Amazon is listing The Perfect Man as not yet released, which isn’t true. While we’re trying to get them to update their site, you can order the book from the publisher directly. Here’s the link.

Enjoy!

The discussion has started, thanks to SF Signals short interviews on the state of short fiction. Jenn, the owner of indigocafe.com, has an interesting point, not just about science fiction, but about mainstream literature as well. Check it out here.

I just got a beautiful copy of the German edition of my Retrieval Artist novel, Buried Deep. The Bob Eggleton cover is stunning. The publisher is Lubbe. I’ll add links when I have more time, but I thought I would share.

It’s been an interesting week for me. I spent most evenings watching “Black Magic,” a documentary on the history of black players in basketball. The documentary is 4 hours long and worth every minute. I watched in segments because I didn’t have 4 hours in a row.

I’ve been studying history all my life, with a focus on African-American (and Women’s) studies. Yet this is a story I did not know. Everyone knows how baseball became integrated. No one discusses how basketball became integrated (or football, for that matter). I learned a lot, and enjoyed it all.

It juxtaposed with an essay by Jerald Walker that I read the same week in the Best American Essays 2007. Walker wrote (and I’m paraphrasing here) that too often people expect black history and literature to be about victims, when actually it’s about heroes–about the survivors. That’s what’s always drawn me–the story of survival against tremendous odds. The essay, called “Dragon Slayers,” stuck with me throughout the viewing of “Black Magic.” “Black Magic” is also about heroes and persisting against tremendous odds.

Rent it, watch it, enjoy.

John DeNardo recently asked me to participate in the Mind Meld section of sfsignal.com. The question was about the state of short fiction in the sf genre. He asked several others as well, and he posted the answers here.

It’s an interesting discussion, and I suspect it’ll inspire me to write an essay. But my initial response is amusement: the younger writers wrote pieces I would have written 15 years ago. (And similar responses to the ones writers wrote thirty years ago.) Yes, the digests are hurting–and you should subscribe! Think of all the fiction you can get for the price of a hardcover. Go here for Asimov’s, here for Analog, and here for F&SF.

But other short fiction venues are growing. New sf anthologies, some wonderful online sites (see the earlier Tidbits note for a link to Baen’s Universe)–we’re truly in a golden age. Yes, very few people can make a living write short fiction. (It depends on your definition of living too. I made a good five-figure income last year in short fiction, but I actively market–and to more than one genre.)

So read the responses and see who you agree with.