Publication: The Far Side of the Wilderness in Beyond the Sun

July 21, 2013

BTS#SFWApro

Beyond the Sun, an anthology of space exploration edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt, is out. It includes a story of mine titled “The Far Side of the Wilderness,” a dark tale about an interstellar colonist’s quest to bring his people back to Earth.

This story is heavily inspired by the Biblical tale of Moses. The title is a quote from the book of Exodus, though not a very well-known one. Even the title of the colony planet, Kemet, is the ancient name for Egypt. Having said that, it greatly amused and surprised me to find how many of my beta readers missed the Biblical connection entirely. The important thing is, they enjoyed the story!

Beyond the Sun features fiction from such heavyweights as Robert Silverberg and Mike Resnick, as well as award-winning or -nominated short fiction authors like Cat Rambo, Brad Torgersen,  and Nancy Fulda, to name just a few. I’m in really good company, and I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys space opera.

The book is available at Amazon now. You can also find it at B&N and elsewhere.

Also, I heard back from Cast of Wonders over the weekend — they accepted a reprint of “You Bet” and will be podcasting it, probably sometime in early 2014. This story has lots of dialog by wacky characters and so it seems perfect for audio. I can’t wait to see what the Cast of Wonders crew does with it!

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Good News Galore

July 15, 2013

So many good news to report lately, so little time to blog. I’m going to use this post to catch up:

wt361_cover

* “A Gnomish Gift” was published in issue 361 of Weird Tales, out this week.  Weird Tales has been around for approximately ever, and has published the likes of Howard and Bradbury, so appearing on their pages is a special treat for me. Having cool original artwork drawn for my story (love the angry little gnome!) and sharing the TOC with the likes of Peter S. Beagle and Tanith Lee? That’s just a bonus:

wtGift

* Sold “Worldbuilding” to Daily Science Fiction.

dsf“Worldbuilding” is a tongue-in-cheek flash story that makes fun of the common SF tropes. Daily SF is a great home for it, and it will be my sixth story appearing under the DSF rocket.

* “A Shard Glows in Brooklyn” will be reprinted two more times. In September it will appear in an e-book anthology Urban Harvest: Tales of the Paranormal in NYC edited by Donna Ansari. This is a charity project and all proceeds will be donated to City Harvest.  This same story is also going to appear in the Write1Sub1 anthology, whenever that ends up getting put together.

* The Coffee anthology reached its initial funding goal on Kickstarter! There is approximately a week left in the campaign, and any additional contributions will help me buy more original fictions at professional rates. If we reach $2000, a cool final stretch goal will be unlocked!

* In related news, The Coffee anthology is open to both reprint and original submissions. I am getting a steady stream of stories and responding promptly, so send something while there isn’t a long queue 🙂

* UFO2 is off to the designer. I hope to have ARCs ready by the end of the month.

* Beyond the Sun anthology is off to the printer and should be shipping in August.

* I return to the DJ Grandpa podcast this week and we talk about Coffee, anthologies, and the challenges of crowdfunding. DJ Grandpa is one of the best–if not the best–crowdfunding podcast around. Be sure to check it out!

enigma

* There’s a new book store opening up in NYC (in Astoria, Queens to be precise), specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and mysteries. The owners want to build it up it as a cool local hangout, where people can not only buy books, but also socialize and participate in fun special events.  The soft launch is this coming weekend, and while they’re still working on a web site, you can visit their Facebook page for updates. Local book stores are a rare breed these days, and local stores specializing in genre even more so.  So stop by the Enigma Bookstore and help support these brave entrepreneurs!

Well, there you go. It’s been a busy week. I hope to report more good news soon, but for now — back to writing!

2 Comments | Acceptances & Publications, Publishing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

2013 storySouth Million Writers Award Nominations Open

July 8, 2013

Jason Sanford just announced that the 2013 nominations for the storySouth Million Writers Award is now open. This award is to recognize excellent short stories (over 1000 words) that were originally published in an online magazine or journal, in 2012. Editors can nominate up to three stories they published, while writers and readers can nominate up to one story each. You can read the detailed rules here.
#SFWApro
And if you happened to enjoy one of my own stories enough to consider nominating it, here’s the list of the ones that fit the criteria:

 

The Miracle on Tau Prime – Daily Science Fiction

A Better Tomorrow – Interstellar Fiction

A Shard Glows in Brooklyn – Buzzy Magazine

 

Readers can nominate their favorites here.

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Publication: One Thousand and First in 16 Single Sentence Stories

June 26, 2013

sss#SFWApro

A collection of single sentence stories edited by M. Bennardo and designed/illustrated by K. Sekelsky is now available, and includes my story “One Thousand and First.” You can buy the cool little booklet for only five bucks. Better yet, you can have the PDF version for free! Buy or download it here.

 

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Father’s Day Fiction

June 16, 2013

Josh

Happy father’s day to all the dads out there!

It occurs to me that I write a fair amount of fiction centered around a father-child relationship. Undoubtedly, being a father myself has much to do with that (that’s my son Josh in the photo above). I selected a few of my favorite father’s day stories which are posted online:

Nuclear Family at Kasma SF – Very short. Caution: this is not a festive story.

Things We Leave Behind – Daily SF – This story is dedicated to my own father and largely inspired by my experiences of emigrating from the former Soviet Union.

The Tinker Bell Problem – Buzzy – A humorous take on the subjects of faith and family.  Family ties aren’t exclusive to humans!

Enjoy, and please share links to your favorite father’s day stories in the comments!

#SFWApro

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Publication: True Love at Daily Science Fiction

June 14, 2013

dsf

“True Love” is now live at the Daily Science Fiction web site. This is a very short, sweet science fiction story that seems to have been well received by the readers so far. I hope you enjoy it as well!

#SFWApro

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

A Weekend in Jersey

June 6, 2013

I’ll be spending a lot of time in New Jersey this weekend.

On Saturday at 8pm I will be a guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County which will take place at the Barnes & Noble store in Hackensack.

On Sunday, I will be at Books NJ all afternoon, to help promote UFO Publishing. You can find me at the SFABC table there.

In completely unrelated news:

* True Love, a SF flash, was published by Daily Science Fiction today. It was e-mailed to the subscribers. A week from now it will go live on the web site, and I will post a link.

* Interstellar Fiction accepted “The Sgovari Stratagem,” a stand-alone sequel to “The Dragon Ships of Tycho,” for publication in their August issue.

2 Comments | Acceptances & Publications, Event Appearances | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Non-fiction Wednesday

May 22, 2013
Artwork by Andres Mossa

Artwork by Andres Mossa

I have two small non-fiction write-ups out at some highly prestigious places today.

First up are the story notes for Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma which I wrote for the IGMS blog.

And second is another SF Signal Mind Meld where a plethora of science fiction authors are asked their opinion about the literary appeal of gods, goddesses, and myths.

 

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Publication: The Tinker Bell Problem in Buzzy Magazine

May 17, 2013

My humor story “The Tinker Bell Problem” was published today at Buzzy Magazine. I really like this little story (written for the Codex Mega Weekend Warrior contest). It’s about a demon who summons up a human via a pentagram, to do his bidding.

Here’s a brief sample:

Herbert sat upright, which sent a minor nuclear apocalypse through his skull. He was totally naked, sitting on the ground inside of an elaborate pentagram.

A large five-pointed star was drawn on the floor in a gooey red substance which Herbert dearly hoped wasn’t blood. A wider circle was drawn around the star. A variety of symbols were sprinkled along the circumference of the circle. Herbert recognized a peace sign, a stop sign, a smiley face, and a Pepsi logo in the mix.

The story is free to read on Buzzy’s web site. Check it out.

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Publication: “Things We Leave Behind” in Daily Science Fiction

May 10, 2013

dsf

“Things We Leave Behind,” which was e-mailed out by Daily Science Fiction a week ago and premiered tonight on their web site, is the most personal story I’ve ever written.

As I pointed out in the story notes, much of it is autobiographical. Like the protagonist/narrator of this tale, I was born in the Soviet Union and my family ended up immigrating to America, after much debate between my headstrong mother and bookish father.  Just like the protagonist’s father, my dad collected books — which involved buying and selling them on the black market. And although the protective magic created by the books in this story stems from my imagination, every avid reader will agree that there is an undeniable and unique brand of magic in books, no matter what language they’re written in.

Read the story here.

 

2 Comments | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

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