Anniversary

We're coming up on the tenth anniversary of the publication of my short story, "A Rocket for the Republic", in the Sept. 2005 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction. Publication schedules being what they are, the story went out to mail subscribers in July 2005. It was pretty exciting to see my name in the prestigious magazine.

The story of how I submitted 16 stories to Gardner Dozois at Asimov's in a year and half, and how he finally bought "Rocket", is chronicled in my book "Letters from Gardner", which is a finalist for Best Related Work in the Hugo awards this year. That was a time.

Gardner retired after he accepted my story, making it the last one he bought. In the spring of 2005, there was a discussion on the Asimov's discussion board regarding the upcoming issues, as the last stories from Gardner's inventory were being published. I said that "A Rocket for the Republic" was the last one he bought.

Gardner confirmed that, posting on April 17, 2005, that "Yes, Lou's "A Rocket for the Republic" was the last story I bought--I figured, hey, after buying THIS, the ne plus ultra of stories, the story of stories, there was no point in going on, and so I hung it up."

Which gave as all a chuckle.

"Rocket" was well-received by Asimov readers and came in this the next year in the annual Readers' Poll in the Short Story category.