I was recently asked by Mishell Baker of the Clarion Foundation (who has a great story in BCS #47) to guest blog about my magazine Beneath Ceaseless Skies. They’ve had agents, like Matt Bialer and Russ Galen, do guest posts about the state of things in their part of the field. Mishell suggested that I talk abut why I started BCS in the particular niche of “literary adventure fantasy.”

I’ve talked about that in some other places before. It’s always hard for me to put it into words, since anything about fiction is so subjective. I really enjoyed thinking about it still more and refining my explanation, and this guest post I think is the best I’ve ever gotten it.

So if you’d like more insight into how I view literary adventure fantasy and BCS in general, check out my guest post and add your two cents to the discussion.

Got back from ReaderCon yesterday. It was awesome.

I saw and drank with lots of people I knew (Tom Crosshill, Maggie Ronald, Anne Cross, Mike Allen, Jay and Erin, my eternal partner in barley Mike DeLuca, and many others), met and drank with lots of new people I now know (Matt Kressel, Corry and Mary, Rajan, Amy, Mishell Baker, and many, many others), and had great interesting conversations with all of them.

Photographic evidence of the former, courtesy of Matt Kressel:

The BCS reading had eight authors, including one right off the airplane! :) And the room was packed with readers and fans. Thanks to everyone who read and everyone who came to listen.

And especially to everyone who came up to me in the Dealer’s Room or at parties and said they really like the magazine. That is always awesome to hear, each and every time, and I’m delighted you’re enjoying our fiction.

I’m delighted to report that another story of mine has sold to the good folks at Space and Time Magazine. They published my story “Ebb” last year, and now they’ve bought “The Very Strange Weird of Endart Sscowth.”

This story is an homage to Clark Ashton Smith, a great writer of the 20s and 30s pulp fantasy era, who is often lost in the shadow of his colleague Robert E. Howard and his pen-pal H.P. Lovecraft. It’s also very different from all my published stories to date–quite short, under 2000 words, and not quite so serious; actually rather droll, if I may say so myself.

The title includes an archaic usage of the word “weird,” as he once used it–an old Scottish one that means fate or destiny. Hence the adjective “strange” that I inserted before it, to show that this weird is a noun and not our more common adjective interpretation of that word. A strange weird, indeed. :)

Space and Time tells me that “The Very Strange Weird of Endart Sscowth” should see publication in late 2010 or early 2011. I hope you will find it droll as well. ;)

Wow–over a month since I’ve posted. Basically, I’ve been swamped–writing new stories for the annual Odyssey alumni workshop in July, reading submissions and working on audio fiction podcasts for Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and starting to clean out my childhood house (it’s like Schliemann’s thirteen levels of Troy in there).

The big news at BCS is the release of our new anthology, The Best of BCS, Year One. It has fourteen of the coolest stories from our first year, including ones by Richard Parks, Yoon Ha Lee, Aliette de Bodard, and Holly Phillips. It’s an ebook anthology (the future of publishing!), and it’s available for just $2.99 in the Amazon Kindle Store and at many other ebook vendors. All the details are here.

The coming months may be just as busy–more podcasts for BCS, a bunch of crit reading for the summer Odyssey alum workshop, planning my con trips for the rest of the year, and more down-home archeology (old AD&D modules and 1/72nd scale Luftwaffe night fighers…). I should have good news on the short story front soon, and hopefully BCS and the new anthology will keep gaining notice. The future beckons.