Lawrence M. Schoen

Welcome to crazy week. If you have any sense, you’ll steer clear of malls and post offices for the next several days. The internet is your friend this week, and I’m pleased to say that I finished all of my shopping over the weekend and most of it online (though I did have to stand in line Saturday morning to mail one parcel, but I survived to tell the tale).

To ease your weary brow through these trying times of mainstream celebration (both religious and commercial) and visiting relatives (both missed and avoided), I present this week’s EATING AUTHORS guest, A. M. Dellmonica, author, photographer, yoga enthusiast, and a survivor of the glories of Clarion West. And did I mention she’s Canadian?

Alyx has written a slew of short stories, including work that resulted in nominations for the Sidewise and Nebula awards. And she’s the author of four novels which can be grouped into two sets. Indigo Springs (which earned her a Sunburst award) and Blue Magic comprise her Astrid Lethewood series, and Child of a Hidden Sea and A Daughter of No Nation (the latter released just three weeks ago) represent the first two books of her Hidden Sea trilogy. Click the links if you’re in need of a last-minute holiday gift!

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The upcoming massive Blog Tour for Barsk has taken over much of my life of late, as I respond to Q&A, requests for topical essays, and my thoughts on various aspects of the writing process. Most of these don’t go public for another week or more, but one that has burst on the scene is a piece for the Powell’s newsletter that I think came out rather well and is worth directing you to.

In the midst of all this chaos, it’s been both refreshing and gratifying to prepare this week’s EATING AUTHOR post for Eric James Stone. I’ve known Eric for a very long time, since the earliest days of the online writing community known as Codex. I had the privilege of watching him craft stories for the group’s various contests, and I knew early on I was in the presence of a unique and powerful voice. Which is why I put on my small press publisher hat and in the midst of a worldcon some years back I pitched the idea of producing a collection of his short fiction. The book, Rejiggering the Thingamajig and Other Stories, came out the same weekend that Eric won the Nebula Award for Best Novelette, and seeing Eric climb the podium to accept his prize was one of the happiest moments I’ve had at an awards banquet.

Eric’s been busy having other happy moments. He and his wife just welcomed their first child into the world (I won’t be surprised if some time goes by before either of them manage to surface long enough to see this post on the internet). Almost anti-climactic by comparison — but a significant professional milestone — comes up in just over three weeks, as on January 5th, Eric makes the jump from short story writer to novelist with the release of Unforgettable. A fitting title for a book that’s going to firmly establish his presence on the SF map.

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One of the best things about attending a new convention is the likelihood of experiencing new people, and during the handful of days I spent at Chessiecon after Thanksgiving, I did just that. Among them was this week’s EATING AUTHORS guest, Cathy Hird, whom I met during the mass signing. Naturally, I invited her here.

Like so many authors who have shared their meals here, Cathy wears a lot of hats. In addition to her work as both a novelist and writer of short stories, she’s a weaver, minister, and a sheep farmer. I’ll spare you the obvious puns about weaving words as well as wool, or tending to both types of flocks. You can thank me later. For now, let’s move on to her most memorable meal.

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November is winding down and time is speeding up. If you’re reading this on the day it posted, then I’ve just returned from a convention, the Thanksgiving holiday is just a few days off, and another convention lies just the other side of it. Despite the convention bookends, I’ll be spending this week in serious reflection of all the things I have to be thankful for this year.

Not least among them (he said in his best segueing voice) has been knowing this week’s EATING AUTHORS guest, Michael Livingston. Back in May of 2006, there was some serious discussion among members of Codex — an online community of authors — who had just returned from that year’s Nebula Awards Weekend. That conversation inspired my decision to edit a reprint anthology featuring some of the best work by Codex members and I announced my intention to the community with a call for submissions. Soon after, Mike contacted me, letting me know he’d been thinking along similar lines and I’d beaten him to the punch. My response was to offer to share the project with him, and he went on to become my co-editor for Prime Codex, as well as another project when that first book turned into my small press, Paper Golem.

Mike and I share other a few other similarities, both of us working as authors and editors and academicians, but we quickly diverge paths. He’s won the celebrated Writers of the Future contest, is an active outdoorsman, appears to have a disturbing amount of automotive knowledge (at least relative to me), and has a talent for making history live and breathe that I cannot adequately describe with a paltry word like “envy,” but there you have it.

I’m delighted to tell you that his first novel, The Shards of Heaven, comes out tomorrow from Tor Books, but even more that it’s but the first book of a trilogy. Because, as well all know, history repeats itself (sorry, I tried to edit that last bit out, and failed).

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We’re midway through November, and things are picking up here at home. By which I mean the early reviews have begun trickling in, and I seem to be spending more and more time writing guest blog posts that will be springing out at an unwary reading public through the many avenues of social media in about a month’s time. This is all part of the build-up to the release of Barsk, and so getting to write about someone else and their books is a wonderful distraction.

Stepping into the role of much needed distraction is this week’s EATING AUTHORS guest, Sara Stamey. By day she appears to be a mild-mannered instructor on the faculty of Western Washington University, but a quick glance at her extra-curricular activities (including such obvious research excuses as teaching scuba diving in the Caribbean, backpacking around New Zealand, and owning a farm in Southern Chile) marks her as a writer. As does the Chanticleer Paranormal Suspense Award she received for Islands and the Cygnus Award she won for The Ariadne Connection.

All of that travel may also explain why Sara offers some of her writing courses at WWU online and to the general public (here’s a link). It’s always a good thing when you don’t have to choose between adventures in distant lands or pursuing your craft.

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