Progress 01

This post was first uploaded on Tuesday 10^th January, 2017. Archived posts have been recovered following irretrievable login problems.

It’s been a busy start to 2017 and yesterday was particularly active!

On January 4^th, my short story A Grand Succession was bought by the magazine Nebula Rift, and will be appearing in Vol. 4 No. 12, going active on January 18^th. Then, on the 9^th, my short Dreamloggerwas accepted by the anthology First Contact. This is the second piece I have placed with this publisher, I have a story in their time travel anthology as well. Both volumes are still reading, I believe, but should be coming available in 2017.

Yesterday I also picked up another short-listing. My story Last Stop Paradise is in the second-reading group with the magazine New Myths, and there is an interesting aside goes with this. It had just come back from its previous submission, accompanied by feedback which, for the most part, was the most glowing praise, the negative points generally constituted minor edits – we’re talking jargon which might need explaining, like “EMP” and “goldilocks zone,” and whether the latter should have capitals… Pretty minor, right? One reader had an issue with the structure of the conclusion and I would have been more than willing to do a rewrite as I could see where they were coming from. Whatever, this was grounds for them declining. I redirected the story at once, as one does, and found to my delight it was shortlisted the same day. This sort of thing makes it imperative to remember that feedback is subjective (as many magazines, this one included, point out). A beginner would likely be inclined to take it at face value, but there are as many reactions as there are readers, and one might at times be rewriting material which is already perfectly welcome elsewhere.

In the evening of the same day the “galley proofs” came in for Nebula Rift, a .pdf mockup of the edition in which I read my story and comment on edits – a new experience for me!

And the final progress yesterday was not one but two solicitations. The magazine Scout solicited my short story Rebirth, which I queried with them, as, while it fitted their brief very closely in most respects, ran contrary on one other – I outlined the piece and editor asked to see it, so fingers crossed! And the new magazine Retro Futures, a themed-issues collection, has an upcoming theme for which my provocatively titled “Middle Stars” novella Annie Lustrum’s Psychedelic Shag Wagon may be appropriate, and the editor solicited it on my teaser. Once again, serious crossed fingers and all hopes for positive reactions.

The Nebula Rift proofs are done now, so back to writing for me today…

Cheers, Mike Adamson

PS: The header image is free stock art...