A Call at Lunch

I was home for lunch on Wednesday when I got a phone call, which was a bit of a surprise. It was Bill Rupp, calling from California, where he prints a magazine called Continuum. I sent him a story months ago. He said he had a space in an issue he was putting to press and wanted to print the story, "Double Crossing the Styx".
OK by me.
That was the first time I got a phone call from a publisher. The reason I was surprised he caught me at home during a work day (though I often eat lunch at home, because my office is only .8 of a mile away).
Last year at this time I was geting ready to hit the road to attend Philcon in Philadelphia, but I am staying close to home this year. I have a lot of things to do and I need to manage my physical stress.
I am going through my submissions and planning to lay out my strategy for this week. I've gotten a few stories back this week and I have to shuffle a few more around. I'm also planning to send stories to the judges of the Sideways award, since one of the stories I had this year - Rome, If You Want To - is alternate history.
I don't know why, but Rome is a story that has grown on me since it was published in Surprising Stories last May. Patrick Samphire in the UK said some very nice things about it on his Journalscape reviews of short fiction - and he hit on the main points I was trying to get across in the story. Which was heartening - it's nice to know you've written well enough that other people "get it". So I'm going to be sending copies out to the Sideways judges.