Absurd Good News

December 31, New Year's Eve, Yet Again

Gardner's not annoyed. He says it's his own fault for taking so long to respond. Though he does suggest that keeping better records might be a good idea. :) So, two acceptances from Asimov's, for "Glass Boy" and "My Night with Aphrodite". Mmm. And he wants to see more.

The Secret Project is ready to be unveiled! Actually, it was done a couple of weeks ago, but we were sending it out to a few people as a surprise gift, and we didn't want to spoil the impact by revealing it here. Basically: Heather and I put together a chapbook, and had a few copies made. It's called Living Together in Mythic Times. The chapbook contains a collaborative short story, "The Ever After Book Shoppe", and two poems, my "Orpheus Among the Cabbages" and her "In the Shade of You". There are also illustrations, courtesy of Heather, and some unassociated but, one hopes, entertaining front matter. 16 action-packed pages (not counting the lovely blue cover, because one doesn't, you know. Count the cover, I mean). Only 100 copies made, many of those sent as gifts, but the remainder... well, most likely, they'll sit in a box on a shelf somewhere in our house. But, if any of you would like to buy these wonderful unsigned unnumbered chapbooks for the low low price of $2.50 (which includes postage and envelope and stamp-affixing costs! Though for you non-U.S.-types it costs $3.50) , you're welcome to do so. We've even set up a little page for the distribution of said chapbooks, here.

This holiday chapbook thing may well become a yearly tradition, for us. Assuming we always have a little time and sufficient money to do it, that is...

As you may've noticed on my main journal page, Brainbox II: Son of Brainbox is now available, in trade paperback and on CD-ROM! This anthology contains my story "Behemoth" and my essay "A Boy and His Behemoth", and a lot of other very good writing by some of the rising stars of fantastic fiction. The antho is ostensibly horror, but there's not a lot of blood-and-guts -- this is more sophisticated than that. I wouldn't personally call "Behemoth" horror, but it's certainly a tragedy... So, for more details, go here, and for ordering information, go here. I'm really proud to have my work included in this antho. Steve Eller is an editor with very discerning tastes, and he's put together a wonderful book. Buy a copy. Buy copies for your friends.

And I'm not just saying that because I get royalties.

There's the good news for the day. Y'all have a happy new year's eve. I'll be back tomorrow with Resolutions and, probably, the First Annual Tropism Everything Awards. Whee!

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