Tag Archives: ILYAMY

A-F-K

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Hey, remember that fascinating blog by that fella who called himself the Improbable Author?

Yeah?  Well, turns out that today I remembered it too.

Sorry for the subscribers and the occasional visitors as well.  I’ve been what those in the MMORPG world term “AFK”, or “Away From Keyboard” (not AFU — that’s something altogether different, but possibly also applicable).  This last month has been one of sound and fury signifying nothing.  I’ve been away doing other things, work, life, family, etc.  As a consequence, I have not blogged nor written hardly a word.

That is not to say that the world of writing has sat still while I did.  In the realms of submissions, I have one bit of news and two bits of non-news.  In news, I got a rejection from Asimov’s magazine for “Bumped”, so that one is now free to re-submit to other markets.  This was a long wait, but unfortunately not unusually long for that market.  In non-news, no word yet on the simultaneous subs for “ILYAMY” and no word on ASID from Baen’s next tier in their approval chain.  The Slushmaster there had my work as the next thing on his plate, but two higher priority manuscripts bumped mine back.  Oh, to have priority . . . but I’ll take what I can get.

Therefore, there is also no new news on the independent/Stealth Books launch of A Sword Into Darkness either.

As far as Echomancer goes, that project has been waylaid by an infuriating bit of writer’s block / malaise.  I’m in a key chapter and I just can’t seem to restore my momentum.  There are . . . other things going on in my life, so I haven’t had the time nor the passion/emotion to devote to that worthy piece of work.  But, it is NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month (November for the uninitiated), and while I’ve never felt compelled to participate, it’s as good an excuse as any to get going again.

In unrelated science fiction news, I went with an outstanding group of enthusiasts for Books-to-Movies and saw the “Ender’s Game” movie.  I thought they did an excellent job translating that masterwork to the screen, though in my ideal version they would have left in a lot of excised content.  Of course, my ideal version would probably end up 2-3 times as long.  As a consequence, I’m re-reading the book and enjoying it again.  Fairly or unfairly, though, Orson Scott Card’s politics have become tied up with his story and the movie, and while my opinion of the story and the esteem I hold the work in were formed well before I ever agreed/disagreed/or was indifferent to his beliefs, I find on rereading it that I am now seeing it through the lens of his current opinions, which somewhat damps my youthful regard for the book.

This is not a political blog, however, so that’s all that I’ll say about my opinions, except for unreservedly recommending the movie to both readers and non-readers.  I don’t think you can or should always divorce the art from the artist, but in this case I think an exception should be made.  The work is that important.

More later (and SOON), I promise.  Take care, all.

New Short Story!! “Bumped” Live for the next two weeks! – UPDATED

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SORRY, TAKEN DOWN FOR SUBMISSIONS.  THANKS FOR ALL THE COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS!!

Thank you, again, to all the folks who contributed to “ILYAMY”.  My hope is to fix it up and get it started on the magazine rejection cycle as soon as possible.  I’ll keep you, dear reader, updated as things unfold.

And now for something completely different.  Where “ILYAMY” was straight-up SF drama and somewhat dark-ish, this new tale is a bit of frothy fun (at least my definition of it).  “Bumped” is an old-school adventure yarn.  Were I forced to pigeon-hole it, I’d classify it as a mad-scientist romance / gadget caper.  If that’s your thing (and how could it NOT be?), I think you’ll get a kick out of it.  It had a little-seen previous version on Baen’s Bar, but I excised about 2000 words and punched it up quite a bit.  It’s now a good bit funner.

As with the last short story in progress, this’ll be up for a couple of weeks and then it will vanish from the internets in order to find its way to a paying market.

Let me know what you think!  Happy Reading!!

“ILYAMY” Live For the Next 10 Days (or so) – UPDATED

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Here you go, a new story from the Improbable Author:

https://improbableauthor.com/ilyamy-2/

It’ll be up for the next 10 days or so, and I am actively looking for your comments, critiques, questions, kudos, etc.  You can either e-mail me or post a comment here or on the story (I’m easy, whatever works for you).

After that, I’ll pull it down, polish it, and it’ll make the magazine acceptance/rejection rounds.  Slushpiles ho!

And, again, this story is dedicated to the memory of Jackie Price Dunn.  I’m not sure if I ever shared my stories with her before her tragic accident.  She was a beautiful soul.  I’m sure my work would have been all the better for her input.

Jackie, hope you enjoy it up there on your cloud, between eternal bike rides.

 

UPDATE:  ILYAMY has expired and is now down.  Thank you all for the many comments and suggestions.  I’m now tweaking it and will be sending it to the various magazines, where I hope it finds a happy, pro-published home.  If you get a hankering to read it before you can see it in a pay setting, just drop me a line.  I’m always looking for feedback!

 

A Too-Long Delayed Return

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Sorry, Loyal Readers, it’s been a helluva couple of weeks.

Between my last post and today, life has been topsy-turvy.  As many of you may face as well, I’ve been juggling the simultaneous challenges of a new job, new home-ownership, getting used to a pay-cut and new expenses (where the HELL is all my money going every month), and now a cross-country trip and a month-long service school on an out-of-pocket shoestring budget.  I’ve been missing my family and I’ve been unable to re-establish any sort of literary routine.

Then I found out about the tragic death of a friend on the other side of the country.  My pain and my wife’s pain is nothing compared to the pain felt by our friend’s husband or her parents or family, but it is still a pain that we are suffering in relative isolation.  I want nothing more than to hold my wife and comfort her, and she and I want to be there for our friend’s husband (who is also our friend), but there are issues of time, distance, and finance preventing it.  Facebook has been a help in this, but it is not nearly enough.

But I have been writing.  Script work continues on Strategic Deployment, plus I have completed the extensive re-write of ILYAMY.  It is a bit of a maudlin tale, but it matches my mood.  And though it was initially written well before this recent accident that stole away our friend, and has nothing to do with her, it’s title is a poignant enough link.  So I am dedicating this latest short story to the memory of Jackie Price Dunn. 

For the next ten days or so, I’ll have ILYAMY up on the website here.  I hope you’ll read it, I hope you’ll like it, and I hope you’ll send me a note with any comments or suggestions you have for it.  At the end of that time, I’ll be bringing it down, polishing it up, and sending it off to make the magazine acceptance/rejection rounds.  I encourage your thoughts and suggestions.  And thanks for reading and sticking with me.