Evidently this past Tuesday was National Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Day. I guess this is a new thing, so I didn’t know about it to celebrate, although, strictly by coincidence, I swung by the bookstore on the way to work to grab a glimpse at The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois.
Initially I told myself I mainly wanted to see how well Futurismic had fared in 2008, in the eyes of Mr. Dozois. Sadly, we warranted little more than half a sentence in the online section of the summary, but four of stories made the honorable mention list:
• “Uxo, Bomb Dog” by Eliot Fintushel
• “Maquech” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• “Solitude Ripples from the Past” by David Reagan
• “Willpower” by Jason Stoddard
Congrats, folks! I was thinking a few more of our stories were deserving of a nod, but I guess forty percent of our total output for the year isn’t too bad — and heck, if every story made it, the list wouldn’t have much of a point, would it? Incidentally, I’m not counting the mistaken inclusion of “The Rivers of Eden” by Jay Lake & Ruth Nestvold, which must have snuck in from an old file…that one was published in 2005!
Happily, my Cosmos story “Frame of Mind” also made the honorable mention list. A minor distinction to be sure, but for me, an elusive one, so pardon me while I feel briefly cheerful about actually being mentioned in something. Woot! I told myself I wouldn’t buy it just because my story was noted. So I bought it thinking that, down the road, I will review it for this blog. 🙂
Meanwhile, in more forward-looking news, I’m hammering away at the opening scenes of two new stories at the moment. So far it’s like chiseling through a cement block, and I don’t have solid titles for either one — which for me is a serious stumbling block — but at least some new projects are taking shape.
Happy Belated National Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Day!
