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

Josh Wilson for THE FABULIST interviews Ellen Klages.

Will you be returning to these characters and this world in any future stories? 

Well, there’s a story that came out four years before “Passing Strange” called “Caligo Lane,” you can find it online [and] read it for free; it’s also in my short story collection, WICKED WONDERS. It takes place three years after “Passing Strange,” but it is a very short story, 3,000 words, and entirely about Frannie’s magical process, in great detail. There’s also a story that takes place two years before “Passing Strange” about Polly called “Hey, Presto!” And I just finished and sold a story called “Pox” for “The Book of Dragons,” which will be out in July. That takes place in San Francisco in 1969, and both Franny and Polly are in it.

I might continue to revisit these characters, except for Emily Netterfield and Loretta Haskel. I will never go back to them, because at the end of “Passing Strange” they go off on an adventure of their own, and [there are] tens of thousands of ways that could go. I’m sure that if I wrote one version of how their lives unfolded, it would not be the same as what someone else imagined. I won’t write about them because I don’t want to close any of those possible  doors. 

EARTH AND SKYE praises Michael Cadnum’s short story “Can’t Catch Me.”

I’ve never really thought about how the gingerbread man felt in the story. Or even why so many people were chasing a cookie… but this short story definitely gave a new spin to an old classic. There is something in the way it’s written and the intensity of the story that made me go “duh” of course that’s the way that it was.

Nick Mamatas produces the LIT REACTOR column “Ask Nick: Publishing 201”. The most recent column is on the conventions and conferences.

Here’s a question, variations of which I receive all the time, that I have always refused to answer….until now.

I’ve been publishing fiction and non-fiction for years, but I still haven’t landed a book publisher yet. Many writers I know say they got a break meeting their publisher at a convention. I don’t really like conventions and I can only bring myself to schmooze so much. Should I suck it up and try harder, or are conventions not that important to a successful writer’s career arc?
—Wondering in my Rabbit Warren

I hate this question for two reasons—the first is that it is a Publishing 101 question, and I’m answering 201 questions here. The answer is “No.” The second reason is that the question usually isn’t one. Rather, it is a request for permission: “Please tell me I can just stay home.” All right, you can just stay home. In fact, these days, you have to stay home. But let’s say that one day there will be conventions again…

What makes this question interesting is that Warren is pretty interesting: he’s been writing and publishing for a long time, and already attends conferences and conventions with some frequency. So it’s worth breaking things down a bit.