Having a lovely time at the Nebulas–had two interviews (one with Locus, and one with Juliette Wade and Jaym Gates), an autographing session that had a surprising number of people turn up (considering I had no books for sale at the moment), a lovely dinner with Sheila Williams in a grill place (yum salmon), and sort of managed to stay awake during the reception for the Nebula Awards nominees (sort of. I dozed off and they had to wake me up when they were about to make the announcements :p).

If I ever needed confirmation that pregnancy plus jetlag is a bad combination…

Today is the big day; I’m counting on adrenaline to keep me awake until the Awards ceremony (a nice idea in principle, but in reality I’m not really sure how much I have to spare). Off to have a shower, and to hunt down my breakfast.

Just a heads-up on the website that the ebook edition has gone up on amazon. You can find it here: amazon.com|amazon.co.uk|amazon.fr.

Meanwhile, am still jet lagged. Will go grab breakfast.

Have safely arrived in SFO, am now ensconced in Dario Ciriello’s house (and of course have been unable to sleep for 2 hours).

Flight was eventless if a bit long, and I was glad to lie down by the end of it. Have to admit am not looking forward to return journey…

But in the meantime, Nebulas! Fun! (and naps. The snakelet insists)

Ebook cover

Aka the shiny… Art courtesy of Nhan Y Doanh, and cover layout thanks to Janice Hardy–thanks to both of them for putting up with my (short-term) deadlines and producing such beautiful things. (MC is Linh; the older woman in lower right-hand corner is Quyen. Slightly more detailed view of the original watercolour is here if you’re interested, since Doanh had to cut bits of it off to fit the cover format).

The ebook should be live on amazon within a day or two if I didn’t screw up the Kindle upload…

(and remember you can still get the limited edition hardback with Melissa Gay’s artwork direct from Immersion Press, while stocks last…)

3000 words, tentatively titled “The Moon over Red Trees”. Major cleanup needed, but I have draft!

Night over The Red Trees. Clarisse rises from the bed, casting a glance at the moon that slowly seeps into the room. Raoul, asleep in his bed with his arms outstretched towards her, groans and shifts, looking for her, but he does not wake up. He used to, when she first came here months ago; but he soon got used to her wandering through the house every night–and tonight of all nights, he knows she won’t be able to sleep.

Within her, the magic pulses–a steady beat like the waves of the sea, like the call of a drum–but she’s been listening to it for months, and she knows this night is its last night. After all, nothing lasts forever, not even the spirits’ gifts.

Tonight is a time for endings. 

In a “good news never come alone” kind of thing, got news this morning that “Scattered Along the River of Heaven” and “Immersion” were both finalists for the Sturgeon Award. The complete list of finalists can be found here  (and yes, Ken Liu is also in fine form this year 🙂 ).

If you need me, I’ll be busy squeeing…

A guide purporting to be an encyclopaedia of Asian ingredients. Under fish sauce, it recommends the Tiparos and Squid brands as being the best ones. Maybe, if you’re doing Thai cooking? They’re both Thai fish sauces, and for Vietnamese dishes I have to admit I’ve never found them to be much use (the book doesn’t go into the fact that there are huge regional variations on fish sauces, which is odd because it specifies this for soy sauces…).
Bonus points: under “typical dishes”, it lists “larb (Vietnam, Thailand)”. I have no idea about Thailand, but larb sure as heck isn’t a typical Vietnamese dish (in fact, I had to look it up on the Internet, and Wikipedia tends to suggest it’s a Lao dish. Way to go on mixing up all the countries of the Indochinese peninsula, guys).

Er.
Wow.
Apparently “Immersion” and On a Red Station, Drifting are both finalists for the Locus Awards (best short story and best novella, respectively).
I’m on a freaking shortlist with Ursula Le Guin. *faints*

Congrats to all my fellow nominees, and best of luck to everyone!
(I won’t be at the Awards ceremony, sadly. End of June is way past the time when I’m allowed transatlantic flights, so I’ll be content with cheering everyone on).

In other Red Station news, I can confirm we’re on track for a release of the ebook at the end of May (maybe earlier if I can tackle it before I leave for the US, but not guaranteed). And I have seen the new cover sketches and they are awesome.

My guest post “Dragons, heroes and spaceships: pushing against received narratives” is up at the Book Smugglers–many thanks to Ana and Thea for the invite, and I’m delighted to be the inaugural piece for their series “SFF in Conversation”, which focuses on inclusivity and diversity in SF. Go here to read it.

-“Two Sisters In Exile” will be reprinted in David G. Hartwell’s Year’s Best Science Fiction, out from Tor sometime this year. Haven’t seen a TOC yet, but I know the volume contains at least “The Waves” from Ken Liu–nice company to be in :p

-Also quite pleased to announce I sold my novelette “Memorials” to Asimov’s. This one took a lot of work whipping into shape, so many thanks to Ken Liu, Bo Balder, Joe Crow, Pam Wallace–and special ones to Tricia Sullivan, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz and Benjanun Sriduangkaew for keeping up my faith in the story.

Snippet:

Cam finds Pham Thi Thanh Ha in her house, as she expected. By now, she doesn’t question the aunts’ knowledge or how they came by it. She does what she’s told to, an obedient daughter beholden to her elders, never raising a fuss or complaining– the shining example of filial piety extolled in the tales her girlfriend Thuy so painstakingly reconstitutes in her spare hours.

Set in the postcolonial corner of Xuya (except no mindships this time around!). With my favourite secondary characters ever, the cabal of aunts who know what is good for you (even if you don’t!).