Mumble Herder

Just an FYI: as previously reported in this space, my story "The 121" will be appearing in the Interfictions 2 anthology. The anthology is published by the Interstitial Arts Foundation, a non-profit entity, and one of their fund-raising efforts is going to be an art auction with pieces based on the stories. They are looking for "Artists, Crafters, Jewelers, Musicians and anyone who loves to create"; details here. And, you know, you wouldn't HAVE to create something based on my story*; there are many others to choose from.

*It would be really, really cool if someone did, though.

How good is my "Proof of Zero" from Spicy Slipstream Stories? So good that this reviewer recommends that in order to make sense of it you "sort of scrunch up your mind and mentally squint, letting the story flow through you while turning off that critical portion of your brain that's screaming 'this doesn't make sense.'" Mission accomplished?

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Today is the official launch of Tumbarumba: A Frolic of Intrusions, which is something you have never seen before: an anthology of works hidden in your Firefox browser, edited by Ben Rosenbaum and Ethan Ham. (An Internet Explorer version is about a month off.) It's a Firefox attachment that will occasionally slip fragments of stories into your daily news; if you click on the text a couple of times the story will take over. (Don't worry, you can disable it if you're actually trying to work or something.) When I first understood how this was going to work (which was long after Ben asked for stories), I wasn't sure I'd ever find anything, because I skim a lot of what I read online, but I've already read some kick-ass stories by David Moles and Greg Van Eekhout, and I'm looking forward to finding more from folks like Tim Pratt, Heather Shaw, Haddayr-Copley Woods, Jim Kelly, Mary Anne Mohanraj, and more. Also, it's the only place you can read my story "MonstroCities." So go install it, and then give it a nice review!

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Here is a thing which is all about me, which as a Midwesterner I find rather embarrassing: a profile at Minnesota Artists dot org, by Britt Amodt.

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Joe the Plumber's book comes out today. Please buy someone else's book instead.

On Friday, I asked you all to plug yourselves. You can read the results there, but here's a summation:

Craig Gidney (ethereal_lad) has a story coming out in the Magic In the Mirrorstone anthology, which is out RIGHT NOW. I had the privilege of reading Craig's story, "Mauve's Quilt," a while back; I can tell you that it's excellent.

wheatland_press has three new titles coming out in late May: Space Magic, David D. Levine's first short fiction collection; Can't Buy Me Faded Love, Josh Rountree's first short fiction collection, and Laughin' Boy, a novel by Bradley Denton. Watch the WP website for ordering information.

tim_pratt AKA T.A. Pratt has the second book in his/her/their (pen names are so confusing) Marla Mason series, Poison Sleep, coming out on March 28. As Tim says: "It has nightmare kings and chess theory and an asylum for criminally insane sorcerers and chaos magic and floating castles." Hard to go wrong with THAT.

burger_eater, whose real name is Harry Connolly, just accepted a three-book deal from Del Rey! He also has a story coming up in Black Gate magazine.

Jeremy Tolbert AKA the_flea_king has his story "Babe, I'm Going to Leave You" available for your perusal right now, right here, and his story from the kickass anthology All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories, "Instead of a Loving Heart," will be broadcast at Escape Pod very soon.

Caitlin Kittredge (blackaire) has a novel coming out as well; Night Life drops on March 4th. According to Caitlin, "It's got werewolves, serial killing, black magic and shagging. What's not to love?" She's got a sample chapter up at her website, just to tease us. Buy early and often!

Pete Anderson's story "Mercy Day" is up at Ragad Magazine #5. Sez Pete: "Editor Nick Ostdick called the story 'great' and said my public reading of it at Book Cellar in Chicago 'had the crowd had the crowd riveted, from opening line to last.' If enough people hound Mr. Ostdick with requests for issue #5 (yours for the bargain price of $2) and mention me by name, perhaps he'll be shamed into paying me for publication." Dude. Writers need to get paid, 's all I'm saying. Help Pete out.

Finally, Jason Erik Lundberg (jlundberg) reports that The Field Guide to Surreal Botany's release is impending from Two Cranes Press. (There's also a Facebook group for the book here.) Jason and his lovely wife Janet Chui AKA marrael edited the book and run the press. Jason's got a big year ahead for his own writing too, with fiction or non-fiction forthcoming from Papaveria Press, Subterranean Magazine, Sybil's Garage, Farrago's Wainscot, Tiny Stories, and Strange Horizons. Whew.

So now you know what to look for! Thanks for playing, gang. And if anyone has stuff they want to plug but missed their chance, feel free to chime in with a comment below.