A 1984 graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop, Amy has been the moderator of the America Online Science Fiction Writers Workshop since 1994. She currently serves as advisor to the workshop. Her story "Jonny Punkinhead" appeared in the June, 1996 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. It received a fair number of recommendations for a Nebula award in 1997. Her short fiction has received several Honorable Mentions in The Year's Best Science Fiction, edited by Gardner Dozois as well as Mentions in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. Other short fiction has appeared in Talebones, and Zoetrope: AllStory: Extra. Her novelettes "Chromosome Circus" and "Mad for the Mints" were the cover stories of the January and July, 2000 issues of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. "Chromosome Circus" qualified for the 2000 Preliminary Nebula Ballot, which means that ten or more friends (including total strangers) recommended it for this honor, and it is nominated for a CompuServe HOMer award for best novelette of 2000. "To Kiss The Star," a personal favorite, appeared in the February, 2001 issue and was nominated for a 2001 Nebula Award. Look for a super-exotic Mayan jungle fantasy in Black Gate Fantasy magazine in September, 2001, and a lunatic novella (20,000 words), "Shakespeare in Hell," in the new online magazine Elysian Fiction. IMAGO, her first novel, is scheduled for hardcover publication this fall from Wildside Press.
She is the only four-time Finalist and one-time winner in the Writers of the Future Contest (1995-98). Her 1997 finalist story, "Jenny With The Stars In Her Hair," appears in the 1998 Writers of the Future Anthology. Her story, "My Son, My Self," won 3rd Prize in the first quarter 1998 WOTF, appearing in the 1999 anthology. She also writes articles and interviews for Speculations Magazine, "not just another parasitic growth on the butt of the industry," (actually, it's "For Writers Who Want to Be Read!") , and you might still find pieces from the Novel Advice online newsletter, or the monthly SF/F Industry newsletter for iUniverse and the Barnes & Noble microsite. She received her MFA in creative writing from Chapman University, Orange, CA, in May, 1999, and she teaches at Saddleback College as well as through Writers College.com online. She has been a member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) since 1995.
You can read an author profile in the July, 1999 issue of Tangent Magazine. This might not be there right now, but it will reappear soon.
You can read a few interesting reviews on the Tangent Online site, and on the SF site as well. It won't be there forever, but I actually am on the front page of the Bookbrowser.com web site with an interview and review of Without Absolution.
Cruel
Girl/switch.blade
See the premier issue of switch.blade - 66,000 words of fantastic fiction, all-original for Fictionwise readers at Fictionwise.com - switch.blade: School's Out ($4.99 - all ebook formats)
Featuring Matt Horgan, Ron Collins and John C. Bodin, Alan Rodgers, Vera Nazarian, James Van Pelt, Tobias Buckell, Amy Sterling Casil (editor), Michael A. Arnzen, Lisa Silverthorne, and Tom Gerencer
For a flavor of switch.blade, we already have literary criticism, plus stories that didn't make it at: CRUEL GIRL
Nebula Award
"To Kiss the Star" qualified for the 2002 Nebula Award final ballot for Best Novelette. You can read it online for free at Fictionwise for the time being. More than 3,500 people have!
The 2002 Nebula Awards will be held April 25-29 in Kansas City, MO.
Sincere and heartfelt congratulations to all of the nominees for this year: 2002 Nebula Awards Final Ballot.
Online Articles and Writing Stuff (incl. the Clarion Bunny)
Love The Bunny Kiss The Bunny Shred The Bunny
Writing Articles:
Clarion: The Antediluvian Experience
The Writers of the Future Contest - What Really Happened?
FICTIONWISE
Read my work online or download via many e-book formats at the Internet's
premiere e-book site:
Fictionwise.
Amy Sterling Casil
ISBN: 1-58715-379-3
Hardcover
$37.95
Feb. 2002
There’s a pig man at your window, and he’s hungry.
A hideous face hides a beautiful soul, physical perfection conceals monstrosity, death becomes eternal life, and the greatest liar of them all must learn to tell the truth, and do the one right thing.
This is the world of Imago.
Something has gone very wrong with this world. Changed freaks, victims of the Human Mutational Virus, roam California’s streets. DisLex, the entertainment utility, monitors everyone’s lives; yet few know that DisLex not only controls life, it has created it: perfect virtual constructs who can never die — the Imagos.
DisLex chairman Harmon Jacques wanted to grow up to rule the world. He’s well on his way. For the freaks, he’s built Camp Roberts: the outcasts go in, but the only way they come out is in a body bag. For everyone else, he’s created the PerfectTown, home for the Imagos, and the way the future is going to be.
Chief among the Imagos is a guy named Dick, a virtual reconstruction of the memories of the 37 th President of the United States: Richard M. Nixon. When Dick meets Harmon’s idealistic young assistant Julie Curtez, Imagos and freaks are set on a collision course that will either destroy their world, or redeem it.
"Amy Sterling Casil is a rising star, joining the brightest new constellation of science fiction."
- David Brin, author of Infinity's Shore
"Robert Louis Stevenson tells us that 'we've never made a statue worthy of our dreams,' and that's happily true, because it keeps writers like Amy hard at work carving new statues . . . watching her work, and seeing the results, has sent me down to the quarry for a new block of marble myself more than once. Amy's a prodigious dreamer, and she's got some statues that are about as worthy as they come."
- James P. Blaylock, author of Homunculus
"Amy Sterling Casil's first novel fulfills the promise of her excellent short stories."
- Mike Resnick, author of Kirinyaga: A Fable of Utopia
"Amy Sterling Casil suffers from an acute case of loving visionary heart. It overflows, spills over into words, brimming with droplets of profundity, emotion, pain, truth and the deepest humanity. She writes like a rainstorm upon the parched earth of your imagination."
- Vera Nazarian, author of Dreams of the Compass Rose
Without
Absolution
My first collection of short fiction and poetry is available now from Wildside Press. Visit Wildside, or buy online through b&n.com - Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com or BooksAMillion. You can read a review at the SF Site, a fantastic resource for people who love to read science fiction and fantasy, and watch TV and movies also and at Bookbrowser.com, reviewed by Jill Kosmensky.
Here are some reviews: Without Absolution reviews
See also what people say about me:
What People Say About Amy Sterling Casil
Plagiarism!
Yes, even a writer like me has been plagiarized over the Internet -- but this isn't about me at all. This is an article written for college students who might be considering cheating by copying a paper from a free Internet paper or essay site, or even buying a paper via one of the Internet services that sells them. Think about the odds: if a dumb sci-fi writer can catch you -- don't do it! Plagiarism Do's and Don'ts. (Contains salacious details about how two students were caught plagiarizing, and even the story of a criminal who currently resides in the Florida State Penitentiary).
Read
Online
Read a recent story, "Motherwife," online, launching the new professional status of Neverworlds Magazine.
Poetry
Yes. Here is a poem. And another one.
What Does She Write Like? (Historical!)
Chapter One of my novel,
The Golden
Age. (This chapter is included, in changed
form, in IMAGO, scheduled for hardcover publication later this year from
Wildside Press.)
Read the story online launching the professional status of Neverworlds. Two stories from my collection and some poetry are available through the Wildside Press Free Books program (you need to go back several months -- they were among the first things mailed out).
Do you love Barbie? So do I. Well, sort
of. Here is a
tribute
to her
majesty.
A Brief History of Cookies and Hims
Click here.
The Kindness of Strangers and Southern Gentlemen
He knew the right words.
If you've never read it, here is the text of William
Faulkner's 1950
Nobel Prize acceptance
speech.
One of the best web sites is William Faulkner on the Web
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy
September was a lucky month for me. Tolstoy was "Mr.
September" on my literary
calendar.
View pictures of Yasnaya Polyana, courtesy of Sergei Naumov. The Tolstoy Library is another excellent resource on the author of War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and over 100 other great works.
War and Peace has been called the greatest novel ever written. I know from personal experience that if you read 50 pages a night, you will finish in about 25 days, time you will never regret spending with this brilliant, magnificent writer and thinker.
"...Highly unladylike...a brutal irony, a slam-bang humor,
and a style of writing as balefully direct as a death sentence."
Time Magazine, quoted on the cover of the second American edition of A Good Man Is Hard To Find
Visit an excellent site for Flannery O'Connor, who died at age 39.
HE Was Such a Great Writer
James Tiptree, Jr., the pseudonym for Alice Sheldon, has always
been one of my favorites. Here is a good information page on
Tiptree maintained
by Dr. Elisa Kay Sparks from Clemson, and an article on the
James Tiptree, Jr.
Award, by one of the award co-founders, Karen Joy Fowler.
Happy Hour at the Inn of Juan Palomeque
Tell Maritornes that Amy sent you . . .
Tapas free with first pierced skin of red wine . . .
Here is a link to the Don Quijote/Cervantes exhibit sponsored by Johns Hopkins University, and a great page of Cervantes links and resources.
On America Online, Dan Hurley, a NYC writer, has popularized his own art form, the "60-Second Novel." Dan, the Amazing Instant Novelist, writes complete stories in 250 words or less. He'll write them for you! He'll write them for anyone. Here is an instant novel. On AOL, go to keyword: novel to see how fun these short pieces can really be.
Quotable Q & A
Q. What do you call a bad manuscript that's destined for repeated rejection?
A. A "MacArthur" (It Shall Return)
Q. What is Postmodern Literature?
A. The fictional equivalent of a blind date who's "really nice" and "has a great sense of humor."
Q. What is "paucity of imagination?"
A. Contemporary Mimetic Fiction
Q. Whodat Cutshot?
A. Amy Sterling Casil
Q. What is "rolling thunder?"
A. That would be telling.
Television
I quit watching TV about four or five years ago. But here are some old favorites:
Be Seeing You . . .
And
. . .
Writer's Resources
Guidelines for Critique. Is is good or does it stink? Some things to consider when reading others' work, or your own.
James Bailey has a great short fiction index page and other information for writers, as well as his favorite (I can't say anything about the music) weird band, Pink World.
Do not miss The Market List, a Windows Help or Text file with up-to-the-minute market listings, magazine and other resource reviews, created by Christopher Holliday.
If you're looking for an intimate, in-control online
workshop for SF writing, e-mail me
at mailto:sfamy@aol.com
For more info on the AOL SFWW (Science Fiction Writers Workshop), here's the membership story.
For the best reviews of short SF, in all magazines, including the major markets and the small-press markets, Tangent Magazine, edited by Dave Truesdale, is the indispensable resource.
Northwest Science Fiction Resources is an incredible and complete web area created by Jack Beslanwitch, with links and information valuable to SF, Fantasy and Dark Fiction/Horror Writers, especially focusing on the Pacific Northwest.
Some people are just plain delightful, like my beautiful friend (inside and out) Mary Soon Lee! Here is Mary's group, the Pittsburgh Worldwrights, a supportive group of talented writers . .
Some people are . . . as dark and fertile as cemetery earth. It must be that soft, loamy thing. If he had a picture, I'd put Mr. Scary up top, but then, come to think of it, the picture folk up top are . . . well . . . dead. Visit the page of Alan Rodgers (1959-) Ain't Dead Yet, author of BONE MUSIC and other masterpieces. .
"Alan's books are one of the horror field's most
dependable pleasures.
He's a writer with great talent, a willingness
to tackle difficult
(and sometimes vast) subjects, and an imagination
that's as dark and fertile as cemetery earth."
-- T.E.D. Klein
You might not be able to find it very easily. Want to go to Real Clarion? Here's how: Clarion SF Writer's Workshop at MSU.
One of the nicest, most talented writers I've been able to work with - and a wonderful web page, too! Visit the web page of Lisa Silverthorne & get tons of resources and great information - even about whale-watching! What a special lady.
For a great writers page with tons of links, the page of Mr. Fun, Mr. Kool, Mr. "Persistence" - four thousand hits in a week - whoo-ya! Ron Collins. Ron's got heart.
Oh, yeah. Greetings from the Brain Planet! Brian Plante, this year's winner of the AnLab Award for best short story. My talented, good friend . . . so proud of him, especially how he made his eyes move like that. Dang!
I've been remiss! Visit the page of a talented new writer who's already been of service to the SF/F community: Jim Van Pelt, who is a finalist for the John W. Campbell, Jr. award.
Can't take six weeks off work during the summer to attend Clarion? Another resource which has a great reputation and much to offer is the Science Fiction Writer's Workshop at the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, KS, conducted by well-known author, teacher and critic, James Gunn.
Graham Collins! He does a great job maintaining the SFWA site. For information on suggested contracts, author/agent agreements, writing information, and bios of SFWA members, go to the site for professional SF/Fantasy writers: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
Funny . .
.
Ain't it funny how we see things. . .
People have not understood this picture.
It's me! How could it be?
. . . It's all in the
ATTITUDE.
Page last modified 07-21-02
For MORE GIFS, click here . . .
