Thankgiving Thots

Well, it being Thanksgiving, lots of people will post on various boards and/or blogs and discuss what they have to be thankful for.

I could list the usual - health, job, friends - but since this s my blog for my life as a science fiction writer - my public face, as it were - I guess what I should list are the stories that have been published so far.

I mean, back n August 2002, I literally had no idea I was any kind of competent fiction writer. Here I am, just a little over two years later, on Thanksgiving 2004, with a contract from Asimov's on my desk. Boy am I thankful!

So here, as some kind of public record, is a list of the stories that have seen the light of day, so far:

2003

Silvern - RevolutionSF - June.
Silence is Golden - RevolutionSF - August.
Comes the Juju Man - GateWay Science Fiction - December.
S.P.P.A.M. - Bewildering Stories - December.

2004

Rome, If You Want To - Surprising Stories - May.
Pen Pal - RevolutionSF - July.
I Got You - Bewildering Stories - July.
Doppelgangster - Bewildering Stories - September.

I have two stories that should run shortly. "The Rocket-Powered Cat" should be published at RevolutionSF in a week or two, and Astounding Tales is slated to publish "Circe in Vitro" in their December edition.

And I have the two stories already accepted for 2005 at Asimov's and Andromeda Spaceways.

I've opened a "wing" at the web site I run, www.cedarhllsentinel.com, for my news, and I'm also going to start posting reprints of my stories there. Right now, S.P.P.A.M. is up.

That story has some history for me. Back in April 2003, Gardner Dozois sent it back to me, but he wrote that it was better than 99% of the stuff in his slush pile, and he thought I had potential. That was really encouraging, and helped me keep my chin up, because 99% of what you get when submitting stories is rejection.

Almost a year later, I hit paydirt with a story that made the grade with Gardner.

I kept shopping "S.P.P.A.M." around, and in the meantime Jerry Wright at Bewildering Stories had been very encouraging to me and had a lot of nice things to say, so I decided that if the story didn't find a home by the end of the year, I'd let Jerry have it. So that's where it was published.

Its nice and chilly this morning here East Texas. Last night I had to light the Dearborn. Temperature dropped down to 37 overnight - almost a frost. I've been waiting for the cold, to help kill all the mold and crap that's been floating in the air.

It's a crisp, fall day for Thanksgiving. OK, now time to chow down!