The year ahead and then some

Paying subscribers should read this one closely

The problem with not putting news in a newsletter is that it tends to pile up in the background like quiet little snowflakes, until, all of a sudden, the roof gives way.

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Books

• With Kensington’s acquisition of Erewhon, Jewel Box is being postponed to October 24, 2023. No preorder links yet, since the transition is still being worked out, but I’m hoping to have them in a month.

• On January 3 (or 4?), Éditions L’Observatoire released L'Odyssée de Firuzeh, which is Diniz Galhós’ French translation of On Fragile Waves. Lili Wood is the very talented cover artist. Pauline Cuchet at La Nouvelle Agence was Markus’ co-agent.

  

• Hachette Nashville’s Worthy imprint will publish a book of my essays in Spring 2024. It might be called Paper Airplanes, or it might not. I’m writing it right now. Because that book and this newsletter would not exist without the small number of financial supporters of The Paper Airplane, I am offering to include the name of anyone who, as of the time and date of this email, has paid for at least twelve months of a subscription in the Acknowledgments, whether that subscription was past or present. This includes anyone who paid for a gift subscription, but not necessarily the recipient of a gift subscription. It also includes anyone who subscribed for a year and did not renew afterwards.

  • If you wish to be thanked in the book, send your real name—not anyone else’s, even with the best of intentions—from the email that your paid subscription was registered under to the email address listed here

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    by April 1, 2023. Those who don’t will be collectively credited as anonymous supporters. Consider carefully whether you’d want your real name to be associated with mine. Assume an online mobbing, sooner or later.

  • Whether or not you wish to be named, if paid subscribers include in their email a mailing address that is good through mid-2024 (note if it’s likely to change), I will send 3 signed bookplates to those outside of North America, or a signed copy of the book to those inside North America, at some point after the book is published. (Shipping a book internationally often costs more than the full price of the book.) If you want to receive the above but remain unnamed, indicate that clearly, e.g., “Anonymous in Acknowledgments, please,” and your name will only be used for shipping. If you are receiving a signed book (not bookplate) and want the book personalized to someone other than yourself, indicate that clearly (“Please sign for [your friend’s name], not me”, otherwise it will be personalized to the recipient.

  • This is offered in the spirit of a thank-you; it is not a promotion (the window is now closed) or an entitlement. The world being what it is, I reserve the right to check and reject names that can’t be verified or appear to be jokes or worse and the right to ignore anyone who has wished violence on me or behaved with memorable malice (unlikely with this crowd). I also reserve the right to get sick, lethargic, sullen, or stuck; ship bookplates and books with abominable slowness; drop dead; abscond cackling in a hot air balloon; quit writing and enter a convent; and so on and so forth, all of which will interfere with delivering on my intentions. Also, the publisher first has to publish the book, and I have to write it.

Stories

• On February 7, “The Father Provincial of Mare Imbrium” will be available online at Uncanny Magazine as part of their January/February issue. The story is indebted to Br. Guy Consolmagno for his good advice. That I could, one year, be reading with admiration Krista Tippett’s beautiful interview with Br. Guy in Becoming Wise; a few years later be expressing that admiration to him at Dublin Worldcon; then three years after be asking for, and receiving, his help and expertise, is one of those rare and incredible gifts that you can’t explain, only laugh at, disbelieving, as Sarah laughed at God. Caroline Yoachim also interviews me about the story in this issue.

• Also in February, Tor.com will publish “The River and the World Remade.”

• August brings Jonathan Strahan’s The Book of Witches, which includes my story “Witchfires” and the wonderful “John Hollowback and the Witch” by Amal El-Mohtar (I peeked during the proofing pass—one of life’s small pleasures).

  

Events

• Due to On Fragile Waves receiving the WA State Book Award, I’ll be interviewed at the Seattle Public library on Saturday, February 25 at 2:30pm PT. It will be live-streamed but not recorded. (Correction: no livestream.) Corrected correction: Livestream registration link.

• I am returning to ICFA in March for a reading and a panel.

Other projects

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1. The actual roof over my head has not yet given way, thankfully.

2. Extra step is to dodge bots and spam.