Lou Anders, editor of Sideways in Crime which will come out in June, has just posted an audio ad for the book on his website. He also sent a link so that I can do the same…if I were tech savvy, which I’m not. So the best I can do is link to Lou’s site (which is always interesting anyway) and have you swing over for a listen. Check it out here.

Those of you who aren’t interested in the book might want to go to his site just to see the new trends in book promotion. There are some cool things going on in this brave new world.

I’ve been sitting on this news since February, and now I can finally release it. “Recovering Apollo 8″ has won the Asimov’s Readers Choice Award for Best Novella. The award is voted on by the readers of the magazine. They have a list of all the stories published in the year, and they choose. I’m very pleased to receive the award.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t be at the ceremony, but there’s a great account of it on Nancy Kress’s blog. Nancy, by the way, won the Nebula that night (after the Asimov’s breakfast) for her novella “Fountain of Age.” (Congrats, Nancy!) I’m sure she’ll blog about that shortly as well.

Thanks to everyone who voted! It means a lot to me.

I’m honored to be one of the nominees for the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History (Short Form). “Recovering Apollo 8″ is on this list with some great company.

Congrats to all the nominees!

Here’s the press release.

The judges for the Sidewise Awards for Alternate History are pleased to
announce this year’s nominees. The Sidewise Awards will be presented at
this year’s worldcon, Denvention 3, the week of August 6-10. The awards
were founded in 1995 to recognize the best alternate history of the year.

Best Short Form:

Elizabeth Bear, Les Innocents/Lumiere (in New Amsterdam, Subterranean Press)
Michael Flynn, Quaestiones Super Caelo Et Mundo (in Analog, 7/07)
Matthew Johnson, Public Safety (in Asimov’s, 3/07)
Jess Nevins, An Alternate History of Chinese Science Fiction (in No Fear
of the Future, May 17, 2007)
Chris Roberson, Metal Dragon Year (in Interzone, 12/07)
Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Recovering Apollo 8 (in Asimov’s, 2/07)
John Scalzi, Missives from Possible Futures #1: Alternate History Search
Results (in Subterranean Magazine, Winter 2007)

Best Long Form
Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (HarperCollins)
Robert Conroy, 1945: A Novel (Ballantine Books)
Mary Gentle, Ilario (The Lion’s Eye and The Stone Golem) (Eos)
Jay Lake, Mainspring (Tor Books)
Sophia McDougall, Rome Burning (Orion)
Jo Walton, Ha’penny (Tor Books)

Congratulations to all the nominees

http://www.uchronia.net/sidewise

Every now and then, my mother’s old admonition, “You’re too young!” actually rings true. Even if in this case, it wasn’t so much youth as a lack of education.

When I was in high school, Queen came out with their classic album Night at the Opera. (Yes, I’m that old.) I had it and listened to it incessently, as did most of my friends. We loved the music, but we argued about one song. It was called “‘39″ and it seemed pretty murky to us.

It was well done, but it was filled with mysterious lyrics about a land beyond the stars and weird aging and loss. Some of us thought the song was about time travel. Others thought it was about magic. Yet another group thought it was just one of those mysterious messy lyrics about nothing.

But the song seemed to tell a story, and I always figured that something so unified couldn’t be messy. (Later I learned that assumption was false too.)

Fast forward 30-some years to my most recent birthday. My husband gave me a stereo for my office. It had a CD player that plays MP3s and a tape player and a record player all built into one. I did what I always do when I get a new stereo–I played Queen full blast to see if the system could handle something that complex. It could.

But that wasn’t the revelation. The revelation was “39.” You see, that night, I chose Night at the Opera, and I actually listened to it for the first time since college. And lo and behold, “39″ made sense.

It’s a science fiction song. It’s about relativity. It’s a perfect little examination of the theory. A heartbreaking examination as a matter of fact.

Then I read that the song’s author, Brian May, one of the surviving members of Queen, recently returned to school and got his doctorate in astrophysics. Well, duh. Then I look at my Queen album covers and realize that one, News of the World, has a Kelly Freas cover. And I realize that my favorite band might have been a favorite because of a shared interest–sf/f.

Fascinating stuff. And kinda fun. And way cool to revisit part of my past and learn something new. (Not to mention having an old mystery solved.)

You can download the album here. Or just listen to “39.” And try to imagine a group of 15-year-olds who knew nothing about physics trying to understand this one.

Last month I did an e-mail interview with a French reviewer covering my science fiction and fantasy publications in France. The interview just got posted, along with a review of the Disappeared, which just appeared in France, and a lovely picture of the cover. You can find all the links here. If you just want to read the interview in English, here’s that link.