Abject Pleas

January 25

I am so very, very tired of moving heavy things. At work, yesterday: I moved heavy things for a few hours. Then went to Karen's and moved more heavy things (though I'm not really complaining about that; Heather and I got two bookshelves and two tables and a dresser out of the deal!). At work today: I moved heavy things for about six hours. One of the big projects Heather and I want to do soon is the ordering/integration of our currently unmingled collections of books.

The heavy things I've been moving at work lately are boxes of books, as well as individually big-ass-heavy reference books. I rearranged the entire nonfiction section at work today (and it's an enviably large bunch of volumes), integrating the books we've gotten in the past couple of years into the existing collection. Next week I get to do the same to the anthologies. So, part of me says "No! No more moving books!" But mostly I think it'll be fun to shelve books with sweet Heather, see our libraries merged... Mmm.

I started a notify list. Whee! Send a message to Tropismjournal-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to join. And I'll tell you when I update, thus saving you loads of frustration, la. And I may send the occasional Free Bonus Erotic Haiku. So what've you got to lose?

So, good news: I sold a story. "Bone Sigh" to Twilight Showcase! And a thousand thank-yous to Michael Kelly for telling me about this market.

In other good news: It appears, barring the unforeseen, that my story "Werewolves and Princesses" will be on the Stoker preliminary ballot! That's a long way from the final ballot, of course, but it's something... a happy-making something.

Still more good news: My "The Man Who Loved the Moon" is the featured story in the current issue of Kinships! Which is not a webzine, but print, so you gotta go to the website and order it, yo. For all you Pratt completists out there. "Moon" is a fairy tale, an older story but one I've always liked.

I've put together a Current Publications page, because it was getting a little crowded running it as a sidebar on the main journal page. I may go back to the sidebar when I hit a dry spell publication-wise.

There's actually been movement on my newsgroup lately (someone had to e-mail me to tell me so, because I almost never go there), so go read, post, make it thrive. Actually, yeah; I'd love to hear from y'all mysterious readers. There's a bunch of you, or so it seems based on the number of hits I get.

Which reminds me. I've been meaning to make some abject pleas for a while. I give you the good journal, right? Pour out my heart, brighten your days, make you wince at my inarticulateness and thus feel superior, that's what I do for you. In return, here's what I want y'all to do. Each and every one of you. I want you guys to do any one (or more) of the following:

• Buy Brainbox II. Not even for me; do it for you. It's a good anthology. If you want to be altruistic, well, Irrational Press would benefit from your support! We want them to put out more books, yes? We want them to buy more of my work for those books, don't we?

• Join the Science Fiction Poetry Association. You'll get a subscription to Star*Line, which soon will be edited by me, every issue filled with poems I love, and brief yet diverting front matter (they didn't know what they were getting into when they gave me the opportunity to have an Editor's Note), and you'll be supporting speculative poets -- and believe me, I can scarcely think of a bunch of artists who need your support more.

• Subscribe to a genre fiction magazine. I don't care which one; whichever strikes your fancy. It's wacky; people buy the hell out of Year's Best anthologies, but they don't subscribe to short fiction magazines, which is what the Year's Best anthologies (mostly) depend on for their material! Subscribe, because then you have a right to bitch, and send letters to the editor, and hey, you get to read short stories, which is cool.

• Read Strange Horizons every week. This one's free; it's the least y'all can do. They support me like crazy, buying poems from me more-or-less like clockwork, publishing my fiction, and they're a great magazine! And post on the feedback form, too, let 'em know what you think.

I could go on and on, but that's enough of the MultiTelethon for now, hmm?

(And you'll notice I didn't say "Buy a chapbook!" or "Send me cookies!". That's 'cause I'm altruistic)

And that's enough self-promotion/public service for one night...

Tim Pratt
P.O. Box 13222
Berkeley, CA 94712-4222