in the near future. Given this is a story about two teenagers living in a base on Mars, it definitely falls under the "science fiction" rather than fact. I originally wrote the story when Walter Jon Williams asked me if I wanted to submit to an anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan. Now, it was always a major longshot for me to get picked up by Jonathan Strahan. No one's ever heard of me, but I submitted anyway and got a very kind rejection from him. I then stepped onto what I now think of as a sort of rotisserie, where I sub to all the top magazines, one after another, and collect my form rejections. I subbed it to Strange Horizons and got my rejection. I subbed it to Analog, and got this sense of vertigo when I didn't get a form rejection, but rather a contract.So now I've got the galleys, which are the typeset pages, and have read through them to see if I can find typos or other errors. I gave a copy of them to my mother to read, and my husband. They're due back tomorrow.
And then, to press! You'll be able to meet my characters, Mala and Jasraj, who got tricked into mixing aluminum powder and Mars dust together to create thermite, then set it on fire. If you don't know why that's bad, click the video below and... yeah, enjoy the show. My two characters and the rest of the base survive that little faux pas. Actually, that's just backstory. Read the rest in Analog. I'll post the issue # once I know for sure.
Woooot! What a fabulous magazine to publish in! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteThanks,Steph! I think it was the thermite that did it. I'm gonna blow more stuff up and see if that helps my sales any.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! I'll look forward to reading it, especially now that I've seen the video and I can imagine the explosion. (Love the way the Brainiacs chose the car, among other reasons, because it was French!) Does your thermite incident have anything to do with rival countries, bases, planets, or teen gangs? *g*
ReplyDeleteNot enough teens to form gangs, but rival teens yes :-) And yes, some nationalistic rivalry too (India vs. Texas - don't bore me with claims that Texas isn't a country. We all know it might as well be its own planet.)
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