Locus is reporting the thrilling news that the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean flick will officially be an adaptation of the Tim Powers novel On Stranger Tides.

Tim Powers, whom I was lucky enough to study with at Clarion, is a writer of extraordinary originality and craft, and his phantasmagorical proto-steampunk time travel romp The Anubis Gates is a must-read and one of my favorites. As I noted here, On Stranger Tides inspired Ron Gilbert’s classic adventure game The Secret of Monkey Island, which in turn plainly inspired the Pirates of the Caribbean films. That Tim Powers is getting some official credit for his contribution to the PotC franchise seems to be a happy case of credit where credit is due.

Via The Slush God:

My buddy Chris Cevasco is off at the intensive six week Clarion writers workshop. Some of our other New York friends got together and gave him a little present to take with him:

I can’t believe it. James Morrow’s novel The Last Witchfinder is actually out. I’ve been waiting seven years for this. Morrow is one of my favorite writers — a fabulous storyteller and extraordinary stylist who uses the fantastic to grapple with heavy-duty intellectual themes. (I attended the life-altering Clarion workshop in 1999 because he was one of the instructors.) I can’t wait to read his new book.

I got permission from the artists to incorporate the art from MechMuse into my website, so my site is looking even more spiff-tastic than ever. I also fixed some weird display bugs and cleaned up the HTML code a lot. Plus I added a banner ad for Crystal Rain, the exciting debut novel by my buddy Tobias S. Buckell. I’ve really been enjoying the free chapters he’s been posting. I just ordered myself a copy of Crystal Rain, plus another debut novel by one of my Clarion ’99 classmates, The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl by Tim Pratt.

I’m home now from teaching at Alpha, the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Workshop for Young Writers. This was my third summer there. This year, the sheer awesomeness of the workshop was pumped up to near-apocalyptic proportions by the addition of my onetime Clarion classmate and perennial partner-in-crime Tobias S. Buckell. Toby and I tag-team-taught a number of lectures, including ones on Originality & Ideas, Character & Dialogue, Plot & Structure, and Titles. We also critiqued stories, organized after-dark frisbee games, and stayed up late dispensing almost terrifying quantities of wit and wisdom.

Then after that was Confluence. I did a couple panels. I wasn’t scheduled to do a reading, but due to overwhelming demand, I offered to do one in my room. Since I was reading my scary demented pirate story, I decided to trick out my room in haunted house decor. I downloaded scary sound effects off of iTunes, and then, in less than an hour and using only common hotel items, created a freakishly glowing throne fronted by a spooky altar, placed one gruesome corpse under the covers of the bed and hung another (well okay, it was a bathrobe) from the the sprinkler. I also conjured up a squamous fiend, the Lurker in the Bathroom, to devour anyone foolish enough to disturb my toiletries. Unfortunately, one student dared its wrath. Aside from her hideous shrieks of undiluted terror, she was never heard from again.

Then yesterday I hugged everyone goodbye, shuttled over to the airport with a bunch of people, said goodbye several more times, and flew home. The view out my airplane window was staggering. I mean, I’ve flown on hundreds of planes, and I’ve often looked out the window, but I’ve never seen anything like this. Huge — I mean just gargantuan — columns of black thunderheads stretching for miles, and behind them a blazing red-and-yellow-streaked sunset. Then later we flew among the lightning, which lanced toward the earth and lit up the clouds above like bright-white fireworks. It was the first time I’ve ever really been tempted to skydive, to be just plunging among all that beauty and power and majesty.

Then, walking out to the airport parking lot, I found a $100 bill lying on the floor.

Update: And hey, if there are any Alpha students reading this, I am making the super secret Alpha gang sign at y’all.