Here Are The Things

Here are the completed things that I mentioned I was working on in the last post:

Beware the Donated Mango episode 1 - Carl's Wurst: http://bewarethehairymango.com/donated-episode-1-carls-wurst/

Fiction Crawler 16: http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2016/02/10/starshipsofa-no-422-brian-k-lowe-and-professor-christopher-riley-talks-about-apollo-14-astronaut-edgar-mitchell/

That Fiction Crawler was one I enjoyed doing, which is unusual for me. They often feel like a chore. But I chose stories the styles of which made me want to swim around in them. Enjoy!

Still working on many more Mangoes!

Outta Site

I took a little break from Beware the Hairy Mango for about a week and a half to get a couple of other things done. One is my new home site  http://www.matthewsanbornsmith.com/ which ties together everything else I do online, including this site and the Mango. Go take a look if you want easy access to the other stuff I do.

I resumed work on the first episode of Beware the Donated Mango, the shows I owe to folks who donated seventy five dollars or more to the Mango fundraiser last spring.

Once that first show is done, I'll be producing the next Fiction Crawler spot for StarShipSofa.

Then lots more Mangoes. I really need more time off from my jobs.

Fiction Crawler 15

I did my first Fiction Crawler in ten months on last week's StarShipSofa. Go listen and then stick around for some great fiction by Rachel Swirsky and Suzanne Palmer! The Palmer story is narrated by the lush-voiced Ibba Armancas. If you haven't heard before, you're in for a treat.

http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2014/07/16/starshipsofa-no-346-suzanne-palmer-and-rachel-swirsky/

Here are the stories I'm covering (links are on the Sofa's site):

Feature Development for Social Networking by Benjamin Rosenbaum

Tornado’s Siren by Brooke Bolander

The Oregon Trail Diary of Willa Porter by Andy Marino

A Debt Repaid by Marina J. Lostetter

Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler

The Curandero and the Swede by Daniel Abraham.

Updated Works

I updated the list of my stuff that you can read and listen to. You can see that here, over at http://bewarethehairymango.com/about-2/. I added links to three or four stories, updated a couple of other links and sadly removed quite a few other links to sites that are no longer in working order. Some of those stories were ones I actually removed from this blog when they were published at another side. I'll have to add them back when I get the time and remember. Perhaps I can post the others here as well. I should have another Fiction Crawler to add to the list in a few days.

Young Love on the Run from the Federal Alien Administration New Mexico Division (1984)

I'm in the middle of scheduling a new Mango post, but I have to drop that and everything else for the moment, because I just discovered that friend of mine and The One-Thousand, Grant Stone, has a new story up at Strange Horizons! Whoo! If you don't know science fiction, let me just say that Strange Horizons is, in my opinion, the best online text science fiction magazine there is. Of all my Fiction Crawler recommendations, I've chosen more stories from Strange Horizons than any other source. That's an awesome win for him.

Go read it and be entertained! http://www.strangehorizons.com/2011/20110509/younglove-f.shtml

Stories

I've got a new and tiny, one story Fiction Crawler on this week's StarShipSofa, in which I try to convince any of you who are eligible to nominate stories for the Hugos, to read Blood, Blood by Abbey Mei Otis, in my opinion, the best story of 2010. Listen here, about 49:00 in and click the links to the story at the bottom of that post, or below: http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2011/03/16/starshipsofa-no-180-nebula-nominated-christopher-kastensmidt/

Blood, Blood Part 1: http://www.strangehorizons.com/2010/20101115/blood-f.shtml
Blood, Blood Part 2: http://www.strangehorizons.com/2010/20101122/blood-f.shtml

Please read this excellent story and consider nominating it. There's only a little over a week left!

In other news, I'll have a piece of brand new flash fiction appearing at Chizine for their big-ass site re-launch in April! I'll remind you and link to it, when the time comes.

It Just Ain't Happenin'

As late as one month ago, I thought I could still pull off my goal of 52 stories in 2010 and a flurry of activity ensued. Then life straightened my ass out again. I won't bore you with a litany of excuses, I'm just letting you know it ain't happenin'. If I can't do that, I have no idea how I'll make my ultimate goal after which this blog is named. However, I'm not fretting at the moment. I'm still moving in that direction and If I end up being like one of those marathon runners who limp over the finish line fourteen hours after everyone else has left, I'll be okay with that.

That being said, this has still been the most successful year ever for my writing career, so you're not going to hear too much bitching from me. I haven't really gone into my health, but about a month and a half ago I found out I was zooming down that slope into all those middle-age fat diseases and decided I wasn't going to have any of it. I've dropped twenty-five pounds since then. Everybody was telling me how great I looked yesterday. Once I drop the remaining twenty-five, they'll only be talking to each other: "Jesus, Matt looks sickly!" Normal looks sickly to Americans..

Gord Zajac, the swell guy who edited my story Fluff and Buttons on the Teddy Bear Range for Chizine was nudging me about a novel the other day and I told him, "Not now," and then pulled out an incomplete novel and started digging into it. Don't anybody get your hopes up.

I'm reading some Raymond Carver right now as I have a couple of stories in suspension that could really benefit from his influence.

If you need some Fiction Crawler in your life, head over to this week's StarShipSofa. I apologize for talking so damn fast in it. I didn't realize it until I listened to it in comparison with everyone else. You also get a story by Pat Cadigan, the First Lady of Cyberpunk!

Aural Delights No 159 Pat Cadigan & Jason Sanford

Coming Up This Week

Announcements: Larry Santoro on StaShipSofa Stories Vol 2

Fact: Fiction Crawler by Matthew Sanborn Smith:

Main Fiction: Life on Earth by Pat Cadigan

Fact: Looking Back at Science Fiction by Amy H Sturgis

Serial: Sublimation Angels Pt 2 by Jason Sanford

Fact: Everything by Morgan Saletta

Promo: Schlock Magazine

Narrators: Cheryl Martin, Josh Roseman

Fiction Crawler Links:

In Pacmandu by Lavie Tidhar

Michelangelo’s Chisel by Christopher Miller

The Strega Cristobel and the Old Rattler Ken by Larry Santoro

Daughter Earth by James Morrow Pt 1

Daughter Earth by James Morrow Pt 2

Elegy for a Young Elk by Hannu Rajaniemi

Yellow Card man by Paolo Bacigalupi

Thanks And The Sofa

Hey, you guys, It's time once again to nominate your favorite contributors to StarShipSofa's wonderful Aural Delights show for The Sofanaut Awards. These are nominations so you can pick as many favorites as you like. I'm eligible in three categories. Just sayin'.

Best Main Fiction: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Diplomat
Best Flash/Short Fiction: A Hard Rain and Brothers and Sisters All
Best Fact Article Contributor: Fiction Crawler, Movie Talk Special - Watchmen

Thanks a bunch for listening! You can vote here:

http://sofanauts2010.questionpro.com/

Next, I want to wish all you Americans and ex-pats out there a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow and you know, I've had a shit year (debt, divorce and death, among other plagues), but I still have a lot to be thankful for. Family and friends like you guys, chief among them. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Lastly, I have totally sucked at plugging the Sofa lately, so let's remedy that right now:

Aural Delights No 110 Cory Doctorow

Editorial: by StarShipSofa Stories by Sean Keough

Fact Article: The Sofanaut Awards by Mark Bormann

Fact Article: With A Little Help by Cory Doctorow

Main Fiction: To Go Boldly by Cory Doctorow

Fact: Film Talk by Rod Barnett

New Titles by Tony C Smith

Narrators: JJ Campanella, Paul Caggige

Art Cover by Skeet

The Sofanauts Awards 2010 VOTE NOW!

Ugh!

I'm sorry I've been neglecting you again, faithful blog. The last two weeks have been tough. I have been getting some writing done though. Some quick points:

Dad's home at my brother's house. We're all going to be taking turns helping him through the day.

I finished a first draft of a story today. The working title is "Thank You, Mr. Goldman."

I haven't even begun to read stories for the next Fiction Crawler and it really should have been completed by now. Gads!

Got two hours of sleep last night, thanks to Monday morning and my crappy dog. Grrr.

I saw the documentary "Dreams with Sharp Teeth" the other night. Wonderful. I love Harlan Ellison. More details on that (the movie, not my love) another time.

That's it. Hope to talk to you all tomorrow!

600!

No, not story 600, but blogpost 600.

Here's the link to my nanoism story: http://nanoism.net/stories/25/

I wanted to link to my story in Blood Blade and Thruster, but there's still some kinks to work out. See, I had some aliens communicating with each other telepathically and to distiguish telepathic thought from other stuff in the story, I put these greater than, less than brackets < > around the words. Here's the problem: html also uses those, and when you try to print a story with those brackets, nothing inside of the brackets shows up, because the stoopidheads at the Internet Board think those are secret instructions not to be shared with the public at large. And so, in my story right now at Blood Blade and Thruster, you get passages such as this:

Zek thought to his two companions.

thought Vron.

Krogar asked.

Which may lead whomever is reading it today to think, "What the fuck? This is some surreal shit!"

I sent an e-mail, alerting the staff to this and even sent another version of the story using square brackets [ ], so hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow and I can post the link here.

Here's a link I can safely post. Fiction Crawler 7 is up at StarShipSofa. Check it out:

http://www.starshipsofa.com/20090603/aural-delights-no-87-adam-troy-castro/

And on Friday we'll be recording the latest episode of Sofanauts. You can watch us, while we're recording, at the new LIVE page: http://www.starshipsofa.com/live/ at 11:30 AM Eastern Standard Time on June 5th. Check it out. It'll be unedited, so maybe someone will say a swear word!

Writers! Time's almost up for the nanoism nanofiction contest. Check it out:

http://nanoism.net/meta/nanoism-nanofiction-contest/

And John Joseph Adams is looking for stories to fill his anthology:

http://www.johnjosephadams.com/?p=1760

Good luck to all of you! That's it for now. Sleepy time is heading my way.

Maybes And Might Bes

I'm finishing up a flash fiction story called A Body is for Driving though I may change the title. I'm also still fooling around with chapters eleven and twelve of TIWOTAM. And I want ice cream.

Not much else is going on. I'll be on The Sofanauts in about a week and a half. I may be on Aural Delights next week with Fiction Crawler 7.

Also, I'm working on getting all my posts tagged here because there is a small but ferocious group of people following me who are only interested in the flash fiction I used to post here. So when I get that done, I'll let everyone know, then they can just search for the flash fiction tag and all of that will come up. I think I have over two hundred pieces of flash tucked away here. Golly!

Happy

Gaa! Already blew the once a day thing! If only I'd posted an hour and a half ago.

The big news is I'm happy! That doesn't usually happen, but I'm not usually this productive. In the last few days I finished a new story called Gray Holes (though it doesn't earn its number till I send it out), wrote a story for my boss to make her boss happy (and I had a blast writing it), got started on helping the daughter with her eighth grade graduation speech, and wrote, recorded and sent out Fiction Crawler 7.

Creation makes me feel good.

Hope I keep it up.

Sofa So Good

Guh.

Feel crappy right now. My one hour walk with the dog was cut to a half-hour due to rain. We got soaked. Now I'm blowing my nose a lot. I don't think I caught a cold or anything, we got back from the walk just twenty-five minutes ago, but the nose-blowing sucks.

Listen up for the first episode of The Sofanauts tomorrow. I'm on the show along with Tony, Jeremiah Tolbert and Damien Walters, yapping about the week in science fiction news. I'll post a link when the show pops up. It felt a bit more like work than I'd expected. maybe that's because I'm not used to working without a script. And Tony asked me about hitting that magical One-Thousand mark at fifty and I basically talked about how slow I've been and how it was a reasonable goal, which doesn't make sense at all. I neglected to mention that I'm picking up speed. But you make screw-ups. That's the fun of what's basically a single take. Anyway, I hope you guys like the show. Tony's already saying that he'd like me back sometime in the future so that's good. Hopefully I'll relax a bit more in the future.

I haven't mentioned stories 100 and 101 so let me do that here and now: Unhappy Day and The Boat are the newest members of the family.

Give a listen the latest Aural Delights on StarShipSofa. At the tail end you'll hear Fiction Crawler No. 6, a special on flash fiction online as suggested by obstinate non-follower Church.

Aural Delights No 80 James Lovegrove

Editorial: Sofanauts by Tony C Smith

Poetry: Epochs In Exile by Mike Allen & Charles Saplack

Fact: Science News by Jim Campanella

Main Fiction: Wings by James Lovegrove

Fact: Fiction Crawler by Matthew Sanborn Smith

Narrators: Nicola Seaton-Clark Kate Baker

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at audiblepodcast.com/sofa

Links to Fiction Crawler:

Colonists by Barry Napier
Homecoming by Jessica Melusine
Prairie Star by Cat Rambo
They Called Her Larry by Steve Duffy
Thaumatrope
Outshine
Nanoism
Six Word Stories

Quickly! Before Sleep Takes Me!

I don't know when, but Fusion Fragment will be publishing my cyberpunk story, "For the Love of Ceelie," sometime in the future.

I finally, FINALLY, finished Fiction Crawler 6 and shot it off to Tony today. Thanks to Church for his input.

Didn't read any of The Terror today, exercised though, and looked into Dual Enrollment for the boy. That's where he takes college classes while still in high school. The classes are free and he gets college credits for them.

I've been forgetting to post StarShipSofa stuff here. Luckily, I think almost everyone who reads this blog is familiar with the Sofa. Hours from now, Tony will be posting all seven Nebula nominees for best short story 2009. I'll link to them tomorrow.

Gotta go. Morpheus awaits.

Blah

You can read The Creepy Little Mailbox Man here:
http://everydayweirdness.com/e/20090322/

The Brain Trust at Fox always shows the Treehouse of Terror episodes on the Sunday after Halloween, so I guess it should be no surprise that they did an episode in Ireland today. What was surprising was the writing on this episode. There were a lot of very un-Simpson-like gags. There was still a lot of funny stuff, but I felt uncomfortable with some of the total misses. I hope it doesn't continue.

What the hell did I do today? Nothing, I think. I did catch up on a lot of missed sleep. Over the past week I had about four nights with only two or three hours of sleep. I slept a lot today and would have slept more if it weren't for my few tiny obligations.

I'm reading flash fiction for the next Fiction Crawler as per Church's suggestion. In some cases I may talk about individual stories, in others just the flash sites themselves.

I just saw what's supposed to be the final episode of Flight of the Conchords. I'll miss the show. I wonder what they'll work on next?

Next thing I'm working on has a working title of The Italian Federation. I conceived of the idea for John Joseph Adams' Federations anthology, but I hadn't even cobbled together a decent first draft by the time the deadline hit. This is the one I said I drove off a cliff a month or two back. I've got parts of a not very good story at the moment. If I can tie some of the elements together and add something really weird that I'm still trying to work out, I think it could be a great story. Yesterday I sat and stared at the points I had to bring together and I wasn't getting anywhere. That's when I realized I had to write another draft. Even though I have no idea how it's going to come together, that's the best way forward. Things come to you during the moment when you're writing. The fun, smarter part of your brain throws stuff in there and things get better. When Tolkien got stuck during the writing of The Lord of the Rings, he would start writing the book from the beginning again. That's part of the reason it took twenty years and part of the reason it's such a well-realized work. So I'm going to rewrite and see what happens.

If you're stuck, you should as well.

Writing Stuff

My new Thaumatrope story showed up yesterday. You can read it here. I should have another one up later today. I'll post the link next time around. Today's and yesterday's are both St. Patrick's Day stories.

I'm currently working on a rewrite of my Process Five story, Three Kingdoms. I'm saving the last version in case I fuck up the rewrite. I don't usually save previous versions when I do rewrites, but I will if I'm not sure the rewrite will improve the story. I've used the word rewrite five times in this paragraph.

I am ridiculously behind on Fiction Crawler 6. The only good story I've read so far is going to be on the Sofa as a Nebula nominee, so I don't want to use it. That means I've got no (0) stories to recommend so far. That will make for a mighty brief Fiction Crawler. I know Tony's going to be asking for it at any moment and he'll want it immediately. Gads!

An Embarrassment Of Sofa Riches!

Four (4) Episodes of StarShipSofa this week! Even better: Me x 2 on episode 68! You lucky bastards! Exclamation points all around!

First off StarShipSofa is proud to be showcasing three of the nominees for the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Short Story:

Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment: One Daughter's Personal Account by M. Rickert
Permalink: http://www.starshipsofa.com/podcast/StarShipSofa_BSFA_Nominee_Mary_Rickert.mp3

Little Lost Robot by Paul McAuley
Permalink: http://www.starshipsofa.com/podcast/StarShipSofa_BSFA_Nominee_Paul_McAuley.mp3

Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Permalink: http://www.starshipsofa.com/podcast/StarShipSofa_BSFA_Nominee_Ted_Chiang.mp3


Next, the regular weekly show, with a piece of flash fiction from me as well as Fiction Crawler 5. And may I say here that Paul W. Campbell does a great job narrating my story. Thank you, Paul. Eight characters and a dialogue only story, but you pulled it off!


Aural Delights No 68 Kim Newman/Benjamin Rosenbaum

Editorial: Kindle the Savior of Book Publishing by Tony C Smith

Poetry: Angle Bites by Tim Pratt

Flash Fiction: Brothers and Sisters All by Matthew Sanborn Smith

Fact: Sofa Art Cover by Skeet

Fiction: The House Beyond Your Sky by Benjamin Rosenbaum

Fact: Movie Talk by Rob Barnett

Main Fiction Serial: The Serial Murders Kim Newman Part 1 of 4

Fact: Fiction Crawler No 5 Matthew Sanborn Smith

Narrators: Kate Baker, Gareth Stack, Paul W Campbell, JJ Campanella

www.starshipsofa.com

Links to the stories featured on Fiction Crawler No 5:

At the Bottom of the Garden by Jo Walton

Non-Disclosure Agreement by Scott Westerfeld

The Support Technician Tango by Daniel Abraham

Big Man: a Fable by Joe R. Lansdale

The Shangri-La Affair By Lavie Tidhar

Things by Ursula K. Le Guin

F&SF And The Sofa

I won the Fantasy and Science Fiction Competition for the second time in a row! Go buy a copy of their April/May issue if you'd like to read the winning entry. And subscribe if you can. If we don't support the mags we love, they'll go away and then we'll be sad. Let's be happy instead.

I added links to the blog for the Fiction Crawlers. You can find them over on the left sidebar under the heading "Read (or listen to) My Stuff," formerly known as "Read My Stories."

And speaking of the Sofa, let's jump on and make the springs go *twangy!*

The StarShipSofa is proud to present Aural Delights No. 64. Blast off!

Aural Delights No 64 Ted Kosmatka

Editorial: The Good and the Bad by Tony C Smith

Poetry: Her Opals by Samantha Henderson

Flash Fiction: Where Credit Is Due by Edward M Lerner

Fact: Science News by JJ Campanella

Main Fiction: The Art of Alchemy by Ted Kosmatka

Fact: Kim Stanley Robinson by English Assassin

Narrators: David Lamb, Annette Bowman, Dale Manley

Unpacking My Adjectives For Blossom

Hi gang!

I finished Fiction Crawler 5 a couple of hours ago and shipped it off to Tony. I must now sit and hope that he doesn't run any stories that I mention before he runs my bit. Living a quieter life (a little less radio, a little less iPod) was the right thing to do. Already, ideas are bubbling up out of my head. It wreaks havoc with my scalp, but we must suffer for our art.

Blossom Dearie has passed away. My generation mostly knows her for her Schoolhouse Rock songs Figure Eight and Unpack Your Adjectives. I shall unpack a few adjectives for her right now. Distinctive. Delightful. Girlish. Playful. Warm.

She wished me love. She told me so:

Fiction Crawler 4 On The Sofa

Aural Delights No 60 Gene Wolfe

Editorial: Tony C Smith

Poem: On Any Given Midnight by Ann K Schwader , Blog

Beardie Book Review: Sean Keogh

Fact: Fiction Crawler 4 by Matthew Sanborn Smith

Main Fiction: The Vampire Kiss by Gene Wolfe

Narrators: Diane Severson, Larry Santoro

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at audiblepodcast.com/sofa

Links to Fiction Crawler stories:

Lostronaut by Jonathan Lethem
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2008/11/17/081117fi_fiction_lethem?currentPage=all

The Algorithm by Tim Akers
http://transmissionsfrombeyond.com/2008/08/transmission1/

The Gospel According to Mark by Jorge Luis Borges
http://downloads.newyorker.com/mp3/fiction/071015_fiction_theroux.mp3

The Gambler by Paolo Bacigalupi
http://pyrsamples.blogspot.com/2008/11/fast-forward-2-paolo-bacigalupis.html

Six from Downtown by Dean Francis Alfar
http://philippinespeculativefiction.com/alfar.html

Linkworlds by Will McIntosh
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2008/20080317/linkworlds-f.shtml