●   I’ll never forget 2011 because it was the year I was nominated for my first major award, the World Fantasy Award, for my Black Static story “Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us.” I traveled to San Diego for the award ceremonies, did a reading, and got to lose to the amazing Joyce Carol Oates.  (It still makes me laugh that I was mentioned in the same breath as a multiple Pulitzer Prize nominee.)  Best of all, I got to share this experience with my fellow Fluidians N.K. Jemisin and Matthew Kressel who were also nominated.

●   In March, I co-taught a science fiction writing seminar, the Holodeck Writers Workshop (organized and hosted by the inimitable Tony Smith of StarshipSofa) with an esteemed staff consisting of Asimov’s editor Sheila Williams and writers extraordinaire Michael Swanwick, James Patrick Kelly and Gregory Frost.  I spoke about a topic near to my heart: the benefits and pitfalls of writing groups.

●   Two of my stories appeared in back-to-back issues of Interzone, both set in my Wergen Universe.  “For Love’s Delirium Haunts the Fractured Mind” came out in Interzone #235 (July-Aug 2011) (many thanks to Matt Kressel and Paul Berger for helping me come up with that audacious title, btw).  Rich Horton recently called it one of the best stories published by Interzone in 2011.  My novelette, “Tethered,” appeared in the following issue (Interzone #236) (Sept./Oct. 2011).  Both of these stories were accompanied by haunting illustrations of the Wergens by Ben Baldwin, which I loved.  They are my sixth and seventh stories, respectively, to appear in the acclaimed British mag.

●   I was honored to learn that David Hartwell & Katherine Cramer recently selected “Tethered” for their annual Year’s Best Science Fiction 17 anthology, published by Harper Collins, scheduled to hit bookstores in May 2012.  I’ve been a huge fan of this “year’s best” series ever since it debuted seventeen years ago (edited solely by David Hartwell at the time) so this was especially exciting news.

●   “Tethered” has also been long-listed for the British Science Fiction Award, which means that at least one member liked it enough to add it to the pool of about thirty contending stories from 2011.

●   My short story “All Smiles” appeared in Murky Depths #16 in March.

●   In November, StarShipSofa (No. 211) podcast my story “In the Harsh Glow of its Incandescent Beauty.”  It was narrated by J.J. Campanella, who gave a terrific performance.  Take a look at the ice-field and towering glaciers of Triton, illustrated below by Brian Mutschler!  That same story also appeared in the Starship Sofa Vol. 3 anthology with some amazing artwork by Timothy Booth.

Art by Brian Mutschler

●   I made my first sale to Poland, with “Tu Sufrimiento…” being translated and reprinted in the annual anthology “Steps into the Unknown.” I was particularly pleased that the story appears in the table of contents right next to fellow Fluidian Paul Berger’s highly acclaimed “Stereogram of the Gray Fort, in the Days of Her Glory.”

●   Two stories from 2010, “In the Harsh Glow…” and “Dance of the Kawkawroons” received Honorable Mention in Gardner Dozois’s Year’s Best SF.

●   These same two stories appeared at #6 and #7 respectively in Interzone’s annual Readers’ Poll.

●   ”Tu Sufrimiento…” received an honorable mention in Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year anthology.

●   Speaking of Ellen Datlow, I co-hosted the KGB Reading twice with Matt Kressel when Ellen was traveling and had the pleasure of introducing Kit Reed and N.K. Jemisin.

●   Czech Republic magazine X-B1 translated and reprinted “In the Harsh Glow…” in its January 2011 issue and informed me recently that it will be republishing “Dance of the Kawkawroons” in an upcoming issue in 2012.

In sum, not a bad year.  My 2012 resolution: to improve my story output and get closer to finishing my collection of interrelated Wergen stories.

Making the news even more sweet was that two of other nominees included members of my writing group, Altered Fluid.  Nora Jemisin was nominated for her much-heralded fantasy novel The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.  This completes the trifecta for that amazing novel: nominations for the Hugo, the Nebula and the World Fantasy Award!  (And also winner of the Locus Award for Best New Novel, ho-hum.)  And my friend, the multi-talented Matt Kressel, was nominated in the Special Award, Non-Professional Category for his tireless work with Sybil’s Garage and Senses Five Press.  (Way to go, Matt!)

My nominated story, “Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us” appeared in Black Static #18, another slick issue put together by the incomparable Andy Cox.  Needless to say, I owe my writing career in great part to Andy, who also puts out Interzone where I’ve published a slew of stories since 2006.   I really don’t know where I’d be without Andy’s support throughout the years. Thanks, Andy!

In “Tu Sufrimiento ” I used a radically different voice than I’ve ever tried before in my fiction.  My Dominican protagonist, Edgar, speaks in “Spanglish” and he lives in a bleak and frightening near future New York under the constant threat of terroristas.  Another source of terror are the “justice gangs” that roam the streets hunting  down what they deem to be potential threats.  Edgar is settling into his new high-security apartment when he’s starts to hear a moaning in his head, the painful cries of a voice seemingly coming from the building’s basement — a basement that doesn’t exist.  Despite the near future setting, “Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us” is most definitely horror, with a political bent.  (But I’ll let others discuss the politics of the story).

There have been several in-depth reviews of the story, which do get into the politics.  In what is just a small excerpt of his thorough review over at Trumpetville, Pete Tennant makes the following observations:

“[W]hile the story might take side swipes at the legacy of the Bush administration and the moral contortions of the so called “War on Terror”, it also does something far more basic, by turning the mirror on the reader and asking exactly what we would be prepared to do to protect ourselves, our loved ones. What do we do when such questions aren’t simply intellectual conundrums but as here, as for Edgar, vital concerns that require us to steep our own hands in blood, to rend and tear the flesh of another, to sacrifice our own innocence on the altar of pragmatism so that others will be spared.  The last line of the story is, “‘We’re safe,’ he says.”, and it’s left for the reader to wonder at the terrible cost of that security, whether life at any price is a bargain well made.

Rivera doesn’t have any answers to give, and perhaps there aren’t any, but he poses the question in powerful terms, with no turning away from the savage and appalling consequences of the story’s dialectic, and for that he is to be commended.”

And Jonathan McCalmont in SF Signal writes:

[A] brilliant meditation upon the role of magical thinking in our political culture. “Tu Sufrimento Shall Protect Us” explores the idea that, in times of stress, humans retreat into atavistic beliefs about the need for pain and purification. …. Rivera asks: Is the acceptance of torture a result of ignorance or the product of superstition? Do we send people to be tortured because we genuinely believe that this is a reliable means of extracting intelligence or is it because we think that as long as someone out there is suffering for us, we will be safe? Rivera asks this question through the lens of South American culture, the story is elegantly written, beautifully atmospheric and filled with some wonderful local colour. “Tu Sufrimento Shall Protect Us” is not only the strongest story in the issue, it is also one of the most atmospheric, disturbing and thought-provoking short stories I have ever encountered.

Also, Sharon Campbell at Tangent Online provided a thorough review of the story. (“Mercurio D. Rivera jumps nimbly between bystander, torturer, and victim in [a] fast-paced tale [where]…the wars and terrorists of this not-so-distant future have left everyone a victim in some way…. Tight, fast, dramatic, and tortuous.”).

Andy Cox has posted a copy of “Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us” over at the TTA Press website.  You can read it HERE.

Someone pinch me.

==============================================================================

World Fantasy Nominees and Lifetime Achievement Winners
The World Fantasy Awards Lifetime Achievement Winners for 2011 are Peter S. Beagle and Angélica Gorodischer. The awards are presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding service to the fantasy field.

The World Fantasy Awards nomination ballot has also been announced. Winners will be announced at this year’s World Fantasy Convention, to be held October 27-30, in San Diego CA. (Lifetime Achievement winners are announced in advance of the event).

Nominees are:

Best Novel

Zoo City, Lauren Beukes (Jacana South Africa; Angry Robot)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
The Silent Land, Graham Joyce (Gollancz; Doubleday)
Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada; Roc; Harper Voyager UK)
Redemption In Indigo, Karen Lord (Small Beer)
Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)

Best Novella

Bone and Jewel Creatures, Elizabeth Bear (Subterranean)
The Broken Man, Michael Byers (PS)
“The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon”, Elizabeth Hand (Stories: All-New Tales)
The Thief of Broken Toys, Tim Lebbon (ChiZine)
“The Mystery Knight”, George R.R. Martin (Warriors)
“The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window”, Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer 2010)

Best Short Fiction

“Beautiful Men” , Christopher Fowler (Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels and Heavenly Hosts)
“Booth’s Ghost”, Karen Joy Fowler (What I Didn’t See and Other Stories)
“Ponies”, Kij Johnson (Tor.com 11/17/10)
“Fossil-Figures”, Joyce Carol Oates (Stories: All-New Tales)
“Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us”, Mercurio D. Rivera (Black Static 8-9/10)

Best Anthology

The Way of the Wizard, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Prime)
My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, Kate Bernheimer, ed. (Penguin)
Haunted Legends, Ellen Datlow & Nick Mamatas, eds. (Tor)
Stories: All-New Tales, Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio, eds. (Morrow; Headline Review)
Black Wings: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror, S.T. Joshi, ed. (PS)
Swords & Dark Magic, Jonathan Strahan & Lou Anders, eds. (Eos)

Best Collection

What I Didn’t See and Other Stories, Karen Joy Fowler (Small Beer)
The Ammonite Violin & Others, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean)
Holiday, M. Rickert (Golden Gryphon)
Sourdough and Other Stories, Angela Slatter (Tartarus)
The Third Bear, Jeff VanderMeer (Tachyon)

Best Artist

Vincent Chong
Kinuko Y. Craft
Richard A. Kirk
John Picacio
Shaun Tan

Special Award, Professional

John Joseph Adams, for editing and anthologies
Lou Anders, for editing at Pyr
Marc Gascoigne, for Angry Robot
Stéphane Marsan & Alain Névant, for Bragelonne
Brett Alexander Savory & Sandra Kasturi, for ChiZine

Special Award, Non-Professional

Stephen Jones, Michael Marshall Smith, & Amanda Foubister, for Brighton Shock!: The Souvenir Book Of The World Horror Convention 2010
Alisa Krasnostein, for Twelfth Planet Press
Matthew Kressel, for Sybil’s Garage and Senses Five Press
Charles Tan, for Bibliophile Stalker
Lavie Tidhar, for The World SF Blog

I’ve been saying it for months, but I need to do a better job of posting here and I aim to be more interactive in the coming months.

♦  A thoughtful review of the StarShipSofa podcast of “Snatch Me Another” calls my story “dark and thoughtful and terrible, in the best possible way. Snatch me another story from Mercurio Rivera. 4.5 out of 5.”

♦  And Pete Tennant provides an in-depth analysis of “Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us” and makes the following observation:

“[W]hile the story might take side swipes at the legacy of the Bush administration and the moral contortions of the so called “War on Terror”, it also does something far more basic, by turning the mirror on the reader and asking exactly what we would be prepared to do to protect ourselves, our loved ones. What do we do when such questions aren’t simply intellectual conundrums but as here, as for Edgar, vital concerns that require us to steep our own hands in blood, to rend and tear the flesh of another, to sacrifice our own innocence on the altar of pragmatism so that others will be spared.

The last line of the story is, “‘We’re safe,’ he says.”, and it’s left for the reader to wonder at the terrible cost of that security, whether life at any price is a bargain well made.

Rivera doesn’t have any answers to give, and perhaps there aren’t any, but he poses the question in powerful terms, with no turning away from the savage and appalling consequences of the story’s dialectic, and for that he is to be commended.”

You can read the entire comprehensive review here.

As usual, I begin by noting some of the acclaimed films or fan favorites that didn’t quite make the cut this year:  The Oscar-nominated 127 Hours is a gorgeous-looking film but ultimately can’t escape the trappings of its limited plot; audiences understandably shied away from “the Movie About the Guy Who Cuts His Own Arm Off.”  Another Oscar-nominated film, Kids are All Right, is a good example of a movie that suffers from the high expectations generated by glowing reviews.  Annette Bening is terrific but the overall story left me wanting more.  Another great acting performance is delivered by Javier Bardem in Biutiful, and while I’m a big fan of director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, this is the feel-bad movie of the year, so bleak, so depressing, that like last year’s Precious it’s difficult for me to recommend.  At the other end of the spectrum, I appreciated Scott Pilgrim versus the World well enough for its flashy style and inventiveness, but its endless battle sequences grow tiresome fast.  Finally, Ben Affleck’s highly regarded crime drama, The Town, while well-executed, suffers from an unsympathetic protagonist and characters that appear to be in an F-Bomb-dropping competition (with exaggerated Bah-stin accents).

But enough stalling.  Here were my favorite movies of 2010:

10.  Winter’s Bone. A 17-year old girl (Jennifer Lawrence) sets out on a journey to find her missing father, who’s skipped bail, in this haunting film set in the backwoods of the Ozarks.  It’s difficult to believe that this story takes place in modern-day America and not in some other century or post-apocalyptic setting.  Both the film and Jennifer Lawrence are deserving of their Oscar nominations.

9.  Toy Story 3. Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and the rest of the gang are back in Pixar’s clever and touching story about the fate of toys abandoned when their child owner grows up.  Surprisingly melancholy, it still manages simultaneously to generate laughs while pulling at the heartstrings.  Is Pixar even capable of making a movie that’s less than great?

8.  Black Swan. In this edge-of-your-seat, psychological horror film, an ambitious ballet dancer struggles to embrace her dark side in order to master the role of the black swan in “Swan Lake.”  Natalie Portman makes a lasting impression as the troubled ballerina and Barbara Hershey is particularly creepy as her domineering stage-mom.   My only reservation is that the movie cheats – alternating between reality and delusion to “trick” the audience – and, as a result, becomes a bit one-note about three quarters of the way through.  Still, the soaring music, the great performances and the unsettling story make Black Swan unforgettable.

7.  Please Give. The year’s best indie stars Catherine Keehner and Oliver Platt as a married couple who purchase undervalued items at estate sales and mark them up for resale at their chic Manhattan furniture store.  When they look to expand their apartment by buying the unit next door owned by an elderly woman, they form a relationship with the unpleasant old lady and her two granddaughters (Rebecca Hall and Amanda Peet).  While short on plot, Please Give is an honest, slice-of-life movie that examines in an effective and understated manner the different ways in which everyday people deal with guilt.

6.  The King’s Speech. Colin Firth deserves the best-actor crown for his portrayal of King George VI, the stuttering monarch tasked with delivering an inspiring speech to his subjects in the days leading up to World War II.   When his wife (Helena Bonham Carter) engages the services of an unconventional Australian speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush), an unlikely friendship develops between these two men in this uplifting British drama.

5.  True Grit. The Coen Brothers resurrect the rollicking, beautifully shot Western in yet another movie, like Winter’s Bone, about a missing father and a young girl’s odyssey.  Hailee Steinfeld steals the movie as the unusually mature14-year-old on a quest for justice, and Jeff Bridges is terrific as well (though he delivers half of his dialogue in an incomprehensible growl) as the U.S. Marshal she hires to track down her father’s murderer.

4.   Inception. Hands down the year’s most inventive film, this science fictional “heist movie” stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the leader of a team of agents who enter the dreams of corporate rivals to hijack their secrets.  It is a classic Christopher Nolan film, a dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream “puzzle movie” in the vein of Memento, and easily the most talked about (and over-analyzed) movie in years.  Originality is such a rare commodity in Hollywood these days, who can blame the critics and bloggers for giving Inception so much attention?

3.  The Ghost Writer. This Hitchcockian political thriller set in rainy Martha’s Vineyard stars Ewan McGregor as a ghost writer hired to pen the memoirs of the former British prime minister.  When an international tribunal charges the former prime minister with war crimes, McGregor’s character finds himself ensnared in a web of mystery and intrigue that culminates in the year’s best and most surprising ending.

2.    The Secret in Their Eyes. A murder mystery.  A love story.  A compelling drama set in 1970’s Argentina.  A brilliant movie.  Last year’s Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film, which opened last January in the States, flashes back and forth between 1974 and 2000, telling the story of the relationship between a criminal investigator and a woman judge–and the old case that still haunts them.  A must-see.

1.  The Social Network. The top spot this year goes to David Fincher’s fast-paced biopic about the socially inept Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook.  The rapid-fire dialogue (courtesy of Aaron Sorkin, in fine form) crackles with wit and intelligence.  The film focuses on the troubled relationships between Zuckerberg and the friends who soon become his bitter enemies.  It’s an amazing accomplishment that a plot that consists mainly of deposition testimony and flashbacks can be so riveting.

Runners-up:  11.  The Fighter (Christian Bale steals the movie as the crack-addicted brother of a boxer (Mark Wahlberg) looking for Rocky-like redemption but held back by his dysfunctional family); 12.  Blue Valentine (affecting indie with stellar performances from Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams that tracks both the hopeful beginning — and heart-rending breakup — of a romantic relationship told through alternating present-day scenes and flashbacks); 13.  Inside Job (disturbing documentary that analyzes the underlying causes of the country’s financial meltdown – and the fact that not much has changed to prevent another such collapse); 14. Let Him In (a slow-paced, moody and evocative flick that focuses on the relationship between a lonely misfit boy and the girl vampire who lives next door).

I was sad to hear recently that Ikarie, a long-standing Czech SF magazine, came to an end.  Fortunately, the editorial staff decided to continue the magazine under the new banner XB-1. If the above cover is any indication, it appears to continue the high quality of its predecessor.  And, oh, “In the Harsh Glow of its Incandescent Beauty” is reprinted in the magazine’s latest issue.

I began the year with a bit of a bang — with stories in back-to-back issues of Interzone.  “In the Harsh Glow of its Incandescent Beauty” appeared in the January/February issue (#226).  It features my lovestruck aliens, the Wergens, who are assisting a man on a quest across the solar system to Triton to rescue his ex-wife.   “Dance of the Kawkawroons,” then appeared in the March/April issue (#227).  It’s a story about an avaricious human couple who break a quarantine around an alien world in order to plunder the precious eggs of a sentient avian species.  Rich Horton recently called “Kawkawroons” one of the best short stories published by Interzone in 2010.

In March, the Hugo Award-winning StarshipSofa podcast my story “Snatch Me Another,” pitting it in battle against a classic tale by C.M. Kornbluth.  Listeners were asked to vote for their favorite.  (I’ll admit that I was slightly embarrassed by the contest and voted for the Kornbluth story without even listening to it).   I also recorded an introduction to the story, explaining what inspired me to write it.

2010 also marked the first time I was published in a foreign language.  In May, Czech SF magazine Ikarie reprinted my novelette  “Longing for Langalana” (“Touha po Langalane”) It was a hoot reading the translated Czech reviews for the story, which were quite positive (or at least I think they were).  Ikarie also re-published “The Scent of Their Arrival,” my novelette about aliens that communicate by scent, and the mystery of the spaceship that orbits their world.  It was fascinating comparing the artist’s depiction of the aliens to the rendition of the same aliens by Interzone‘s artist.

In May, Beam Me Up, a radio show originating out of Maine, broadcast the Starship recording of “Snatch Me Another.” In June, Beam Me Up followed up with a superbly produced podcast of my Electric Velocipede story, “Dear Annabehls,” a story consisting of a series of letters to an advice-columnist in a future world where a device allows us to get anything we want — simply by snatching it from an alternate dimension.

In July, I was “spotlighted” over at Senses Five Press as one of the editors of Sybil’s Garage.  Also, in August I was interviewed over at Clarkesworld with my fellow Altered Fluidians about our writing group and the way we operate.

In August/September, my dark fantasy/horror story “Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us” appeared in Black Static #18, one of the preeminent horror magazines being published today.   It received a glowing review from SF Signal, the reviewer calling it “[A] brilliant meditation upon the role of magical thinking in our political culture… it is also one of the most atmospheric, disturbing and thought-provoking short stories I have ever encountered. If Rivera’s work does not get picked up by one of the Year’s Best anthologies then there really is no justice in the world.”  I’m trying to get T-shirts made with that blurb, but them’s a lot of words.

In September, I co-hosted the KGB Fantastic Fiction series with my buddy Matt Kressel when Ellen Datlow couldn’t attend.  This reminds me that earlier in the year, in June, I also had the pleasure of co-hosting the NYRSF reading with Jim Freund when fellow Fluidians N.K. Jemisin, E.C. Myers and Devin Poore all read their great stories.

Overall, not a bad year.

“Set in an apocalyptic world in which the government battles “Justice Gang” lynch mobs in the wake of a series of terrible terrorist attacks, this story is a brilliant meditation upon the role of magical thinking in our political culture. “Tu Sufrimento Shall Protect Us” explores the idea that, in times of stress, humans retreat into atavistic beliefs about the need for pain and purification….Rivera asks: Is the acceptance of torture a result of ignorance or the product of superstition? Do we send people to be tortured because we genuinely believe that this is a reliable means of extracting intelligence or is it because we think that as long as someone out there is suffering for us, we will be safe? Rivera asks this question through the lens of South American culture, the story is elegantly written, beautifully atmospheric and filled with some wonderful local colour. “Tu Sufrimento Shall Protect Us” is not only the strongest story in the issue, it is also one of the most atmospheric, disturbing and thought-provoking short stories I have ever encountered. If Rivera’s work does not get picked up by one of the Year’s Best anthologies then there really is no justice in the world.”

(Hence the need for Justice Gangs. )  Anyhow, that’s only an excerpt of the thorough and thoughtful (and quite flattering) review.  You can read the whole thing here.

And in another review, Tangent Online “predicts that this is the story from this issue that will stick with you the longest. Tight, fast, dramatic, and tortuous.”  Cool!

Finally, Colin Harvey at Suite 101 calls it “the best story in the issue” and writes: “Set in a near future New York in a world of ‘proxy wars’ and nuclear-armed terroristas, Rivera neatly reworks the classic scapegoat theme while peppering his narrative with Spanish. Outstanding.”  Thanks, Colin!

This is heartening since I continue to work on my collection of interconnected stories starring my tragic lovestruck aliens, the Wergens, who have it bad for humanity.  (There’s nothing sadder than unrequited alien love.:))  The second in the series, “In the Harsh Glow of its Incandescent Beauty,” appeared earlier this year in Interzone #226 and will be podcast in an upcoming episode of StarShip Sofa.

More people are reading “Langalana” as a result of this recent attention.  I came across this new, lengthy and very generous review which starts off by saying, “If an SF story could every make me cry, it’d be this one.” Suddenly, I feel motivated to plug on in the Wergen universe.