DOOMOLOGY IS NOW AVAILABLE

I’m sure every writer knows the feeling: it seems to take forever from the time a story is sold until it finally appears in print. So today’s a good day.

My story “Tartarus Rising” is part of an anthology of disaster stories called “Doomology: The Dawning of Disasters” from the Library Of Science Fiction Press, and the anthology was just made available through Amazon.com yesterday. I haven’t held a copy in my hands, so I’m really looking forward to getting my copy and reading it. I love disaster stories, and this anthology features 23 of them, so I hope it finds a great audience. You can find the cover art on an earlier posting from November (below).

My story “The Wind Man” will be included in the Winter edition of On Spec: the Canadian magazine of the fantastic which, according to their website, is due out “Soon, very soon.”

In the meantime, another story of mine called “Shakedown” has picked up an honourable mention in a Canadian SF contest, which includes an anthology publication. But I’ll refrain from giving details until the publisher posts all of the information officially.

All in all, a good month so far. Although waiting for the next story to hit print will still feel like forever.



Print Versus Digital Magazines

After waiting for months to learn when my story “The Wind Man” would be published in On Spec magazine, I got word last week that it will be in the upcoming Winter issue slated for publication in January. Along with the notification was a request for permission to have the story included in the digital version of the magazine. For all the times I’ve gone to the On Spec website, I hadn’t realized they offered a digital version. I readily gave my permission—the more readers the better, even if the magazine isn’t offering additional compensation for the e publication.

I’m a book lover—I love all the sensations of a book in my hand, and that includes magazines. When I look for magazines to submit my stories to, I always prefer those that aren’t exclusively electronic, and at least include a print edition or a year-end print anthology. It just seems to make the publication more “real” to me. Literally, a more solid publishing credit. Yet I’ve subscribed to Analog in digital format for two years. I read it on my KOBO reader. I read a few other magazines that way, too. Does that make me a hypocrite? I hope not.

Some people will clearly prefer the convenience and lower cost of enjoying their favourite magazines with an ereader, and I certainly don’t want to miss out on that readership. There’s also something to be said about saving paper, and the environmental costs of delivering physical packages. But I can’t help it, I also want my published writing to have an element of permanence—a lasting presence—that I just can’t associate with a digital file on an electronic device. Not yet, anyway.

Whichever form of reading material you prefer, I hope you’ll look for the Winter issue of On Spec, either at your bookstore, newsstand, or online at http://www.onspec.ca/ . “The Wind Man” is a light fantasy about a restless wanderer with an unusual curse. I think you’ll enjoy it.



AWAITING PUBLICATION

Being a writer involves a lot of learning: much of it to learn the craft, some of it to learn research details to give a story authenticity. I don’t mind that—I’ve always loved learning. But one of the most necessary skills for a writer to learn, and possibly the hardest, is patience.

The waiting is a killer: waiting to hear back about a submission (a lot of that!), then waiting to get a contract, go through the copy-editing process, and above all waiting to see those sweat-infused lines of prose or poetry actually appear in squiggles of print. That’s why writers go grey. Or even bald…in patches.

All of this is a lead-up to say that I still don’t know when my story “The Wind Man” will appear in On Spec (http://onspec.ca/news ). I’ve been listed in the “Upcoming Issues” section for several issues now, so hopefully it will be soon. My story “Tartarus Rising” will be included in the anthology “Doomology: The Dawning Of Disasters” from The Library Of Science Fiction and Fantasy Press, (http://libraryofthelivingdead.lefora.com/2010/05/19/doomology-the-dawning-of-disasters-toc/) but no publication date has been announced yet. It should be soon, too. At least we’ve been able to get a look at the cover art for the anthology. I like it a lot—surreal, with just the right amount of B-movie pyrotechnics. Have a look.

"The Wind Man" in On Spec

My story “The Wind Man” was purchased by On Spec in August of 2009. It tells the story of Skelly Gilgoohen, a lifelong storyteller for whom an old Irish blessing has become a curse. In April of 2010 I corresponded with copy-editor Robin Carson about the story (he loved it), so I’m hoping it will be showing up in the magazine soon. I’ve been listed in the “Upcoming” section at the back of the magazine for a couple of issues now.