You see…due to the intransigence of the new owners at the sf digest magazines (as well as the mystery magazines), I can no longer send them my short fiction. I actually had to pull some stories that were already sold but did not yet have a contract. Long story short, contract negotiations went extremely poorly. (I blogged about this as it went on through May on my Patreon page. Take a look at this post if you’re curious.) I will write a lot more about this in the next few weeks, because I’ll be making some changes to the way I market things.

This Kickstarter is the beginning of the changes. The Kickstarter features four science fiction novellas. Three were published in Asimov’s in the past two years, and two of the novellas are this year’s Readers Choice nominees. The third, “Weather Duty,” appeared in early 2025.

The fourth novella is brand new. It was sitting on Sheila Williams’ desk as the contract negotiations for another story started and ultimately failed. So no one has read this novella. If you back the Kickstarter, you’ll be among the first.

The Kickstarter contains all kinds of goodies as rewards. All of my Diving novels so far. All of the Retrieval Artist novels so far. More novellas. Some writing workshops.

With all of those rewards, you’ll get the novellas. I’m proud of them and I think you’ll enjoy them.

The Kickstarter just went live, so hurry on over and take a look!

I haven’t yet finished reading  The Best American Sports Writing of the Century, because I needed to take a break. The book has a slant that is very white-male oriented. It’s also filled with some challenging pieces that aren’t holding up to the 26 years since the book was printed. (I swear, New Journalism is soooo self-involved.) But some of it is good and interesting and I’ll come back to it when the mood suits me. I doubt I’ll ever recommend the book, but watch: there will be a time when I recommend more essays from it.

I read one of the best novels I’ve seen in years and some great articles. So January was quite a success…which is why this list is so late. It took a while to chronicle my reading.

January 2025

Anders, Charlie Jane, “A Temporary Embarrassment in Space Time,” New Adventures in Space Opera, edited by Jonathan Strahan, Tachyon, 2024. I absolutely love this story. It’s everything a certain kind of space opera should be—fun, preposterous, believable, tense, and adventurous. All wrapped into a neat and well-written package. A wonderful gem of a story.

Crais, Robert, The Big Empty, Putnam, 2024. The best book I’ve read all year, maybe in the past few years. I love Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. Pike doesn’t show up until halfway through this book because Bob is so dang good at point of view and the way a story should flow. I don’t have a lot of time for leisure reading, and right now, my lack of time is significantly worse. So I did the readerly thing. I stayed up past my bedtime, and Dean literally had to pull the book from my hands. I still read it in two days. Fantastic. And no, I’m not going to tell you much more than “fantastic” because, as with all of Bob’s books, to say more is to ruin a surprise. (I might have already said too much, in fact.)

Deaver, Jeffery, and Maldonado, Isabella, Fatal Intrusion, Thomas & Mercer, 2024. Yep, I have an Amazon link only for this book, because I just discovered something very unpleasant. This book (and a bunch of Deaver novellas) are only available in ebook on Amazon. Sorry about that! I read the book in paper, which is how I prefer to read, so I had no idea that this had happened until the moment I was putting the book on the list. Sigh. It makes me, as a reader, more than mildly pissed off.

The book is good enough. It’s not as good as most Deaver books, but it’s better than a lot of thrillers. I’ll read the next book in the series, and if I like it, I’ll pick up one of Maldonado’s books. Collaborations are a difficult animal. They can be something better than both writers, especially if the book is something they wouldn’t have written without the collaborator. I suppose Deaver could argue that he wouldn’t have had a character like Carmen Sanchez, but except for a few chapters that I suspect were all Maldonado, she felt very generic. So I don’t think this collaboration enhanced the two writers’ work (I’m saying this without having read hers). But this is a good way to while away a few hours.

Fekadu, Mesfin, “The Loophole That Landed Muni Long a Grammy Nom,” The Hollywood Reporter, November 20, 2024. The online version of this article has the title “Muni Long Explains How She Made It,” and I think that is a better title for the content here. Muni Long has been around for awhile, and she has followed her own path. There are some great quotes in here, but the best was her response to how she got paid for her streaming content:

Sometimes you look at your quarterly statement and you’re like, “Oh wow, $1,000 for 500 million streams. Great. That’s awesome.” The sheer volume that I have to write in order to make an income that makes sense [is insane]. What saved me is that I have quality and quantity, whereas some of these people, all they have is one or two records.

Quantity and quality. She’s right. We’re doing the same. Take a look at this one, even if you’re new to Muni Long.

Harris, Robert,, Vintage Books, 2016. I really like Robert Harris’s writing, although his topics don’t always interest me. I picked up Conclave after seeing a review of the film. A lot of my favorite actors are in it, and since I like Harris, I thought I should give the book an eyeball before watching the film. Glad I did. There’s a nice moment toward the end of the book, something completely unexpected and yet set up. It worked for me, and might not have worked in the film (which I have not yet seen). Of course, that had me looking through more Robert Harris for the books I’ve missed. I mostly didn’t order the ones on the topics that I don’t care about, but I did preorder the next. I love his courage as a writer. He’s always doing something interesting. This is a novella, filled with his great characters and marvelous writing. Oh, and for the interested: I am not Catholic, although I was in and out of Catholic churches as a kid because so many of my friends were Catholic. So I have a passing familiarity with some of the rituals, but no great interest in the church or its habits. I still found this fascinating.

Heinz, W.C., “Brownsville Bum,” The Best American Sports Writing of the Century, edited by David Halberstam with Glenn Stout, HarperCollins, 1999. I had never heard of W.C. Heinz before reading this book. Yet many of the other writers in the front half of the book (at least) mentioned him as the best of the best. Well, this is my favorite piece in the book so far. It’s a 1951 piece about someone named Bummy Davis who was a fighter back in the day when fighters could kill each other in the ring. This one reads like a short story—the life and death of kinda thing. The writing itself is sharp and crisp, the events breathtaking. The murder, at the end, shocking because it happened in a bar, not in the ring. If you find the book, read this one first.

Rose, Lacey, “Selena Gomez is Waiting For Your Call,” The Hollywood Reporter, November 20, 2024. Last fall and early this year, there were a lot of interviews with Selena Gomez as the Oscar and Grammy hype heated up. She has a good team. But she’s also a great interview because, as young as she is, she’s had an amazing career. She knows who she is, and she’s blunt about it. I can’t encapsulate this long piece in any coherent way, except to say all writers (and Selena fans) should read it.

Royko, Mike, “‘A Very Solid Book,'” The Best American Sports Writing of the Century, edited by David Halberstam with Glenn Stout, HarperCollins, 1999. A lot of the work in this book is dated. So dated, in fact, that I had to look up some of the rivalries just to see what was going on. But this piece by Mike Royko from 1987 is familiar. I was 27 at the time, and aware of the Mets/Cubs rivalry.

Some idiot at some NY publishing house asked Royko to review a book about the Mets. And oh, did he. This piece is not dated, once you knew about the rivalry, and it is one one of my favorites. I just read it again, out loud this time to Dean. It’s a very short piece that is, ostensibly, a review of a book by Mets first baseman (at the time) Keith Hernandez. And Smith was a Cubbies fan through and through. The book is solid, you see, because it can survive being thrown against a wall…

Really worth reading

Score, Lucy, Things We Never Got Over, Bloom Books, 2022. Okay, this is annoying. As I set up this post, I discovered that Lucy Score’s ebooks are exclusive to Amazon. Same thing as the Deaver/Maldonado above. Grrrr. You can get the paperbooks anywhere you want, but to get the ebook, you have to go to Amazon. You can’t even go to her own website/store to get the book. Sorry about that. Get the paper. She has some lovely deluxe editions.

However, I did find the book on Amazon. I had just finished something else (what I can’t remember) and the algorithm suggested this book. I did what I often do and read the first chapter. And wowza is it good. Seriously, this first chapter is worth reading even if you don’t pick up the book. The chapter is a masterclass of information flow. The chapter title is Worst. Day. Ever. The first paragraph is a perfect hook:

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked into Café Rev, but it sure as hell wasn’t a picture of myself behind the register under the cheery headline “Do Not Serve.” A yellow frowny face magnet held the photo in place.

Each paragraph builds on that. With each page, the situation gets worse and worse and worse. You—well, I—had to go to the next chapter immediately. The book ends up being a tiny bit long, and for a moment verges on “if you two only talk to each other, this would end” but by then I didn’t care. The book is fun, the writing is great, and the characters are a hoot. So pick this one up…or at the very least (writers) read that first paragaph.

Smith, Red, “Next To Godliness,” The Best American Sports Writing of the Century, edited by David Halberstam with Glenn Stout, HarperCollins, 1999. My father, who was born in 1914, used to talk about the great sports writers and announcers from his life. He also talked about great players, so many of their names are familiar to me. Others, not quite as much. But Red Smith was quite familiar. His name was in the air all the time in our family, and also in the various writing classes I had. Red Smith was one of those writers even non-sports fans enjoyed.

Back when my father imprinted on baseball, there was radio, but it was local only. So games played outside of the area weren’t aired. The readers had to rely on the print media.

“Next To Godliness” describes an entire game in maybe 1,000 words. It also describes the reaction to that game from Smith himself. It’s lovely and well done. There’s a reason this man’s work was remembered—at least for another 50 years.

Smith, Thomas, “Dua Lipa Talks 2024,” Billboard, December 14. 2024. I love Dua Lipa’s stuff. I run to it. I also enjoy how she’s running her career, in the same way that I admire the way Taylor Swift is. These women are taking charge in a way that most musicians do not. So read this. She’s interesting and what she’s doing with her business is also great.

Verhoeven, Beatrice, “John M. Chu,” The Hollywood Reporter, November 13, 2024. Fascinating interview with John M. Chu, released just before Wicked came out. (If you haven’t seen Wicked, oh, you must! It’s marvelous.) Lots of great material here, mostly about being courageous. Lots of behind the scenes on his various movies as well. In The Heights, Crazy Rich Asians, and more. Read this one.

Weir, Keziah, “Give And Let Give,” Vanity Fair, October, 2024. I’ve been thinking about this interview ever since I read it, particularly as one particularly nutty billionaire chainsaws his way through American government, another sends his fiance into space, and the rest don’t seem to give a rat’s banana about actual human beings.

Melinda French Gates, former wife of Bill Gates, is also worth billions, and she’s giving it away, systematically, to charity after charity. She says it’s not easy, because she had to have the right organization in place to help funnel the money, and then she has to figure out where she can do the most good. Note the difference: Do The Most Good. Yeah, she’s not the only ex-wife of a billionaire doing this.

It’s fascinating to me that the wealthy women understand their social responsibility and the bulk of the men…do not.

I have a slight quibble with our tag line. Yes, Dean & I are two authors, but some of my other pen names make guest appearances. You’ll find some Kristine Grayson short stories in these books as well as Kris Nelscott stories. So that’s at least four authors…

You’ll also find Retrieval Artist stories here, Spade and Paladin, Winston & Ruby, some stories from Seavy Village, Diving, the Fey…and that’s just me. Dean’s stories will introduce you to some great characters, from Poker Boy to Pakhet Jones.

The Kickstarter has just gone live. You can visit it and see all the fun rewards if you click here.

Here’s the video I did for the Kickstarter. Enjoy!

This past year has been so crazy that it took Dean to remind me that I hadn’t publicly acknowledged how lucky I am.

Last year, I won the Asimov’s Readers’ Award for Best Novella/Novel for “The Court-Martial of the Renegat Renegades,” which is a Diving story. This year, I won the Readers’ Award for Best Novelette for “The Nameless Dead,” which is not a Diving story. “The Nameless Dead” has an opening that I actually heard in my sleep and managed to wake up and write it all down. I really don’t know where these stories come from, but I’m so pleased that readers like them.

Readers for The Short Mystery Fiction Society voted my novella “Catherine The Great” as the winner (in a tie) for the Best Novelette. I’m honored to be in such good company, as David Dean also won for his story “Mrs. Hyde,” which appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. “Catherine The Great” appeared in The WMG Holiday Spectacular Calendar of Stories last year. You can get your copy in The Holiday Spectacular #5, which is a compilation of all of 2023’s stories.

I am so very honored by these readers’ awards. All three of them. Judged awards are nice and they give the writer (okay, me) a lot to smile about. But readers awards mean more to me. These folks spent their hard-earned dollars on the product, generally a magazine or anthology, and so they have hard opinions about what’s good and what isn’t.

The fact that the readers have loved my work matters a lot to me. So, I want to say thank you. Thank you for reading my work. Thank you for supporting it. And thank you ever so much for taking the time to vote for the stories—all of them, not just mine. I greatly appreciate it.

You can get them all with a simple click. But they go away in about 48 hours. So hurry on over.

And, in case you’re on the fence, here’s the blurb for “Maelstrom.”

The realization made me sad. I had some great stories in those anthologies. But it wasn’t just me. Several other writers had amazing stories in them. I was not willing to put the time in to have WMG reprint other people’s anthologies, but the entire experience did get me thinking about discoverability. It was a mental nag, something that reverberated in my mind and in my heart.

Fast forward to that same workshop. The in-person writers were amazing. I suspect you’ll see their work in the science fiction magazines soon, because these pieces were original and very creative. We finished, as we often do, with an invitation to write a novella in a few weeks that I would read. People did take me up on that, and I am reading the last of those novellas now. (Spoiler alert: they’re good.)

But I did not feel creatively satisfied as a writer or as a teacher. I really wanted to teach a novella class in person, and I investigated it for like the 100th time. To teach that class would require me to take two weeks out of my life to work on in-person classes, and the differences between the different novella forms, and all that reading. It would require the students to come to Las Vegas, stay for two weeks (minimum) and work their butts off. It wasn’t tenable. So Dean and I came up with series of novella classes that will spread over 9 weeks. Students study the forms at home, and in the end, write a novella that I will read. (For more information, check this out.)

That niggle hit me again. That discoverability niggle. I wanted folks to read my sf novellas, the ones that haven’t been part of the discussion (if there still is one) for a while now. The Diving novellas that Asimov’s publishes are part of the conversation. People bring them up to me all the time.

But these? The standalones? They seem to be one and done, unless something draws the readers attention to it.

So…I mentioned this, and somehow the entire team got behind a Kickstarter to raise awareness about my sf novellas. We have put six into this Kickstarter.

They are the award-winning Gallery of His Dreams, The Tower, the award-winning Recovering Apollo 8, September at Wall and Broad, the award-winning The End of the World, and the novella that hit two year’s best books in two different genres, G-Men.

Stretch goals, should we hit them, will include many of my sf novelettes, also standalone.

We had to redo covers and reissue some of the paper editions to make them comply with standards of the 2020s. We had to dust them off, in other words, so that they’d be worth reading as you all rediscover them.

They’re not all of my standalone sf novellas, but they cover some good ground.

And as we did this, I looked at all of the other novellas I’ve written—the ones that are not in any series—and realized that yes, indeedie do, I have standalone novellas in romance and mystery and fantasy…

But we’re going to focus on this bunch for the next ten days.

If you want to see what we’re doing, head over to Kickstarter using this link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/403649867/six-science-fiction-novellas

As the two weeks progress, I’ll talk about the experiences of writing the novellas. I’ll post six different blogs along the way. Those are always fun to write.

But not quite as much fun as writing novellas…

The two novellas, “The Break-In” and “The Death Hole Bunker,” are part, in very different form, of my novel The Ivory Trees, which is in the extended part of the Diving Universe. The novellas stand alone (clearly!).

The novelette, “The Nameless Dead,” is not part of any series and actually came from a rather disturbing dream I had. You’ll see why I say disturbing if you read the novelette…which I encourage you to do.

The kind folks at Asimov’s have reprinted every story on the ballot online for a short time only. That means if you click on this phrase, you will find 16 pieces of short fiction that are more than worth your time, as well as some wonderful science fiction poetry.

Oh, heck. Let me give you the link again. It’s https://www.asimovs.com/about-asimovs/readers-award-finalists/. This is not just free reading. It’s excellent free reading.

I’m in great company in these categories. Wonderful writers all, and marvelous stories.

Enjoy.

Surprisingly to me, the challenge is really working for me. I’m getting a lot done, and I’m working on two projects at once, something I never used to be able to do. So…Fey fans: I’m on the fourth book of the side series. I will have all kinds of cool things for you in 2024.

And I’m also writing short fiction. I wrote and sold one story last week (surprising me with the quickness of the response). Then I wrote another. I’m working on a “novella” (which just might be a novel) that you will hear more about, and I’m nearly done with that.

I feel like I’m back to my old production levels, and it feels really good. I’ll be updating you here whenever I have something new, which is one of the many things that fell by the wayside over the past few years. So expect to see more from me in the next months.

That said, here’s my first publication of 2024. (Look at the date on the cover.) A standalone novella for Asimov’s. This novella is dark but I love it. Sheila Williams, the editor of Asimov’s, calls this an sf/mystery, but it might just be sf/noir. I think you’ll like it. You can pick up a copy here.

Because the challenge is really working for me, I found myself worrying about January 1. It takes three weeks minimum for a habit to become ingrained, and I could see myself slacking off. (Especially since I have an in-person workshop coming up mid-month.) So I decided to issue another formal challenge for January only. Dean does these yearly challenges, but I can’t keep that kind of time in my head.

So same rules:

Write more consumable words than I do, and you will receive a free online writing workshop (worth $300) as your reward. That’s in addition to the online workshop that everyone who joins the challenge gets at the end of January.

So people who write more than I do will get $600 in workshops; people who write less will get $300 in workshops. And…it costs $300 to join the challenge. So essentially, you’re going to write to see if you can score one more workshop than you would otherwise—and you’ll get lots of writing done.

Consumable words are:

— Any fiction of any type (no requirement to publish during the challenge time)

— Any nonfiction that others will consume such as blogs, introductions to collections things like that.

— emails and comments on Facebook or blogs do NOT count.

No genre limitations.

You have until January 3 to sign up, but I figure most of you want to be onboard by Monday. So I’m posting this now.

Fingers crossed that 2024 is a more productive year. (Note that I did not say better. I’m still a bit shellshocked from 2023 and not willing to issue that challenge to the universe.)

I wish you all the best in the year to come!

And now, we’ve debuted a Diving store. It’s for all of the Diving books, merchandise (including items not on the Kickstarter) and a whole bunch of other fun things. Take a look.

As a bonus, everything is discounted. And we have links to our WMG store, so all of the items (all of my books for instance) are on sale as well. There’s a workshop discount as well.

So take a look!

https://www.divingintothewreck.com/