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Category: Writing

Penultimativity

I’m home sick, having been given a lovely cold by my son, who was sick on Friday. He promptly got his mom sick, too, though she’s over her illness now as well… but I caught it last, and I’m still feeling it. At least I know I should be better in a day or so. I rose from bed to hydrate and eat something and figured I’d update here while I was temporarily vertical.

I just posted chapter 23 of Broken Mirrors, the penultimate chapter, which resolves the principle conflict between my main character Marla and her dark doppelganger the Mason. There’s still one chapter to go, though it’s more than mere falling action…

I’m considering putting up my unsold science fantasy The Nex as a serial/e-book. I think it’s a good book, even though none of the publishers I’ve sent it to want to buy it. It’s gotten lots of complimentary rejections, but the problem seems to be that despite having a young (12 years old) protagonist, it doesn’t really read like middle grade — it’s got lots of adult characters, for one thing. I grew up reading stuff like The Talisman, books where there were young characters but that weren’t necessarily meant for young readers. I may have created something along those lines. I didn’t set out to write a middle grade — it’s a genre I’m pretty ignorant about — and, well, it looks like I succeeded in not writing one!

It’s possible it didn’t sell for some other reason entirely. But I love the book a lot, and would like to see it find an audience. Anyone interested in a non-Marla Mason reader-funded serial from me? The novel is set in the world of my story “Dream Engine”. Could be fun.

Bring a Long Spoon

My anthology Sympathy for the Devil is out now, and you can order it from the publisher or from Amazon.com or from anywhere else you want, of course. Publishers Weekly says this about it:

Hugo winner Pratt turns his Locus-honed editing skills to the crowded field of themed anthologies. His chosen unifying element is the Devil, or devils, broadly interpreted in 36 original and reprinted works. Bygone days are represented by an excerpt from Dante’s Inferno; well-known 19th-century tales such as Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and Stevenson’s “The Bottle Imp”; and stories from the golden age of pulp fantasy, such as Bloch’s “That Hell-Bound Train” and Sturgeon’s “The Professor’s Teddy Bear.” The newer offerings are equally wide-ranging, including Kelly Link’s poignant, recursive “Lull”; Holly Black’s giggle-out-loud “A Reversal of Fortune”; and China MiĆ©ville’s vividly creepy “Details.” Anyone delighted by con games, terrified of damnation, and not offended by Pratt’s cheeky dedication (“Thank you, Satan! I couldn’t have done it without you”) will find plenty to enjoy.

So that’s cool.