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February 2010 Asimovs with Stone Wall Truth by Caroline Yoachim

The February 2010 issue of Asimov’s hits newsstands today, including my novelette “Stone Wall Truth” (and also the novelette “The Wind-Blown Man” by fellow Codexian Aliette de Bodard).

An excerpt from my story:

Njeri sewed the woman together with hairs from a zebra tail. Her deer-bone needle dipped under the woman’s skin and bobbed back out. The contrast of the white seams against her dark skin was striking.

“The center seam makes a straight line,” Njeri told her apprentice, “but the others flow with the …

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Nebula Noms

Nominations have opened up for the Nebula Awards. I’ve just joined SFWA, so if there’s an eligible story you think is nom-worthy (be it yours or someone else’s), feel free to call my attention to it in the comments section.

And now for a little shameless self-promotion! I’ve got five award-eligible works this year:

Short Stories (2009)
“Tending the Mori Birds,” Fantasy Magazine (September 24, 2009)
“Firefly Igloo,” Shimmer (Issue 10)
“Setting My Spider Free,” Electric Velocipede (Issue 17/18)
“Pageant Girls,” Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (Issue 42) **

Novelettes (2009)
“The …

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Arts and Crafts

Blue Watch Necklace

I was feeling artsy and or crafty the other day, and decided I would try my hand at making some beaded jewelry. One of the things I tried was something vaguely steampunky — disassembling watches and reassembling them so that the mechanism shows. Sadly, many newer watches (particularly on the lower end of the price range) do not have the lovely metal gears that older watches have; but I think the end result was still pretty interesting.

Shots of some of my other …

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Story at Fantasy Magazine!

My story, “Tending the Mori Birds,” is now online at Fantasy Magazine.

Excerpt:

A Mori bird waited for him on the railing, its claws wrapped around the wood. The dying light accentuated the patch of red feathers at the base of its slender neck, the only color on an otherwise black bird. A bloody-throated Mori bird, harbinger of death.

I wrote this story while attending the Clarion West Writers Workshop back in 2006, and it is the very first story I ever sold. Due to an assortment of unforseen circumstances the story is not …

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Ribbit!

Frog

Spent some time this morning cleaning up after yesterday’s flooding. We found a frog hanging out in our garage puddles. Poor frog didn’t seem too pleased that we were squeegeeing all the water out with an old mop. Eventually (after some gentle prodding with aforementioned mop) we encouraged him to head outside, and find a more natural puddle somewhere.

Now the sandbags are all stacked up in case we need them again later, most of the standing water is out of the garage, and things are …

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Free Fiction!

Issue 17/18 of Electric Velocipede will be available in print soon, but in the meantime John Klima has made a selection of stories from the issue available to read for free online:

* The Bear Dresser’s Secret by Richard Bowes
* Enmity by K. Tempest Bradford
* The Spaces Between Things by Matthew Kressel
* Setting My Spider Free by Caroline M. Yoachim

Here’s a brief excerpt from my story:

Cool air swirled in through the window and carried with it the faint tapping of claws scratching …

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Chili

Chili

I decided this afternoon that I was in the mood for cornbread, and since cornbread on its own is not a very nutritious dinner, I made some chili to go with it. I suspect that according to some definitions, this actually doesn’t qualify as chili (Texans can be very particular about chili — I think around here it’s only supposed to be meat in a spicy sauce, no beans or anything), but it was tasty. Mostly I just threw in anything I had on hand that …

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Happy 4th of July!

Sparklers

With record heat and very little rain, Peter and I will be celebrating the fourth sans sparklers this year. (This picture is from a few years ago, when we still lived in the pleasantly cool and damp state of Washington.)

Instead, we are gathering with a few friends for traditional independence day foods like pizza and cake (because all traditions should include cake), and will spend the evening comfortably air conditioned and playing cards and board games.

Happy 4th!

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Story Online, Website Updates

Issue #20 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies is now online, including my story “The Land of Empty Shells.”

Excerpt:

The rest of the birthing was hard work, but painless. Dziko and Terra sprinkled water over the clay to soften it and kneaded the flesh together until there was no way to separate his riverbed brown from her sunset orange. Then they divided the babyflesh into two equal pieces, soon to be their children.

Read the rest here.

* * *

I finally got around to updating my webpage, which had gotten a bit out …

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