First pro sale!

I received an e-mail today from Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. Scott wants to buy the story I recently submitted called The Adjoa Gambit. It is uncertain when it will appear, but I'm told probably sometime this summer.

This makes my first fiction sale at professional rates, which is defined by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as minimum 5 cents per word. It isn't a tremendously large sum of money, but then, the money isn't the point. This is my first sale that will have real exposure. The exciting part about this sale is that IGMS was the first market for this story.

Elementals

The publishing industry is slow, but Tor has finally released a short fiction anthology called Elementals. This book is a fundraiser for tsunami relief. Two of my fellow Codexians, Steve Savile and Alethea Kontis edited the volume, and it contains stories from some of the best of today's speculative fiction writers, including my friend David Gerrold. David's is a rare story without a point of view character, but it works and raises some truly disturbing ideas. Well worth the read.

Again, all the writers donated the stories, and all the profits go to tsunami relief. If you buy one book this year, consider making it elementals. If you click the link at right to go to my home page, you will find a banner ad at the bottom to take you directly to the book on Amazon.

Story went live

My story, "Hole in the Wall" went live yesterday. It appears as the lead title in the premier issue of Atomjack Magazine.

http://www.atomjackmagazine.com/Current.htm

I met Harlan Ellison today!

Attended the friday portion of the Nebula Awards Weekend in Tempe.

Spent the early hours wandering around the hospitality suite. Met Karen Anderson, widow of the late great Poul Anderson, one of my all-time favorite writers. Very nice lady.

I attended a lecture on Current NASA planetary exploration activities by Dr. David Williams of Arizona State University.

Went back up to the hospitality suite and got into a group discussion (with me mostly listening) that included Jacqueline Lichtenberg. Stayed there until my fellow Codex writer Eric James Stone arrived. (His web site is linked from mine.)

Eric and I decided to grab some lunch, but ran into none other than Harlan Ellison, who is the grand master this year. Scott Card is right, anyone who spends five minutes in a room with Ellison has a story. Eric has a new name (how can you discard a name given by Ellison, even by accident?) and I have some of Ellison's DNA on a water bottle.

And, for Scott D: I have photographic evidence to prove I am at least an inch taller than Ellison. he is such a giant in so many other ways that I'm just thrilled to have finally met the man.