• 01:35 I just finished macheing the stone witch’s head and am cleaning up to head for home. I think tomorrow I get to paint. Yay! #
• 13:40 They are testing the fire alarm in the building. We are not amused. How long does it take, really, to figure out that, yes, it makes noise. #
• 17:13 The green at Madison Square Park is totally surrounded by shakepeares. I wonder what’s going on?¹ #
• 17:36 If you’re going to KGB tonight, I’ll be at the Puppet Kitchen which is just a few blocks away. Let me know if you want to see the witches. #
• 19:17 KGB is so crowded tonight. Hot, too. #

1. A shakespeare is an ellipsoidal light for theater. [↩]

If you are going to KGB tonight and are curious about the puppets I’ve been working on, let me know. The Puppet Kitchen is also on 4th, mere blocks from the bar. I’ll be heading back to work afterwards.

The KGB Raffle ends tonight. Don’t forget to purchase your tickets before it’s too late!

Monday evening at midnight, Eastern Daylight Time, we will be closing the store to all new ticket purchases and announcing the winners shortly after. Now is your last chance to purchase raffle tickets.

To everyone who has purchased tickets so far, thank you and good luck! Your support will help keep KGB Fantastic Fiction viable for many years to come. You may also want to visit the store one last time. We have added several new and amazing raffle items this past week.

A Complete List of Raffle Items:
http://www.kgbfantasticfiction.org/store/

The reading went quite well. We had a full house, which was a relief. I was afraid no one would come and besides our friends, there were even people that we didn’t know there. We sold copies of the anthology!

Matt McHugh and M. M. De Voe were both very good readers and hearing their stories out loud added a lot to both.

Best of all, Matt hooked set up his mic and recorded the evening. I present to you my story, The Shocking Affair of the Dutch Steamship Friesland.

For me, one of the most annoying things is that I’ve been recording so much lately that I’ve developed some bad live reading habits. I’ve trained myself to listen for minor stumbles — things that no one would notice live, but which are unacceptable in recorded form — and to pause, then restart the line, which is totally wrong when reading live. In any case, it should be interesting for you to hear the difference between me reading live after hearing me read for recordings.

If you’ve got nothing else going on, swing down to the KGB bar at 85 E. 4th Street at 7:00 tonight to hear short stories read by Matt McHugh, M. M. De Voe and me.

Here’s a teaser of the one I’ll be reading tonight, which appears in the new anthology, The Best of The First Line: Editors’ Picks 2002-2006.

I was born Rosa Carlotta Silvana Grisanti, but in the mid-Eighties, I legally changed my name to Eve. As you have guessed in your letter, after the shocking affair of the Dutch steamship Friesland, my dear friends Dr. Watson and Mr. Sherlock Holmes suggested that my safest course of action would be to distance myself from my family.

But I get ahead of my story; I have not Dr. Watson’s gift for explaining Mr. Holmes’s methods, and I fear your wish that I relay the particulars of this strange case may be met with inadequate measures.

On the twelfth of October, 1887, I was being taken by the steamship Friesland from our home on the Venetian isle of Murano to Africa; there to meet my betrothed, Hans Boerwinkle, a man several years my senior with whom my father had very recently made arrangements. Living as we do now, in the nineteen-twenties, it is difficult to remember what a sheltered life we girls led forty years ago, but at the time it seemed natural that my brother, Orazio Rinaldo Paride Grisanti, escorted me as chaperone.

Did I mention it’s a bar? Fiction and drinks, can you ask for a better combo?

Today was one of those odd days where I was occupied all day but got nothing done. I hate those days.  Oh wait. I did laundry¹ and a little bit of story editing.

Then this evening I went to KGB. The readings tonight by John Kessel and Joselle Vanderhooft were both quite enjoyable.  And they’ve both donated items to the KGB raffle. By the way, the raffle has added a carnivorous plant from the Texas Triffid Ranch.  You think I’m making it up, don’t you?

Liz Gorinsky seduced Genevieve Valentine, Dustin and Julia to go with her to the Desert Truck.  Their goat cheesecake may well be the best dessert I’ve ever had. And the chocolate bread pudding.  Oh my.

And finally in my sum-up of today.  Dr. Horrible Act II!!!!

1. With my freeze ray, I will STOP the world [↩]

Help me spread the word.

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

Good to see people. Tired now.

Spent day shopping for props for show. Will tell you more, but it is “not safe for work.”