As I announced on Facebook yesterday, my story, “Situational Awareness” will appear in Issue #2 of Blue Shift magazine, a new magazine making its debut early in 2013. The magazine is edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt and he announced the lineups for the first two issues (here and here) on Facebook yesterday. Those lineups look pretty darn good! Issue #2, with my story, will appear in November 2013, so you have a little bit of waiting to do. And it gives me time to make some revisions that Bryan requested.

If you read Bryan’s lineups, one thing you might note is that the magazine has several nonfiction columns. My friend Juliette Wade will be writing one of those columns. Another friend, Paul Weimer, will be contributing articles on gaming to the magazine. And I will also be writing a column for the magazine, with a focus on science fiction and technology.

And if all of this isn’t enough, I’m hoping to have some more news to announce in the not-too-distant future. So stay-tuned.

Yesterday, I signed the contracts on the two new Analog pieces I reported on last month. The first is a short story, “The Negative Impact of Climate Change On the Unusual Beasts of the World.” This is one of the stories that I read at Capclave in October. The second is a guest editorial that I was commissioned to write for the magazine. At this point, I have no idea when either will be appearing. Typically, their lead time is about 8-9 months, unless they are filling a spot. That would put my story in the July issue time-frame (which comes out in late April 2013), but this is just a guess on my part. When I have more information, I’ll let you know.

I still get goosebumps when I think that I’ve sold things to Analog. I can remember as if were yesterday, those days in my junior year in college when I first decided to be a science fiction writer, imagining what it might be like to sell a story to Analog. It was a thrill just to think about, on par with imagining what it would be like to solo in a plane. And now I’ve sold to them not once but three times. And I did end up soloing in a plane, too, back when I got my private pilot license. The day I got my license was a remarkable one, but the day I sold to Analog was better.

And for my paperless friends, I was asked to sign and return two copies of the contracts. When I sold my first story to Analog in 2010, I think I printed the contract, signed it, and put it in the mail. This time around, I inquired as to whether I could sign and email the contracts back, instead of printing them out and putting them in the mail. That was perfectly acceptable, which is what you might expect from a science fiction magazine. I really am trying to remain as paper-free as I can manage.

I have two new sales to announce, both of them to Analog Science Fiction.

1. I’ve sold a guest editorial to the magazine.
2. I’ve sold a new story to the magazine.

Guest Editorial

I’ve known about this one for a while now. Shortly after Worldcon, Analog’s new editor asked me if I’d be willing to write a guest editorial for the magazine. He asked me, in part, because of the work I’d done on my Vacation in the Golden Age, which made me very happy. I was humbled and I did my best to write a decent editorial. I must have done something right because Trevor bought the piece. It will likely appear sometime in 2013, but at this point I have no idea as to when.

This represents the first time I was ever commissioned by an editor to write something. It was a little stressful, but also a lot of fun, and big thanks go out to both Ken Liu and Michael Burstein for their feedback on the editorial. Of course, I was delighted when Trevor told me he was taking the piece. It’s one thing for a piece to be commissioned. It doesn’t guarantee an editor is going to like it. Fortunately, in this case, the editor did like it.

New Story

As I mentioned briefly on Twitter yesterday, I’ve sold my story, “The Negative Impact of Climate Change on the Unusual Beasts of the World” to Analog. This represents a couple of significant milestones for me.

1. It is the first time I’ve made a second story sale to a place I’ve previous sold. My story, “Take One for the Road” appeared in the June 2011 Analog.
2. It is the first time I’ve made story sales on two consecutive days. I announced yesterday my sale to the Beyond the Sun anthology.

I read this story at Capclave earlier in the month so if you were one of the ten or so people sitting in on the reading, then you already know which story I’m talking about. I’m very excited to have made this sale to Analog.

Once again, it’s too early to say when the story will appear in the magazine, other than my guess that it will be some time in 2013.

Making these sales, especially the story yesterday and today, has an enormous impact on my self-confidence as a writer. More and more I feel like I have some clue what I am doing when I sit down to write a story. They generally require a lot of hard work on my part, but I am starting to feel that with each story I write, my chances for finding a good home for it get better and better.

And at this point, I have no outstanding stories. Which means I need to get busy writing again. I’ll keep you posted on these two pieces, as well as the story I sold to the anthology. When I have a better idea of publication dates, I’ll post them.