It took me 44 years to finally sell a story to Analog—and just a few more months to sell them a second.

Last weekend at Balticon, flanked by Michael M. Jones and Day Al-Mohamed, I shared the opening three scenes of that second story—a novelette titled “How Val Finally Escaped from the Basement,” which will appear in the magazine’s November/December 2017 issue.

If you weren’t there, check it out below. Heck, even if you were there …

Want to know what happens next? Then be sure to track down that issue, which should go on sale around the third week of October.

My novella “After the Harvest, Before the Fall” is in the January/February 2017 issue of Analog, which went on sale December 20th, and though I took note of that event over on Twitter and Facebook, I made no mention of it here, because I thought I’d said everything I want to say back when I’d made the sale, which was 44 years in coming.

Apparently not.

Holding the issue in my hands, peeling back the cover, and seeing my name at last on the Table of Contents, I wondered … what would 17-year-old me have felt if given a peek into the future, and allowed to peer over my shoulder at his name there?

I suspect he would have said something like, “What took took so long, old man?” (more…)

Remember my 44-year struggle to sell a story to Analog? Well, that long struggle is almost over.

You’ll have to wait until the double-sized January/February issue goes on sale December 20th to read “After the Harvest, Before the Fall,” but the current issue has an In Times to Come feature which made me extremely happy.

Check out the start of the third paragraph —

Nice to have proof this wasn’t just an elaborate prank by editor Trevor Quachri.

Whew!

I made my first short story submission to Analog in 1972. Seven days later, editor Ben Bova rejected it.

Why am I telling you this?

Because 44 years and two editors later, I’ve finally sold a story to Analog!

And here’s how I got from there to here.

On June 22, 1972, when I was but a wee lad, I slid the manuscript of a story titled “No Pun Intended” into a manilla envelope and mailed it off. I no longer have any idea what that story was about, and I no longer have the ability to check. Long ago, I destroyed all evidence of my first three novels and 25 short stories. So all I know is … it included a pun, because I made mention of that fact in my cover letter, and because of, well, that title.

On June 29, I received this response.

I didn’t realize at the time, since I’d only been submitting my fiction for a year or so, how rare it was for someone as green as I was to receive anything but a form rejection slip. I also didn’t realize how many years of sending additional stories to Analog I’d have ahead of me before I’d receive a second personal response.

But even if I’d known, that wouldn’t have stopped me. (more…)