There’s been a rash of mischief, or discussion of mischief, around short fiction submissions lately, and I find myself repeatedly saying the same things in different venues. For the sake of convenience, addressed to you, new writer, here is all my blather in one place. The first thing to understand is the role a short […]
Since I’ve got the contract in my hands, it is my great pleasure to announce that my novella “The Liar” will appear in the pages of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. This sale is especially sweet to me. Not only am I excited to work with F&SF’s editor CC Finlay, but F&SF was […]
So, there are a number of readers who object to profanity or obscenity or other “bad words”. Can’t say I’m one of them. And while I do sometimes think that popular culture has gotten a bit coarse, I don’t hold the position that I ought to have a personally-sanitized version of it. I do have […]
A friend of mine in college used to refer to the Discovery Channel as the “What’s Eating the Gazelle Today” station. If you paid attention to the proud majestic carnivores, you got a wonderful and varied show. If you paid attention to what they ate, you saw the same thing over and over. New writers […]
I’ve seen a number of articles recently about schemes to sell “used” e-books, mostly spurred by Amazon’s recent patent on such a process. I’ve seen lots of enthusiasm about this, but I think it’s misplaced. There are two main points that I’d like to see made more prominently in this discussion: First: This can’t work without […]
For any of you in the Boston area, I’ll be at Boskone 50 next weekend. It looks like they’ve got a great schedule planned, with Guest of Honor Vernor Vinge. For myself, I’m looking forward to three panels with fascinating people: Is the Internet Reprogramming Our Brains? (Panel), Fri 18:00 – 18:50, Harbor II Short […]
I just got word that I have made my first SFWA-qualifying sale! (Don’t worry, I signed the contract before posting here…) I will share the details soon, I hope. I just want to clarify when this can be made public. In the meantime, here’s our cat singing to her dinner:
So, there’s this story I wrote a while back — a really fun one, I think, which got some very kind rejections but not yet a home. And there’s a market, with a respected name and a long history, and maybe some recent troubles. This market looked like a good fit for this story. So […]
Around this time two years ago (as I commemorated last year) I started submitting short fiction in earnest and except for a few dry spells, have not stopped. Except for November (during which time I was working on a novella) I have submitted at least one story each month for the last year: 53 stories. […]
Just a quick note that I’ll be headed to Readercon in Burlington, MA this weekend. I’ll be in and out but otherwise around from Thursday through Saturday. I’m not scheduled for any events myself, but I know a number of people who are, so I’ll be busy. (I have it on good authority that the […]
John P. Murphy 