Hmm...

Just putting the idea out there that I'd like to find a second short fiction reviewer to do some of the smaller zines.

Not an official call... but I'm definitely looking. If you know someone good, let me know.

Trying to keep up with this posting thing.

Doing a lot of IROSF typesetting today, trying to get everything ready for the new issue. Then I'll be getting things ready for my interview tomorrow (bus schedule and the like) and continuing to get used to the new place and to being downtown in general.

I've been cooking lately, which is unusual for me. So far it's mostly cooking stuff in bulk and then freezing it individually, but I actually did actual cooking at least twice this week. That's pretty much a big win for me.

Later, I'm hoping to get some time in on a story that I wrote for my study abroad class while I was in Ireland. It was due at the end of August, but with the overtime for the game, the separation, the moving, and a mountain of other random shit, I'm pretty sure I'm pressing the limits here, even for my extension. Good thing I was auditing the class and don't get a real grade for it. Still, I really respect my professor and would like his input on what has become a way more complicated story than it really needed to be. I'm happy with how it's shaping up, though.

I never know how to start these things.

May as well start with the most exciting news: Aion launched on September 22nd (in North America... Europe launched on September 25th), making me officially a published video game writer. Our writing team worked on the project for nearly six months, rewriting the raw translation from the original Korean and "westernizing" the text as a whole. It was a lot of fun and was easily the single greatest job I have ever had, with the greatest group of people I have ever worked with.

I have an interview on Monday for a different video game, which is rather well-known, so I won't mention it here just yet. Feeling good about it, though. We'll see.

As far as IROSF goes, I'm really excited to say that we just obtained our first-ever monthly horror column, courtesy of nick_kaufmann. "Dead Air" will premier in our October issue, which should appear on Wednesday. I am really very excited about it. IROSF has also started to get more submissions on a more regular basis, which is fantastic. Good thing we've picked up a couple more editors.

On that note, I'll leave you with an image of our awesome game: the Aion Limited Collector's Edition, complete with Aiva (who comes in the box).

I haven't been doing much updating.

Not that I did so very much before...but I've been doing even less, it seems. In fact, I'm pretty sure my last post was the announcement of The Day Job.

Still working on that and it's still awesome. The game launches on September 22nd and so far the reviews (from the beta events) have been pretty positive. It's really exciting and I'm just having so much fun with it.

My trip to Europe is coming up really quick--I leave next Friday morning. I'm trying to get two issues worth of IROSF done while simultaneously trying to get my new editors situated. Hopefuly Blunt can finish where I leave off when I go. I'm starting to get a bit nervous, having never actually left the country before, but I know it's going to be great, so...just have to take deep breaths and remember that.

Went to the Locus Awards last weekend. It was my first time there and I had a lot of fun. (Nothing extensive to report...pretty much just that I went. Go me.)

I should get back to getting this month's issue out. Need to kick it out the door tonight.

April's issue is now live and available here.

Full of good stuff, including another article by Kristine Kathryn Rusch regarding the economic situation, this time focusing on attitude as a huge factor.

Lots of good reviews and criticisms, too. Check it out.

Today, I'm getting over a cold (or so I'm telling myself) and trying to study for tomorrow's final. I'm really excited that IROSF is so far ahead of schedule this month.

What I really want now is an article that will stir up as much conversation as Kris Kathryn Rusch's Signals this month. Besides bringing a lot of people into the discussion, it brought a lot more people to the website, which is always great.

Unfortunately, my head is so clouded with finals week (and this damn cold) that I don't know what that article might be. Hopefully it will come to me.

March's issue is live!

(And because I am so tired from all this crazy end-of-quarter nonsense, I almost wrote the tag out as href="live" ...yes, I am awesome.)


In any case, this month's ToC:

Editorial:
* Branching Out and Moving Forward by Stacey Janssen

Special Feature:
* Off-Season at Jay Lake: An IROSF Special Feature
by Michael Hiebert

Interview:
* Confessions of a 3am Writer: Interview with Ken Scholes
by Brent Kellmer

Feature:
* Signals 18 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
* Parallax: Sneezing Your Way Through Selection by Rob Furey

Essay:
* My Search for the Wild Hunt by Lezlie Kinyon, Ph.D.
* What Science Fiction Leaves Out of the Future #2: The Day After Tomorrow
by Gary Westfahl

Review:
* Short Fiction, March 2009 by Lois Tilton
* Of Monsters and Metaphors: Review of Monster by A. Lee Martinez
by Mark Tiedemann


We're running a single piece of fiction* this month ("Off-Season at Jay Lake") as a special feature to raise cancer awareness, and will be accepting funds to donate in whole to cancer research. It was originally part of an anthology written as a tribute to Jay Lake by a group of writerly friends upon discovering that he had cancer last year.

As I am remembering my dad's anniversary this month as well, I actually take a special interest in this piece and the idea behind running it. You can go straight to the story here.


*No, we are not accepting fiction submissions. Seriously. Don't send them to me.

IROSF has more real estate!

We've just launched Red Rocket Station (or, if it's a station, have we anchored it?), a sort of SF networking site, where you can post or comment on blogs or pictures or any number of other things. Head on over!

Also, at our last editors' meeting, Marti presented me a Jayne Cobb hat. There are pictures over at the Station. It basically rocks.

February's IROSF is live with a poll and a T-shirt contest. We also now have "Share" buttons (or whatever those crazy kids call 'em) so that you can link the articles to Digg, Facebook, StumbleUpon, or your other random website of choice.

Also, in case you haven't had a chance to notice yet, we have taken down mandatory registration and all articles can be viewed by anyone at any time.

But! I think we can all agree that the coolest thing to come out with this new issue... is my new icon. That I made. Because I rock.

The issue's pretty cool, too.

Just a reminder that IROSF is eligible for "Best Fanzine" this year and its contributors are eligible for "Best Fan Writer."

Also, if you're thinking of sitting out the Hugo voting all together this year, then you really must read this article: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/morgan_02_09/

Twitter.

Facebook group.

Facebook fan page.


We are networked out. Join one, join all, point and laugh, whatevs.
New issue coming out on Wednesday, hopefully with fun new stuff.

January's issue is now live: http://www.irosf.com


Table of Contents:

Editorial:
* The Old Pyramid Scheme: Now With 50% Less Scheme!
by Stacey Janssen

Interview:
* Founding Fathers: A Look at the Original HWA
by Jason Ridler
* Shadow Unit Revealed by Jen West

Feature:
* Signals 16 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
* The Cloud and the Networked Book: Science Fiction and the Future of Reading
by Robert Bee

Essay:
* The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire: George R. Stewart's Earth Abides
by Gary Westfahl
* Brother Can You Spare A Disk? : The SF Film Fan's Guide To What We Want And Why We Want It
by Mark Cole

Criticism:
* Science Fiction and the Post-Cold War by Nader Elhefnawy

Review:
* The Middleman: Review of Season One
by Michael Underwood
* Short Fiction, January 2009 by Lois Tilton

Table of Contents:


Editorial:
* The Old and the New by Stacey Janssen

Feature:
* Mars Concedes! by Daniel M. Kimmel
* What Science Fiction Leaves Out of the Future, #1: No News is Good News?
by Gary Westfahl
* Signals 15 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Criticism:
* Escaping into the Real: The Fantasy of Pan's Labyrinth
by Timothy Miller
* Melrose Space to Marauder: The Starship Troopers Film Trilogy
by Nader Elhefnawy

Review:
* Review of Charles Stross's Saturn's Children by Robert Bee
* Review of Kate Story's debut novel Blasted by Ursula Pflug
* Short Fiction, December 2008 by Lois Tilton
* Review of David D. Levine's Space Magic by Greg Beatty

So, being only too aware that I'm ridiculously behind on my SF movies, I have made use of my free Netflix trial these past two weeks. Besides wondering how I ever lived without Netflix before, I have successfully caught up on 12 movies, ranging from classic and/or serious to... well, to Mars Attacks. Including that one, I have watched these for the first time in the last two weeks:

Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Journey to the Center of the Earth (original)
Superman
Superman 2
Soylent Green
Escape from New York
Metropolis
Blade Runner
Forbidden Planet
The Day the Earth Stood Still
2001: A Space Odyssey


I have a shameful amount left to go, but I think I'm catching up at a decent pace. I won't get to any this weekend, though, since I'll be in Portland, tastefully whoring IROSF around Orycon. I think my last convention was in March, so I'm really looking forward to it.

As a final note, you may or may not have heard by now, but Aeon is suspending publication. Sad.

Except, not really.

In any case, November's issue is live, if you haven't heard yet.


Table of Contents:

Editorial:
* Dearth of a Sales Pitch: or, Shameless Call for Submissions
by Stacey Janssen

Feature:
* Fast Writing by Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold

Essay:
* In The Silents No One Can Hear You Scream: SF From The Days When Spaceships Didn't Make Any Noise
by Mark Cole
* Escape, Resonance, and Recovery: Traversing the Values of Fantasy
by Jason Ridler

Review:
* White Flames by Cecilia Tan by Daniel M. Kimmel
* The New Space Opera: Ed. Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan
by Nader Elhefnawy
* Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural by Greg Beatty
* Incandescence by Greg Egan by Joe Tokamak
* Short Fiction, November 2008 by Lois Tilton

I'm almost convinced that Blunt just keeps articles hidden from me, and then yanks them out of his back pocket when it looks like an issue is going to be thinner than expected.

Also, the IROSF Café Press store has a new item. Is it silly that I want one?


On another note, academia is killing my brain. One of my professors somehow talked me into submitting two of my papers to NCUR (the National Conference of Undergraduate Research) which, if selected, will mean I get an all-expense paid trip the the lovely and exotic... Lacrosse, Wisconsin. Right now, it just means more work.

I have written and discarded at least two essays for this week's nonfiction assignment, and still have to come up with some kind of draft that I don't hate. I haven't written a word of fiction since classes started because of... well... classes. They're more intense this quarter, though--I was able to keep up all last year. This is particularly annoying because there are three stories all based in the same world and just last week I finally realized why they suck and how to remedy aforementioned suckage.

Oh well. Onward.

I just realized that the next issue of IROSF comes out on election day.

I have no idea why, but I find that amusing.

In other equally irrelevant news, it looks like we've finally got some new titles on the front page of our Recently Received section over at IROSF. That's big fun. I would consider it equally big fun if we could get some of the .pdf versions that we've received up on the site, but you can only expect so much at a time.

Also, I should have made revisions to the essay for my nonfiction class much much earlier in the day. Nothing related to school is fun after midnight, no matter how much you might otherwise enjoy it.

September's IROSF has hit virtual newsstands.

Pick up your copy today.

I'm currently typesetting an article for September's issue that talks about how linked SF and fantasy are, while still having their differences and so on.

It's pretty good, but it got me thinking.

I want an article for October's issue that talks about horror as the proverbial red-headed step-child of the speculative fiction family. While horror does get plenty of the spotlight in its own respect, it's always so separated from the other two.

I grew up on horror. I think it's fan-bloody-tastic, but I don't see much of it in the mix. Even Aeon, which defines itself as "speculative fiction" will rarely have a horror story between the electronic pages.

It could be interesting, says this observer. Let me know if you're up to it.