I think I was sixteen when I flew from Oahu to Kauai with a group from the Hawaii Sierra Club, to participate in a two-week “Hawaii Service Trip Program” project — a volunteer work project, in this case devoted to building new trail in the bottom of Waimea Canyon. I participated in several other HSTP projects over the years, but this was my first.

Waimea Canyon — often called the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific” — is an amazing feature that seems entirely out of place on a small island like Kauai. Wikipedia puts its size as about ten miles long and as deep as 3,000 feet. The geology alone is striking, but there is also an abundance of streams and waterfalls which exist in sharp contrast to the generally dry terrain. In Hawaii, rainfall patterns change radically over very short distances. Just to the east of the canyon is a high elevation region dominated by WaiÊ»aleÊ»ale, the highest peak on the island at 5,100 feet. Rainfall records from WaiÊ»aleÊ»ale indicate it’s one of the wettest places on Earth. Between the peak and the canyon is the Alakai Swamp, which drains into the canyon, feeding those amazing waterfalls.

Unfortunately for me, I haven’t been back in the canyon since that first expedition. One of these days I’ll need to make a serious effort to go again, but for now photos from the canyon rim will have to do. These were taken on Friday, June 20 — an absolutely gorgeous summer day.

Read the rest of this entry »

Reach For Infinity is a just-released anthology of hard science fiction edited by Jonathan Strahan, that includes my original short story** “Attitude.”

Reach is the third volume of the “Infinity Project,” following on the first two books, Engineering Infinity and Edge of Infinity. The subject is “that period when we’re trying to get off Earth and into space.”

I am honored to be part of a contributor list that includes Pat Cadigan, Aliette de Bodard, Greg Egan, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Ellen Klages, Karen Lord, Ken Macleod, Ian McDonald, Hannu Rajaniemi, Alastair Reynolds, Adam Roberts, Karl Schroeder, and Peter Watts.

You can find Reach For Infinity in both print and ebook editions at all the usual book-selling locations and websites. If you get a chance to read “Attitude,” please let me know what you think.

** “Attitude” is 7,900 words. By the standards of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, that makes it 400 words too long to be a short story. Technically, it’s a novelette … if anyone happens to be keeping track.

As mentioned in my brief report on the Nebula Awards Weekend, I wanted to post a picture of the dress I wore to the banquet, so here it is at last.

After some consideration, I decided my husband and I would represent our home state and go “Hawaiian-style.” He wore a quietly tasteful aloha shirt, and I wore a dress from Iolani Sportswear, that just happened to be red. (Get it? The Red…?) 😉

Iolani Sportswear has a wonderful store in Honolulu that’s located in the same building as their factory. They have a wide range of gorgeous dresses and some aloha shirts. I included a link to their website above, but there is a lot more to see at the store. Highly recommended if you’re shopping for aloha attire.

Photo © Ronald J. Nagata

The Incomparable is a podcast hosted by Jason Snell that won the 2012 Parsec Award for best fan podcast. Episode #196, released today, features panelist Scott McNulty and special guest panelists Fred Kiesche, Paul Weimer, and Shaun Duke, discussing the eight novels nominated for this year’s Nebula Awards. Yes, that includes my own The Red: First Light. Interesting opinions from a set of panelists who read a lot of books…

Find the podcast here.

A few weeks ago I got to do a Google Hangout with Patrick Hester and John Anealio of The Functional Nerds. (Love that name!)

That chat is now a podcast, available here. I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet. I have a suspicion I may have said a few silly things — but that’s the hazard of an unedited existence. 🙂

At any rate, it was a lot of fun. My thanks go out to Patrick and John — and I hope y’all will check it out.

I lived for my first nine or ten years in California, and for most of that time my dad and mom were into car camping — and so was I! We would take off for a weekend or a week to visit parks and forests in the deserts and mountains. I loved it. I don’t remember ever being unhappy when I heard we were going camping.

More than one of those visits was made to Yosemite National Park. This would have been in the 1960s. We moved to Hawaii around 1970, and I don’t think I ever visited the park again — that is, until now. This past week, after the Nebula awards, I made it back to the park for one glorious day. I was with my husband, who was seeing the park for the first time. The weather was perfect, and the crowds were not bad at all.

We started with a visit to Glacier Point, where we had a stunning, panoramic view. We also discovered there is a trail, just over four miles in length, that traverses the valley wall between Glacier Point and the valley floor. That is definitely on our list to do the next time we’re able to visit.
Read the rest of this entry »

…is now available.

Edited by Ellen Datlow, this anthology includes my short story “Halfway Home,” originally published at Nightmare Magazine.

Find it in print and ebook versions at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or an indie bookstore near you.

There are twenty-four stories altogether. The table of contents can be reviewed here at SF Signal.

More good news for The Red: First Light! The novel has been honored as a finalist for The John W. Campbell Memorial Award. This must have been a good year for science fiction, because there are fifteen finalists — more than in any other recent year.

The Campbell Memorial Award is a juried award presented for the best science-fiction novel of the year. It’s considered one of the three major annual awards for science fiction, and is generally limited to science fiction — in other words, it does not consider fantasy novels. The award is administered by Christopher McKitterick, Director of the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas.

The winner has not been announced yet, though no doubt it will be soon. Again, I have no expectation of winning, but as with the Nebulas, it truly is an honor just to be nominated.

This is actually my second Campbell nomination. My novel Memory was nominated back in 2004 — something I never knew at the time. It was only in the last year or so that I discovered it on the list of nominees — a rather ironic surprise.

The full list of finalists can be found here.

And more information on the award itself can be found here.

I have now attended my first Nebula weekend, and I’m happy to report that it was a lot of fun. No, I didn’t win best novel, but then I didn’t expect to, so I wasn’t even nervous.

The winner of the novel category was announced last. As the time approached, I began to realize I would be in an awkward position if by some strange fluke I did win, because I had no acceptance speech prepared. Nothing. Nyet. Nada. Turned out not to be a problem, of course. 😛

Other activities included an interview and photo session, a panel on how science is changing science fiction, a SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America) business meeting (also a first for me), lunch and bar time with other writers, and introducing my husband to those who had never met him.

I haven’t attended a gathering of SFF writers since the nineties. I don’t really do well in crowds, and I have an absolutely horrible memory for faces, but this gathering was small enough that all went well and I am encouraged. I’m sure there will be more conventions in my future.

I wanted to post a photo of the dress I wore to the banquet, but it turns out I don’t have a photo… alas. My husband probably does, but he’s not home right now, so that will have to wait.

This is an almost-last-minute post to say that I will be at the Nebula Awards Weekend in San Jose, well, THIS WEEKEND. Or more accurately, mostly on Friday and Saturday.

On Friday evening there will be a “mass signing” involving lots of writers, including me. I hope someone will bring a book or two for me to sign. Yes? Maybe?

I’m also doing a Saturday panel on the topic How might science change science fiction? That question seems almost deceptively easy, doesn’t it? The panel is at 3pm, so if you’re attending, please consider stopping in.

The awards banquet is Saturday evening. While The Red: First Light has been nominated for a Nebula award, I have no expectation of winning. (So the pressure is off!) I do have great hopes of having a good time though, at my first-ever Nebula Weekend.