cigar-box faust and other minatures

November 18, 2023

Happy birthday to the incredible Michael Swanwick

Rick Klaw birthday, blog birthday, cigar-box faust and other minatures, gravity's angels, michael swanwick, michael swanwick's field guide to the mesozoic megafauna, not so much said the cat, tales of old earth, the dog said bow, the postmodern archipelago

One of the most acclaimed science fiction and fantasy short story writers of his generation, Michael Swanwick won an extraordinary five Hugo Awards in six years (1999-2000 and 2002-2004). His stories also garnered World Fantasy, Theodore Sturgeon, Asimov’s Readers’ Awards, Locus, and SF Chronicle awards. Swanwick‘s acclaimed novels include In The Drift (1985), Vacuum Flowers (1987), Jack Faust (1997), Bones of the Earth (2002), The Dragons of Babel (2008), Dancing with Bears (2011), Chasing the Phoenix (2015), The Iron Dragon’s Mother (2019), and City Under the Stars (2020 with Gardner Dozois). Swanwick’s Stations Of The Tide (1991) won the prestigious Nebula award for best novel.

The many collections of Swanwick’s numerous acclaimed short tales include GRAVITY’S ANGELS (1991), TALES OF OLD EARTH (2000), CIGAR-BOX FAUST AND OTHER MINATURES (2003), MICHAEL SWANWICK’S FIELD GUIDE TO THE MESOZOIC MEGAFAUNA (2004), THE DOG SAID BOW-WOW (2007), The Best of Michael Swanwick (2008), Solstice Fire (2013), Season’s Greetings (2014), NOT SO MUCH SAID THE CAT (2016), The Postutopian Adventures of Darger and Surplus (2020), and The Best of Michael Swanwick: Volume Two (2023). Omni, Penthouse, Amazing, Asimov’s Science Fiction, New Dimensions, and Full Spectrum number among the many venues with Swanwick’s short fiction. He contributed to the serialized The Witch Who Came in from the Cold (2017).

A frequent contributor to the New York Review of Science Fiction, he previously published the controversial essays on the state of the science fiction and fantasy fields: “The User’s Guide to the Postmoderns” (1986) and “In the Tradition…” (1994). Both essays were collected in THE POSTMODERN ARCHIPELAGO (1997). Other non-fiction includes Being Gardner Dozois: An Interview by Michael Swanwick (2001), What Can Be Saved from the Wreckage?: James Branch Cabell in the Twenty-First Century (2007), Hope-in-the-Mist: The Extraordinary Career and Mysterious Life of Hope Mirrlees (2009), October Leaves (2010), Hunting the Phoenix (2015), Being Gardner Dozois (2018 with Gardner Dozois) and ‘She Saved Us From World War Three’: Gardner Dozois Remembers James Tiptree, Jr. (2020).

All of us at Tachyon wish the extraordinary and amazing Micheal a spectacular birthday.

November 18, 2022

Happy birthday to the incredible Michael Swanwick

One of the most acclaimed science-fiction and fantasy short-story writers of his generation, Michael Swanwick won an extraordinary five Hugo Awards in six years (1999-2000 and 2002-2004). His stories also garnered World Fantasy, Theodore Sturgeon, Asimov’s Readers’ Awards, Locus, and SF Chronicle awards. Swanwick‘s acclaimed novels include In The Drift (1985), Vacuum Flowers (1987), Jack Faust (1997), Bones of the Earth (2002), The Dragons of Babel (2008), Dancing with Bears (2011), Chasing the Phoenix (2015), The Iron Dragon’s Mother (2019), and City Under the Stars (2020 with Gardner Dozois). Swanwick’s Stations Of The Tide (1991) won the prestigious Nebula award for best novel.

The many collections of Swanwick’s numerous acclaimed short tales include GRAVITY’S ANGELS (1991), TALES OF OLD EARTH (2000), CIGAR-BOX FAUST AND OTHER MINATURES (2003), MICHAEL SWANWICK’S FIELD GUIDE TO THE MESOZOIC MEGAFAUNA (2004), THE DOG SAID BOW-WOW (2007), The Best of Michael Swanwick (2008), Solstice Fire (2013), Season’s Greetings (2014), NOT SO MUCH SAID THE CAT (2016), The Postutopian Adventures of Darger and Surplus (2020). Omni, Penthouse, Amazing, Asimov’s Science Fiction, New Dimensions, and Full Spectrum number among the many venues with Swanwick’s short fiction.

All of us at Tachyon wish the extraordinary and amazing Micheal a spectacular birthday.

November 18, 2021

Happy birthday to the incredible Michael Swanwick

Rick Klaw birthday, blog cigar-box faust and other minatures, gravity's angels, michael swanwick, michael swanwick's field guide to the mesozoic megafauna, not so much said the cat, tales of old earth, the dog said bow-wow, the postmodern archipelago

One of the most acclaimed science-fiction and fantasy short-story writers of his generation, Michael Sw a nwick won an extraordinary five Hugo Awards in six years (1999-2000 and 2002-2004). His stories also garnered World. Swanwick‘s other acclaimed novels include In The Drift (1985), Vacuum Flowers (1987), Jack Faust (1997), Bones of the Earth (2002), The Dragons of Babel (2008), Dancing with Bears (2011), Chasing the Phoenix (2015), The Iron Dragon’s Mother (2019), and City Under the Stars (2020 with Gardner Dozois). Fantasy, Theodore Sturgeon, Asimov’s Readers’ Awards, Locus, and SF Chronicle awards. Swanwick’s Stations Of The Tide (1991) won the prestigious Nebula award for best novel.

The many collections of Swanwick’s numerous acclaimed short tales include GRAVITY’S ANGELS (1991), TALES OF OLD EARTH (2000), CIGAR-BOX FAUST AND OTHER MINATURES (2003), MICHAEL SWANWICK’S FIELD GUIDE TO THE MESOZOIC MEGAFAUNA (2004), THE DOG SAID BOW-WOW (2007), The Best of Michael Swanwick (2008), Solstice Fire (2013), Season’s Greetings (2014), NOT SO MUCH SAID THE CAT (2016), The Postutopian Adventures of Darger and Surplus (2020). Omni, Penthouse, Amazing, Asimov’s Science Fiction, New Dimensions, and Full Spectrum number among the many venues with Swanwick’s short fiction.

A frequent contributor to the New York Review of Science Fiction, he previously published the controversial essays on the state of the science fiction and fantasy fields: “The User’s Guide to the Postmoderns” (1986) and “In the Tradition…” (1994). Both essays were collected in THE POSTMODERN ARCHIPELAGO (1997). Swanwick contributed to the serialized The Witch Who Came in from the Cold (2017).

All of us at Tachyon wish the extraordinary and amazing Micheal a spectacular birthday.

November 18, 2020

Happy birthday to the incredible Michael Swanwick

One of the most acclaimed science-fiction and fantasy short-story writers of his generation, Michael Sw a nwick won an extraordinary five Hugo Awards in six years (1999-2000 and 2002-2004). His stories also garnered World. Swanwick‘s other acclaimed novels include In The Drift (1985), Vacuum Flowers (1987), Jack Faust (1997), Bones of the Earth (2002), The Dragons of Babel (2008), Dancing with Bears (2011), Chasing the Phoenix (2015), The Iron Dragon’s Mother (2019), and City Under the Stars (2020 with Gardner Dozois). Fantasy, Theodore Sturgeon, Asimov’s Readers’ Awards, Locus, and SF Chronicle awards. Swanwick’s Stations Of The Tide (1991) won the prestigious Nebula award for best novel.

The many collections of Swanwick’s numerous acclaimed short tales include GRAVITY’S ANGELS (1991), TALES OF OLD EARTH (2000), CIGAR-BOX FAUST AND OTHER MINATURES (2003), MICHAEL SWANWICK’S FIELD GUIDE TO THE MESOZOIC MEGAFAUNA (2004), THE DOG SAID BOW-WOW (2007), The Best of Michael Swanwick (2008), Solstice Fire (2013), Season’s Greetings (2014), NOT SO MUCH SAID THE CAT (2016), The Postutopian Adventures of Darger and Surplus (2020). Omni, Penthouse, Amazing, Asimov’s Science Fiction, New Dimensions, and Full Spectrum number among the many venues with Swanwick’s short fiction.

All of us at Tachyon wish the extraordinary and amazing Micheal a spectacular birthday.

June 30, 2020

Celebrate Tachyon’s 25th anniversary with the incredible Michael Swanwick

Rick Klaw blog 25th anniversary, cigar-box faust and other minatures, gravity's angels, michael swanwick, michael swanwick's field guide to the mesozoic megafauna, not so much said the cat, tales of old earth, the dog said bow-wow, the postmodern archipelago 0

“Twenty-five years! Can it possibly be that long? I was involved with Tachyon Publications from its earliest years. Back then, the staff consisted of Jacob Weisman, his dog, and (I think) only one employee.

Jacob published my work in chapbook format. I wrote introductions to his more substantial books. Somewhere along the line, he started publishing my short story collections. Now, every so many years, he calls me up and asks, “Don’t you have enough short fiction for another book?” I pull up the files and count and, if the numbers come up short, write new material to cover the gap.

Somewhere along the line, our relationship became so close that I was invited to Jacob and Rina’s wedding. I saw them pledge their troth to each other with a modified version of the Green Lantern oath.

All that matters a great deal to me. Less so to you. To you, what matters is that all the while Tachyon has been carefully selecting books to publish, that all those books were worth publishing and most worth cherishing, that they’ve never stooped to putting out the merely popular over the worthwhile, that a quarter of a century after they began they’re still saving the world one book at a time.”
— Michael Swanwick

November 18, 2017

Happy birthday to the incredible Michael Swanwick

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized Ann Monn, birthday, cigar-box faust and other minatures, elizabeth story, freddie baer, gravity's angels, michael dashow, michael swanwick's field guide to the mesozoic megafauna, micheal swanwick, not so much said the cat, stephanie pui-mun law, tales of old earth, the dog said bow-wow, the postmodern archipelago

Photo: Beth Gwynn

One of the most acclaimed science-fiction and fantasy short-story writers of his generation, Michael Swanwick won an extraordinary five Hugo Awards in six years (1999-2000 and 2002-2004). His stories also garnered World Fantasy, Theodore Sturgeon, Asimov’s Readers’ Awards, Locus, and SF Chronicle awards. Swanwick’s STATIONS OF THE TIDE (1991) won the prestigious Nebula Award for Best Novel.

His other novels include IN THE DRIFT (1985), VACUUM FLOWERS (1987), JACK FAUST (1997), and BONES OF THE EARTH (2002). The many collections of Swanwick’s numerous acclaimed short tales include GRAVITY’S ANGELS (1991), TALES OF OLD EARTH (2000), CIGAR-BOX FAUST AND OTHER MINATURES (2003), MICHAEL SWANWICK’S FIELD GUIDE TO THE MESOZOIC MEGAFAUNA (2004), THE DOG SAID BOW-WOW(2007), THE BEST OF MICHAEL SWANWICK (2008), SOLSTICE FIRE (2013), SEASON’S GREETINGS (2014), and NOT SO MUCH SAID THE CAT (2016).

OMNI, PENTHOUSE, AMAZING, ASIMOV’S SCIENCE FICTION, NEW DIMENSIONS, and FULL SPECTRUM number among the many venues with Swanwick’s short fiction. A frequent contributor to the NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION, he previously published the controversial essays on the state of the science fiction and fantasy fields: The User’s Guide to the Postmoderns (1986) and “In the Tradition…” (1994). Both essays were collected in THE POSTMODERN ARCHIPELAGO (1997). Swanwick contributed to the serialized THE WITCH WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD.

All of us at Tachyon wish the extraordinary Micheal an amazing birthday.

For more information on NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on GRAVITY’S ANGELS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Michael Dashow

For more info on TALES OF OLD EARTH, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Michael Dashow

For more info on CIGAR-BOX FAUST AND OTHER MINIATURES, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Freddie Baer

For more info on MICHAEL SWANWICK’S FIELD GUIDE TO THE MESOZOIC MEGAFAUNA, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

For more info on THE DOG SAID BOW-WOW, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Ann Monn

For more info on THE POSTMODERN ARCHIPELAGO, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Michael Dashow

November 18, 2016

Happy birthday to the incredible Michael Swanwick

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized Ann Monn, birthday, cigar-box faust, cigar-box faust and other minatures, elizabeth story, freddie baer, gravity's angels, Hugo Award, michael dashow, michael swanwick, michael swanwick's field guide to the mesozoic megafauna, not so much said the cat, science fiction, stephanie pui-mun law, tales of old earth, the dog said bow-wow, the postmodern archipelago

Photo by Beth Gwynn

One of the most
acclaimed science-fiction and fantasy short-story writers of his
generation, Michael Swanwick won an extraordinary five Hugo Awards
in six years (1999-2000 and 2002-2004). His stories also garnered
World Fantasy, Theodore Sturgeon, Asimov’s Readers’ Awards, Locus,
and SF Chronicle awards. Swanwick’s STATIONS OF THE TIDE (1991) won
the prestigious Nebula Award for Best Novel.

His other novels
include IN THE DRIFT (1985), VACUUM FLOWERS (1987), JACK FAUST
(1997), and BONES OF THE EARTH (2002). The many collections of
Swanwick’s numerous acclaimed short tales include GRAVITY’S ANGELS
(1991), TALES OF OLD EARTH (2000), CIGAR-BOX FAUST AND OTHER MINATURES (2003), MICHAEL SWANWICK’S FIELD GUIDE TO THE MESOZOIC MEGAFAUNA (2004), THE DOG SAID BOW-WOW (2007), THE BEST OF MICHAEL
SWANWICK (2008), SOLSTICE FIRE (2013), SEASON’S GREETINGS (2014), and
NOT SO MUCH SAID THE CAT (2016).

OMNI, PENTHOUSE,
AMAZING, ASIMOV’S SCIENCE FICTION, NEW DIMENSIONS, and FULL
SPECTRUM number among the many venues with Swanwick’s short
fiction. A frequent contributor to the NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE
FICTION, he previously published the controversial essays on the
state of the science fiction and fantasy fields: The
User’s Guide to the Postmoderns (1986) and “In the Tradition…” (1994).
Both
essays were collected in THE POSTMODERN ARCHIPELAGO (1997).

All of us at Tachyon wish the extraordinary Micheal an amazing birthday.

For more information on NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on GRAVITY’S ANGELS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Michael Dashow

For more info on TALES OF OLD EARTH, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Michael Dashow

For more info on CIGAR-BOX FAUST AND OTHER MINIATURES, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Freddie Baer

For more info on MICHAEL SWANWICK’S FIELD GUIDE TO THE MESOZOIC MEGAFAUNA, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

For more info on THE DOG SAID BOW-WOW, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Ann Monn

For more info on THE POSTMODERN ARCHIPELAGO, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Michael Dashow

October 26, 2016

Tachyon tidbits featuring Peter S. Beagle, Nalo Hopkinson, and Michael Swanwick

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized anglia ruskin unversity, Ann Monn, beauty in ruins, bob r milne, carl slaughter, cigar-box faust, cigar-box faust and other minatures, collection, elizabeth story, fantasy, farah mendlesohn, file 770, freddie baer, in calabria, magdalena korzeniewska, mailbox monday, michael swanwick, michael swanwick's field guide to the mesozoic megafauna, nalo hopkinson, peter s beagle, review, short stories, stacking the shelves, stephanie pui-mun law, summerlong, the dog said bow-wow, the emerald city book review, twitter

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

Peter S. Beagle (photo: Rina Weisman), Nalo Hopkinson (David Findlay), and Michael Swanwick (Beth Gwinn)

THE EMERALD CITY BOOK REVIEW praises Peter S. Beagle’s SUMMERLONG.

The Puget Sound setting and mythological overtones of Peter S. Beagle’s new novel, SUMMERLONG, made it sound irresistible to me — and it turned out to be a lovely end-of-summer read.

I really appreciated how Beagle treated the theme of mature love and relationships, a subject not often approached in fantasy fiction these days. He’s brave enough to acknowledge that some hurts cannot easily be healed, that endings in life are often not as tidy as turning the last page of a book. I liked seeing the characters constantly evolve, as old routines die away and new capacities come to light — being retirement age doesn’t mean losing one’s capacity to learn and grow, after all.

I did find that I enjoyed the build-up of the story, characters, and the setting — which is very vividly and accurately evoked — more than the denouement. To me the mythological aspects were more effective when hinted at than when overtly referenced. Still, the world and people of Summerlong will linger in my memory for more than a season, leaving traces of beauty, wisdom, and heartache behind.

For the weekly memes Stacking The Shelves and Mailbox Monday that are about sharing the books that came your way over the past week, and which you’ve added to your shelves, Bob R Milne of BEAUTY IN RUINS includes Peter S. Beagle’s forthcoming novel IN CALABRIA.

While I’ve pretty much cut myself off for new 2016 titles (with one exception below), I couldn’t resist a pair of review titles hitting shelves in the new year:

IN CALABRIA by Peter S. Beagle

THE DEAD SEEKERS by Barb & J.C. Hendee

WISE PHUUL by Daniel Stride

Via TWITTER, Professor Farah Mendlesohn, Head of the Department of English, Communication, Film and Media, presents Anglia Ruskin’s newest Doctor of Letters Nalo Hopkinson.

Nalo Hopkinson and Farah Mendlesohn

At FILE 770, Carl Slaughter gets the inside scoop behind Michael Swanwick’s short story collections.

In exclusive for FILE 770, to celebrate the publication of NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT, which came out this summer, Michael Swanwick gives us the inside story on his collections.

MICHAEL SWANWICK: CIGAR-BOX FAUST gathers together pretty much all my flash fiction written to that point, save for the 26 short-shorts in Puck Aleshire’s Abecedary. The title piece was a short drama written in one day for a cigar-box theater and a cast made up of a cigar cutter, a box of matches and, in the title role, the cigar itself.

Marianne came home from work that day and asked, “What’s new?” I sat her down at the kitchen table, placed the cigar box between us, and said, “Watch.

MICHAEL SWANWICK: “I don’t think you understand how many genera of dinosaurs there are,” I replied when my editor at HarperCollins suggested that as a promotional device, I should write a brief story for every genus. But I was happy to write a goodly number, which were serialized on the Web to draw attention to my paleontology novel, BONES OF THE EARTH.

Jacob Weisman, God bless him, liked the series, added “Five British Dinosaurs,” which had appeared in Interzone, and published them all in chapbook form with lovely illustrations by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law.

I had great fun including some of my pals in the paleontologist community in the fictions. Ralph Chapman got to see his Pachycephalosaurus theories tested in the wild. Bob Walters was stranded in the Campanian Age when a hadrosaur crushed his time machine. Tom Holtz got eaten by a tyrannosaur. And Tess Kissinger went for a midnight ride with Ray Harryhausen in a pair of robot theropods.

Never let it be said that I don’t know how to show my friends a good time.

MICHAEL SWANWICK: One story was nominated for the Nebula Award and four for the Hugo Award. Of those four, three won. Introduction by Terry Bisson.

My third decade collection arrived three years early. It was named after “The Dog Said Bow-Wow,” the first Darger & Surplus story and easily one of the most popular stories I ever wrote. At the time the collection came out, there were only three stories in the series, all of which were included. Someday there will be a full collection’s worth. But that day, alas, is not here yet.

For more info on SUMMERLONG, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Magdalena Korzeniewska

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about IN CALABRIA, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info on CIGAR-BOX FAUST AND OTHER MINATURES, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Freddie Baer

For more info on MICHAEL SWANWICK’S
FIELD GUIDE TO THE MESOZOIC MEGAFAUNA, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

For more info on THE DOG SAID BOW-WOW, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Ann Monn