|
Meet Some
SlugTribers
Here's a list of websites for
current and erstwhile SlugTribe members, alphabetically by
last name.
If you're a member and I don't have your
website listed, set me
straight on your URL.
|
Successes, News and
Other
High-Fives for SlugTribers
Summer-Winter 2011-12
SlugTribe has (new) T-shirts, free, thanks to the promoters of The Maze Runner, a series by James Dashner, which were designed by Wendy Wheeler; check out the graphic in the left sidebar. Rebecca Schwartz had her 2nd sale, "Fairview 619" to Aurora Wolf and it was chosen for their year's best. Gabriele Matthieu sold "Mineral Essence" to Bards & Sages Quarterly. Silver Bowen sold (probably) "The Elder Spreadsheet " to Lurid Lit; he's also self-publishing on SmashWords platform, such as his orc story "Out De'Moan!" Kyle Patrick sold his first short story, "Insider," to OG Speculative Fiction, and then two more stories, one to Bard & Sages Quarterly. Shlomi Harif self-published his novel Induction on the Kindle platform. Allen Wise self-published The Jade Queen on Kindle as Jack Connor. Leah Cutter has self-published most of her portfolio of work excepting novels still in print. Matt Patterson self-published his novel The Devil's Hand on Kindle and Nook.
Patrice Sarath and Wendy Wheeler were among 8 local SF/F writers featured at a Halloween-costume-related event for the Plugerville Library in October. Wendy Wheeler got to pitch a modern fantasy TV series to VH-1 during Austin Film Festival. Jennifer Evans and Wendy Wheeler took a 3.5-day writers workshop with agent Donald Maas, story master Chris Vogler, and suspense novelist James Scott Bell. Dan (DD) Tannenbaum moved back to New York State (he had been living in Rockport) for health reasons; we'll miss him. Mike Brotherton PhD remarried on October 31st in a Halloween-themed wedding complete with his and her vampire fangs. Russ Williams also remarried at the summer Esperanto Conference in San Francisco in an Esperanto ceremony; he also completed another genre novel for Nanowrimo 2011 in Esperanto.
Tom Konrad, an erstwhile member who now lives in NY state, got a gig writing an investment blog for Forbes, which includes this moving article about his father. At ArmadilloCon in September, William Browning ("Bill") Spencer had a regional premier of the short film made from his story the SlugTribe critiqued years ago, "A Child's Christmas in Florida" but now it was changed to A Child's Christmas in Texas. Nicole Duson/Nicky Drayden's "Our Drunken Tjeng" came out in Daily Science Fiction and was chosen a Top Ten for 2011; "Double Rations" came out in Kalideotrope. Kevin Jewell has a new baby son! He also sold "61 by 70" to Daily Science Fiction; "Like Tides upon the Sea, the Music Never Ends" to BayCon Fiction Marketplace (newsletter for Baycon in Santa Clara); and "Contaminant Source Removed" in the Intergalactic Medicine Show. Summer 2011 SpaceSquid featured Fred Stanton in drag on the cover for its "bizarro issue."
Winter/Spring 2011
Kevin Jewell sold "Newfangled" to Daily Science Fiction. First sale: Rebecca Schwarz sold SlugTribe-critiqued story "Flotsam" to Flagship magazine by Flying Island Press. Ricardo Bare sold "Of Salmon Tails and Green-Eyed Girls" to Issue 5 of the same magazine. Nicole Duson/Nicky Drayden's "You Had Me at Rawwrrr" is on the podcast site Drabblecast. She's also self-published two collections of short stories as eBooks, called Delightfully Twisted Tales. Daniel Krawisz got lots of online attention for his self-actualized-libertarian review of RANGO in the Mises blog. Mike Brotherton's penchant for tracking science errors in movies was spotlighted in UWYO, published by the University of Wyoming, where he's a tenured professor. Jay Lake will be co-toastmastering this year's Hugo Awards with Ken Scholes; he is also undergoing chemotherapy for a new tumor. Fred Stanton was made fiction editor of RevolutionSF.com (succeeding Matthew Bey) and reprinted a story by Jayme Blaschke entitled "The Makeover Men." Marshall Ryan Maresca got his workshop-created, SF-themed short play chosen for performance in the Out of Ink: Forgetting Finnegan project. Paige Roberts is trying out fiction writing in a first-person blog format; check out Damson Dragon.
Fall 2010
Nicole Duson/Nicky Drayden sold "Up in Smoke" to Cabinet des Fées; "Winning Streak" to Daily Science Fiction and "You Had Me at Rarrrgg" to ShimmerZine -- where she was interviewed and did a shout-out to SlugTribe. She also read her zombie story and judged a Halloween haiku contest to raise money for NaNoWriMo. Speaking of, Russ Williams did NaNoWriMo and completed his first book, a steampunk novel--in Esperanto! Nicole and Marshall Maresca's Hint Fiction anthology was reviewed by the New York Times. Matthew Patterson created www.bigauthor.com, a website to help writers get viewed by agents and editors and share critiques and brainstorming. Patrice Sarath sold The Unexpected Miss Bennett, her sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that focuses on Mary Bennett, to Robert Hale Ltd, an English publisher. D.D. Tannenbaum sold his flash fiction story "Champion" to Bards and Sages Quarterly, and announced he's moving to the beach town of Port Aransas. Wendy Wheeler sold a reprint of "Little Red" to the Night Shade Books anthology Happily Ever After... due out June 2011. After a scare with another tumor, Jay Lake had more surgery and his cancer is now in remission. Leah Cutter moved from Seattle to New Orleans to live/write/work remotely for 6 months.
Summer 2010
Kevin Jewell sold a story to Daily Science Fiction, which emails out a story every Wednesday; Nicole Duson sold "Winning Streak" to the same market. Allen Wise got the attention of LA agent Joel Gottler who shopped his idea for a TV series around Hollywood. Ricardo Bare's Jack of Hearts novel manuscript won an honorable mention in the Houston Writer's Guild Novel Contest, and also 4th place in "Write Helper" novel beginnings contest. Matthew Bey made his first SFWA pro sale (he's made many others; this pub pays pro rates) to Beneath Ceaseless Skies, a story called "The Secret of Pogopolis." Jennifer Evans traveled to Oregon in April for the weeklong Donald Maas workshop on "Writing the Breakout Novel," where editors raved over the world building in her novel. Nicole Duson/Nicky Drayden sold a poem "Wizard Fight on Sixth Street" to Big Pulp. Patrice Sarath was interviewed on blogtalkradio by Page Readers. Ex-SlugTriber Jay Lake learned his cancer returned and went through one round of chemotherapy, with another to come; we wish him well. Wendy Wheeler will teach a screenwriting workshop for the new Austin chapter of A Room of Her Own to raise funds for their annual scholarship; in May she traveled to Germany and Poland to visit friends, including ex-SlugTriber Russ Wiliams.
Spring 2010
Patrice Sarath and Dan (D.D.) Tannenbaum visited with the gifted students in Mrs. Kempf's class in Pflugerville Middle School to talk about being a writer/editor. Patrice also went to EasterCon in the UK where she was a featured panelist, and got to tour various English sites, like Jane Austen's home. Dan was also working with author James Hogan to get Hogan's out-of-print materials into eBook and other digital forms until Hogan unexpectedly passed away. Kevin Jewell's mainstream novel was a semifinalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest. Paige Roberts (accidentally) agreed to edit a shared world superhero anthology she's calling The Protectors; she'll gather the stories now (a paid market!) and find a publisher later. Paige also sold her first non-subgenre story to Space and Time magazine, got interviewed by a UK erotica publisher called Xcite books, and her story collection Bare Throat, Naked Hunger got a new cool cover illustration. Wendy Wheeler was interviewed on film for a Making Of documentary about DEEPER & DEEPER, the indie movie she did story development on. Nicole Duson sold her story "The Simplest Equation" to Space and Time also.
Winter 2009/10
Allen Wise sold a story to the anthology Bitter End Nautical Tales of Terror. Patrice Sarath created a SlugTribe page on Amazon. Ricardo Bare sold "The Rat Burner," a story he'd posted on Slugs OL for critique, to Shock Totem magazine. Matthew Bey sold "Anasazi-35" to Fusion Fragment OL SF magazine. Kevin Jewell sold "Holiday Party Subjective" to Everyday Fiction. Nicole Duson sold Post: Apocalyptic to Big Gulp and a slipstream story to an anthology to be named published by 3Crows Press. Jennifer Evans and erstwhile SlugTriber Stewart Smith are going to Donald Maas' April conference in Oregon "Writing the Breakout Novel." The anthology with Paige Roberts' GLBT teen superhero story is finally coming out after a delay of three years.
Fall 2009
Two SlugTribers got immediate acceptances of stories in the new "Hint Fiction" anthology by W.W. Norton before it closed for submissions; congrats to Marshall Maresca and Nicole Duson (aka Nicky Drayden). Matthew Bey published the Lovecraftian homage "Beneath the Red City" in the e-Zine Free Innsmouth Press. He also had an immediate sale of his zombie story in The Moron's Guide to the Inevitable Zombocalypse that D.D. posted about. Patrick Sullivan got to the finals in the Austin Film Festival screenplay contest with his script SAWDUST CAESARS, and his baby boy Declan arrived in August. Matthew Bey also got to semifinals in the same contest with his SF script THE DORM. Both guys had not written or submitted scripts before. Gabrielle Mathieu packed up husband and dogs and moved to St. Galen, Switzerland, for a job. Michael Trice and family moved to West Yorkshire, England, for his Fulbright Scholarship in communication at the University of Leeds. Wendy Wheeler's head premiered in a quick bus scene in the Drew Barrymore, Austin-centered movie, WHIP IT.
Summer 2009
Patrice Sarath's second novel in her Ace Fantasy series, Red Gold Bridge, came out in July and she's been setting up booksignings around town. The Space Squid guys held a zombie killing practice session in the parking lot of Frugal Bookstore, where D.D. Tannenbaum, Patrice, Patrick Sullivan and others were recorded doing mayhem. Kevin Jewell was accepted to the Odyssey Fantasy Writers Retreat and had a new flash piece published at 365Tomorrows. D.D. will publish a theme anthology called 8 Minutes from contest submissions; deadline is 12/31/09 and final judge will be Mike Resnick. D.D. also sold "The Hole that Max Found" to M-Brane. Wendy Wheeler was accepted in the juried Hawaii Writers Retreat in August in master-level screenwriting. Wendy also got the awesome writer Neal Barrett Jr a screenwriting job with an Austin indie producer. Patrick and Tiffany Sullivan are expecting their first baby in August.
Winter 2008 / Spring 2009
Paige Robert's book of sexy vampire short stories, Bare Throat, Naked Hunger, was top March pick for the reviewer on Dark Diva Reviews. Michael Trice was awarded a research grant to live in the UK for a year and study the relationship of Wiki sites to creativity. Marshall Maresca had a 10-minute play in the Austin Scriptworks project called Out of Ink. Allen Wise left Austin for San Antonio where his newly-minted PhD wife Kwai got a job. SlugTribers got a special invitation from the Austin Film Festival to a free pre-screening of a retro Hollywood Scifi Monster movie, Alien Trespass. New SlugTriber Brett Bishop, who recently retired from Motorola, died peacefully in his sleep in January.
Fall 2008
Paige Roberts got a great review of her book, Bare Throat, Naked Hunger on Erotica Revealed. New SlugTriber Kevin Jewell published a flash fiction story in online 'zine Everyday Fiction. Erstwhile member Leslie Forbes climbed Maachu Pichu for her birthday. Several members (Shlomi Harif, Jennifer Evans, Kevin Jewell, Leigh Berggren, Marshall Maresca, ... ) did the NanoWriMo thing in November, where they attempted (some succeeded) to write a novel in one month. Fresh from winning "Best Chum" in the Austin Chronicle Best of Austin Awards, the SpaceSquid guys had a "thankful" reading at the Frugal Bookstore for Thanksgiving, where Fred Stanton, Paige Roberts, Patrice Sarath and Wendy Wheeler, among others, read from their works. Patrice Sarath's novel Gordath Wood was a Top Ten Pick for December 2008 in the Paranormal Romance Reviewers' Blog. Space Squid and RevolutionSF accepted a poem from Wendy Wheeler called "A Genre Take on Christmas;" when asked to read it for a podcast, Wendy revealed it was actually set to music, inveigled the SlugTribe to sing along, and the a capella podcast is up for all to hear.
Summer 2008
Jennifer Evans and Wendy Wheeler participated in a week-long writers' retreat in Cape Cod, missing some of the hot Austin August weather. Another ArmadilloCon came and went with many members of the SlugTribe on panels and/or reading, but SlugTribe participation was snubbed for the writers' workshop, so that was the end of an era. The Space Squid guys had a party at the con to celebrate a special issue of their 'zine with a color cover, paid for by the Mushroom Men game designers, who also co-sponsored a story contest. Howard Waldrop read a few lines from his "Ugly Chickens" story from his hospital bed over a friend's cell phone; it was at a Waldrop workshop that the SlugTribe was formed in 1985. Matthew Bey published "Windigo Farm" in Dredtales, a story he'd workshopped through the SlugTribe many years back. SlugTribe list host Earl Cooley had to return to the hospital to fix a stubbon infection, but is better now. Shirley Crossland was back in the market for a tech writer job. Another long-ago member, Mike Canales, returned from many years in Hollywood where he was a Disney Fellowship winner for screenwriting; he says he got his story structure down from his days in the SlugTribe. Another ex-SlugTriber, Shawn Walton quit her job at PlanView, moved to the country and took up organic farming. Michael Trice coordinated a wiki study of collaborative writing and editing, with participation from SlugTribe members, for his masters classes at Texas State. Wendy Wheeler's retelling of Beauty and the beast, "Skin So Green and Fine," will be used at Florida International University for a course in the development of syncretism in religions.
Spring 2008
The annual Nebula Award Banquet was held in Austin April 25-26, and the FACT group assigned a special table for the SlugTribe! In addition to the networking and sightings of SF/F royalty (Connie Willis, Nancy Kress, Michael Moorcock, Joe Lansdale, Michael Chabon, ...), Patrice Sarath set up a table for the Cryptopolis people to sign their anthology at the Friday night authors' event. Also on the same weekend, the Space Squid guys held a special flash fiction writing challenge and party, which was won by Paige Roberts with Patrick Sullivan placing third, to promote and distribute a new issue of their magazine. Fred Stanton, who works as IT support for the Austin Chronicle, was interviewed about the weekend and SlugTribe. Elizabeth Moon, erstwhile and founding member, was also confirmed as vice president of SFWA on Nebula weekend. Allen Wise moved to San Antonio for Kwai's new career, now that her PhD is complete. Robert Read, PhD, made his first sale to Oddlands Magazine with a story workshopped in the group. Paige Roberts' erotic fantasy anthology, Bare Throat, Naked Hunger, just came out from e-Book publisher Midnight Showcase, several stories of which we workshopped. Erstwhile member Jay Lake had colon cancer surgery in May, but has a good prognosis; also his new Tor novel Escapement was reviewed positively in the Washington Post. Jayme Blaschke was announced as the new Communications & Marketing Director of SFWA. Space Squid announced a short story contest based on the locally-based PC game Mushroom Men. Howard Waldrop, at whose workshop the SlugTribe was formed, had quadruple bypass heart surgery in Austin in June. Prime Books is reissuing Silver Birch, Blood Moon, a dark retelling of fairytales, which has a story by Wendy Wheeler as well as by past members Karawynn Long and Susan Wade. Patrice Sarath has had several booksignings of her first novel, In Gordath Wood.
Winter 2007
Fred Stanton sold "The Secret History of Xanadu" to The Asylum, an online magazine. Robert Read, PhD's 10-year-old daughter sold a story to Stone Soup, beating her father to a first sale. Matthew Bey, Gary Eakman and Kyle Patrick are all three semifinalists in the Writers of the Future Contest for the quarter. Russ Williams returned from Poland with his new fiancee Anna for an Austin visit, and there was a BBQ potluck to honor him. Patrice Sarath, who just put up her own Website, got the art for the cover of her novel Gordath Wood coming out from Berkley/Ace and it has the right breed and color of horse on it! Jay Lake's first novel published by a major press, Mainspring, made the Nebula semifinals. Wendy Wheeler's fantasy script Heaven & Nell that was workshopped through SlugTribe is under consideration by Grade A Productions (who are also working on a project with George Clooney). William Browning (Bill) Spencer will have a story in the Year's Best Horror collection ("The 10th Muse"); it's also up for a Bram Stoker Award. Allen Wise has the story of the month (Feb) in Blazing Adventures e-Zine, called "Black Shores."
Fall 2007
This Website finally got its threaded discussion / Internet BBoard working. The plan is to support virtual critique groups by posting stories and reviewing online, but we're still working out the kinks. Patrick Sullivan was engaged by RevolutionSF.com to review this year's Fantastic Fest, a fantasy/horror movie filmfest. Paige Roberts was introduced to Eternal Press at ArmadilloCon by Patrice Sarath, and sold them multiple e-books. She also sold an e-book, Midnight Raid and Fire and Ice, through Eternal Press, out of Australia. Allen Wise was invited by Blazing Adventures to write another Lovecraftian story for them, and Gluten Lumps Chilling Tales bought his high seas fantasy story. Wendy Wheeler's fantasy script HEAVEN & NELL, workshopped within the SlugTribe, got to the top 10% in the 2007 SlamDance and Cynosure contests. New member Matt Patterson has agent Cameron McClure w/Donald Maas reading his novel again now that he's completed her requested edits.
Summer 2007
Carla
Feldpausch-Siegle's novel Allelea won first place in the science fiction
category of the Writer League of Texas novel contest,
earning her serious interest from agents and packagers at
the conference. Paige Roberts just sold "Tiger, Tiger" to an anthology yet
to be named published by Xcite Books in England. Founding
member Elizabeth
Moon won the
Robert
A. Heinlein Award.
Patrice
Sarath sold a
two-book contract (Gordath Wood, which we critiqued, is book one) to Susan
Allison at Berkley/Ace Publishing through her new agent. The
Cryptopolis people, all of whom were once SlugTribers,
self-published their own anthology, Tales from the Hidden City.
The Space
Squid guys put
out volume 4 in their 'zine in time for ArmadilloCon and had an aspiring cover girl
invigorate their DilloCon party by showing up with her
friend in burlesque costumes. Jay Lake, erstwhile member, got a review of his Tor
novel, Mainspring, in the LA Times. Mike Brotherton, PhD, another erstwhile member,
coordinated and hosted Launch
Pad, a NASA-funded
astronomy workshop for SF writers at the University of
Wyoming.
Spring 2007
Patrice
Sarath and
Jayme
Blaschke will
co-coordinate the August 10, 2007 DilloCon
Writers Workshop.
Patrice now has an agent for her fantasy novel and just sold
a story to Apex. Paige Roberts sold two stories to two anthologies so far,
including the Super
Queer-O's
alternative superheroes antho. Patrick Sullivan sold his horrific dystopia clown story
to Alien
Skin magazine. It
appears, after a year of earnest courting of Joshua Bilmes,
Allen
Wise will soon
have an agent for his fantasy novel, Wolf and Maiden. Joshua was also interested in
reading Fred
Stanton's SF
novel. Matthew
Bey hosted a film
restrospective of his own home movies at a party in
February.
Winter 2006
Allen
Wise sold "The Day
I Quit" to Androids
III anthology.
Matthew
Bey sold "Flesh
Feast" to Undead
III.
Wendy
Wheeler threw a
last-minute New Year's Party where several SlugTribers
glutted themselves on delicious chili and whatever they
could stick into the mesmerizing chocolate fountain.
Patrick
Sullivan and his
wife wrote, cast, directed and produced a short film based
on a
story he published on RevolutionSF.com.
Fall 2006
Austin hosted the
World Fantasy
Convention in
November, an excellent opportunity to meet and greet
editors, writers and erstwhile SlugTribers. Both
Jay
Lake and
Leah
Cutter came back
to town; Jay coordinated a BBQ dinner at the Salt Lick to
meet old and new members. Wendy Wheeler had Charles deLint and Mary Ann
Harris for
houseguests again during WFC, which gave her opportunities
to get to know Charles Vess and his wife Karen better. Several SlugTribers also did readings
(Patrice Sarath,
Jay Lake) and
participated in panels (Steve Wilson, Wendy Wheeler, etc.). Jennifer Evans polished her novel pitch for Schmooks, accomplished doing it with three editors at
WFC, and the editor of Nightshade Books asked her to send it. Allen Wise's "Beyond the Great Tomb in
Kazernan" came out in Cthulhu Express. Matthew Bey, David Chang and Steve
Wilson put out
volume 3 of Space
Squid and had a
billiards party at the Fox & Hound pub to celebrate.
Ancient History
- Several SlugTribers
read flash fiction at a downtown pub to celebrate issue
#2 of Space
Squid.
- Jane Hixson got an
Honorable Mention in the 2005 Writers of the Future
contest.
- Patrice Sarath sold
her story "The Gig in the Hall of Kings" to a specialty
coffee-focused anthology out of the U.K.
- Wendy Wheeler read her
vampire erotica story "Desiree's Shadow" at the Halloween
2004 meeting of the Writers League of Texas.
- Matthew Bey got an
Honorable Mention in the 2004 Writers of the Future
Contest.
- Teresa McGarry got our first self-designed and self-published anthology, Last Writes, into the rare book collection of UT's Perry-Castaneda Library.
- As I have time to
look back over notes from 20+ years (!!) I may add more
to this. -- Wendy
|
