Whoa. Someone made a wikipedia page for Evil Robot Monkey. I’m baffled.

One of the interesting side effects of having a story nominated for a Hugo is that everyone and their cousin posts reviews of them. So, I haven’t been linking to them because it would just get silly.  One popped up on my feedreader today from Best Science Fiction Stories.

I haven’t run across this site before, but I like the way it’s laid out. It gives a non-spoiler summary, plus trivia about the author, where to find the story and says “if you like this then you’ll like…”

Anyway, I thought it was a nifty site and worth pointing out.

My short story “Evil Robot Monkey,” read by Stephen Eley, appears on Escape Pod today as part of their yearly podcast of Hugo nominees. It first appeared in the Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, vol. 2 edited by George Mann.

Sliding his hands over the clay, Sly relished the moisture oozing around his fingers. The clay matted down the hair on the back of his hands making them look almost human. He turned the potter’s wheel with his prehensile feet as he shaped the vase. Pinching the clay between his fingers he lifted the wall of the vase, spinning it higher.

Someone banged on the window of his pen. Sly jumped and then screamed as the vase collapsed under its own weight. He spun and hurled it at the picture window like feces. The clay spattered against the Plexiglas, sliding down the window.

via Escape Pod » EP196: Evil Robot Monkey.

It always makes me happy when Joe Sherry over at Adventures in Reading reviews one of my stories.  He manages to cover the whole thing without any spoilers, which is pretty amazing for a 970 word story.

“Evil Robot Monkey” is a heartbreaking and surprising story. The title might suggest a little robot monkey being destructive and nasty, but Mary Kowal tells a different and unexpected story. The titular monkey is introduced working a potter’s wheel, making a vase. Then…

via Adventures in Reading: Hugo Award Nominee: “Evil Robot Monkey”.

There’s nothing to make one quite so humble as realizing that photos of one’s husband with a Giant Block of Foam are more popular than links to one’s Hugo-nominated story.

That first surge is Evil Robot Monkey. The second is the Giant Block of Foam.

I have three version of Evil Robot Monkey to offer for your consideration as one of the Hugo nominees for Short Story.  It was originally published in the Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, vol. 2 edited by George Mann.

You may download a .pdf in the form of a mini-chapbook, illustrated by me. I do layout the way other people doodle and made this while I was waiting for the announcement to go live.

Or you could listen to me read it. Six minutes of science-fiction.

Evil Robot Monkey, by Mary Robinette Kowal

Edited to add: Andrew Neely very kindly converted the audio to an M4B (iTunes audiobook) version.

Or, you can skip after the cut and read the story right here.

Continue reading Evil Robot Monkey

Here’s another post that you’re reading days and days after I write it.

Short form:

My story, “Evil Robot Monkey” has been nominated for a Hugo!

!!!!

Longform:

Jodi and I had a show last Thursday night and went out afterwards with his sweetie, Sam, to hang and celebrate that it went pretty darn well. About 10:30, I pulled out my G1 to check the time and it was open to email.

The top message had the subject line, “Contact: Hugo Nomination.”

Jodi and Sam ceased to exist for a moment (Sorry, fellows) and I opened the email. As I read it, a grin spread across my face and I looked up, totally cutting Sam off. “Gentlemen, I’ve just been nominated for a Hugo.”

None of us could shriek but they were as appropriately enthusiastic as a girl could wish. I know we talked about other things afterwards, but my head was totally wrapped up in HUGO!

Holy cow! My story. A Hugo nominee!!!!

And I have to keep it a secret. Do you have any idea how painful it is to hang out with SF folks when you’re holding in something like this? I’m distracting myself by shopping for a dress. I think that’s reasonable, don’t you?

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.

Jay Lake sent me this link to the Guardian today, so you know, I clicked through out of curiosity.  The headline was “The next generation of SF Writers” and then there’s a photo of a spiral arm galaxy, the caption of which is, “In a galaxy far, far away … Hill, Kowal or Scholes?”

Um.  Whoa.

The science fiction and fantasy community likes to honour the writers in its ranks, and no honour comes higher for new writers than the John W Campbell award. Previous winners include Orson Scott Card, Stephen Donaldson and Cory Doctorow, so it’s certainly worth watching. This year, Mary Robinette Kowal beat a strong shortlist to scoop the award on the basis of a clutch of well-crafted short stories that showcase her emotional deftness while still telling strange and exhilarating stories in the SF tradition.

Thanks Mr. Walter!  This is an excellent pre-birthday present.

Here, let me offer a party favor!   This is an audio version of “Evil Robot Monkey” from the 2008 edition of the Solaris New Book of Science Fiction.

[audio:evilrobotmonkey.mp3]

via Damien Walter on exciting new SF and fantasy writers | Books | guardian.co.uk.

Hey! Evil Robot Monkey made Locus’s 2008 Recommended Reading List.  That’s pretty nifty.

Actually, it turns out that John Nichols posted all of the stories we read in neatly discrete chunks. Very exciting!

My stories:
Nails in my Feet
Trip, Trap, Tripping
http://ljsummit.com/wordpress/evil-robot-monkey-by-mary-robinette-kowal

Things we read together:
Denise Jones, Super Booker by John Scalzi
The State of Super Villiany by John Scalzi

Scalzi, solo:
Missives from Possible Futures #1: Alternative History Search Results

I’m stunned.

“Evil Robot Monkey” will be appearing in Gardner Dozois’s Year’s Best Science Fiction. You know, there were anthologies that I regularly bought before I started writing seriously. This is one of them, because the selections were always thought-provoking and that’s what I loved about SF. And to have one of my stories in there… I’m stunned.

And not using nearly enough exclamation points for the occasion.

I’m delighted that “Evil Robot Monkey” will be appearing in Mr. Horton’s anthology, Science Fiction: The Best of the Year 2009. This is the second of my stories that he’s taken and I’m thrilled that he continues to enjoy what I do.

Here’s a snippet of Evil Robot Monkey, as a teaser.

Sliding his hands over the clay, Sly relished the moisture oozing around his fingers. The clay matted down the hair on the back of his hands making them look almost human. He turned the potter’s wheel with his prehensile feet as he shaped the vase. Pinching the clay between his fingers he lifted the wall of the vase, spinning it higher.

I’ll let you know when the book is available for pre-order.

Evil Robot Monkey first appeared in the Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, volume 2. To test a new microphone, I decided to record this because it is darn short.

Here you go. Six minutes of science-fiction.

[audio:http://maryrobinettekowal.com/audio/evilrobotmonkey.mp3]

Sliding his hands over the clay, Sly relished the moisture oozing around his fingers. The clay matted down the hair on the back of his hands making them look almost human. He turned the potter’s wheel with his prehensile feet as he shaped the vase. Pinching the clay between his fingers he lifted the wall of the vase, spinning it higher.

Someone banged on the window of his pen. Sly jumped and then screamed as the vase collapsed under its own weight. He spun and hurled it at the picture window like feces. The clay spattered against the Plexiglas, sliding down the window.

The audio version of “Evil Robot Monkey” by Mary Robinette Kowal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Based on a work at www.solarisbooks.com.

The Fix gave a lovely favorable review to The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume 2, edited by George Mann. It included this bit:

Mary Robinette Kowal’s “Evil Robot Monkey,” the shortest piece in this anthology, is a smart tale about monkeys with implants and a cautionary tale of how intelligence can sometimes be very lonely.