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That´s the title of this SF story that Woody Allen just published in The New Yorker. Fine, ironic stuff - a good story like everything Woody does.

By now, everybody in the SF/Fantasy community has heard, in one way or another, of what´s being called now the Helix controversy: William Sanders, senior editor of Helix Magazine, sent a writer a rejection letter for one of his stories - which you can read, along with many of the exchanges that followed, here.

A few days ago, I got the news that a new webzine was created in the wake of all the proverbial shit that hit the fan. Here´s an excerpt of the text explaining the reason of its creation:

We are Helix writers who believe in a speculative fiction community that welcomes all readers--inclusive of all races, genders, and marginalized people of all backgrounds.

Transcriptase hosts reprints of our stories and poems originally published at Helix. During the controversy, some of us removed our work from Helix; others left it up. There are valid reasons to make either choice, and we hope you'll respect that we had difficult decisions to make. We offer our stories and poems at Transcriptase so that you can enjoy our work away from Helix, if you choose.

You can read the rest here. Enjoy and support.

A little brainstorm for the weekend.

Tor's new site marketed as Watch the Skies starts tomorrow. For the information we already have, it's going to be a mix of SF&F portal, blog, social network and magazine with original fiction. And based on their long gift marketing and the assumption that Tor, the big boss of genre fiction, will sure put a lot of money and effort in it, the site promises to be a blast! But will it?

So, the poll/meme here is: what are yo expecting from Watch the Skies? From a reader and writer perspective (if any writer actually reads this blog), how the site will impact on the genre market? Comment and discuss.

And just a reminder: those that have not downloaded one or any of the 25 free books given so far, Tor says all of them will be available again for a short time starting on the site's launch. There are great stuff there, like (my favourite) A Shadow in Summer, Mistborn and Spin.

UPDATE: SciFi Wire has details and talks with Tor's editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden. (Via SF Signal)

Reading right now: Blue War, to review right here, in a couple of days, along with some other pieces by Jeffrey Thomas.

Starting the current issue of Analog, to review in The Fix.

Just finished: Cormac McCarthy´s The Road, the typical SF book that dare not to speak its name. But a great reading all the same. McCarthy works with a Hemingway-esque economy of words that appeals to me. It appeals so much to me that I finished it and started immediately No Country for Old Men, also a pretty good reading indeed.

Also finished: Steampunk, the anthology. Soon to be reviewed in The Fix, but I must tell you: if you haven´t read it yet, what are you waiting for? Nuff said - for now.

Also read a few short stories running for Hugo - and some which were in the Nebula shortlist but did not make it, as the beautiful and sad Pol Pot´s Beautiful Daughter, by Geoff Ryman (which, incredible as it may seem, doesn´t have a website). More on that later.

The new issue of online magazine Heliotrope is out. Contents include fiction by Nick Mamatas, poetry by Anna Tambour and articles by Jeff VanderMeer, Ian R. MacLeod and Catherynne M. Valente. Download here.

I already have published it in my other blog, but I hadn´t written it in English yet: I´ve just got my first short story published in a foreign, non-Portuguese speaking magazine ever.

The story is loosely based in a tale written many years ago and published in my short story collection Interface com o Vampiro (in Portuguese, available for free download here), O Artista da Carne (literally, The Flesh Artist). A few months ago I rewrote it completely in English and submitted it to some magazines. I got some rejection e-mails, but that´s okay, it´s my first story in English, these things take time.

Even before rewriting the story (The Vampire and the Genomist, in English), I was exchanging e-mails with Romenian author and editor Horia Nicola-Ursu and he told me a friend of his was looking for stories to publish in an online magazine. I decided then to send it to him. It took only a month, but two weeks ago I´ve got an e-mail from writer Michael Haulica, editor of the online magazine Nautilus, telling me the good news: my story had already been translated to Romenian and would be published in a few days.

In the translation, the story is called Vampirul si geneticianul (o parabola). Even if you can´t read Romanian (even though it is a Latin language, it´s a bit hard to read, although I´ve been comparing the original with the translation and having a great time finding similarities between Portuguese and Romenian), I just wanted to share the news with you.

Thanks to Michael and to good, old Ugly Bad Bear Horia (who isn´t ugly at all, and certainly not a bad guy, on the contrary). And a special thanks to the translator, Radu Ganea.