Significant Figures

I received from my bank a notification of the mony transfer from Cosmos for A Few Good Men - my first professional payment. I shall keep it in the hopes that one day I'll have an office wall on which to hang it in a frame.

Meanwhile I realised that with the two stories noted yesterday I have reached my target of 12 story publications this year, an avearge of 1 a month! With two stories still due to appear on Efimeras by the end of the year and three more stories confirmed already for next year, things are looking good. :o)

Weekend Developments

'Twas a busy weekend. I dashed out a daft little 500 word story about a giant space whale that will undoubtedly be appearing on this very blog one of these Fridays. After this I wrote the 1st 1600 words of The Journey Within, a Victorian era tale vaguelly unlike anything Jules Verne wrote. That one will probably end up around 5000 words.

I also received word from Cosmos magazine that A Few Good Men will be going on line this week, which is quicker than I thought.

Meanwhile a review of Murky Depths #1 has appeared at short fiction review site Tangent Online. Of my story Looking In, Looking Out they say:

Looking In, Looking Out by Gareth D. Jones is a visually interesting story consisting of a double page spread of several paragraphs, almost thought balloons, arranged in a counterclockwise circle around a picture of a fetus and the Earth.  Each paragraph is a log entry by an alien species attempting to communicate with people on the planet.  They find the only mind flexible enough to understand them as a fetus and so begin to interact with and teach it.  Then comes the twist.  Simple, quick, and pleasant.

Altogether, a very satisfactory weekend.

The Other Side of the World

After three near misses with Australian pulp SF mag Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, I've finaly entered the antipodean market with a sale to 'Australia's best selling science magazine' Cosmos.

No, I didn't miss out a word, it's a science magazine, not a science fiction magazine. They publish one story per issue, and others on their website, which is where mine will appear as it's shorter than they want for the print mag.

A Few Good Men is an alternate history story, and will be joining a back catalogue of stories by such notable names as Charles Stross, Gregory Benford, Jay Lake and Paul Di Filipo. This is my first professional sale and as you can imagine, I'm quite thrilled.