Alastair Mayer's T-Space

The latest (June, 2011) issue of Analog just arrived and it includes my story “Stone Age,” my first Analog story that’s not a Probability Zero flash piece. Not that I have anything against PZ of course. They’re great fun (and a challenge!) to write as well as to read. But the length “Stone Age” gives me a chance to set up some real character and world building. It stands on its own (else Stan Schmidt wouldn’t have bought it), but in a slightly different form it kicks off my novel (pending publication) The Chara Talisman.

If you’re not a subscriber, the June issue of Analog should be on the stands around April 5th. (See the cover image over there on the right.) It’s also available electronically for Nook and Kindle. I’d be interested to hear what you think, good or bad.

I recently discovered Anthology Builder (www.anthologybuilder.com), a website and business which started with a brilliant idea, one which remains so even in these uncertain times for traditional publishing (perhaps especially now).

It comprises a vast and growing repository of short stories in various genres by many authors (both classic and contemporary). You build your own custom anthology by selecting the stories, selecting a cover, and then customizing (if you want) with an intro. Through the magic of Print-On-Demand (POD), you’ll have a printed and bound copy of that anthology delivered to you for no more than the cost of a traditional trade (large size) paperback. The authors whose stories are in the anthology then each get a cut of the sale price.

Quality of the stories is high: all have been previously published in professionally edited, paying venues, and are reviewed before being accepted into the Anthology Builder repository. (Disclosure: I have stories available for sale via Anthology Builder, but only because I think it’s a cool idea and it’s a good outfit to work with.)

Check them out.

At a reader’s request, I’ve added a bibliography page (link in the banner above). This lists most of my published work (the exceptions are old, irrelevant, and non-fiction) and I’ll keep it updated. The next update will be soon; there are projects in the works that I can’t announce yet, but one involves several rising stars in the SF world.

It has been a crazy two weeks since my last post. When I posted that I had just gotten over what was “probably flu”, several days of fever and sleeping 20 hours a day. I had tax paperwork to catch up on and a couple of job interviews scheduled for the following week. So what happens Monday? I start the uncontrollable shivering and rapid temperature rise that began my earlier round of ‘flu. I was not happy, for multiple reasons.

As my temperature hit 104F my doctor directed me to the hospital emergency room, where they started pumping me full of fluids and ran a CT scan of my lungs. The (again, somewhat uncertain) diagnosis was pneumonia, with some other test results that were just odd enough that they wanted to keep an eye on me, so they checked me in for observation. So much for the job interview Tuesday, and — since they kept me in two nights — the other one on Wednesday. Fortunately both parties were understanding about rescheduling. Of course by Tuesday morning (thanks to IV fluids and antibiotics) I felt fine, but they didn’t want to send me home just then.

As it turned out, Tuesday’s interview — rescheduled to Thursday — went just fine. So well, in fact, that they called me late that afternoon with an offer and wanting me to start the following Monday.
This past week, then, has been my first week on the new job (Unix/Linux systems admin). Of course it’s hurry up and wait — I had to go through mandatory security training (again – we had to do it annually at H-P), fill out the usual ton of paperwork that goes with a new job, and wait for my background check to clear before they could give me access to the systems. All of which took most of the week. On top of all that, it was a busy extracurricular week for the kids: orchestra concert, high school sneak peak (Arthur and Robert start next year), school book fair, karate, and Girl Scouts. So here it is, two weeks later.

There’s been some interesting stuff happening. A couple of physicists show that wormholes could connect pairs of stars (I’m reminded of Pournelle’s “tramlines”), the Indian lunar probe Chandrayaan-1 has discovered a mile-long lava tube cave on the Moon, and I got a nice non-rejection for a story that may yet turn into a sale.

But more about that in a few days. In the meantime a reader has made some excellent suggestions for additions to this site, which I need to get working on.