A.C. Wise

2008: A Year in Numbers

Submissions: 71
Rejections: 49
Acceptances: 10
Pending: 15*

*I may not be so good with the numbers, but even I know these don’t add up. I’m counting 2007 submissions that were accepted in 2008 in these totals.

Stories published: 7 (Some of which can be found here, here, here and here.)

As for 2009, I have 5 stories tentatively scheduled for publication, including ‘Sisters of the Blessed Diving Order of Saint Peter and Saint Andew’, which will appear as the first piece of fiction for the new year at Strange Horizons next week. Stay tuned…

The results of shopping with a holiday gift card (thanks, Mom!)

Restraint is not so much a thing I’m capable of - evidenced by the fact that this is only round one of the book shopping! Mmm, books.

It’s the end of an era here in Philadelphia. Robin’s Books, Philadelphia’s oldest independent bookstore, is closing after 73 years. I’ve mentioned Robin’s here before - good books, very supportive of authors, beautiful building. What it boils down to, basically, is they are awesome, and the city will be slightly less for their loss.

But all is not doom and gloom. Robin’s will be rising from the ashes as “…a center city salon, where people can meet, listen to interesting presentations, purchase interesting books, have interesting conversations and generally maintain their cultural health.” I like the sound of the new business model, and I’m really glad to hear they won’t be going away for good. If I’m reading things right, they will continue to occupy the top floor of their current building, which is even better news. You can read all about the end and the beginning of Robin’s here.

And if you happen to live in the Philadelphia area, from now until January 31st all of their new stock is on sale, starting at 25% off and going up to 50% as it gets closer to the end of the year. I know what I’ll be doing on my birthday!

Cutting Block Press and Dark Recesses Press are currently running a contest to win some horror goodies. All you have to do is head on over to their blog and comment on this post right here.

First prize is a copy of the upcoming Dark Recesses Press #10 and the currently available Horror Library Volume III. Of course, if you don’t want to run the risk of not winning and thus not getting to read my short story Teeth, which appears in the anthology, you can run over the site and buy it outright. If you’re still not convinced, the site also offers two-page excerpts of each of the stories in the volume to whet your appetite.

A preview of the preview below the cut…

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ABC apparently ordered a pilot of Fables. As with any other source material close to my heart, this makes me slightly nervous. On one hand, I would love to see these stories brought to (more) life, on the other hand, you never know who is going to be Joel Schumacher, and who is going to be Chris Nolan.

In other news, The Best of Every Day Fiction, which contains my flash piece, The Chupacabra in Love, is now available, both as a trade paperback and a fancy clothbound gift edition.

And finally, Cloth from Flesh, Flesh from Bone received a nice shout-out from Rich Horton in his year-end summary of Ideomancer. Go check it out and see if you agree!

I came across these today.

I don’t know what they are, but they fascinated me. There was something oddly lonely about them, something evocative of forgotten steampunk spaceships, or abandoned bathyspeheres.

The trees nearby were covered with a weird, alien fuzz. Coincidence? Maybe. There’s probably a perfectly mundane explanation, but what fun would that be?

Poetry usually doesn’t do it for me, but everyone was praising the pieces in the latest issue of Lone Star Stories over on the editor’s website, so I felt compelled to check it out. I have to admit, I really enjoyed each of them, and I would definitely recommend giving them a read, even if you think you don’t like poetry. And as an extra bonus, while you’re over there, I also recommend the poetic prose in Josh Rountree’s Veronica.

Plus, two other recommendations for your reading pleasure.

The electric: The Completely Rechargeable Man by Karen Heuler

The musical: Geddarien by Rose Lemberg

Since I’ve got kind of a theme going here, I figured I would talk about some new loves to break up the nostalgia. Elizabeth Bear and Catherynne M. Valente both currently fall into the love-at-first sight category. Since they are both new loves, it remains to be seen whether they are brief flirtations or long-term affairs, but right now, it sure feels like love.

In Ms. Bear’s case, I started with Blood and Iron and I immediately wanted more. Luckily for me, she was obliging enough to have written three other books in the same universe, Whiskey and Water, Ink and Steel and Hell and Earth. I am currently lusting after her New Amsterdam stories, but I am trying my best to resist buying anything for myself until after the holidays.

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Or Part IV: I’ve Got Kind of a Thing Going Here

On my loosely categorized scale of author-love, C.S. Lewis falls somewhere between love-at-first sight and the love I never realized was there until I looked back on it later. I remember where and when we first met - friends of my grandparents gave me the complete Chronicles of Narnia Box Set - however, I was young and I don’t think I was fully equipped to recognize author-love at the time. Upon reflection, of course, it was perfectly obvious. I obsessively read and re-read the books, and I absolutely refused to read the last book in the series because I didn’t want it to end. I did eventually read it, but it was only several years later that I could bring myself to do so.

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The December issue of Ideomancer is now live. Inside you will find a factory where cold children strip pieces from the dead to serve the cause of the war.

Samantha remembers when the factory was a school.

Not much has changed. Long work tables have replaced long desks in the vast, cold room, and a supervisor paces with watchful eyes instead of a teacher.

High windows let in light the color of dirty water. Samantha’s fingers ache with the cold; the work cramps her bones. For just a moment she wishes she could climb up and up to stand beneath the sky, stretch her chilled fingers to ripple its surface, dive in and swim away. But before she can think more about the dirty-water sky, or when the factory was a school, another dead man comes down the line.

Read the rest here.