More Tears

Another interesting place Tear of Ishtar has been:

When in Rome...

Jose in Rome, showing remarkable taste in literature.

Tears in North Africa

No, not the latest report from Lybia. Rod Cadman with Tears of Ishtar.

The Flying Manicurist

New article up at Rogue Blades!

Rejection!

Just received a rejection from a market that has bought quite a few of my stories (maybe six?) over the years. First rejection from them, actually, partly because I have written specifically for them.
So I can't complain, and the notes from the editors were pretty spot on. Except this:
One of the editors compalined that she was put off by the jargon. She thought meth referred to methalated alcohol and she was unclear about crank, and thought that it might be slang for crack.
Now as the story was about a meth addict, you can see that that presented a problem. And I don't think that crank is a terribly obscure term, having lived through the last decade conspicuosly not living under my bed.
So good on her for not having to be exposed to the seamier side of life, but it seems to me to be a liability to be buying crime fiction when you appear to have led such a sheltered life.
So the lesson here is don't send this market harsher stuff anymore.

Tiger kills lion at Turkish zoo.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41967834/ns/travel-news/?GT1=43001

Well, that debate is settled.

New cover!

Dark Worlds is reissuing their magazine that featured my story "The Tomb of the Amazon Queen", and it has a fabulous new cover by Mike Jackson.
More here.

Some older stories

Thought I would post links for some older stories I wrote. Most of these are quite short.

http://www.everydayfiction.com/jimmy-fourfingers-by-michael-ehart/

http://www.everydayfiction.com/matamoros-shuffle-by-michael-ehart/

And my award winning "Without Napier" http://www.everydayfiction.com/without-napier-by-michael-ehart/

All of these are from Everyday Fiction. They send out a piece of short fiction every day.

Tears from around the world!

Another picture of Tears of Ishtar from around the world: John McIntyre in front of the palace in Lieges, Belgium.
This is really fun!

Congratulations Nebula nominees!

And a fine bunch it is!
www.sfwa.org

More Tears of Ishtar in Exotic Places

This time in the lobby of the Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel in Singapore.
The book is available here.
Where have you read it?

Best rejection slip ever?

I certainly haven't gotten one quite so awful as this, though one springs to mind "While we are often paid by the word, it is usually best not to write as though we were."
Got a favorite worst?

Exotic Places

Another photo of Tears of Ishtar in exotic places, this time with Hal Morello in Curacao. If you don't have it yet, you can get it here.
Where have you read it?

Cool photo

Jeff Draper sends this from Africa, where he is hunting pirates with the Marines.

Back from obscurity

I'm back! Work has been impossible the last few months, but no more!

As a peace offering, here is some thing that hits waaay to close to home:

Nerd rage is an impotent, cushion punching thing, and there are rare people who behave in person exactly how they behave in Warcraft -- barking clumsy insults, standing in something that's killing them and blaming Blizzard for everything. You see, for every minor change the developers make to a gameplay mechanic, there's a guy sitting at home who knows they did it to destroy him. BlizzCon is their chance for payback. They ask fussy, nitpicky questions as if they're issuing a mortal challenge. As you can imagine, it's as crowd-pleasing as leaping off your prayer mat and calling Allah a pussy. What's exciting for everybody is that there's a solid chance these people will have to be forcibly dragged from the microphone by security. And when you're arrested for disagreements over Warcraft, that has got to be Christmas for the other inmates.

Now, I don't play WoW, but I certainly recognize the type.
More here:

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/blog/8-questions-every-wow-fan-apparently-needs-answered/#ixzz13lCQuXAH


http://www.cracked.com/blog/8-questions-every-wow-fan-apparently-needs-answered/

It's time for Clarion West once again and the Clarion Write-a-thon!




Help Michael help other writers!


This year Michael Ehart is once again participating the in Clarion West write-a-thon. Every summer during the Workshop, alumni, instructors, and friends of Clarion West participate in our Write-a-thon and help us raise money. Participants collect donations to Clarion West for achieving their personal writing goals during the six weeks of the Write-a-thon. Each year our Write-a-thon has grown more and more successful, both in terms of words written and money raised.

Like last year, Michael will be writing in collaboration with Nisi Shawl, this year on a story of Somali pirates!

If you would like to sponser Michael, please click here: http://clarionwest.org/events/writeathon/MichaelEhart

Any help you can give is greatly appreciated.

A Very Nice Review Of Tears

on SFReader, by Mary Rosenblum: http://forums.sfreader.com/content.php/181-The-Tears-of-Ishtar-by-Michael-Ehart

...Ehart creates such a rich character in Ninshi and makes her tragedy so accessible and so real, setting it in a vivid world that should make an historian happy, that the story moves easily beyond the cliché to become a real story about real love and loss, guilt and redemption that also happens to be a dynamite sword and sorcery fantasy.

Launch Party Today!

The launch party for my new book, The Tears Of Ishtar is today! Presidential Suite, Norwescon, 6-8 PM.

Fun!

Getting ready for the launch party

A booze sampler. Custom labels courtesy Kelly Christianson.

I've Been nominated!

Opened my email and what do I find?

Dear finalists,

I am pleased to announce that a short story you either wrote or published has been chosen as a finalist for The Harper's Pen Award 2009.

The Harper's Pen Award (formerly the Ham-Sized Fist Award) is given in honor of the best Heroic Fantasy or Sword and Sorcery short fiction published during a given year. The award is sponsored by The Sorcerer's Guild. By establishing this award, we hope to encourage authors to continue to explore heroic fantasy and sword and sorcery fiction, as well as to reward those who continue to publish it.

The rules are simple. Any heroic fantasy or sword and sorcery short fiction story published through an established editorial process - that is, not self-published - is eligible. Any subgenre of heroic fantasy or sword and sorcery is eligible, including but not limited to: historical, modern, sword-and-planet, etc. The nominated story must have been published between January 1 and December 31 of the contest year. Final determinination of story eligibility is at the sole discretion of the judge or judges.

The Finalists for 2009 are:
"Slow Stampede" by Sara Genge (Asimov's)
"Where Virtue Lives" by Saladin Ahmed (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
"The Face in the Sea" by John C. Hocking (Black Gate #13)
"Tomb of the Amazon Queen" by Michael Ehart (Dark Worlds 3)
"Bright Wings in the Ebony Hall" by Dale Carothers (Electric Spec)
"The Last of His Kind" by Bill Ward (Heroic Fantasy Quarterly)
"Serpents Beneath the Ice" by Carl Walmsley (Rage of the Behemoth)
"The Dark Blessing" by James Lecky (Silver Blade)
Congratulations to the finalists! I will announce the winner in a week or so.

The winner of the The Harper's Pen Award (2009) will receive:


Publisher - $200 and a handsome certificate of recognition
Author - $200, a handsome certificate, and this handmade pen by Syzygy Pens, engraved in recognition of the award
I have been unable to find contact information for some of the authors, so please pass this news along them. And feel free to share with everyone!

Sincerely,

Jeff Crook

Best of luck to all! I am certainly in good company.