It's out! It's out! My SF tale Quick Fix, is in the October 2011 issue of Bards and Sages, which has just hit the stands today. ***Quick Fix is a light-hearted piece that, in between the usual sweat, tears and self-doubt, I had a lot fun writing. It was rejected twice before B&S snapped it up on its third outing. I got the idea 11/1-11 (love those notebooks), though the alien biology used as the story's foundation has been rattling around in my head for years. I just didn't know what to do with the concept. I thought these guys might eventually feature in a really really serious story about the end of the universe, and that they might even be humans in a different stage of evolution. Wrong and wrong! They are very much their own aliens.
I've also just received an email informing me that voting officially starts today for the Bards and Sages' 2011 Readers' Choice Awards, in which readers are invited to vote for the best short story of each issue. Winners are then offered a chance to republish their work in the annual Bardic Tales and Sage Advice anthology.
So if you've read and liked either Found in Translation (July issue) or Quick Fix and feel inclined to put in a good word for me, here's the voting link.
*** print link here
kindle link here
2 comments:
I read Found in Translation and was happy to vote for it, because it is good, but the link doesn't let me vote. It gets stuck on the 'Next' button. I'll try again tomorrow.
I like the way you set the scene so quickly, set up the world the two young guys inhabited. Pity they didn't listen more closely to grandmother, or realise how exacting the standards of the aliens were in reproducing other cultures' rituals. Reminds me of old stories about people ordering clothes in Hong Kong and asking the tailor to exactly copy an outfit, only to have wear and tear reproduced. (Sounds apocryphal now that I write it down!)
Thank you! And I'm glad you like the story. I find doing these shorter pieces is good for practicing economy. I tend to waffle with my writing at times, and go off on big arcs, so the discipline of producing a reasonable tale in under 1000 words help me remember that sometimes less is more. Not always, but sometimes.
Also, shorties are easier to sell. :)
Post a Comment