writing

Brooklyn Books & Booze Author Book Fair

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

A new book fair in Brooklyn is coming up soon! I’ll be at the Brooklyn Books & Booze Author Book Fair with my books and some of Fantastic Books’ books and a bunch of other wonderful authors, including Marc Abbott, Liz Alterman, Sarah Branson, Crissa-Jean Chappell, Russ Colchamiro, C.S.E. Cooney, Randee Dawn, Keith R.A. DeCandido, M.M. Devoe/Pen Parentis, Lara Elena Donnelly, John Foster, Lara Frater, Tyler C. Gore, Fran Hawthorne, Carlos Hernandez, Karen Heuler, Kirk Johnson, Eskay Kabba, Kirsten Kashock, Nick Kaufmann, Barbara Krasnoff, Priscilla Oliveras, Aaron Rosenberg, Celia Seupel, Alex Shvartsman, Hildy Silverman, Su J. Sokol, Carren Strock, Ian Randal Strock, Denise Tapscott, Terence Taylor, Steven Van Patten, Michael A. Ventrella, and David Winner. We’ll all have books to sell and sign, from a variety of genres. There were also be discussions and chances to meet with editors and agents.

The event is Saturday, September 19, 2026, from 11:00am to 5:00pm at Barrow’s Intense Tasting Room, 86 34th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11232 (Subway: D train to 36th Avenue, then about a 4-minute walk).

Hope to see many of you there!

The Said Book

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

For years, I’ve been talking to beginning writers, both in solo presentations and on convention panels. One of the things all we experienced writers and editors tell them is to not use too many said-bookisms—that is, all those words one might use as a dialogue tag instead of “said.” And for all those years, to me it was just a term, one I never bothered to investigate, to figure out from whence it came.

I recently learned that the term “said-bookism” comes from… wait for it… THE SAID BOOK! Yes, there is an actual book called The Said Book, which is a thesaurus for the word “said.” And it’s got a subtitle big enough to choke a moose: “a compilation of substitutes for said, cross-indexed and arranged in groups as to the nature of the conversation, character, mood & action. For writers, readers & editors.”

At the time it was published—in the 1930s—apparently using the word “said” was a horrible thing that writers needed to avoid at all costs, so Harley Franklin Wight (he is credited as H.F. Wight on the original cover) put together this book to help them not write “said.” Now, the book is mostly a historical artifact, an oddity, and a look at a fashion from the past.

Due to its publication history, the book has been nigh unto impossible to find. Until now. I’ve found the book, corrected several mistakes in the original (including sections that were mis-alphabetized), and brought it back into print, for those of you whose writing is littered with too many saids, and who are looking for guide to all those other words. Or not. But it’s a fun look at the past. With a new introduction I wrote, just to put the book in a slightly wider context.

Science Fiction PLUS Convention (4th of 2026)

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

All the cool kids are doing it, so…

Here’s my tentative schedule for DragonCon, September 3–7, in Atlanta, Georgia:

Thursday at 10:00 pm (in Embassy AB Hyatt): “Eye of Argon, Again!” with Keith R.A. DeCandido, Esther Friesner, and Jean Marie Ward.

Friday from 8:30 pm to midnight or so (in the Hyatt’s International Ballroom): Fantasy Gather. This is the massive book signing and sale event. Come meet many authors, buy their books, and get them autographed!

Saturday at 11:30 am (in Embassy EF Hyatt): “Breaking into Traditional Publishing” with Melissa Olthoff, Steve Saffel, Anne Sowards, and Toni Weisskopf.

Monday at 1:00 pm (in Embassy EF Hyatt): “Writing Tiny: Flash and Microfiction” with David Boop, Darin M. Bush, Wayland Smith, and Sean Hylton Taylor.

That leaves me lots of free time, if anyone is looking for a chance to meet up somewhere in the throngs. I imagine I’ll be in the Westin bar (where the writers tend to hang out) Thursday late, Saturday and Sunday evenings. And I’ll have copies of my books available, especially at the Fantasy Gather, but also at my panels.

I know I’ll see many, many people there. I hope you’re one of them!

How am I doing?

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

Last night, I was at Readercon for about 25 minutes. I went to the hotel just to drop off the boxes of books which I’ll be setting up today. Then I returned the luggage cart, and in the forty feet I had to walk from leaving the luggage cart to exiting the hotel door to get back to the car, I stopped and talked with five people I know. (In other words, a standard convention: can’t walk down a hall without stopping to talk.)

Each of them asked how I was doing, and to each, I gave the same flippant answer I’ve been using for years: “I’m properly insane.” With those three words, I usually intend to convey the fact that I’m busy, doing many things, but they’re the things I should be doing.

But last night, getting ready for bed, I had something of an epiphany. Sure, I’m busy, but actually the answer to “how am I doing?” is “pretty damn good!”

RESISTANCE (the anthology I edited to help support the ACLU and Pro Publica) is doing well, and people are appreciating it.

Last week, I got a fan letter about PUNCTILIOUS PUNCTUATION.

I’m excited to be publishing Allen Steele’s newest novel, LEMURIA 7, on Tuesday.

I’m just about finished editing a really great book about film that I’ve been enjoying.

I’m excited to be working with a brand-new author on a two-book science fiction tale that I think a lot of people are going to like as much as I do.

I’ve got several more authors waiting for my close attention, most of them waiting patiently.

And in the few brief moments I give myself to do my own writing, it feels like I’m improving. And when I finish the stories I’m working on, I have some confidence I’ll be able to find an editor who agrees that they’re good, and wants to publish them.

I’m doing a job I want to be doing. My friends seem to value and like me, and I’m very glad to have them in my life.

And now I have to leave to go set up those books at the convention, because selling books and talking on panels to appreciative audiences is my day job.

Sure, I’m busy, trying to think in several different directions at once. But you know what? I’m doing pretty damn good!

Where are reviewers hiding?

~ ianrandalstrock ~ 2 Comments

When I worked for Analog and Asimov’s, we had a perennial question: Analog routinely outsold Asimov’s by five or ten percent, but when it came to awards time, stories from Asimov’s always got lots of nominations and awards, while Analog garnered almost none. We knew Analog readers actually read the stories, because they wrote letters and kept renewing their subscriptions; they simply weren’t people who were interested in nominating or voting for awards. And I felt badly for the writers who didn’t see that external recognition, but there was nothing we could do to convince those readers to get into the award-nominating and -voting mindset.

Now I’m experiencing something similar, but not talking about awards. I know Fantastic Books books are selling and being read. For instance, the anthology Resistance was the #1 new release in American Literature Anthologies on Amazon, it is selling copies, and several readers have commented to me on individual stories in the book. But like most of the books my company publishes, it was yet to see a single reader review on either Amazon or GoodReads, or LibraryThing, or anywhere else I can find.

In the modern bookselling world, reader reviews are important. They make books more findable, increase their visibility on the bookselling platforms, and apparently translate to better sales numbers. But I have simply not been able to figure out why my readers are among those who don’t post reader reviews. In the old days, at Analog and Asimov’s, those readers who wanted to comment on stories had to write physical letters, in envelopes with stamps sent through the mail, and they did: we received dozens of letters every week. But today, those reader reviews are as simple as “click here, click a number of stars, type a couple of words.” Literally, just four or five words is sufficient: “I liked the book.” or “The story with the AI was cool.” And yet, nothing.

So I’m asking y’all: how do you urge readers to write those reviews? Or for those of you who do: what urges you to write a review?

Research help needed

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

Looking for some research help. Specifically, I’m looking for any other religions with a concept similar to Judaism’s Shabbos goy.

For those who don’t know, a Shabbos goy is a non-Jew who is employed by Jews to perform certain types of work that Jewish religious law prohibits a Jew from doing on the Sabbath.

I’m not asking about the religious validity of the concept—whether it is allowed or not—just looking for other religions that might have a similar concept: someone not of the faith who is necessary to do things for the brethern that they are not themselves permitted to do.

Literary Abbrevs

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

Do you find it as jarring as I do, when reading fiction, if the narrator uses abbreviations rather than spelling out the words? Or, for that matter, uses Arabic numerals rather than spelling out the numbers (other than, you know, for ridiculously large numbers—there’s never any sense in spelling out two hundred ninety-nine million, seven hundred ninety-two thousand, four hundred and fifty-eight meters per second)?

What prompted this thought was a story I was reading, and the narrator’s voice says something about the intersection of Maple Blvd. and Elm Ave. In non-fiction or reporting, that’s fine. Indeed, it’s expected. But somehow, when I’m reading fiction, I find the abbreviations serve only to remind me that I’m reading words on a page, distancing me from the story I’m reading.

I find it even more of a literary turn-off when it occurs in dialogue, because nobody actually says “blivid,” so the writer really ought to spell out “boulevard.”

Is it just me…?

Electronic Punctilious Punctuation

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

I’m thrilled to announce that there is—finally—an ebook version of my latest book, Punctilious Punctuation. The book is so full of graphics, footnotes, special characters, and more, that I didn’t trust myself to turn it into an ebook, and had to get an expert to do it. Well, it’s done and it’s available!

You can get it directly from me/the publishing company on the linked page, or follow the links on that page to some of the major ebook retailers.

This is the book that Samuel R. Delany “really enjoyed,” and Joe Haldeman said contained “the best joke I’ve encountered today… well, the best grammar joke, anyway.”

The word “fulsome” is, to my ear, fulsome.

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

Should I just give up, or should I continue to cringe when I hear people using the word “fulsome” when they mean “full” or “large”? Because it grates on my ears. And yes, before I looked up this source, I hadn’t realized that the modern usage of just meaning “full” but with more syllables is actually the original meaning from the 1200s.

Dictionary.com offers the following on the word fulsome:

adjective

  1. offensive to good taste, especially as being excessive; overdone or gross.
    Example: fulsome praise that embarrassed her deeply; fulsome décor.
  2. disgusting; sickening; repulsive.
    Example: a table heaped with fulsome mounds of greasy foods.
  3. excessively or insincerely lavish.
    Example: fulsome admiration.
  4. encompassing all aspects; comprehensive.
    Example: a fulsome survey of the political situation in Central America.
  5. abundant or copious.

adjective

  1. excessive or insincere, esp in an offensive or distasteful way
    Example: fulsome compliments
  2. [not standard] extremely complimentary
  3. [informal] full, rich or abundant
    Examples: a fulsome figure
    a fulsome flavour
    fulsome detail
  4. [archaic] disgusting; loathsome

Note: In the 13th century when it was first used, fulsome meant simply “abundant or copious.” It later developed additional senses of “offensive, gross” and “disgusting, sickening,” probably by association with foul, and still later a sense of excessiveness: a fulsome disease; a fulsome meal, replete with too much of everything. For some centuries fulsome was used exclusively, or nearly so, with these unfavorable meanings. Today, both fulsome and fulsomely are also used in senses closer to the original one: The sparse language of the new Prayer Book contrasts with the fulsome language of Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer. Later they discussed the topic more fulsomely. These uses are often criticized on the grounds that fulsome must always retain its connotations of “excessive” or “offensive.” The common phrase fulsome praise is thus sometimes ambiguous in modern use.

A predicted date is rolling around

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment

When talking about writing science fiction, I usually warn authors not to put near-future dates into their stories, because they run the risk of being overtaken by reality. Matthew B. Tepper just reminded me that early in my career, I did put a date in a story, one that is arriving all too soon. In “How I Won the Lottery, Broke the Time Barrier (or is that ‘Broke the Time Barrier, Won the Lottery’), and Still Wound Up Broke” (which was published in the June 2000 issue of Analog), the narrator gets a message from the future, from March 16, 2026.

There are several predictions in the story that did not come true… at least, not in this universe. Nevertheless, I’m wondering if I should do something to commemorate the day, to kick myself for getting it wrong (although I guess it was successful in at least one way: I sold the story, which was the real goal).

I’ll be traveling to Massachusetts later that week, but March 16 is a Monday, on which I currently have nothing scheduled. Anyone want to celebrate the day by helping me try to open a 27-year-long wormhole, to transmit a little information back in time? Or do something a little more pedestrian, people-getting-together type of thing? Or perhaps the day before, which is a Sunday?