Agatha Clay is a struggling college student at Transylvania Polygnostic University, living with her adoptive parents and buried in lab-assistant drudgery. Her professors despair of her ever making anything of herself, but she has a certain something that keeps her a hairsbreadth from failure. Does she possess the Spark, that elusive mental catalyst that enables the elite of her world to transcend the laws of nature and turn insane ideas into unimaginable scientific power?

Why, yes. Yes, she does. Far from being a simple orphan lass, Agatha is the lost heir of the Heterodynes, one of the most powerful families of Sparks, a name that inspires horror throughout the world. Her birth parents, reformed mad scientists and crusaders against evil, disappeared when she was just a tot. So, when Agatha’s true potential and likely identity are revealed, she must flee for her life, pursued by the relentless Baron von Wulfenbach, the world’s most powerful Spark and de-facto emperor of central Europe.

It doesn’t help that she’s got sort of a “thing” for the Baron’s son, Gil.

There aren’t many comics that can lay claim to a Hugo Award. In fact, there’s only one so far. This one. Girl Genius is Phil and Kaja Foglio’s garish, audacious, ridiculous, delightful romp through the charms and excesses of steampunk, a genre featuring all the preposterous dreams of Victorian mad science gone twistedly and horribly right. Agatha Heterodyne, Girl Genius, is an anomaly in this world, a madgirl who, though sometimes carried away by her gift and the thrills of Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, is an honest, caring person who just wants to be left alone to make the world a better place. Her heroism and ethical compass influence people around her for the better.

Unfortunately for Agatha (and thankfully for us), the world is not about to leave the heir to the Heterodyne empire alone for a second. She tumbles from one misadventure to the next, emerging triumphantly, and mostly-unscathed, thanks to her ingenuity, good-heartedness, and a chorus of loyal, eccentric friends.

Phil Foglio’s artwork is a loud, boisterous tribute to all things clockwork and the classic monster movies of the ’40s and ’50s. You’ll encounter bizarre mutations, robots small and large, death rays, gigantic airships, and all manner of ill-advised medical and mechanical experiments. There are so many wry gags peppered among the incredibly-detailed backgrounds and costumes that I’ve given up trying to find them all.

The comic is archived online, beginning at http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20021104, and you should read it from the beginning to avoid hopeless confusion. Start with the new-reader orientation at http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/info/newreader.php for best results. Print compilations of the comic are also available at the Studio Foglio online store.

Phil Foglio, his wife Kaja, and other partners-in-crime regularly perform live radio-theater versions of Girl Genius episodes for sci-fi conventions, and some of them are available online at http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/radio/radio.php. Funny stuff.

I’d rate the comic at about a PG-13 for occasional innuendo and, as the authors warn, some non-explicit “running about in Victorian underwear.” There’s also a fair bit of cartoon violence, including ghoulish deathtraps and the casual vaporizing of hapless minions. Mid-teens and up.

Here’s what readers are saying about The Muse, in review comments gleaned from Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com:

“What would you do to fulfill your artistic dreams? Fred Warren offers a humorous, yet mysterious, twist on the journey to success that warns: if the deal is too good to be true, it likely is. The Muse is unique and imaginative.” — NovelTeen Book Reviews

“I give The Muse two thumbs up, with a gold star for family friendliness, a gold star for originality, a gold star for plot, and a silver star for characters. Plus, a first place ribbon for Fred Warren’s first novel, and a shiny red apple for Splashdown books for taking a chance on a new writer.” — T.W. Ambrose, Editor, Digital Dragon Magazine

 ”Fred Warren’s debut is great. I am a new reader in this genre. I found the book to be fun, fast-paced, and an excellent read.” — L. Hooker

“Fred’s book is a fast read that I could not put down until I reached the end.” — Paulette Harris

“The strength of the story lies in Mr. Warren’s well developed characters. He has a great cast, and they are well written. Their interaction provides much of the story’s spark.” — R.L. Copple

“The dialogue is snappy, the action is taut, and the family emotion is strong and real.” — Steven Rzaza

“…beyond the fast paced chapters, great dialogue and fantastically magical climax is the soulful inner journey of the main character that so many stories seem to lack these days…A truly impressive debut novel” — Kirk Outerbridge

“Fred Warren’s deftly-designed characters and well-developed scenes will draw in a variety of readers and carry them along for the ride.” — Cathi

Have there been negative comments? Sure. Nobody likes to dwell on criticism–I had a boss once who counseled me to avoid “going camping with the boys who don’t like you.” However, I’m a big believer in truth in advertising, and happily, criticism so far has been mostly in the vein of wanting more of what’s there already. The buildup to the main action and confrontation between good and evil is a little slow for some. A few folks wished I’d spent more time in the realm of imagination. A couple of characters could have been more nuanced or complex. All valid comments, and great feedback that I will use in my future writing.

Most of the feedback on The Muse so far has been very simple and encouraging. “I enjoyed the book–I couldn’t put it down.” Regardless of how the outside world measures success or failure, when I hear people say things like that, I know I’m at least on the right track.

If you’re interested in picking up a copy (and it’s a great gift for the frustrated writer or adventurous reader on your Christmas list), both Barnes&Noble and Amazon are offering their usual discounted/free shipping on holiday orders, so this is a great time to buy.

Lo/Rez is the hottest rock band on the planet, but their fan club is horrified by rumors that Rez, the band’s lead singer, intends to marry Rei Toei, a Japanese idoru, an “idol singer.” The problem is, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill Tokyopop princess–Rei Toei is a software agent, a complex amalgamation of computer code that simulates a human being. The Seattle branch of the Lo/Rez fan club is disturbed enough to send one of its members, fourteen-year-old Chia McKenzie, to Japan to investigate. Enroute, a strange woman gives her a package to carry through Customs, and Chia soon finds herself in a whole lot of trouble.

Meanwhile, data analyst Colin Laney is losing his job at Slitscan, a company that gleans, manufactures, and spins news about the rich and famous. Laney has a singular gift–he can intuitively spot trends developing within masses of seemingly-unrelated data. He tried to thwart the suicide of a celebrity’s girlfriend, an incident only he could foresee, and that action wasn’t in Slitscan’s financial interest. To make matters worse, Laney’s been offered a new job by a menacing representative of the conglomerate that manages Lo/Rez. Slitscan would like nothing better than to destroy Lo/Rez with the scandal of the century. If Laney accepts the job offer, he risks much more than the loss of Slitscan’s goodwill, and if he rejects it…well, let’s just say that’s not really an option. He’s caught between two powerful forces that covet his talent, an ability even Laney doesn’t completely understand.

Something earthshattering is about to happen, and Laney is the only one who can see it coming. He doesn’t know exactly what it is yet, but Rez and the idoru are at its heart. Is Rez just an eccentric rock singer who’s fried his brain with recreational drugs? Is Rei Toei something more than a fancy computer program? What’s inside that mysterious box in Chia’s purse? Inquiring minds want to know, and they’re willing to kill for the information.

In Idoru, William Gibson, the acclaimed father of cyberpunk and author of Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive, takes us once again to a near-future world where the line between the real and the virtual blurs. This time, he explores the nature of celebrity in the Information Age, a phenomenon not fully explained by either reality or illusion. In the world of Idoru, celebrity is a commodity, and its creation and destruction are a profitable business. Fans create a living mythology that shapes both the object of their adulation and themselves. Virtual reality and telepresence create autonomous societies within the infosphere invisible to the outside world and wielding enormous power. True artificial intelligence hovers just beyond the limits of technology, composed, as one character says, of the “aggregates of subjective desire.” When, and if, it emerges, Gibson asserts it will be in a place and of a form that no one would have expected.

Idoru is a gripping story, intriguing and suspenseful. My one disappointment was that all the characters, even the ones who were ostensibly pulling the strings, seemed to be wandering in a fog, pushed about by forces they couldn’t control or fully comprehend. Yeah, I know, life can be like that–a lot–but the story builds up an overwhelming sense of some guiding intelligence orchestrating events from the shadows that ultimately devolves into randomness. Remarkable and frightening things happen, but like Laney, who manifests his analytic gift without understanding how or why it works, I felt like Gibson never quite got around to telling me why these things were happening, or why they were so important and inevitable. There are hints aplenty, but I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, even at the end of the story.

On the other hand, I loved Gibson’s foray into the world of image brokers, fangirls, mafioso of various flavors, and a virtual world that seemed just as real and surreal as the physical world.  The characters were interesting and memorable, especially Rez’ security chief, Keithy Blackwell, a Tazmanian ex-con and one of the smartest and scariest hired goons I’ve encountered in a long time. He’s a complex character, and his ethics are, to put it mildly, ambiguous. Another character remarks that the most frightening thing about Blackwell is that “sometimes I find myself getting used to him,” and that’s a pretty good assessment.

Idoru was published in 1996, but it still feels fresh and plausible to me. Some of Gibson’s projections are very close to becoming reality, and a few are already here.

I’d rate the material at an R overall, for a few stretches of raw language, a couple of non-explicit adult situations, and some violence, mostly implied, but perhaps more frightening because it’s implied.

“Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters…“

As sometimes happens, when I stumbled across one cool story this time, I found two. The November and December issues of Apex Magazine feature two lovely, shattering, haunting stories about two sets of sisters by two of my favorite up-and-coming spec fic writers: Aliette de Bodard and Rochita Loenen-Ruiz.

In Ms. de Bodard’s story, “After the Fire,” a survivor of a global holocaust awakes from a nightmare-filled hibernation to discover her sister, and another nightmare, awaiting her.  Set in an alternate universe where the Chinese Empire never fell, the story weaves ancient Chinese traditions into a high-tech future, and wrestles with timeless themes of guilt and atonement.

In “59 Beads,” Ms. Loenen-Ruiz tells the heartbreaking tale of an orphaned girl living on the streets of future Cordoba who must pay a terrible price to save the life of her younger sister. Loenen-Ruiz paints a stark picture of a future world where the lines between rich and poor are clearer and more insurmountable than ever, and acts of self-sacrifice are not always rewarded as we would expect.

These are two outstanding works of short speculative fiction, but if you’re prone to midwinter depression, you might want to save them for a sunny day. Do read them.

The image above comes from eurekastreet.com.au, and accompanies a nice non-fiction piece about sisters by Prue Gibson. Also worth a read.

Another in a continuing series of nonsensical randomness. The “rules” are here.

907-4: Freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw–devilish boreal fairies, lacking banana peels to scatter, knead the damp patches on stairs and sidewalks into treacherous teflon deathtraps. With fearful caution, I pick my way through the icy minefield, but not carefully enough. Swish! Bang! Ouch!

Somewhere, somewhen, there’s a village with a peculiar steam house. Patrons come from miles around for a restorative, pore-opening steam bath, but the locals know there’s more to the place than meets the eye. The steam house can be a dangerous place, because it will bring whatever is lurking inside you to the surface, and we’re not just talking about sweat.

Fourteen-year-old Sisko enters the steam house as part of a rite of passage for the village youth. He emerges transformed, and with a mission. He’s given a ring inscribed with Hebrew letters that read, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” and along with it, the power to pray for, and receive, miracles.

Word quickly spreads of the young miracle-worker, and Sisko travels far and wide, helping everyone he can. He has adventures, many of them fraught with danger and deprivation. Always hovering in the background is the temptation for Sisko to use his power selfishly, to meet his own needs. If he succumbs, the blessing of the ring will become a curse.

Infinite Realities is an unconventional story written by an unconventional author. Some reviewers have called it an allegory, in the tradition of Pilgrim’s Progress, or Hinds Feet on High Places, and there are certainly some echoes of that kind of storytelling here. Sisko’s adventures are told in a series of episodes in which he confronts a particular problem, and each episode can be interpreted as a sort of parable about real life.

Mr. Copple is also an Orthodox Christian, which gives him a perspective that many readers, Christian or otherwise, may not have encountered before. It’s mostly expressed in the themes the story focuses on: the danger of pride and the corresponding importance of humility, the idea of faith as a journey that involves great personal struggles, the nature and significance of miracles, and the integral role of other believers in our growth and ultimate salvation. That’s a lot of heavy stuff, but Copple weaves it into an engaging story with a light touch. I finished the book with the sense that I had learned some important lessons along the way, but I’d need a few days to fully process them and understand them.

Infinite Realities is a quick read, only 97 pages in all. It ends with a short, insightful essay by the author about the relationship between fantasy and Christianity that provides a strong argument against those who would say that fiction in general or fantasy in particular is a frivolous waste of time.

Sisko’s adventures continue in the sequel to Infinite Realities, Transforming Realities, which I plan to read soon. For more information about R.L. Copple and his writing, check out his webpage at http://www.rlcopple.com/.

I didn’t put up a reading list for November–the only book I read last month was the CSFF Blog Tour selection, Curse of the Spider King.

To compensate, this month’s list is more ambitious. My mom-in-law sent me a little birthday money (thanks, Mom!), so I went book shopping.

Infinite Realities, by R.L. Copple – Episodes in the life of a young miracle-worker
Idoru, by William Gibson – More ghosts in the machine, from the father of cyberpunk
Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown – Well, it was a bestseller. Yes, I read The DaVinci Code. No, I haven’t seen the movies.
Confessions, by St. Augustine – I should have read this a long time ago. Plus, it kind of makes up for Angels and Demons.

My short story, “Angel Wings,” is up now at Digital Dragon Magazine, and is the featured story for the December issue. A little family conflict for the holidays–and the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Check it out…and the cover art jingle-bell rocks.

December’s banner features the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train. It tours the midwest U.S. and Canadian Provinces each year, bringing live entertainment to each stop and collecting food and cash for food banks across the U.S. and Canada. Over the past decade, they’ve raised about 4 million dollars and 2 million pounds of food donations. Cool and socially-conscious.

Like all trains appearing on this blog, the Holiday Train runs on subjective time, and it makes Christmas brighter for a lot of folks in the process.

You can find the original image on the website of the Town of Millet, Alberta, Canada.

Feeling festive this month, with quite a bit of good news.

Though I bombed NaNoWriMo this year, I did make good progress on two different novel projects despite a very busy November, so, all-in-all, I’m content with that.

The Muse was released this month, and is now available for purchase from Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and Splashdown Books (psst…makes a great Christmas gift!). I’m getting lots of encouraging feedback, both online and face-to-face, and the comment I’m getting most often is, “I couldn’t put it down.” That’s got to rank on the top ten list of “authors’ favorite feedback.” I’ll start linking review comments here soon on my page for The Muse.

“Of All Things, Seen and Unseen” was selected for the 2009 Residential Aliens print anthology, coming in January/Feburary 2010.

I gave several interviews this month, to Writing Career Coach, Examiner.com, and The Lost Genre Guild. I also had a fun meet & greet with some fellow writers in Colorado Springs.

Another story sale! “Pilgrimage,” a science-fiction short story about a human ambassador who must confront her own fears as she witnesses a bizarre alien ritual, will appear in Other Sheep, a new magazine of Christian speculative fiction premiering early next year.

Finally, my short story, “Angel Wings,” will appear in next month’s Digital Dragon Magazine. It’s a cautionary tale of parental angst and teenage rebellion–sort of a nightmare before Christmas. It’s listed below as a submission/acceptance for accounting purposes, but it’s actually a response to a solicitation from Digital Dragon requesting a short story from me. I figure if it was really lousy, they would have rejected it.

The November Scoreboard:

1 Nov: The Muse released by Splashdown Books

5 Nov: “Angel Wings” submitted to Digital Dragon

14 Nov: 9-day acceptance from Digital Dragon for “Angel Wings”

25 Nov: “Pilgrimage” submitted to Other Sheep

25 Nov: “Half” submitted to Every Day Fiction

26 Nov: 1-day acceptance from Other Sheep for “Pilgrimage”

Still waiting on a response from Books for Monsters for “Come You Back to Mandalay.” I’m thinking this one probably got a pocket veto, will query next month.

Upcoming Publications:

“Little Piece of Cloth” will appear in the 2009 Best of Every Day Fiction print anthology, coming in January 2010.

“Of All Things, Seen and Unseen” will appear in the 2009 Residential Aliens print anthology, coming Jan/Feb 2010.

“The Silver Tree” will appear in the next issue of Kaleidotrope, coming sometime between December 2009 and February 2010.

“The Chamber of Doors” will appear in Bards and Sages Quarterly, coming in April 2010.