mabfan | Entries tagged with announcements

Today I received welcome news that two of my stories will be reprinted.

First of all, I am delighted to note that my short story "Cosmic Corkscrew," a Hugo-nominated story first published in Analog, will be reprinted in the April 2014 issue of Amazing Stories, the special 88th anniversary edition of the magazine.

Amazing Stories 88th Anniversary Cover

Although I have appeared on the Amazing Stories blog, this will be my first piece of fiction to appear in the magazine. I am delighted that editor Steve Davidson chose my story as one of those to be reprinted in the magazine.

The story has a nice connection to Amazing Stories, by the way. It is about a time traveler who visits Isaac Asimov as Asimov is working on his very first piece of fiction. Although that story of Asimov's was never published, his first published story, "Marooned Off Vesta," appeared in the March 1939 issue of Amazing Stories, seventy-five years ago this month.

Secondly, my story "The Cold Calculations," a riff on "The Cold Equations" that appeared in the Spring 2001 issue of Absolute Magnitude, will be reprinted in one of the new Fantastic Stories anthologies that are being published in conjunction with the launch of Fantastic Stories webzine. While I don't have a picture of the cover, going to the link will take you to a previous Fantastic anthology and eventually to the book my story will be in. My thanks to editor Warren Lapine for his interest in reprinting this story.

#SFWApro

I don't think I remembered to note this here, so...

The film for "I Remember the Future" now has a website.

This also means that yes, I now have an IMDB page. (Sadly, it doesn't include my work as an extra in "The Front," "The Goodbye Girl," or "Radio Days.")

Also, I'm delighted to announce that the film will have its US premiere at the 47th annual Worldfest-Houston film festival in April 2014.

#SFWApro

On 10 July,

gnomi and I will be throwing Muffin and Squeaker a party in honor of their upcoming second birthday. Their birthday is not until the 19th, but due to the Three Weeks and the fact that my brother and his family are coming to town (and thus will be able to join in the festivities), we're celebrating a bit early.

All are welcome to join us on Sunday, 10 July 2011, from 11 AM-1 PM for a party celebrating Muffin and Squeaker. Kosher dairy snacks will be served. There will be chocolate cake and ice cream cake. Only time will tell if, like last year, Muffin loves them both but Squeaker turns down the ice cream.

Let us know if you're thinking of stopping by.

Today I am using my monthly Apex Blog for what I hope people will think is a cool announcement.

Last August, a German film student named Christian Offner got in touch with me to ask about film rights to the short story "I Remember the Future." I'm pleased to announce that a short film is in fact being made of the story. This is the first time any of my work has been adapted to film.

To learn more about the details, and for links to a really cool trailer and information on supporting the film, check out my Apex Blog post I Remember the Future: The Movie!

If folks have questions, you can ask me those questions over there, or here, or in the usual places on Facebook and Twitter.

Just a note to folks who read my LiveJournal: I haven't been receiving email notifications for a few days, which means I haven't been notified immediately when comments appeared in my last post, Brookline Patch Column: Girls Can Be Astronauts, Too.

There has been some respectful discussion and respectful disagreement in the comments, and I appreciate the respect a lot. In case your notifications are also not showing up, you might want to check to see if I've replied to anything you've said.

For those of you who live in or near Brookline....

This year, Brookline Reads is looking at the question of where and from whom does information originate? "In this age of the 24/7 news cycle, what are the sources and what are the consequences? The challenges? The influences? How do we...should we...sort fact from fiction?"

The book we have chosen for our community to read this year is The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. I've already read this book, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. It is a fascinating, witty look at the people running a dying newspaper.

And we're delighted to announce that Tom Rachman himself will be in Brookline next Monday for the Kickoff event. He'll be reading from the book, and there will be paperback copies for sale that he'll be happy to sign. Or you could bring your hardcover copy, like I'm going to do. :-)

The Kickoff is on Monday January 24 at 7 pm in Hunneman Hall at the Main Library of Brookline. I hope you'll consider coming.

For more information, see the Brookline Reads website and the Brookline Reads blog.

Now is that time of year when many writers have posted links to their works online, reminding their fans – and hoping that their fans are members of Worldcon – that they are eligible to be nominated for the Hugo Award.

I've actually been in this racket a little longer than most. It's a little known fact that I was the first person to suggest to a Worldcon that Hugo-nominated works be posted online. The 1993 Worldcon had provided a CD-ROM of nominated works for sale to its members, but in 1996, when I was nominated for a Hugo for the first time, the Worldcon went one step farther. I contacted the Hugo administrator and told him that I wanted to put my nominated short story, "TeleAbsence," up on my website. I suggested that we get other nominated works up on the web as well, to help the voters track down the nominated stories, and I offered to host works on my own website. As a result, I ended up hosting my own competition, which was fine with me. (And I lost to a story that was hosted elsewhere, anyway.)

Of course, things are a little different today. Many, many more writers are posting their works online, and everyone has a greater opportunity to get their signal lost in the noise. That said, it behooves me to add a signal of my own, so here goes.

If you're planning to nominate in the Hugo Awards this year, as far as I can tell, I'm actually eligible in three categories. Here are the categories and how I'm eligible.

1. Best Short Story: "Hope" by Michael A. Burstein

I'm proud of that short story, which appeared in Destination: Future edited by Z. S. Adani and Eric T. Reynolds and was published by Hadley Rille Books in February 2010. Publishers Weekly called my story "sublimely moving." I'm delighted to announce that Hadley Rille has posted a PDF of the story, along with other stories, at Hadley Rille: Read Stories Online. Or you can click on the story title above and download the PDF directly.

2. Best Fan Writer: Michael A. Burstein

I continue to be eligible for Best Fan Writer not just for my writing here, but also for my writing on Apex Blog and for Argentus, among other places. One of my Apex Blog posts even got picked up by io9, so I must be doing something right. If you want to read some of my Apex Blog posts and even a story of mine, click here for my name on the Apex site. Or you could click here for a tagged list of my personal blog posts pointing toward my Apex Blog posts.

3. Best Related Work: Mabfan's Musings

Yeah, technically, this blog is eligible as a Related Work. I doubt it'll have a chance given all the great related books that were published this year, but I thought I'd mention it.

So there you go. I've tried to do a little more than just promote myself in this post; I've also provided a little fannish history and links to some free fiction and nonfiction. If you're so inclined, please go read and consider my works for nomination.

And, as always, thanks for reading.

Perhaps I'm a little late making this offer to fellow SFWA members, but here goes.

Earlier this year, Hadley Rille Books published the anthology Destination: Future edited by Z.S. Adani and Eric T. Reynolds.

Destination: Future
Cover art: Edward R. Norden Cover background photograph: NASA

The book included my story ""Hope," which Publishers Weekly called "sublimely moving" in their starred review of the book.

The story is about the captain of a generation ship, who discovers she holds the fate of humanity in her hands when she is visited by a time traveler from the far future.

Because it's possible that you might have missed the story, please note that I have placed a PDF in the appropriate location on the SFWA website, which you can download by clicking on the story title here: "Hope".

If you're not a SFWA member, but still interested in reading the story, let me know, and maybe we can work something out.

I'm pleased to announce that Nomi and I are now columnists for Brookline Patch, with the lead story for today.

Nomi and I are writing a bi-weekly column called The Brookline Parent, all about what it's like for us to raise twin children in Brookline. Our first column, "The Morning Routine," paints a picture of what it's like to try to get ready for the workday when you have twin daughters who enjoy creating chaos.

I've written the first column that's up now. Nomi and I plan to alternate columns, although I'm probably going to write the second one, and she'll write the next two. We edit each other's columns anyway, so our column is really a joint effort, even though they'll be written from either her perspective or mine.

Go read it and enjoy it! Or, at the very least, enjoy the Brady Bunch-style picture montage of the four of us that accompanies each column.

Now this is cool.

Apex Publications has just released an ebook, Apexology: Horror, containing 21 horror stories, some new, some reprints, by many of their authors.

Including me. The book reprints "The Spider in the Hairdo," a story that I refuse to re-read even though I wrote it, because it creeps me out.

The book is only available as a digital download in all formats, and it's only $2.99 for over 100,000 words of fiction. Contained within are twenty-one stories to showcase the unique talents that Apex has published and employed in the past five years. Apexology: Horror contains work from two Campbell Award winners (hey, one of them is me!), a Hollywood screenwriter, a NYT Bestselling Author, Nebula and Hugo nominees, Stoker Award winners, and Mari Adkins!

If you're interested, click on the link below for more information:

Latest Release - Apexology: Horror

And don't forget, I'll have my regular Apex Blog post up next Wednesday.

I doubt at this point that my LJ will be the first place people see this, but if you are in the Boston area, the MWRA has issued a "boil water" alert.

More information here:
http://www.mwra.com/

For those of you who are either a resident of Brookline or local to the area:

As you may have heard by now, I'm running for re-election for Library Trustee in Brookline and I'm facing a contested election, with five candidates running for the four positions. (You can find out more about my campaign at http://www.bursteinforbrookline.com.) We set up a campaign committee with Nomi as the chair, and we're holding a fundraiser this Sunday. We were trying to think of something appealing to encourage people to come to a fundraiser, and we think we hit on it.

Nomi's going to bake her award-winning cookie bars, and we're offering them to friends who stop by on Sunday. In turn, we're asking for a tiny, minimum donation of $5 towards my re-election campaign (although of course, anyone is welcome to donate more if they wish).

Here are the details:

Burstein for Brookline Baked-Goods Fundraiser

Join Michael A. Burstein, 2010 candidate for Brookline Library Trustee, for a baked-goods fundraiser. For a minimum donation of $5, you can meet with the candidate and sample Nomi S. Burstein’s award-winning chocolate chip cookie bars and other baked goods.

Date: April 11, 2010
Time: 12-3 PM
Location: Our home (please contact us if you need the address)

If you're so inclined, stop by, say hello, meet our kids, and make a donation. And we'd appreciate it if you'd let us know if you're coming so we have enough cookie bars on hand.

And feel free to pass the word!

Destination: Future
Cover art: Edward R. Norden Cover background photograph: NASA

I'm pleased to announce that Hadley Rille Books has just published the anthology Destination: Future edited by Z.S. Adani and Eric T. Reynolds. This book contains twenty-one science-fiction short stories, including my new story "Hope," which Publishers Weekly called "sublimely moving" in their starred review. PW called the book "exceptional" and said, "The strengths of this 21-story anthology are its diversity, cerebral speculation, and stellar storytelling, which breathe new life into well-worn themes."

If you want to know more about the book, there are links below to the book's pages at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powell's. And if you'd rather buy the book at one of your local bookstores, you can find one at IndieBound.

Destination: Future at Amazon

Destination: Future at Barnes & Noble

Destination: Future at Powell's

I'm pleased to boost the signal on the following announcement:

For the month of March, DriveThruSciFi.com is selling nineteen Apex Publications books as downloadable PDFs for only $1 each!

If you've been thinking of picking up an Apex title, but haven't been completely sure if you wanted the book on your bookshelf, this is your big chance. Buy a PDF for only $1, read, and enjoy. (I recommend a bunch of titles, including but not limited to Descended From Darkness, The Changed, The Apex Book of World SF, Harlan County Horrors, Open Your Eyes, and The Convent of the Pure.)

Naturally, I Remember the Future is among the books being sold as a downloadable PDF for $1. I know a few people who were disappointed when I noted in my Personal Nebula Thoughts last month that the short story "I Remember the Future" wasn't going to be made available for free despite being nominated for the Nebula Award. If you really want to read the story, for $1 you'll not only get access to that story but fourteen other stories I've written, almost all of them award nominees, plus afterwords to each story.

Here's the link:
I Remember the Future at DriveThruSciFi for $1

Enjoy!

I am delighted to announce that the title short story in I Remember the Future has been nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story.

I am now up to ten Hugo nominations and four Nebula nominations for my short fiction.

I'd like to thank Jason Sizemore of Apex Publications for publishing the story in my collection.

More information on the Nebula Awards, including a list of all nominees, can be found here:
2009 Nebula Awards Final Ballot.

Thanks to everyone who found "I Remember the Future" worthy of nomination.

Excellent news! Thanks to the assistance of a former student of mine who has agreed to help us out, Nomi and I will be showing up at Boskone this Sunday at around 11 am and will be bringing the girls, so people can meet them. Our plan is basically just to plop down in the Con Suite or some hallway so folks can come by and see us (since carrying two fifteen-pound babies around will tire us out easily).

I know it's not really attending the con a lot, but this way we do get to see people.

Three notes:

1. If you think you'll want to make sure to see us, be in touch with me and and I'll email you my cell number.

2. As it so happens, I'll be doing one panel item at 2 pm, "Sequels I Want to Read."

3. I still have copies of I Remember the Future that I can sell on consignment from the publisher and personally autograph. However, given everything that we have to carry to the convention for the kids, I can't just drag a box of books along as well. If you know you'll be at Boskone and want a personally signed copy of the book, let me know in advance and I'll bring one. As usual, hardcovers are $35, trade paperbacks $22, and you can give me a check made out to Apex Publications.

The day after my birthday is the Jewish holiday of Purim, so Nomi and I are combining the two into one celebration! Come celebrate my birthday on Sunday afternoon, February 28, from 2 pm to 5 pm and enjoy pareve (i.e. no milk) desserts.

If you need directions or want to be added to the evite that got sent out, just let me know in comments.

Be it hereby announced that Michael and Nomi will be again be hosting a birthday gathering for Nomi, on Saturday night (16 January). We'll be starting the gathering at 7 PM and ending around 10:30 PM.

This year, due to the existence of Muffin and Squeaker, we are not holding the open house at Arisia; rather, we are hosting it at our home (e-mail birthday at asknomi dot com for our home address if you don't have it).

There will be milchig (AKA dairy) snacks.

We know it's a busy weekend -- Arisia, ALA Midwinter, and Mystery Hunt, to name just a few things going on -- but we'd love to see any and all folks who want to drop by.

If you can't make the party but are around for the long weekend and want to drop by our place to say hi, please call (or e-mail) and we can see if we can find some time to get together.

Transportation: We're right off the Green Line, and there is street parking. Also, a friend of ours has offered to give people a lift from the Arisia hotel to our place on Saturday night. If you would like to take advantage of that, let us know and we'll connect you.

In the midst of everything else going on, I didn't want to miss boosting the signal on this event.

Tomorrow evening, the Somerville Public Library is hosting a publication party for Mary Alexandra Agner, whose new book of poetry, The Doors of the Body, has just been published by Mayapple Press. Mary is a good friend; her poems rekindled my interest in poetry and actually got me more interested in the intersection between speculative fiction and poetry.

I'm planning to be at the party to join Mary in celebrating the publication of her book, and I encourage anyone who can to stop by and hear Mary read. It'll open your mind.

The event listing can be found here, but here's the pertinent details:

Mary Alexandra Agner Book Party & Reading

Join Somerville poet Mary Alexandra Agner as she celebrates the publication of her new book, The Doors of the Body (Mayapple Press.) Agner writes of dead women, telescopes, and secrets. All her life she has observed the universe and written about it. She can be found online at www.pantoum.org.

This event is free, and all are welcome to attend.

Date:
Thursday Jul 16, 2009

Time:
7:30 PM - 9:00 PM

Location:
West Branch Library, 40 College Avenue

Back in December, I entered a competition over at the podcast The Chronic Rift, which is devoted to discussion on the latest in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comic art. They were looking for a script to turn into an audio drama, and I thought that my Hugo-nominated short story "Decisions" (Analog, January/February 2004) might work well as an audio drama.

So, relying heavily on The Complete Book of Scriptwriting by J. Michael Straczynski, I sat down with a copy of the manuscript of "Decisions" and adapted it into an audio play. An audio play has different requirements from a short story to work properly. It may seem obvious, but to write an audio play, you have to imagine how the listeners are going to paint a picture of the action in their minds using nothing but sound. In his book, Straczynski gives an example of a television scene in which George shoots Frank, and points out that if you closed your eyes and listened to the scene the way it was presented, you could come away with the impression that Frank shot George.

I felt "Decisions" lent itself to the audio treatment for a few reasons. First of all, there were only four main characters, so it wouldn't be hard for the listener to keep track of them all. Secondly, there weren't that many different locales in the story, so once again I wouldn't have to set up too much for the listener. And finally, I felt that it was a tight little story with a lot of tension between characters that lent itself well to the audio treatment.

I had a lot of fun imagining "Decisions" as an audio play, and now here's your chance to decide for yourself if I succeeded. It's been produced by John S. Drew of The Chronic Rift, with an all-star cast, including Keith R.A. DeCandido, Andrea K. Lipinski, Orenthal V. Hawkins, Judith Furnari, and Jay Smith.

If you click on The Chronic Rift: Spotlight – Michael A. Burstein's Decisions you can listen to the episode. (ETA: Old link was here; no longer works.)

And then you can add a comment at The Chronic Rift: Spotlight – Michael A. Burstein's Decisions Forum Discussion and you can rate the episode here.

Enjoy. Let me know what you think.

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Page Summary

Two Reprint Announcements: Amazing and Fantastic
I Remember the Future: Film Website
Celebrate Muffin and Squeaker and their Second Birthday!
Apex Blog: I Remember the Future: The Movie!
LiveJournal Notification Issues
Brookline Reads 2011 Kickoff Next Monday: Tom Rachman and The Imperfectionists
The Obligatory Hugo Post
Short Story Offer: Hope
Brookline Patch Column: The Brookline Parent
Apexology: Horror! Includes The Spider in the Hairdo
MWRA Advisory: Boil Water in Boston Area
Burstein for Brookline $5 Baked-Good Fundraiser
Hope for Destination: Future
[IRTF] "I Remember the Future" PDF – One Dollar!
[IRTF] Nebula Nomination
Going to Boskone!
[Announcement] Michael's Birthday - Pareve Purim Party
Eighth Annual Nomi's Birthday Gathering **NEW VENUE**
PSA: The Doors of the Body Publication Party (Boston area)
Audio Drama – Decisions by Michael A. Burstein – on The Chronic Rift

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Mabfan's Musings

The Blog of Science Fiction Writer Michael A. Burstein

Entries tagged with announcements

Two Reprint Announcements: Amazing and Fantastic

I Remember the Future: Film Website

Celebrate Muffin and Squeaker and their Second Birthday!

Apex Blog: I Remember the Future: The Movie!

LiveJournal Notification Issues

Brookline Reads 2011 Kickoff Next Monday: Tom Rachman and The Imperfectionists

The Obligatory Hugo Post

Short Story Offer: Hope

Brookline Patch Column: The Brookline Parent

Apexology: Horror! Includes The Spider in the Hairdo

MWRA Advisory: Boil Water in Boston Area

Burstein for Brookline $5 Baked-Good Fundraiser

Hope for Destination: Future

[IRTF] "I Remember the Future" PDF – One Dollar!

[IRTF] Nebula Nomination

Going to Boskone!

[Announcement] Michael's Birthday - Pareve Purim Party

Eighth Annual Nomi's Birthday Gathering NEW VENUE

PSA: The Doors of the Body Publication Party (Boston area)

Audio Drama – Decisions by Michael A. Burstein – on The Chronic Rift