Mabfan's Musings

My review of C.C. Finlay's Traitor to the Crown series, which consists of the three novels The Patriot Witch, A Spell for the Revolution, and The Demon Redcoat, has been posted at SF Scope at the following link: http://sfscope.com/2009/07/the-british-are-cominga-review.html.

If you don't have time to check out the full review (although I did try to keep it short, even though it's for a three-book series), here's the upshot quote:

"The Traitor for the Crown series is a delightful blend of historical fiction and fantasy, with a clever idea well executed. Seek it out; you'll be glad you did."

So, a few weeks ago, madwriter asked me if I wanted a Hebrew copy of Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions that had come into his possession. Now, while it's true that I can pronounce Hebrew, I don't read it too well, but I figured why not. After all, Nomi could read it, and maybe one day I'd be able to.

Dangerous Visions in Hebrew Photo copyright ©2009 by Michael A. Burstein

Dangerous Visions in Hebrew, Frontispiece Photo copyright ©2009 by Michael A. Burstein

Danny explained to me why he wanted me to have the book, though, and when he did, I felt a lump in my throat. I said to him, "I'm touched you would consider this gift for us. Rest assured we will treasure the book and keep it with all the other important books in our library."

Here's why:

Book Provenance Photo copyright ©2009 by Michael A. Burstein. Text copyright ©2009 by Danny Adams.

In case it's hard for you to read, here's the text on the page:

This book previously belonged to my uncle, science fiction author (and anthology contributor) Philip José Farmer. I brought it from his home in Peoria, Illinois on June 9, 2009. From there I offered it as a gift to fellow sf writer Michael A. Burstein and his wife Nomi.

Thank you, Danny.

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.

Last night ended my participation as a Book of the Month Club author in Joseph Mallozzi's book club, which he runs on his blog.

Joe runs the book club as follows. First, he announces the book a few months in advance and encourages everyone to go read it. Then, when the discussion week arrives, he posts his own thoughts about the book and encourages his readers to comment and ask questions. He passes along those questions to the author, who has as much time as needed to compose answers to the questions. Finally, Joe posts those answers on his blog, and the book club moves on to the next book.

It's been a lot of fun having I Remember the Future selected as one of the books for the month of May. I discovered that Joe's readers, while sometimes critical and analytical, are also very respectful. Whether or not they like a story, they explain exactly what worked for them and what didn't. And I have to admit that it was a thrill to have the book chosen by a producer of one of my favorite television show franchises. Joe noted my love of Stargate as well, in his introduction to the post with my answers:

When it comes to making a selection for our Book of the Month Club discussions, I like to take several things into consideration: recommendations, reviews, an intriguing premise, and, of course, whether or not the author is a Stargate fan. Well, when I learned that author Michael A. Burstein was an avid follower of the Stargate franchise, I was delighted to pick his book, I Remember the Future, for a May discussion. Michael is not only an established SF writer and fan of the show, but a blog regular as well and so it gives me great pleasure to turn today’s entry over to him.

Because I'm a fan of Stargate, I had an idea for an appropriate picture to go along with the post. Nomi agreed to the idea, and our friend Ari Baronofsky graciously agreed to take the picture and let us use it.

So the "author photo" that went along with my answers is a picture of Nomi and me posed with our DVD box set of Stargate SG-1: The Complete Series, which we purchased as a present to ourselves when it was released.

Anyway, here's the link if you want to see the picture for yourself, and maybe even read my answers:

Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog: Author Michael A. Burstein Answers Your Questions

And for any of Joe's readers who make it over here, a bonus question and answer. No one asked me what my favorite episodes of Stargate SG-1 were. So, in order of broadcast, here they are: 1969, Window of Opportunity, 2010, 2001, Wormhole X-treme!, and 200. Yeah, I tend to flock to the fan favorites....

What's that? My favorite episodes of Stargate Atlantis? That'll have to wait for later.

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.

I've been meaning to let people know about all of the following, just haven't had the time. None of this is Earth-shattering, but it might be of interest.

First of all, I reviewed the play The Superheroine Monologues for SF Scope. Unfortunately, at this point the play's run is over, but if you're interested in my opinion, you can find it at The Secret Lives of Superheroines – a review of The Superheroine Monologues: A Parody of Super Proportions.

Secondly, and a little more timely, I had an opinion piece appear on SCI FI Wire (soon to be Syfy Wire?) about tonight's season finale of the TV show Heroes. I managed to snag quotes from Paul Levinson, Bob Greenberger, and Miranda Thomas about the show; I thought Miranda's point about a need for a big battle was a good one. You can find the article at 5 things Heroes must do to deliver a killer season finale.

Thirdly, John Joseph Adams has chosen to reprint my Jews versus vampires story, "Lifeblood," in the anthology By Blood We Live (Night Shade Books). I suspect it's going to be a somewhat different take on vampires than the other stories in the book. "Lifeblood" originally appeared in the 2003 DAW Books anthology New Voices in Science Fiction edited by Mike Resnick, and I'm glad to see it come back into print.

Fourthly, Apex Publications announced that they're doing a book collection of stories from Apex Magazine, and it turns out that they're including the two stories I selected for the special issue as part of the book: “Waiting for Jakie” by Barbara Krasnoff and “The Last Science Fiction Writer” by Jamie Todd Rubin. If you want to learn more about Descended From Darkness: Apex Magazine volume 1, read their blog post Apex Magazine antho: Update.

And finally, the Falmouth Public Library in southern Massachusetts has invited me to participate in their SCI FI Author Panel on the evening of Wednesday, June 17. I'm particularly pleased to be invited to speak at a library because of my own connection to libraries in Massachusetts. One of the other panelists will be my good friend Jennifer Pelland, so I expect the audience that comes to the event will hear a lot of brilliant repartee. (At least, I'd like to think so.)

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)

A year ago today, the world got the news that the last of the Big Three science fiction writers, Arthur C. Clarke, had died.

Growing up, I wasn't much of a Clarke reader. I loved Asimov's work, though, and Asimov himself used to say that people who liked his work also liked Clarke's. But for the most part, I never enjoyed Clarke's books as much as I did Asimov's. However, I did find Clarke's ideas mind-blowing, and I did enjoy Clarke's short stories more than his novels. (Who could forget "The Star" or "The Nine Billion Names of God"?)

I also loved Clarke's essays on science and the world. He seemed to have an innate inability to grasp the direction in which we were going as a species.

Oddly enough, when he died last year, I was in the middle of trying to figure out the plot of a new short story, the story that would give its title to my collection I Remember the Future. As I said in the book, Clarke's death somehow triggered in my mind exactly what I needed to write the story, and so I dedicated it to him.

As I noted last year when Clarke died, many people liked to quote his Third Law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic") but I was more interested in exploring the ramifications of his Second Law: "The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."

It's something I try to do every day.

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.

Joseph Mallozzi, a producer and writer on Stargate, has an interesting guest blog post up on the Apex Blog: I Should Have Stuck to Rubber Chickens:

Among the most common questions I get asked as an Executive Producer/Writer on the Stargate franchise are: “What sci fi shows influenced you growing up?”, “Can I send you my episode ideas?”, and, of course, “Why does my character get caught holding the rubber chicken?” In order: “None,” “No,” and “Because it’s a key plot point.”

He also keeps a regular blog, Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog, where Nancy Kress is answering questions from readers this week.

The Highlander's Book Reviews site has posted their review of I Remember the Future, and given the book a rating of four out of five. I'm particularly pleased with this part:

..if you want to find Isaac Asimov’s natural heir both in the art of short story writing but also in that connection between author and reader, look no further than Michael A. Burstein.

Given how much I do try to emulate Asimov, it looks like I'm getting it right.

Here's the link to the review: Highlander's Book Reviews: I Remember the Future.

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.)

Last night, Nomi and I met Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium, for the second time. As I noted earlier, Tyson was speaking at the Newton Free Library to promote his new book The Pluto Files, which is all about his role in the controversy that led to the demotion of Pluto. Since Nomi and I are, respectively, the vice-president and president of the Society for the Preservation of Pluto as a Planet, also known as SP3, we felt compelled to attend.

Back, back! Neil deGrasse Tyson defends himself from the defenders of Pluto. Photo copyright ©2009 by SP3.

( Read more... )

I shook hands with Dr. Tyson after we were done, and I could tell that he'd been signing a lot of books. It kind of reminded me of my own publication party back in November.

We said good-bye to Melissa, and Andrew drove Nomi and me home. All in all, a nice start to my birthday weekend.

As for Dr. Tyson and Pluto... well, the IAU has another General Assembly this summer, in Rio de Jainero, Brazil. I suspect Dr. Alan Stern will be there to push for a restoration of Pluto's status. We'll see what happens.

But We All Share a Love for Astronomy! Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Burstein, and Nomi S. Burstein may disagree on Pluto, but we all agree that Dr. Tyson is a gentleman. Photo copyright ©2009 by SP3.

Copyright ©2009 by Michael A. Burstein.

Danny Adams, the nephew of science-fiction writer Philip Jose Farmer, reports that Farmer passed away this morning at the age of 91.

http://madwriter.livejournal.com/665507.html

Perhaps we'll see him again on the Riverworld.

One of my favorite writers, Robert Masello, has a new thriller coming out next week, Blood and Ice. It got a starred review from Publisher's Weekly, who called it an "exceptional supernatural thriller."

The premise? A journalist from Seattle goes to Antarctica to write a magazine article about the Point Adelie research station, and discovers two frozen bodies encased in ice...

You can watch the video trailer and read an excerpt from the book here.

And yes, that is the same Robert Masello who wrote Robert's Rules of Writing, which I've commented on in a series of posts. I'll get back to those eventually.

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.

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.)

This one I'm getting in just under the wire.

Apex Publications, the fine publisher of I Remember the Future, has been running a sales drive for the past two weeks under the title "Brother, Can You Spare $15.95?" If you check out the Apex Blog, you can see their posts about the sales drive interspersed with many other fascinating posts about writing stories, reading slush piles, reviewing books, and participating in a workshop.

As an Apex author myself, I encourage any and all to check out their store and see what books you might want to buy. Perhaps you haven't gotten a copy of I Remember the Future yet because you were waiting for the ebook, which is now available. Perhaps you'd like to pre-order The Convent of the Pure, or order a copy of Hebrewpunk or Unwelcome Bodies.

Or maybe you'd like an Apex Alien Plush Toy! (Click the link; it's adorable!)

So if you're interested in some good reading, take a look.

I'm a member of the Authors Guild, and yesterday, I received email from Roy Blount, Jr., the president of the Guild, encouraging us to get our friends to consider buying books as gifts this holiday season. Roy has graciously given the members permission to quote from his email:

We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods. So let's mount a book-buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a book-buying party. Buy the rest of your Christmas presents, but that's just for starters. Clear out the mysteries, wrap up the histories, beam up the science fiction! Round up the westerns, go crazy for self-help, say yes to the university press books! Get a load of those coffee-table books, fatten up on slim volumes of verse, and take a chance on romance!

There will be birthdays in the next twelve months; books keep well; they're easy to wrap: buy those books now. Buy replacements for any books looking raggedy on your shelves. Stockpile children's books as gifts for friends who look like they may eventually give birth. Hold off on the flat-screen TV and the GPS (they'll be cheaper after Christmas) and buy many, many books.

Today, I discovered that the American Association of Publishers is also getting in on the act, with their new website,Books Are Great Gifts, which includes a lot of resources on books and authors. So I encourage everyone who is still trying to figure out what gifts they are getting friends to consider books.

(And I would be remiss not to mention that personally, I think that I Remember the Future would make a most excellent gift as well. And I'm not alone; I know of a few folks out there who had me sign copies as gifts to friends and family.)

A few quick announcements:

First of all, for those of you in the New York City area, this Saturday morning WBAI (99.5 FM) will be broadcasting my latest appearance on the Hour of the Wolf radio show. The host, Jim Freund (LJ:jfreund), and I taped the interview on September 19, so you'll have to cast your mind back to International Talk Like a Pirate Day when you listen. But this is your chance to hear me read the title story of my collection I Remember the Future.

If you're not in New York City, the show is also available via streaming audio over the Internet. For more information, check out WBAI, New York.

Secondly, there have been two recent reviews I've been meaning to mention. Fortunately, Apex Publications has already done so on their blog, so I can link to their announcements.

The first review was in Science Fiction Weekly. In the Apex blog post on the review, Apex extracts out some nice praise for "Time Ablaze." Paul Di Filippo wrote the review, and he makes it clear that my writing style is one of clarity. I would probably have added the word "Asimovian" to describe my style, and I'm not the only one. As Robert J. Sawyer said on his own blog, "Michael A. Burstein is an Isaac Asimov for the new millennium."

The second review is not available on line unless you're a paying member of the magazine, but it's a nice one. The American Library Association publishes a monthly magazine called Booklist, in which they make their recommendations to member libraries. As noted by Apex in their blog post about the review, Regina Schroeder of Booklist had praise for the two new stories in the book:

“Empty Spaces,” the first of the new tales, is another speculation in the particle-accelerator saga of the three supercollider stories. “I Remember the Future” is a touching ode to the golden age sf writers who inspire Burstein. Like those of the early sf masters, Burstein’s stories aren’t always carried by the characters; speculation takes center stage more often than not. That said, he has got a good hand on the classic genre tropes, and the collection is well worth reading.

I'm particularly pleased by this review because of my own association with our local library, and because I know that Bookiist receives thousands of materials for review every month, and they only publish reviews for items that they are actually recommending to their members. So, to be as transparent as my writing, I'm hoping this will help generate some library sales.