Why waste your time reading blogs when you could rush over to Bewildering Stories Issue 324 and read my newly-published short story 'Skyball'?Yes, I'm in print again! And this particular achievement is always going to hold a special place in my heart. It was the first of my sci-fi stories ever to be accepted for publication. It will also be fondly remembered for the process I went through with the editor Don Webb.
Don is a very exacting editor and I had a tough time working the story into a state where he would accept it. He's also an intelligent editor and easy to get along with. I had never been through such an exercise before (although I've been through similar with other editors since) so it was a hugely important and valuable lesson for me which, I hope, will have lasting benefits for my writing.
But the experience didn't stop there. Bewildering Stories includes a set of 'challenge' questions that Don asks as a way of exploring the stories he publishes. These reflect deep and thoughtful insights, and show how intently Don considers the work he publishes. In the case of 'Skyball' the questions reference one of Don's own essays “Space Aliens as Metaphor” which sparked me to draw an analogy between alien invasions in fiction and the Iraq war, which in turn prompted Don to write a commentary on my analogy.
It really doesn't get any better than that.
Writers wishing to have their own 'Don Web experience' are urged to submit their work to Bewildering Stories. This is not a paying market but the value I got from it went way beyond getting a few extra bucks in my PayPal account. Readers looking for good fiction should just go along and read the magazine. Here is an editor working hard to make a serious contribution to the genre.
P.S. Don't mention this to any of my Australian compatriots, but I was telling someone about Don's challenge questions and his other comments and I could see they were impressed. "Is this an Australian magazine?" they asked, sounding confused. "No," I replied. "It's Canadian." "Oh well," they said. "That explains it!"
6 comments:
hi graham,
i got this link & the link to your story via Vision. I wanted to congratulate you on getting published! Sounds like quite a journey you are having.
I enjoyed your story. (SPOILER ALERT) Definitely kept me reading, tantalisingly me with promises of a god like cavalry near the end but finishing with dark defiance.
Nice concept too. Again, left me wanting more which must be a good thing.
all power to you and looking forward to seeing a book of yours get published!
Thanks, Arun! If I ever manage to get to a Vision meeting (I've been trying for 9 months now with no success) I'll thank you in person.
Congratulations! (Love the aside too.)
And the story is cool. There's real elegance in the idea and the narrator is a fully drawn character. Great work.
Congratulations again! Loved it, respect to you for conveying such a big idea, and the feel of the gradual destruction of society in a short story. It felt plausible, and I loved the ending (again!).
I enjoyed your story. It's swift explanations really drew me in, and the sparse, yet complete, descriptions of what is happening are exceptionally well written.
I'm insanely jealous of your ability.
Congratulations on being published. Found you through Vision Writers as well.
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