thursday. I was rather expecting it to take a month.

On the other hand, when Rob spoke with the surgeon, they still haven’t received the report from his physical and can’t schedule the surgery until they do. So, that’s business as usual.

Apparently, there’s also a war between our insurance and the worker’s comp about who pays for it. I feel as if we just paid for it out of pocket, everything would have been easier and not significantly less expensive.

The postman arrived today with a package, which was puzzling since I hadn’t ordered anything for props recently. Behold! Contributor’s copies of Science Fiction the Best of the Year, 2008, edited by Rich Horton.

My story, “For Solo Cello, op. 12″ is in there.