Bruce Chrumka asks ...

When can we look forward to your next fine book, Mr. Duncan?

Bruce, my wife, Sydney, was watching over my shoulder as I typed this, and she said: "That's a good question. I'd like to know the answer to that question myself, because then I'd know when the next CHECK is coming in." She says CHECK the way Jon Lovitz, on the Subway commercials, says FRESH.

By the time the next ICFA rolls around, in March 2007, I hope to have a few new stories written -- enough to round out a second collection -- and to have a novel mostly knocked in the head, as well. I've joined a writers' group, and writers' groups are notorious for expecting actual writing from their participants. I'm also working on a collaboration with a Very Well Known and Cool Fiction Writer, and collaborators are notorious for expecting actual writing from their collaborators.

In the meantime, I'm thrilled to have a new story coming up in Wizards, an original young-adult fantasy anthology from Penguin Putnam, edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann. The others in the table of contents are Kage Baker, Peter S. Beagle, Terry Bisson, Eoin Colfer, Terry Dowling, Jeffrey Ford, Neil Gaiman, Elizabeth Hand, Nancy Kress, Tanith Lee, Patricia A. McKillip, Garth Nix, Mary Rosenblum, Tad Williams, Gene Wolfe and Jane Yolen. My story is titled "A Diorama of the Infernal Regions; or, The Devil's Ninth Question."