Eugene Fischer

Tag: Sheila Williams

“The New Mother” nominated for a Nebula Award

I got the call a few days ago (they give you a call first in case you want to decline the nomination), but now it’s public knowledge: “The New Mother” has been nominated for best novella, on a list with some of the best fiction I read in the last year, and much more that I’m excited to discover. I’m profoundly grateful to all who nominated me, and to Sheila Williams, who believed in me enough to give me a twenty thousand word chunk of Asimov’s. That’s twenty thousand words of ink and paper, twenty thousand words she therefore didn’t give to someone else with fans and a reputation. It’s still hard to believe my imaginary people merited that. But I found out I was a finalist while I was finishing up a treatment for a television series based on the story, so you may yet get to see more of Tess and Judy.

I’m typing this from my parents’ house in San Antonio, where we’ll soon all go out for a celebratory meal. But this afternoon I’m sitting with a book from their library, one that came out when I was twelve. Two decades ago science fiction seemed a naturally occurring phenomenon, something to be admired from afar like a rainbow or mountain range. Now it’s a close, living thing, full of friends and colleagues. I’ve many goals yet unmet, but today it feels nice to turn around and look back at the path trailing into my childhood, appreciate how far I’ve come.

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Asimov’s Readers’ Awards Finalist

I thrilled to be able to announce today that “The New Mother” is a finalist in the 30th annual Asimov’s Readers’ Awards, a list that includes many wonderful writers, and not a few friends. I notice that the April/May issue was a particularly strong one; in addition to my novella, two other stories from that issue made the list, one more than any other installment. I also get a superficial thrill out of seeing my name next to Greg Egan’s. It’s just a quirk of alphabetization, but it makes me happy.

Asimov’s has also put up .pdf files of most of the finalist, so you can read a lovely, magazine format version of “The New Mother” if that strikes your fancy, and load it on any .pdf friendly device. As ever, continual thanks to Sheila Williams for championing this story, and thanks to all of the Asimov’s readers who voted for it.

“Adrift” Now Online

Asimov's Science Fiction (April-May 2010)Eons ago in 2010 I had my first publication in Asimov’s, a near future SF short story about oceanic technology and global politics titled “Adrift.” I wrote the first draft as part of my Clarion application, and revised it through a haze of pain and drugs during the ten post-Clarion months I was bedridden with Crohn’s disease. I sent it out, got rejected, sent it out again, just going through the motions, the vast majority of my attention consumed by the slow struggle back towards health and the contemporaneous crumble of my long term relationship. September of 2009 found me living alone in an apartment, in a body warped beyond recognition by a long course of prednisone, wondering where the last year had gone. So when I heard from Sheila Williams that she wanted to buy this story for Asimov’s, the good news struck me as a sparkle from very far away. It was like being gifted a fragment from the life I’d thought I’d have, the one where I left Clarion with artistic momentum, wrote more stories, applied to graduate school, began to focus on having a writing career.

Now, half a decade later, I feel I’ve finally arrived at where I thought I’d be in 2009. I’m healthy, I’m writing, I have the momentum of an inspiring fiction program behind me. And in April I’ll have a new story in Asimov’s, my novella “The New Mother.” But being here inspired me to look back at where I was, to reread “Adrift.” To my eyes now–eyes that have been trained by years of graduate workshops and teaching fiction students–it is apparent how the circumstances of its creation influenced the writing. I see, in its mannered sentences, a young man struggling through pain and fear to focus on the version of himself that he hopes, in his best moments, he may still get the chance to be. I see the first examples of some themes and concerns that would recur in my writing through grad school. I see things that make me cringe, and things that make me proud of my own strength. I see the intersection of so many circumstances still echoing in my psyche that, to me, reading this story is like traveling through time. And now, five years after it was originally published, I’m offering it again to you.

Read “Adrift” online here.

Sale: “The New Mother” to Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine

It’s been a while since my last one of these announcements. Part of that is because I decided to take a break from submitting stories while I was in grad school, so I could focus entirely on being a student of writing. But grad school is well behind me now, and I’ve begun tentatively sending out my work again. Just as I was back in 2009, I’ve been fortunate to find an appreciative reader in Asimov’s editor Sheila Williams.

“The New Mother” was the heart of my masters thesis. It’s a novella about reproductive rights and motherhood in an alternate present where the spread of a new infectious condition throws established notions about them into question. I spent more time on  it than on any other piece of fiction I’ve yet written, taking it through revision after revision as I learned new things at Iowa. It’s been in my head and on my hard drive, in one form or another, for three years now. I’m thrilled that people are finally going to get to read it.

Behind the Scenes at Asimov’s on the Sofanauts

People interested in the ongoing discussion about the future of short fiction may be interested in the most recent episode of The Sofanauts.  The Sofanauts is usually a show about current events in the SF field, but this week’s episode is a special with writers Jeff Vandermeer and Jeremy Tolbert and Asimov’s editors Sheila Williams and Brian Bieniowski, discussing the state of Asimov’s in particular and the print markets for short SF in general. Among the interesting things on the program is an explanation for why the seemingly precipitous decline in subscriber numbers over the last couple of decades, commented on by Warren Ellis and others, is a misleading artifact of a changed marketing model.  (I’d actually like even more detail on what the old model was and how it contributed to inflated numbers.)  Also, Sheila informs that subscriber numbers have risen 10% in the last year, lead by electronic subscriptions through the Kindle. Jeff and Jeremy take Brian and Sheila to task for the state of Asimov’s internet presence, and Sheila reveals some behind-the-scenes information about the contraints that come with being part of a larger organization.  A very interesting 90 minutes for people following the “are the magazines doomed or aren’t they?” debate.