Alex Shvartsman's Speculative Fiction

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!

After a dry spell of November/December, I have a flurry of good news to report:

* “The Candidate,” a 5000+ word fantasy story written to immerse players in the background and storyline of Ascension board game, has been accepted by Gary Games and will be serialized in three parts on their web site sometime in late January or early February.

* A 2500 word essay “On The Road” will be published by Star City Games later this month. It is an autobiographical piece recounting some of my experiences while traveling to tournaments, and it’s hilarious, if I say so myself. No prior knowledge/understanding of Magic trading card game is needed to read this, though it helps 🙂

* My column on MTG trading is forthcoming in the next issue of Beckett Magic magazine. Not sure of the release date, but should be sometime soon.

* “The Field Trip,” a 2200 word humorous science fiction story has been accepted into the “In Situ” anthology from Dagan Books. “In Situ” is an archaeological term referring to artifacts found in their original environment. I found the concept intriguing and wrote the story specifically for this anthology, so I am naturally stoked to have it accepted. The anthology is tentatively scheduled for April 15.

* I am working hard to keep up with the Write 1 Sub 1 schedule. The first week of January was very productive. I polished up and sent out The Candidate, and wrote On The Road, both of which were quickly accepted. The second week, not so much. I had a ton of work I could not climb out of. Still, I wrote a 1000 word fantasy flash story “The Last Incantation.” I am going to be a few days late in submitting it, since I like to stew the story for a little while, then send it to my friends for a second opinion, and then edit some more before actually inflicting it upon some innocent editors/slush readers – but I am optimistic about my ability to keep up with the W1S1 schedule on average, so far.

Today I joined a growing list of writers who have committed to a “Write 1 Sub 1” plan for 2011. This means that each of us is going to write one short story per week, and submit one story per week for publication.

This is a very ambitious undertaking for a slow, lazy writer like myself. I started writing fiction in the summer of ’10 and have only finished a dozen stories or so. There is another half dozen that are “almost done” or “not quite good enough” – but I would not count them toward something like the Write 1 challenge. I joined in precisely because it’s going to be difficult. Keeping up with this pace of writing and submissions will keep me working hard at the craft of writing and, hopefully, allow me to become better at it.

Does this mean you will see 52 of my stories published in 2011? Heck no. If I manage to make 10 sales in 2011, I will be ecstatic. In fact, might as well go ahead and make that a personal goal for next year.

Write1Sub1 offers a tiny way to reduce the pressure a little, and that is to include micro fiction (Twitter-length stories, stories of exactly 100 words and other bite-sized tales) into the running total. If I start falling behind, I may also cheat a little and occasionally count my non-fiction articles toward the running total (as long as they are sold to a solid, paying market).

For those who might contemplate joining in the fun, the official web site of the project is here. There is also a great support thread at Absolute Write for anyone seeking camaraderie and motivation.

Star City Games is running a series of articles about the history and wacky anecdotes of the Magic Pro Tour. I took a break from writing fiction to work on my first Magic-related article in over seven years. You can read the resulting tale here.

You don’t have to know very much about Magic trading card game to enjoy this article.

My family and I spent the last week vacationing in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. I was definitely looking forward to some much needed R&R and an opportunity to do a lot of writing. Apparently I was under the mistaken impression that vacationing with a very spirited three year old would somehow leave me sufficient time and energy to concentrate on the laptop screen.

Lucky for me, toddlers tend to sleep even more hours per day than I do, which meant that I had at least some time to write. I put the final touches on “A Tear in the Web” and wrote two new flash stories – “Hunger” and “A Man in an Angel Costume”. Those are undergoing some finishing touches over the next few days and will go out to various editors soon after.

Meanwhile, “Good Advice” has been published by Every Day Fiction this Saturday. You can read it here.

Just got an e-mail from editors over at Every Day Fiction letting me know that they have accepted “Good Advice” for publication on their site (a specific date to be determined) – and so the goal of two stories in 2010 has been accomplished ahead of schedule!

I wrote “Good Advice” in June and submitted it to Daily Science Fiction, which was just being established at the time (it began publication on September 1st). It seemed like an exciting project that I wanted to be a part of. They passed on “Good Advice” a few weeks later, but said it was a tough call in the rejection letter. I don’t know if it was actually a tough call, or if they were just being nice to me, but I was encouraged by this response and have since submitted three more stories to them. Two were quickly rejected (without any “tough call” claims) and the third is in their hands now, so I have my fingers crossed.

Meantime I was reading a lot of online magazines, to see what short fiction is out there, and to figure out where I want to send my submissions. Every Day Fiction stood out as I enjoyed much of what I was reading there, so I sent in “Good Advice” to them in mid-August, and the second time turned out to be the charm, in this case.