In Print May 2019 (and Progress)

Things have been a bit slow in the last six or seven months, slow enough that I have got out of the way of regular postings, which is a shame as there have certainly been things to report, just nothing actually appearing in print. Thus no immediate motivation to get a report up since the end of February, which must be the longest period this blog has ever lain idle.

I’ve scored five placements since then, however. Just one in March: my SF outing The Omega Manifesto, written in 2015, was picked up by Four Star Stores for a release either late this year or early next. This was followed by my best April on record, with four placements.

I have a second outing with Storyhack Action and Adventure, who picked up my historical adventure piece Rakes and the Pirates of Malabar. At over 13000 words this is one of my longer placed works, and will hopefully kick off a series of adventures about my sword-wielding ex-East India Company agent Edgar Quincannon Rakes, in the violent, exotic world of India in 1837.

Next up, I scored a place with the Australian anthology Worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror with my enviro-military actioner Tanks in the Snow. I wrote this story in 1994 and it’s been through a few drafts since, the underlying thrust being completely altered as history overtook it, while the action was preserved. It’s set in the Russian Arctic in the decades ahead, and offers a glimmer of hope in the battle against climate change.

Third for the month was an outing under a pseudonym for a US anthology, which I’ll keep separate from my mainstream writing, and the fourth for April locked in my third appearance in Aurealis, Australia’s flag-carrier SF magazine. This was a short-listing maturing as a sale. My story The Stranger of Morden concerns mysterious doings in a Dorsetshire village when an Elizabethan portrait is discovered in a country manor, depicting someone who doesn’t seem to be quite human. The piece has been slated for the next issue, which might be out this month – in which case I’ll post the cover here.

Last post, I commented on the way titles are shuffling, with Constellary Tales opening, making up at least somewhat for the closure of Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, and a similar situation has occurred in the last month. Apex has announced its termination on indefinite hiatus as of #120, due in the next couple of months, while Dream Forge has launched and Legendary is forthcoming. All of these titles, coming and going, are pro markets, certainly Legendary aspires to become so as soon as possible. From the writer’s perspective this keeps the range of markets fairly stable, which is a good thing, and maintains the supply of fresh, vibrant new writing to the ever-hungry reading public.

Also worth mentioning, the rate at which “professional” is defined as commencing by the Science Fiction Writers Guild of America is set to rise in September this year, from 6 to 8 cents US per word. This is very good news for writers!

Hopefully I’ll be posting the new Aurealis cover later in the month (edits have not yet come in on the story) and I have 85 submissions in play, several being new stories written especially for themed markets. I have high hopes of finding some placements among them. There are two themed markets reading over the next few months for which I also have projects in note form to work up. I have completed fourteen stories so far this year.

Cheers, stay tuned for news, Mike Adamson

Header image from a royalty-free site.