Highly Irregular

It's easy -- and fun! -- to make fun of Google's automatic translations, but given the theme and content of "Irregular Verbs" I couldn't resist posting the translation of a review of it, originally written in Czech (for the Czech version in Trochu Divne Kusy 3):

"The last representative javorového sheet is Matthew Johnson with povídkou Irregular verbs. Smrt milovaného protějšku je těžké břemeno. Death beloved counterpart, it is difficult burden. Existuje způsob, jak si na něj uchovat stálou vzpomínku, aniž by nedrásala duši, ale působila potěchu z vlastního, společného jazyka? Is there a way to keep him on a permanent memory, without nedrásala soul, but she potěchu own, a common language? Pěkný, originální námět, který autor rozpracoval do přiměřeně dlouhého počtu stran – o to více zapůsobí. Nice, the original idea, which the author developed into an adequate number of parties - the more reasons. "

I think the reviewer liked it, but I'm not sure... any Czech-fluent readers out there who want to clue me in?

Matthew

They love me in France

... well, Russia, actually: my story "Another Country" will be translated and reprinted in the magazine Esli ("If"), which I'm told is Russia's oldest science fiction and fantasy magazine. "Another Country" also received a nice review in Spiral Galaxy, which called it "a good story, with an unexpectedly ambiguous ending."

Matthew

Sidewise and pound foolish

Muy cool news: my story "Public Safety" has just been nominated for a Sidewise Award, which is given each year for the best alternate history stories and novels. A quick glance at the other nominees (listed below) tells me that I won't win, but that's okay: this is the first story of mine to be nominated for any kind of award, despite a few hints and some loud throat-clearing, so I'm pretty happy with that.

Finalists for 2007 Best Short-Form Alternate History

Elizabeth Bear. "Les Innocents/Lumiere"
In New Amsterdam, Subterranean Press

Michael Flynn. "Quaestiones Super Caelo Et Mundo"
In Analog, July

Matthew Johnson. "Public Safety"
In Asimov's, March

Jess Nevins. "An Alternate History of Chinese Science Fiction"
Posted on No Fear of the Future, May 17

Chris Roberson. "Metal Dragon Year"
In Interzone #213 (December)

Kristine Kathryn Rusch. "Recovering Apollo 8"
In Asimov's, February

John Scalzi. "Missives from Possible Futures #1: Alternate History Search Results"
In Subterranean Magazine, Winter

Finalists for 2007 Best Long-Form Alternate History

Michael Chabon. The Yiddish Policemen's Union
HarperCollins and HarperCollins UK

Robert Conroy. 1945: A Novel
Ballantine

Mary Gentle. Ilario
In two volumes as Ilario: The Lion's Eye and Ilario: The Stone Golem, HarperCollins/Eos
(Originally published in one volume as Ilario: The Lion's Eye by Gollancz UK, 2006)

Jay Lake. Mainspring
Tor

Sophia McDougall. Rome Burning
Orion UK

Jo Walton. Ha'penny
Tor

Everything old is new again

Two new stories begin their second lives this week. First, "Outside Chance" is up at Afterburn SF; this was a story that got some positive notices when it was first published in On Spec, so I'm glad to see it in front of more eyeballs. Second, I just got the proofs for the fourth issue of A Thousand Faces, which reprints "Heroic Measures." It also includes an introduction where editor Frank Byrns says much kinder things about me than I deserve.

So are my best days behind me? Well, probably... but I did just make my first sale of 2008: "Upon The Waters" sold to Triangulation: Taking Flight, after a round of edits that made it a much stronger story. (Sometimes a hands-on editor is a very good thing.) Last year's Triangulation anthology had a lot of great stories, so I'm looking forward to seeing this one.

Matthew

Childhood's End

At 35 I can no longer say that Arthur C. Clarke is my favourite writer, but it's hard to think of another who had more of an influence on me. As well as the incredible eye- and mind-opening qualities of his stories (how many people predicted communications satellites AND pay-per-view porn... in the same story?), he was the first writer whose style I was ever aware of -- not just style in terms of putting words and sentences together, but in terms of putting a story together. He was also the first writer whose work I consciously critiqued, which is why I rarely read his work after my teens... but like so many other people, I will miss him.

Of all the tributes to him floating around, I think the most touching is a collection of them at Global Voices. What's unique about these is that they all originate from Sri Lanka, where Clarke spent most of his life (and, of course, the future home of the geostationary space elevator.)

Matthew

Another Country is here

The April-May issue of Asimov's, which contains my story "Another Country," is now on the shelves. Here's a preview:

Geoff squinted at the figures emerging from the fissure, his period recognition chart at the ready. Not that he needed it, in this case: he was able to fix the new arrivals as soon as he saw their tunics and trousers -- late-Empire Romanized Goths, probably fleeing Attila's invasion of lands their own ancestors had invaded a few generations before.
"Te salutem do, amici," he said slowly, holding his hands up and palm-outward. The light was fading now, and the four prefugees were looking around apprehensively. The reception room, built around the fissure that had first opened right downtown fifteen years before, had been designed to minimize culture shock, with no modern technology or materials visible.
The fissures had consistency but no logic: prefugees from the Mongol invasions wound up in Seattle, Aztecs in Paris, Romans in Ottawa, and so on. The only thing that was known for sure was that they always brought people from places and times that were much worse than now, periods of tremendous chaos and danger; as a result, the people that came through were wary, and some of the first encounters had not ended well.

Campbell soup

Someone thinks I should get a Campbell award, or at least be nominated. (I think this is my last year of eligibility, by the way. I'm just sayin'.)

Matthew