Since my last post of about a month ago, my first published fantasy story, “Where Virtue Lives,” has received several reviews.  Free SF Reader gave it 3.5 stars, the Internet Review of Science Fiction took issue with the inevitable seriality but called the story itself “A partnership of colorful characters…formed in a likely setting for entertaining adventures,” and Locus’s Rich Horton, whose reviews I quite like, said that “the main characters’ interaction is enjoyable and bodes well for further pieces.”

I’m also happy to report that my story “Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela,” which appears in the about-to-drop Clockwork Phoenix 2, is mentioned by name in the Publishers Weekly starred (!) review of that anthology.

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In other news, I spent the first week of June in the mountains above Taos, NM, taking part in the Rio Hondo Writers’ Workshop.  Since Rio Hondo is very much a pro/peer workshop, my being asked (by the mighty Walter Jon Williams) to join the fun was a big deal for me.  I met amazing, accomplished genre writers who’ve been at this a lot longer than I have, I was able to read some of their brilliant works in raw form, and I got their takes on the first chunk of my in-progress Crescent Moon Kingdoms novel.  Plus, the from-scratch food — kebabs, gumbo, chili, bread pudding, etc. — was simply awesome.