A quick roundup of the past weeks:
- No Orbital report here: I live Cons intensely, but I don't blog about them. Nevertheless, Alex Fitch of SciFi-London interviewed Aliette de Bodard and me (and others) at Orbital about Interzone, writing, and the SF scene. Check it out at the audio section of the SciFi-London site, or here.
- My story "Qubit Conflicts" (original in Clarkesworld #8) has been reprinted in Ennea or "9": the supplement to Greek national newspaper Elefthrytopia. Thanks to Angelos Mastorakis and Anna Boviatsi for publishing it, and to Nick Mamatas for being the first to take a chance with it. (Cover of "9" pictured above.)
- Have been to Death Angel (the Bay Area thrash band) in both de Baroeg and Dynamo. Fantastic shows of a band that still plays as energetic and tight as when they started, some twenty years back. Phenomenal!
- At the Dynamo afterparty (after Death Angel) it was good to talk to Andy Galeon (see picture, and other Death Angel members except Rob Cavestany: I didn't see him, unfortunately) after some 6 years or so.
- Received the March 19 edition of "9" a few days later, to see that "Qubit Conflicts" went with two semi-abstract illustrations of a Greek artist whose name I can't transliterate due to my Greek being so poor (apologies for that). In both illos (see scans left and right), there are silhouett
es of 
human faces, which is somewhat ironic as there are no humans at all in the story. Actually, there were a few direct human references in the original, but when Nick Mamatas asked -- among other things -- me to remove those, I immediately realised he was right. I was afraid that the story might become too abstract without a few allusions to human philosophers, but Nick's comment showed me that this is the direction the story wanted to go in. That's where a good editor is worth his weight in gold: explaining the obvious to an author who just can't help being too close to his own story.
- Went to Exodus in the Dynamo club, had another great night, met lots of old friends again (Exodus guitar player Lee Altus -- see picture -- being one of them), and the only drawback being that it was a Monday night, and I had to work the next day.
- Another thing I can't help but wonder about is the barrage of haiku I unleashed in "Qubit Conflicts": did the Greek translators transliterate them into Greek haiku, or didn't they notice? It's actually what will make translating this baby into Dutch the biggest obstacle: *if* I do that, these poems need to stay haiku in Dutch.
- Tonight (and I already went yesterday, as well): Threshold. A barrage of metal these past weeks, but I'm not complaining, only wishing I was twenty again (with the experience I have now). Oh well...
