"America is a more unruly country than most any other,
a kind of rich, sanitary, educated Afghanistan."
--Kenneth Rexroth (from American Poetry in the Twentieth Century)
There's a lovely audio production of my short story "Bears Discover Fire" on
Drabblecast for those interested in such things.
My new novel Any Day Now is due in March from Overlook Press. It's not exactly science fiction; and not exactly not. Publishers Weekly calls it (almost) "epic" and who am I to disagree? I'll be doing a lot of bookstore appearances in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York, including: Booksmith (SF) March 6, Moe's (Berkeley) March 7, Capitola Book Cafe (near Santa Cruz) March 8, Left Forum (NY) March 17, KGB (NY) March 21, Book Passage (Marin) March 29, Anarchist Book Fair (SF) March 31, Borderlands Books (SF) April 14, and more to come.
My most recent collection of short stories TVA BABY is from PM Press. It includes a little shop story, a starship story, a noir detective story, a time travel tale (with paradox), an un-mundane adventure, a retro romantic comedy (with cigarettes and lingerie), and a plundering of pirates.
My utopian novel FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN (also PM) is about what might have been if abolitionist John Brown's 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry had succeeded. It has a generous (and perceptive) introduction by Mumia Abu Jamal.
Rudy Rucker illustrated Billy's Picture Book. It's a book of children's stories that are not for kids. For example, here's "Billy and the Flying Saucer" (minus the illos) in two four-minute videos: one and two.
Litquake rattled San Francisco in October. Found in the rubble was this mercifully short video of a reading of "The Cockroach Hat," my contribution to the new Kessel & Kelly theme anthology Kafkaesque.
My novella Planet of Mystery is up on Kindle. It's about the first expedition to Venus. Like Pride and Prejudice, it's an adventure. LIke Don Quixote, it's a love story; and like Lolita, it has a happy ending.
I am editing a cool SF series for PM called Outspoken Authors. Each volume includes a story, a rant, an interview and an argument by a Lefty scribbler with Something to Say. Eleanor Arnason's unforgettable (It's about memory) Mammoths of the Great Plains has been shortlisted for the Sturgeon Award, the Sidewise (alt-history) Award, and the Carl Brandon Award as well. That's her in the gimme hat waiting for a train.
Rudy Rucker's Surfing the Gnarl surfaces in March. And the estimable Nalo Hopkinson is in the house. I'm proud of the list which looks like a science fiction Who's Who or Hall of Fame, except that I included myself. Because I could.Another editing job for PM: Political prisoner David Gilbert's New Left true story, which was several years in the making and well worth it. If you really want to know what shaped, and was shaped by, the 60s, here it is. I will be on the panel at a book launch event the evening of February 9 at Modern Times bookstore in San Francisco.
My day job is writing a regular feature, THIS MONTH IN HISTORY, for Locus magazine.
I also host a monthly author reading series in downtown San Francisco called SFinSF. February 11th features K.W.Jeter, Jay Lake and the inimitable Rudy Rucker (pere).
Peter Coyote and I wrote an article about a 1961 anti-nuke demo for the Grinnell College alumni mag. Look for it on your local newstand. Or click here.
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