"Digging on Olympus"

Back on Nov. 17 I got a three and a half-page start to "Digging on Olympus" before my cold turned into sinusitis and I got real sick. I finally picked up where I left off this evening, and I suppose I'm feeling much better, because I finished the first draft of the story. It came in at 15 pages, so I'm guessing it's 4,400 words.

I'll have to run it through OCR software to turn it into a Word file.

"Pirates of the Ozarks" sold

David Riley of Science Fiction Trails says the contract's in the mail for my latest weird western, "Pirates of the Ozarks", which will be published in Issue No. 8 in 2012. That will be my third story in Science Fiction Trails; "Professor Malakoff's Amazing Ethereal Telegraph" was published in Issue No. 4, and "A Djinn for General Houston" was published in Issue No. 5.

The cover over there was for the issue that featured "Professor Malakoff", I still think that cover's a hoot.

That's my third story already slated for publication in 2012, since Daily Science Fiction has bought "Great White Ship" and Buzzy Mag has bought "The Centurion and the Rainman".

I'm recovering from this bout of sinusitis, I've been taking anti-biotics since Tuesday, and I think I'm about ready to write up some new stories.

Stalled

Haven't gotten back to the short story I started a week ago, the onset of my cold prevented that. I went to the doctor and got a shot and a prescription Tuesday. That seems to be helping, but this was one of the worst cases of sinusitis I've had in a while.

Patricia and I will be leaving in a few hours to her mother's for Thanksgiving. She lives an hour away, between here and Dallas.

I got an invite to submit to a weird western-themed anthology yesterday. I think I have something for them.

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 progress on the fiction front

The low grade cold that's being passed around everyone at work and at the schools - where my wife works - finally blew up on me Friday, and I really got sick. I got a sore throat and really bad congestion. I worked very sick Saturday, and slept almost 12 hours Saturday night, but the combination of rest, Diabetic Tussin, cough drops, nasal spray seems to have driven the cold back a lot, and I'm feeling better. Needless to say, no fiction writing accomplished.

New start

With all the publications I'm having, I need to write up some new tales, so I started tonight on my latest, "Digging on Olympus". It's a tale of some fellows who take advantage of the collapse of the federal government in the near future to dig up Montezuma's treasure on federal land - and get more than they bargained for.

I am typing this up on my portable typewriter. I got 3 1/2 pages done today, so it probably comes to 800 words.

Good news

I got my payment in the mail today from BuzzyMag for "The Centurion and the Rainman". They're very professional, the story isn't slated to be published until sometime next year, and they pay pro rates, by the SFWA's standard - five cents a word. Mucho gracias!

It looks like I will meet my goal of having eleven stories published by the end of the year. David and Mary Gray plan to publish a holiday-themed story, "Rockets and Reindeer" in 4 Star Stories' Winter issue. Bewildering Stories is slated to publish "Tell Gilgamesh I'm Sorry" on Dec. 12. And Chris Garcia says he working hard on Drink Tank 300 and it should be out soon. It will feature "The Quantum Gunman", the story I wrote on my portable typewriter in the gallery of the hotel during FenCon.