Mabfan's Musings

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Tuckerization is the term given to the act of naming a character in a work of fiction for a real person. It was named for writer Wilson Tucker, who did it often. I've Tuckerized people in some of my own stories; in fact, I offered two Tuckerizations in a raffle for when I Remember the Future was being pre-ordered, and both of the winners had their names (or names of their choosing) appear in the book.

Ten years ago, I answered some questions for Robert J. Sawyer as he was writing the novel Flashforward, which has now become a TV series on ABC. Rob mentioned me in the acknowledgments and gave me a minor Tuckerization on page 150, under the assumed name of Michael Burr, a name that James Patrick Kelly had used when he Tuckerized me in "Think Like a Dinosaur."

And yesterday, I picked up the novel Iron Man: Femme Fatales by Robert Greenberger, and found out on page 58 what I'd be doing with my life if I lived in the Marvel Universe; apparently, I'd be working for Stark Industries:

"Michael, it's good to see you," Stark said enthusiastically as he rose. Rounding the desk, he accepted the new mug in his left hand while shaking Burstein's hand with his right.

"Good to see you, too, sir," Burstein said in a soft voice. He was in his mid-thirties, slightly overweight, and prematurely balding, and he wore a colorful yarmukle pinned to his thinning hair. His clothes never seemed to fit right, nor did he ever wear a tie – an affectation Stark allowed. After all, comfortable people were productive people.

I was delighted to be surprised by this Tuckerization for a few reasons, beyond the enjoyable egoboo. For one thing, I could see myself in that position. For another, years ago there was a scientist in the Marvel universe named Noah Burstein, so maybe we're related. For a third thing, Bob has done a good job of interweaving diversity in his character cast throughout the novel, and the offhand mention of the yarmulke just adds one more tiny note in showing that humanity isn't monolithic.

(And for those of you who would point out that technically this isn't a Tuckerization, since the character does appear to be me, albeit an alternate version of me, well, you're right too.)

Bob, thank you. I can't wait to find out what happens to my alter ego. Hopefully, I won't get killed by Hydra.

Back in January 2000, Analog magazine published a short-short of mine, "Whose Millennium?" The story has been available for a while as an ebook for anyone who wanted to read it after its original publication. The point of the story was that the new millennium did not begin in 2000, or even 2001, but won't arrive until 2239. Just check a Hebrew calendar.

Last week, the reviewer who writes the Red Adept's Kindle Book Review Blog, Lynn, got in touch with me. She had read "Whose Millennium?" on the Kindle and had decided to review it, and she asked me for some comments on the story.

I'm glad to say that she liked the story. If you'd like to see what I said and why she gave the story five stars out of five, check out her latest review post here: Short Stories.

On Thursday night, Nomi and I had our first night out since the children arrived. We went to the Boston Public Library to hear author Lev Grossman read from and discuss his new novel The Magicians.

Author Lev Grossman Holds Up a Book Not His Own Lev Grossman, author of Warp, Codex, and The Magicians, holds up a copy of I Remember the Future by his college classmate Michael A. Burstein. Photograph copyright ©2009 by Michael A. Burstein. All rights reserved.

As I mentioned here shortly after Readercon, Lev is actually an old friend. He and I spent our freshman year of college in the same dorm. We talked about lots of different things that year, but after freshman year we drifted apart. As it so happens, in 1997 I spotted his first novel, Warp, in a bookstore and I picked it up and enjoyed it a lot, even though it wasn't the usual sort of book for me to read. His second novel, Codex, was a lot closer to my kind of fiction.

The Magicians, as it turns out, is a novel written to appeal very strongly to the fantasy reader, especially one who holds tightly onto the nostalgia for the fantasy novels they read as a kid. I'm writing a review of The Magicians (complete with disclaimer) for SF Scope, so I don't want to go into too much detail here, but I do want to give the gist. Expect to see some of the following incorporated into my review.

The premise of the book is that a college-bound student named Quentin discovers that magic exists, and he is recruited to matriculate in a college called Brakebills devoted to magic. Much of the book is set at Brakebills, and the comparisons to Harry Potter are likely to be inevitable. Indeed, Lev knows this; although he originally got the idea for the novel before the Harry Potter series took off, he understands that his characters live in a world in which the Harry Potter series exists, and so it is necessary for the characters to acknowledge it.

That said, this novel is nothing like Harry Potter, although I expect that Lev will quickly become sick of the number of times the book is referred to as "Harry Potter for adults." If anything, the book is more a reaction of Lev's love for the Chronicles of Narnia, as Quentin is constantly reminded of a five-book series called Fillory and Further, about a family of English children who find themselves visiting a magical other world over and over. Amusingly enough, Lev (or someone in the publisher's marketing department) has put together two fan sites for the imaginary Fillory series; one, Welcome to Fillory!, is for fans of the series; the other is the official author site for Christopher Plover, the purported writer of the series.

Again, I should point out that the Fillory books, as far as I know, exist solely in the Borges Library. But Quentin has read them, and when he discovers that magic is real, he can't help but wonder if Fillory is real as well. Needless to say, that becomes much more important as the book goes on...

I'll link to my review when it finally goes up, but I didn't want to delay recommending the book to everyone out there. I wouldn't be surprised to see The Magicians nominated for the Hugo, the Nebula, and the World Fantasy Award next year.

Today, August 11, was the original due date for the babies. Although we were given this due date very early on, because we were having twins it was generally assumed that the children might arrive early. As anyone reading this knows, Nomi and I have now been parents for a little over three weeks, which I hope explains why I seem to have dropped off the face of the planet as far as blogging is concerned.

The Bursteins at Home Nomi holds Yael while Michael holds Elisheva. (All rights reserved.)

It's been a great three weeks, but our routine has been vastly altered. We spent the first week in the hospital, as Nomi recovered from surgery and we learned what basic baby care we needed to know before coming home. Since then, it has been a whirlwind of learning. Schedules are a thing of the past; we really have to be on the babies' schedules, which varies. In essence, our role for the past two weeks has been to provide the babies with their needs. This means feeding them when they are hungry, changing their diapers, and comforting them when they cry.

None of this should be a surprise to anyone who is a parent or even to those who have only heard parenting stories second hand. Quite honestly, I feel that the details are either irrelevant or uninteresting to anyone who isn't us, so I don't see the need to bore people with stories of how much the children ate or what their diapers were like. (You may thank me for that.) What I do want to let people know is that as a result of our current schedules, we've fallen behind on things like writing, dealing with email, and keeping up with the world. I've wanted to post about things like the Hugos this past weekend, and the publication of By Blood We Live with my story "Lifeblood" reprinted in it, and maybe I'll find the time to do so later. (Just briefly: the short story "I Remember the Future" earned 18 nominations and in another year might have been on the ballot, and "Lifeblood" is available free on the book website for anyone who would like to read it.)

For those of you who are personal friends, Nomi has set up a closed Flickr group where we'll be posting pictures of the little ones. If you want to have access, send her or me an email and we'll make it happen.

As for the rest of our personal life, I'm going back to work next week, although I have to admit I have a hard time imagining what it'll be like to be away from my children every workday. Nomi will still be on leave, but she'll continue to have her hands full until our nanny starts in September. We have been very grateful for the generosity and support of our local and extended community, as we haven't had to cook for ourselves until this week. We've also been given and lent a lot of useful things, including baby clothing, a co-sleeper, and infant car seats.

If anyone had any questions for me, feel free to post and I'll do my best to answer them.

I'm desperately trying to find the time to write up a Readercon 20 report. In the meantime, I've managed to label all the photos in my Readercon 2009 gallery, and I've gotten all but two names. So for those of you who are interested, here's the list of people whose pictures appear in the gallery:

Scott Edelman, Kristin Janz, Chris Davis, Mike Allen, Bob Colby, Danielle Friedman, Hildy Silverman, Jennifer Pelland, Vylar Kaftan, Warren Lapine, Gordon Van Gelder, Tom Purdom, John Benson, Lev Grossman, Allen M. Steele, Robert J. Sawyer, Michael Bishop, Barry N. Malzberg, Todd Giles, Art Henderson, John Joseph Adams, Ian Randal Strock, Debra Doyle, James D. Macdonald, Drew Morse, Robert Killheffer, Michaela Roessner, F. Brett Cox, Paul Di Filippo, Stephen Frug, Sara Frug, Joseph Frug, Margaret Ronald, and of course Nomi and me.

And to answer the question posed earlier: my college friend is Lev Grossman, who is just about to publish his third novel, The Magicians. Hopefully, I'll have more to say about him (and others!) later on.

College Friends: Lev Grossman, Michael A. Burstein Photo copyright ©2009 by Nomi S. Burstein

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

My review of the new Harry Potter movie is now up at http://sfscope.com/2009/07/young-wizards-in-lovea-review.html

Nomi and I spent the weekend at the Readercon 20 science fiction convention, and I'm still catching up from it. I'm hoping to have something of a report as soon as I can; in the meantime, if you want to see some pictures from the convention, as yet unlabeled, check out my Readercon 2009 Photo Gallery. Note that it's three pages of photos.

To make this more fun, one of the pictures shows me posing with a friend from college who was in the same dorm as me freshman year. Guess who it is.

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."

Yes, it's true. Nomi and I will be at Readercon this weekend, although chances are we won't be wandering around a lot. More likely, Nomi will pick a place to sit and stay there, so we'll expect the wandering vortex to come toward her.

I will be bringing hardcover and softcover copies of I Remember the Future for anyone who wishes to purchase an autographed book directly from me. If you know you'll want one, let me know in advance which kind. Copies should be available at the SF Scope table and directly from me at my Sunday 12noon Autographing.

Speaking of which, here's my schedule, including descriptions (let me know if you have any questions):

Friday 6:00 PM, RI: Workshop (60 min.)

Speculative Poetry Workshop.  Mike Allen with participation by Leah Bobet, Michael A. Burstein, Vylar Kaftan, Ernest Lilley

What is speculative poetry? How do you write it, why would you want to, and which editors will buy it? Come prepared to write on the fly.

Saturday 12:00 Noon, ME/ CT: Talk / Discussion (60 min.)

The Genre Roots of the Mainstream Tradition in American Fiction.  C. C. Finlay with discussion by Michael A. Burstein, Helen Collins, F. Brett Cox, Debra Doyle, Chris Nakashima-Brown

The plots of Charles Brockden Brown, America's first novelist, frequently hinged on scientific speculation. Washington Irving and Nathaniel Hawthorne employed fantasy elements, Edgar Allen Poe invented a range of genre tropes, and  James Fenimore Cooper introduced the series character-a staple of modern genre fiction.  In the last century, some of F. Scott Fitzgerald's earliest works depend on fantastic elements.  Mainstream American writers, in fact, have regularly created fiction that would now be considered part of the speculative genre.  Finlay will argue that genre elements are not isolated in a separate branch of the American literary tradition, but are instead at the heart of it.

Sunday 10:00 AM, ME/ CT: Panel

The Future of Speculative Fiction Magazines, Part 1: Introduction / Print Magazines.  John Benson, Michael A. Burstein (L), Warren Lapine, Tom Purdom, Hildy Silverman, Gordon Van Gelder

Are print magazines doomed?  (Heck, if _newspapers_ can't make it ...)  Or will they survive in their tiny niches? Are there ways to make them more viable?  Is that even worth the bother?  After all, online magazines are now easy and relatively inexpensive to start-are they the answer?  Part one of our discussion begins with an overview and then examines the future of print magazines.

Sunday 12:00 Noon, Salon F: Autographing

Sunday 1:00 PM, Salon A: Panel

We Won, We Lost.  John Joseph Adams, Michael A. Burstein, F. Brett Cox (L), Paul Di Filippo, Robert Killheffer, Michaela Roessner

[Greatest Hit from Readercon 12.]  It's an sf world. Our once-visionary iconography is now commonplace. The present turns into the future even before we wear it comfortably, let alone wear it out, and this sense of constant change is now the common currency of our culture  rather than our precious private truth. And yet the sf readership shrinks, or at least gets older, every year; as sf media ascends (and merges with real life), the written sf word seems ever more irrelevant-and certainly wins no greater prestige for its creators than in the past. Maybe this has nothing to do with sf, but just reflects the death of reading (a development we perhaps ironically foresaw). But maybe somehow the contents of sf, the accidents, have conquered mass culture, but some crucial part of the form, the essence, has been left behind. Is it an sf world after all? Or just a holographic simulation of one?

Sunday 2:00 PM, RI: Talk / Discussion (60 min.)

Lasers, Death Rays, and the Quest for the Ultimate Weapon.  Jeff Hecht with discussion by Ian Randal Strock

Nature invented lightning bolts first, but the ancients put them in the hands of their mythical gods, and ever since we've had dreams of destruction in fiction and in fact. H.G. Wells armed his Martian invaders with heat rays; Nikoka Tesla and others tried to build real death rays. In 1958, the director of the then-new DARPA said his agency would be interested in far-out ideas like death rays, and a few months later Gordon Gould arrived at their door with a plan to build the laser. Hecht will talk about the real (and the questionable) science, the fictional visions, the bizarre history, and the quest for the ultimate weapon of directed energy.

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.

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.

Apparently, today has been declared Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Day. Not sure what I should do to celebrate...

violetcheetah pointed gnomi and me to the following article from yesterday's Boston Globe. I have to say, I find it the most applicable article of child-rearing advice that anyone has sent us, given the circles we move in.

What to Do If Your Child Has Superpowers

And in other news...

In August, Nightshade Books will be publishing the collection of vampire stories By Blood We Live edited by John Joseph Adams. Jennifer Brozek has reviewed the book, and had this to say about my contribution, a reprint of my story "Lifeblood":

For me, there are three outstanding stories in this collection that shine above the rest. It is their writing, perspective, and originality that made these stories stick in my head long after I finished reading them...

“Lifeblood” by Michael A. Burstein – This story tells the tale of combating a vampire with faith – Jewish faith rather than the traditional Christian faith. The use of song and prayer within the song is a brilliant reinterpretation of brandishing the crucifix.

It's very high praise to have a reviewer cite my story as one of the three outstanding ones in the book, even more so when the name writers in the book include Neil Gaiman, Anne Rice, and Stephen King.

The review can be found here: Review of By Blood We Live. It's also on her blog at jennifer_brozek.

Maybe I should start writing my own vampire trilogy...

Bibliophile Stalker has an interview with Jason Sizemore, the publisher of Apex Publications, here. It's a very good interview, and I especially like this part:

Any advice for aspiring publishers?

Please, I implore you, have a business plan. If you’re not serious about the gig, then don’t bother, otherwise, you’re just going to sully the reputation of the small press even further.

How very true. When I earned my Certificate in Publishing last year from Boston University, I learned the first rule of publishing: "Publishing is a business." It doesn't matter how much you personally like the material you're publishing; you have to approach publishing as a business, or you won't succeed.

Jason's also got some good advice for writers too. Go read.

I suspect most of the people who read my blog are probably already aware of this, but in case not...

Jeremy L.C. Jones interviewed ten editors of short fiction, including Patrick Neilsen Hayden, Shawna McCarthy, John O'Neill, Cat Rambo, Mike Resnick, Stanley Schmidt, Jason Sizemore, Gordon Van Gelder, Sheila Williams, and Ann VanderMeer. The interview has been published by Clarkesworld Magazine at the following link:

The Story Is All: Ten Fiction Editors Talk Shop.

It's a very good piece, with a lot of useful information for any writer trying to place a story with any of the editors interviewed.

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.

My review of Terminator Salvation can be found here:

http://sfscope.com/2009/05/insert-your-own-ill-be-back-jo.html