science fiction author
I found out yesterday that I did not get in to the Clarion workshop in San Diego for this summer. I am sad, but I also understand the reality that it is highly competitive. I will keep trying, because I think a workshop like this will be a total game changer for my writing. Onward!
Today I signed another contract for my story entitled “The Grocery Store” which will appear in Radon Journal. Amazing. I can’t keep up this pace for too much longer, since I currently only have 3 other pieces out on submission but it was very exciting to have this happen quick on the heels of yesterday. I actually knew about this one for a few weeks. They gave me a conditional acceptance, but wanted me to…
I am beyond excited to share that I have made my first sale! My flash fiction story entitled “Alien Anthropologist” will appear in On Spec, the Canadian magazine of the fantastic, later this year. I received the acceptance email yesterday, had a brief email exchange, signed the contract, and just received the payment. I am so excited! I have been writing science fiction (off and on) since 1983. I have had several periods of more…
Had a bit of a complicated day yesterday but still managed to submit my application for the Clarion workshop for this coming summer. I was really proud of my stories about a week and a half ago or so but as I kept working and working and working, I found myself not feeling any emotional connection to them anymore at all. By the time I submitted them, I actually thought both of them were terrible.…
The novel has been pushed to the back burner for a moment as I am getting some stories up and ready for workshop application season. I have two that have been noodling around in my brain off and on for two and eleven years, respectively. Both were critiqued by my writing group and I have made significant revisions to them. I am very pleased with how they turned out and I am excited to loose…
I read Heretics in September and October, and Chapterhouse in October and finished it yesterday. Heretics was not a thrilling read for me and I was not looking forward to slogging my way through Chapterhouse, but I am really glad I did. That book really held my attention and I have very little memory of it from when I read it probably 20 years ago now. This book series concludes on a cliffhanger and I…
At approximately 2:30 in the afternoon on Saturday October 29, I completed the zero draft of my first novel, “The Survivors.” It is a galaxy spanning space opera that addresses unchecked power and control, species-ism, and features a man who is pushed beyond his self imposed limits to break the rules in order to confront an unknown alien attack. I started writing these characters in my seventh grade english class in 1984, and while I…
Although I have read Dune at least 6 times, I have only read the sequels all the way through once, and only read the first three books one additional time. In any event, it has been a long time and while I remember the big picture, a lot of the details were lost to the sands of time. (See what I did there?) Children of Dune starts 9 years after the events of Dune Messiah.…
I did not get in to the “personal Odyssey” workshop. Which was sad but not unexpected. I then spent about 5 days revising my “Stars End” story for the last workshop I will be applying to, Viable Paradise. That application went out at the end of May and I should hear this month. I had stopped submitting my stories to markets in about March of this spring. I just didn’t have the time or energy…
In the rush of the spring semester, I forgot to note that I recently (end of March) submitted my application to the odyssey workshop. I had a story out making rounds on the submission landscape but it was rejected a few times so I decided to polish it up a little and pull it off submission to use as my piece for the workshop. I also needed to get two letters of recommendation, which wasn’t…
