I’ve changed my name to Anxious

I swore I wouldn’t talk about this until I had something more definitive, honest to God, I took an oath. But the waiting and not saying is just more than I can stand.

I’m not sleeping much, obsessing about this. I’m eating too much, what I always do when I’m faced with something important that I can’t control.

I’ve been writing, but I’m not finishing anything. I have five stories started right now, but I get to 1,000 or 1,500 words and it feels as if I’m dragging heavy weights.

And I’ve been haunting my mailbox, too; so much so that the mail carrier flinches when she sees me.

Here’s the situation.

Last July, I attended Jim Gunn’s SF Writers Workshop in Kansas and workshopped a story that wound up being titled Flotsam. It’s hard science fiction, a near-future story about a work team in low earth orbit. I don’t write much hard SF and I sweated .44 caliber bullets doing the research for it.

In mid-July, after the workshop and at Professor Gunn’s suggestion, I sent the story off to Analog. Editor Stan Schmidt requires hard paper submissions, so I knew there would be a wait before I knew anything. Maybe a long wait.

So, here’s what I’ve been holding in.

The third week in September, I got a letter from Dr. Schmidt saying that he liked the story and that he wanted to use it in his magazine, if I was willing to do a minor rewrite.

Would I be willing to do a rewrite to have one of my stories appear in Analog? Might as well ask if I would be willing to go on breathing.

It really was minor, though. In fact, all I had to do was insert five paragraphs that I had taken out in my final edit. I put the revised piece in the mail a couple days later and sat down to wait.

I haven’t heard anything yet. It’s been six weeks, but in this business, that’s nothing. I’ve talked to other writers who have had work published in Analog and they’ve all told me I just have to be patient.

But this is one of only a few times I’ve submitted a story via snail mail — there aren’t many magazines that require that anymore — and it’s the first time I’ve gotten a conditional acceptance from a major SF market.

I know it’s stupid to fixate upon this to the point that it interferes with my writing. With my life, to be honest. But I’m new enough to this profession to be anxious about the outcome. It’s possible this sort of thing may become commonplace at some point in my future, but right now this is a big deal for me.

It will be my third professional sale, which means I can apply for membership in the Science Fiction Writers of America. It’s validation that my Writers of the Future win wasn’t just a fluke. And, most important, it’s frakkin’ Analog. I’ve only been reading the magazine for fifty years.

But I’ll be good. I swear I will. I’ll wait patiently. I’ll focus on my writing; get it back on track. I won’t pounce upon the mail carrier the moment she steps down from her truck. I just hope word arrives soon, though.

Before I’m forced to resort to slicing open live chickens and reading entrails.

26 Monkeys

This is a tad late, but then I’ve never claimed to be the sort who is up to the minute on every event and happening.

Kij Johnson, who also lives and writes somewhere here in Seattle, won the World Fantasy Award November 1st at the World Fantasy Convention for her short story, 26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss. The story appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine July 2008.

I met Kij last July in Kansas, where she was teaching the novel-writing half of Jim Gunn’s SF Writers Workshop. At the time, she was waiting for the World Science Fiction Convention to roll around because 26 Monkeys was also nominated this year for a Hugo.

There was stiff competition for the Hugo, including another monkey story, Evil Robot Monkey, by Mary Robinette Kowal, which, BTW, is a dynamite piece of flash fiction. Ted Chiang won for Exhalation, a great piece of hard science fiction.

Yeah; 26 Monkeys is that good. It was also up for the Nebula and won Asimov’s Readers’ Award for 2008.

Any way, Kij is a funny lady, a great writer and a swell improvisational performer. Read her story; you’ll be a better person for it.

Congratulations on the win, Kij. You should have won all three this year.

I love the smell of a sale in the morning

I know I keep hammering away at the importance of persistence, but damn it, it’s important. Here’s one more example.

The Maple Leaf Maneuver is a snarky bit of fun that uses Canada’s recent changes it its Citizenship Law as a jumping off point. It’s one of those stories that if you asked how much of it is true, I would have to say all of it — except for the parts that I made up.

Anyway, I sent it off awhile back to a flash fiction contest. The results were announced early last week and my name wasn’t on the list. ::sigh::

But I knew it was a good story, so instead of sitting around, trying to figure out why I had failed and feeling sorry for myself, I sent it off right away to Every Day Fiction.

Managing Editor Camille Gooderham Campbell e-mailed me early today — a five-day turnaround — to say she thought the story was great fun and that she wanted to buy it.

God, this business is so much about finding the right writer-story- editor match. It’s like putting the pieces of a jigsaw together or recognizing the proper sudoku pattern. I’m starting to think of it as fusion.

Anyway, thank you, Camille.

A 10/31/09 Update: I just got the word.  The Maple Leaf Maneuver will appear on November 23, 2009.  I’ll post a reminder.

The Best of Every Day Fiction 2009

Managing Editor Camille Gooderham Campbell e-mailed me yesterday to let me know four of my five flash fiction stories published at Every Day Fiction during the magazine’s second year (September 1, 2008 to August 31, 2009) will be included in The Best of Every Day Fiction 2009.

They aren’t a thing alike.

I Must to the Barber’s Chair is a gentle love story.  It appeared the first day of the publishing year — September 1.  In His Prime (October 16) is speculative fiction, a time-travel story involving one of boxing’s most famous champions. Oh, Woman of Easy Virtue (November 21) is a snarky bit of whimsical word play.  Upon the Doorsteps (January 22 — my birthday) is a somber mother-daughter encounter that just might be a ghost story.

I love each one and each for a different reason.  And I’m so pleased they appeared at Every Day Fiction.

Thank you, Camille.

At Flash Fiction Chronicles

Gay Degani is still off on retreat in Vermont; bewitching words, turning them into stories that will take your breathe away.  So, I did a guest column for Flash Fiction Chronicles today.  On Stubborn Rams and Terawatt Dams takes a look at rejection and the value of persistence.

Check it out, if you get a chance.  And peruse some of the wisdom submitted by other contributors while you’re there.

Go on; go on.  The show is over here — for the moment.