Going West
GOING WEST
So, Viv and I are moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Why are we leaving Baltimore? Because I’ve gotten an extremely exciting policy position with the New Mexico Department of Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources. The job is pretty much a dream gig. It’s the sort of thing I went to urban planning school to be able to do. It’s wild that I’m getting to do it so quickly after graduating, and I’m going to throw myself into it as hard as I can. I want to work on climate mitigation and adaptation? Well, hell. Here we fucking go.
We’re moving in stages, because — eek — my start date is Sept. 9, and it’ll take us some time to wrap up our lives in Baltimore, so I’ll be on my own for the first couple of months. I’m trying to think of it as being the advance landing party, and not about the ‘being without my wife for nine weeks’, because my god, have I ever had enough of long distance (we started out being in Sweden and Baltimore, respectively, for the whole first year of our relationship).
But yeah. Going west. I’m going to miss being in easy distance of my city (o New York, I am never not yours), and easy visiting distance of all our East Coast friends, but don’t worry — we’ll be back often. And we’re both so very excited about this.
ALSO, SOME AWARD NOMINATIONS
#1: A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE IS NOMINATED FOR A DRAGON AWARD!
I’m delighted to share that A Memory Called Empire is nominated for a Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. This is really, really cool — I feel very honored to get a nod like this on a debut novel! Sadly I won’t be able to make it to DragonCon in Atlanta, but I’ve asked the brilliant Ruthanna Emrys (whose Deep Roots is nominated for Best Fantasy Novel!) to accept for me on the offchance that I win. Mostly I’m incredibly pleased that so many people wanted to have this book — which I never thought of as being the sort of thing that’d be popular, and continuously delights me that it is — on the ballot alongside things like the newest Expanse novel and goddamn Kim Stanley Robinson. Eee.
#2: “THE HYDRAULIC EMPEROR” IS NOMINATED FOR A WSFA SMALL PRESS AWARD!
This one is actually even more special, in a sense — “The Hydraulic Emperor” is my favorite piece of short fiction I’ve written, and I’ve already been honored to have it be reprinted in the forthcoming Best of Uncanny. So to get some specific recognition for it like this nomination from WSFA is endlessly lovely. Of course, I almost certainly can’t make it to Capclave, either. We’ll see, though!
NEWSLETTER
I have one!
I’ve swapped over to Substack, and I’m doing a weekly newsletter for paid subscribers, and a monthly (sometimes bimonthly) one for free subscribers. It’s called The Imago Machine, and you can sign up for it through the Newsletter link above. I hope you do.