At Analog

It’s official.

Analog has purchased my science fiction story, Flotsam.  I got the contracts in today’s mail.  No word yet on when it will appear next year.

Flotsam is the story of a three-person salvage crew stranded in near-Earth orbit after their ship is struck by orbital debris. The story was workshopped last July at the University of Kansas during Jim Gunn’s SF Writers Workshop.

For those of you who were part of the critique group there, I was calling it Fat-Bottomed Girl.  I want to thank all of you who offered critiques, either as part of the Kansas workshop or as independent readers. The story is what it is now because of your help.

And I particularly want to thank Professor Gunn for his insightful critiques and for encouraging me to send Flotsam to Analog.  Jim, you are my hero.

Needless to say, I am chuffed!

At A Thousand Faces

Issue 10 of A Thousand Faces, the quarterly journal of super- human fiction, is out today and it contains my story, A Son of the Night.

I’m sort of pumped about this one for a couple of reasons.

First, it’s been a long time coming, even though it’s the first SF story I sold that is longer than flash length. Editor Frank Byrnes bought it last October — October 2008 — and now it’s found it’s way into the magazine.

Second, it’s being presented online and in print. I love to see my work on the Internet. But there’s something special about ink & paper. Don’t you just love the smell of laser-jet ink in the morning?

Third, a story by one of my online friends, Erin Kinch — Dinner for Three — is also in the magazine. WTG, Erin! Another notch in the pistol for both of us.

And finally, it’s just a heck of a good story. Rory Mathersby, a graphic novelist, wants so much to be a superhero, just like his creation, Swath. Rory has the money and the determination to pull it off — if the realities of life would just stop interferring.

You can check it out online at A Son of the Night, until Issue 11 comes out. Or you can buy a paper copy of the magazine at Lulu and keep it forever. Either way, I hope you enjoy Rory’s story.

Home again, home again

Ignore the ransom demands. I’m home from Orycon and what a great time I had. Lots to process, but here’s a few high points:

• chatting with Michael Ehart, one of my favorite flash fiction writers and author of The Servant of the Manthycore and the upcoming The Tears of Ishtar.
• watching author and anthology editor Lou Anders and Mary-Robinette Kowal, author of the heart-rending 2009 Hugo nominee Evil Robot Monkey (which is flash fiction BTW), pace the center lane at the Building a Balanced Mythos panel.
• Saturday dinner with Tom Crosshill and Alex Black, the other two 1st Quarter 2009 Writers of the Future winners.
• seeing Kevin Shamel again. Kevin was at Orycon selling his new book, Rotten Little Animals from Eraserhead Press. (The Mohawk is cool beans, Kev.)
• Saturday drinks with author and teacher Mary Rosenblum (who has been enormously supportive of 10Flash. Thanks again, Mary. I can’t say that too often.), Dale Smith and Shawna Reppert, whose flash fiction (respectively) Dead Wife Waiting and A Knight’s Vow will appear in the January 2010 and April 2010 issues of 10Flash. (Wait ’til you read them. Great stuff.)
• the late Sunday afternoon chat with Camille Alexa, author of Push the Sky, a short fiction collection from Hadley Rille Books, and flash fiction editor for Abyss & Apex magazine.  Smart and funny lady.

I hope to talk more about Orycon later. Right now (it’s a bit after midnight), I’m going to bed. I am usually a night writer but at this moment, I’m exhausted.

At Orycon

Got into Portland just before two p.m. yesterday, after a great trip down via Amtrak. The only negative part of the journey was trying to figure out how to get into Union Station in Seattle. I swear they don’t want people to use the place.

Seating aboard the Coach Starlight was fantastic. The first time I’ve ever traveled anywhere by public transportation when I was able to stretch my legs out in front of me. Lunch in the dining car was tasty — a nicely cooked burger and a slice of peanut butter and chocolate pie.

I had a chance to chat with people on the train. A couple nearby — Fred and Johanna — were on their way to Orycon, too. Nice folks. The three of us rode the street car to the Double Tree hotel.

My room is spacious and I had a great night’s sleep. Unfortunately, I crashed early because I stayed up all night Thursday night, working on a story, and by six p.m., I was stumbling and incoherent.

I did have a chance to take in a couple of panel discussions before I crumpled. Also said hello to Michael Ehart, who wrote Without Napier , one of my favorite stories at Every Day Fiction, to Mary Rosenblum, of Long Ridge Writers Group, and to my old traveling buddy, Kevin Shamel, who is here to promote his new book, Rotten Little Animals.

I was up at four a.m. this morning, for a couple hours of writing.  It’s almost seven a.m. now.  Time to get ready and go down to face the day.

More later.

Gobble, gobble, gobble

Go ahead. Make my day.

On the road again

I’m headed south Friday morning.

Going to catch Amtrak’s 9:45 a.m. Coach Starlight run to Portland for a three-day stay to attend OryCon 31, the science fiction convention.

Amtrak's Coach Starlight

I’m a bit excited and nervous. A couple of firsts for me, don’t you see? The first time I’ve traveled by train — anywhere — and my first major SF convention.

You would think, at my age, that I would have managed to tick both off my list of things to do.

Sure, I attended Foolscap 11 in late September, but it was a pretty intimate affair. Fun, but not a lot of folks, not a lot of hubbub. And I only was able to stop by for one day.

Anyway, if you’re around the Portland Doubletree this weekend, look for me. I’ll be the silly fool with the goofy grin on her face. Thank God they’ll give us name tags, so I won’t forget who I am.

Jeez! Sometimes I wounder if I’m ever going to grow up.

At Every Day Fiction

I’ve always been a sucker for a uniform, particularly dress uniforms. I had a whole closet full of them at one time. One of my favorites is that of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The Red Serge is front and center in my flash fiction, The Maple Leaf Manuever, at Every Day Fiction today.

The story pokes a bit of fun at American and Canadian stereotypes. Check it out, if you get a chance.

Let me know what you think, eh?

A milestone at 10Flash

10Flash had its 10,000th visitor this afternoon.  That’s a bit over 2,000 hits per month since the publication debuted on July 1st.

It’s not record-breaking, by any definition, by it’s not bad for a new e-zine, particularly when you consider that I haven’t done any paid promotion.  We’re listed now on Duotrope, for which I am pleased, and I am hoping to have a dedicated domain site — 10flashmagazine.com — up and running for the January issue.

And speaking of the January issue, I’ve purchased all ten stories and they’re all super.  Some returning authors, lots of new folks and even a couple of excellent tales that are first-time publications for their writers.  That’s one of the reasons that I started 10Flash.

If you like genre fiction and enjoy flash fiction, stop by 1oFlash and check it out.  I think you’ll have fun.

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.