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This may seem like a question for poets, but botanists know why roses have thorns.

First of all, to set the record straight, roses do not have thorns. They have prickles. Thorns are modified leaf stems or parts of leaves, while prickles grow from the epidermis or cortex.

Rose prickles serve to keep away predators. Rose plants are tasty, according to deer. The prickles, sometimes brightly colored, say “keep away!” This message is also directed at you, Mr. and Ms. Florist. Roses don’t want their flowers stolen.

But most rose prickles curve down to serve another, more insidious purpose. When roses grow, they clamber over other plants. The prickles serve as hooks to help anchor rose branches into their unfortunate neighbors. But as the roses grow, they can monopolize the sunshine, and the plants they grow over will starve and die. Roses don’t care.

Thus we can conclude that if someone gives you a rose, this is hardly an act of love. The flower didn’t want to be harvested and handed over to you, and roses are nasty plants anyway.

Poets, take note. Rather than roses, praise the love apple. When it turns a beautiful color and becomes aromatic, it’s inviting you to take it and share it as a true symbol of esteem, nurture, and even passion. Nothing says love like a tomato.

This is my new favorite plant, a Rhipsalis creuscula or coral cactus.

I got it a month ago from my brother, who sent me some cuttings from his plant by mail. His plant came from cuttings my mother gave him almost thirty years ago from her plant. She died in 1994.

So this is my mother’s plant! She’s the one who turned me on to houseplants in the first place, and now I have a houseplant from her again. It’s sitting on the window ledge in this room — celebrating Mother’s Day.

Here’s the plant’s natural history and tips for its care. This cactus normally grows as an epiphyte in South American forests.

The cuttings from my brother arrived a bit travel-weary, but he assures me it’s a “vigorous” plant that should become beautiful soon. To my eyes, it’s already beautiful.

The Locus Science Fiction Foundation has announced the finalists for its 2019 awards today. Semiosis is one of the ten finalists in the Best First Novel category.

Winners will be announced during the Locus Awards Weekend in Seattle, WA, June 28 to 30. Awards are presented in sixteen catagories. Locus Magazine has covering the speculative fiction field since 1968 with news, reviews, commentary, and data. No one knows the field as well as Locus!

The full list of Best First Novel finalists — all well worth reading:

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt; Macmillan)
Semiosis, Sue Burke (Tor)
Armed in Her Fashion, Kate Heartfield (ChiZine)
The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)
The Quantum Magician, Derek Künsken (Solaris US; Solaris UK)
Annex, Rich Larson (Orbit US)
Severance, Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)
Witchmark, C.L. Polk (Tor.com Publishing)
Trail of Lightning, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
Empire of Sand, Tasha Suri (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

I am thrilled to announce that Semiosis is shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. The shortlist was announced today, and the full list is:

Semiosis by Sue Burke (HarperVoyager)
Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris)
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi (Oneworld)
The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag (Simon and Schuster)
Rosewater by Tade Thompson (Orbit)
The Loosening Skin by Aliya Whiteley (Unsung Stories)

These are splendid books, and I am lucky and honored to be among them.

The award describes itself as “the UK’s premier prize for science fiction literature.” The winner will be announced on July 17 in London and receives an engraved bookend and a cash prize.

A host of The Nerd Cantina podcast interviewed me at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo last month, and you can hear it in this week’s show, Episode 5.

Steve and Ken also discuss recent Game of Thrones episodes (beware: spoilers), The Boys trailer, End Game anticipation, and gaming news, and they interview the creators of Beaker Creatures.

My interview starts at about 51 minutes.

The Nerd Cantina book reviewer Megan McCarthy-Biank weighs in on my book: “Sci-Fi fans will enjoy what Sue Burke does with the genre and will have fun picturing the colorful and complicated world that she paints for us.”

It was a fun interview with insightful questions, and I’m glad Megan enjoyed my book.

“How deep our sleep last night in the mountain’s heart, beneath the trees and stars, hushed by solemn-sounding waterfalls and many soothing voices in sweet accord whispering peace!

“And our first pure mountain day, warm, calm, cloudless — how immeasurable it seems, how serenely wild! I can scarcely remember its beginning. Along the river, over the hills, in the ground, in the sky, spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm, new life, new beauty, unfolding, unrolling in glorious exuberant extravagance — new birds in their nests, new winged creatures in the air, and new leaves, new flowers, spreading, shining, rejoicing everywhere.”

John Muir (1838-1914) is often called the “Father of the National Parks.” In 1890, due in large part to his efforts, an act of the US Congress created Yosemite National Park. Muir was also personally involved in the creation of Sequoia, Mount Rainier, Petrified Forest, and Grand Canyon national parks. The idea of national parks eventually spread worldwide.

In addition to the novel Semiosis and the upcoming sequel Interference, two short stories explore life on Pax.

“Cinderella Faraway” is set between chapters 1 and 2. Nicoletta and the other children wonder if their new life is really better than it would have been on Earth. Warning: this story is grim.

“Spiders” is set between chapters 3 and 4. Roland’s father takes him for a walk in the forest while he’s a young boy. This story, which features a lot of fun worldbuilding, was previously published in Asimov’s magazine and the anthology Year’s Best SF 14.

The members of Spectology: The Science Fiction Book Club Podcast may have thought harder about my book than I did. In the episode Semiosis post-read w/ Nate Spence: Budding Utopia or Mutualist Dystopia? they spend two hours and nine minutes discussing that question.

Here’s their description of the episode: “Matt, Nate, & Adrian have a long, rollicking conversation about Semiosis, by Sue Burke. We all really loved the book, but also have a lot of criticism of it, and we get really in-depth on what it all means to us.”

Some of their criticisms I agree with — the book isn’t perfect, and there were problems I knew about that I couldn’t figure out how to solve. Some of their thoughts were about aspects I hadn’t been aware of — sometimes this happens with a critique, because other people can see things that the author overlooked. They also get some points exactly right, such as the long-term arc of the Constitution.

What is your favorite chapter? Is there too much violence? Is the book optimistic? Is Stevland a superhero? They have different opinions and carefully explore the reasons for their disagreements. If you don’t have your own book club to discuss the book, you can listen to these club members share their deepest and best thoughts.

Semiosis has been published in Japan by Hayakawa Publishing, Inc., translated by Maasa Mizukoshi.

I just got my author copies and gave one to a friend who speaks Japanese. I’m told my name has been transliterated to “Suu Baaku.”

It’s a delight to see my words in another language and at the same time it’s strange to be unable to understand them in the least.