Life has certainly been busy over the past two months, what with the new school year, the holidays, and a surprise trip to Albacon in upstate New York. I didn't bother sending out a newsletter about that appearance, since the trip was more for business reasons than anything else. But all of the above, on top of my duties as Secretary of SFWA, have taken a big chunk out of my time.
I should note two rather exciting developments. First of all, the BOSTON GLOBE decided to do a profile of me in their West Weekly section. "He Wonders and Then Writes" appeared in the Sunday, September 27 issue, and was probably one of the best, most accurate profiles I've ever had. I've been trying to find a copy of it on the web, but so far have been unsuccessful.
The second development is that things may be progressing on the novel front. Most of you know that I've been turning "Broken Symmetry" (the novelette which lost the Hugo this year) into a novel. I am extremely pleased to tell you that I now have an agent for this book, who is very excited about the story and believes we have a good chance of selling it in the near future. Working on a novel does mean that short fiction will have to take a back seat for a while -- indeed, I will not be publishing as much next year as I did last year. But the sacrifice is well worth it, of course.
And now to the main reason for the newsletter...
Just in time for Halloween, Barnes & Noble has published a special book direct to their bargain tables: HORRORS! 365 SCARY STORIES edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg, and Martin H. Greenberg. This thick book is true to the title, with a short-short horror story for each day of the year inside. I have only one contribution to the book, "Hunger," in which a vampire has himself cryogenically frozen so he can wake up in the far future. But many of the other stories in the book make the $12.98 price well worth it. Look for it at Barnes & Noble, as it's not being sold anywhere else.
I don't usually crow about my nonfiction, but this one is special. The editor of SCIENCE FICTION AGE asked me to do an article on the science fiction world's reaction to the inevitable end of the TV show BABYLON 5. My article will appear in the very next issue, the January 1999 issue, which should be out in late November or early December. I'll send out another newsletter when it appears.
For the first time, I've cracked a magazine market other than ANALOG. The magazine ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE has decided to publish my story "The Cold Calculations," which is my riff on the old Tom Godwin story "The Cold Equations." It'll be out sometime next summer.
The Internet chat I did in September was a success. A small group of people showed up, but one of them was Gardner Dozois, editor of ASIMOV'S, and he and others asked many good questions. For those of you who missed it, you can read the whole thing on the web. If you go to the "Who is this guy?" section of my webpage, you'll find a link to the cybling webpage which contains the full text of my chat.
I'm taking a break for the rest of the calendar year, but then I will be at Arisia in January and Boskone in February, as usual. Hope to see some of you there!
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-- Michael A. Burstein