New Publication: Doubt in Galaxy’s Edge, plus bonus!

May 6, 2014

GalaxysEdgeMay

“Doubt” is a near-future SF story about the battle between two cybernetically enhanced assassins! It went live on May 1 and you can read it online for free. but only for the next two months. After that, the new issue of GE will be released and the story will only be available for purchase in the GE archives as an ebook or physical magazine.

Edited by Mike Resnick, GE features a mix of work from the SF masters and neo-pros. In this issue you can read stories by Bob Silverberg, Nancy Kress, David Brin, and others. They recently became available by subscription, so please consider supporting this worthy publication.

You can also support GE’s publisher by purchasing the Book Bale bundles. This month’s bundle features books from George RR Martin, Mike Resnick, and others!

BTS

And now for the bonus. Last year, I had a short story appear in the “Beyond the Sun” anthology from Fairwood Press. edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt. The e-book distribution for this anthology is handled by Baen, one of the largest publishers in SF-dom. But it wasn’t until today that I learned that mine and several other stories are available as teasers for the anthology and can be read online! So if you’d like to read a very grim space opera tale of seeking paradise, check out “The Far Side of the Wilderness” at Baen Books web site! It also links to several other stories available as teasers. I highly recommend Jamie Todd Rubin’s “Flipping the Switch.”

#SFWAPro

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

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!

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

“The Far Side of the Wilderness” accepted at Beyond the Sun

January 28, 2013

BTS-Cover-400x267

I first heard about “Beyond the Sun” when editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt launching a crowdfunding campaign for it on Kickstarter. I love space opera, and was intrigued by the concept as well as by the stellar list of potential contributors. So I summoned up the courage and reached out to Bryan, asking if he would consider a submission from me.  He graciously allowed me to submit something, and a few weeks later I e-mailed him a space opera story with lots of alien races, intergalactic conflict, and other cool stuff that I was certain would win Bryan over.

It was rejected within a week.

Bryan was a class act though. Despite the fact that he knew he wasn’t going to pick up the story, he returned the file with extensive copy-edits and suggestions, many of which I adopted before submitting it elsewhere. I thanked him, and asked if I could try something else. Bryan told me that he’d let me know, but in all fairness, he wanted to get submissions from all the other writers he invited first. Which made perfect sense.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. I was down with a nasty case of the flu which was just beginning work me over. I wake up on a Wednesday morning to an email from Bryan, letting me know that I can submit something else, but I’d have to get it to him by the weekend. At this point I have no space opera story in my inventory, or even a developed idea for one. And I’m enjoying the flu.

So I sit down to brainstorm on Wednesday morning and write half a story. On Thursday morning I write the other half, and send it off to beta readers. I edit based on their suggestions and submit it by late Thursday evening, and after some very minor edits, Bryan accepts it on the following week.

This is, without a doubt, the fastest concept-to-submission-to-sale turnaround I’ve had on a story that isn’t flash-length.

Bryan announced the TOC today. It includes stories from Robert Silverberg, Mike Resnick, Nancy Kress, and many other writers I like and admire. My own story will appear between tales by Jason Sanford and Cat Rambo! Behold the complete table of contents.

Beyond the Sun will be releasing later in 2013.

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

September Recap

October 5, 2012

I keep telling myself (and all of you) about how I will be updating this blog more regularly. So far it has been a big fat lie. But then, what do you expect from someone who writes down lies for fun?
Seriously, it has been a crazy couple of months. Putting together an anthology is an infinite amount of work. It cut deep into my writing time, let alone blog time, reading time, and any other -time that doesn’t involve work or family. So here’s a brief recap of what’s been going on in my writerly life in September and early October:
* I’m pleased to announce that Unidentified Funny Objects has been copy-edited and is off to the interior designer. We should have galleys within a few days and an ARC to send out to authors and reviewers in a week or so.

* Monthly humor stories on ufopub.com have been  launched. First up was “The Ogre King and the Piemaker” by Tarl Kudrick. Do yourself a favor and check it out, it’s as funny as anything in the book!

* My flash fiction story “Manna From Heaven” opens the October issue of Bards and Sages Quarterly.  “Manna from Heaven” opens the issue, which is very neat.  You can pick up a copy on Amazon.

 

 

* I sold “The Miracle on Tau Prime” to Daily Science Fiction. It’s a story of the Vatican miracle investigators… in space! There’s no publication date, but I would expect it to appear either really late in 2012 or in early 2013.

* The FISH anthology from Dagan Books which includes my story “Life on the Lake’s Shore” among work from many other fine authors will be coming out this month.

* My story “The Tell-Tale Ear” will be coming out in the October 18 issue of Nature and will be available to read for free online.

* I’ve been invited to submit a story to the “Beyond the Sun” anthology. If accepted, it’d share the table of contents with such juggernauts as Silverberg, Resnick and Kress! Of course, this project needs to be funded first, and it could use all the help it can get. They’re currently on Kickstarter, so do me (and yourself) a favor and pre-order a copy over here.

* I will be attending PhilCon as a guest this year, participating on panels and possibly doing a reading. This convention will take place in Cherry Hill, NJ (15 minute drive from downtown Philadelphia) on the weekend of November 9 through 11. There will be lots of awesome people I know there, and I encourage anyone who can make the trip to attend.

 

 

* Saving the best for last: Tomorrow I’m heading to Viable Paradise. This highly prestigious writing workshop takes place annually on Martha’s Vineyard. It is now in its 16th year. 24 newer writers like myself will learn from instructors Elizabeth Bear, Debra Doyle, Steven Gould, James D. Macdonald, Patrick and Theresa Nielsen-Hayden, Steven Brust and Sherwood Smith. I’m super excited about this workshop and hope it will help me take my writing to the next level (preferably bypassing the tough boss monster at the end of the current level).

I apologize to my non-video game playing readers for that reference. (OK, I’m not really sorry. Deal with it.)

And when I get back, I will be updating the blog more regularly. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.

 

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman