I can finally announce (with pleasure!) that my story “Watchman, What of the Night?” is a winner in the SciFidea Dyson Sphere Contest, judged by Phoenix Alexander, Neil Clarke, Nancy Kress, Derek Kunsken, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Robert J. Sawyer, Michael Swanwick, and Liza Groen Trombi! This is a humbling honor, and for a story that kept me up many sleepless nights as I toiled, researched, and toiled some more. Set in the far, far future, I’ll be posting more news of this one later in the year.
In other publishing news, I sold my story “The Beasts at the End of the World” to Shapers of Worlds Volume 5 (edited by Edward Willett). This one is a sequel to not one, but two H.G. Wells stories that work surprisingly well together, even though they weren’t originally related other than by the effort of Mr. Wells.
With a double dose of sales news, what better way to celebrate a peek into the future than by an homage to the past? Our third annual Saturnalia was a delightful and much-needed soirée in an otherwise difficult 2024. This year the theme was gods and goddesses–I hosted as Dionysus–and the creativity proved as sublime as the company. Pictured below is my co-host, the goddess of witchcraft herself… say it once, say it thrice, say hello to Hecate.
And because I’m a shameless history geek, I also took occasion this month to visit the American Heritage Museum in Stow, Massachusetts for an informative walk through history, ranging from recreations of World War One trenches to actual tanks and planes from the wars that followed. There’s even pieces of the Berlin Wall, a real scud missile, and a sobering relic of the World Trade Center. Somehow I got into a lively discussion about Star Trek with one of the curators, while standing in the shadow of a Grumman F6F-3N Hellcat. Later on, I enjoyed drinks with a minuteman at the nearby 300-year-old Wayside Inn. If bell-bottoms can come back into style, why not the tricorn? I’m reasonably confident that I’d rock a tricorn… though if old styles are going to come back, I really would prefer the toga. To quote the Dread Pirate Roberts: “It’s just that they’re terribly comfortable.”
