Fencon invite

I got my invite to be a panelist at this fall's FenCon in the email yesterday. I have accepted and plan to be there. I have attended every FenCon, I believe, and been a panelist at most of them.

FenCon VIII will have a theme of "Southern Steam," and will be held in the same location as last year, the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Addison, the weekend of September 23-25th.

The Guest of Honor this year will be Gail Carriger. Music GoH will be Joe Bethancourt, and Steven H Silver will be the Fan GoH. This year’s Artist GoH will be Vincent Di Fate. Les Johnson will be the Science GoH. Bradley Denton will be Toastmaster and Lou Anders will be a Special Guest for the Writer’s Workshop.

This year FenCon will also host DeepSouthCon 49. This is the first year that DSC has ever been held in Texas.

More on "Passport to Pleasantville"

Did a final edit on "Passport to Pleasantville", dropped approximately 800 words, Comments from beta reader were very helpful. I will run it off and proof it over the weekend before sending it out.

SFWA Bulletin arrives

The latest issue of the SFWA Bulletin arrived in the mail, dubbed Winter 2011. The cover was hardly mangled (I've gotten copies in the past where the cover was torn to shreds.) The artwork is really good, I took a minute to scan it and give it a little exposure here. It's by an artist named Kevin Ward. Good job!

John Teehan is the production manager, and he put an ad on Page 35 for his Merry Blacksmith Press. I must admit, it is a good line-up of books so far, and I'm grateful for the exposure for "Texas & Other Planets".

I anticipate getting the contract for "Music for Four Hands" from Yard Dog Press soon. That's the chapbook of four collaborations between myself and Ed Morris.

Gettng ready for ConDFW

Got a last minute reminder that I had forgotten to complete the questionnaire for this year's ConDFW, which will be in Dallas Feb. 18-20. Turned it back in. It's hard to believe my first con of the year is less than a month away.

Dropped a copy of "Texas & Other Planets" in the mail to Howard Waldrop, and used the occasion to call him and get caught up. I stuck a couple of photos inside the book of myself with Paul DiFillipo when I visited Rhode Island last November. Howard will see Paul next spring when he goes to Boston for ReaderCon.

Received an invite to speak at the August meeting of the New Boston Friends of the Library. I visited there last August. I was the editor of the paper in New Boston from 2005 to 2007.

Got back vital notes from beta reading of "Passport to Pleasantville". Resolved a plot problem in "Tell Gilgamesh I'm Sorry" and came up with a crucial plot twist in the what will probably be the next story, "She Melted in my Arms". All three stories are set in the same post-apocalyptic post-singularity world, but in different places and with different people.

Back again

Well, as I said a week ago, it would be a busy week, and it was. Dealt with two deadlines on Friday, worked as normal Saturday, had a book signing Saturday afternoon and attended a banquet Saturday night. Slept late today.

A number of little errands to attend to this week, but the hardest part is past. I need to update my submission list and get back to "Passport to Pleasantville" as well as "Tell Gilgamesh I'm Sorry".

The latest

Up to 3,700 words on the latest story, "Tell Gilgamesh I'm Sorry". I'm going to be real busy this week, I have two annual projects at work that both deadline on Friday. But "Gilgamesh" seems to be flowing as well as "Pleasantville" did. I think after spending so much time during 2010 working on the collection, I have some creative energy bottled up.

I need to order more copies of "Texas & Other Planets", I bet I will sell out of all my copies this coming Saturday.

Latest scribblings

I finished "Passport to Pleasantville" Tuesday; the first draft came in at over 7,600 words. I went back and did the first edit Thursday and Friday. Tightened up to 7,447 words. I sent it to a volunteer beta reader. Because of the subject matter, I really can't run it by the wife.

Got a start tonight on the next story, "Tell Gilgamesh I'm Sorry". Just a little over 2,00o words.

With my author event set for Jan. 22 at the local Hastings, I am the subject of a rather long article in Sunday's paper.

"Sympathy for Salieri"

Tracy Morris has the interview up at her web site, so go read! It's me, warts and all.

Last minute questions

Got a few last minute questions from author Tracy Morris, who does a weekly interview on her blog, "Rambling Roses, Purple Prose and other Asinine Alliteration: Confessions of a Sanguine Mind". I answered them and sent them back. She asked me to be her next subject, and the interview should be published Tuesday.

Revisited "Passport to Pleasantville", wrote another scene. Word court over 6,000. Do not think this will swell into a novellete, though.

Going to ApolloCon

Got an invite to be a guest again at ApolloCon, and I've already replied with my acceptance. Last year was the first time I attended, and I enjoyed it. I look forward to going again, and I am putting it on my schedule.

Nice quiet day, with the snow and all. Wrote the first 5,400 words on a new story, "Passport to Pleasantville". It's probably about four-fifths done already. Little post-apocalyptic story in the vein on "Avatar".

All the local schools are closed on Monday, I think we got four inches of snow, will check for sure when I shovel out in the morning.

Turning 54

Celebrated my 54th birthday Thursday. Patricia took me to the local Applebee's. Nice evening, one downside. Their Parmesan Meatballs are spicy; Patricia ate some, had a violent acid attack at 1 a.m. I ate the rest of the meatballs for lunch Friday, and I think I know what the problem is: They put ground red pepper in the meatball meat. Which is not authentic Italian - Italians use ground red pepper as a condiment, not an ingredient (my father used to use it on his pasta all the time, but I never saw mother use it in her cooking).

Note to Applebee's: The three main ingredients in Italian cooking are garlic, garlic, and garlic. If you want something to be spicy Italian, load up the garlic, not the red pepper.

For my part, I had a nice sirloin.

This was the first birthday I've had since I started a Facebook page, and I had about 80 greetings. That was really nice. and took me by surprise.

Weather Sunday morning is threatening here in East Texas; prediction is cold and snow. By 7:30 a.m. a cold sleet had started. I went outside and pulled in more wood from the brush pile before it got too wet. We have a real nice fireplace, and it helps heat one whole end of our house. Our house is shaped like a boomerang - long and on one level, with two wings joined by a jog at the front door foyer. The master bedroom is at the end of one wing, the living room with the fireplace at the end of the other.

Put my cell phone on to charge. If it drops below freezing, and this stuff sticks, it will get nasty, but I live a mile from the downtown square. This kind of weather is tough, though, on folks who live in the country.

Upcoming interview

Author Tracy Morris does a weekly interview on her blog, "Rambling Roses, Purple Prose and other Asinine Alliteration: Confessions of a Sanguine Mind". She asked me to be her next subject, and the interview will be published on Jan. 11. I returned the answers to her questions yesterday and she's made a note of my upcoming interview.

On a personal note, with the holiday entertaining season over, the battle against my weight and blood glucose resumes. My blood sugar reading this afternoon AFTER lunch was 92 - that's very positive. One last hurdle to overcome - the temptations of my birthday Thursday, when I turn 54.

Latest biography

Thinking about ConDFW - which is coming up Feb. 18-20 - made me check my biography, and I realized my biography on their web site was out of date. I updated it and sent a copy. Just in case anyone is interested, here it is:

Lou Antonelli has had 50 short stories published in the past seven years in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia in venues such as Asimov's Science Fiction, Jim Baen's Universe, Dark Recesses, Greatest Uncommon Denominator, and Andromeda Spaceways In-flight Magazine. He has had ten honorable mentions in "The Year's Best Science Fiction" (St. Martin's Press, Gardner Dozois, ed.) since 2004.

His Texas-themed reprint collection “Fantastic Texas” was published in 2009 and another collection, “Texas & Other Planets”, was published by the Merry Blacksmith Press in 2010. Yard Dog Press is forthcoming in 2011 with chapbook collection collaboration with Portland, Oregon-based author Ed Morris, “Music for Four Hands”.

He lives in Mount Pleasant, Texas, with his wife, Patricia (Randolph), and is managing editor of the Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune.

GUD No. 6 reviewed

A web site called Rise Reviews has reviewed GUD issue No. 6. Overall the reviewer - a guy named Frank Dutkiewicz - liked the issue. He didn't like "Dispatches from The Troubles".

I did the drawing I promised yesterday for a free copy of "Fantastic Texas". The random number generated was 126, and No. 126 on the list of "Fantastic Texas" Facebook fans was named Wood Carver. I sent him (or her) a message via Facebook. Haven't heard back yet.