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.

Spinning the wheels...

I kind of hit a writer's block at the start of this week, a combination of coming to a crucial place in "Desarralo Separado" as well as the shock of Patricia having to leave and stay with her mom suddenly on Monday. Mom-in-law is recuperating from a shoulder operation and can't drive. Some friends, and especially Patricia's aunt, have been helping her. The aunt took ill and went to the hospital suddenly on Monday and Patricia had to take off pretty quickly. I'm sad to hear the aunt has been diagnosed with color cancer; I hope they caught it fairly early. In the meantime Patricia is staying with her mom as a caregiver.

I decided to lay "Desarrolo Separado" aside for a while, and I've made a couple of starts on stories I'm sure I will come back to - "Sympathy for Salieri" and "Agni Malish" - but I had to take another break. I came up with a good idea; instead of writing, I did some editing and redacted the first chapter of "Dance With Me Henry" into a short story. That seems to have gotten me in the groove again. I will keep working on it over the weekend.

Given their due

This just in: Tor.com is SFWA’s newest qualifying short fiction market. Today the board of directors of SFWA unanimously voted to add Tor.com to the list of SFWA qualifying markets. Just celebrating its first year online, this extension of Tor Books features science-fiction and fantasy fiction as well as art, non-fiction, essays, and book review

In case you missed it...

Here is my portion of the Mind Meld feature which was posted by SF Signal on Wednesday:

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Lou Antonelli


Lou Antonelli has had 43 stories published in the past six years in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia in place such as Asimov's Science Fiction, Jim Baen's Universe, Dark Recesses and Andromeda Spaceways In-flight Magazine. He has had ten honorable mentions in The Year's Best Science Fiction (St. Martin's Press, Gardner Dozois, ed.). His Texas-themed reprint collection Fantastic Texas is forthcoming from Wilder Publications. He lives in Mount Pleasant, Texas, with his wife, Patricia, and is managing editor of the Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune

Some of the first stories that made a big impression of me were from the Silver Age of the 1950s that were just being anthologized when I was a kid growing up in the 1960s. Some of those stories included:

"The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke. Well-written with a clever as well as awe-inspiring ending, it made a big impression on me. Same goes for his story "The Star."

"Disappearing Act" by Alfred Bester. In retrospect, Bester was my favorite author when I was young, and this was the most memorable story for me, again, because of the ironic ending.

"The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin. A story that made a big impression on me because of how much I hated it, I've come up with a dozen ways over the years in my head how the problem in the story could have been solved without killing the stowaway. I guess I'm a humanist at heart; I feel science was made to serve man, not the other way around.

I read very little original s-f in the 1960s and 1970s while I was in junior high, high school and then college. "Eyes Do More Than See" by Isaac Asimov, published in 1965, is one story I remember. It is a very sentimental story that made helped me realize that I am, at heart, a very sentimental person.

I was a big fan of Omni in the 1980s and one of the stories I liked the best from that era was "Wild, Wild Horses" by Howard Waldrop. It is a magnificent piece of droll secret history, with some wistful twists, and it helped me realize what kind of fiction I might write myself one day. "Flying Saucer Rock and Roll", another Waldrop Omni story from that era, is one of the most fun things I've ever read.

"His Power'd Wig, His Crown of Thornes" by Marc Laidlaw, another Omni story from the '80s, impressed me at the time with the potential of alternate history.

More recently, I'd cite "The Lincoln Train" by Maureen McHugh, published in 1995. Another great alternate history story that centers on the seminal event of American history, the Civil War.

"A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows" by Gardner Dozois. Published in 1999, it impressed me with a realistic vision of the perils and promise of Transhumanism, with the humanity of the protagonist at the very core of the story.

"The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-o" by Michael Swanwick, published in 2000, was a very clever tale on the creation of archetypes. As a journalist for over 30 years now, I see the same crazy stuff over and over again, and it struck a chord with me.

Stories from this century I find memorable include "Sergeant Chip" by Brad Denton (F&SF, Sept. 2004), a well-written futuristic story with a canine protagonist who was honestly depicted; both Sergeant Chip and the story had a lot of integrity; "Just Like the Ones We Used to Know" by Connie Willis (Asimov's, Dec. 2003), clever, compelling, entertaining and extremely well written; and "Tearing Down Tuesday" by Steven Francis Murphy (Interzone, May 2007) which impressed me with how there are brand new writers out there who can still write the Good New Stuff.

Published

The set of Mind Meld interviews was published on SF Signal today. Very interesting choices, and the coincidences were interesting. I was glad to note, for example, I was not the only subject who cited Brad Denton's "Sergeant Chip".

Mind Meld with me

John DeNardo at the science fiction blog SF Signal asked me last week if I'd participate in their ongoing interview feature, "Mind Meld", which asks a member of the science fiction community to answer one question in depth. I agreed, and my question was "What are some of your favorite stories in sf/f/h and what makes them so memorable?"

I spent some time today writing up my response and I shot it off to him. It should be published on SF Signal on Wednesday.

Otherwise, spent more time on "Desarrolo Separado". I'm concerned to keep the story from needlessly ballooning into a novelette. but after today I think it can be done.

Back to the outline list

Had to spend a few days taking care of some accumulated chores, plan to get back to "Desarallo Separado" today and try to keep with with the list of outlines that is constantly rising like sourdough.

I've had a story idea for an alternate history whereby the Soviet Union makes it to the present day. The anniversary of the moon landing seems to have made the solution of a crucial plot element rise to the top. It also ties in with another story idea I've had had, whereby a de facto independent Texas sends a fellow as its rep to a lunar colony, kind of as a punishment. The working title of this one "Back in the Lun' S.S.R."