Hall of Fame

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Got a nice piece of news in the mail yesterday, a letter from my old high school:

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Dear Louis,

It is my pleasure to inform you that you have been unanimously selected for induction into the Rockland High School Academic Hall of Fame. Your achievements are truly noteworthy and are a source of inspiration and motivation for the current Rockland youth.

The induction ceremony will be held at the spring Underclassmen Academic Awards Banquet on Wednesday, June 5, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. at the Emerald Room in Abington, MA. You and your family are welcome to share in the festivities and join us for dinner.

Susan Patton
Hall of Fame Committee

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I'll make plans to attend. The last time I was back in my hometown was Nov. 2010, for my 35th high school reunion.

An even dozen

With the realization that I do not have any pending publications, I went through the submissions pile tonight. I sent out three stories that were nowhere, and send out two that have probably been forgotten where they were sent. Unfortunately, one of the things you have to face as a writer is sometimes a story will not even get a rejection. This evening's work brings my total of stories in various slushpiles to an even 12.

How to avoid suckage

In addition to my classes at the DFW Writers Conference May 4-5 on writing science fiction (Saturday) and writing short stories (Sunday), I will be a member of a panel Sunday morning on "How Not To Suck" with author A. Lee Martinez and agent Louise Fury.

Ten Little Stories

For someone who is a casual writer, I'm surprised I still have ten stories out there is various slush piles, and I another four that could be sent somewhere. I write fast when I do write. Years ago, when I was getting the hang of speculative fiction writing, I think I may have had at times 18 to 20 stories out at the same time.

Looks like we have about a dozen dues-paying members signed up for the new writers group, SASS - Society for the Advancement of Speculative Storytelling. That means we go public soon and start taking applications from the general public (all but one of the current members was part of the 24-member bylaws study group that began to coalesce in spring 2012.)

"On the Spiritual Plain"

I finished my latest short story tonight, "On the Spiritual Plain" (that's not a typo). This is the story I started on my typewriter at GalaxyFest in Colorado Springs back on Feb. 9. I typed up 12 pages, essentially the whole story except for the ending, while at the con, and then went back to it three weeks later and finished up the first draft. Now I've polished it up and it's done, the 110th short story I have ever written. And I just dropped it in a slushpile.

Latest publication

For the spring, 4 Star Stories has come out with its Short Short Story issue, which features a half dozen flashes - one of which is "Wet and Wild".

I wrote "Wet and Wild" on my typewriter on Sunday on Fencon in Dallas in 2011. The day before I wrote "The Quantum Gunman", which Chris Garcia took away and published in his Drink Tank No. 300 that fall.

"Wet and Wild" is my 77th published story. With its publication, I don't have any scheduled original publications scheduled for the time being.

And as for the other anthology...

This signal-boosted from Bryan Thomas Schmidt...

You Guys Are Awesome! Every Kickstarter showrunner that I have spoken with plans for it. Cancelled pledges. It's so part and parcel of fundraising that you budget for it as a matter of course.

But not Raygun Chronicles. Every single pledge funded. We are at 100%. Which means we are over budget enough to add some extra content, so that's what I've been working on. Thank you so much, awesome backers!

The first piece is free. Mike Resnick was so impressed with the way funding came in at the last minute that he donated a second Catastrophe Baker story free. If you're familiar with his Catastrophe Baker stories from Ray Gun Revival and other venues, you know how funny and fun they are, so this brings us to 24 stories, instead of 23.

But that's not all. I'm working on another couple surprises as well which I hope to announce next week!

In addition, Paul is hard at work on the color artwork and we'll have that by June 1st.

Meanwhile, Camille and I are finalizing contract drafts for the writers and myself and I'll be rereading and editing stories this coming week. The headliners are hard at work but I have two of the originals in already as well.

And we're also prepping t-shirt and bookmark designs as well. So things are moving. Expect surveys by Tuesday in your inboxes.

Meanwhile, we're planning the launch party November 8-10 at OryCon. The official release date for the anthology is November 12, so this is an early bird thing. Books to backers will probably ship out just before this. But if you're a backer and can make Portland, myself, Camille, Jordan, and some of the writers will be there, and we'll have the list, so if you identify yourself, we'll have some extra swag just for you!

That's it for now, but thanks for your patience and awesomeness! I'll be in touch soon!