Bibliography for 2018

Despite essentially putting all fiction writing on hold this year, after buying the local newspaper, I still had a dozen short story publications in 2018:

“Stuck in the Middle With You” - Whispers of the Apoc: Tales from the Zombie Apocalypse Jan. 2018

“Last Call” – Planetary Mercury anthology, Superversive Press, Jan. 2018

"The Wrong Venus" - Planetary Venus anthology, Superversive Press, Feb. 2018

"The Girl Who Died Twice" - Planetary Mars anthology, Superversive Press, March 2018

“Sol Invictus” – In the Shadow of the Cross collection, March 2018

“Patron Saint” - In the Shadow of the Cross collection, March 2018

"Sketches From the Apocalypse" - Toys Sha'Daa anthology May 2018

"Dry Falls" - Somnium (Brazil) May 2018

“This Planet is a Hole” - Planetary Earth anthology, Superversive Press, June 2018

“A Choice of Weapons” – Enter the Rebirth anthology, TANSTAAFL Press, June 2018

"Blue Tango" (with Brad Sinor) - 4 Star Stories, Summer 2018.

"Cain's Knife" - Liberty Island, November 2018

Look! Up in the sky!

On the subject of zoomies...

When Sugar was a pup (she's 12 now) she really liked to end her zoomies with a flourish. Sugar would land on the couch by taking a really long run and hurtling onto the couch length-wise.

Patricia told me that if she was at one end of the couch, Sugar would take a leap and actually HURDLE her and land at the opposite end of the couch. I didn't believe her.

Then one day Patricia was sitting at one end of the couch, and I was at the other. I heard a furious scrambling of paws and then looked up to see...

Well, for a moment my brain didn't register what I was seeing because it was literally something I had never seen before. The it registered. I was looking at Sugar'e underbelly because she had taken a running leap and indeed jumped over Patricia. She was flying through the air at me.

A moment later Sugar collided with my head and fell onto the floor. She hadn't known I was sitting there. If I hadn't, she would was landed perfectly at the far corner of the couch.

I was amazed at her agility, and she's still pretty agile today. But she never did that flying leap length-wise onto the couch ever again.

A useful idea

I understand that in some countries today - the day after Christmas - is called Boxing Day. I have no familiarity with the tradition, but it sounds like a great idea. Gather with family members one day and be superficially polite, and then the next day, square off for pugilistic confrontations to relieve the stress and work off the grievances accumulated the day before. Brilliant! We should do that in the U.S., we'd probably be all less neurotic.

Christmas Gift Story

An American soldier is left dying, impaled on a tree by a German bayonet, the result of an encounter during the Battle of the Bulge that left the members of both the American and German patrols all dead around him.

Then he hears a rustling in the sky...

As my holiday gift to all my fans and friends, I offer an unpublished short story, "The Twilight Angels". Email me at solacesdaddy@yahoo.com and I will forward it to you.

My list of personal - but unsung- favorites

The start of the nomination period for the Nebula Awards has made me think to pay tribute to stories I read in the past that I personally enjoyed very much but didn’t pick up any of the most prominent awards. I like to think it’s a testimony to how much great short fiction has been written over the years. My appreciation list is as follows, in chronological order:

1. “The Judas Bomb” – Kit Reed, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1961.
2. “Eyes Do More Than See” – Isaac Asimov, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1965 (Finalist for the Nebula, did not win).
3. “Wild, Wild Horses” – Howard Waldrop, Omni, June 1988.
4. “A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows” – Gardner Dozois, Asimov’s, Oct. – Nov. 1999 (Nebula finalist, did not win).
5. “Going After Bobo” – Susan Palwick, Asimov’s May 2000.
6. “The Raggle-Taggle Gypso-O” – Michael Swanwick, Tales of Old Earth, 2000.
7. “May Be Some Time” – Brenda Clough, Analog, April 2001 (A Hugo and Nebula finalist, but not a winner).
8. “Neutrino Drag” – Paul Di Filippo, Sci Fiction, August 2001.
9. “Lincoln in Frogmore” – Andy Duncan, Asimov’s, Oct. 2001.
10. “I Saw the Light” – Terry Bisson, Sci Fiction, Oct. 2002.

I began to write and submit myself in the fall of 2002, so I arbitrarily stop my list there.

Smoking saved his life

Twenty years ago, I worked at a newspaper and did an interview with a local man who was a Pearl Harbor survivor.

He said that morning he was up and among the first men to eat at the Mess Hall at Wheeler Field because he only had so much time for breakfast, and after he ate he wanted to take a smoke break before starting his duties of the day.

After gobbling breakfast, he and some buddies exited the mess hall and were right outside, puffing away, when the Japanese bombers arrived.

The concussion of the bombs dropped into the mess hall blew open the doors and threw him and his buddies onto the tarmac. As he picked looked up, he realized the Japanese had targeted the mess hall to kill all the men eating breakfast. I can't repeat what he said went through his mind at the time.

He served the entire war and came out alive. Fifty years later, when I interviewed him, he was still angry about the attack.

And he still smoked.