Poor Ceausescu

Photo by: NBC/NBCU Photo Bank

I've been doing research on the Cold War in preparation for my sequel to "Another Girl, Another Planet", and in the process I was reminded that Romania was the only country in the Eastern Bloc where the ruler was violently overthrown. After refusing to bow to the inevitable, Nikolai Ceausescu and his wife were arrested and unceremoniously shot on Christmas Day 1989.

In the course of my research I stumbled across the record of a "Saturday Night Live" skit that ran on Jan. 13, 1990. I remember seeing this when it was first broadcast 26 years ago.

Here is a still that shows Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Ed O'Neill, Nora Dunn, and Jon Lovitz as mourners during the skit called 'Ceausescu's Wake'.

The people all sound mournful as they bemoan Ceausescu's demise, saying "Poor Ceausescu!". After a while, one of them asks:

"Is he really dead?"

Someone else says, "Let's be sure."

At which point everyone pulls out a gun and starts shooting into the coffin.

As a wise man once said, being an evil dictator has great benefits and perks, but the retirement plan sucks.

It's that time of the year again

With the March 31 deadline coming up for Hugo nominations, I've been asked by a few people if I have any recommendations.

First off, when it comes to other people, no. I've always kind of thought authors should promote their own stuff. You should be proud of your own work.

My involvement last year as a double-nominee with the help of the Sad Puppies list convinced me my original impression was correct. While some other authors like to promote the works of their friends and colleagues, this just seems to lead to resentment and accusations. If anyone wants to ask me my thoughts privately, sure, I'm always willing to chat. But I'm not going to offer any public recommendations except for myself.

This year, thankfully and gratefully, I am not on any lists of any kind.

Now, as far as my own work, I've decided to go ahead and, in response to questioning, opine that my best short story of 2015 - and therefore the potentially most nomination-worthy - is "Would Olympus Fall", published by Hadley Rille Books in the "Ruins Excavations" anthology.

If you check in with me on a regular basis, you know I've touted the anthology - edited by Eric T Reynolds with a forward by Nisi Shawl - as being a standout, and I'm very proud to be a contributor.
If you would like a copy of "Would Olympus Fall" for your consideration, just comment or PM me or email me at chpaper@juno.com.

Audiobook in the works

Hadley Rille Publisher Eric T Reynolds has approved the final audio version of "Ruins Excavation" anthology on the Audiobooks site.

The audiobook will pass through quality assurance checks. Once it passes, it will be distributed on Amazon, Audible and iTunes. The whole process usually takes up to 10-14 business days, as long as there are no problems.

I'll let everyone know when it is ready. I've already received and listened to the audio version of my story, "Would Olympus Fall". The complete audiobook version of "Ruins Excavation" will be a treat for people who like that format.

WordFire Press to publish Lou Antonelli alternate history novel

WordFire Press has signed a contract with Lou Antonelli for his debut novel, Another Girl, Another Planet. WordFire Press Publisher Kevin J. Anderson said, “Lou has written a wonderful, unique Cold War story that can only be described as ‘Cold War Punk.’  He’s a great writer, and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

WordFire Press Acquisitions Editor Dave Butler describes Another Girl, Another Planet as a "Heinleinian alternate history of politics, espionage, and murder on the Red Planet.” Another Girl, Another Planet is one of Butler's first acquisitions since he took his current post with WordFire on Feb. 19. Renowned Editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt is developmental editor on the project.

An accomplished short story author with 96 publications and three collections, Antonelli was a finalist for the Sidewise Award in alternate history in 2013. The Texas-based author describes Another Girl, Another Planet as a “retro-futurist alternate history.” The novel is due out before the end of the year.

WordFire Press is a mid-sized Colorado-based publisher featuring the works of many bestselling and award-winning authors, including Kevin J. Anderson, Frank Herbert, Allen Drury, Jody Lynn Nye, Alan Dean Foster, Mike Resnick, Brian Herbert, Tracy Hickman, David Farland, and others.

For more information, contact wfp@wordfire.com

Opportunities

After being the proprietor of my own community weekly newspaper from 1995 to 2001, after six years I had to toss in the towel and admit the business was a failure. I turned over what assets remained to settle some bills and took a regular job.

Being self-employed had been extremely time consuming, and as a result of taking a normal job I had - or at least felt I had - time on my hands. I started writing and submitting short stories in the fall of 2002. In March 2004 I sold "A Rocket For the Republic" to Gardner Dozois at Asimov's Science Fiction.

Fast forward a few years. I was the managing editor of a small daily newspaper from 2007 to the start of 2015 - seven and a half years. The paper struggled during the Great Recession, and by the time it was sold to a newspaper chain, I was working very long hours.

In January 2015 I took a job as managing editor of a weekly paper, and again, I took advantage of the time gained to write, but this time I tackled a novel. I wrote "Another Girl, Another Planet" in four months, from January to April of 2015. Ten months later I sold "Another Girl, Another Planet" to Kevin J. Anderson at WordFire Press.

Your mileage may vary, but at least in my case I have always taken setbacks, looked at what opportunities they may hold, and then set forward again.

Whoops!

There's a belief among fiction writers that any feedback from an editor sent along with a rejection is helpful. I've found that to be true; in fact, I wrote a whole book about that, "Letters From Gardner"

Yesterday I got a very good example of that. In his comments accompanying a rejection, an editor noted a certain implausibility in a scenario I set up regarding a hole 150 feet deep. I realized with a start that I goofed up what I had meant to say. I said 150 feet deep when I meant 150 feet below sea level.

Thanks to his taking the time to read the story, I now see the misfire and I'm going to do a little rewrite to correct the problem.

I've found that even when an editor doesn't "get" a story or doesn't understand something, that can be helpful. For example, if they miss some plot point, it may mean that it is too subtle, and would be missed by the reader also.

In another example, I had an alternate history story that came back with comments indicating it had been read like it was straight space opera or hard s-f (the science had been critiqued), which tipped me off I needed to submit it to someplace that was more fantasy-oriented (which was more appropriate, anyway) and it sold quickly.

Sometimes you find someone who gets it

I'm kind of puzzled why some people are still rehashing the 2015 Hugo nominations. That dead horse was beaten into discrete atoms months ago.

Having said that, on the blog "Women Write About Comics", Doris V. Doris Sutherland has been comparing 2015 versus 2014 nominees for a while. On Thursday her post "2014 Hugos Versus 2015 Sad Puppies: Related Works" caught my attention because she had a very fair and perceptive review of "Letters from Gardner".

She's the only person I know who actually "got" the one story that was never formally published:

"The stories themselves are hit or miss—Antonelli cheerfully admits that a few of them were rejected for good reason—but there are some strong works on offer. For my money, the best part of the book is a chapter entitled “In the Wake of the Columbia Tragedy.” Here, Antonelli describes his reaction to the shuttle disaster of 2003, which occurred over his home state of Texas. To exorcise his psychological demons following the terrible incident, he wrote a story called “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” in which a man finds a strange crab-like being amongst debris from the crash. The protagonist realises that it is a parasite that evolved to live off spacecraft, and was responsible for destroying Columbia; he then kills it in disgust.

"Gardner Dozois rejected the story on the reasonable grounds that, while Antonelli’s motives were heartfelt, a reader could easily misinterpret the story as crass exploitation. The chapter gives insight into the creative processes of both Antonelli and Dozois, which it places into historical context..."

Here is the full article.

Sutherland was equally perceptive in December when she discussed my short story nominee, "On a Spiritual Plane:

"Antonelli acknowledges that his background as a journalist shows through in his fiction. In some of his stories, the matter-of-fact clarity of his writing style works in his favour. With “On the Spiritual Plane”, however, he picked a subject that is just too subtle to fit his authorial approach."

Which, in reflection is probably quite true.

But I tried.