Change in Venue

[rinue]

It seems very likely that I will move back to the U.S. in July, because the U.S. company I work for is having trouble satisfying the administrative reporting requirements of my being in Italy, and given my intermediate Italian, it would be hard for me to find another job here in which I could maintain the lifestyle (including intellectual lifestyle) to which I am accustomed.

This is surprising; I expected to be here longer. There are things (and people and places) I will miss very much.

However, I'm pretty well prepared. I already had my "flee the country" ducks in a row in case of tail risks including: my company fails because Trump disbands the FCC and strikes down the Americans with Disabilities Act; the EU unravels and there is major economic and political chaos; one of my immediate family members becomes grievously ill. All things considered, what has happened is the best worst case, an overall fairly rosy scenario.

For now, since I know I'll be sad later, I am focusing on the things I was getting ready to miss in the next two years but won't have to, including:

- My 20-year high school reunion

- The funeral of my 97-year-old grandmother, my only surviving grandparent, who is alive and in reasonable health, but one assumes

- The wedding of a very dear friend who was part of my wedding party

- Promotional appearances for a press my best friend and I are launching

- I have been developing a feature project that is set in the United States and it will be much easier to make that happen

Comments

[sabotabby]

Good luck with the move! And zomg feature project?!

Where in the States?

[rinue]

Massachusetts, a bit northwest of Boston, which is where most of my stuff is already.

The feature is a thing Ciro and I have been pre-writing for a few years now, working title Power, which is low-budget urban fantasy, specifically because we think that part of what would make magic feel magical would be the contrast with an otherwise verite environment. Thematically, it's about coalition resistance to rent-seeking white masculinity.

[sabotabby]

That sounds amazing.

So if I can get over my terror of flying to the States, I may be visiting smhwpf in Boston at some point hopefully soon. He just moved there in the fall. Would be awesome to hang out.

[rinue]

That would be amazing! I can't say precisely what my return date is, but probably somewhere in the neighborhood of July 10. My place has a guest room if you need it, though it's not in the city proper (it's on commuter rail).

[sabotabby]

Well, I'm not going anywhere until well after July—I may be out of the country for most of the month. So, cool!

[sovay]

low-budget urban fantasy, specifically because we think that part of what would make magic feel magical would be the contrast with an otherwise verite environment. Thematically, it's about coalition resistance to rent-seeking white masculinity.

That sounds great.

[sovay]

I have been developing a feature project that is set in the United States and it will be much easier to make that happen

Nice!

I am sorry you will have to leave sooner than planned; at least over social media, Italy has sounded like it's treated you well. I am just as glad that political apocalypse and/or personal tragedy does not need to be involved.

What press are you launching?

[rinue]

It's more that I'm providing some help relaunching Reflection's Edge as a book imprint, although I'm not sure when or if it'll get to the point of open submissions.

For the past three years or so, Sharon Dodge with some help from me has been pulling together a paranormal romance trilogy and plus a couple of invite-only anthologies, because her market research says that is the number of good-quality titles she'd probably need in order to have a reasonable residual income through Amazon that could provide a basis for greenlighting other stuff. Whether step two happens will depend on whether step one works.

The launch titles will be mostly written by Sharon, which you could look at as vanity press given that she's the publisher, but is a bit more like, use your own stuff to test the business model (since these are titles we believe another publisher would be willing to pick up). I've been working on the editorial end, red-inking manuscripts and weighing in on covers so on.

Anyway, the books are good. We'll see whether it works and can grow into something grander.