30.8.12

Writing: Year 1


It's an anniversary of sorts for me today. In early July of 2011, I submitted a pair of stories to some publications for the first time, and one year ago to today I received my first rejection letter for a short story.

It was for a short piece that would later be called "Estimated Time of Arrival". I consider it my attempt to write an SF comedy, a  version of Stephen Leacock's "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town", if you will. It  wound up with a greater debt to sitcoms and had a more dour and somber tone to it by the end. I don't think it's a bad story, but it took a little time to find a market that appreciated the particular balance of moods and themes. Ray Gun Revival  gave it a chance and the story was published with them last April. It was also my first ever reviewed piece thanks to Adam Shaftoe taking the time to critique it on his Page of Reviews.

The other story submitted last summer took a stranger route through publications that shut down before I heard anything back, had a finalist run in the Friends of the Merril Contest and a faced rejection or two before being picked up by Daily Science Fiction for my first professional sale (thanks Michele and Jonathan). That story, "The Mobius Garden" was mailed out to their subscriber list today and should be on their web archives in a few weeks.

Anyhow, if you've just received Daily Science Fiction and were curious enough to visit,  please accept my thanks and gratitude for your time spent reading "The Mobius Garden". If you have opinions, reactions or other thoughts to share I'm happy to chat over my twitter (@JamesBambury) and Google+ accounts. If you're not into social media there's the contact form at the top of the page that will e-mail me somewhat indirectly.

Again, my thanks.