Look at the GORGEOUS cover art by  Julie Dillon for Crossed Genres issue 12:



Nothing of mine in Issue #12, but they've just announced the ToC for their first yearly anthology, in which they pick a single fave story from each issue and roll 'em all into one.  My story "The Good Old-Fashioned Kind of Water" [Issue #10] is in this fabulous lineup!  Preorder before the end of November and get a free subscription!  This magazine has amazing art and many, many  fabulous stories.  Can't go wrong.

Serious writerly f-list types in the Austin area are invited to my ten Texas acres this weekend for a lowkey impromptu mini writing retreat.  Bring wine and laptops.  Email me for directions and love.  Littlebirdblue [the usual at yahoo etc.].

[cross-posted from camillealexa.wordpress.com ]

Publishers Weekly has reviewed ORIGINS (Hadley Rille Books, 2009), which includes my story, "The Pull of the World and the Push of the Sky."  Some cleverboots out there might recognize the inspiration for the title of my book.

From Publishers Weekly:

Fans of the fantastic will be on more familiar ground with Camille Alexa's “The Pull of the World and the Push of the Sky,” wherein barely articulate proto-human Gunh learns to fly, and Mike Resnick's delightful “Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge,” in which aliens try to determine the origins of now-vanished humankind.

Wow!  My buddy Gunh mentioned in the same sentence w/ Mike Resnick!  Too awesome.  Special congrats also to Gerri and Max for the mentions of their stories in the review.

 

Yes.  I'm here at WorldFantasy in adorable San Jose, California.  Tina Connolly says I'm practically incognito, what with my oversized shades and my collar flipped up.  The hair might be a giveaway.

I'm taking this one easy.  No panels, other than the Friday night poetry reading moderated by the cute-as-a-bug Gwynne Garfinkle.  It was Very Much Fun.  Attended awesomest party ever with K. Tempest Bradford,   Naamen Gobert Tilahun, M.K. Hobson, and Sara Mueller.  Thanks, ORBIT Books, for your generous open bar.  We hard-drinking specfic writers appreciate you mightily.  Special thanks to Borderlands Books for carrying Hadley Rille titles here at the con.  They seem to have one copy left of PUSH OF THE SKY.

Have met many lovely folks.  As always, am feeling guilty for not being able to socialize in chunks large enough to accommodate all the people I'd like to hang with.  Plan to attend parties tonight (HAPPY HALLOWEEN, ALL!!) in my newly-acquired vintage (c.1950)  MARIACHI PANTS!

  
(Very similar to mine -- but not mine.  Image credit here.)

I've no idea what to expect from other stories in this antho, but I was strangely intrigued by the premise:  stories written about existing under the threat of being eaten.

And of course I wrote a modern Hänsel und Gretel piece, called simply, "Gretel."

From "Gretel":

Gretel met Hansel the day her stepmother drove her to Brykerwoods Juvenile Rehabilitation Facility and left her standing in the front hall with no money or phone or anything other than the clothes she wore and two hits of acid hidden in an empty lipstick tube stuffed in her bra.

He was tall and quiet, and thinner even than Gretel. Cigarette burn scars covered one cheek, and he was blind in his left eye from an especially bad night with his father. Gretel thought he was beautiful.

You're beautiful, he'd told her later that night, after her stepmother had driven away and Brykerwoods orderlies had taken Gretel's leather jacket and the contents of her pockets, but not the lipstick tube they hadn't found in her bra. After she'd found him, like an uncharted territory, or an undiscovered planet, sitting on dirty white linoleum next to a vacant chair in an empty TV room without a television. After she had handed him one hit of acid and placed the other under her tongue. You're beautiful.

I'm not, she said. My front teeth jut like fallen tombstones. My nose is the size of a bus and my hair is like strips of rotting bacon and my eyes are small and brown as rabbit turds. You must be tripping.

And he said, I am, but that's not why I like you.

 

I've read all Abyss & Apex Flash slush through August 29th.  I'm trying to keep on top of it, since I'll be Very Busy with Other Things until World Fantasy in October.

I'm a little bummed a gender imbalance has emerged in my submissions inbox this quarter, with subs from male bylines outpacing female quite steadily.  Also, guys seem considerably more likely to submit another story right away if I decline one.  I try to be swift, so many of my "regulars" can -- and do -- send me three or four subs in a month.  All these are guys. 

This is just an observation.  Possibly one without meaning, but perhaps something to consider.

Still in my holds pile as of 8/29/09:
2  Weird Fiction
2  Traditional Fantasy
1  Urban Fantasy
2  Science Fiction
1  Humorous SF
1  Humorous Fairy Tale
2  Surreal
2  Absurdist
1  Social Fantasy

The quality of the inbox -- I know you're tired of hearing this -- is higher than ever.  I'm becoming more and more attached to pieces, finding it harder and harder to winnow down to the small number I can send up to Wendy.  Still a couple days left in the quarter, y'all!

* * * * * 

PERSONAL SALES: I've sold my Flash story "A Pretty Lucky Day" to Pill Hill's The Four Hosemen anthology.  Woot!
 

Projector broken, so we're canceling Friday Night Movie Nights until further notice.  Expect the movie-projected goodness to return this November.

If you're around and want to join me for some good unclean fun this weekend, I'll be at the Soap Box Derby races this Saturday in Portland, Oregon. 

Mount Tabor!  Potluck Picnic!  Soap Box Races!

First, I want to sincerely thank Powell's Books and the Portland Science Fiction Book Group for having me as guest speaker to discuss their August reading selection, PUSH OF THE SKY.  I couldn't have hoped for a more enthusiastic, knowledgeable, devoted bunch of readers and thinkers.  It was an amazing experience.

And lastly, a couple sales of my own to report:  my poem, "Dear Zombie," to a lovely little New Zealand outfit called Semaphore (... because their 2008 anthology featured a cover by the amazing Aurelien Police, whose work graces the cover of PUSH OF THE SKY as well as Catherynne Valente's The Labyrinth), and to the Shadows of the Emerald City  (a dark fantasy antho about the land of OZ), a short story called "Fly, Fly, Pretty Monkey."  I also may have forgotten to mention selling "The Good Old-fashioned Kind of Water" to Crossed Genres magazine.  More on that later!

Writing open house at my Portland home this weekend!