Alex Shvartsman's Speculative Fiction

Dagan Books has been posting bios and interviews with all the authors included in the forthcoming "In Situ" anthology. This week it’s my turn. You can read the interview (and a very short excerpt from The Field Trip) here.

Also, Every Day Fiction announced their table of contents for April, and "On The Last Afternoon" is slated for an April 13 release. Mark your calendars!

Huzzah – Every Day Fiction picked up another one of my stories. They will be publishing "On The Last Afternoon" sometime in the coming months (date to be determined).

I’ve also been playing around with a shiny new toy that is Google Sites. I used it to create a comprehensive list of all of my published (and soon to be published) fiction. Everything that’s out so far is available to read for free, though you will have to shell out some cash if you want to read The Field Trip (buy the anthology) or Superior Firepower (buy the magazine issue). Totally worth it, of course.

Two bits of news today. Pel’s Crusade, a fantasy flash story was picked up by Golden Visions magazine and will appear in their summer issue. GVM publishes both online and in-print, with different content appearing in both. This story will be available online (which is my preference
anyway, so that more people get to read it).

Also, Part II of “The Candidate” was posted at ascensiongame.com today. Read it here.

“Good Advice,” originally published by Every Day Fiction, caught the eye of folks at the NJ Board of Education. They contacted EDF (and through them, me) in order to ask for reprint rights to include this story in the ASK (Assessment of Skills & Knowledge) reading comprehension test next year.

I am a little concerned for the schoolchildren who might be involuntarily subjected to my ramblings (the words Cruel, Unusual and Punishment come to mind), but otherwise find the idea to be very, very cool.

You can read Good Advice here, if you haven’t already.

This week I sold “Superior Firepower,” a fantasy/humor flash story, to Bards & Sages Quarterly.

I love this story and am really glad it found a home. It will appear in the July issue.

Read On The Road – a non-fiction essay from my days of playing competitive Magic – on Star City Games.

This article came out pretty funny and does not require you to understand how Magic is played to enjoy it. Mostly.

Today a new SF e-zine, Schrodinger’s Mouse, launches their inaugural issue. It features several short stories and poems, including “In Service of a Greater Cause” by yours truly.

I submitted this story to SM because, first of all, who wouldn’t want to have their fiction appear in a mag with such an awesome name, but mostly because they were specifically looking for ethical or philosophically themed science fiction and this piece seemed like a perfect fit.

Before I talk more about this story, you should probably go read it and also check out a very cool illustration for it, created by Teresa Tunaley.

In writing this story I was trying to explore a concept of having a main character that could be a protagonist or an antagonist based on the perceptions of the reader. A Christian fundamentalist might sympathize entirely with Susan Pannell. At the same time, a technology-loving atheist could classify her actions as preparing to commit an act of terrorism. Likewise, Campbell (who is drawn in the image of turtleneck-sweater wearing Steve Jobs) can be seen as a hero or a villain – it all depends on whose rhetoric matches closest with your own belief system.

In terms of writing style, there is a definite nod to Simon R. Green, one of my favorite SF/F authors. I started writing this story and almost immediately realized that I am imitating his tone somewhat, so I went with it, even setting the story in England. As a new writer I am still working on finding my own voice, so I try to craft each piece in a different way/style/mood. Eventually I may figure out which works best, but learning to write in a wide range of styles can’t be a bad thing either.

I am quite pleased with how “In Service” turned out. It’s my wife’s favorite story among what I’ve written so far, and it is among my own favorites as well. Hope you like it too.

Yesterday my wife Zoya and I celebrated our wedding anniversary.

My day started out just right – I woke up to find an e-mail about “The Field Trip” being accepted by Dagan Books for their “In Situ” anthology. They have since posted a table of contents, including work from some pretty exciting authors. Not too shabby at all.

Later that same day I heard back from Schrodinger’s Mouse magazine, letting me know that they have accepted my story “In Service of a Greater Cause” for publication in their inaugural issue. Of all my short stories this happens to be my wife’s favorite, so we were both excited to see it find a good home.

Two acceptances in one day are definitely making me feel spoiled, and very very lucky. I wish there was a way to bottle up a day like yesterday, because it was pretty darn perfect in many aspects, including that of my fledgling writing career.

My goal for 2010 was to have two stories published, and I was happy to accomplish that. I set myself an ambitious goal for 2011: I’d like to have 10+ short stories accepted for publication. This is an important distinction – a story can be accepted in September but not actually published till the following March – and I wanted to give myself a little extra wiggle room since ten stories are a huge number.

It’s the middle of January and I have already have three sales to boast about. Now if I could only keep up this momentum for the rest of the year!