It’s not often a writer gets comprehensive feedback in the
form of a review of published work, and so far my story Tymass by Ring-Light with Heroic
Fantasy Quarterly has garnered three such! The first was some fan-mail to
the mag itself which the editor kindly sent on to me, and there have since been
two reviews of HFQ #39, released at
the beginning of February.
The longer and more comprehensive can be read here at Quick
Sip Reviews:
The shorter appeared at Tangent,
an online sci-fi review portal, and can be found here:
It’s certainly nice to know one’s work carries merit in the
eyes of readers! Clearly it must have something going for it to make it into
print in the first place, but one becomes inured to either blank rejections or
the cursory “sorry, but your story didn’t impress us very much” sort of formula
comment one sees from the high-flowthrough pro titles, so appreciative comment
is something of a new experience!
I have a couple of new short-listings in play. Two “Middle
Stars” stories are in contention at the moment, “Windwalkers”
at New Myths, and “Mano รก Xeno”
at Constellary Tales. The latter is a
brand new pro-paying market, and I’m thrilled to be getting a second look
there.
As a point of interest, the industry needs pro markets
desperately, and the coming of Constellary
will hopefully go some way to counterbalance, from the writer’s perspective,
the demise of Orson Scott Card’s
Intergalactic Medicine Show, due to close in June. The fewer pro titles,
the fiercer the competition, between the worldwide stable of pro writers, is
likely to become. Losing even one tightens the acceptance odds on the rest!
Hoping for a few placements in the not too distant future,
Cheers, Mike Adamson
