The · Plasteel · Spider · Factory

First, I'm proud to announce that the latest set of featured poems from Mythic Delirium is now available on our website. They are "Coyote Knock" by Jessica Wick, with an illustration by the captive artist from Goblin Fruit, Oliver Hunter, and with accompanying audio sung (yes, you read that right) by Amal El-Mohtar; "Other Fires," by Constance Cooper, illustrated by Paula Friedlander, with audio by Kate Baker; and "The Ones Who Met Them" by Ann K. Schwader, illustrated by Don Eaves and Terrence Mollendor, also with lovely audio from Kate Baker.

All of these poems are samples from Mythic Delirium 21, also known as The Trickster Issue, our first experiment with constructing an issue that has a theme.

Second, I need to deliver some bittersweet news. This has been a wonderful year for Mythic Delirium, with the publication of our extra-large anniversary issue that contained bestselling author Neil Gaiman's debut in our pages. Not to mention, we picked up a healthy number of new subscribers.

But it's also been a sad year, especially because of the loss in October of cover artist/assistant art director Tim Mullins' wife Michelle at the too-young age of 44.

Work on Mythic Delirium 21 continues apace. (We released a preliminary cover image just days ago.) But at this point I feel the responsible thing to do is concede that for the first time in our 10-year history we will be unable to publish two issues within a calendar year. The wait won't be long, however — I'm confident MD21 will arrive in subscribers' mailboxes in January.

And, the wait will be worth it. The Trickster Issue is almost as large as the anniversary issue, with even more art, and containing the results of unique efforts in collaboration between 22 poets, including Theodora Goss, JoSelle Vanderhooft, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Deborah P Kolodji, Sonya Taaffe, Catherynne M. Valente, and David C. Kopaska-Merkel & Kendall Evans.

In this year of firsts good and bad, I'm going to do something I haven't done before, and offer a review PDF of Mythic Delirium 21 in advance of the issue's release for anyone willing to read it and blog about it afterward. If you want a copy, e-mail me at the Mythic Delirium address, and tell me where you plan to review it.

The other good news, I suppose, is that work is already underway assembling Issue 22 (guest-edited by Goblin Fruit co-editors Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica P. Wick) and Issue 23 (no special plans, just a typical issue edited by yours truly.) It's my hope that we're well positioned to produce three issues in 2010, and thus restore our schedule.

Anita and I have come to our agreement as to what the order of stories in Clockwork Phoenix 3 should be. And so, here it is, and as promised, there are a couple of additional surprises in store.

• "The Gospel of Nachash," Marie Brennan (swan_tower)
  
• "Tomorrow Is Saint Valentine's Day," Tori Truslow (amagiclantern)
  
• "Crow Voodoo," Georgina Bruce
  
• "Your Name Is Eve," Michael M. Jones (oneminutemonkey )
  
• "Hell Friend," Gemma Files (handful_ofdust)
  
• "Braiding the Ghosts," C.S.E. Cooney (csecooney)
  
• "Surrogates," Cat Rambo (catrambo)
  
• "Lucyna's Gaze," Gregory Frost (frostokovich)
  
• "Eyes of Carven Emerald," Shweta Narayan (shweta_narayan)
  
• "Dragons of America," S.J. Hirons
  
• "Where Shadows Go at Low Midnight," John Grant (realthog )
  
• "Lineage," Kenneth Schneyer (ken_schneyer)
  
• "Murder in Metachronopolis," John C. Wright (johncwright )
  
• "To Seek Her Fortune," Nicole Kornher-Stace (wirewalking)
  
• "Fold," Tanith Lee

So, as you can see, I accepted a couple more stories to round out the book. Congratulations to Nicole Kornher-Stace and Cat Rambo! This brings the total number of stories to 15, same as the previous book. Four of these (by Cooney, Narayan, Hirons and Wright) are novelettes.

I admit that at this point, what I'm doing is basically stepping back and staring in amazement because I've actually gotten yet another of these books to this point.

I feel also a need to address an issue. It probably has not escaped folks' notice that Norilana Books and publisher Vera Nazarian (norilana) are still in troubled financial waters. Vera has assured me that Clockwork Phoenix 3 will go forward, and discussed how it will be done.

Let me talk about why I feel Norilana is a publisher the genre scene should value. First, there remains much concern in the field about whether women writers are getting a fair shake in this business, at least when it comes to short story markets. While not the highest profile publisher out there, Norilana contributes with four annual anthologies that each routinely select the majority of their stories from female authors. (Just have a look at some Rich Horton statistics. Case closed.) And Norilana does this without constantly tooting its own horn about it. That, too, is worth something.

Second, Norilana takes risks for the benefit of others. For example, bringing out Under the Rose, an anthology edited by David Hutchinson (hutch0) that (as I understand) was orphaned by its original publisher. Or giving new life to Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword And Sorceress anthology series. Or bringing Tanith Lee's "Tales from the Flat Earth" back into print.

Third, while I suppose this is related to the second, I've found Vera absolutely wonderful to deal with as a publisher. She's up front about everything, pays on time, delivers books on time, and if there's a problem, she immediately lets you know. She's also the only publisher I have ever worked with who was willing to give me a chance to show what I can really do. The Clockwork Phoenix series is the result. (Hopefully that's more for better than for worse. ;-p)

I realize this is probably coming a little late in the season, but nonetheless, in the name of the very worthwhile cause of keeping Norilana around, I do hope folks will consider browsing Vera's not inconsiderable inventory and selecting a gift or two, maybe for someone else, maybe just for yourself.

Locus Magazine is reporting the death of Janet Fox, at a too young 68.

Listen up, you yung'uns: when I started playing the small press game, in the early '90s, there was no Ralan's, none of these Internet markets forums, nada. And if you were interested in and willing to let your work appear in off-beat places, and you had even an inkling of what you were doing, you subscribed to Janet Fox's Scavenger's Newsletter. I personally think that much of the genre community that exists today online is built on the network she created with her little desktop-publishing venture.

She was also responsible for a significant moment in my glacial evolution as a poet. Janet published one of my signature poems, "Defacing the Moon," the title poem of my first collection and the one I use in all my workshops ... a young know-nothing (as opposed to the old one I am now) when I first sent her the poem it was 11 lines long. Thing was, Scavenger's Newsletter only published poems of 10 lines or less. As I recall, she sent me a note that said she would consider publishing it if I revised it so it actually complied with her guidelines. I wrangled it down to 9 lines — and it was not easy, believe it or not — sent it back, and the rest is history.

More proof that writing to suit Janet's taste was good for me: "Watching the Pot," first published by Janet in 1997, the same year as "Defacing the Moon."

Too much sad news this year. Seriously.

Hearty congratulations to Gemma Files (handful_ofdust) and hubby Stephen J. Barringer (genesiscount) whose novelette "each thing i show you is a piece of my death" from Clockwork Phoenix 2 has been selected for reprint in Best Horror of the Year 2, edited by Ellen Datlow (ellen_datlow).

Hee. Y'know, this is my second "Best of" reprint announcement within a week. Ann Leckie's "The Endangered Camp," also from CP2, has been selected for The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2010 Edition, edited by Rich Horton.

Can I be forgiven for feeling like we're on a roll here?

(I should also probably remind those of a SFWA inclination that both of these stories (and all the rest of the CP2 stories) are available for your Nebula consideration in the SFWA members-only forum.)

Anita and I still haven't settled on a order for the Clockwork Phoenix 3 table of contents, and I don't feel like holding off any longer; so here, in alphabetical order, are the stories accepted for the third volume of Clockwork Phoenix.

• "The Gospel of Nachash," Marie Brennan (swan_tower)
• "Crow Voodoo," Georgina Bruce
• "Braiding the Ghosts," C.S.E. Cooney (csecooney)
• "Hell Friend," Gemma Files (handful_ofdust)
• "Lucyna's Gaze," Gregory Frost (frostokovich )
• "Where Shadows Go at Low Midnight," John Grant (realthog )
• "Dragons of America," Stacey Hirons
• "Your Name Is Eve," Michael M. Jones (oneminutemonkey )
• "Fold," Tanith Lee
• "Eyes of Carven Emerald," Shweta Narayan (shweta_narayan)
• "Lineage," Kenneth Schneyer (ken_schneyer)
• "Tomorrow Is Saint Valentine's Day," Tori Truslow (amagiclantern)
• "Murder in Metachronopolis," John C. Wright (johncwright )

As you can see, it's the usual unusual mix.

Congratulations to Ann Leckie (ann_leckie), whose story "The Endangered Camp" from Clockwork Phoenix 2 has been selected for The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2010 Edition, edited by Rich Horton (ecbatan). Awesome job, Ann!

You may not be keeping count, but I sure am. This marks the second time a story from the Clockwork Phoenix series earned a year's best inclusion. Vandana Singh's "Oblivion: A Journey" from the first volume was reprinted in The Year's Best SF 14, edited by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. Here's crossing fingers that there will be even more.