Monday, November 21, 2011

Drink Tank 300 debuts




Well, Chris Garcia got his Drink Tank 300 out today. The "300" refers to the number on contributors, and in the enumeration I am No. 248. The PDF document is 271 pages and can be found here.

Chris won the fanzine Hugo last August for Drink Tank, and less than a month later we were both guest authors at FenCon/Deep South Con in Dallas - we served on one panel together. That was the first time I ever met him (and vice versa). I was doing my schtick typing a story on a portable typewriter in the second floor gallery of the hotel Saturday night when I came up with "The Quantum Gunman", a 1,300 word "muddled worlds" short story.

I had done the same thing at ArmadilloCon in Austin in August, and produced "The Stinky Men" - which is currently in a slush pile. "The Quantum Gunman" flowed from a story idea I've had for a number of years, but otherwise didn't plan or outline the story in advance.

As I typed the story on my portable Smith Corona Classic 12, I would lay the pages out on the table in front of me. I started writing at 6 p.m. and Chris was among the many people who came by to read it as I progressed. I finished at 8:30 p.m. - I think the story is six pages long - and a little while later Chris stopped by again.

He finished reading it, said he enjoyed it, and asked what were my plans for it. I told him I'd try to get it published, and he offered to add to add it to Drink Tank 300. I handed it to him, and said "It's all yours." I think the process from beginning to acceptance took three hours.

Chris had to scan the manuscript, of course, to get it in Drink Tank 300. It takes up two pages, Pages 181 and 182. This special issues has a number of distinguished contributors, including John Scalzi and Greg Benford.

I'm happy to have helped with his gigantic project - Chris is a nice and humble guy. Anyone who saw his acceptance speech at the Hugos - in person or on video - knows that.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Whatever happened to that old Sunbelt?

By LOU ANTONELLI Managing Editor It’s rained almost daily for the past four months. The ground is saturated; walking across grass is lik...