The Seldom, №8
If it is indeed true that life is a journey and not a destination, then how to explain the fact that Maej… has… ARRIVED!?
Cough.
So.
In the tradition of periodicals whose names indicate their frequency of publication (Publishers Weekly, The Atlantic Monthly, Lapham’s Quarterly…), I bring you The Seldom. My name is Dale Stromberg, and you’re receiving this newsletter because you signed up for it, or else because the Fates have decreed you shall receive it, inexorably.
The astute among you (which is, doubtless, all of you) will have noted that this edition of The Seldom has arrived at a timing rather less seldom than is customary. Fear not: future numbers of The Seldom will again be issued seldom. This time, our break with tradition has been occasioned by some Big News…
Mæj
What I’ve been calling my “forthcoming high fantasy novel” needs a new epithet, for it is no longer forthcoming. It has come forth.
Today, 21 October, is its publication date.
I suppose this marks, plop in the middle of middle age, my début. Go ahead, smash a bottle of champagne across my bow.
Out With the Wallet
If you haven’t already bought a copy of Mæj, but think you might like to, here are links: very hefty paperbacks are $25 USD at Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon; light-as-a feather ebooks are $5 on Itch, Gumroad, and Amazon.
My publisher is offering a Maej book bundle too: an ebook of Maej, a physical novella (choose from five, including fine work from comrades like Zilla Novikov, Briar Ripley Page, and Ryszard Merey), and press swag that includes a cute Maej sticker. Find it by clicking this link and scrolling down a ways.
Rate & Review & Share
Yeah, this again.
If you’re willing to review Mæj, please feel free to share takes on Goodreads, Storygraph, or LibraryThing. Now that the book has been published, Amazon should also begin allowing ratings/reviews.
Small-potatoes authors like me depend most of all on word-of-mouth, so I’d be profoundly grateful if you were able to take the time.
If you love a book, rate it! If you hate it, rate it! A smattering of salty one-star reviews lends any book an air of authenticity, you know.
And of course, passing a book to a friend is a kindness to author and reader alike.
Recent reads
First, fellow indie author Arturo Serrano, on his blog Parallelepiped Ream, posted about the Sanderson-Jemisin discourse on whether magic in fantasy fiction needs rules (a Maej-adjacent topic, by the way); his take ended up triggering some online debate. I myself take views that differ from his, but I savoured the food for thought. For any intrigued fantasy nerds: the link is here.
(In addition to writing for the Hugo- and Ignyte-winning fanzine Nerds of a Feather, Serrano is also the author of the alternative history novel To Climates Unknown. Here is a gift link to my review of the novel.)
Since the last Seldom I sent you in September, I’ve had the good fortune to encounter a number of fine books. Here are three standouts:
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf – Yes, I finally got to this one. A novel to be read for the sheer pleasure of reading, and for the exquisite way it unfolds the human mind.
Tales from the End of Time by Michael Moorcock – A tonally sophisticated embrace of all that is madcap in speculative fiction. This was my first exposure to Moorcock, and it was quite a heady read.
The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt – I’ve just begun this one, and it is challenging (like much philosophy, you have to read each paragraph three times), but so far I am intrigued and eager to learn.
I’d also like to start sharing good short fiction I’ve encountered online. Each of these surprised me with beauty, or sad sympathy, or a cautious optimism that felt earned (a rarity in our troublous times):
“Pigeons in Every Universe” by Kiran Kaur Saini
“Silas” by Nathan Poole
“Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer
“The Ten Deaths of Mrs. Haverhill’s Second-Grade Class” by Sam Berman
“Adrift” by Kim Steutermann Rogers
News
Here’s a bit of what’s going on with my writer friends and with me:
Friends
The anthology Trans-Galactic Bike Ride, which features a short story by fellow tRaum Books author and good friend Tucker Lieberman, is getting re-released with a new cover and more stories. Here’s the book page. The book also features such luminaries as Charlie Jane Anders. Get it for 10% off with the coupon code TGBR2024.
See also: Tucker’s newly revamped website at tuckerlieberman.com. (Designed by the talented folks at Studio Frangipani.)
Author and Maej cover artist Rachel A. Rosen is all over the podcasts these days. The one she co-hosts, Wizards & Spaceships, just celebrated Halloween with an episode featuring guest Troy Harkin, talking about some bloke who writes horror called Stephen King. Check it out here.
She also recently had a guest appearance on a live episode of Two Old Farts Talk Sci-Fi, which you can find here. And I’m told she’ll be on Writing & Editing soon, though the release date is still hush-hush.
Rohan O’Duill continues to accept advance readers for his forthcoming sci-fi novella Cold Blooded. Grab a free advance review copy in exchange for a promise to leave an honest rating/review. Rohan’s sign-up form for ARCs is here.
Me
I’m still recording and posting stories from my 2022 collection Melancholic Parables to Substack’s podcast feature. You can now listen to it on Spotify, and if you search Apple Podcasts (or many other podcast apps) for “Melancholic Parables”, you can find it there too. Binge the whole series, if you like.
In the last Seldom, I mentioned that, if your local library supports the Hoopla streaming service, you can check out Melancholic Parables for free with your library card. An update: another book of mine, the short story collection Váried Parályses, is also now available. Here’s the link for Melancholic Parables, and here’s the one for Váried Parályses.
Shepherd allowed me to post my three favourite reads of the last twelve months, with a short blurb on why I loved each one: Read that list here. Who knows? You might find your next good read.
Something old
In case you’re interested, Bright Flash Literary Review published a short story of mine back in 2021 called “A New Lease on Life (with No Escape Clause)”. You can find it here.
This story is also included in Melancholic Parables, a collection in which the character Bellatrix Sakakino turns up in story after story, generally as the recipient of a good shellacking. In this one, she is reborn with all the memories of her previous life intact.
It’s not uncommon for folks of a certain age to think, “If I’d known then what I know now, I would have…” et cetera, et cetera. Time is relentless, every choice is irrevocable, and life allows us to backtrack but never to erase our tracks; any attempt to “undo” is really an attempt to counter what cannot be undone. So we fantasise about the better paths we’d have taken, the bad choices we’d have skipped, if only we could pop the knowledge (and perhaps wisdom) of long years into a time machine and deliver it back to our tomfool young selves.
Which sounds nice, if we think it would change anything. There’s the problem: Do we change? Does my present knowledge (if not wisdom), accumulated over some years, change how I behave now? Do I no longer make bad decisions?
Erm…
Well…
Suppose we change the subject.
The story plays with this idea by, as usual, putting Bellatrix through the wringer. Maybe you’ll like it. Here’s that link again.
Sharing is caring
If you know anyone who might like to sign up for this newsletter, I hope you will tell them about it.
If you yourself would like to subscribe, here’s a button: