Greatshadow update, Best of the Year 2009

My new novel, Greatshadow, has reached the final chapters of the second draft. I'd hoped to be done by now, but the death of my father in November and my best friend in December understandably threw me off kilter. On one hand, it feels creepy to be writing a book that has a dead narrator when the two most important men in my life have passed on. My narrator spends a fair amount of time opining on how being dead sucks, and part of me feels like I'm trivializing death by writing a book where the deceased narrator carries on in a state of pseudo-life, making observations about an afterlife that only exists in a fictional universe, while saying nothing actually very profound about death in the real world. On the other hand, I feel the grieving of my main protagonist (who was in love with the narrator) perhaps a bit more personally, and the flow of actual emotion onto the page only improves fiction.

The main protagonist is a woman known as Infidel. This isn't her birth name, of course. She's earned the nickname because from time to time priests in black robes will attack her without warning, shouting "Infidel" before they attempt to stab her. There is, of course, a story behind that, though you'll have to wait until the book hits print to discover how she earned the name.

Unless, of course, you're one of my wise readers. My readers have been plugging away chapter by chapter, and last week wise reader Jenney Callaghan sent me the perfect gift for this moment in my life, a coffee cup with the word "Infidel" in both english and arabic. I had a very good laugh when I opened the box, and I suspect it will come in handy in helping me load up on the dangerous amounts of caffeine required for me to bring this story in over the finish line.

Speaking of finish lines, long ago I mentioned I had a story in Rich Horton's The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2009 Edition. The book was originally slated for late spring, then October, and not long ago Amazon was showing a publication date of February of next year. But, on December 31, at about 4:30, a UPS man approached me and handed me a box and LO! The book! It exists, and is shipping now from Amazon. The fact that it made it into print in time to be in my hands on the last day of 2009 pleases me. And, this book should please you, if you are a lover of big, fat books full of SF and Fantasy short fiction from the best writers in the field today. Available now, by clicking here.