Tag Archives: story

On Reaching the Semi-Finals For the First Time

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Yesterday the Writers of the Future contest folks posted the list of 3rd quarter semi-finalists and finalists, on which you’ll find yours truly … marking the first time I’ve made it to that level of the contest.

It feels good to have made it past the “Honorable Mention” hurdle, at least this once, though my critical self has had trouble putting it in perspective. Those who know me well won’t be surprised that this milestone produced a variety of thoughts — most of them negative — in my addled brain. Listed here in the approximate order in which they occurred to me:

  • “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then”
  • “Maybe I’m getting better at telling a good story”
  • “The competition must’ve been fairly weak this quarter”
  • “If the best story I ever wrote only rates a semi-finalist slot, maybe I should give up this writing stuff”
  • “I wish I’d made one more editing pass over the new story I just sent to them”

But, as I posted on Twitter and Facebook and have told anyone who would listen, I liken this to a great drive off the tee that makes up for dozens of hooks and slices and keeps the weekend golfer coming back for more. Even a minor writing triumph like this is enough to keep me coming back.

To take that metaphor a little further, I left this story on the green and need to make a good putt to finish well. The nice thing is that every semi-finalist story is critiqued by the contest director, and her comments were direct and insightful. Now I just have to figure out how to fix the problem she found in such a way that the story has a more satisfying ending — though I wish that was going to be as easy as it sounds. But if I read the green correctly and stroke the ball well, I might yet make something of this story.

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An Observation on Publishing, Formulated at Dragon*Con

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At various conventions over the last several years I’ve worked at the Baen Books “Traveling Show.” I usually hand out things or help set up, and it’s always fun to see how exuberant Baen fans can be when they learn what’s coming soon from their favorite authors. This year at Dragon*Con Senior Editor Jim Minz ran the slide show, since Publisher Toni Weisskopf was in Australia for WorldCon, and the whole thing went very well.

During Dragon*Con I also attended similar shows by other publishers, to keep abreast of what to expect from the industry as a whole. I went to the Pyr, Del Ray, and Tor presentations, and in sum got a good look at what science fiction and fantasy publishers are buying.

Unfortunately, they’re not buying much of anything like what I’ve written. The only near-future, realistic science fiction I recall from any of the four presentations was Back to the Moon by Travis Taylor and Les Johnson, coming out from Baen in December. I saw a lot of fantasy, of many different descriptions, a lot of steampunk and alternate history, and even some hard science fiction, but only that one book tells a story that could happen in the next few decades.

I can’t help but feel that a subset of science fiction fans would like to read positive, realistic, near-future stories about folks exploring and colonizing our Solar system, but publishers don’t seem to buying stories like that. I guess I’ll have to keep track of how Back to the Moon does, to see whether or not my Walking on the Sea of Clouds has as much of an audience as I think it could.

I’d love to hear other opinions. What kinds of stories do you think readers would like, that publishers aren’t providing right now?

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Dragon*Con Success on Day One

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I set a modest goal for Dragon*Con this year: to buy and have signed two specific books. I achieved that goal yesterday, so the rest of the con will entail working at Jim Minz’s behest at the Baen road show, attending whatever-the-heck-I-want, and making some progress on the short story I’m writing.

The books I came in pursuit of were:

  • Shades of Milk and Honey, the first novel by Mary Robinette Kowal, one of my writing friends from the Codex writers group who also happens to be the winner of the John W. Campbell Award for the Best New Writer of science fiction and fantasy, and the current VP of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America … I was determined to buy it here because all the copies sold out too quickly for me to get one at NASFiC
  • Moonbase Crisis, the first volume of Rebecca Moesta & Kevin J. Anderson’s Star Challengers middle-grade SF series, which I talked up to whomever I could when I was still involved in the NC Aerospace Initiative

Both are now signed and safely stowed in the hotel room.

It remains to be seen whether I buy anything else here … the expression “kid with a credit card in a candy store” doesn’t begin to cover it.

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Happy Birthday, Neil Armstrong

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Eighty years ago today — August 5, 1930, Neil A. Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He grew up to be the first man to walk on the surface of the Moon.


(Neil Armstrong in the Lunar Module after walking on the Moon. NASA image.)

And 35 years ago today, in 1975, test pilot John Manke glided the X-24B to a safe landing at Edwards AFB, thereby proving the concept that would allow Space Shuttles to return from orbit and land safely.

[BREAK, BREAK]

Shameless plug: Speaking of (typing of?) walking on the Moon, my alternate history story “Memorial at Copernicus” concerns a lunar excursion in the future, made possible by an Apollo flight that never was. It’s in this month’s issue of Redstone Science Fiction.

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New Story: 'Memorial at Copernicus'

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My story, “Memorial at Copernicus,” went live today at Redstone Science Fiction.


(Redstone Science Fiction logo. Click to enlarge.)

It’s a brief alternate history tale that takes place (of course) on the Moon; specifically, near Copernicus Crater. Here’s the direct link if you want to check it out — I hope you enjoy it!

Also today, I completed a long-overdue web redesign.

Let me know what you think!

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Proton's Maiden Flight

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Forty-five years ago today — July 16, 1965 — the Soviet Union launched their first Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.


(Proton launch from July 2000. NASA image from Wikimedia Commons.)

The Proton went on to become one of the most reliable launch vehicles in operation today.

I was able to see Proton operations “up close and personal” during the 2002 launch campaign for the Canadian Nimiq-2 satellite; however, I did not get to see the launch itself because I rotated back to the U.S. when my relief arrived. My observations at Baikonur eventually became the inspiration for my short story, “The Rocket Seamstress,” which was published in Zahir and is now available on Anthology Builder.

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Apollo-Soyuz

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Thirty-five years ago today — July 15, 1975 — the two spacecraft of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project were launched.


(Soyuz spacecraft, as seen from the Apollo spacecraft. NASA image. A higher-resolution image is available here.)

The Soviet Union launched Soyuz-19 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying cosmonauts Alexei A. Leonov and Valeri N. Kubasov.

The USA launched its ASTP contribution from Cape Canaveral atop a Saturn-1B launch vehicle. Astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, Vance D. Brand, and Donald K. Slayton docked with Soyuz-19 two days later in the first-ever international space docking.

Unfortunately for space enthusiasts, it was also the final flight of an Apollo spacecraft flight.

[BREAK, BREAK]

In tangentially related news, Donald K. “Deke” Slayton plays an important role in my alternate history story, “Memorial at Copernicus,” which is slated to appear in an upcoming issue of the online magazine Redstone Science Fiction.

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Forthcoming Fiction

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A brand-new electronic magazine, Redstone Science Fiction, plans to publish my short-short story “Memorial at Copernicus” in an upcoming issue.

How new is Redstone Science Fiction? Their first issue will be June 2010. I love their tagline: “Get us off this rock.”

It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me and has followed my efforts to sell my novel that “Copernicus” in the story’s title refers to Copernicus Crater on the Moon.

What is it with me and stories that take place on the Moon? I don’t know … except that I’ve always wanted to go there,* and since I can’t go for real I have to settle for going in my imagination. And it’s very nice when I can take a few people along with me.

They tell me my story may appear as early as the August issue.

___
*Yes, I know I’d be leaving a very comfortable rock for a not-so-comfortable one. But I look at it from the humanity-and-the-galaxy standpoint: it’s not the ultimate destination … just a stepping-stone.

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RavenCon Recap

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(Another version of this recap is on the Feature page of my website.)

Last weekend’s trip to RavenCon went very well. The con was in a more spacious hotel this year, and as usual was superbly organized and the con staff was excellent. It felt good to be immersed in science fiction and fantasy again, even for a short time.

I was pretty busy during the con, as you can see from the list below:

  • Making the Science Fit the Story — This was an enjoyable panel with a surprisingly large audience, very well moderated by John Cmar and featuring the multiple Nebula Award nominee Bud Sparhawk.
  • Pitching Your Work and Writing a Query Letter — This was a mini workshop with Michael Kabongo and Kalayna Price, and it took a slightly different direction from the original intent. The three of us did, however, take the opportunity to drill into the participants what it takes to write a professional cover/query letter.
  • The Pen is Mightier Than The … — I called this panel the “Baen Books World Domination Panel”, since the panel opened with an entire slate of Baen people: authors Julie Cochrane and Steve White, plus me. Later we were joined by Barbara Friend Ish, publisher of Mercury Retrograde Press. I moderated this panel, which explored the selection and treatment of weapons in science fiction.
  • Will there be BBQ’s in Space? — This panel turned out to be much more interesting than we imagined it would. Julie Cochrane, Chuck Gannon, and Hugo Award nominee Lawrence M. Schoen were my fellow panelists, and we discussed cultural celebrations and how writers incorporate them into various types of science fiction stories.
  • What does the future hold for space travel? — For a 10 p.m. science panel, this one was well-attended and we had a lot of fun with it. Laura A. Burns moderated, and Chuck Gannon, John Cmar, and Butch Allen were the other panelists. We covered everything from the current state of affairs at NASA to some far-out propulsion possibilities, and Dr. Yoji Kondo provided some expert commentary from the audience. (Afterward, I talked for awhile with Dr. Kondo about our work at Edwards AFB, and about science fiction luminaries such as Dr. Robert L. Forward and Charles Sheffield.)
  • Blogging, Twittering, ___ings: Are They Productive Time or An Addiction? — I moderated this panel, which had the widest variety of people on it: Nebula Award-winning Baen author Catherine Asaro (sitting in for her keyboard accompanist Donald Wolcott), literary agent Michael Kabongo, and artists Chris Flick and Bryan Prindiville. We had quite a lively discussion, despite the fact that we outnumbered the audience (one of the dangers of a late-day Sunday panel).

In addition, I also attended a few panels, including “Not Your Mommy’s Star Trek, or is it?” and “The Rise of Young Adult Dystopias.” More important and more enjoyable, I enjoyed some long and fruitful discussions with Lawrence M. Schoen, Bud Sparhawk, and Amy Sturgis, and even made some time to work on a short story.

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Another Honorable Mention

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I see on their blog that the story I sent in last December received an Honorable Mention in the Writers of the Future contest. This is my 3rd or 4th HM, which used to be known as “quarter finalist.”

Skimming the rest of the list, I recognized a couple of other names: Rick Novy and Brian Dolton, two of my friends from the Codex Writers’ Group. Rick had a short story in the issue of Tales of the Talisman that ran a “flash fiction” piece I wrote; he also has about a dozen Honorable Mentions from WotF. (I also see something called a “Silver Honorable Mention,” but I have no idea what that is.)

Now, to try to sell the story to a magazine. And maybe the new story I mailed to WotF last Friday — more science fiction than fantasy, this time — will do better.

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