Sadness in the s-f community

The well-liked and accomplished author Kage Baker died this morning. She has cancer and reached the point where treatments became in effective. I never met her, but I knew many people who had. Too bad.

SFScope has provided a little publicity for Fantastic Texas, listing it among books received.

Well, another first

Like some other people, I carry a book around to read when I have to kill time. It comes in handy when there are breaks and recesses in meetings, or I have to wait out closed door sessions.

Tonight I had to attend a meeting for a highway transportation project that included a 30-minute break as an opportunity for members of the public to view schematics and ask questions. So I grabbed the book in my briefcase and gave it a read.

BUT, this time the book I'm carrying is "Fantastic Texas". I sat down and re-read "Video Killed the Radio Star". I don't know if I'm weird, but I enjoyed the story - even though I wrote it.

This is the first time I ever took a book break with my own book...

A first

A person who bought a copy of "Fantastic Texas" at the local bookstore came by my office at the newspaper and asked me to sign it. That's the first time that's ever happened. Wow! I'm not having a book signing until Feb. 6 (at the same bookstore).

Dropped a book proposal into the email today to an agent. It's the book based on "The Witch of Waxahachie", now called "The Witch of the West".

Got my contributor's preview via email for Issue No. 5 of Abandoned Towers. It will feature my story "Across the Plains".

Back in business

I've been pre-occupied this past week with a special project at work, the single largest special section the News Department does each year, so I've been out of pocket for a while. I'm getting back to normal.

Props from M-Brane S-F

Chris Fletcher, the publisher of M-Brane S-F, put up some nice comments about the collection and myself on the magazine's web site Sunday:

Antonelli's FANTASTIC TEXAS released

"Prolific speculative fiction writer Lou Antonelli, whose story "Good News for the Dead" appeared last year in M-Brane SF #3, has a new book out, titled Fantastic Texas, from Fantasic Books/Wilder Publications. It can be found by way of Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and some details about it are posted here as well. Lou's work has long been well-regarded by readers, and he has appeared in dozens of magazines and anthologies in recent years."

Predators and Editors poll

Looks like "Professor Malakoff" came in a respectable 9th in the Predators and Editors readers poll. Glad to see that. It was one of my better received stories on 2009.

Sending out emails to drum up support for "Fantastic Texas". Just got in the promotional business cards.

For the record

I've seen other authors do this, so I guess I will, too: Here are my publications during 2009:

"The Silver Dollar Saucer" - Ray Gun Revival - January 2009

"Professor Malakoff's Amazing Ethereal Telegraph" - Science Fiction Trails No. 4 - March 2009

"Good News for the Dead" - M-Brane SF April 2009

"Airy Chick" - Alienskin magazine, June 2009

"Stairway to Heaven" (with Ed Morris), Encounters Nov. 2009

"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" (with Ed Morris), The Fifth Dimension, Dec. 2009

"Twilight on the Finger Lakes", Bewildering Stories, Dec. 2009

I guess this helps people interested in making Hugo nominations. I'm not planning to do any myself, and honestly I know so few authors on a personal basis I would be shocked if I got any nominations, but there they are for the record.

All are short stories except "Airy Chick", which was a flash.

The first two, "The Silver Dollar Saucer" and "Professor Malakoff", were the last two stories to be included in my "Fantastic Texas" collection.