This Thursday: My Reading at the Library of Congress
February 19, 2008 @ 10:29 am
My first science fiction short story has just been published, and if you’re in the Washington, DC area, you can see me read it at the Library of Congress this Thursday. The story is called “Mathralon,” and it’s available as part of The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two, edited by the incomparable George Mann.
“Mathralon” is a somewhat unusual story. I’ve been tinkering with it for a year or two, off and on, and the idea’s been in my head for much longer. But though I was convinced I had a fabulous idea, I couldn’t quite figure out the way I wanted to get it across. The characters of my early drafts were all plasticy, the action was formulaic, and the dialog trite.
So I decided: hey, if the plot, the characters, and the dialog are giving me such fits, why don’t I just take them out?
Sounds like “Mathralon” is something of a one-trick story, but there’s a lot more to it than that. It’s something of an epistemological think-piece, a meditation on the nature of work and why we do it. It’s a spotlight shone on the dark places of an otherwise well-oiled economic machine. It’s a protest against subjugating one’s self to one’s job. And it got a really kick-ass reaction from the crowd at the KGB Bar when I read it there last year.
If you want to hear me read it, come to Dining Room A in the James Madison Building at the Library of Congress this Thursday, February 21 at 12:10 pm. The building’s located at 101 Independence Ave, SE in downtown Washington, DC. The title of the reading is “Capitalists at Warp Speed,” a title that I’m really sorry to say I came up with.
I’m unclear how long the reading’s supposed to go for, but I’m also planning on bringing along the first two chapters of my upcoming novel MultiReal to read as well. And after the reading’s done, there will be autographed copies of The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two and my first novel Infoquake for sale.
For those of you not blessed enough to live in the Washington, DC area, go to Amazon and order the book. Or you can wait a few days until after I post “Mathralon” onto my website, read it, and then go order the book. Either way, you know you’re going to buy it. There are original stories there by Peter Watts, Michael Moorcock, Karl Schroeder, Mary Robinette Kowal, Chris Roberson, Eric Brown, Kay Kenyon, Neal Asher, Paul Di Filippo, and more. It’s cheap. It’s fabulous. How much more convincing do you need?
Those of you in DC, hope to see you at the Library of Congress!
| Filed Under | Book Promotion, Science Fiction |
| Tags | fiction, Library of Congress, Mathralon, readings, Science Fiction, short stories, The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction Volume 2 |
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