Cat Rambo had kind words to say about the character of the bicycle in my story “Like a Hawk in its Gyre.”
Tag: my work
Lois Tilton reviews “Like a Hawk in its Gyre”
Lois Tilton had some very kind words to say about “Like a Hawk in its Gyre” in her Locus Online reviews for early February.
Legend of a beauty
For our Esperanto group’s discussion circle yesterday, we read a story by Marjorie Boulton from her book Faktoj kaj Fantazioj.
A father, wanting the best husband for his daughter, announces that she has died and requests money for her funeral. Two of the suiters decline, but one opens his purse and hurries to the father to grieve with him. Then the father reveals that it is a ruse and the couple is married.
I found it a odd and disturbing story.
So, I wrote my own version, with what I consider a more likely ending, and shared it with the other members of the Esperanto group. I also sent it to my brother to include with a group of similar little tales that we’ve written (Legends of the Zne Master).
I call it “Legend of a Beauty.” Steve posted it as “The Thrifty Father” and provides an English translation at the bottom of the page.
Like a Hawk in its Gyre
“Like a Hawk in its Gyre” is up at Redstone Science Fiction, February 2011 (issue #9), edited by Michael Ray.
The bicycle noticed someone was following before Kurt did. Watching for a tail was a habit he’d finally broken himself of, but not before the bicycle’s impressionable brain had picked it up. Its low warning hum sent a thrill of adrenalin through him, giving power to the part of his brain that wanted him to sprint away.
Update: “Like a Hawk in its Gyre” has been reprinted in audio form on Escape Pod, read aloud by Tim Crist.
News on upcoming stories
The good folks at Redstone let me know that my story, “Like a Hawk in its Gyre,” will be in the February issue, which should be up in a very few days. They’ve got the publicity machinery rolling, with both a twitter mention and a facebook mention. I also got email saying that they’d sent off payment for the story.
In other news, I got the contract from Asimov’s for the story they’re buying. No word on which issue my story might be in, but Asimov’s pays on acceptance, so they said to expect the money from them in 4–6 weeks.
Tuesday evening was the incognito writers group meeting—fun as always, plus I got good critiques on my most recently completed story.
Now, of course, I’m at work on my next story.
Sale to Asimov’s!
I just got email from Sheila Williams that she’s buying my story “Watch Bees” for Asimov’s! I’m terribly excited—this is my first sale to one of the “big three” sf magazines.
No word yet on when the story will appear. I’ll post here as I know more. (One of the cool things about a sale is that you get to appreciate it over and over again—when you get word of the sale, when you get the contract, when you get paid, when the story comes out. . . .)
Writing in 2010
I sold one story in 2010 (“Like a Hawk in its Gyre” to Redstone), which I’m expecting to appear in early 2011. I’ll post here when it comes out.
The other big fiction-related news is that I got together with some local friends to start the Incognito Writers Group. We’ve been meeting monthly since July, and having a great time.
I sold a group of articles to Amex Currency, a new personal finance website:
- How Much Money Will You Need to Retire?
- Early Retirement: Should You Really Try?
- Will You Get Your Social Security?
- How Freelancers Can Budget for Health Insurance
- Getting Your Own Affordable Health Coverage
- Being Uninsured: Worth the Risk?
- Should You Put Your Money in an Alternative Financial Institution?
- Public Programs for People Without Banks
- Comparing Banks, Credit Unions, and Alternative-Finance Institutions
I resold my article Bankruptcy is a Good Thing to Gale Publishing, to use in their book Bankruptcy (Introducing Issues With Opposing Viewpoints).
I wrote two guest posts at other blogs:
- Why Now is the Time to Think Long-Term appeared at Get Rich Slowly.
- Find Your Self-Sufficient Sweet Spot appeared at Self-Reliance Exchange. (As that site no longer seems to exist, I’ve republished the article here.)
I wrote 42 articles for Wise Bread. I’ve bolded a few where I thought I managed to say just what I was trying to say:
- Contributing to a Roth Versus Paying Down Debt
- How Debt Fools People
- Frugality, Simplicity, and Sustainability
- Book Review: The Trap
- Ruthless Frugality
- Is Just Leaving Some Slack Better Than a Plan?
- Contingency Plans
- Can a Little Inflation Be Good?
- USDA Data Visualization Tool
- Turn Off Your Air Conditioning
- Live Where the Water Tastes Good
- Buy Your Groceries European-Style
- Clever Tax Move for the Un- and Under-Employed
- Health Care Reform: Good for People Like Me
- If Budgeting Isn’t Fun, You’re Doing It Wrong
- Live Abroad for Less (Also at Home)
- Book Review: Your Money—The Missing Manual
- New $100 Bill Unveiled
- The Second-Best Way to Make your Household More Secure
- Book Review: Confronting Collapse
- Motivating Yourself and Others
- Home Delivery: Local and Long Distance
- Anyone Can Spend Less for Food
- When Interest Rates Head Up
- Freedom from the Day Job
- Long Hours and Other Employer Demands
- Getting Your Credit Limit Raised
- Replacing a Crappy Job
- All About Deflation
- Video on How to Spot Counterfeits
- Be In Charge of Your Finances
- When Deals Matter
- The End of the 4% Rule?
- Just Saving More Is Not the Answer
- A Mortgage Crisis Solution
- Sinking Dollar: This Time on Purpose
- Change Your Life with Storytelling
- Choosing Local Businesses
- Book Review: Early Retirement Extreme
- Why I Still Write Paper Checks
- That Sneaky Bank Almost Got Me
- Book Review: Off the Grid
Guest post #2 at Get Rich Slowly
Back in July I got a note from J.D. Roth, who was lining up some guest posts to run on Get Rich Slowly while he and his wife were on vacation in France and Italy. I was pleased to be asked once again, and wrote a piece that I ended up being rather pleased with. It went live this morning: Why Now is the Time to Think Long-Term. (Spoiler alert: low interest rates are the reason that now is the time to think long-term.)
About twenty-five years ago (as an example of long-term thinking), I had a whimsical investment idea: Buy some cheap land and plant hardwood trees. The trees wouldn’t be ready to harvest for 100 years or so, but it would have been a cheap investment with (eventually) a fairly large payoff.
It takes a certain perspective to make such a long-term investment. I call it a whimsical idea because I’d never have been able to enjoy the financial return. I was already in my mid-20s at the time. Even if I’d selected the hardwoods for quick maturity, they wouldn’t have been ready until I was well into my 90s.
It’s a topic I’ve been aware of since the early 1980s, when very high interest rates produced a spate of very short-term thinking. (In particular, my dad’s publisher tried to weasel out of a book contract, because it seemed more profitable to invest their money in the money market at a guaranteed 14% than to invest it in a book that might not make so much.)
When rates are high, it doesn’t make any economic sense to think long-term. But when rates are low, long-term projects are suddenly reasonable. Since just now rates are at multi-generational lows, Now is the Time to Think Long-Term.
Retirement, health insurance, financial institutions up at Currency site
Currency, a new personal finance site sponsored by American Express, has just gone live with several articles by me.
On retirement
The main article is How Much Money Will You Need to Retire?
It appears along with sidebars:
- Early Retirement: Should You Really Try?
- Will You Get Your Social Security? (Which includes an interesting infographic on sources of income for seniors, which look great in the aggregate, but start looking pretty shaky once you get to the level of the individual.)
On health insurance
The main article is How Freelancers Can Budget for Health Insurance.
It appears along with sidebars:
- Getting Your Own Affordable Health Coverage
- Being Uninsured: Worth the Risk? (The problem for going without insurance is no longer just the risk: it also means you don’t get the negotiated rates.)
On financial institutions
The main article is Should You Put Your Money in an Alternative Financial Institution?
It appears along with sidebars:
- Public Programs for People Without Banks
- Comparing Banks, Credit Unions, and Alternative-Finance Institutions. (If you have basic financial skills—keeping and balancing a check register—you can use a bank or credit union cheaply enough. But if you don’t—and especially if you don’t have a regular paycheck to be direct-deposited, or enough money to keep a minimum balance—then the new alternative financial institutions may make some sense.)
You may have noticed my posting on Wise Bread was a bit sparse lately. Part of the reason is that I was writing all of those. Enjoy!
Paŭzo en la stacidomo Union
My first Esperanto-language short story “Paŭzo en la stacidomo Union,” appears in the new issue of Beletra Almanako! My contributor’s copy arrived today. I even made the cover.
I am in very good company—a veritable who’s who of current Esperanto literature.
“Tiu,” Emma diris
Otto rigardis kien ŝi kapmontris. “Tiu alta viro en la drelika jako?” Li pripensis. “Filo de riĉaj gepatroj. Eksigita el pli ol unu universitato pro tro da petoloj kaj maltro da studoj. Ricevas iom da mono de la patrino, sed ne sufiĉe por vivteni sin.”
You can get it from Amazon: Beletra Almanako 8 (BA8 – Literaturo en Esperanto) (Esperanto Edition)
Or directly from the publisher.
If you can read Esperanto, pick up a copy today!