Welcome to my LiveJournal. I'm a science fiction writer with a growing collection of published short stories, and my collection Unwelcome Bodies is currently available from Apex Publications. It includes, among other stories, "Captive Girl," which was a 2007 Nebula finalist and which made the 2007 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards short list. I started this journal to have a place to talk about writing and the writing life, although you'll probably notice various digressions into belly dance and politics.

Please note that anonymous comments that aren't signed will be deleted.

No, you can't win an Apex author, nor do you get to decide which one of us dies, but for just $1 a ticket, you can try to win a pile of their books:

http://gentlyused.myshopify.com/

My stash is made up of:

- Unwelcome Bodies (Hardcover)
- Aegri Somnia (Hardcover, signed by all the authors)
- Apex Digest Issue #8 (contains "Blood Baby")

As an added incentive, 10 tickets are just $8.

There's a lot of great authors in this lottery: Michael Burstein, Mari Adkins, Sara Harvey, some dude named Jason, and many others. Go! Browse! Bid!

From now until Friday, you can get the paperback for $10 and the hardback for $21:

http://www.apexbookcompany.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=1

It makes a lovely, um, let me check my calendar. Okay, it makes a lovely gift for Mother's Day, or graduation, or, let's say, Cinco de Mayo.

http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=26070

Thank you, Jason! That's the closest I've come to having something published by Tor yet ;)

Richard Horton, well-known Internet short fiction reviewer, liked my collection:

"Unwelcome Bodies is Jennifer Pelland's first collection. It comes from Apex Publications. She has already got well-deserved notice for her stories in places like Apex Digest, Strange Horizons, and Helix. The Helix story "Captive Girl" was nominated for the Nebula and is strong work. The collection in general showcases an arresting new writer. There are three new stories -- I particularly liked the long novelette "Brushstrokes", set in a weird caste-ridden society in which painting your face in a different way is a profound act of rebellion."

http://ecbatan.livejournal.com/68776.html

I do believe this is the nicest thing he's ever said about any of my work. I tend to be relegated to the "...and there were also strong stories by..." line in his reviews.

I just cracked the 400 copy mark. And according to the online sales spreadsheet, I've sold more books this month than I sold all last quarter.

My publisher tells me that 500 books in two years is very good for a small press book, and I though he was mad for telling me I'd make that number. Considering that my book's only been out for 11 months, I think I just might hit 500 after all.

I will be one of the Hot Chicks with Books at Arisia. Come see us on dealers' row in room 347. I'm not quite sure exactly when I'll be in the room, but I believe there will be a schedule on the door. I'll be selling both paperback and hardback copies of Unwelcome Bodies as well as my two remaining copies of The Best of Apex 2006. Come! Shop! Don't make me take those hardbacks and best of books home again!

Fictionwise is having a huge honking sale right now, and you can get an electronic copy of Unwelcome Bodies for under $3.00. A whole bunch of other Apex e-book titles are on sale there as well:

http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/apexpublicationsllceBooks.htm?cache

I have it on good authority that their e-books are compatible with book reader software for the blind.

You know what that means? That means it's time to buy a little naked guy for all your grown-up friends! Yes, Unwelcome Bodies makes a great gift for your favorite adults. But I beg you, don't buy it for a minor. Seriously. Well, unless you buy it for a school library, because then a parent will get outraged and try to have it banned, and that's really great publicity.

Even better, if you live in the U.S. and order $25 or more in books from Apex, you get free shipping through the month of December. Just go to http://www.apexbookcompany.com/ and click on the free shipping button. Why not also toss in several copies of Michael Burstein's I Remember the Future while you're there? That should get you up to $25 quite handily.

Unwelcome Bodies -- the perfect [solstice holiday of your choice] gift for the adult, or elementary school library, in your life.

My book was for sale all four nights of Tomes of Terror III at the merchandise table, and I sold just one copy. Four nights, one copy. Mind you, I got to see the plays for free both nights, so that was something, but I'd been hoping for something more.

On the other hand, I just got back from Michael Burstein's (mabfan) wildly successful book launch party, where he told the story of how he got the book deal because I pitched him to Jason at Apex (jasonbsizemore), and held up a copy of my book and said lovely things about it. I think a good half-dozen people asked me how they could buy it before the party was over.

So I appear to have done more good for my book sales by being mentioned at someone else's party than I did by sitting at a table and actually attempting to sell the damned thing.

And did I mention just how wildly successful Michael's party was? The place was packed! Congratulations, Michael! May your success continue, and may it lift the rest of Apex up in your wake! :)

Want to see staged radio theater this Halloween with live Foley effects? Then check out Tomes of Terror III in Somerville!

http://www.huboftheuniverseproductions.com/events_tomes3.html

As a bonus, Unwelcome Bodies will be part of this year's concessions all four nights. I'll be there on Wednesday and Saturday to help sell and sign them.

Every currently-released Apex Books paperback is priced at $10 or lower until midnight on Halloween. This includes Unwelcome Bodies, as well as books by Alethea Kontis, Fran Friel, Broaddus and White, Matt Wallace, Lavie Tidhar, and more.

http://www.apexbookcompany.com/cart.php?m=product_list&c=1

Go! Shop! Apex books make great gifts for all the upcoming solstice holidays! And why stop there? Why not give the gift of Apex at Thanksgiving? Or use our books to celebrate/mourn the results of the upcoming election? The possibilities are endless!

Strange Horizons posted their review of Unwelcome Bodies this morning:

http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2008/10/unwelcome_bodie.shtml

It's largely positive, although the reviewer opens with what she didn't like rather than what she did. Hopefully, people will read the whole thing and not stop at the second paragraph. I suspect they will. They're Strange Horizons readers, after all.

Secondly, at the recommendation of mabfan, I'm putting together a web page for the book:

http://www.jenniferpelland.com/unwelcome.html

It feels pretty meh so far. Any suggestions?

(ETA: The design of that page is identical to the design of the rest of my web pages, which I'm currently happy with. What I'm more interested in is feedback on the text and layout.)

As I suspected, William Sanders found my blog entry and sent me an email. No, nothing shocking or horrifying. At the end of the email, he gave me permission to post it here. So in the interest of fairness, here are the relevant portions of what he had to say:

All I want to say is: don't make too much of my returning that book. It's much simpler than you (let alone your responders) seem to think.

I didn't want it around; is that hard to understand? It would always be a reminder of things I would rather not be reminded of - not the shitstorm itself, I don't give a damn about a bunch of ignorant idiots and in fact they've been rather entertaining; but the behavior of certain people that I DID care about, not just you but the others, with one exception, hadn't left me with tangible reminders of better times.

I didn't throw it away because it was a perfectly good book and I don't like to throw anything away. I didn't give it to the library for their book sale because I wouldn't do a damn thing for the local library; they don't buy my books, why should I give them anything? Anyway, the way I was raised, you don't give away something that was given to you as a personal gift.

So I gave it back. It wasn't meant as a slap in the face; it was just the only thing I could think of to do with it. If I'd returned it in a spirit of anger or bitterness - well, you know me well enough that you ought to realize that I'd have let you know in very clear terms. If I'd meant, "Take your damn book and shove it up your ass," do you really think I'd have hesitated to say it? Have you ever known me to priss around about saying what I think? It's sure as hell not something I'm famous for....

There's more, and I did think about quoting the letter in its entirety, but I think the above is sufficient. I know people may find it odd that I'm taking the time to show Sanders's side in this little incident, but I do think it's important to be fair here.

I came home today to find a package waiting for me from William Sanders. From the size, I was pretty sure I knew what it was, and when I opened it, I found out that I was right. Earlier this year, I'd sent him a copy of my collection inscribed with a personal note thanking him for everything he'd done for my career. He's returned it to me.

I find this pretty interesting. He didn't throw it away, he didn't donate it to the library's book sale -- no, he spent the money to return it to me. He wanted me to know that he didn't want the book in his house anymore.

At this point, I'm not hurt, nor am I amused. I'm just...well, a little bemused, I guess, to know that I rated that kind of effort. I've put it back in the envelope and tossed it on a shelf. I find myself wondering if it might actually be something for the Tiptree auction some day. More likely, it'll just be a curiosity in a box in my attic somewhere -- a souvenir of a very strange time in my life.

(ETA: for those who missed the context: http://transcriptase.org)

A coworker found my book in The Paper Store in Waltham, which is not a bookstore that I (or my editor) called and begged to carry it. Huzzah!

Also, I just peeked at my book's listing in the Minuteman Library Network catalog, and it's listed as being "In Transit + 1 Hold," which I believe means that it's on its way to a patron at another library, and there's someone else in line for the book after them. And then I peeked at it in the Springfield City Library catalog, and it's listed as being checked out. This makes me very happy :)

...why not mosey on over to Amazon.com and write up a little review? If nothing else, you will make my editor happy.

Well, my book is. If you buy directly from Apex, the following paperbacks are currently only $10 until August 26th:

Unwelcome Bodies
The Next Fix
HebrewPunk
Aegri Somnia
Gratia Placenti
Orgy of Souls
Mama's Boy and Other Dark Tales
Beauty & Dynamite

I've read The Next Fix, HebrewPunk, and Aegri Somnia and they're all worth *at least* $10! (Gratia Placenti is in my to-read pile.)

http://www.apexbookcompany.com/cart.php

http://library.minlib.net/search?/apelland/apelland/1%2C2%2C2%2CB/frameset&FF=apelland+jennifer&1%2C1%2C

...and...

http://wmars.cwmars.org/search/a?SEARCH=pelland&sortdropdown=-&searchscope=54

So, people should literally feel free to check me out :)

http://www.cornerstonebooks-salem.com/events/

Friday August 1 at 7pm
Local Author Showcase

Join five local authors for a discussion on the ups and downs of writing and publishing, and see their diverse work.

Featured are Richard Venti (The Doctor's Dog, Fiction), Janet Spurr (Beach Chair Diaries, Memoir/Essay), Jennifer Pelland (Unwelcome Bodies, Short Fiction), Julie Hahnke (Through the Eyes of a Raptor, Young Adult Fiction), Judy Spurr (Trapped, Young Adult Fiction).

Cornerstone Books is located at 45 Lafayette Street in the heart of Salem, Massachusetts, on the first floor of the historic, newly renovated Derby Lofts building. They are a 5 minute walk from the Peabody Essex Museum and directly across the street from the Salem Fire Department.

The latest Nebula report has finally been made public, and "Brushstrokes" has a pair of recs. So I'm making it available for SFWA members to read on the password-protected part of the SFWA website:

http://www.sfwa.org/private/nar/fiction/Pelland-Brushstrokes.html

If you enjoy the story, and think that there aren't nearly enough Nebula-nominated works that feature two men having sex against a brick wall, then by all means, toss a rec its way ;)