Found a very nice review of “Watch Bees” by J. P. Wickwire in last August’s Tangent.
Not only a nice review, but one full of great quotes. Here’s just one:
“Watch Bees” takes place in an utterly engaging, but strikingly off-kilter world; full of characters doused in human potential, and whose voices establish themselves early on.
I had missed it back in April, but Indrapramit Das had very kind things to say about “Like a Hawk in its Gyre” in a review in Tangent:
Slowly and surely, we begin to care for this strange man and his creations, even as we realize that both are more dangerous than they seem, and this in itself is a delight.
Paul Cornell had some very kind words for “Watch Bees” in his Favourite Fiction of 2011 post:
Again, what becomes of America in the near future, where genetic engineering is available for farmers, but social order not so much. It’s not about the deadly bees that guard property from anyone whose biology they don’t recognise, or the desperate ways to get around that, it’s about how the world got here.
I can only be delighted to find myself mentioned among such company as Neal Stephenson, Carol Emshwiller, Kij Johnson, John Kessel. . . .
“Watch Bees” was in the August, 2011 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction.
In her “picks for the best of 2011′s short fiction,” Lois Tilton had kind mentions for two stories that appeared in Redstone Science Fiction, including one of mine:
Two good ones were “Like a Hawk in Its Gyre” by Philip Brewer and “Evoë! Evoë!” by Robert Pritchard.
She had previously reviewed the story, and the story itself is still available to read for free online at Redstone: Like a Hawk in its Gyre.
I woke up this morning to email from Alexander Shalganov, Editor-in-Chief of ESLI, an sf and fantasy magazine in Russia, saying that he wanted to buy reprint rights for my story “Watch Bees,” which appeared in the August issue of Asimov’s! (The name ESLI apparently means “IF” or perhaps “What if” in Russian.)
This ticks off a couple of firsts for me: First reprint sale and first translation into a foreign language.
I pick up a mention in the beta of the new on-line Science Fiction Encyclopedia, in the entry on Redstone Science Fiction:
“Like a Hawk in its Gyre” (February 2011 #9) by Philip Brewer delivers a soft but effective punch in portraying a future that’s not all it seems.
The story itself is available at Redstone: Like a Hawk in its Gyre.
An article I wrote for the Makin’ Money blog at American Public Media’s Marketplace went live last week. Check it out: Four steps to managing personal debt.
My Wise Bread post Live Where It’s Cheap was featured on MSN Money’s Smart Spending blog as Live where it’s cheap- MSN Money.
It’s always nice to see my work get a bigger audience.
Of course, with the Dow down 500 points again, I doubt if anyone noticed.
Lois Tilton seems unconvinced by the economic scenario implied by my story “Watch Bees.”
I got my contributors copies of the August Asimov’s! It’s a treat to see my story in print.
I haven’t read it yet, but of course I flipped through it. Seeing the “next issue” section of the new issue prompted me to check out that section of the previous issue, which turns out to be available on-line. It mentions my story, saying:
Another new author, Philip Brewer, gives us a stinging tale about how to recover from the end of life as we know it in “Watch Bees.”
I hadn’t noticed that before; it’s sure fun to see.
The new issue should go on sale June 21st.
