The Case of the Martian Ambassador

[your father is]

A short story in the old pulp mold. Would That It Were foolishly paid me 5 cents a word for it, but you can read it for free:



“The Martian Ambassador is dead,” Varantus said. His gold-flecked Venusian eyes closed and his already tiny mouth became a sad, thin line.

“How is that possible?” Gao asked. “You escorted him to his ship not half-an-hour ago.”

“That’s what we need you to determine, Thompson.”

Gao felt a flash of annoyance. He had become the first Earthman in space because he wished to explore new worlds, not to run intergalactic errands. His temper cooled as it hit home that the ambassador was dead. The old Martian had believed in Gao -- had championed the professor’s place in the interplanetary community. The least Gao could do was uncover the ambassador’s murderer...

 

[takyris]

Very cool! A good read, and you did a great job of capturing the flavor and style -- the mix of old-feel and high-tech. Thanks for linking it our way!

 

[your father is]

^Thanks! It means a lot coming from an Amazing Stories alumnus

 

[takyris]

Heh. The closest I've ever gotten to Would that it Were was a very friendly "While this is technically what our guidelines say we publish, and it's well-written, it's really not our thing."

By the way, is this story part of a series? Are the earlier stories published, and/or are the later ones going to be?

 

[your father is]

By the way, is this story part of a series? Are the earlier stories published, and/or are the later ones going to be?

Yeah, it's part of a series. I only have two stories published at pro word rates, and they both star Professor Thompson Tang Gao -- I'm a series hack already

The first story is in Amazing Heroes, the sequel is the one at Would That It Were, and a later tale appears in All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories. I have a new one in the slush at F&SF right now.

Thanks for asking, by the way. Typing all that up made me feel accomplished

Are you planning on submitting to the Magic: the Gathering open call or the Stargate SG1 open call?

 

[takyris]

Very cool! Yet another reason for me to get the zepellin book! (I have a buddy already in it, so that was one reason right there.)

Not doing Magic, since I'm not into the game enough to do the world justice. I doubt I'd have any ideas that stand out from a crowd. Submitted to the Eberron contest, though, and the SG-1 contest is news to me -- but I do watch the show, and I'd love to come up with something.

 

[your father is]

^A note on the SG1 market: from what I've been able to determine, they're a small press, and don't have the license for North America. That said, it's probably still a good opportunity, it just won't be as big or pay as well as, say, a WotC novel.

By the way, for any who haven't seen it, WotC is now looking for original speculative fiction novels.

I'm loath to give up the short stories, but I think I'm going to devote some serious time to developing a novel to submit.

 

[takyris]

Noticed that, and was kinda bummed. I'd thought it was the main SG-1 line until I looked closer (and read "not in the US", which was also a clue).

As for the WotC stuff -- yeah, definitely worth a look. I'll be sending a novel proposal their way. Not yet sure whether it'll be one of the two that are already out, or the new one I'm currently polishing, but it'll be something.

Given their guidelines, I'm actually trying to figure out which novels would work as games and go from there. There's one of them that actually works better than most of the ones I've already written, and I could easily crank out a sample chapter for them. Hmmm.

Only problematic bit is the "all rights" thing. That turns it from "your book" into "their book", making it work-for-hire instead of normal publishing. It might still pay well, and it's a book with your name on it on the shelves, but it has certain issues attached to it. Not issues that would slow me down much from submitting, but issues nonetheless.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

I think I'll be jumping on the Wizards submission thing as well. I have ideas for a series (duology or trilogy, hopefully trilogy). Definitely fits the alt-history/SF/horror mold.

 

[your father is]

Takyris: You could always submit more than one proposal

As for the "all rights," I'm not quite sure what that entails. Hopefully there'll be some clarification in the next few weeks.

Andrew: Good luck!

I've never taken the novel plunge before. I wanted to make sure my prose was good enough by getting a few stories published first. I think the time is right, though...