Friday, September 20, 2013

Celebrating the Births . . . George R. R. Martin, James P. Blaylock, and James C. Glass

George Raymond Richard Martin (born September 20, 1948)
      Martin is a multiple winner and nominee for the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, World Fantasy Award, and countless others.  One of many people's favorites, including mine, he is a brilliant, best-selling author whose only writing flaw is that he would have to look up "alacrity" in a dictionary. 










 Fiction
At Lightspeed:
• "The Way of Cross and Dragon" Science Fiction.1979. Hugo Award Winner.
     "And finally there were nine churches of the One True Interstellar Catholic faith. There had been twelve. The other three were now houses of Arion’s fastest-growing faith, the Order of Saint Judas Iscariot, which also had a dozen newly-built churches of its own." Audio version at same link.
  
• ". . . for a single yesterday" Science Fiction.1979.
"Keith was our culture, what little we had left. He was our poet and our troubadour, and his voice and his guitar were our bridges to the past. He was a time-tripper too, but no one minded that much until Winters came along."


James Paul Blaylock (born September 20, 1950)
      A World Fantasy Awards winner and Nebula Award nomineee, Blaylock "is noted for a distinctive, humorous style, as well as being one of the pioneers of the steampunk genre of science fiction." (wikipedia).  His website is here.










 Fiction
At Subterranean Press:
• "Stone Eggs" with Adriana Campoy.
       "His Uncle Jonathan had been gone only a couple of days when Max tried on a pair of the old man’s trousers. The strange idea came into his mind when he was petting the cat, and he didn’t question it. The trousers fit him well, as did the khaki work shirt and suspenders that had been hanging in the closet next to them."

 • "The Dry Spell"
     "The rain gauge was empty when Harper pulled it out of the middle of the lawn and held it up to the sun, which was just now showing through broken clouds in the east. There was supposed to be rain by this morning, but there wasn’t so far, and now the clouds seemed to be leaving town in a hurry, heading toward the desert, where they would evaporate like failed hope"



James C. Glass (born 20 September 1937)
       A former professor of physics, department head and university dean, Glass now writes full-time and has had numerous novels and short stories published.  More info is here.












Fiction
At Baen: [via Free Speculative Fiction Online]
• "Honeymoon Hotel" 1991.
       "The idea became impulse, pulling at him furiously. He went to the phone and dialed the number given in the letter. A woman answered, and he explained his situation to her, how he would have to come alone, and although he had dealt with his grief he wouldn’t want to mess up a pleasant vacation for anyone else by moping around. The woman surprised him, urging him to make the trip, to be with others who would also be coming alone."

• "The Coming of the Light" 1993.
     "Be it known that in the third millennium of Our Lord the earth was plunged into the darkness of sin and debauchery and the righteous cried out in fear of body and soul. The shield of the Earth was broken so that the plants that fed the masses withered and died and millions of the unworthy perished and dissolved into dust. In the great cities which housed our forebearers the streets were unsafe, day or night, ruled by human predators which bred like rats, murdering and pillaging at will, for those in power had ceased to adhere to the Laws of Our Lord."

• "Matrix Dreams" 1996.
     "Fordon Raskin settled himself in a reclining chair before the Kumitso 5000 and jacked in. A long hallway appeared before him, white-tiled floor and walls glowing in comforting light green. Ahead of him was a door marked WAITING ROOM. He reached out a hand more slender than his own and opened the door to find the construct waiting for him on a white angora couch."

• "Dirty Snowballs" 1996.
     "He pulled on his tether to the midship access hatch, and began hand-over-handing his way back, pausing to claw snow from his face plate, amazed at the sight of it flowing on his glove like liquid, then freezing into ice sticking his fingers together. The buildup on the hull was moving too, flowing like some plastic thing around pods and extensors towards the dark side of the ship. The flurry intensified, and he was blind again, pulling hard on the tether and panting for breath."

• "The Mask of Eridani" 2000.
     " Duchess Richberta of Falkenstein, first lady of Grafenheim and all the lands in the vicinity since the recent death of her husband Rudolphus, leaned forward to get a better view of her domain. Sitting across from her, Eginhard, her personal secretary and confidant, smiled at the pleasure written on the delicate features of his lady’s face. Her radiance of the moment caused his heart to ache, and he reminded himself again that behind the beautiful mask was a heart of stone, and greed such as the Rhine Valley had never before seen. Her husband was only four days dead, and already she was down to business."

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