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We're pleased to announce that BULL SPEC SHORT #1 will be: Terry Bisson's "George."
Posted on 2009-11-17 at 17:41 by montsamu
The summer before George was born, Katie and I lived in a house on a high hill. The hill sloped up gently on three sides, covered with thick grass kept short by the wind; but in the back, behind the house, if fell off sharply, down a high, rocky cliff, to the sea. The house was right at the top, about thirty yards from the edge of the cliff, and all we could see of the ocean from there was its top edge, where it tilted up against the sky. The cliff was so high and the wind from the sea was so noisy that usually we couldn't hear the surf, even from the edge of the cliff. I would go there sometimes and peer down; there was no sound except the wind; and the surf moved in and out like great wings, beating against the wind and rock that pinned them down.BULL SPEC is pleased to announce that BULL SPEC SHORT #1 will be Terry Bisson's "George:"
Many of Terry's short stories are the stuff of legend and hearsay. "They're Made Out Of Meat" makes an at least monthly round of "Have you read this?" (or in the case of the short film based on it, "Have you seen this?") across The Internets, but it was "Bears Discover Fire" which won the 1991 Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Sturgeon awards for short story and which headlined his first short story collection, Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories in 1993. It was in that collection that I encountered "George" and it instantly became one of my favorites, and it was one another of the first previously-published works whose rights we started trying to solicit. Of the story, Terry wrote in his afterword for "Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories:"
I came to the short story both early and late. In 1964, after the birth of my eldest son, Nathaniel, I wrote a story about a kid born with wings. "George" won honorable mention in a Story magazine contest and made me fifty dollars. After a couple of false starts, though, I gave up the form entirely.
...
It was in the midst of writing these stories that I found "George" in the files of my literary ex-mother-in-law and read it, for the first time in years, with some trepidation. I was pleased to find that though I wouldn't write it again, I wouldn't change a word in it. Since it was noticed (if never published) by Whit Burnett of Story magazine, it is my connection with another era in literature; that also pleases me. And it is reassuring to me in another way.
I have sometimes felt that I was a gate-crasher in the world of SF, passing off odd mainstream works as fantasy and science fiction in order to get them published. "George" assures me that I have, in fact, for better or worse, been a fantasy writer from jump, engaged in a long process of coming home.Terry is up to too many things to mention in one little announcement, but of particular note are his recent interview of Kim Stanley Robinson for "Galileo's Dream," and an excellent new edition of his alternative history novel "Fire on the Mountain" from PM Press. For more info on these and a whole host of other things, visit his website.
Look for BULL SPEC's production of "George" online, in e-book, and audiobook, somewhere in the middle of 2010. We hope you will enjoy this story as much as we have.
Posted in announcements, benefit-short-announcements, bull spec short #1, george, terry bisson
We are now closed for submissions until 1 February 2010.
Posted on 2009-11-16 at 05:00 by montsamu
Thanks everyone, so much for your submissions. We have so very many excellent stories to re-read and consider, and are, frankly, a bit overwhelmed. So much in just 10 days! All this really means is (1) submissions from now forward will be returned unread; and (2) we hope to actually finish selections in a week to ten days instead of that window moving further and further forward as more great stories come in.
Posted in meta, status
Heads up: will be closing submissions for this reading period at midnight Sunday night EST.
Posted on 2009-11-12 at 21:09 by montsamu
We’ve received so many great submissions, and many other ones quite good, besides. We promised to keep submissions open for 10 days and Sunday night at midnight EST will be that minimum. To be fair to ourselves, our day jobs, our families, and the stories we’ve already received that we’d be happy to end up selecting, we’re going to close for submissions of original short stories at that time so that we can finish our selection process for this first submissions period.
So: keep ‘em coming until then! For the first few acknowledgements on days one and two we mentioned we’d hope to have responses in full by the end of the week, but with so many great submissions, our best guess is another 7-10 days or so after we’ve closed submissions for this reading period. If you’ve any questions where your story is sitting in our “process” (inbox, acknowledged, considered, shortlisted, etc.) feel free to query. We won’t bite. We gore and trample, sure, but not so much with the biting.
Posted in meta, status
We're pleased to announce that BULL SPEC NOVELLA #1 will be: Alan Smale's "Delusion's Song."
Posted on 2009-11-12 at 14:28 by montsamu
To control Branwell they had to subdue him. To subdue him, they chose to burn him. So, on the fifty-third day of the village’s isolation from the world, a day that might have been April 29th of 1846 if the calendar could be trusted, the farm laborers and wool-combers and idle-hands of Haworth took Branwell out of the Black Bull and incinerated him by proxy.BULL SPEC is pleased to announce that BULL SPEC NOVELLA #1 will be Alan Smale's "Delusion's Song:"
Samuel coaxed him from the public house readily enough with the promise of free bathtub gin at his home, but as soon as Branwell saw the grinning mob that awaited him in the street, he panicked and bolted.
I encountered this story in Panverse Publishing's all-original novella anthology PANVERSE ONE and it was one of the first previously-published works whose rights we started trying to solicit, though it took a bit of a twist and turn trying to find out who exactly to ask! Not wanting to give anything away in this lovely, well-crafted, literate and literature-aware story, it is teasingly introduced by Panverse Publishing's Dario Ciriello as: "In 1846, a space-time discontinuity has cut Haworth, Yorkshire, off from the surrounding countryside, and Emily is determined to discover the reason why..." and Bibliophile Stalker Charles Tan calls it "Particularly memorable" and that, of the novellas in the anthology, "If there's a novella that I'd nominate for an award, this would be up for consideration."
Alan Smale writes fantasy and horror, alternate and twisted history, urban fantasy and slipstream, with two dozen stories published in speculative fiction magazines and original anthologies. Born and raised in England, he lives in Maryland and works as an astrophysicist and data archive manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. In what is humorously referred to as his 'spare time,' he sings bass and serves as Business Manager for high-energy vocal band The Chromatics, and performs occasionally in community theater.
Note: There will be no English e-book or online text version of this story, as PANVERSE ONE is only recently in print, and we have no wish to hammer on its parade as a particularly cruel response to Alan's and Dario's generosity and flexibility in granting us the permissions we need to produce the story. On the contrary: to thank them for their willingness to bravely be our first production in our third "category" of non-original, non-donation works, please consider asking about it at your local bookstores and libraries, and/or buying it and supporting excellent novella-length original fiction, as it includes several other wonderful novellas, some of which we hope someday to give the BULL SPEC treatment to as well.
Look for BULL SPEC's production of "Delusion's Song" online, in e-book, and audiobook, as BULL SPEC NOVELLA #1 in either February/March or May/June. Thanks very much to Alan and Dario for their willingness to grant BULL SPEC license (Alan) and blessing (both Alan and Dario) to produce this work under these terms, and another thanks to Dario for reminding us with PANVERSE ONE that small publishing can still be great, and for his permission to use the PANVERSE ONE cover on this post while we get to work on some original art.
Update: We're pleased to announce that the English audiobook narration will be handled by Grace Castellanos. Grace, joining Alan as a native of merry-ole England, is an experienced narrator and voice actress, with documentary work as well as being the "Voice of the Administrative Office of the Courts" phone system in Raleigh. She lives in Durham.
Update: We've learned that PANVERSE ONE is also available in a Kindle Edition.
Posted in alan smale, announcements, benefit-announcements, benefit-novella-announcements, bull spec novella #1, delusion's song
We're pleased to announce that BULL SPEC ORIGINAL SHORT #1 will be: "Rise Up" by C. S. Fuqua.
Posted on 2009-11-11 at 16:37 by montsamu
Wynne shouted Bobby’s name as the guitar case in the backseat bounced against the ceiling, then back down.BULL SPEC is pleased to announce that BULL SPEC ORIGINAL SHORT #1 will be C. S. Fuqua's "Rise Up:"
Time suspended.
Undergrowth tore at the car, and a tree slammed into the passenger side. The airbags exploded.
It's been quite a ride over the first several days here at BULL SPEC, and this is a story which went directly from the inbox and did not pass "Go" on its way to becoming our proud choice as our first original short story. A well-paced and crafted story which is hard to squeeze into a "genre," it is loosely "contemporary fantasy" or "dark fantasy" as it weaves a bit of musical folk magic into a story of the love between a mandolin player and a bluegrass singer. Set against the Appalachians, we hope readers from the Durham area and around the world enjoy it as much as we did. This is the second story utilizing the Sharps & Flats music store and its owner in a secondary role to the plot. The first story, "The Sharps & Flats Guarantee," written and published in the late '80s, was chosen by Karl Edward Wagner to appear in the annual Year's Best Horror Stories.
Chris' published books include Big Daddy's Gadgets, The Swing: Poems of Fatherhood (2008 EPIC selection for Best Poetry Collection), Divorced Dads: Real Stories of Facing the Challenge, Notes to My Becca, Music Fell on Alabama, and Deadlines, a four-novel audio series. A collection of his short fiction stories is scheduled for 2010 publication by Mundania Press. His work has appeared in publications such as GOTHIC.NET, BRUTARIAN, SPACE AND TIME, DARK REGIONS, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, MAIN STREET RAG, PEARL, CEMETERY DANCE, BOGG, Year's Best Horror Stories XIX, XX and XXI, AMELIA, SLIPSTREAM, THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANAC, THE WRITER, and HONOLULU MAGAZINE. He makes his home and Native American flutes in Madison, Alabama.
Original music contributed by the author will be weaved into the narrations to set the mood and give the story a rich depth of character. We're happy to point our readers their way as a bit of a "teaser" for a story we really hope you all enjoy:
"Rise Up" -- http://www.fluteflights.com/CHRIS/Rise_Up_CSFuqua.mp3
"Rest Your Soul" -- http://www.fluteflights.com/CHRIS/Rest_Your_Soul_CSFuqua.mp3
"Mandostophales" -- http://www.folkalley.com/openmic/song.php?id=12176
Look for BULL SPEC's production of "Rise Up" online, in e-book, and audiobook as BULL SPEC ORIGINAL SHORT #1 in January. Thanks very much to Chris, and all of our other submitting authors, for trusting a new market with his story. We're still working through the process to pick story #2 this submissions period, and it's incredibly hard to pick just one. So please bear with us as we keep working.
Question: Due to some scheduling concerns, we may not be able to produce this in all languages and formats at the quality level we'd like by January. We'd love to see comments on whether folks would like to see simultaneous release in all formats/languages, or have these trickle out as they are available over the month, with a minimum "gravity" on the official release day. Love and kisses, sincerely yours, BULL SPEC.
Posted in announcements, bull spec original short #1, c. s. fuqua, original-announcements, original-short-announcements, rise up
Request for comments: a mutiny on the bounty.
Posted on 2009-11-11 at 15:05 by montsamu
We’re still tinkering with how we want to approach original works publication. (For benefit works, initial publication will be in Creative Commons BY-NC-ND or less restrictive at the author’s request.) First, again, we’ll never, ever sue or threaten to sue anyone for copyright infringement, etc. (Several reasons for this, let us know if you really want the speech on it.) What we’re trying to do is both find a way to (1) give us a chance at being the ‘authoritative’ source for the files for a short period, to try to scratch back to even on the budget and (2) communicate what we would like to have happen with the productions once they’re available, if we had our wishes, in a clear way, while also (3) communicating the author’s wishes as well for the story text itself, in a clear way.
One idea we’re throwing around is a hybrid timed/bounty system: for the first 30 days, or until incoming donations have met the author’s advance payment, whichever is sooner, to use an “all rights reserved” (update: or something not CC-derived which is nonetheless suitable) designation. After this time/bounty has been reached, (retroactively) re-release as BY-NC-ND or more lenient (yes, even commercial, share-alike, public domain, whatever) at the author’s option, and updating the production files to credit the story’s sponsors/donors/patrons/bounty-payers.
Please, authors, readers, community, let us know what you think of this idea. We’re not seeking to “enforce” copyright or licenses, or any of that verbage, just trying to communicate clearly both what we’d like to have happen and what the author would like to have happen with their stories and our productions. If it’s a terrible, confusing idea, we’d by default just go BY-NC-ND from day zero and “ask nicely” for productions not to be hosted or e-mailed elsewhere for that 30 day window where we’d like to be “the authoritative source” for the productions. After that: seed torrents, clog the intertubes with 30-meg e-mail attachments, host it on your server, etc. We’d just ask nicely (by default; some productions will be more lenient at the author’s discretion) that you not try to make money from it, not make derivative works from it, and to link back to us as the source.
We’re trying to be as commons-friendly as we can, while not forcing our authors to communicate intentions and desires other than their own. Thanks very much for any and all response to this RFC.
Posted in meta
Call for discussion: ads on the blog.
Posted on 2009-11-11 at 13:58 by montsamu
We don’t think we’ll need to do ads, and don’t particularly want to and may not anyway, but what do our communities think of some minimal ads on the blog (only: never in e-books or audiobooks) to help make sure we can break even and keep going as long as we can? We would treat any ad revenue for the site as if it were a direct donation to the site as described in the “UPDATE” portion of “The BULL SPEC dollar.”
Posted in meta
Contact information.
Posted on 2009-11-10 at 19:00 by montsamu
General:
Samuel Montgomery-Blinn, Editor & Publisher, sam at bullspec dot com
Mail: (advise querying first before sending ARCs, etc. but fun loot is always welcome)
Bull Spec
PO Box 13146
Durham, NC 27709
Posted in contact
Closed for reprint submissions.
Posted on 2009-11-10 at 18:02 by montsamu
We are now closed for reprint submissions. Our capacity for reprint production work is full for 6 months, and we’ll post an update when we re-open for reprints in about three months. Original submissions are still open and welcome.
Posted in meta, status
Insanity, we has it.
Posted on 2009-11-10 at 15:19 by montsamu
We would have liked to have this lined up for our “coming out party” last Friday, and it may be a tiny bit premature, but we’re in talks to provide video versions of some stories in American Sign Language, accept incoming video stories in American Sign Language, accept incoming stories in text or audio in Hindi, and provide text and audio versions of some stories in Hindi. There’s other bits we won’t mention yet as they would be even more premature, but things are COOKING, folks, and we couldn’t be more excited about some of them.
We’re also trying to finalize our process for providing physical media (CD, cassette tape, DVD, VHS, and print) on request for our productions for which we obtain rights, so that they can be available in places where high-bandwidth audiobooks are not. We’re also actively seeking a new team member to provide various Arabic-language roles, from Arabic first reader for incoming submissions, to rough draft translations for our secondary readers, to literary-level translations, to narration, so if you might be or you know someone who might be interested, please send them our way. We’re hoping to provide blank cassette tapes as well as some manner of receiving them as submissions in return, but again, still very early in how we can finance and process this.
Lastly, we are working through the details of being able to process charity-targeted donations both with full eligibility for tax purposes by the donor and with corporate (or personal) matching grants. It is a minefield of laws, software, and various other bits, but we’re navigating through it slowly. For now, if you want to donate in a tax-deductible way (varies by street/neighborhood/city/country/state/country/planet) don’t do it through us, please visit DURHAM LITERACY directly. We’d love it if you mentioned in the comments that you came from BULL SPEC but no worries either way.
It has been a crazy few days. Thanks again for the continued submissions and support!
Posted in meta
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