Ten Year Semi-Pro Anniversary

It's ten years since I first had a story published in a semi-pro magazine, when I actually had 3 in a row:

• A few Good Men in Australian popular science magazine Cosmos
• Absolute Zero in Greek weekly newspaper comic supplement 9
• Inside Every Successful Man in UK webzine Hub

It was almost 3 years since my first story had been published, but at this point I hadn't started to focus on any particular market. This was a great boost to my writing though.

Greek Anniversary

Ten years ago this month the second half of my story Artefact Nouveau was published in Greek magazine Universe Pathways, following part 1 that had been published in the previous issue. This was my second translated story and the first published in Greek.


I've now had 5 stories published in Greek, making this making this my 3rd most published language after English and Spanish:


Artefact Nouveau - Universe Pathways - Oct & Dec 2006

Absolute Zero - 9 - Sep 2007

Fool Britannia - Ef-Zin - Jan 2009

The Gondolier - Ef-Zin - Jul 2009

Inside Every Successful Man - 9 - Jun 2010

Ten Years Ago

Ten years ago, in 2006, I'd just had several landmarks in my early career as an author:


April 2006 saw my tenth publication, and my first story to appear in print: A Word in the Right Place in Scifantastic #4


In June 2006 The Grey Void was published in Aphelion #102. This was my first sequel, a follow up to The Grey Hole published in Aphelion the previous year.


Also in June, Artefact Nouveau was published in the English edition of Greek magazine Universe Pathways. This was my first reprint in a magazine other than the original, Fluctuations having been reprinted by Bewildering Stories the previous year.

Ten Years Ago In Fiction

Ten years ago, I'd just had my 2nd, 3rd and 4th stories published - all accepted by the first markets I subbed to, a trend that lulled me into a false sense of security, but inspired me with confidence to carry on writing. Both were non-paying exposure markets, and both are still going strong today: Aphelion and Bewildering Stories.



Fluctuations, in BWS #139 in March 2005 remains one of my favourite stories. It was reprinted in one of their 'Best of' summary issues in July 2005, my first reprint. A revised version was published in the anthology Quantum Genre on the Planet of Arts in November 2010, and earned me a footnote in Wikipedia in the article on quantum genre.


Devotion was my second story in BWS in April 2005.



The Grey Hole, in Aphelion #91 in April 2005, was the first of 8 appearances I made in that webzine, and one of a very few attempted 'hard SF' stories. It was a wonderfully friendly place, the first on-line forum I joined, and I remain in touch with some of the regulars still. The Grey Void was the first sequel I wrote and appeared in Aphelion #102 the following year.

A Decade of Writing

Astoundingly, it was 10 years ago today that my first story was published, when A Feast of Eyes appeared on the now-defunct website Star Trek & Science Fiction Stories. It was a non-paying website that also featured fan fiction, but it was my first submission to its first venue and the acceptance inspired me with confidence to go on writing and submitting. I'm pleased with all the stories I've had published, the fact that I've completed 3 novels and that I'm still writing now. I've been in pro mags and semi-pro anthologies and translated into 24 languages. I've written over 100 book reviews, edited a steampunk anthology, met loads of other authors and publishers, been to cons and collaborated on stories, written everything from a TV screenplay totwitter fiction. I have a shelf full of magazines and anthologies containing my stories. It's been great.

Friday Flash Anniversary II

It's 2 years this week since I joined the Flash Fictioneers and started regularly posting flash fiction on Fridays. I've not actually done much of that this year, with only 2 new stories, both near the begining of the year:

• Another Year
• The Man in the Iron

I've also posted several translations during the year, which you can find listed on the left-hand sidebar.

Many of my earlier stories have received a second chance during the year. Six translations have been published in various magazines, and eight have been reprinted in English. I'm expecting another five translations and two reprint later this year as well as a comic strip adaptation. Flash fiction has definately been a great way to get lots of ideas onto paper and out to the world.

Another Anniversary

Shockingly, it's three years tomorrow that my first story was published, on a now defunct website. It's also the second anniversary of this blog. As it's so close to the end of the year I shall save the retrospective musings until then.

Three Anniversaries

This week is my tenth wedding anniversary, so we went away for a long weekend to the beautiful city of Bath. While I was away I neglected to update the blog on Friday, when it celebrated its first anniversary. Of course, this blog was started on the anniversary of the publication of my first story, so it's now two years that my work has been appearing on line.

The past year I've had less stories published than my first year. That's partly becasue it was the final year of my degree studies, which kept me very busy, and because most of the spare time I had was spent on my novel rather than short stories.

So, on to another year, and we'll see what transpires...

Too Late the Hero

This is the final retrospective look at one of my stories that was published before I began this blog.

Too Late the Hero is the story of a superhero who finds himself becoming obsolete due to advances in technology. It was published in Aphelion a year ago today and received a number of comments in their Lettercol.

Fluctuations - One Year Later

Today marks the anniversary of my second story to have been published, Fluctuations in Bewildering Stories. I started writing this story during what will come to be known as my 'early creative period' in 1993-4, when six other stories were completed including Devotion (see below).

When I returned to writing in the summer of 2004 I found the hand-written opening two paragraphs of Fluctuations among my other work. I wrote the rest in October 2004 and it was the fifth story I submitted, in November.

More recently Bewildering Stories has anounced plans to publish several anthologies. I haven't been contacted for the first volume, but I'm egotistical enough to hope that Fluctuations might be selected for a future volume. I still like to re-read the editor's review occasionaly to cheer me up after receiving a rejection or two.

Too Late the Hero

The new edition of Aphelion is out today, bringing an end to the two months that Too Late the Hero has been featured. Here are a few of the comments I received:

'I greatly enjoyed the flow of dialogue.' - Marianne Kirby, Editor, Cyber Age Adventures

'Very cool idea, very ironic.'

'A very dark future indeed for superheroes: relegated to the funny pages by the endless march of technology…'

'Another winner from Gareth. Tightly written with a good premise and a main character you could empathise with. I enjoyed it.' - Gareth Lyn Powell, Author

'I enjoyed this one very much. Short, and to the point, it simply explores what happens when superheroes become redundant due to technological breakthroughs.'

'I liked this simple but resonant piece.'

'Very short but entertaining.'

'I love it. The idea is so compelling.'

The great thing about Aphelion is that a lot of its readers are also aspiring writers, so you get some good feedback via their lettercol. You might not agree with all of it, but these are the comments I liked!

 

Fluctuations

On first reading Fluctuations you may well be thoroughly confused. It's all about a tear in the fabric of reality, and as I wrote it subjectively you have even less idea of what's going on than does the protagonist. The Bewildering Stories editors wrote an excellent review of it though, so hopefully you'll like it too once you've worked out what's going on.

First Anniversary

Today marks the fist anniversary of the publication of my first story, so I thought it would be a good day to begin this blog.

'A Feast of Eyes' was published on 'Star Trek and Science Fiction Stories', and remains the best presented story I have on-line so far. I received a couple of favourable emails about it, and a request from an English teacher at a school in Singapore to use it in his lessons!

Since then I have had five more stories published and a further two accepted. I also posted two Star Trek stories at Trek Writers Guild, but that doesn't actually count as having something published. There are another five stories still under submission and more ideas to come...