I’m happy to report that last week I sold my first novel to Pyr Books, a young adult work titled Fair Coin.

Naturally I owe many thanks to the other members of Altered Fluid, who all did an incredible job with an early, messy draft. Critiquing a novel is practically an art, and it requires a lot of time and effort to do it right. Kris Dikeman even graphed the action in the manuscript to show me where the plot and pacing needed the most work, one of the most sobering experiences of my career so far. I joke about that legendary crit a lot, but it really was helpful–and I look forward to returning the favor one day soon. (Soon, Kris…)

I can’t emphasize enough the value of solid first readers to steer or shove your stories in the right direction, and offer healthy amounts of encouragement and reality as needed. Thanks, guys!

The British Science Fiction Association’s Short Story Club recently discussed my story “Stereogram of the Gray Fort, in the Days of Her Glory,” and, well, they didn’t all hate it.

But this process was made much more bearable by the fact that while it was going on, I got the news that the story had been picked by Rich Horton for inclusion in his The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2011.

Prime Books announced the TOC for the anthology today.  There are several names that mean a lot to me on that list, including Neil Gaiman, whom I had as a Clarion instructor, and I am floored to be sharing a book with them.

Altered Fluid members will be reading or on a panel at the World Fantasy Convention at the following times:

Thursday
8:00 Alaya Dawn Johnson
8:30 Rajan Khanna
9:30 Paul M. Berger

Fri
10:30 am K. Tempest Bradford
11:30 am Matthew Kressel

Sat
11 am Tom Crosshill (Panel)
2:30 Saladin Ahmed
10 pm Mercurio D. Rivera

(Thanks to Saladin for compiling the list.)

We hope to see all of our friends there!

The members of Altered Fluid are donating a critique as part of the KGB Fantastic Fiction raffle. All ten current members of the group will critique a story up to 7000 words from the winning ticket holder, either in person or via Skype. Fantastic Fiction at KGB is a NY-based reading series featuring luminaries and up-and-comers in speculative fiction.

Details about the raffle can be found here. And a full list of prizes can be found here.

Happy Friday! Today marks the launch of my new author website and blog at ecmyers.net, as well as another site I’ve been working on for a while: TheViewscreen.com.

The Viewscreen is the new home of the popular Star Trek Re-Watch. Torie Atkinson and I are starting things off with the first episode of Season 3 of the original series: “Spock’s Brain.” That’s right, we watched it so you don’t have to–but we hope you’ll re-watch it anyway, read our review, and comment on it. Then stick around because we’re working on a “Spock’s Brain”-related treat in the coming weeks (curious, aren’t you?), and we’ll be continuing our re-watch of the final TV voyages of the starship Enterprise. Please spread the word–we’ve put a lot into this site, and we’re really proud of it.

A few reviews and mentions of Sybil’s Garage No. 7 are starting to trickle in from the interwebs. The bold emphasis below is mine.

Hugo-nominated fantasy author N.K. Jemisin, over at the Whatever Blog, says, “It’s been awhile since an anthology had this kind of emotional impact on me…this one is highly recommended.” ; link

Multiple World Fantasy Award winner Richard Bowes says, “Beautifully designed and printed as always, Sybil’s Garage which has been one of the best small press speculative fiction journals, graduates to anthology status….[The] fiction and poetry are getting attention and deserve more.” ; link

Hugo Award-winning editor of Electric Velocipede, John Klima, says Sybil’s Garage is “One of my favorite magazines.” ; link

And blogger and writer Kristin Janz says, “I think #7 is the best issue yet.” ; link

Some of the editors and authors of Sybil’s Garage will be on the radio this Saturday for Jim Freund’s Hour of the Wolf. Guests include editors Matthew Kressel (me!), Paul Berger, Devin Poore and Mercurio D. Rivera. We will be joined by authors Kathryn E. Baker (known in the podcasting world as Kate Baker), Barbara Krasnoff, and E.C. Myers.

The show airs in the New York region from 5 – 7 a.m., Saturday, August 28th, on WBAI 99.5 FM. If you miss the show, or aren’t in the NY region, the show will be available as a podcast immediately after at archive.wbai.org.

Hope you can tune in!

Over at Clarkesworld Magazine, the members of Altered Fluid are interviewed.  We discuss how the group was formed, the critiquing process, the craft of writing, and some, er, interesting events that happened at one of our meetings.  You can read the interview here.

From the Pleased as Punch category: Fantasy Magazine published my story “Stereogram of the Gray Fort, in the Days of Her Glory” this week.  There’s also an interview in which I discuss the inspiration of the story and attempt to describe what makes a successful writing group.

Altered Fluid members N.K. Jemisin, Eugene Myers, and Devin Poore will be reading at the NYRSF reading series this coming Tuesday, June 1st, held at the SOHO Gallery for Digital Art at 6:30pm.  Full information, directions, and bios are available at here.

The 2009 Interzone Readers’ Poll has been announced with a strong showing from Altered Fluid.  My story “Saving Deigo” was voted #5.  Paul Berger’s “Home Again” tied for sixth place, and Alaya Dawn Johnson’s “Far and Deep” tied for tenth.  Jason Sanford came in with the win for his excellent story “Sublimation Angels.”  Interzone is one of the best-looking and has some of the best content of any genre magazine publishing today, and I’m super proud to be on that list with several of my fellow Altered Fluidians.  Congratulations to them!