"Thirteen Generations" coming to AE SciFi

 

I'm delighted to announce a short story sale to AE Science Fiction Review. It's quite validating in that it makes my previous professional sale slightly less of a fluke and it's also a very recent story, so the thrill of acceptance feels rather immediate. Anyhow, I look forward to sharing "Thirteen Generations" through a site that has had some brilliant short SF that isn't afraid to veer into literary and experimental territory.

Thank you AE!

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.

Story Coming to Daily Science Fiction August 30

I am delighted to share that my first professional story sale, "The Mobius Garden" will be the e-mail story for Daily Science Fiction on August 30 and will be available on their website a week or two after that.

If you're not already familiar with Daily Science Fiction, signing up for their list is absolutely free and they send very short stories right to your email box each weekday.

The Loon

My story The Loon appears today on the bizarro blog "The Mustache Factor".

Longing to Play the Oboe

My not-particularly-speculative bit of flash fiction "Longing to Play the Oboe" is in the July issue of Jersey Devil Press.

The oboe players across the street were in the midst of a blistering ecumenical argument. Their voices were muted by the glass but I caught enough words to figure out they had severely divergent views on the Book of Job... (read the rest at Jersey Devil Press)

Pointland

My very-short piece Pointland is online at Bewildering Stories. It should be extra-enjoyable if you've ever read Edwin A. Abbot's classic with a similar name. 

After failing to find moksha beyond the Calabi-Yau manifold, I went the other way. I dodged tesseracts going left and right, ana and kata on my way to Spaceland...(read the rest at Bewildering Stories)

I'm also intrigued that the editors have included a series of questions to accompany the piece which really get at some of the themes and allusions I tried to fit into it. So, take the Bewildering Stories Challenge for this issue if you feel inspired.