The Gondolier in Slovenian

Although the Slovenian translation of The Gondolier has been accepted by the Prizma SF society for publicaiton in their newsletter, I'm not sure if or when that will happen, so here it is for your enjoyment.

Gondoljer

Črni kljun moje gondole je enakomerno rezal mirno vodo kanala. Sloka ladjica mi je zvesto služila, saj je že vrsto let pod vodečimi rokami generacij mojih prednikov prevažala potnike po vodnih poteh mesta.

Sonce je zahajalo nad starodavnim mestom, da se je voda spremenila v tintast trak, položen med elegantne stavbe iz peščenjaka. Globoko sem vdihaval hladno večerno sapo.

Je mar na vsem svetu kaj lepšega od tega fantastičnega mesta kanalov? Ko se je barka počasi bližala privezu, sem se za trenutek z zadovoljstvom zazrl v temneče nebo Marsa.


Konec

Five New Stories

I've written five new flash length stories in the past month, bulking up my rather depleted selection of stories I currently have under submission. I need to do some editing on them next, and two of them I've decided need more developing, so will probably end up longer than flash length. I have specific markets in mind for two of them too. Not a bad start to the year's writing.

New Immersion Steampunk Review

The new issue of Vector, the Critical Journal of the BSFA, includes a review of The Immersion Book of Steampunk.

In summary it says:

As a whole though, the collection is a stylish and interesting assembly of tales from authors who may normally live in the shadows cast by the zeppelins of more instantly recognisable heralds of the subgenre but here are given a chance to showcase their talents and do so in fine fashion.

The Sound of Kulturkampf

You can now listen to Anatoly Belilovski's Kulturkampf on the Cast of Wonders podcast. It's a great little story and one of the first that I selected for The Immersion Book of Steampunk. This presentation, with accompanying soundtrack, is a marvel of steampunk audio.

The Gondolier in French

I sent this translation to various French magazines, and had an encouraging personal rejection from Canadian magazine Solaris (it was too short for them). In the end I've decided to post it here.

Le Gondolier
Par Gareth D. Jones



L'étrave noire de ma gondole tranchait doucement les eaux calmes des canaux. L'élégante embarcation me servait avec constance depuis des années. Dirigée par les mains de mes devanciers et elle avait conduit des générations de voyageurs à travers les canaux de la cité.

Le soleil se couchait sur la vieille cité. L'eau semblait changée en un ruban d'encre étalé entre les élégants immeubles aux façades de pierre. Je pris une profonde inspiration dans l'air frais du soir.

Existait-il où que ce soit un lieu plus beau que cette merveilleuse cité de canaux? Alors que le balancement du bateau s'atténuait dans son amarrage, je m'arrêtai quelques instants pour admirer les cieux assombris de Mars.


Fin.

Translated by Emilie Harry

Proofread by Aliette De Bodard

Danish Story Sale

My short story World Wire Web, first published in Nature magazine, has been accepted by Danish magazine Proxima. It's scheduled to appear in the spring issue in May. Danish will be the 21st language I've been published in.

I'm hoping to have news soon on three other translations too.

Favourite Stories of 2011

I read much less short fiction in 2011 than in previous years, but enjoyed a huge amount of it. My favourite stories of 2011 were:

Teamwork by Jonathan Pinnock – Murky Depths #16
The Orchid Hunters by Priya Sharma – AltHist #2
The Ceiling is Sky by Suzanne Palmer – Interzone #234
The Bitter End by Simon Kewin & Dominic de Mattos – Jupiter XXXIV
Digital Rights by Jim Hawkins - Interzone #237

First Review of the Year

I've seen a few positive comments and ratings for The Immersion Book of Steampunk in places such as Amazon and Goodreads, but the first full review has now appeared, on the Abyss and Apex website. Altogether it's pretty positive:

I love steampunk, but so rarely find one that will fit my magazine’s needs. So it was a pleasure to shuck off my editorial hat and just dive in and enjoy this collection of “everything steampunk could be.” Most of it went down well.

You can read the full review here.

The Spreadsheet of Ideas

Writing and editing Gap Years has kept me busy for ages. I've also recently done some work editing my novelette for the Ancient New anthology, written a flash fiction story and completed work on a collaboration with Ken Schneyer. I'm currently working on a collaboration with several other authors, but at the moment I have nothing to write until I hear back from them.

So, with time available, I sat down to do some writing and shockingly discovered that for the first time in several years I have nothing ready to write at the moment. My great spreadsheet of ideas lists 4 short stories and 2 novels, but even the short stories are not well-enough developed to start writing yet.

So I'm doing some plotting, working on synopses of the novels, biding my time...

Gap Years Edited

Several months after finishing the first draft, the final edit of Gap Years is complete. It's also now 10,000 words shorter.

Conveniently, during a break only pages from the end, I formulated the broad plot for a sequel. Not sure when I'll start work on that...