I make a year's-best list -- twice!

Both my 2009 stories -- my PS Publishing novelette The Night Cache and my Dragon Book novelette "The Dragaman's Bride" -- are on the 2009 Recommended Reading List at the group blog Not If You Were the Last Short Story on Earth. Also making the list are stories by Peter S. Beagle, Ted Chiang, Karen Joy Fowler, Nancy Kress, Margo Lanagan, Kelly Link ... too many to name, but great company, certainly.

Rich Horton, meanwhile, reports that "The Dragaman's Bride" is one of "the three stories that I most wished to include and couldn't fit" into The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2010.

Thanks, all!

An early review of The Night Cache

Jonathan Strahan writes:

I love it. ... Duncan has taken a ghost story about geocaching and codebreaking and made it his own just by telling it in his own unique voice. ... Suffice to say that it's perfect for a cold Winter's night. It's certainly a story that will stay with me for a good long while.

Read the whole review here, at the fine group blog Not If You Were the Last Short Story on Earth. Thanks, Jonathan!

The Night Cache is on sale

My new supernatural novelette, The Night Cache, is now available for online order at the PS Publishing site, in both signed and unsigned hardcover editions. Here's a taste of Ben Baldwin's fine cover art. A larger version is here, at Baldwin's site.I'm delighted to appear in a catalog alongside Ray Bradbury, Basil Copper, Joe Hill, Stephen King, Zoran Zivkovic, my friends Scott Edelman and Paul Di Filippo, etc.

Ellen Datlow's photos from the KGB reading

At this link are co-host Ellen Datlow's photos from the Dec. 16 reading at the KGB Bar in Greenwich Village. Christopher Rowe and I had a great turnout, a great audience and a great time. Thanks to everyone for the support.

Talking up Launch Pad

The NASA-funded Launch Pad astronomy workshop for writers and other creative folks was the topic of a recent episode of Stacey Cochran's Book Chatter podcast. It included a gaggle of call-in guests who attended the 2009 workshop, including Tara Fredette, Brian Malow, Phil Plait and Gord Sellar. Launch Pad founder Mike Brotherton called in, too. You can listen to the episode here.

Decoding Dan Brown's cover

Armchair codebreakers will enjoy Greg Taylor's analysis of the cover of Dan Brown's novel The Lost Symbol, even if they haven't read the book.

(Thanks to Stephen Wagner of About.com: Paranormal Phenomena for the tip.)

The Pomeranian that fell from the sky

A Pomeranian named Sadie survived a 2-mile flight over Davenport, Iowa, in the talons of a great horned owl, reports Bill Wundram in the Quad-City Times.

(In this otherwise well-written column, the reference in the first sentence to "incredulous tales" made me wince. The tales are incredible; the tales' audiences are incredulous.

(Thanks to Stephen Wagner of About.com: Paranormal Phenomena for the tip.)

Cats that stare at "nothing"

In his Dec. 16 column, Gary Bogue, who writes about pets and wildlife for the Bay Area's Contra Costa Times, seeks to calm pet owners whose cats seemingly stare at "nothing":

Once I caught my dear departed Abyssinian cat, Tut, staring at "nothing" in a corner. I examined the area carefully and found a spider crawling on the wall. Another time he stared at an empty spot on the wall as if something was there. There was. Looking closer, I saw a fly on the wall at that spot.

Predatory cats are stimulated by movement. Tut may not actually have seen the fly or the spider, but his eye/brain picked up a minuscule movement that caused him to stare at the spot waiting to see if more movement/data would allow him to focus on something.

Bogue's good sense is refreshing, compared to the credulity of some pet experts.

(Thanks to Stephen Wagner of About.com: Paranormal Phenomena for the tip.)

I'm reading tonight at the KGB Bar

Any of y'all in New York City tonight are welcome to join us at the KGB Bar, where the readers are Christopher Rowe and I. We'll have fun. Here's the link.

"The Dragaman's Bride" is news

The Appalachian Independent has published this article about my new story "The Dragaman's Bride," which reporter Jenna Tenaglio calls "wonderfully crafted." Thanks, Jenna!

Let's all scare the tourists

The Haunted Arkansas site set up by the state Department of Parks & Tourism is a fine example of the Chamber of Commerce types nationwide embracing once-shunned local legends of ghosts and monsters -- because people like me will pay good money to see those places, even if no ghosts or monsters actually turn up.

One term for this growth industry, "ectotourism," has been around for years, judging from this 1997 article in San Francisco's Examiner, but I don't much like the word. It looks like a typo for "ecotourism." We can do better.

That not every Chamber of Commerce is thrilled with this stuff is evident in a snarky comment on the "Official Site of the Villisca Axe Murders" -- which happend in Villisca, Iowa, in 1912, as you connoisseurs of unsolved axe murders doubtless recall. Click on "The Town," and you find that the owners of the "Murder House," who are flogging it for all it's worth, have encountered some local resistance:

Ten years ago, visitors inquiring about the axe murders were met with cold stares and turned heads. Today, however, these same residents seem to be on the verge of accepting the one thing that they cannot change. If Villisca is to recover and continue to grow, they must accept and eventually embrace their history.

The Villisca Historical Society has been a [sic] somewhat of a "ghost" in Villisca for some time now. Although the Society officially existed, its accomplishments were few and any interest displayed by outsiders rebuffed. The recent announcement that the Society has finally received it's [sic] 501(c)3 designation is a spark of hope for those of us who are sincerely interested in seeing the history of the town documented and preserved rather than swept under a rug.

Maybe Villisca should launch an axe-murder festival, as in David Prill's novel Serial Killer Days. Hey, equally sketchy events have turned into family-friendly annual celebrations: Point Pleasant, W.Va., has a Mothman Festival, and Fyffe, Ala., has a cattle-mutilation festival (though it's actually called UFO Days, for obvious reasons). And need I mention the venerable example of Salem, Mass.?

Our correspondent in Shanghai

Sydney's cousin Megan Wilkes, formerly of Harrisonburg, Va., moved to Shanghai this fall and is reporting on her adventures in a fine blog, with many photos, titled Anything Goes In China ... Almost. One thing that doesn't go, Megan reports in her first post, is any mention of the "3 T's." I quickly guessed what those were, and I bet you can, too.

"Never underestimate the power of a good story"

Greg Frost alerted me to this fine commercial, via YouTube, for the French pay channel Canal+, a.k.a. "Canal Plus."

National Solar Tour 2009

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow -- Saturday, Oct. 3 -- our house will be part of the American Solar Energy Society's 14th annual National Solar Tour, coordinated locally by Big D Electric in Cumberland, Md. Details, including the specs of our system, are here. Y'all come!

Cat Rambo's new book

This week the mailman brought a hardcover copy of Cat Rambo's new collection Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight (Paper Golem, $26 hardcover, $14 trade paper). On the front cover is a marvelous Carrie Ann Baade artwork; on the back cover are blurbs by other writers, including this one from me: "I am inspired, these days, by Cat Rambo, and after reading these stories, you will be, too."In between the covers is a fine collection, and I commend the book, the author and the publisher to your attention.

Is this the first time I've been quoted in a cover blurb? Maybe so. The other blurbers, in order, are Laird Barron, Rachel Swirsky, L. Timmel Duchamp, Vonda N. McIntyre and Sarah A. Hoyt, so you needn't take only my word for it the book's good.

A few family-reunion photos, Part 3

Above: I was determined to take a photo of the fire to prove we had one, thanks to the firewood Sydney and I bought at Grant's because we got tired of everyone asking why there was no fire.Above: Sam and Laurie Steele. Sam's on the junior-varsity football team, and Mom is proud.Above: Phillip Steele. How can a three-term commonwealth's attorney look so relaxed? Granted, he's had no opposition the past two elections, which helps.Above: Fran Bowling shows off her latest four-leaf clover. She has a talent for finding them, and her daughter, Sydney, inherited the gift. When I was a child, my parents told me there were no four-leaf clovers, so I'd feel better about never finding any.

A few family-reunion photos, Part 2

Above: Either Charlotte Sartin can't believe what Sheila Steele is telling her, or she's waiting for Sheila to toss corn chips into her mouth. Note in the background that the leaves only barely have started to turn.Above: Buford Steele and Sydney Duncan. We told "Uncle Bu" the stop sign looked good on him.Above: Buford Steele takes a seat. For many years Buford was a rural letter carrier and was active in the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, just as my father was.Above: Fran Bowling, Sydney Duncan, Charlotte Sartin and Sheila Steele, in mutual astonishment.Above: Tim Steele and Bill Bowling. Since the reunion, Bill has had aneurysm surgery and is doing well, I'm pleased to report.Above: Sydney Duncan tries to show Bill Bowling something, I hope with more success than when she tries to show me something.

A few family-reunion photos, Part 1

These were taken at the Stafford family reunion in Rich Creek, Va., Sept. 20. Sydney's maternal grandfather was a Stafford.Above: Fran Bowling, Sydney Duncan and Charlotte Sartin set up the snack table. Fran's cheese slaw and Charlotte's miniature Crock-Pot hot dogs are as popular as ever.Above: Sydney Duncan forges my signature, which is printed because no one could read a forgery of my handwriting.Above: Fran Bowling makes the memory board every year, to remember family members who have died since the previous reunion, and sets it above the fireplace. Everyone wishes this year's board had fewer names.Above: Fran Bowling prepares the ice chest while Charlotte Sartin tries to track someone down.Above: Pat Sartin. Once a Marine, always a Marine.Above: Tim Steele is happy to be here.

A midair hornet's nest

I obviously don't have a zoom lens, but I wanted to record this hornet's nest built on a wire over Highway 311, Thompson Memorial Drive, between Roanoke and Salem, Va. The photo was taken Sept. 20.

My latest letter to the editor

The Cumberland Times-News published it online, but not in print, July 15. Here's the link.

Why am I just now thinking of it? Because I just sent in another letter, of course.

(For the record, here's the letter that I was responding to.)