"Letters from Gardner"

I've been picking up speed with "Letters from Gardner", my project where I recap the notes I got from Gardner Dozois in 2003 and 2004 when I was trying to break into science fiction writing.

It's an interesting hybrid - partly history because the way it looks back at that time near the turn of the century in the world of science fiction magazines; and partly writer's manual, as I explain what I was doing, what I was learning, and what Gardner wrote.

I also explain how I applied what Gardner wrote; all except one of the 15 stories I sent him during the period were ultimately published.

The book is also a collection, as I reprint those stories. In most cases, I have dredged up the original versions (I had to buy an external floppy disk drive because my backup files from that time are on floppies) and then explain the changes that were made. In some cases, I am publishing new endings or beginnings.

I completed Chapter Four tonight, and I'm up to 24,000 words.

One of the reasons I'm doing this is that I'm the last author Gardner bought a story from before he retired from Asimov's.

Ten tales

This weekend I spent some time getting caught up on my submissions, and I sent out a half dozen stories that had come back in the past few weeks. It is a pretty diverse selection of markets - Bourbon Penn, Buzzy Mag,, Leading Edge, Strange Horizons, Lakeside Circus, and the Fantasy for Good anthology. I already had stories in the slush pile at Asimov's, Analog, Apex and Dark Discoveries.

I already have three stories with contracts signed and ready to print later this year, in Stupefying Stories, the Lorelei Signal, and the Fifth Dimension.

Having 14 short stories published in 2014 really depleted my stockpile, but it also made the upcoming collection "The Clock Struck None" possible.

I've had four stories published so far this year.

Pitching in to help

Daily Science Fiction is five days away from concluding its Kickstarter drive to raise money to pay authors. They already have $7,049 of their $7,500 goal, but if you haven't pledged yet, now is a good time to hop on the bandwagon.

They published two stories of mine last year, "Great White Ship" and "Double Exposure". "Great White Ship" is a finalist for the Sidewise Award for alternate history this year.

I was asked, and agreed, to help, by offering to critique a story submitted by someone who makes a $100 pledge.

Congrats to Buzzy Mag

I was pleased to see that the SFWA has approved Buzzy Mag as one of its qualifying pro markets for membership purposes. Although fewer and fewer writers belong to the SFWA because of the unpleasant way the stuffed shirts of political correctness have been attacking dissidents (Read: People who believe in God and/or America), it's still a benchmark for denoting publications who pay well (at least a nickel a word) and treat their authors professionally.

Over the years, I've had a couple of cases where I had an original story published in the first issue of a magazine, but my story "The Centurion and the Rainman" was the first story published by Buzzy Mag in March 2012. It is being reprinted in my upcoming collection coming out from Fantastic Books, "The Clock Struck None".

With this certification for Buzzy Mag, "Rainman" retroactively becomes my fifth professional-level sale under those SFWA guidelines, the previous stories being "A Rocket for the Republic" in Asimov's, "The Witch of Waxahachie" in Jim Baen's Universe, and "Great White Ship" and "Double Exposure", both in Daily Science Fiction. Although I've had almost 80 publications in ten years, I'll sell to any small market and my stuff is a bit old-fashioned and traditional for the leading magazines today

Daily Science Fiction was approved as a qualifying market in the fall of 2011, and as soon as it was, I presented my contract for "Great White Ship" to the SFWA, which at the time was my third pro level short story sale, which entitled me to upgrade my membership to Active (full). So I suppose that qualifies as a first, also.

E-book version

Just signed an addendum to the original contract with Yard Dog Press for "Music for Four Hands" - the chapbook collection with collaborator Ed Morris - to be released as an e-book.

On the dotted line

Always nice to sign another contract. Esigned today with Bruce Bethke for "Riders of the Red Shift" to be published in the upcoming special themed issue of Stupefying Stories, "Tales from the Weird, Wild West".

What we have here...

You know, with the proliferation of media, it's almost impossible for me to get a hold of anyone any more. Because I have carpal tunnel syndrome, I hate to text - and besides, you really can't have an intelligent exchange through texting.

But, if you use Facebook, you never know when the people will see your message. Same thing if you use a Facebook message. Nobody seems to read their email anymore, I suppose, because of all the spam. And NOBODY answers the phone any more.

On average, maybe one out ten times when I use email, Facebook or the phone to get a hold of someone, I get a reply in any kind of timely manner. Many times, by the time someone gets back to me, I forgot what it was about.

I think because of sensory overload everyone is slowly becoming autistic and starting to ignore the outside world.