19 June 2001 (yet again)

I just got an acceptance letter from Stan Schmidt at Analog. He's buying "Irena's Roses." WOOHOO!

Stan was the pro editor who had asked for edits on a story, and this was the story. And one of the two rejections I got yesterday was a curt rejection from Stan, quite unlike the chatty rejection I'd last gotten from him. So I was convinced that he hated what I'd done to "Irena's Roses" and had decided to reject it. (The edits he asked for were, basically, that he didn't think the story ended where I had stopped writing it, so I needed to write more story. But I wasn't entirely clear about what else he thought should happen. So it was quite possible that he wouldn't like the results.)

This story got a tough break. It already sold once, to Galaxy, before Galaxy -- oops -- decided that it could pay neither its fiction editor nor its authors. So after commiserating e-mails with Rick (the unpaid former fiction editor), I threw it back in the mail.

And now it will be delivered to my very doorstep. Well. My very courtyard, anyway. I think I can handle having to walk all the way across the courtyard to fetch my first Analog story.

It's inconceivable to me that some of you wouldn't know what Analog is, but just in case: it's the big hard SF magazine. If you want geeky science fiction, Analog is the magazine for you to read.

Or if you want one of my stories. You know. Whatever moves you, really.