Roses Story in Nature (Nature Futures)

My hard science fiction piece "War of the Roses" is in the current issue of Nature (Volume 467 (7316), 7 October 2010). At least, that's what their website says and I'm going to believe them.

It looks like the story is available online at the moment, but I don't know how long that'll last as they're not primarily an online market: War of the Roses

Back when I was studying for my ecology degree, Nature was one of those places trainee scientists wanted to get published in. Perhaps a paper about some amazing research into the sort of things ecologists research*. I probably wouldn't have believed time-travelling future me if I said I'd get a piece of fiction published there.

At least fiction doesn't need citations**.

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* Usually stuff like measuring lichens and wading out into swamps to take insect samples. Ecologists are the hardy branch of biologists.

** Blake, Polenth, A Bunch of Random Stuff about Roses, Polenth's Brain, 2010

Writing Diary: NaNoWriMo 2010

It's the time of year when my sparkly flower book is eaten by a monster. NaNoWriMo is almost here. This year, I've actually filled out my profile properly (including admitting that I've failed dismally every year).

This year I've planned to fail. Rather than aiming for a 50K novel, I'm aiming for a 30-40K middle grade novel. It'll be something light for me to do inbetween urban fantasy writing.

From my NaNoWriMo profile (and feel free to buddy me... prod if I don't notice the buddying, as the notification system can be a bit odd):

Lila has everything a tarantula could want - a safe tank, all the crickets she can eat and the company of her clan. When the spider keeper dies, the food supply dries up and the tarantulas escape into the house. Lila may not be the oldest, but she has some ideas about how to survive, if only she can get her clan to listen.

I can't say I know if there's a market for talking spider books, but I think spiders are cool. These are big hairy stripey spiders! You can't get better than that.

Anyone else going for it this year?

Steampunk in Bards and Sages Quarterly

I have a piece of flash fiction out in Bards and Sages Quarterly (October 2010). 'Clockwork Fly' has a steampunk vibe, which probably isn't a surprise from the name.

It's not a free-to-read publication, but if you're a subscriber (or want to check it out), here are the details:

Main Website - The e-versions are probably best price-wise for most people (Kindle or PDF), though it is also available as a physical book.

In random tangent notes, one of the other authors in this issue is a Blake. You'd think this'd come up more often, as Blake is a pretty common surname, but it seems there aren't very many writing fantasy and science fiction. Either that are they're all using pen names.