Strange Stars book announcement (and other news)

I'm supremely ecstatic to announce that my book STRANGE STARS--about David Bowie and how science fiction influenced popular music in the '70s--will be published by Melville House (distributed by Random House). Along with Bowie, Strange Stars will cover everything from Hawkwind to Parliament-Funkadelic to Blue Oyster Cult to Devo to Yes to Gary Numan to Jefferson Starship to X-Ray Spex to T. Rex to Rush to krautrock to space disco. I can't disclose the publication date quite yet, but I assure you, it will be no secret.

David Bowie was my first concert: the Glass Spider Tour, Denver, 1987. My love of Bowie's music, as well as science fiction, stretches back even further; the two practically raised me. Immediately following Bowie's death, I wrote a big essay for Pitchfork about Bowie's relationship to science fiction--but I'd actually started working on the Strange Stars proposal in the summer of 2015. During that time, I also began writing a series of essays about SF-themed bands and musicians for Clarkesworld Magazine. It's been a crazy road from conception to contract (when isn't it?), but I'm so happy to have landed at a publisher as esteemed as Melville House. This is the book I've been waiting my entire life to write.

But that's not all! I have some other bits of newsishness (yes, it's been a busy summer):

-My short story "Daughter of the Drifting" will appear in the fantasy/horror anthology Swords v Cthulhu in August.

-This year I started writing for Rolling Stone and The New Yorker.

-Cyber World, a science fiction anthology I co-edited with Josh Viola, will be published this November by Hex Publishers.

-I signed a contract to head up another cross-genre anthology, Mechanical Animals, which I'll be co-editing with the great Selena "S. J." Chambers for Hex Publishers.

-My new band Cloak of Organs (which features members of Wovenhand, Planes Mistaken For Stars, Slim Cessna's Auto Club, and The Nervous) started playing shows, AND we released a four-song EP.

-I started playing bass with Neil Michael Hagerty and the Howling Hex (ex-Royal Trux, Pussy Galore), and we'll be doing a tour of the eastern U.S. in September.

-In late August, I'll be traveling to the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Kansas City as well as Bubonicon in Albuquerque, where I'll be moderating panels about David Bowie's link to science fiction.

So, yeah, hectic year! I hear there's even an election going on...