Eugene Fischer

Update on My Social Media Presence (Absence)

I mentioned back in August that I was drastically reducing my social media usage. Three months later I’m still largely disengaged from these systems. Here’s the current rundown of where I can and can’t be found.

  • Facebook: ❌ I’m disenchanted with the site politically on a few different axes, and enjoy having back the amount of my time it used to consume, so I’m still mostly off Facebook and don’t plan on going back any time soon. I do still log in for some purposes, such as interacting with event pages or getting a specific message I’ve been clued to expect. But aside from that, if it’s only on Facebook, I probably haven’t seen it. Right now my profile exists as a repository for my social graph and receptacle for automated notifications about updates to my website.
  • Twitter: ❌ Speaking of sites with which I am politically disenchanted, hey, Twitter exists too. I still log in to this one a bit more often than Facebook, though for (a) engaging with people about recent publications, or (b) talking about NBA basketball. Mostly the basketball bit. So unless it related to something I’ve recently published or the San Antonio Spurs, you can assume that I didn’t see what happened on Twitter either. Automated tweets about updates to this website are still active.
  • Instagram: ✅ I’m aware that they’re owned by Facebook, for whom I have profound ideological skepticism, but pictures of my friends’ pets are too crucial to abandon. This is where I’m currently most active.
  • LinkedIn: ✅ I like that LinkedIn has a monetization model that isn’t exclusively selling my attention to advertisers/propaganda agencies, so when I got off Facebook I set up a LinkedIn account. I have no real idea what I want to do with this, if anything, but if we know each other I’ll be happy to connect with you on there. It’d be nice for my social graph to exist in more than one place.
  • Tumblr: ❌ I mirror this site to Tumblr, but never look at it. If you like Tumblr though, you can follow this content there.
  • Snapchat: 🤷 My significant other uses this a lot, so I’ve started actually opening it sporadically. I have almost no connections, and I don’t really know what to do with it, especially now that Instagram has ripped off all of its functionality. But I have an account here I look at sometimes.

How to contact me if our social media presences do not overlap: send me a text or an email. If you don’t already have my contact information, you can reach me via email through my contact page.

Nueva Madre now available from Editorial Cerbero

It’s out! You can now buy a copy of Nueva Madre of your very own to enjoy en español, translated by the inimitable Arrate Hidalgo. It’s listed as a novela corta, or “short novel,” which I suppose makes me a short novelist. Seems accurate.

I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these beauties. The publisher describes the work thusly:

Partenogénesis Humana Contagiosa. Síndrome del Gameto Diploide. Lleva, al menos, cinco años sucediendo, sea cual sea el nombre que se le dé. Mujeres en edad fértil que corren el riesgo de quedar embarazadas de manera espontánea cada vez que ovulan. Mujeres que tienen hijas que, técnicamente, son clones de sí mismas. Algunos lo llaman epidemia, otros milagro, y hay quien se lleva las manos a la cabeza arguyendo que significará la extinción de los hombres. Tess Mendoza, periodista independiente, lleva mucho tiempo siguiendo la noticia, entrevistando a todos los que parecen tener algo que decir al respecto. ¿Es una enfermedad? ¿Es lícito considerar seres humanos a estas mujeres y a sus hijas? ¿Existe algún riesgo para su propio embarazo, fruto de un donante anónimo?

Which I think translates to something like:

Contagious Human Parthenogenesis. Diploid Gamete Syndrome. Whatever you call it, it’s been happening for at least five years.Women of childbearing age who run the risk of becoming pregnant spontaneously each time they ovulate. Women who have daughters who, technically, are clones of themselves. Some call it an epidemic, others a miracle, and some people put their hands to their heads, arguing that it means the extinction of men. Tess Mendoza, an independent journalist, has been following the story for a long time, interviewing all those who seem to have something to say about it. It is a disease? Is it permissible to consider these women and their daughters as human beings? Is there any risk to her own pregnancy, the result of an anonymous donor?

Purchase it from Editorial Cerbero here.

Cover reveal for Nueva Madre

Here’s what the Spanish edition of “The New Mother” is going to look like. It’s the work of Cecilia García, and I adore it. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen an image of Tess, and she looks so much like she did in my head. I love the press badge, and the little picture of identical GDS siblings on her phone, and her wavy hair, and I especially love the uncertain look on her face. The bustle and blur of the city rising behind her is perfect, suggestive of the complex interplay of social forces Tess tries to navigate as she moves through the story. And that bright, full moon dominating the human skyline and framing the main character is symbolic of the themes in ways I’m sure don’t require elaboration. I’m also very pleased to see not just my name on there, but also Arrate Hidalgo’s, without whom Nueva Madre would not exist.

This beautiful thing will be available from Editorial Cerbero in November.

Spanish edition of “The New Mother” forthcoming from Cerbero Press

The contracts are signed and tweeted, so now it can be revealed that the Spanish press Cerbero will be publishing Nueva Madre, the Spanish edition of “The New Mother.” It will be available in November, in paperback and as an e-book. More details on that soon.

This never would have happened without the phenomenal Arrate Hidalgo, who translated the story and championed its publication. In addition to working as a professional translator and as an associate editor for Aqueduct Press, Arrate writes journalism about the Spanish SF scene, such as this article published just yesterday on women’s voices in ciencia ficción, “La Invasión de las Mujeres Invisibles.”

 

States of Decay by Ben Mauk

While growing up in Texas meant that fanciful notions of 19th century cowboys acculturated into my head too young for me to recall any sources, I do remember my introduction to the 20th century Atomic West. It was from Tom Lehrer’s 1953 tune, “The Wild West Is Where I Want to Be,” unmistakably satirical even to a child’s ears, wherein he sings: Along the trail you’ll find me lopin’ / Where the spaces are wide open / In the land of the old A.E.C. (yee-ha!) / Where the scenery’s attractive / And the air is radioactive / Oh, the wild west is where I wanna be. I had to ask my father to explain the acronym for the Atomic Energy Commission.

From prospectors to the Manhattan Project to artifacts of Cold War industry, the American West has existed in my mind as a kind of mottled antique, retro-futuristic in those places where it isn’t simply retro. So it was with great interest that I read Ben Mauk’s new longform piece in Harper’s, “States of Decay: A Journey through America’s nuclear heartland.” Ben has visited the wellsprings of the Atomic Age, explored disused mines, talked to the people still inhabiting its ghost towns and superfund sites. It’s a fascinating read, full of resentment, nostalgia, and unhealthy doses of radiation.

Back outside, Lucas held his Geiger counter up to his face. This was apparently a favorite pastime of rad heads, but even Lucas seemed startled by the figure: around fifty times background, the result of the radon progeny that had caught on condensation in his beard. “Wow,” he mused, taking a selfie with the counter against his mouth.

“You might want to think about shaving,” Jennifer said.

“States of Decay” by Ben Mauk at Harper’s Magazine.

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

Have you preordered this book yet? It’s the debut collection by one of the best writers of short fiction alive, and it comes out on October 3rd. Inside you’ll find stories playful and dark, sexy and heartbreaking, so structurally inventive they’re like nothing else you’ve seen. Also, it happens that it was just among the ten books longlisted for the National Book Award. If you like fiction but aren’t reading Carmen Machado’s then you are making bad life choices.

"Okay," said Ceasar. "I'll get along with you, Ezekial." And you could hear his gentle, generous nature in his voice. You could hear it, actually, even when he said, "Ima fuck you up!" Gentleness sometimes expresses itself with the violence of pain or fear and so looks like aggression. Sometimes cruelty has a very charming smile. –Mary Gaitskill, "Lost Cat: A Memoir"

Social Media Presence — August 2017

After flirting with the idea for a while, I’ve finally deleted the Facebook and Twitter apps from my mobile devices and logged out of the sites on my computer. I’m not deactivating my accounts or anything; I might return to them at some point. But I’d grown unhappy with how much of my time and attention social media was consuming. While I regret that I’m undoubtedly going to miss some event invitations and meaningful news from distant friends, I’m already feeling happier and more productive after just a couple of weeks. Some auto-posting systems, like blog posts getting shared to Twitter, remain in place, but the only social media service I’m still actively using is Instagram. So, for the time being, if you want to get in touch with me the best ways are by email or text. If you don’t have those and are trying to establish contact, please use the contact page on this site.

Release Day for The New Voices of Fantasy

It’s here! It’s here and it’s gorgeous!

Today is the release date for Tachyon’s anthology The New Voices of Fantasy, edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman, with fiction from some of the most exciting authors around. It has been getting a glowing reception, including starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist. That mildly thumb-obscured picture above is of my contributor’s copy; this anthology is the only place to read my latest publication, “My Time Among the Bridge Blowers.”

If getting this book for free sounds cool to you, then you should know that, to celebrate the release, Tachyon is partnering with Goodreads to hold another giveaway. It’s running through Aug. 29, and you can enter here. If you think you might want to buy a copy, but would like to know a little more about it first, Tachyon has been aggregating reviews on their Tumblr page. They all seem to agree that the book fully achieved its goal of capturing the vibrant and diverse work that newer writers are contributing to the field, “authors who are ready to expand the definition of what fantasy can be, and what fantasy will be,” as Jacob Weisman writes in his introduction. Beyond the individual stories–all published since 2010, all stellar–this anthology serves to document an exciting time in the literature of the fantastic. As of today, you can hold that excitement in your hand.

Buy The New Voices of Fantasy from Tachyon Publications.

Win a Copy of The New Voices of Fantasy

This anthology will be coming out soon, but for the next week you have the opportunity to win a signed copy. Tachyon Publications is having a Goodreads giveaway of the book that you can enter here, which runs through May 22. If you want to know more about the book, just look at the contents at Tachyon’s site. Every one of those stories that I’ve read is a knockout, and the ones I haven’t read are climbing my to-do list just by virtue of their inclusion.

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