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To raise money for the KGB Fantastic Fiction reading series, we’re holding a raffle. The prizes are unbelievable. Original art from Thomas Canty, Neil Gaiman’s keyboard (autographed), short story critiques by Ellen Datlow, Gardner Dozois… The list goes on and on. Seriously, one of the items is your own wormhole.

Between July 14th and July 28th, you can buy raffle tickets for only a dollar each. 1 buck. That’s nothing. And you can buy as many as you want.

At midnight (EST) on July 28th, we’ll randomly select the raffle winners. Prizes will be mailed to the lucky winners. (See a more detailed explanation in Raffle Rules).

Just to whet your appetite, here’s a partial list of prizes (a full list is available at the website)

· Story in a bottle by Michael Swanwick
· Tuckerization (your name in a story) by Lucius Shepard
· Tuckerization by Elizabeth Hand
· Tuckerization by Jeffrey Ford
· Pen & Ink drawing of an animal-your choice- by Gahan Wilson
· Original art for a George R. R. Martin novel by Tom Canty
· John Picacio signed print of art for Michael Moorcock novel
· Naomi Novik signed TEMERAIRE first edition
· Your very own wormhole from physicist Michio Kaku
· Peter Straub excerpt of a short story, “Mallon the Guru,” deleted from novel-in-progress, THE SKYLARK
· Holly Black signed advance copy of GOOD NEIGHBORS
· Original art by Terri Windling
· Carol Emshwiller signed manuscript of THE ABOMINABLE CHILD’S TALE
· Complete set of back issues and lifetime subscription to PARADOX MAGAZINE
· Critique of a short story by Ellen Datlow
· Critique of a short story by Gardner Dozois
· Critique of a short story by Nancy Kress
· Two year subscription to SYBIL’S GARAGE MAGAZINE
· Ray Bradbury limited edition worth $900
· And dozens more prizes on the website…

Continue reading KGB FANTASTIC FICTION ONLINE RAFFLE

Yesterday was the last official day of the workshop portion of the event. We critiqued three stories, including mine. I’m pretty relieved by my feedback and also realized that I have a pattern in the way I write stories.

I tend to trust the reader and don’t like hitting people over the head with things, so I don’t put down every plot detail or world building element that I think of. And then the first time I hand it to readers, I get to see which things I need to clarify and which things I can leave alone. In this particular story, I needed to clarify that my character’s allergy is a contact allergy and then almost all everything else makes sense.

As much as I want to sit down and go through the notes on my story and rewrite it RIGHT NOW, I’m not going to. I’m finishing the revisions on my novel.

Last night, Mom made dinner. Oh, yes people. We are living the high life here.

That’s right. Join Codex and you get to attend workshops where, not only is your story critiqued by a multiple-award winning editor, you also get my mother’s cobbler. Need I say more?

We’re starting the mornings with breakfast foods laid out, but people on their own. Some crazy fools went jogging this morning. My feeling is that running is appropriate if something large is chasing you, otherwise not so much.

We had three presentations today: One on brainstorming story ideas by Luc Reid one on reading aloud (by me), and one on Medieval Studies, by Michael Livingston. I learned that people in the Middle Ages did bathe, that the Bubonic Plague was the first germ warfare and went horribly wrong, and that knights in armor actually could stand up if they fell down.

For lunch we had sandwiches. I know. You’re thrilled.

Then two novel critiques, which was interesting. It’s the first time I’ve done a novel critique session and find it the same as and also quite different from a short story critique. Mostly we dealt with Big Issues and not so much on line notes.

For dinner, now, that’s a beautiful thing. We went to Couch’s barbeque. This place has been there since my Dad was a child. It is one of the things for which I will gleefully break my pose as vegetarian. We were having really lively conversations until the food hit the table and then everyone became silent. Mmmm… A couch’s bbq sandwich with hot slaw on it, sides of baked beans and cole slaw. It just doesn’t get any better.

Tomorrow we have the first of our sessions with Ellen Datlow. Should be fun.

I somehow forgot to tell you about this, I think. Codex Writer’s Group is an online group for neo-pro writers. To be a member, you have to have made a pro-sale or attended one of the big audition only workshops which means that it’s chock-full of some very talented writers.

This year we wanted to do a retreat and we’re doing it at my parents’ house. I have good folks, you know? My grandmother, her sister’s and cousins all inherited adjoining property. To condense the story, Mom and Dad live in the house that he grew up in, Woodthrush Woods, and they’ve moved Robin’s Roost, a log house, from another part of the property to theirs.

See! Pictures.

Woodthrush Woods

I’ve been saying for years that it would make the perfect retreat center. Thirteen wooded acres, a creek, wi-fi and — at least this time — everyone gets their own bedroom.

We’re starting with a four day workshop with Ellen Datlow on short stories plus a novel track. Then there’s another six days of retreat.

It should be fun.

Last night, the generous Ellen Datlow, invited me down to try some of her extensive collection of single malts. Rather than trying to get through twelve of them in an evening, we focused on the Islays. Goodness… it was a lovely, lovely evening.

Here they are in order of tasting. If you click through to any of the links you can see that our tasting notes are wildly and sometimes comically different from the professionals.

1. Te Bheag — evidently pronounced “chey vek”, because its Gaellic — was our only departure from the Islay program. This one was amber in color, with a gentle peaty nose. It was slightly sweet but not cloying.
2. Caol Ila, signature 1991 – Very light straw color. This was intensely peaty and a little harsh.
3. Caol Ila, 18year — Very smooth. The peat character was distinctive and pleasant. The nose gave off hints of old book leather. This was one of our two favorites
4. Bowmore Enigma, 12 year — Beautiful dark amber in color. Raison and peat on the nose. Polished smooth and rounded. This was best in show.
5. Ardbeg, 10 year – Very pale straw color with a mild, peaty nose. It was fairly coarse but with good flavor. There was a resiny almost fir aspect to the finish.
6. Aberlour, 10 year – The nose had notes of dates and turpentine. It was very mellow and not at all like scotch.

A delightful evening and I managed to get home without falling onto the third rail.

Well, my three lovely ladies are leaving home tomorrow. I’m shipping the Coraline puppets to Bill Shaffer at Subterranean Press. He in turn will send one to Neil Gaiman, one to Dave McKean and one to someone who pre-ordered the special edition of Coraline.

I wanted to make certain that I had good photos of the dolls, so I went over to Ellen Datlow’s this evening and let her do her camera magic. Behold.

Woo-hoo! From our first issue of Shimmer, “Nobody’s Fool,” by Ed Cox, got an honorable mention in the 2005 Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror! This is the first story we picked for the first issue. We are very, very proud of Ed.

We also got shout-outs in the Summary section. Ellen Datlow says we’re “worthwhile” and Kelly Link and Gavin Grant say we’re a “good-looking new zine with strong ambitions.”