Latest story published, "Damascus Interrupted"

The Phantasmagorium web site has published by Alternate History/Christian Horror story "Damascus Interrupted". You can find it on-line 

Ed Morris, fiction editor at Phantasmagorium, said "It follows our guidelines to the letter, and still manages to be pure, unadulterated Antonelli Brand Alternate History. Lou Antonelli, you are a cross-genre surgeon who delivers such hybrid children with skill, wit and panache. Pleasure to be running this one this week..."

It is my oldest unpublished story, I wrote it in January 2003. It was originally supposed to be my first published story, but the small print mag that originally wanted it went out of business beforehand. When I attended my first con, ConDFW in February 2003, this was the story I had sold. A big reason I wanted to attend the con was to learn about the markets, because I realized that if my stuff was actually publishable, I needed to know what I was doing.

At ConDFW I met Jayme Blaschke, fiction editor at Revolution S-F, and it was Jayme who ultimately published my first story in June 2003.

"Damascus" is my 70th published story since then, and my ninth this year.

And it's an even dozen

David Gray at 4 Star Stories, who already plans to publish my story "The Way of the Heretic" in his fall issue, says he will publish my story "Racing with the Sunset" in his winter issue. That means that, if all near-future publications come off as anticipated, I will have 12 stories published in '12.

One day at Fencon

After the fiasco that prevented me from attending ArmadilloCon in July, I had to admit I have scheduling problems that prevent me from taking Saturdays off from work, and I cancelled as a panelist at FenCon. I have to say that, with FenCon just two weeks away, it was a wise move, because things haven't changed. The only way I can take a Saturday off is if someone takes the shift for me, and right now my normal replacement is on temporary assignment in another county, and the only other person who could work for me - my boss - is working two jobs because someone quit without notice.

But I can't see what could tie me up on Sunday, so I hope to drive in and at least spend the day there, and meet up with the usual suspects.

I hope things change next year, the next con I would really like to attend is ConDFW in February. I also really hope to attend Lone Star Con. But I have to be careful with my plans, because things have way of changing at the last minute.

Latest acceptance

Bewildering Stories has been around for many years and published one of my stories as far back as 2003. I still send them an occasional tale*. Editor Don Webb says he will be publishing my short story "Snow Globe" by the end of the year. That will be my 72nd story published - if the others in line for the rest of the year are published as anticipated - and my 11th of 2012. I'll be curious to see whether I pick up another publication later this year, because that would make 12 stories in 2012.

* The story "I Got You" that BWS published in 2004 earned an Honorable Mention in The Year's Best Science Fiction.

Not much to report this week...

...on the writing front. Because of a change in my work schedule, I actually didn't have a day off this week. I used to have Mondays off. Now I have Fridays off. Because of the change, I had to work this past Monday (yes, on Labor Day) I haven't had a  full day off since Aug. 20. But I will have Friday off as the new schedules cycles. I plan to use it to work on genre stuff.

George, Joe and Me

I was checking Facebook this morning when I noticed a post from Joe Lansdale saying that a book by one of his favorite authors, George V. Higgins, has been made into a movie. The movie is called "Killing Them Softly" and it debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May. It will be released in the U.S. in October.

I didn't know that Joe was a George V. Higgins fan, and I picked up the phone and told Joe that - it's a small world - George V. Higgins and I are from the same town, Rockand, Mass. Higgins graduated from Rockland High School in 1957, the year I was born. I graduated in 1975.

George Higgins' father, John T. Higgins, was high school principal when he was a student, and something about having his dad in the principal's office during his time in school gave George a real attitude about Rockland. Maybe he was picked on; maybe he resented the time his father accidentally stepped off the stage in the school auditorium, and he fell to the floor, breaking his leg - and the little bastards laughed at him.

In any case, after he graduated, Higgins never would admit he was from Rockland, and often claimed Brockton as his birthplace - which was true, that is where the hospital was.

John T. Higgins left the Rockland schools and was treasurer of the Massachusetts Teachers Association when he died suddenly in 1966; he was 60. George was in law school at the time.

I always thought it was fascinating that the principal who succeeded John. T. Higgins at Rockland High School was named Joe Cogan, and in 1974 - when I was a junior in high school - Higgins' third novel (following "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" in 1970 and "The Digger's Game" in 1973) was named "Cogan's Trade". That's the first time it occurred to me that novelists even scores by naming villains after nemeses.

By the time I was in high school, John T. Higgins was dead, Joe Cogan had left as principal in 1969, and George was keeping as great a distance as he could. But Mrs. Higgins - John T.'s wife and George V.'s mother - lived in Rockland until she died in 2007, age 98 (she outlived her husband by 41 years, and her son by eight - George died in 1999.)

I wouldn't say Doris Higgins was reclusive, but she didn't seem to socialize much. From what I heard, there was lingering resentment in the Higgins family over the way her husband had been treated. Reading between the lines, I assumed John T. Higgins had been a no-nonsense educator, and that would have put him in conflict with the other strain in public education, which is to use school jobs as patronage. In Massachusetts, where the Irish Democrat glad-handing policy of handing out jobs to insure political loyalty was very strong then - and probably still is today - I'm sure that caused problems.

Doris Higgins was a member of a historical committee when I was in high school (the city celebrated the centennial of its incorporation in 1974) and I served as a student rep. Higgins was 65 at the time, grey-haired, stern and like I said, no-nonsense. We met a couple of times at her home. What I remember the most was that she has two large Dobermans and was very concerned to keep them away from the guests. That was back when Dobermans had a much worse reputation than they do now, and I think she thought some people would be scared of them.

Anyone who knows me well knows I've always been a big dog lover, and I wanted to play with the pooches, and she wouldn't let me!

I regaled Joe with all this trivia this morning. It was a good excuse to visit. He and Karen are heading overseas for a tour in Italy and Germany starting on Tuesday (I've never traveled overseas and have never owned a passport). Keith and Kasey will be joining them later. It's nice to see Joe is doing well, he's certainly earned it.

Like I said, it's a small world.

Ten years on

Today marks marks the tenth anniversary of when I wrote my first s-f story. Here is an excerpt from the introduction of my first collection, "Fantastic Texas".

"In 2002, at the age of 45, I was having some mid-life musings. One weekend, the life support system at our residence failed (translation: it was August in Texas and the air conditioning broke down at home). My wife high-tailed it back to her mother in Dallas, while I waited it out until the repairman showed up on Monday. Meanwhile, the only way I could survive was to sit at a desk next to a small window unit. Thankfully, that’s where the computer was. I recalled during my mid-life reveries that I had never acted on a whim to write s-f in any serious kind of way. I did an internet search and found a web site where you could write stories and self-post them. I cranked out a 2,000-word story, staying up until 4am, uploaded it and went to bed.

"I woke up Sunday at the crack of noon and logged on to see how badly my story had been savaged. I was pleasantly surprised to read many positive comments, and I realized I might actually have a shot being an s-f and fantasy writer. I didn’t think about it at the time, but I suppose spending thirty years as a journalist honed my English skills. I’ve never had an editor say a story was poorly written or ungrammatical.

            

"I started writing s-f in a serious fashion, and the following summer I had my first sale. In 2004, I made my first pro sale. I guess I can say I write s-f and fantasy for the best of all reasons, because I enjoy it, and it’s fun. I still work every day at my newspaper job."

That weekend was the Labor Day weekend in 2002. That first story was ultimately printed by a British magazine called Twisted Tongue in May 2007; it was called "Insight". My first publication was a short story called "Silvern" at Revolution SF in June 2003; it is still archived on-line here. My first payment was five bucks for a flash called "They Call It Time" that was published in Alienskin in Dec. 2004. Although Gardner Dozois accepted "A Rocket for the Republic" for Asimov's in March 2004, the story was published in the Sept. 2005 issue, and the check reached me a week or two later than the five bucks from Alienskin.

"Rocket", of course, was my first pro sale, and my only story that ever ranked in a competition; it came in third in the annual Asimov's Reader's Poll in the short story category that year. Both "Rocket" and "The Witch of Waxahachie" - my second pro sale that was published in Jim Baen's Universe in 2008 - picked up a few Nebula recommendations. My first collection, "Fantastic Texas", was published in 2009 and "Texas & Other Planets" was published in 2010. My collaborative collection with Ed Morris, "Music for Four Hands", was published in 2011.

I've had stories reprinted in The First Bewildering Stories Anthology in 2006 and Zombified: An Anthology of All Things Zombie in 2011. My non-fiction has been printed in the SFWA Bulletin and the anthology Zombie Writing.

As of today, I've had 69 short stories, flashes (and one novelette) published in print or on-line; I've had eleven Honorable Mentions in the annual list published in Dozois' annual The Year's Best Science Fiction.