Amazing Stories Update

[takyris]

Minor update to my old "Woohoo" thread from awhile back, where I went on at length about having a story in the upcoming first issue of the new Amazing Stories:

I've gone through the edits process with their editor, Dave Gross. They are seriously on the ball over there -- I'm something of a grammar nazi when I'm not posting here, and they caught lots of little inconsistencies -- times when I capitalized once and then didn't later, for a certain title, that kind of thing -- as well as some truly embarrassing typos. Kind of sad, considering that, you know, I do proofread before I submit to major magazines and all...

I just sent in my bio and photo -- had no idea that the magazine was going to have photos of the contributors, which is always fun. And I've seen a semiformal mockup of how it's going to look. That's always cool, seeing the PDF with the really big first letter and the somehow-more-formal-looking font and all that stuff. Kinda makes it real.

According to the editor, the first issue will have an August cover date, but it'll be coming out sometime in July, assuming that everything goes according to schedule. So hopefully just a few weeks now.

So yeah, nothing worldshaking, but the editors seem to really love what they're doing right now, and they seem like fun people. Oh, and I'm going to have an illustration for my story, which should be fun. My amazingly supportive wife has framed something related to every story I've gotten published, and it's always more fun when I've got an actual illustration of my own story to check out.

More when I hear it. Thanks for letting me gush.

 

[your father is]

^Congrats on the sale

I'll definitely be picking up the first issue. Are you able to tell us the title of your story?

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Looking forward to reading this! I managed to pick up a couple of your stories through the library, and enjoyed them, especially the one set in the bookstore with the guy looking for the book of power (sorry, I forget the title right now). I laughed out loud more than once, and thats not something I do very often while reading.

 

[takyris]

your father is: It's called "Injure the Corners", which I lifted from The Book of Five Rings. I suspect it's the only one with a talking sword in it. If it's not, then AS has very specific literary tastes...

Cthulhiu's Librarian: Wow. You found the Dreamhaven anthology in a library? That's fantastic! Since only a thousand of those things were printed (and I had to sign all of 'em -- euphoric ego boost for the first five, grim determination for the rest), I figured that one was effectively a "rare and lost" story.

(As a minor personal note, the story you mentioned, "I am Looking for a Book", was written entirely out of spite. A selfish guy in my writing group demanded that we alter our established lineup of stories so that he could get his story, which he'd written to submit to this anthology, in on time. We did -- and it wasn't a very good story. It was actually pretty close to the stereotype I was parodying -- evil bad guy in old used bookstore looking for tome of power. And it was told from the point of view of a cat. And then we found out later that he'd lied about when the anthology deadline was, meaning that he could have easily waited until next meeting to submit his story -- he'd just shoehorned his story in there because he was a selfish jerk. So I said, "You know, I bet the editor is gonna see a ton of stories just like this. I bet he'd like a parody piece. And heck, it ain't due for a week." Cranked it out in two days... Gotta love that writing world. The story you carefully craft for weeks over several progressively more detailed rewrites ends up in your trunk, and the piece you crank out in two days sells to the first place you send it for $350.)

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Cthulhiu's Librarian: Wow. You found the Dreamhaven anthology in a library? That's fantastic! Since only a thousand of those things were printed (and I had to sign all of 'em -- euphoric ego boost for the first five, grim determination for the rest), I figured that one was effectively a "rare and lost" story.

Ah, the wonders of interlibrary loan!
Actually, the book came from the University of St. Louis library, I believe. And it had the signature pages in it. I was actually amazed that they sent the whole book, instead of just copying the story. If the book were here at UVA, it would be locked up in Special Collections with the other signed and limited books. Regardless, I'm glad to have read it!

 

[nikolai]

Congratulations takyris. Any chance of a link to the previous thread? I'd love to hear more about how the submission process worked. Everything I've heard about Dave Gross makes him seem like a really nice guy. Dragon was fantastic under his editorship, I can't wait for the new magazine.

 

[Eridanis]

If the book were here at UVA, it would be locked up in Special Collections with the other signed and limited books. Regardless, I'm glad to have read it!

Someone in cataloging must not have been paying attention. Though kudos to thier staff for even purchasing a copy for their collection - I wonder of St. Louis Univ. has a dedicated SF collection? I'll have to check their website...

 

[takyris]

nikolai: Thanks! I think the old thread got deleted in the purge, although I may have just missed it somewhere. It was started by me and titled "Woohoo" or thereabouts, and I couldn't find it. I didn't have many specifics about the process in there. In my case, it was pretty straightforward. Submitted "blind" (meaning that I subbed without having seen a copy of the magazine, since it was just starting up) and got lucky. Turnaround time of about one month, which is very good for the current short fiction market.

And yeah, Dave has been a really cool editor. Very involved and very friendly. I can't wait to see what the other stories are like -- if he's going for lighthearted stuff all over, or if it's a mix of dark brooding stuff, high adventure stuff, and goofy stuff like mine.

 

[Richards]

Dave Gross is a great guy and a fantastic editor. He'll do good by you. And congratulations on the sale!

Johnathan

 

[your father is]

^I just heard from author Jim Van Pelt that he's got a story in Amazing Stories, too. Shaping up to be a nice debut