Credit where it's due

At the start of the week I dropped a few notes in the mail to some authors whom I've gotten to know over the years and whose stories I cited in the SF Signal Mind Meld piece - Gardner Dozois, Michael Swanwick, Maureen McHugh, Howard Waldrop (I had called Brad Denton on the phone the day the article came out because I was so impressed that I wasn't the only person who cited "Sergeant Chip".) I wanted them to know, in case they didn't read SF Scope, that I had "taken their name in vain", as it were.

I also dropped a note to Steven F. Murphy, because I cited his 2007 Interzone story "Tearing Down Tuesday". Murph made the following nice comments on his blog yesterday:

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Lou Antonelli plugs "Tearing Down Tuesday" at SFSignal.com

"I got a bit of snail mail this week from Texas science fiction writer Lou Antonelli with some good news. He gave me a plug for Tearing Down Tuesday in his SFSignal.com Mind Meld contribution to the topic, “Memorable Short Stories to Add to Your Reading List, Part Two.” For those wondering, we know each other from the Asimov’s Forums back when Asimov’s was run by Gardner Dozois and sanity reigns therein. Further, Lou’s was the last story purchased by Gardner before he stepped down.

"Lou has a new story collection coming out from Wilder Publications called Fantastic Texas. Many of his stories are set in his balliwick of Texas and he is one of the few writers who do not resort of all of the negative rural stereotypes in his stories. If I were putting together an anthology of positive American Midwest Rural stories, Lou would be one of the authors I’d contact.

"He is also, for the record, one of the three people who identified Rev. Caldwell J. Robinson for the cardboard character that he is. Though I’d argue that Robinson had to be that way for the story to sell and also as a bit of a red herring for the ending. Still, Lou raises a valid criticism that went largely unnoticed elsewhere in the community.

"So, thanks for the kind words, Lou.