Alastair Mayer's T-Space

Coming up in a few weeks I’m scheduled as a speaker at the July 18 DASFA (Denver Area SF Association) meeting. (Their web site is somewhat dated, but the meeting time/place info is still correct.). The next day (July 19), I’ll be at Who Else! Books in Denver, signing copies of the Footprints anthology. Better than that, fellow (and better known) Colorado author James Van Pelt will also be at the signing, he has a story in Footprints too. (Jim may also be speaking at the DASFA meeting the evening before, I’m a bit fuzzy on the details.)

Before that, I’ll be going to Westercon (aka FiestaCon), the big western regional SF con in Temp, Arizona over the July 4th weekend. I’m just a con-goer at this one, not speaking, but I’m looking forward to seeing some old friends and meeting new ones. I’ll be cleverly disguised as myself, if you see me feel free to step up and say hello.

Today was a good news day, although those of you who aren’t writers or aspiring writers might not think so. First I heard from Joni Labaqui of the Writers of the Future Contest, to let me know that my entry for second quarter of 2009 was a Semifinalist. While not a Finalist, one of the group of eight stories selected for final judging and selecting the three winners, semifinalist is still good and earns a written critique from writer KD Wentworth, who does the preliminary judging. There’s a list of the other semifinalists, finalists and honorable mentions on Joni’s blog. Congratulations to all!

The next bit of good news was like one of those “good news, bad news” stories. In the afternoon mail I received a personal note from Stanley Schmidt, the editor of Analog, regarding a story I’d submitted to him. He said it was well written and that he personally enjoyed it (the good news), but because of the nature of the story (a technical problem in a research lab) it might not be sufficiently engaging even to Analog readers. So, not a sale, but when the editor of one of the (if not the) highest circulation SF magazines, who has been editing it for over thirty years, says he likes your story, that’s good news. Especially if you’re, like me, still an aspiring writer.

Speaking of aspiring writers, I got back last week from the trip out to Oregon. Part of it was family vacation, part of it was to attend a workshop given by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Katherine Rusch, both professional writers and editors. Fellow attendee Brad Torgersen blogged that it was “the most important weekend [he'd] ever spent”. I’m inclined to agree. If you’re just starting out in the writing business — and you want to go at it full time rather than as a hobby — you owe it to yourself to check out the next Kris and Dean Show. They’re offering it again in September.

A short post from the road (you’d almost think this was Twitter) as I’m enroute to the track of the Yellowstone hotspot, i.e. the Snake River valley. The hotspot is currently sitting under Yellowstone Park, a while back it caused the lava flows that make up Craters of the Moon National Monument, and apparently originated under what’s now southeast Oregon. And I’m headed to Oregon for a writer’s workshop with prolific and award-winning authors (and editors) Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Katherine Rusch. Should be a good time. I’m getting fired up to write just thinking about it.