Mabfan's Musings

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.

Nomi and I have arranged for a friend, Carsten Turner, who is a certified instructor, to teach us CPR and First Aid at our place. He's willing to open up his class to any of our friends in the area that want or need certification.

Carsten will be teaching layperson CPR for adult, child, and infant, including choke-saving (what was previously known as the Heimlich maneuver) and the use of AED, along with First Aid. If we can get a few more people to take the class, it'll only cost $50 per person for the CPR part, and $80 total for those who also stay for First Aid. In addition to getting a wallet card showing certification, you'll also get a book with a CD. Also, if anyone wants to purchase a pocket face mask, Carsten has wallet-size ones for $10 and a larger one that's $15.

We're planning to hold the class on Sunday, June 28 at our place, from 1 pm to about 6 pm. If you're interested in signing up, reply here or send me an email as soon as possible, as I need to give him a number by Wednesday.

From 7:00 pm to 8:45 pm tonight, I'll be participating in a science fiction author panel at the Falmouth Public Library. The other authors are Jennifer Pelland, Jeffrey A. Carver, and Walter H. Hunt.

I haven't decided what I'll speak about yet; if the audience seems engaged, I might try doing "A Thousand Ideas in an Hour."

I'll have copies of I Remember the Future in both hardcover and trade paperback, as well as my special signing pen, for those who wish to buy a copy and get it signed.

Nomi and I have arranged for a friend, Carsten Turner, who is a certified instructor, to teach us CPR and First Aid at our place.  He's willing to open up his class to any of our friends in the area that want or need certification.

Carsten will be teaching layperson CPR for adult, child, and infant, including choke-saving (what was previously known as the Heimlich maneuver) and the use of AED, along with First Aid.  If we can get a few more people to take the class, it'll only cost $50 per person for the CPR part, and $80 total for those who also stay for First Aid. In addition to getting a wallet card showing certification, you'll also get a book with a CD.  Also, if anyone wants to purchase a pocket face mask, Carsten has wallet-size ones for $10 and a larger one that's $15.

We're planning to hold the class on Sunday, June 28 at our place.  If you're interested in signing up, reply here or send me an email.

For people in southern Massachusetts who were asking, when is Michael going to be in the area to talk about I Remember the Future, here's your chance.

On Wednesday, June 17, from 7:00 pm to 8:45 pm, I'll be participating in a science fiction author panel at the Falmouth Public Library. I'm looking forward to this event, as I love libraries and it's the first time that Falmouth is having a science fiction panel. Also, they got a great lineup. The other authors are Jennifer Pelland, Jeffrey A. Carver, and Walter H. Hunt.

I believe we'll all have books available for people to buy and get signed.

For more information, see
New England Science Fiction and Fantasy Events - Science Fiction Author Panel

Boosting the signal here...

Apex Publications, the publisher of I Remember the Future, is holding a lottery with a cool premise. The Apex Author Lottery consists of a variety of prize packages centered on specific Apex authors or staff members.

My author's stack consists of two books. The first is a hardcover, signed copy of I Remember the Future, of course.

The second book is a hardcover, signed copy of The Coming Convergence by Stanley Schmidt. Stanley Schmidt is the editor of Analog, and he wrote the introduction to my collection. I blogged about his book last year; it's very thought-provoking and a logical companion in the prize package.

Tickets for any lottery prize package are $1 each, and if you choose to buy ten tickets for any one package, that's only $8. Or, if you want to try your luck on all 19 prize packages, for $15 you can buy 19 tickets, one for each package.

Click here for details on the Apex Author Lottery.

Click here for a list of all prize packages.

Click here for my own prize package.

Folks may recall that back in March, I announced that Joseph Mallozzi had chosen I Remember the Future as one of his Book of the Month Club selections for the month of May.

Again, for those of you unfamiliar with his name, Joseph Mallozzi was one of the executive producers of the TV shows Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, and is also an executive producer of the upcoming Stargate Universe. (And, as I've mentioned a few times, Nomi and I are big fans of the franchise.)

Mr. Mallozzi has just posted his Book Club blog entry at Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog: I Remember the Future by Michael A. Burstein. He has some fascinating things to say about the stories; some of them worked for him, and some didn't, for quite legitimate reasons. Like many other readers, Joe Mallozzi compares my writing style to that of the Golden Age writers, and it's a comparison I do not shy away from.

Anyway, if anyone reading here still has questions to ask me about the book, feel free to go over there and post your questions. He's going to collect them all for me and I'm going to try to answer them within the week (or the month). And while you're over there, check out what else he has to say; he's a very funny guy, he knows a lot about good food, and sometimes his dogs give away big Stargate secrets.

As the editor of the special issue of Apex Magazine (April 2009), I'm reposting this announcement from http://www.apexbookcompany.com/news/2009/05/story-titled-changed/ :

This morning, it came to our attention that Jamie Todd Rubin’s story “The Last Science Fiction Writer” (April Apex Magazine) shared the same title as Allen Steele’s “The Last Science Fiction Writer.” This had been causing some confusion, especially since Allen Steele had released a nice collection of his short stories using that same title.

For this reason, Jamie Todd Rubin has retitled his story to “Hindsight, in Neon.”

We apologize to our readers, Allen Steele, and Bill Schafer at Subterranean Press for any confusion and inconvenience this might have caused.

The Chronic Rift has announced the winners of the 2008 Roundtable Awards on their latest podcast, and I am delighted to be able to announce that I Remember the Future is the winner of the Best Anthology award.

My thanks to all listeners to the Chronic Rift who voted for the book. If you listen to the podcast, you can hear my recorded thanks as well.

I'm also delighted to announce another win that took me by surprise as I was listening to the podcast. Back in December, I entered a radio script adaption of my story "Decisions" into the contest that the Chronic Rift was running. They were looking for a script to perform on the show. Well, they've chosen to produce "Decisions" as an audio play. I'm very much looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

(The Chronic Rift: Spotlight - The 2008 Roundtable Awards)

I'm delighted to announce that the April 2009 issue of Apex Magazine, the issue for which I served as Guest Editor, is now available.

I'm very proud of this issue. As I discuss in the editorial, the stories I selected for the issue struck some very personal chords with me. "The Last Science Fiction Writer" by Jamie Rubin and "Waiting for Jakie" by Barbara Krasnoff both explore themes that I've also explored in my own fiction.

I was also pleased to be able to support science fiction poetry by publishing two poems: Michael Ceraolo’s “Message in a Bottle” and Elizabeth Barrette’s “Fallen Gardens." Apex Magazine doesn't usually publish poetry, so this was a departure for them. I'm glad they were willing to go along.

Editing the special issue of Apex also allowed me to reprint one of my favorite stories of all time: "Love, Dad" by Jeffery D. Kooistra, which originally appeared in the March 1992 Analog. It's also a bit of a departure for Apex, as it's more touching and moving and perhaps less dark than their usual fare, but I think Apex's readers will like it nevertheless.

Finally, the cover art by Stephen Rider does a wonderful job of illustrating "The Last Science Fiction Writer." You can see it for yourself if you check out the catalog page for the PDF version. And while you're there, maybe you'll consider buying the PDF; it's only $2, well worth the cost to support great short fiction online.

In addition to editing this issue, I also wrote a blog entry for the Apex Blog, Thoughts on Professionalism and Guest Editing, in which I discuss the process of serving as guest editor for the issue. I actually had a few surprises in store for me when I took on this task, and I encourage anyone who wants to know what happens on the other side of the desk to check it out.

Once again, many thanks to Jason Sizemore, the publisher of Apex, for allowing me this opportunity.

(Permalink to the April 2009 Apex Magazine)

Remember just a few days ago when I pointed people toward Joseph Malllozzi's weblog?

I am pleased to announce that Joseph Mallozzi has chosen I Remember the Future as one of his Book of the Month Club selections for the month of May.

For those of you unfamiliar with his name, Joseph Mallozzi was one of the executive producers of the TV shows Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, and is also an executive producer of the upcoming Stargate Universe. Nomi and I have been fans of the Stargate shows for a few years; in fact, as a present to ourselves, when Stargate SG-1 came to an end, we bought the full-series DVD set so we could go back and watch our favorite episodes over and over.

So I was delighted when a few weeks ago, Mallozzi asked me if I'd be willing to answer questions in the month of May about I Remember the Future for his Book of the Month Club. Besides being a writer of science fiction, Mallozzi is also a voracious reader of science fiction. Every month he selects books for his Book of the Month Club and encourages his blog readers to read the books and then discuss them and ask questions of the author. I'm looking forward to having a new audience enjoy my stories, even though I have slight feelings of trepidation regarding what questions they may ask. (Gulp.)

By the way, the other book Mallozzi has chosen for May is The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll. As a long-time fan of Carroll's work, I'm delighted to be in such august company. (I just hope the readers don't decide to spend their time comparing my book to Carroll's, since in my own opinion I would get trounced.)

If you'd like to join in the fun, check out Mallozzi's latest blog post, in which he also opens up the floor to questions for questions for the Stargate art department draftsman: March 17, 2009: Expert Analysis vs. Dumb Luck, Questions for Kate, Some Stargate News of Note, and May’s Book of the Month Club Selections.

The 2008 Roundtable Awards have been announced, and I am very pleased to note that the nominees in the Best Short Story category include both "Empty Spaces" and "I Remember the Future."

What this means is that I Remember the Future has now truly earned its subtitle, "The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein." Because the two new stories have now been nominated for an award, every story in the book is now an award nominee, with the exception of "Absent Friends." ("Absent Friends" is included because it bridges the other three stories in the "Broken Symmetry" series.)

I'm also amused to note that "The release of I Remember the Future" was nominated in their Best Thing of 2008 category. Certainly, it was probably the best thing of 2008 for me personally....

I would like to thank the voters in the Roundtable Awards, which is sponsored by the podcast The Chronic Rift, for their nominations. I'm honored to be up against stories by my friends Terri Osborne and Ian Randal Strock.

To see a list of all nominees in all categories, check out The 2008 Roundtable Award Nominees and listen to the podcast.

(ETA: I forgot to note that the book also got nominated in their "Best Anthology of Short Stories" category. So that's a total of four nominations for the book.)

I am pleased to announce that I Remember the Future is finally available in a Kindle edition. Just click the following link if you have a Kindle and start reading immediately:

I Remember the Future: Kindle Edition

Nomi and I will only be at Boskone on Sunday, February 15. Here's my schedule:

Sunday 10am
How Not to Edit Yourself
Panelists: Michael A. Burstein, David G. Hartwell, James Patrick Kelly (moderator), Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Josepha Sherman. Eleanor Wood

Pitfalls. What? Why? How to avoid them.....


Sunday 11am
Superheroes
Panelists: Michael A. Burstein, Yvonne Carts-Powell, Daniel P. Dern (moderator), Matthew Jarpe, Alisa Kwitney Sheckley

Are there any superpowers left that we haven't seen? That we'd rather not see? Participants will explore these themes, and more.


Sunday 12noon
Autographing
I'll have copies of I Remember the Future available for purchase. If anyone knows they'll want to buy one at the con, let me know in advance and I'll reserve one for you.

Sunday 1pm
Marketing Your Book
Panelists: Michael A. Burstein, Elaine Isaak, Dani Kollin, William O'Connor, Steven Popkes, Shane Tourtellotte (moderator)

From business cards to blogging, advertising to authors' tours....what works? What is dismally disappointing (or even definitively damaging)? The panel discusses interesting ways to become famous (OK, well known?......make a living?) that won't turn people off!


Sunday 3pm
Reading
I'll be reading from I Remember the Future.

Last Tuesday, SFScope broke the news that Realms of Fantasy magazine was closing down after the April 2009 issue. Which means it's time for me to revisit the question of supporting short fiction.

Ironically, the last time I wrote on this topic, in an August 2007 post titled "Supporting Short Speculative Fiction," it was because the assistant editor of Realms of Fantasy had decided to start a subscription drive for short fiction magazines. A year and a half later, we can probably guess how well that worked.

So with the folding of Realms of Fantasy, writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch, who used to edit the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, sent out a similar plea which got picked up by ComicMix last Wednesday at Fight the downturn! Here's how... You can follow the link to read her letter, but the essence of her statement can be encapsulated in the first sentence: "If you’re really worried about the magazines, subscribe to them."

I'm not going to revisit the question of the economics of short fiction; those who are interested can go back to my November 2005 post Thoughts on the End of SCI FICTION and the Status of the Short Fiction Market. Instead, I'm going to add my own plea to the ones already out there, and note an interesting experiment being done by Apex Magazine.

First of all, as always, I remind people who like my stories to consider subscribing to Analog. Most of my stories have appeared there, including all the stories collected in I Remember the Future. If you like my stories, you'll like what you find in Analog. (And a shout out to fizzixrat, who has informed me that he is subscribing to Analog!)

Secondly, I want to boost the signal on a fascinating announcement made today by Apex Publications. Apex, which publishes my book, has been publishing Apex Magazine since 2005. It started as a print digest, and then in 2008 they moved it online as a free website. The website included all of the same fiction, but didn't have the same look and feel as the digest.

Well, for those readers who liked the digest and want to support the magazine, they've announced that starting with this month's issue, they are offering a PDF version of the magazine for those readers willing to pay for it. For $2 an issue, or $12 for an annual subscription, readers of Apex can received a PDF emailed to them which has the look of the original digest, including a cover and full-color art.

I like this idea a lot. Apex keeps their fiction available to readers on the Internet for free, but at the same time, they've created an appealing product for those readers who liked the digest. Furthermore, they're giving their readers the opportunity to show their support for the writers and artists, as they note that the money raised by selling the PDF is going to them.

I'm hoping that this business model works out, and helps stave off the death of short fiction markets that people keep predicting as we see one market after another vanish away. I have subscriptions already to Analog, Asimov's, and F&SF, and if you'll excuse me, I'm off to purchase one from Apex as well.

The December 2008-January 2009 issue of Brookline Magazine (along with its sister magazines Newton Magazine and Metrowest Magazine) has just published a very nice profile of me. Although the impetus of the profile is the publication of I Remember the Future, the focus of the profile is also my involvement with the town of Brookline:

Michael Burstein is a writer with a special focus, a profound concern with memory.

Burstein is a typical Brookline resident – well-educated, liberal, and with leisure enough to content himself with a wide spectrum of interests. A physicist by training and educator by practice, Burstein has been a Brookline town meeting member since 2001, a library trustee since 2004, was once a would-be astronaut and has a tendency to burst into song over dinner.

If you'd like to see more of the article, the author has posted a PDF from her blog entry Profile of Michael Burstein.

Back in 1996, in the early days of the Internet, I became one of the first writers to offer my stories to members of the World Science Fiction Convention who were voting in the Hugo Awards. It actually wasn't until after the nominations came out, when I contacted the Hugo Administrator and suggested that all of us who had been nominated be given a chance to post our stories online for people to read. In the end, I hosted my own story and some of my competitors in the Short Story category, and voters didn't have to struggle to track down the nominated stories and read them.

Of course, today, everyone who has stories to offer for potential nomination now does so over the Internet, and so I'm doing the same. I had three stories published last year that I feel might be worthy of nomination:

Short Story:

• "Collapse" (Polu Texni, September 29, 2008), about an astronomer who discovers that the universal collapse has begun – or so he thinks
  
• "I Remember the Future" (I Remember the Future, Apex Publications, November 2008), about a retired science fiction writer at the end of his life who fears that humanity has forgotten how to dream
  

Novelette:

• "Empty Spaces" (I Remember the Future, Apex Publications, November 2008), about a scientist whose work in studying a parallel universe has come between her and her friends and family
  

You'll notice that while "Collapse" is available to read online, the other stories aren't, because they're the new stories in my collection, I Remember the Future. However, if you're a member of Worldcon who would like to read either one of those stories and you don't have the book, I'm more than willing to email PDF copies of them to you for free.

Just drop me an email at story at mabfan dot com, telling me which story you'd like to read, and I'll send it along.

Arisia was a lot of fun, and kept us both very busy. If I have time, I might report on the convention a bit.

In the meantime, here's a link to an interview Steven H Silver did of me in which I talk about fandom, writing, religion, influences, and of course, I Remember the Future:

The SF Site: An Interview with Michael A. Burstein.

The money quote that has been popping up on links to the interview seems to be this one:

You've said that Isaac Asimov was a major inspiration to you. How did he affect your writing career and which other authors do you feel you owe a debt to?

I could write a whole article about Isaac Asimov. Come to think of it, I have, for the fanzine Mimosa, and it's available on my website. It would be far too long to reproduce here. But the short version is that Asimov, being as prolific and open about his life as he was, gave the rest of us a blueprint to follow if we wanted to do so.

(The interview is also available by downloading the latest issue of Argentus.)

My friend Michael Marano, who is a fellow Grub Street instructor, asked me to let people know that the registration deadline for his class on "The Art of Genre" has been extended to Thursday. Also, there are scholarships available.


Here's a description of the class:

Using the unreal in your fiction offers unique opportunities to break fresh, new ground. This class will help hone the tools you’ll need to write genre fiction–be it science fiction, fantasy, or horror–with a distinctly literary bent. In addition to the weekly workshopping of short stories and novel fragments, students will be given a background on the genres’ histories and their respective subgenres, strategies for using surrealism and postmodernism in their work, approaches to using “real world” research as a way to flesh out otherworldly settings and narratives, and ways to use the unreal as a tool to make metaphoric statements that can only be articulated with fantastic trappings. Other topics covered will be strategies for marketing your work, techniques for idea generating, and protocols for developing their work with the help of editors and agents. The goal is to give you a solid grounding in the demands of fantastic fiction, and a better understanding of literary potential of your favorite genres.

As I said a few days ago, I'd be taking this class if I could fit it into my own schedule...