Monthly ArchiveJanuary 2011



Updates 27 Jan 2011 01:22 am

For your consideration…

If we’d known ahead of time that so many people would love Machine of Death as much as we do, we probably would have done a few things differently. For instance, we might have thought a little more carefully about our release date. The total of all the thinking that went into picking October 26 can be summed up thusly: “Hey, the book is finished! When should we publish it? How about Tuesday? Okay!”

But we’ve since learned that if you publish a book at the very end of October and if you don’t provide advance copies to anybody, it means you will probably be too late to be considered for anybody’s “best of the year” list. (We only qualified for Amazon’s top ten customer favorite list by a scant five days!) It also means that people won’t necessarily have time to read your book before they have to nominate stories for many of the year’s awards.

Well, luckily there are at least a few awards still taking nominations, and they’re some of the big ones!

The Nebulas: The Nebulas are selected by the members of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA). Most members are eligible to nominate stories in length-based categories through February 15, 2011. The top six vote-getters in each category will then proceed to the official ballot, which active members will vote on.

The Hugos: These are selected by the attendees of Science Fiction Worldcon. Nominations are open until March 26, 2011, but in order to have your nominations counted you will need to confirm your eligibility by January 31, 2011. Details on how you become eligible are here.

Unfortunately, neither the Nebulas nor the Hugos have an anthology category, so the book as a whole doesn’t really fit anywhere on their ballots. However, if you’re eligible to nominate or vote for either of these awards, we ask you to keep our writers in mind for the short story and novelette categories.

If you haven’t finished reading the book yet, we as editors would suggest you look at and consider “ALMOND” by John Chernega for the novelette category (over 7500 words) and “LOSS OF BLOOD” by Jeff Stautz for the short story category. A free PDF of the entire book (including both of these stories) is available for download here.

What is this I don't even 23 Jan 2011 07:15 pm

Robot adaptation of the original MOD premise.

Love this.

Podcast Episodes 23 Jan 2011 05:06 pm

Podcast 7: DESPAIR

“DESPAIR,” by K. M. Lawrence. Read by Clair Lockeyear.

This is the procedure now: A vehicle comes into the bay, paramedics pull a body out on an unfolding trolley, and a nurse meets them and asks them for the card. Sometimes she smiles, and you know that this one might well walk out of the hospital. Sometimes she gets a stony look on her face and you know that her eyes have flicked across to the patient to see who’s going to die. Sometimes — rarely, but sometimes — she frowns. As Nurse Kealing did with that first one.

Download the MP3 Subscribe on iTunes
Direct podcast feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/machineofpodcast

K. M. Lawrence may be writing in Ireland, or may be writing in England. Either way, he can be contacted at kludgeco.com.

Clair Lockeyear is an actor and improviser in Los Angeles.

In the book, “Despair” is illustrated by Dean Trippe!

Events 09 Jan 2011 03:09 am

Join like-minded nerds in Chicago!

We’ve received word that the Chicago Nerd Social Club will be discussing MOD in their monthly book club event:

When: Monday, January 10, 2010 – 6:30pm-8:00pm
Where: First or second floor of the Noble Tree Cafe, 2444 N. Clark Street
Cost: Free

We approve of this. You should go, because then it will be awesome.

Podcast Episodes 07 Jan 2011 12:02 am

Podcast 6: PRISON KNIFE FIGHT

“PRISON KNIFE FIGHT,” by Shaenon K. Garrity. Read by Dave Kellett.

Very expensive nanny. Very expensive tutor. Montessori nursery school priced competitively with Yale. Phonics, piano lessons from age four, one edifying vacation in a major European city per year, a diet of both organic and local produce cooked to order from a menu drawn up by a personal nutrition coach, and a white-noise machine. A portfolio of coloring-book samples. What was missing?  Oh, yes…

Mr. Slocombe peered over the thick sheaf of paperwork.  “We’ll have to see his medical records, of course.”

Download the MP3 Subscribe on iTunes
Direct podcast feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/machineofpodcast

Shaenon K. Garrity is the creator of the daily webstrips “Narbonic” and “Skin Horse” (the latter co-written with fellow contributor Jeffrey Wells), as well as many other comics both on- and offline. She occasionally writes scripts for Marvel Comics, a disproportionate number of which involve department-store Santas. She also works as a freelance manga editor for VIZ Media and teaches at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. She lives in Berkeley with her husband, Andrew Farago, and their neurotic cat Tesla.

Dave Kellett is the creator of the comic strips “Sheldon” and “Drive”. More of his voice can be heard on the podcast Webcomics Weekly.

In the book, “Prison Knife Fight” is illustrated by Roger Langridge!