Don’t Mention the War.

I mentioned the past couple of weeks have been kinda crappy, right?   Got sick.  Discovered I had to redo a bunch of duck stats, because I dumbly omitted a chunk of data from the analysis.  Some Korean publisher is interested in Blindsight, but the advance they’re offering seems to get cut almost in half by assorted taxes and commissions— and I can’t reach my former agent for clarification because Barracuda Reputation has decided that everything anybody sends from my ISP is spam.  Oh, and I spent over two days with neither phone nor internet because some crack-addled doofus chewed through a wire in an open switchbox on the fourth floor.

So in deference to the philosophy that no problem is so big or so complicated that it can’t be run away from, I’ve packed it off to the boons for the weekend with a bunch of other writers.  I’ll be working on a story that’s due to Jon Strahan a month from now:  this story, in fact.

In the meantime, the Heyne edition of Blindsight (Blindflug) seems to have made the final ballot for some kind of German award called the “Kurd Laßwitz Prize“, in the “Best Foreign SF Novel” category (I’m up against Charlie Stross and a fellow named Dmitry Glukhovsky, who I’m just going to take a wild stab at guessing does not write in English).  Also Sara Riffel, who translated Blindsight into German, is on the list of finalists for Best Translation (and let’s face it, given all the jargon anyone who even tries to translate that book should probably get an award).

That’s all I can glean from Google Translate, except that they announce the winners in June and there’s no money involved.



This entry was posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 11:21 am and is filed under writing news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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I Think I Mentioned the War Once But I Got Away with It
Guest
I Think I Mentioned the War Once But I Got Away with It
15 years ago

Oh, and I spent over two days with neither phone nor internet because some crack-addled doofus chewed through a wire in an open switchbox on the fourth floor.

HOLY HELL. Then stop giving the effing squirrels the crack. What kind of madman sells rodents crack?? And you didn’t offer us any, I notice. I will need it to read the story referenced above. Must move faster, accomplish more, faster, faster, faster – where is that effing crack!!?? What if we eat the squirrels, do we get the benefits of the crack?

At least the hot water is back.

Derryl Murphy
Guest
15 years ago

It’s always something with you, isn’t it? If you’d only move to the burbs, then the crack-addled doofi won’t be your excuse anymore. Instead, like me, you can just blame the fucking idiots who run things. Service constantly goes down here, and we’ve bundled phone and internet and TV all together.

Congrats on all them foreign awards and noms.

D

keanani
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keanani
15 years ago

Peter Watts said:
“So in deference to the philosophy that no problem is so big or so complicated that it can’t be run away from, I’ve packed it off to the boons for the weekend with a bunch of other writers.”

Life is full of surprises, and it is short, so don’t be too stressed out Peter, just like Susan Boyle, who realized a bit of her dream, which was to sing before a large audience, although she got so much more of a dream than the dream she did not let die, even though her life seemed to be killing it, you too have achieved a bit (hopefully more than that) of your dream to be a scientist and a writer, and entered the realm of successful hard sci-fi fiction – so don’t let the druggies and critters get to you, or the goofy goings on in international publication of your stuff…the fact remains that your stuff has been published and read. That’s a hell of a lot more than most writers can dream of.

Weekends are great to escape, to somewhere, or from something, however brief…the sun is shining over here and there is a bit of a breeze making the palm trees sway in languid susurration…radical conditions for bodysurfing and bikini sand gathering…

Remember, the dream doesn’t come true until the 47 year old, unemployed, never been kissed, never had a boyfriend, strong-eyebrowed, hip shaking, eye-twinkling, sweet smiling, humble, lives with a cat named Pebbles, little tiger Scottish lady sings…because she had a dream…

I Think I Mentioned the War Once But I Got Away with It said:
“HOLY HELL. Then stop giving the effing squirrels the crack.”

Are you sure it was possibly squirrels? We have some cockroaches over here that we call “747’s”, and some can chew through fruit skins and plastic wrapped bread…

XiXiDu
Guest
15 years ago

I’ve read Blindflug (blind flight). I really hope your next book is going to be translated into German as well. Otherwise I’ll read it in English, but I don’t like switching between languages after the first book.

Here is the English Wiki entry on the Kurd-Laßwitz-Award:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis

I’ve never heard of it. But then I don’t care much about awards.

I’ve read the one by Charles Stross too and I think yours should win. But that’s just me and if you go by amazon.de (http://is.gd/t7wa) your book got 5 times 5 stars and 4 times 1 star. So basically it’s either hate or love.

The low ratings are probably by neurotypical people who expected the usual mainstream drivel.

Here are all of your books that have been translated into German so far:
http://www.randomhouse.de/author/author.jsp?per=222881

Oh and I don’t know about Dmitry Glukhovsky:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Glukhovsky

But he sure is a mainstream author. His books all have more reviews on amazon.de than any other science fiction book I’ve come across. The story and setting of the mentioned novel sound seriously silly and thus it probably has the highest chance of winning…

I Think I Mentioned the War Once But I Got Away with It
Guest
I Think I Mentioned the War Once But I Got Away with It
15 years ago

We have some cockroaches over here that we call “747’s”, and some can chew through fruit skins and plastic wrapped bread…

Oh my God, truly? If wiring gets chewed here, I assume mice or rats were to blame, not bugs. That’s disgusting!

I just liked the mental image of a crack squirrel, because they are normally so cute, and already so nervous. Making up lies to tell other squirrels to get money from them for a fix? “I hate to ask, but I really need $200 or the landlord is going to evict me from my tree.” You get the idea.

cd
Guest
cd
15 years ago

I’ll be working on a story that’s due to Jon Strahan a month from now: this story, in fact.

Oh nice. Where will it be published? And when-ish?

Bob Holmes
Guest
Bob Holmes
15 years ago

I feel your pain with the Barracuda issues. Usually they are right on the IPs they list, though. Not sure if that helps in any way.

cd
Guest
cd
15 years ago

I’ll probably post a fiblet or two here over the next little while, if it works.

I’m salivating acid and sprouting tentacles already…

Seth
Guest
15 years ago

Peter Watts said: “I’ve packed it off to the boons for the weekend with a bunch of other writers.”

Sounds like my idea of heaven. As long as there was beer involved. I sincerely hope so.

keanani
Guest
keanani
15 years ago

I Think I Mentioned the War Once But I Got Away with It asked:
“Oh my God, truly? If wiring gets chewed here, I assume mice or rats were to blame, not bugs. That’s disgusting!”

Yes, truly. But don’t worry, I have not heard of nor seen any mess with wire. They do, however, seem to know or sense how to make human beings “dance”. The usual scenario is, you are minding your own business walking about outside of your abode, and you see the cockroach, (and usually it is the 747s and B-52s that are aiming for humans), and the cockroach “sees” you, then all of sudden the roach goes for an all out run, or flight, at you, aiming for your feet (or head), thereby making the human (you) “dance” about to avoid having a cockroach run over your feet, (which has happened to me several times) or you lose sight of the cockroach that went airborne, and not knowing where it is, only to feel the cockroach crawling up your back or upon your head (which has happened to me more than enough times to convince me that it is intentional insect harrassment).