So another record for reply to a submission:

371 days – that’s a year and six days – that OSC’s Intergalactic Medicine Show took before passing on ‘The Hushed Voice’, besting my previous longest by 137 days (the previous record holder was 234 days for North of Infinity III, but Mark Leslie bought that story…)

Now, in fairness, the delay was mainly due to the flood of submissions after the magazine opened and the hiring of a new editor, who then had to go through the backlog, so I’m not upset about the delay. I suppose I am kinda bummed that it didn’t make it in, but them’s the breaks.

Edmund Schubert, the IGMS editor, did have some nice things to say in his rejection e-mail, including the fact that the story was among the last 30 or so he held for consideration out of the thousands he had in backlog when he arrived in the job. I don’t know what that is in terms of percentiles (for you LSAT-types out there) but that’s not too shabby. He also said “the reason I kept it as long as I did is because it is as well written as it is; the voice is spot on.” That’s very nice to hear, especially since that is one of the earliest pieces I started sending out to magazines.

Luckily, however, I got the rejection back before the end of February. That means the anthology Holy Horrors is still accepting submissions, and I think this might work for them (‘The Hushed Voice’, for the record, is a dark SF tale in which religion features quite prominently). My submission is going out today.

Likewise, now that IGMS no longer has one of my stories, it’s time to send them a new one! So I’ll be submitting ‘The Great Hymn of the Aten’ to Edmund today, as well. From what I see on the Blackhole, his response rate to new subs seems to be pretty good now that he’s cleared the backlog.

– S.

So I was out to lunch (har har) with a couple of friends this afternoon and as Patrick and I were headed in the same direction on our way back to work we stopped at the Bay-Bloor Indigo and made a bee-line for the SF section.

After several frantic moments of searching (me KNOWING that they had eight copies in stock) we located UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS faced out in the fantasy section (not the sci-fi section where I thought it might be*) and Patrick bought a copy–with no prompting from me, I might add.

Then he asked me to sign it for him.

Me. Sign a story of mine. In a book you can buy in the store. It was an amazing moment.

Now I’ve mentioned Patrick before–he’s one of the world’s future foremost Anglo-Saxonists. We know each other from our undergrads in Kingston, and when we both moved to Toronto to pursue Masters degrees we shared an apartment for three years, give or take. He’s a dear friend, afflicted with much the same oddity as myself, and we get along great.

So I was very pleased that my first-ever book signing was for him, at his request. I hope there will be many more stories to sign in the years to come.

– S.

*NB: I’m actually really glad its in the fantasy section and not sci-fi. While I tend to write mostly SF, it’s well known that fantasy sells better–primarily because more women buy books than do men, and more women read fantasy than read SF. Weird, perhaps, but just how it breaks out. So hopefully by being in the fantasy section it will help sales. And truth be told, I think most of the stories in the collection can be described as fantasy rather than SF–of the ones I’ve read so far only my story ‘Borrowed Time’ and Larry Niven’s ‘The Gatherers Guild’ can be termed SF…and even then, mine’s ‘soft’ SF, not ‘hard’…but LARRY NIVEN!!!

Over the last few days, the Writers of the Future blog has been posting art from the winning Illustrators of the Future–the graphical twins of we writer winners, and the artists who will provide illustrations for our stories in the forthcoming anthology.

So far they’ve posted art by Bryan Beus, Bogdan Stetensko, Lars Edwards, Artem Mirolevich, Corey Loving and it’s all pretty amazing–follow the links if you don’t believe me.

It’s crazy to think that one of these (or perhaps someone not yet posted) will be doing original artwork based on the story I wrote. It’s an entirely unexpected level of coolness to this contest win that I’d not expected.

And yes, I have my favorite of these posted but I won’t tell you which one(s). Never want to upset someone you might be working with soon! 🙂

I know Rob Sawyer has occasionally purchased the original artwork produced for his book covers (having been to his place a few times I can testify that the art for the covers of Far-Seer, the British edition of The Terminal Experiment, and the Science Fiction Book Club and Tor trade paper reprint of Golden Fleece occupy places of prominence around his penthouse). I’m thinking that if I like the art that illustrates my story enough, and if the artist is willing to part with it, I might just see if we can come to some agreement that will allow it to hang framed on my wall…

Really I’m just dying to know what they’ll choose to illustrate from the story. I tend to be very visual when I write–I see scenes in my head almost like I’m watching TV, no doubt a product of a late 20th Century upbringing–and tend to include a lot of visual cues in my stories (sometimes too many, as people in my writer’s group have occasionally told me…) So there are certain key scenes which you could illustrate, I suppose. Or a montage of the characters. Or something else entirely that only a visual artist’s mind would clue in to.

Whatever it ends up being, I’m dying to see it.

Oh, and the otheWotF blog was nice enough to post my notice about UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS coming out. You’ll find it at the bottom of the post here.

– S.

Well, I’ve managed to set a new personal, err, best (?) for rejection time.

I sent ‘The Great Hymn of the Aten’ to Heliotrope yesterday…and got a rejection within twelve hours (!)

My previous fastest rejection was four days. I don’t know if twelve hours will ever be surpassed.

The funniest part is how the rejection letter opened:

“Thank you for your submission to the second issue of Heliotrope Magazine with all apologies to any tardiness this reply may accompany…”

Now, I heard on Ralan.com that the edior has been swamped lately with submissions, so I wasn’t expecting to hear back for some time. But if twelve hours is tardy I’d hate to see how fast he normally gets through submissions!

– S.

I got a rejection letter from Asimov’s yesterday, passing on ‘The Great Hymn of the Aten’–an alternate history story of ancient Egypt. Okay. Fair enough.

But what was nice was that I think Sheila Williams might be starting to remember who I am, as she’s now writing what appear to be (short) personal rejection letters to me, with the last few encouraging me to submit new work soon. Now, these have mostly been two- to three-line rejections, but I might as well have been trying to read tea leaves or augur the future for all I poured over this last one.

It says she’s “looking forward” to seeing my next story…Hmm…What does that mean? Does that mean maybe she likes my stuff but nothing is working for Asimov’s yet but she’s hoping to buy something from me someday soon? Does it mean maybe she hasn’t liked anything but thinks perhaps I have some talent somewhere and that eventually I might come up with something decent that she’ll want to publish?

All this from two lines. If it had been four, I’d likely have spun such circles in my own head that I’d be catatonic right now.

Witness the kind of insanity it takes to be a writer…

– S.

Hi all –

Well, UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS is now available in better bookstores and online shops everywhere and Jana (my editor) just let me know that Barnes & Noble (the US bookstore chain equivalent of Chapters-Indigo) has posted a review of the book and it has some nice things to say about me:

“The Barnes & Noble Review: Science fiction and fantasy fans who enjoy their stories laden with secrecy and intrigue (underground societies, double agents, covert organizations, etc.) will undoubtedly enjoy the new DAW anthology Under Cover of Darkness, which features 14 original short stories from illustrious genre veterans like Larry Niven, Tanya Huff, and Janny Wurts, as well as numerous talented newcomers like Amanda Bloss Maloney and Stephen Kotowych.”

Hey–that’s ME!

You can find the complete B&N review here.

Can’t wait to see more reviews (well, good ones, anyway… :P)

– S.

I saw this on Julie Czerneda’s newsgroup and had to post it here.

– S.

Ten things to keep in mind, when considering how many copies of UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS you will need.

1. It’s Jana Paniccia’s editorial debut. And a masterful one.

2. It features STUNNING original art by our friends, Kenn Brown and Chris Wren, based largely on the FABULOUS story by Douglas Smith … which is, I might add, inside this book. (Clever that.)

3. There’s a vastly clever intro at the beginning … oh, and vastly clever editorial bios at the end. By … the VASTLY CLEVER EDITORS!

4. Larry Niven ASKED to be in this book!!!! (We said yes.)

5. Readers of Janny Wurts? Her story is a PREQUEL to her NOVELS! (Yes, it is.)

6. Esther Friesner’s story is TOO FUNNY. Really, it is.

7. There are first published works in this book by … (and if I’m wrong, correct me) … Darwin Garrison and Amanda Maloney!!! WHOO HOO!

8. There is a story by Writer of the Future Winner, Stephen Kotowych!!!! (It might also be his first sale, but I’m fuzzy on that)

9. There are four countries from three continents represented in this book! France (Bonjour Jihane), South Africa (Hi Paul!), Canada (you know who you are), and the US (Hi!!!!!)! Making it a worldWIDE conspiracy book!!!

10. Rounding out this collection, like ICING ON THE CAKE! Stories by Nick Pollotta, Tanya Huff, Janet Deaver-Pack, and … wait for it … RUSSELL DAVIS AND DORANNA DURGIN!!!!!

…a copy of UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS that I bought today–five days early–which is sitting proudly on my desk.

It’s an amazing feeling to see the same story I wrote on my balcony in Toronto two summers ago show up in print in a volume that will be sold all over the world, let alone be included among the luminaries in this volume.

A big thanks go out to Jana Pannicia and Julie Czerneda, my editors. I’m incredibly grateful to them for taking a chance on an unpublished author.

Up next: two launches for the book in the next month, and then hopefully tonnes of sales! I’ll keep you all posted.

– S.

Hmm… There are vicious rumours that UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS may be available for sale a few days early (as in TODAY) at Bakka-Phoenix, Canada’s oldest science fiction bookstore. Now Bakka just happens to be here in Toronto, down on Queen West…

Guess who’s taking a long lunch?

– S.

Hi all –

I sent a little notice to the WotF blog the other day about the Writers of the Future panel that we’ll be having at Ad Astra in just over a month from now. You can see the post here (as well as pictures of Volume 21 and 22 book signings by fellow Canadian participants Mike Rimar and Sarah Totton).

Hopefully, if anyone is interested in the contest and is within travelling distance of Toronto, this will get them out to Ad Astra–which promises to be a lot of fun! In addition to the WotF panel, there are a number of great panels planned. You can find the list of planned Ad Astra events here.

And it looks like they’ve added Cory Doctorow as one of the Guests of Honour (a GoH, fyi 🙂 He’s a really interesting cat (you may know him from his posts on BoingBoing), and it would be cool to meet him and hear him speak on issues like Creative Commons licences (as I mentioned the other day.) It would also be good to meet him because he’s currently considering my story “Citius, Altius, Fortius” for Tesseracts 11.

Never hurts to butter up an editor…take it from an editor 🙂

The Writers of the Future people also sent along a request for a 200-word bio for inclusion with my story in Volume 23 (out later this year). I’ll have to put some thought to that soon…

– S.