you know how people say that tulsa is the paris of oklahoma?

[intertribal]

"Intertropical Convergence Zone" was nominated for a Shirley Jackson award in the short story category.  This baby remains one of my favorites and I'm going to be keeping both the narrator and the General around for future reference.  Obviously it's amazing and wonderful to get this kind of recognition.  I mean, fuck, a Stephen King novel is nominated for an award in the novel category, you know?  Also, I think that "psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic" is a pretty accurate description of my so-called genre.  I'm getting more and more comfortable saying that horror's my favorite genre to read, write, and watch (because let's just be honest, it is).

"Everything Dies, Baby" was accepted by Strange Horizons.  I am so happy because this story is so close to me.  It's named for one of my favorite Bruce Springsteen songs ("Atlantic City") and is based on "Behind Closed Doors," an episode of Air Crash Investigation.  Basically, I combined the Windsor Incident (American Airlines Flight 96) with the much worse crash of Turkish Airlines Flight 981.  "Behind Closed Doors" is one of my favorite ACI episodes, by the way, because it's a great story of corporate negligence and accountability.  "Atlantic City"'s chorus is one I instinctively, immediately related to/understood as pertaining to not only grief but spirituality: "Everything dies, baby, that's a fact/ and maybe everything that dies someday comes back."

Here's a freaky thing I learned about Turkish Airlines Flight 981 from the wikipedia page - one of the people who died on board was Wayne A. Wilcox, cultural attache to the American Embassy in London.  Why is that freaky?  Because I used his essay, "The Influence of Small States in a Changing World," in my thesis as an example of a realist who has his head screwed on straight and who actually acknowledges the power of small states.  Uh, anyway.

I wish I had more time to devote to writing - but school, and life, have put a real damper on that lately.

Comments

[pgtremblay.livejournal.com]

Congrats on both the nomination and the acceptance!

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much!

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

whoah, more good news! congrats again. when's "Everything Dies, Baby" come out? (i can use "when's" as a contraction of "when does" if i want to, dammit. because that is how i TALK.) and again, the nomination is damn cool.

Also, i have never heard that song and am thus totally missing the reference.

that is actually kinda weird about wilcox.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

thanks! I'm very pleased. it comes out in "late August," but "that might change," so I'll let you know.

you're missing out on a great song, so I'm going to show you it. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEkyaoPdar8)

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

cool.

ahaha. i just realized it's atlantic city, NJ. josie is from atlantic, iowa.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

there's only one atlantic city...