Godtouched in Hebrew

Bli-Panika wants to reprint "Godtouched".

Yay!

Another step in my world domination plan has been completed.

It's official: Godtouched in Czech

Pevnost will translate and reprint Godtouched, which originally appeared in Strange Horizons. This is a particularly important step in my World Domination Plan since my maternal grandfather is Czech and will now love me for ever.

And you know me, I like to make the grandparents happy. They may be old and look frail, but anyone who'se survived the Korean War or the Spanish Civil War (respectively) while holding down three jobs or blackmarketing (respectively) to survive is guaranteed to keep an ace up their sleeve. And you know what? I'm not sure I wanna see that ace just yet. Besides, grandparents are sweet.

I have three surviving grandparents, which I think speaks well for my genes. My Spanish grandfather died more than ten years ago. During the Franco Dictatorship, he maintained his membership to the outlawed Communist Party and kept the card around his house. That's my definition of cojones, people. And before anyone starts screaming about commies, Spanish commies were the good guys during the dictatorship. Their connection to Russia was nominal at most and they were the only people putting up a decent underground and insurgency (There was also ETA, but we've all seen how they turned out. Anyone claiming that they're anything more than the black hole that attracts the psychopaths that any society seems to produce, regardless of social structure, needs to get their heads checked)

Then there's my Spanish grandmother. She didn't get much schooling, because her dad died when she was young and she started working as a seamstress at age 12. But she reads fast, man and when I mean fast, I mean faster than I did when I was 15. And that was really fast. I guess this comes from working at a kiosk for the last 60 years. You gotta scan the material. We've tried to get her to stop working, but she won't listen. She still spends a couple of hours each day helping my uncle. I guess it gives her something to do, but I wish she'd stay inside during the worst of the winter. She's 83 after all.

Grandparents on the American side. My grandma grew up in a German farm, with people who didn't speak much English. She was discouraged from going into MedSchool by some priest who told her to leave the well-paying jobs for men who had to support their families. She then went on to teach High School and have nine kids. She could have used the well paying job. Needless to say, she's very proud of me being a doctor. She writes poetry and does little craft things with paper and poems which have been showcasted in the Milwaukee art Museum. She ran marathons until recently. You go grandma!

And then there's grandpa Ptacek. Jeremy or Jaroslav in Czech. I can't even remember all the things he's done. He's the guy who had three jobs to put 9 kids through college. And he flew an airforce jet. And he was in the reserve, some. Like the Spanish grandma, he narrowly escaped death more than a few times. In Spain, we call this "being born with a flower on your ass". It means you're born lucky, dunno what the flower has to do with it. Anyway, I sure hope it's a hereditary condition.

Neener from Interzone May Slush

Interzone bounced "Slow Stampede", which was being held from the Interzone May Slush. Oh, well, I got some comments on it that may help future rewrites.

I think "Godtouched" is being reprinted in Czech in Pevnost, but I don't know when. My Grandfather is Czech so obviously, he's very proud of me now.

And the Villa Diodati juice is still running high. I wrote a 3500-ish word story today and am typing it into the computer as of now. It actually has a less-than-depressing ending and a clear plot arc, for a change. Sword and Sorcery with an over 50 female sword-wielder as MC. Interesting voice to write in.

I'm going to juice it up with nice crunchy sensory details and hit some editor on the head with it, hopefully next wednesday when I pass close to a post office.

Ennea

I self-google for a number of reasons, ego kicks being the most obvious, but more often, I self-google just to keep track of the conversations I've commented on in different blogs. I could tag these blogs, of course, but then I'd forget to check them and besides I end up tagging too many things and never get around to going back to any of them. Yes, I'm a dissaster.

Anyway, my weekly self-google turned out this.
which bablefish says contains my name and the word "Ennea" so I'm guessing Godtouched is already out in Greek. I can't read the comment, which the bablefish rendering seems to imply is negative (still, no way to tell for sure with an automatic translation). If anyone speaks Greek and would like to tell me the gist of the post... It's not a big deal, but I like to know what people thought of my stuff.

Godtouched to be translated

It appears that Ennea wants to publish the translation in Greek of Godtouched.

Ennea is published on Wednesdays with the Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia. Ennea has around 200.000 readers and is possibly the Greek Comic and SF mag.

Yes, I'm getting published in Greek. I'm immensely proud. I still don't have details about the issue I'll be in, but I'll post about it as soon as I know.

Anyone speak Greek? I'd love to have someone read the translation and tell me how it correlates to the original.

Hell-- and not a nice cool Norse hell either

Summer finally came to Madrid to kick our collective asses. I think we hit 37ºC. I'm dying.

Jed Hartman of Strange Horizons posts about the annual fund drive and asks people to say something nice about the mag. Well, I'll start by throwing in a few links of stories that are in my top ten list:

The Women of Our Occupation by Kameron Hurley takes gender role reversion to a whole new level.

Dead. Nude. Girls by Lori Selke is a different zombie story.

Fourteen Experiments in Postal Delivery by John Shoffstall delivers just what the title promises and more.

Love Goes Begging by Bennet H. Marks. The language is simply gorgeous.

The Taste of Chicory at High Tide by Lisa Mantchev, which is the only allegory I've read so far which worked... I could go on and on.

For those who don't know it, Strange Horizons keeps archives online since it started publishing weekly 7 years ago. Do the math, that's a lot of free fiction.

I came across the mag a little over a year ago and spent many happy hours browsing the archives. I wasn't into Speculative Fiction at the time and Strange Horizons shaped my concept of Speculative and what I think it should be all about. I sold my first story to them, so they have a special place in my heart.

I hope this 2007 fund drive leaves them drowning in cash. Keep the stories coming!

Critical Ink

Marshall Payne from Tangent has reviewed "Pretty Little Thing"


Sara Genge uses multi-viewpoint first person in "Pretty Little Thing." While Claude is a charming narrator at first, it quickly becomes clear that he is a psychopath stalking Annita, a young black woman who’s been rejuvenated to look like a teenager. The speculative element is provided with a future replete with nanos and thought diaries, the latter figuring into the structure of the narrative. Genge is a new writer and I remember her vivid story, "Godtouched," in Strange Horizons. "Pretty Little Thing" isn’t as strong, but still interesting enough. Genge is definitely a talent to watch.

Nice!

While we're at it, here's what has been said about "Godtouched"
From Tangent, but this time from Ellisabeth A. Allen:

Moving on to "Godtouched" by Sara Genge, we find a vividly depicted postapocalyptic setting and the disturbed (or "godtouched") country girl, Denise. Mostly a sketch of Denise's raw and virulent world, the story boasts a small plot in the form of Denise's choice—city sophistication or rural poverty?—but the atmospheric tale, promising enough for a novel's lead, doesn't need high-octane events to draw you in.

IROSF is harder on "Godtouched". This is Lois Tilton's opinion:

As an ecocatastrophic Cautionary Tale, the vision of the Waste intrigues, but Denise's story is too slight, not sufficiently original to be of as much interest as its setting.

Thanks for the reviews, both good and bad.

"Godtouched" is up at Strange Horizons

My short story "Godtouched" is up at Strange Horizons

It's nice to see the story up there. Let's see how everyone likes it

Strange Horizons

For the last couple of days, I've been working with Karen (one of the editors of SH) to get my story "Godtouched" ready for publication. Going through a story I wrote some nine months ago has been an interesting experience. My writing has changed a lot since then, but I still like that story as much as the day I wrote it.
It was also interesting to have a story professionally edited; I already knew that my grammar and spelling needed work, but I this was a whole new level.
Anyway, I'll post again when the story is out. I really hope you guys like it.