John Joseph Adams is hot stuff these days.  Barnes & Noble.com named him “the reigning king of the anthology world” and that’s because he keeps coming up with these really keen ideas for anthologies.  Like this one.

The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination

From Victor Frankenstein to Lex Luthor, from Dr. Moreau to Dr. Doom, readers have long been fascinated by megalomaniacal plans for world domination and the madmen who come up with them. Typically, we see these villains through the eyes of superheroes (or other good guys) as they attempt to put an end to their evil ways. This anthology, however, will explore the world of mad scientists and evil geniuses–from their own point of view.

Evil geniuses are always so keen on telling captured heroes all their fiendish plans. Isn’t it about time someone gave them a platform such as this one to reach the masses with their messages of hope death and prosperity destruction?

So I’m incredibly excited to have sold him a short story for this anthology. It’s scheduled to come out from Tor sometime in 2011.  Here’s a teaser:

We Interrupt This Broadcast

Doubled over with another hacking cough, Fidel Dobes turned away from his 1402 punchcard reader. The last thing he needed was to cough blood onto the Beluga program source cards. Across the cramped lab, Mira raised her head and stared with concern. He hated worrying her.

Fidel’s ribs ached with the force of the cough. He held a handkerchief to his mouth, waiting for the fit to pass. For a long moment, he thought he would not be able to breathe again. The panic almost closed his throat completely, but he managed a shuddering breath without coughing. Then another. He straightened slowly and pulled the cloth away from his mouth. In the glob of sputum, a bright spot of scarlet glistened.

Damn. That usually only happened in the morning. He folded the handkerchief over so it wouldn’t show, turned back to the 1402 and continued loading the source cards into the sturdy machine. Its fan hummed, masking some of the ragged sound of his breathing.

I affectionately call this my punchcard punk story.

In what may be one of my favorite reviews, the English Tea Store has been having Jackie Gamber, a lover of both tea and science fiction, suggest pairings of novels and teas.

Here’s a taste of what she says…

English Tea Store brand Ginger Tea is a classic tea with a twist. The high-quality black tea leaves brew into a rich, golden liquid just right for polite tea society, yet the mild ginger brings a hint of glamor and heat to the overall sipping experience.It’s similar to what you’ll find in reading Mary Robinette Kowal’s Shades of Milk and Honey…

You can read the full post at the Tea Blog Ginger Tea and “Shades of Milk and Honey”. And order the tea as well.  Mm… ginger tea.

I started writing Shades of Milk and Honey for NaNoWriMo, in which one tries to write 50,000 words of a novel in a month.  When I hit the finish line, I stopped to re-read what I’d written and decided to toss the last six chapters and rewrite, changing the plot in the process.

Today’s easter egg is the last chapter I wrote in the original plot.  You’ll also get to see what my first drafts look like.

To access it or any of the other easter eggs, you just need to know the name of the horse that Jane rides in Chapter 10.

I started writing Shades of Milk and Honey for NaNoWriMo, in which one tries to write 50,000 words of a novel in a month.  When I hit the finish line, I stopped to re-read what I’d written and decided to toss the last six chapters and rewrite, changing the plot in the process.

This is the last chapter I wrote in the original plot.  The events leading up to it are somewhat different. While I was able to reuse much of the text that I cut when I reworked the novel, this scene got cut completely.

It’s a shame because I had to solve a thorny theological problem to write this.  It’s set in a church, which raised the question: What would miracles look like in a world with magic?

Oh, you’ll also get to see notes to myself from when I wrote it since this scene never got past the first draft stage.

This video just makes me laugh and laugh. And I thought Harriet had an issue with drinking water.

(Thanks, -e-!)

Harriet has taken to drinking out of the bathroom sink.  She’s so excited about it that she will sit in the sink waiting for us to come in and turn the water on.

The problem is that she’s not very good at it.  Frequently, she’ll just shove her head under the running water and let it dribble through her fur and drink from the water running off her nose. She will also try to bite the stream of water. Mostly she’s been licking up the water that’s splashed everywhere.

No amount of cleaning her actual water bowl convinced her to use it and we’re concerned that she wasn’t drinking enough. Yesterday I picked up a pet fountain from PetCo for her and Marlowe.

Initially suspicious, they are both noticeably drinking more water. Hurrah. It has a deeply annoying buzz, which is deeply, deeply annoying. I’ve ordered a different one that’s supposed to be super-quiet. The deeply, deeply, deeply annoying buzzing doesn’t seem to bother the cats as much as it does me.

Meanwhile, Harriet is still sitting in the sink.

(I actually wrote this post in August but saved it as a draft instead of publishing.  Whoops!)

Way back in 2005, I attended OSC’s Literary BootCamp with Rick Novy. He and I had known each other online, but this was the first time we met in person. We’ve stayed in touch over the years and when he asked me if I had anything that might work for 2020 Visions, his anthology of near-future SF, I was delighted.

I was even happier when he accepted “Birthright,” especially after I saw the rest of the TOC.

1. Mary Robinette Kowal – Birthright
2. Sheila Finch – The Persistence of Butterflies
3. Randy Henderson – A Shelter for Living Things
4. Jason S. Ridler – Showing Light
5. Ernest Hogan – Radiation is Groovy, Kill the Pigs
6. David Lee Summers – The Revelation of Thought
7. Jeff Spock – Teh Afterl1fe (This is not a typo – Rick)
8. Emily Devenport – If the Sun’s at Five O’Clock, It Must be Yellow Daisies
9. Cat Rambo – Therapy Buddha
10. Jack Mangan – Dead Rookies
11. David Boop – Organ Cloning While You Wait
12. Spencer Ellsworth – The Black Plague of Our Generation
13. Gareth L. Powell – The Bigger The Star, The Faster It Burns
14. Alethea Kontis – Pocket Full of Posey
15. Alex Wilson – Nervewrecking
16. David Gerrold – Time Capsule 2120: Actual Comments from Lunar Tourists

Here’s an excerpt of the story.

Birthright

Restless within the confines of the waiting room, Helen looked out the window of the Birthright Clinic. Her fingers twisted her wedding ring as if she were spinning straw into gold.

Her husband read an outdated magazine with a relaxed air that magnified her tension. Light caressed Daniel’s freckled cheekbones. He looked up, as if he felt the weight of her gaze. “Are you all right?”

“Of course.” She smiled at him.

He closed the magazine. “We don’t have to do this today.”

You can read more about the anthology on Rick’s site.

This is just a quick note to say that I miss Rob. He’s been away for the last week, helping some friends of ours move to Minneapolis. We’ve talked almost every day but he won’t be home until Wednesday.

Bachelorette life is not all it’s cracked up to be. le sigh…

I had not planned to get a P.O. box.  Truly, I just hadn’t thought about how I wanted to handle folks who wanted to have things signed.

My plan, if I had one, was that if someone needed to mail me things that I would just give them my home address.  Since I’m not comfortable listing my home address on the website, this adds an extra layer of complication to receiving things. Not a big one, granted, but it means that folks needed to email me before they could mail me. It’s silly.

So, I decided to get a P.O. box. Here’s what I’ve learned about them.

1. A P.O. box is not expensive. The box I got is only $55 for six months. I had thought that the monthly expense would be much higher.
2. Boxes come in multiple sizes. The #3 is large enough for a magazine to lay down flat and hence can easily hold manuscripts and novels. I’ll let you know if the #3 turns out to be too small, but the Postal worker I talked to seemed to think it would work well based on the other authors that frequent this post office. Who knew there were so many.
3. There’s a waiting list for P.O. boxes that varies from post office to post office. Mine said their wait was between 2 days to 2 months. I got it about two weeks after I applied.
4. You can apply online. I applied in person, but golly online is so much easier.
5. Small downside. This does mean I have to go to the post office on a regular basis to check it. The box is easy walking distance and I pass it on my way to the library so this is a small thing.

Overall, this is going to be something that will vary between individual authors.  If you do decide to get a P.O. box, I’d suggest that you apply well in advance and pick someplace that you will routinely pass.

And finally, my mailing address is:

Mary Robinette Kowal
P.O. Box 13346
Portland, OR 97213-0346

I’m up in Redmond, WA at Foolscap and having a delightful time. After the hugeness of Dragon*Con it’s nice to be at a small convention that focuses on books.  The conversations have been interesting and pretty far-ranging. Not surprisingly, there are a lot of intelligent and well-read people here.

Programming has me scheduled heavily, which I actually enjoy as it gives me a chance to engage with people that I wouldn’t normally get a chance to.  Yesterday I got to talk to Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Judy Johnson, Tom Whitmore, Kyra Freestar, Bob Kruger, Angel McCoy, Tamara Sellman, Mark Teppo, Keffy Kherli, and… well, pretty much everyone here is awesome.

Last night the social event to attend was Janna Silverstein’s soiree. In the middle of it, while geeking out about period costumes with folks like Kat Richardson and Emma Bull, I mentioned that I had the Regency dress in my suitcase.  They basically pushed me out the door with orders not to come back until I was wearing it.  Not that I need much of an excuse.

Hal O’Brien caught a picture of me that I quite like.  Admittedly, I wish the dress weren’t wrinkled, but I don’t travel with maid servants.

So far the only thing that is disconcerting about this convention is that I drove here. I normally take the train up but the last train back to Portland is a 5:30 and I didn’t think I could get to it. Since Rob is out of town, I didn’t want to leave the cats alone for more than one night.Weird driving.

Daily Science Fiction is an interesting new SF magazine that works differently than the other online magazines. Basically, you sign up and once a day you get an SF story in your inbox. A week later it goes up live on the site. I find that I’m actually reading most of the short SF stories in the inbox version.

Anyway, I have a fantasy story up today,  ”American Changeling.” One thing before you read it. I’m using the word glamour in the story in the traditional Faerie sense but the world of magic has no relation to Shades of Milk and Honey at all.  I just looked at the teaser and realized it could be confusing if you were thinking of the novel and looking at the story. Completely different universes.

I also need to give a hearty thank you to Ellen Datlow and the Codex Writers Group. I wrote this for a writer’s retreat and Ellen was our guest editor.  The feedback I got there was instrumental in making the story what it is.

Here’s the teaser.

American Changeling

Half-consciously, Kim put a hand up to cover her new nose ring. It pissed her parents off no end that she could tolerate touching cold iron and they couldn’t.

Iron still made her break out sometimes, but didn’t burn her. It had taken forever to find someone to make an iron nose ring, but the effort would be totally worth it.

“Kimberly Anne Smith,” Mom’s voice caught her in the foyer as surely as if she’d been called by her true name. “I’ve been worried sick. Do you know what time it is?”

“11:49.” Kim dropped her hand and turned to face Mom, her Doc Martens making a satisfactory clomping on the hardwood floor. “I’m here. Home before midnight. No one with me.” Sometimes she thought about bringing friends home to show them what her parents really looked like after their glamour dropped.

You can read the rest of the story at Daily Science Fiction.

I just finished reading Brent Week’s new book The Black Prism.

I picked this up on a whim after hearing a lot of good things about Brent Weeks. Holy cow. What an amazing ride. He is cruel and vicious to his characters and continually kicks them when they are down. That’s part of what makes it so good. The other part is that he does all of this action while continuing to build believable characters and a world that is original. It all holds together so beautifully.

Have I mentioned that I love the magic system?

Okay… so you know that glamour, my magic system, is light based but entirely illusionary. Brent’s system is also light based but not even a little bit illusionary.  This is what people talk about when they say that there are no unique ideas.  Writing isn’t about the ideas so much as what you do with those ideas.

I mean, basically our magic systems both start from a point of “the magic is a manipulation of light” and then diverge wildly from there.  With Brent’s a drafter — his magicians — can convert light into solids. His form of light magic has different physical properties and affects the person who drafts in specific ways.   It is a consistent and coherent system.

In other places I’ve talked about how the hardest thing with the magic system in Shades of Milk and Honey was to avoid breaking history. That if I let it do too much, the Regency wouldn’t be the Regency.  If you want to see an entire world that is shaped by the use and existence of a light-based magic that has practical effects, check out The Black Prism.

Oh, there are other reasons to read it. I very, sincerely enjoyed the book. I love flawed characters and this story is chock full of them. Flawed people who are trying to do the right thing and it just gets them into deeper trouble.

But, from a purely theoretical standpoint, what you have here are two books that are very different in type. Giant Swashbuckling Epic Fantasy vs. Very Quiet Romantic Historical Fantasy and yet both have magic systems that appear to start with the same basic idea:  What if you could manipulate light?

Storytelling isn’t the idea, it’s what you do with it.

Hey! I’m heading up to Foolscap this weekend and if you are looking for me, here’s my schedule.

Sat 11 am – noon (Alder)

Class Warriors From Beyond – Class and Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror

• Kyra Freestar, Mary Robinette Kowal, Will Shetterly

Sat 130 – 3 pm (Alder)

Culture and SF: Sociological Symbiosis – SF/F considered in the abstract as sociopolitical commentary: How SF shapes cultures and vice versa. With such an emphasis on world-building, is it even possible to write SF/F that isn’t social and political commentary, or at least reflective of a certain viewpoint? Is that intrinsic to SF? When SF ideas become mainstream, how does it affect a society as a whole (i.e., 1984 and Big Brother often cited in relation to spin-doctoring)? How does that cultural influence then feed back into SF?

Judy Johnson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Tom Whitmore

*Sat 3 – 430 pm (Canyon Creek)

All Access Authors – How do Twitter, blogging, etc, change the relationship between the audience and the author’s work? How does it work for authors and readers to interact via social media, and what’s the most effective way to do it?

Emma Bull, Keffy Kehrli, Mary Robinette Kowal, Bob Kruger, Angel McCoy, Tamara Sellman, Mark Teppo

Sat 430 – 6 pm (Elk)

Who Ought to be Able to Use My Idea? – intellectual property.

Ellen Beeman, Kirsten Edwards. Manny Frishberg (M), Mary Robinette Kowal

Sat 830 – 9 pm (Canyon Creek)

Strut Your Stuff: Mary Robinette Kowal – reading from Shades of Milk & Honey

Sun 130 – 3 pm (Alder)

The Truly Alien in SF – Getting past the prosthetic forehead and writing aliens that are very much not like ourselves. How would we know them? How can we relate to stories about them? As a writer, how do you get plausible ideas for them?

Shoshana Glick, Kyra Freestar, Manny Frishberg, Ron Hale-Evans, Mary Robinette Kowal

Sun 4 – 5 pm (Commons)

Clothing Without Cloth – Couture in the fou-ture: what will we be wearing on the next cutting edge of fashion? Non-traditional materials like plastics and papers? Neo-cloth materials like beta cloth? Effects that mimic clothing like body paint, skin ink, or even virtual clothing-like body decoration? Come share your visions.

Dave Howell, Mary Robinette Kowal

If you are curious about my favorite scene in Shades of Milk and Honey, it’s posted at RT Reviews. They also asked me to tell them a bit about what went into writing the scene.

Curious? Head over to read my Favorite Scene From Shades of Milk and Honey at RT Book Reviews.

If you missed it, they’ve also got an interview with me that includes a non-spoilery easter egg from Chapter 15 which explains the significance of the book that Lady FitzCameron gives Jane.

Read the interview at RT Book Reviews.

While I am posting music videos that make me smile, check out OK Go’s newest, “White Knuckles.” With doggies!

Via EpicFTW

Donate to animal rescue at http://www.okgo.net/dogs