Another song from my youth that seems appropriate for the last day of my day job.
Month: January 2017
“…over all this anthology is mostly hits, remarkably few misses. Highly recommended.”
–New York Times Book Review, Otherworldly column by N.K. Jemisin
It’s that time of year again. People are beginning to fill out the award ballots and if you are considering nominating us or any of our stories, here’s a quick list to help you figure out what goes in what category.
As has been the case for the last few years, Clarkesworld Magazine is not eligible for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine. By Hugo rules, we are professional and therefore ineligible in this category.
I am still eligible for the Hugo Award for Best Editor (short form).
If you want to nominate one of our 2016 stories, the Hugo and Nebula Awards consider them eligible in the following categories (according to word count):
Short Stories
- “The Algorithms of Value” by Robert Reed
- “The Abduction of Europa” by E. Catherine Tobler
- “The Fixer” by Paul McAuley
- “Between Dragons and Their Wrath” by An Owomoyela and Rachel Swirsky
- “That Which Stands Tends Toward Free Fall” by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
- “Salvage Opportunity” by Jack Skillingstead
- “Seven Cups of Coffee” by A.C. Wise
- “Coyote Invents the Land of the Dead” by Kij Johnson
- “The Governess with a Mechanical Womb” by Leena Likitalo
- “The Cedar Grid” by Sara Saab
- “Breathe” by Cassandra Khaw
- “Left Behind” by Cat Rambo
- “Things With Beards” by Sam J. Miller
- “.identity” by E. Catherine Tobler
- “And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices” by Margaret Ronald
- “Helio Music” by Mike Buckley
- “Against the Stream” by A Que
- “Fish Dance” by Eric Schwitzgebel
- “The Sentry Branch Predictor Spec: A Fairy Tale” by John Chu
- “The Engine’s Imperial” by Sean Bensinger
- “Reclamation” by Ryan Row
- “Now is the Hour” by Emily Devenport
- “First Light at Mistaken Point” by Kali Wallace
- “The Opposite and the Adjacent” by Liu Yang
- “Aphrodite’s Blood, Decanted” by Jennifer Campbell-Hicks
- “The Despoilers” by Jack Skillingstead
- “Toward the Luminous Towers” by Bogi Takács
- “The House of Half Mirrors” by Thoraiya Dyer
- “The Next Scene” by Robert Reed
- “Rusties” by Nnedi Okorafor and Wanuri Kahiu
- “Afrofuturist 419” by Nnedi Okorafor
- “Where Water Joins” by Nelly Geraldine García Rosas
- “Of Sight, of Mind, of Heart” by Samantha Murray
- “What The Stories Steal” by Nin Harris
- “Follow the White Line” by Bo Balder
- “Blue Grey Blue” by Yukimi Ogawa
- “A Tower for the Coming World” by Maggie Clark
- “A Future Far Too Bright” by Yosef Lindell
- “Painter of Stars” by Wang Yuan
Novelettes
- “Extraction Request” by Rich Larson
- “In the Midst of Life” by Nick Wolven
- “The Bridge of Dreams” by Gregory Feeley
- “Balin” by Chen Qiufan
- “Touring with the Alien” by Carolyn Ives Gilman
- “The Universal Museum of Sagacity” by Robert Reed
- “Jonas and the Fox” by Rich Larson
- “Away from Home” by Luo Longxiang
- “Sephine and the Leviathan” by Jack Schouten
- “Teenagers from Outer Space” by Dale Bailey
- “Alone, on the Wind” by Karla Schmidt
- “The Green Man Cometh” by Rich Larson
- “The Calculations of Artificials” by Chi Hui
- “One Sister, Two Sisters, Three” by James Patrick Kelly
- “Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home” by Genevieve Valentine
- “Western Heaven” by Chen Hongyu
- “Checkerboard Planet” by Eleanor Arnason
Novellas
- “Everybody Loves Charles” by Bao Shu
- “Chimera” by Gu Shi
- “The Snow of Jinyang” by Zhang Ran
This past Friday, I resigned from my day job and career of the last twenty-eight years. My last day will be January 31st, but I might be doing some part-time/consulting work for them until they fill the vacancy. I could probably write an entire blog post about why I’ve done this—and I still might, someday—but that’s the past and I’m more focused on the future at the moment.
I’m quite excited—and a little terrified—by the prospect of taking the leap. There are a bunch of uncertainties, like healthcare costs and filling the income gap between Lisa’s new job and my old one, but we’re close enough to give this career switch a try. As some of you know, this has been a major goal of mine since my heart attack four years ago. At age fifty, and after ten years working part-time, I’m finally going to be a full-time editor!
Naturally, my first priority has to be those uncertainties I mentioned: income gap and insurance. As I see it, I have a few things to target:
- I’ve altered the Clarkesworld Patreon goals to include direct salary and healthcare expenses. Would be nice if it was that simple, but I figure it’s worth putting out there.
- I’ll be pushing the digital subscriptions a lot more and investing a little in marketing in hopes of bumping those numbers up a bit.
- Now that I’ll have time, I can increase the number of anthology projects I do. I’m in the process of drafting pitches for my current publishers, but I should have extras if anyone else should be interested. I’d really like to do another original anthology sometime too.
- I also have the Year Nine and Year Ten Clarkesworld anthologies to wrap up. That should be a lot easier to accomplish now.
- I need to be more proactive in seeking advertisers for Clarkesworld. Even a small bump here could be significant.
- While there’s still a gap, I’ll also try to expand on the ebook design work I do on the side. It’s mindless, but I find it relaxing and it helps pay bills.
I’m getting this shot at chasing a dream thanks to Lisa, my amazing wife. I also have to thank Sean and Kate for having my back, my boys for keeping me on my toes, my parents for their support and inspiration, my publishers for their faith in me, and everyone that has ever subscribed, donated, or become a patron of Clarkesworld.
Let the adventure begin!
PS. If you don’t understand the title, you might want to do a little musical research.
Frankly, Mr. Shankly
Dear Madam Barnum
At long last, I am happy to reveal the cover and table of contents for volume two of The Best Science Fiction of the Year!
The Best Science Fiction of the Year – Volume 2
Night Shade Books – April 4, 2017
ISBN-10: 1597808962
ISBN-13: 978-1597808965
The second volume in a new year’s best series. This book will feature science fiction short stories/novelettes/novellas originally published in 2016.
Available at:
- Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.es, Amazon.jp
- Apple
- Barnes & Noble
- Google Play
- Indiebound
- Kobo
- Powells
Table of Contents
- “The Visitor from Taured” by Ian R. MacLeod (Asimov’s, September 2016)
- “Extraction Request” by Rich Larson (Clarkesworld, January 2016)
- “A Good Home” by Karin Lowachee (Lightspeed, June 2016)
- “Prodigal” by Gord Sellar (Analog, December 2016)
- “Ten Days” by Nina Allan (Now We Are Ten, edited by Ian Whates)
- “Terminal” by Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com, April 2016)
- “Panic City” by Madeline Ashby (CyberWorld, edited by Jason Heller and Joshua Viola)
- “Last Gods” by Sam J. Miller (Drowned Worlds, edited by Jonathana Strahan)
- “HigherWorks” by Gregory Norman Bossert (Asimov’s, December 2016)
- “A Strange Loop” by T.R. Napper (Interzone, January/February 2016)
- “Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse” by Xia Jia (Invisible Planets, edited by Ken Liu)
- “Pearl” by Aliette de Bodard (The Starlit Wood, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe)
- “The Metal Demimonde” by Nick Wolven (Analog, June 2016)
- “The Iron Tactician” by Alastair Reynolds (Newcon Press)
- “The Mighty Slinger” by Tobias S. Buckell and Karen Lord (Bridging Infinity, edited by Jonathana Strahan)
- “They All Have One Breath” by Karl Bunker (Asimov’s, December 2016)
- “Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea” by Sarah Pinsker (Lightspeed, February 2016)
- “And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices” by Margaret Ronald (Clarkesworld, June 2016)
- “The Three Lives of Sonata James” by Lettie Prell (Tor.com, October 2016)
- “The Charge and the Storm” by An Owomoyela (Asimov’s, February 2016)
- “Parables of Infinity” by Robert Reed (Bridging Infinity, edited by Jonathana Strahan)
- “Ten Poems for the Mossums, One for the Man” by Suzanne Palmer (Asimov’s, July 2016)
- “You Make Pattaya” by Rich Larson (Interzone, November/December 2016)
- “Number Nine Moon” by Alex Irvine (F&SF, January/February 2016)
- “Things with Beards” by Sam J. Miller (Clarkesworld, June 2016)
- “Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit—Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts” by Ken Liu (Drowned Worlds, edited by Jonathana Strahan)
- “Touring with the Alien” by Carolyn Ives Gilman (Clarkesworld, April 2016)