Friday, February 4, 2011

Scribbledehobbledehoyden: The Magpie's Eye: Page 23

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A certain junior member of this household was called up for jury duty.  A year later, while cleaning, I lifted a rug and discovered that he hadn't bothered to cash the nine dollar check they gave him.  So I pasted it in my notebook and drew a dragon's head over it.

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2 comments:

Shawn said...

Hello and good day!
I would like to share an idea I have with you, just to see what you, as a writer, think of it. Given that Fantasy and Science Fiction (or Speculative fiction) lends itself to having many, many short stories and with the proliferation of more and more e-readers and Nooks and all manner of digital contraptions to read said stories on, I think it would be neat to be able to make a "mix" of short stories to be able to give to someone. Much the same way that one would make a mix tape (or CD) for someone with all of your favorite songs at the moment. I know that there are Anthologies a'million out there, but just think how cool it would be to be able to pick and choose some of your favorite short stories of the last year or so and be able to give them to a friend without giving them nine different huge anthologies to dig through just for one story. I think the idea has merit, but I know that there is a lot I don't know about the publishing world and rights to stories and all that, and so I thought I would share this idea with you to see what you thought of it from a Writers POV.
PEE-ESS, can't wait for 'Dancing With Bears'! Is there a solid street date for it yet?
Thanks for the time,
Shawn

Michael Swanwick said...

Artistically, the idea sounds very cool to me, Shawn. You could get together with a half-dozen friends and burn your own best-of-the-year anthology every January and swap 'em around. You could compile your own single-recipient collection of love stories. And so on.

Assembling a full-length anthology is a lot of work and entails a great deal of reading. But for slim volumes with specific purposes or else gatherings of personal favorites, it's a great notion.

Legally and technically and financially, there are probably problems. But that's not my department. Sooner or later, your idea ought to be workable.

As for your question . . . I am happy to be able to announce that DANCING WITH BEARS will be published on May 1 of this year. Slightly less than three months from now. I can hardly wait.