Science fiction author and podcaster
My story “The Disciple,” which originally appeared in Weird Tales magazine, has been selected for the anthology New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird, which collects some of the best Lovecraftian fiction of the past ten years.
At the suggestion of a reader, I implemented a Donate button on my website. So if anyone’s been feeling like sending me money but the lack of a button has been holding you back, now’s your chance. I’d like to test it out and make sure it’s working, so if someone could just go ahead and make a $1000 donation, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks!
The unabridged recording of Roger Zelazny’s Sign of the Unicorn is now available for download from Speaking Volumes.
Finished a new 4,100 word story called “Power Armor: A Love Story.” It’s sort of Iron Man meets Terminator meets Basic Instinct, except it’s a romantic comedy.
This week Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy made it up to #2 on the iTunes Literature list and #8 among all Arts podcasts. It also appeared, for the first time that I’ve seen, on the list of all podcasts, peaking at #164.
Check out the slick new look of Fantasy magazine. The March issue is the first to be edited by my Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy co-host John Joseph Adams.
Here’s a really interesting tidbit from the latest Rationally Speaking podcast:
“Degrees of ability to withstand cognitive dissonance vary in the human population … We know in fact that you can alter those chemically. You can alter the proportion of certain neuropeptides in the brain and all of a sudden turn a skeptic into a true believer, and vice versa. You can do experiments where people are shown a fuzzy screen where there is actually no image, and they’re asked, “What image do you see?” And people who are generally gullible will see something, and people who are skeptical don’t see anything. But then you give them a chemical neuropeptide, and the skeptics all of sudden start seeing patterns.”
Having waited ten years to find out what’s up with Coldhands and stuff, I see that Dance with Dragons will finally be released! On July 12th … the day before Alpha starts. *headdesk*
I’ve also posted the text of my short story “Veil of Ignorance” (the audio has been online for a while). I get a pretty regular stream of people coming to my site from Wikipedia looking for this story, I assume because it’s mentioned here. They’re usually from a university, and they usually poke around briefly, and when they can’t find the story in text format they leave. Rarely someone will listen to the audio, but mostly they just leave. They never look at any of my other stories, and they never buy a copy of the story from Fictionwise. This has been going on for years. So I’m throwing in the towel and just making the text of the story free. Enjoy.
Man, reading the lyrics on people’s YouTube videos is a painful experience for anyone with a rudimentary grasp of grammar.
New Game of Thrones trailer. Gives me chills, it does.
My story “The Skull-Faced City” is one of many stories from The Living Dead 2 to be included on the Tangent Online Recommended Reading List. Except it has my name as “David Barr Kirtlye.” Oh well, one more entry for my list of ways my name has been misspelled.
This week Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy made it up to #5 on the iTunes list of Top Literature Podcasts. A new record!
Reposted from the Alpha website:
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The Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing just announced its winner, runners-up, and honorable mentions.
Like last year, Alphans have made a very strong showing. How strong? Eight Alphans were honored. The full list, taken from the Dell Award Facebook page, follows. Alphans are listed in bold.
Winner: “The Immaculate Conception of Private Ritter” by Seth Dickinson, University of Chicago
First Runner-up: “Aunt Victoria” by Amanda Olson, St. Olaf College
Second Runner-up: “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchists Bees,” by Eugenia Lily Yu of Princeton University
Third Runner-up: “In the Time of Drought,” by Rachel Sobel of the University of Washington
Honorable Mentions:
“A Clarity of Mind,” by Rachel Halpern of Grinnell College
“Caveat,” by Kendra Leigh Speedling of the University of Minnesota
“Perchance to Dream,” by Sarah Brand of Vanderbilt University
“The Little Man’s Call,” by Rebecca McNulty of the College of New Jersey
“The Case of the Wayward Sister,” by Lara Donnelly of Wright State University
“A Treatise on the Duality of Peace and Accomplishing a Rewarding Parent-Child Relationship Based upon Mutual Respect and Love,” by Tina Tseng of UCLA
“Death’s Lady,” by Miah Saunders of High Point University.
This is an amazing accomplishment for all the students, and everyone involved with Alpha is thrilled to see so many familiar names on the list. It’s not the first time Alphans have done well–last year saw five stories by four Alphans, all of whom returned in 2011–but eight is a new record. Many of the workshop’s staff can also be found on the page of Past Honorees.
More importantly, the submissions for the Dell Award were incredibly strong. The award administrators noted that they received a record number of submissions of very high quality. This is absolutely clear when you look at the list of Past Honorees: this is the first year since 1996 that there have been more than seven awards given, and eleven is the most of any year.
This year, more stories by Alphans were given awards than stories by anyone in any of the past ten years.
Alphans are mighty. Congratulations!
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So I got totally screwed over when I tried to watch the Super Bowl on iTunes. First of all, they listed the final score of the game in the product description. Thanks a lot, assholes, it’s not like I was planning to actually, you know, watch that game after I downloaded it or anything. Then it wasn’t even the actual game, as advertised, but a painfully lame post-game highlights show that I turned off after 30 seconds. I posted a complaint, which is currently ranked the “most helpful” review of the Super Bowl on iTunes, and they have now taken down their bullshit fake Super Bowl file.
Edited to add: I also complained directly to Apple, and they did reverse the charges.
Here are a few glimpses at what the illustration for my short story “Family Tree” looked like when it was still in progress. See also the final version, and the artist’s new blog.
Just want to give everyone fair warning that I’ll be teaching at Alpha again this summer, so unless you want to spend a week in my vicinity, you probably don’t want to apply by the March 1st deadline.
Just noticed that my old pal Tom Gerencer, author of such maniacally comedic short stories as “Primordial Chili,” “Trailer Trash Savior,” and “Why I Bring a Bag Lunch Now,” now has his own YouTube channel where he posts videos of his insane whitewater hijinks. Check out his highlight reel, along with such comic shorts as “Costa Rica Rocks,” “Rock Love,” and “Tom Gerencer, Whitewater Hero.”
