I’m absolutely thrilled to announce that my short story “Karen Memory” will be appearing in the new John Joseph Adams-edited anthology Dead Man’s Hand, collecting some of the finest in all-new, original Weird West tales to be published in May of 2014.

“Karen Memory” is the short that gave rise to the novel of the same name, which will be coming out from Tor in 2015, if all goes according to plan.

The rest of the TOC is pretty astounding:

• Bamboozled—Kelley Armstrong
• Karen Memory—Elizabeth Bear
• Sundown—Tobias Buckell
• Alvin and the Apple Tree—Orson Scott Card
• Sheriff Poole & The Mech Gang—Charles de Lint
• Clockwork—David Farland
• Le Madre De Or—Jeffrey Ford
• Holy Jingle—Alan Dean Foster
• The Devil’s Jack—Laura Anne Gilman
• Second Hand—Rajan Khanna
• The Red-Headed Dead—Joe R. Lansdale
• What I Assume You Shall Assume—Ken Liu
• Ghostwood—Jonathan Maberry
• Stingers and Strangers—Seanan McGuire
• The Hell-Bound Stagecoach—Mike Resnick
• The Man With No Heart—Beth Revis
• Wrecking Party—Alastair Reynolds
• Neversleeps—Fred van Lente
• The Golden Age—Walter Jon Williams
• Medicine Dance, Arizona—Tad Williams
• The Old Slow Man and His Gold Gun From Space—Ben Winters
• Bookkeeper, Narrator, Gunslinger—Charles Yu

Seriously, it goes not get better than this.

I’ll be a Guest of Honor at RavenCon in Virginia next April! And I will be joining That Boy I Like at NYC ComiCon for One! Day! Only! in October.

And now, back to the word mines.

travel and appearances 2013:

Boskone: Boston, MA, February 15-17 2013
Signing: New England Mobile Book Fair, Newton Highlands MA, March 20, 2013
Signing: Bookpeople, Austin TX, March 27 2013
Signing: Dragon’s Lair, Austin TX, March 28 2013
Minicon: Minneapolis, MN, March 30-31 2013
Signing: Uncle Hugo’s Bookstore, Minneapolis MN, April 13, 2013
Up in the Aether: Detroit, MI, May 23-27 2013
4th Street Fantasy: Minneapolis, MN, June 21-24, 2013
American Library Association (guest speaker): Chicago IL, June 28-30 2013
ConVergence: Minneapolis, MN July 4-8, 2013
Readercon: Burlington, MA, July 11-14, 2013
Space City Con: Houston, TX August 2-4, 2013 (Literary Guest of Honor)
Lone Star Con (San Antonio Worldcon): San Antonio, TX, August 29-September 1 2013
Context: Columbus, OH, September 27-29 2013 (GoH)
Signing (and Scott Lynch’s The Republic of Thieves book launch!) : Pandemonium, Central Square, Cambridge MA, October 8th 2013
NYC ComiCon: NY NY, October 11th 2013 (only)
Viable Paradise: Oak Bluffs MA, October 12-16 2013
World Fantasy Convention: Brighton England UK, October 31-November 3, 2013

2013:

Steles of the Sky rough draft: March 2, 2013
Book proposal madness!
OWW EC: March 15, 2013
Metatropolis III story: March 31, 2013

OWW EC: April 15, 2013
Popular Science flash: April 22, 2013
“Dark Leader”: April 2013
Steles of the Sky final: May 1, 2013
“Green and Dying”: May 1, 2013
Venusian story: July 1, 2013
Hieroglyph story: August 10, 2013
“Something’s Gotta Eat T. rexes“: October 2013

An Apprentice to Elves: ?

2014:

Karen Memory: January 6, 2014

travel and appearances:
RavenCon: North Chesterfield, Virginia, April 25-27th, 2014 (Guest of Honor)
ConVergence: Minneapolis, MN, July 3-7, 2014
Finncon: Jyväskylä, Finland, July 11-13, 2014 (Guest of Honor)
Worldcon: London, England, August 14-17, 2014

No fixed deadline:

Smile (unless its name is actually Salt Water)
Unsuitable Metal
Gotham Jazz
Untitled Gangland Urban Fantasy That Keeps Bugging Me
“Gallowglas”
“Untitled Space Opera Thingy” aka “Periastron”
“Posthumous Jonson”
“Steel”
“On Safari in R’lyeh and Carcosa with Gun and Camera”
“This Chance Planet”
“Flush”
“Coronado”
“Patience and Fortitude”
“A Time to Reap”

Well, I learned last night that I can deadlift three sets of 140 pounds, which made me feel pretty good about myself. (My squat is nowhere near there yet. Someday, I hope it will be.)

Today, I learned that in my shoulders and neck, I have trapezius muscles, deltoids, and this little dude called the erector scapulus. And I also learned that they have ways of making their opinions known.

Picture Binkley saying calmly, “‘Ben-Gay,’ Please.”

I will be signing at Uncle Hugo’s bookstore in Minneapolis on Saturday 4/13, along with the mighty Robin Hobb!

Amanda Downum and I and our matching purple dresses gave an interview to the Austin Post at Dragon’s Lair’s Indie Creator Night.

And the awesome Scott Lynch has an exclusive chapter of his forthcoming The Republic of Thieves up at io9! (spoilers, natch.)

I’ll be a Literary Guest of Honor at Space City Con in Houston the first weekend in August!

This is the face of a woman who has just run thirteen miles:

Also, I have a guest blog up over on Charlie’s Diary on media, representation, and reality.

I’ll be at Book People in Austin tonight at 7 pm signing and hanging out!

More photographic evidence: half-marathon finisher’s medal, propped up against two Hugos.

And here’s Amanda in her race gear, looking very chic:

(Do you know how hard it is to find good workout gear that’s not offensive to a Goth sensibility? Seriously, there’s a killing to be made in this area…. except it’s possible that there are only three jock Goths nerds on earth, and we all hang out together.)

The following morning, I am still walking like John Wayne, and I have eaten my weight in carbs and protein. But apparently my body is hardening off to this endurance running thing: it wasn’t that bad, though I think it was more like seven miles of rolling hills in the middle, not five, and two of them were pretty brutal: one was steep and high; one was long and relentless. I managed to run the whole thing, though, which was my goal–and I finished in under 2:30, which was my stretch goal.

At the beginning of the race, I was being passed on all sides by everybody, but once we settled in I started to pick some people off, especially on hills. (Let’s hear it for doing the damned hill runs every other week even though they suck!) About four people passed me; one of them somebody I had passed in Mile 2 who made a stunning comeback and kicked my ass.

When you cross the finish line, they hand you a bottle of water. After you drink the water, you notice they also handed you a medal.

Final result: I was 360th out of 420 finishers.

I don’t know if I will do it again. It was an interesting experiment, and I love being fit enough to do stuff like that. I might–it wasn’t as bad or as hard as I expected it to be (let’s hear it for long careful training and a good taper). And it’s kind of pleasantly luxurious to have small children handing you Gatorade and Gu while you run. I’m not sure I won’t do it again… but the training schedule is really stressful for me (one more goddamn obligation with a goddamned deadline that requires constant tending and attention, which is pretty much my entire working life) and since I’m not even remotely competitive even in my age group, I’m not sure what I get from running a race that I don’t get from running around town.

On the other hand, I am officially declaring Project: Valkyrie complete and moving into maintenance phase. Project: Less of Me still has a bit to go, but I’m in no real hurry.

I’m planning on trying the Austin Run For Your Lives! in December, if my knees hold out. That should be fun, and I can do it with Amanda.

After the race, Amanda and I ate bananas and chocolate, drove home, checked our results, ate sammiches, and then drove into Boston for Richard Thompson, Emmylou Harris, and Rodney Crowell. I could have used a larger proportion of Richard Thompson (nobody should have to follow Richard Thompson), and I was tired and hungry and not my best self by the end of the concert (translation: the largest land arthropod is ME. Crab crab crab.) but it was in general really good and I am glad we went.

I especially liked the bluesed-up version of “Can’t Win” and somewhat countrified “Tear-Stained Letter) RT did (most of his set was stuff off the new album) and Emmylou and Crowell doing “Poncho and Lefty,” “Tragedy,” and “Black Caffeine.” RT came back out and joined them for a massive jam on “I Ain’t Living Long Like This.”

Now I need to eat some more protein, and thing about climbing in a bit.

Amanda, Karen, and I saw the fireball last night, over Westport, CT. It was amazing and beautiful, and we actually mistook it for a firework it seemed so bright and close–green and orange and gold and shedding sparks all the way. Gorgeous: best one I have ever seen.

And then Amanda and I got up in the cold pink dawn and put our socks on and drove to West Haven.

I have run a half marathon. It was really boring and my glutes are killing me, but I’m pretty pleased to have done it and it wasn’t so bad.

Evidence!

(Photo: Amanda Downum)

Now Amanda and I are off to an Emmylou Harris, Richard Thompson concert, as out reward for Valkyieness.