Christopher Rowe

April update

This is proving a busy month for me as I finish up my last full semester of graduate school (I'll be doing a brief residency in Lisbon in July as well to fulfill the final requirements). I defend my thesis novel on April 23rd, Shakespeare's 450th birthday, and I have a couple of short papers to write, but otherwise, come the 30th, I'm done.

Upcoming travel includes WisCon over Memorial Day weekend. Greatly look forward to getting back there after we've not been able to attend for several years. I'll be back at the Sycamore Hill workshop in North Carolina in June, then the aforementioned Lisbon trip in July, and then no more travel that I can think of until the World Fantasy Convention in Washington, DC in October.

On the writing front I've got several stories in process but am mainly concentrating on two things. The first is revision of my thesis novel, Sarah Across America, which I hope to have "agent-ready" by the end of the summer. And I also want to complete and revise a very long novella, "The Border State," which is the prequel to my story "The Voluntary State." Plus I need to write one new piece for Sycamore Hill and two new (shortish) pieces for Lisbon. I'm thinking of putting together a collection in the fall to submit to publishers. Oh! And Gwenda and I will soon be revising the middle-grade novel we wrote together. So maybe by the end of the year I'll have three books doing the rounds.

The only thing in the publishing pipeline at the moment is a short story, "The Dun Letter," which will be out in Johathan Strahan's anthology Fearsome Magics in October. I'm really looking forward to this book as it has a great lineup of writers involved, including my Clarion West classmate Justina Robson.

A reading

This past Sunday, my peers in the Bluegrass Writers Workshop and I finished up our Winter Residency with a group reading. I thought I'd share the two pieces I read with all y'all. Both of them are from a pretty long time ago, but they were fun to read.

First, my one and only published poem, which appeared in November 2001 in the ninth issue of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. I wrote the original version of this found poem for a creative writing class under Frederick Smock at the University Louisville even longer ago than that. Before the war, even.

OUR PRIZE PATROL WILL FIND YOU, NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE

Dear CHRISTOPH ROWE,
Congratulations!

You have passed through
Phases one and two
And have entered
The final phase.

Do not forget
To completely fill out every line.

Do not neglect
The many supplemental prize stamps.

Do not overlook
Our fabulous offers.
Where else will you find savings such as these?

Do not delay, CHRISTOPH ROWE.
Affix the proper postage.
Sign the certificate.

There is simply
Too
Much
At stake.

And then I read a piece of flash fiction (based on a true story!) which I wrote as a birthday present for Gwenda and which guest stars the late, great George Rowe the Dog, Poster Boy For American Values. "Seared Scallops and Steamed Green Beans" first appeared in the webzine Infinite Matrix on July 12th, 2003 in honor of Gwenda's birthday, and was then reprinted in the Two Cranes Press anthology Scattered, Covered, Smothered in 2004. You can read it here.

Pens on Fire. ON FIRE!

Hey all. Just a quick note about the event described on this flier. I'll be at the Woodford County Library tomorrow, Saturday, November 23rd, 2013, from 2 to 4 pm, discussing science fiction and fantasy, writing, and related things on a panel with a few of my colleagues. If y'all can make it, come on out!

(Nonphony) Preorder Mania!

So, I think it's time for a little preorder contest for THE WOKEN GODS, which is out on September 3, less than a month! This is a contest where you win IF you preorder, basically. And I even made a video. If you are not the sort of person who delights in watching awkward author videos (or if you are!), the details are all below too.

via www.gwendabond.com

Look, look! An awesome contest for Gwenda's new book!

New story

My latest short story, "The Jack of Coins," is now available to read for free at the Tor Books website. If you prefer to read things on ereaders, you can get it for ninety-nine cents (US) for your Kindle or Nook.

A Few Things & The View From Here

A few things:

• Blackwood made the Locus recommended reading list in the first novels category. Sharing company with the other people on the list (including one Mr. Rowe in novelettes!) is an honor indeed. Completely thrilled.
• I'm over at The Mortal Instruments Examiner today talking about why I love these books so, my essay in Shadowhunters and Downworlders, and other things. Check it out.
• A couple of lovely posts about Blackwood that made my respective days: from the wonderful Mette Ivie Harrison and Kate Ormand.

We are all getting lots of work done, talking about books and publishing and silly things (my favorite). I am revising my heart at or, at least, starting to. This is the view from here.

via www.gwendabond.com

Gwenda blogs so I don't have to!

Also, as an aside, I have declared today Criminally Under-recognized Fantasists Day and put forth Barbara Hambly's name for recognition and celebration. Y'all go put forth somebody's name out in the world, too.

My Worldcon Schedule

Here’s my schedule of public appearances at this week’s Chicon 7, the 70^th World Science Fiction Convention, also known as Worldcon.

Friday, August 31^st, 1:30-3:00 pm, Haymarket. John Joseph Adams reading. JJA is the editor of many anthologies, and of Lightspeed magazine. This reading will consist of various folks reading stories from his publications. I’m subbing in for the sadly absent Genevieve Valentine, reading her fantastic story “Good Fences,” from the new horror magazine, Nightmare.

Saturday, September 1^st, 12:00-1:00 pm, Tachyon table in the Dealers Room. Signing. Along with other contributors to Tachyon anthologies, I’ll be signing Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology, edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel.

Sunday, September 2^nd, 10:30 am-12:00 pm, Wrigley. Short Stories to Order. I’ll be sitting on this panel with Pat Cadigan, Robert Reed, E. Lily Yu, and esteemed moderator Ellen Datlow.

Sunday, September 2^nd, 12:00-12:30 pm, Dusable. Reading. I’ll be reading “The Contrary Gardener,” a sort of companion piece to “The Voluntary State.” It’s scheduled to appear in an upcoming Nightshade Books project edited by Jonathan Strahan.

Replace "harassed" with "robbed"

Those of you who read this (yes, very intermittently updated) blog because you're somehow associated with the world of science fiction have almost certainly already heard about the sexual harassment incident at the recent Readercon convention and that convention's board's spectacular failure to deal with the incident appropriately. If not, well, I'll just point you to this links roundup and suggest you confine yourself to the top four or five listed unless you have a lot of time on your hands.

I don't have anything to say about the incident and its handling that hasn't already been said elsewhere, but instead am here to talk about much of the internet response. Specifically, I'm referring to the many instances of apologia, victim-blaming, subject-switching, and other reductionist tactics that people have engaged in. I won't name names, link links, or even describe specific techniques because they're not worth the time it would take me to type them.

But that mass of bullshit—which thankfully is a tiny portion of the reaction overall—has raised some questions in my mind that I would like to pose to you, assuming you know the details of this situation.

If the self-admitted wrong-doer, René Walling, had, instead of harassing a guest of the convention, stolen a large amount of money from the book dealers room, how do you think the convention would have reacted? How do you think Walling's friends and apologists would have reacted to a permanent ban from the convention in that case?

Because I'll tell you, I think nobody would have blinked at a permanent ban. And I think the apologists, victim-blamers, subject-switchers, and other reductionists would disappear.

Listen up!

Nifty. My story "Another Word For Map is Faith" is available as a podcast (you can also just listen to it through your browser) at the most excellent Podcastle website. Check it out, won't you?

Bibliographia

I'll figure out how to put this up as a permanent, linkable page or something around here sometime, but for now, since I was working it up for other reasons, here's my current bibliography for those who might be interested. At some point, I'll work in links to the stuff that's available online.

 

Novels

Sandstorm, Wizards of the Coast, 2011.

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Collections

Bittersweet Creek and Other Stories, Small Beer Press, 2003.

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Short Stories

“The Contrary Gardener,” Eclipse Online, edited by Jonathan Strahan, forthcoming.

“Nowhere Fast,” Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories, edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant, Candlewick Press, 2011. Reprint: Steampunk Revolution, edited by Ann VanderMeer, Tachyon, forthcoming.

“Feast of the Moon,” Realms of the Undead, edited by Susan J. Morris, Wizards of the Coast, 2010.

“Gather,” The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction & Fantasy, edited by Ellen Datlow, Ballantine, 2008.

“Another Word For Map is Faith,” The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, August 2006. Reprints: Science Fiction: The Best of the Year 2007, edited by Rich Horton, Prime Books, 2007; The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, Twentieth Annual Collection, edited by Ellen Datlow and Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant, St. Martin’s, 2007; The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, edited by Jonathan Strahan, Night Shade Books, 2007; The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction/Czech Republic Edition (Czech translation), March 2007; The Tenth Dimension (Hebrew Translation), April 2007; The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction/Poland Edition (Polish translation), 2010. Long list: The Best American Short Stories 2007.

“The League of Last Girls,” Aegri Somnia, edited by Jason Sizemore and Gill Ainsworth, Apex Publications, 2006. Reprint: Trechu Divné Kusy 3 (Czech translation), edited by Martin Sust, Lazer, 2007.

“Two Figures in a Landscape Between Storms,” Twenty Epics, edited by David Moles and Susan Marie Groppi, All-Star Stories, 2006.

“The Queen of the Moon,” Apex Digest Online, February 2006.

“Whether to Go Through,” Electric Velocipede Autumn 2004. Reprint: Apex Digest, Summer 2006.

"The Voluntary State,” Sci Fiction, May 2004. Reprints: Science Fiction: The Best of 2004, edited by Karen Haber and Jonathan Strahan, iBooks, 2005; The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Twenty-second Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois, St. Martin’s, 2005; Beyond Singularity, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, Ace Books, 2005; Hayakawa’s SF Magazine (Japanese translation), June 2005; Nebula Awards Showcase 2006, edited by Gardner Dozois, Roc, 2006; Rewind: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology, edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel, Tachyon, 2007.

“Relativity in the Gospel: Five Looks at Matthew 2:9-10” Ideomancer, December 2003.

“Men of Renown,” Bittersweet Creek and Other Stories, Small Beer Press, 2003. Reprints: Apex Digest Online, February 2006; Hayakawa SF Magazine (Japanese translation), June 2009.

“The Children of Tilford Fortune,” Swan Sister: Fairy Tales Retold, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Simon & Schuster, 2003. Reprint: The Dark of the Woods, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Aladdin Paperbacks, 2006.

“The Force Acting on the Displaced Body,” Trampoline, edited by Kelly Link, Small Beer Press, 2003. Reprints: lcrw.net, October 2003.

“Seared Scallops and Steamed Green Beans,” Infinite Matrix, July 2003. Reprint: Scattered Covered Smothered, edited by Jason Erik Lundberg, Two Cranes Press, 2004.

“Interim Discussions,” Beyond The Last Star, edited by Sherwood Smith, SFF.Net, 2002.

“Leadership Secrets of the Prince of Darkness,” The Journal of Pulse-Pounding Narratives, 2002.

“The Dreaming Mountains,”  Ideomancer Unbound, edited by Chris Clarke and Mikal Trimm, Decadent Moon Publications/FictionWise, 2002. Reprint: Bittersweet Creek and Other Stories, Small Beer Press, 2003.

“Horsethieves and Preachermen,” Ideomancer, July 2002. Honorable Mention, Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, Sixteenth Annual Collection.

“High Water,” The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Spring 2001.

“VFD Adventures,” Quantum Speculative Fiction, edited by Kurt Roth, Obscura Press, 1999. Reprint: Ideomancer, September 2002.

“Sally Harpe,” Realms of Fantasy, October 1999. Reprints:  Bittersweet Creek and Other Stories, Small Beer Press, 2003; lcrw.net, December 2003. Honorable Mention, Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, Thirteenth Annual Collection.

“Baptism on Bittersweet Creek,” Realms of Fantasy, April 1999. Reprint: Bittersweet Creek and Other Stories, Small Beer Press, 2003.

“Long Live the King,” Pulp Eternity, September 1998.

“Kin to Crows,” Realms of Fantasy, June 1998. Reprints: Ideomancer, August 2002; Bittersweet Creek and Other Stories, Small Beer Press, 2003. Honorable Mention, Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, Twelfth Annual Collection.

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Poems

“Our Prize Patrol Will Find You, No Matter Where You Are,” Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, 2001.