"Passport" stamped

Completed "Passport to Pleasantville" tonight. Clocked in at 6,583 words. That's a thousand words less than the first draft. I've found it's a good sign when a story tightens up like that. I've also noticed that a story often can drop at least one character as its being edited, and that happened in this case.

The story has been sent off to a slush pile. Next we start revising "Tell Gilgamesh I'm Sorry" and finish up "She Melted in My Arms". With "The Old Man is Down the Road" and "Davis Ex Machina" after that that makes for a total of ultimately five stories in what I've dubbed my "Rebuild" series. All these stories are set in East Texas.

This has been an unexpected development. I've seen a lot of authors who write series - Steve Utley's Silurian stories come to mind, and when I was just starting out Charlie Stross' Accelerando series was coming out - but I didn't realize I was developing a series myself until I began to write done down some outlines. My story "Avatar" may be the inspiration for all of these, which is ironic because that story is an alternate history and can't be considered a part of the series.

The stories are all set in a world after a "Crash" has destroyed civilization, and people are muddling through their everyday lives as best they can. What the Crash actually was is unknown to most people, although in "She Melted in My Arms" we find one man who knows what truly happened.

Ed Morris said he's signed the contracts and other paperwork for "Music for Four Hands" and mailed them back to Yard Dog Press.

Looking forward to ConDFW next weekend, but I still haven't seen the programming.