Tomorrow I turn 42, and right now I feel every year of it, although that might just be the Gulf oil crisis aging me. Every day, I can feel that torrent in my head, and if I have one birthday wish it’s just that I want them to stop it as soon as possible.

Truly, though, I’m a battle-scarred squid at the moment, worn down by too many deadlines but with the promise of a respite soon to come. I’m also officially transitioned from young turk to old fart. Ages of writers are relative to the amount of time they’ve spent in the trenches. I’ve been in this business one way or another for about 25 years, and it’s long past time to make the transformation.

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(A reprint of a classic–from Savoy, and the genius of book designer John Coulthart.)

Subterranean is offering the limited edition of my novel Shriek, the second in the Ambergris cycle before City and after Finch, below the publisher price. This edition features a soundtrack by The Church and a cover by Ben Templesmith, design by John Coulthart. Signed and numbered.

In other news, there’ve been quite a few interesting posts out in the blogosphere the last week or so. If you haven’t caught some of these, check them out.

Karen Lord has her first novel out from Small Press Press, and has done some impressive guestblogging at Powell’s, including a post on authenticity:

I’m neither a literary critic nor an anthropologist, so I can’t tell you what culture is authentically represented by my novel. Redemption in Indigo is authentically me. It is where my ancestors came from (might be three continents there), where I am now, where I’ve been, who I’ve made friends with, and what I’ve read. Accept no substitutes.

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Many people are predicting massive changes to publishing as we know it, and making the case for e-readers, e-books, and a future in which the physical book is only a part of how we view reading sustained, long texts. Here are a few things you should know about the future of publishing, including the fact that small presses may be on the forefront of the wave…

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(Neo and his favorite blankie: photo as stress relief.)

The thing they don’t tell beginning writers? The ghosts of books future come back to haunt you in horrible fashion—they just keep returning prior to publication. You write it or edit it, and that seems like a monumental task…but then the stages of pre-production leer out of the mist at you with precise if jagged teeth.

If you have a lot of books out in a particular period, and you’re working on creating more, this becomes particularly cruel. So while working on Weird and the Steampunk Bible, in come copy-edits on The Third Bear. Or, as now, Monstrous Creatures and Steampunk Reloaded return in spectre-like fashion just as final chapters and rewrites on Steampunk Bible must be done, along with intro, story notes, and whatnot on the Weird. O the horror. I’m not exactly complaining—having lots of books in the pipeline means you’re getting lots of opportunities—but anyone who thinks their involvement with the book is done once they turn it in will be corrected in their thinking by rude visitations…

Last month, I talked about fiction anthologies from my perspective as a reader, as well as soliciting information from others about how they view anthologies.

Now I’d like to further bore you into submission by talking about anthologies from a writer’s point of view. Or, more accurately, from this writer’s point of view. I’m not going to claim to speak for anyone else, or to be proposing anything with regard to anyone else. Also, I am speaking about approaches and kinds of choices that may only be possible because I’m a mid-career novelist with a following (a rag-tag, rebel-led following, but a following nonetheless).

One caveat: most anthology editors are great to deal with, but for purposes of talking about this subject, I may emphasize the negative…

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Before the intertubes, I much preferred anthology publication to magazine publication. For one thing, anthos tended to get more review coverage, and especially before I had books out this meant I was more likely to garner some shout-outs that could be valuable career-wise. It meant I was less likely to be potentially be considered for awards, because Asimov’s, F&SF, etc., tended to dominate the categories. But since being up for those awards was never a career goal (nice, but not a goal), this never bothered me (the value you put on them may be greater, of course).

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(Two more good review of the collection, at the Sacramento Book Review and at Empty Your Heart of Its Mortal Dream.)

It looks like this cold isn’t going to allow me any rest anyway, and I’ve been dipping into my just-published story collection The Third Bear the last few hours, so I might as well talk a little bit about story beginnings, using the book as an example.

Please note that I’m not claiming anything special about my beginnings–readers decide what’s successful or not–but am just telling you about the decision-making process. The first draft may be driven by passion and the subconscious, but it’s also driven by a writer’s prior experience–part of what seems to get on the page by accident is due to years of practice and trial-and-error. Then, in revising the material, you accentuate certain effects, de-emphasize others, and perhaps even start all over again or impose radical revisions. My comments below include elements of “decision-making” throughout this layered process.

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The LA Times has published my review of a history of steampower by William Rosen. They asked me to integrate some aspects of Steampunk perspective on it, so I did. Not sure if it’s a chemical or physical reaction, but go check it out.

A young Steampunk’s dream, William Rosen’s “The Most Powerful Idea in the World” manages to make sense of the many threads that together tell the story of the origins and applications of steam power. The book has a crackling energy to it, often as riveting as it is educational. Rosen, in pursuit of evidence, makes interesting, even exciting, such subjects as patent law from the Roman Tiberius on, technological innovation in ancient China and the role of practice in separating out accomplished performers from the “merely good.” If Rosen at times seems too hell-bent on single-minded pursuit of his enthusiasms, at least that’s better than a dull book.

In other news, SF Site published a review of Finch that makes no sense to me. Maybe my head is just too cotton-candy-and-nails from this damned cold, but just a couple of points. (1) Somebody pretty clearly skimmed parts of the book to come up with this sentence: “The problem is that by the time the book lets us in on the hows and whys, they have become largely academic.” Um, not true. Like, not true in any objective way. And, um, the inclusion of same is a powerful counter-example anyway to the thin characterization claim, which I’m not going to bother with anyway. I can’t get any closer in on a character’s thoughts, inside of their head, than in Finch, so phhhpt. And (2) I’m going to have to do a blog post on the idea of “constraint” when it comes to characterization, because the problem isn’t that John Finch is too constrained–and, indeed, despite his constraints, he *does* plenty of things–but that characters in most fantasy novels are *not constrained enough*. Plot devices and authorial intervention tend to smooth the path. Thus endeth the rant. I’m going back to bed. Heh. Maybe I’m the third bear. Yes, I’m sure that’s it. Good night all.

I will be teaching at Shared Worlds, Wofford College, this week. That will no doubt include a reading with Kathe Koja, among others.

Ann and I will be reading at Mysterious Galaxy in the evening. More information when I have it. This may be the first time Ann and I have read together!