June is the rainy season here in the subtropics of Texas, and we’ve certainly been living up to that reputation this year. We’ve had nearly 3″ of rain so far, which is a little below average, but it seems like we haven’t had a day without a good soaking in a couple of weeks. I managed to get the lawn mowed after work on Friday, and it was a good thing because it rained on Saturday morning. I have an electric lawnmower, so I don’t particularly like cutting the grass in the rain.
On Saturday I completely revamped a story that I’ve been circulating for a few years. The original version was 1000 words. Not 999, not 1001—1000, which was one of the specifications of the market for which it was originally written. Subsequent to that I did some revision and amped it up to 1300 words. Another new market came along that seems ideal for it, so I took another shot at it and ended up with about 2000 words before I submitted it. It’s a story I really like, but no one else has been taken by it, though I got a very nice rejection letter from GVG at F&SF on it.
Yesterday I finally cracked the conundrum of the story I’m supposed to write for an upcoming anthology. I was invited to submit and I’ve never been one to turn down an invitation. The antho has a loose theme, but one that I was having a hard time with. Loose but in some ways specific. I’ve been cogitating over it for weeks. Finally got the right story problem down on the screen. By the end of yesterday I had nearly 1800 words and by the end of this morning over 3000 words and a good idea of where I’m going to end up with it. I expect the final version will come in at 4500-5000 words after revision.
I have a new review up at Onyx—The Road by Cormac McCarthy. My reading has been going slowly lately. I’m still working on Friends of Meager Fortune by David Adams Richards and reading stories from PostScripts 10 in between. Read tales by Graham Joyce and Mark Morris this weekend, both excellent.
