News about people who are not me. Plus: Neb Noms.
A little late reporting on this, but an interesting thing took place over on the Crooked Timber blog: an online seminar on Jo Walton’s books, specifically the Thessaly series (The Just City, and The Philosopher Kings, with Necessity coming in July).  Pop over there to read interesting writers writing interesting essays about the books (I found Ada Palmer’s contribution particularly illuminating).
And over at Tor.com, you can read some free fiction from pal and fellow Fabulous Genrette Delia Sherman, as she puts a steampunk twist on Holmesiana. Delia is currently rambling around Europe with her wife, author Ellen Kushner, leaving us to gaze at the lovely photos they are posting of Amsterdam, Brussels, and Venice. (I’m going to make it back to Amsterdam one of these days…)
And the Nebula Award nominations just came out!
Novel:
Raising Caine, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu (Saga)
Uprooted, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard, Lawrence M. Schoen (Tor)
Updraft, Fran Wilde (Tor)
Novella:
Wings of Sorrow and Bone, Beth Cato (Harper Voyager Impulse)
“The Bone Swans of Amandale,†C.S.E. Cooney (Bone Swans)
“The New Mother,†Eugene Fischer (Asimov’s 4-5/15)
“The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn,†Usman T. Malik (Tor.com 4/22/15)
Binti, Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)
“Waters of Versailles,†Kelly Robson (Tor.com 6/10/15)
Novelette:
“Rattlesnakes and Men,†Michael Bishop (Asimov’s 2/15)
“And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead,†Brooke Bolander (Lightspeed 2/15)
“Grandmother-nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds,†Rose Lemberg (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 6/11/15)
“The Ladies’ Aquatic Gardening Society,†Henry Lien (Asimov’s 6/15)
“The Deepwater Bride,†Tamsyn Muir (F&SF 7-8/15)
“Our Lady of the Open Road,†Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s 6/15)
Short Story:
“Madeleine,†Amal El-Mohtar (Lightspeed 6/15)
“Cat Pictures Please,†Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld 1/15)
“Damage,†David D. Levine (Tor.com 1/21/15)
“When Your Child Strays From God,†Sam J. Miller (Clarkesworld 7/15)
“Today I Am Paul,†Martin L. Shoemaker (Clarkesworld 8/15)
“Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers,†Alyssa Wong (Nightmare 10/15)
As a card-carrying member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, I get to vote, so I’d better catch up on my reading!
Hm. As soon as I catch up on my writing, that is…
February 24th, 2016 at 7:55 am
Amsterdam is great, but if I may make a suggestion:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-3347234/Forget-Amsterdam-visit-picturesque-streets-sleepy-canals-Utrecht-dodge-cyclists-EVERYWHERE.html
It’s less than half an hour by train from A’dam Central Station 🙂
February 24th, 2016 at 12:35 pm
Thanks for the tip… If I ever get back to Amsterdam, I’ll hit the railroad and check out Utrecht, too.
February 29th, 2016 at 4:32 pm
If you need a guide, you have my mail adress 😉
But to be fair: there are many great Dutch cities close to tourist magnet Amsterdam. Of course, their canals are smaller and fewer, their houses are a few stories lower; there truly is but one Amsterdam, but it is surrounded by more intimate and more quiet siblings: Utrecht, Leiden, Haarlem, Delft, Gouda, one cannot go wrong. This message is brought to you by the Association for the Promotion of the Rest Of the Netherlands (APRON).
February 24th, 2016 at 8:44 am
Huh, Ancillary … one day I’ll have to decide whether I was disappointed with the end of the series or not.