My fine cover neighbors on the Asimov’s SF magazine !
Back from a very busy August month, rife with family events and professional ups-and-downs, I dreaded looking at the Asimov’s September-October issue. By now, I know that you can’t put every writer’s name on an issue, because there is more than twenty contributors (and so, twenty good stories or poems) in each magazine. I did not expect that my novelette Tears Down the Wall would change it.
So I was flabbergasted to see my name featured on that cover, along with two cover neighbors whom I have read and loved : Derek Künsken and Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
Derek had me laughing and crying with his Quebecers floating (and swearing in French!) in the Venus acidic atmosphere of House of Styx. Wonderful world-building and characterization, so I’m in line for the second one of the duology! And thanks, Derek for not dragging me through a trilogy!
Kristine Kathryn Rusch is my model writer. Or, at least, she is my distant goal in writing and publishing, with more than 500 titles (short and long forms) to her credit. I’m working as best as I can to reach a hundred differend pubs…. oops! It seems that, with 20 trad-pub novels and 80 short-stories, I just did! Yay for me!)
This makes me very proud as a writer, almost as much as winning a Trillium award with a science-fiction novel did this year. And almost as much as my first publication in Asimov’s, which would have made my father, a life time Isaac Asimov’s fan, quite proud, too.
My future publications in the magazine might slow down in 2024. Because of my mother’s health issues and a family loss, my submitting submarine has taken a hit. But if everything goes well, it will surface soon!
I’m so sorry for your loss and hope that your mother feels better soon. I was just delighted to see your name on the cover of Asimov’s and turned immediately to your story. I love your writing and liked your story Screaming Fire so much that I am now reading La quête de Chaaas, even though it is much more difficult for me to read in French than in English. So many words to look up! But I am grateful that it is improving my French. Such a beautiful language!
Wonderful ! I hope that despite the new language, the books gave you joy.
As a longtime subscriber to Asimov;s (and Analog) I greatly enjoyed your story Tears Down the Wall, with its unique vision of future city dwelling and the challenges it would present to law enforcement. I look forward to reading more of your work in the future.
One small point however. I noticed that something (an evil spellchecker perhaps) had the damping field in your story mis-characterized as a dampening field. So instead of causing a reduction in magnitude, your field merely made everything wet. A small difference perhaps, but one that interrupted the flow of the story.
Thanks for the good words about Tears down the Wall ! And yes, something will be coming up next year!
As for the spelling damping / dampening, the text shall get revised for a subsequent print edition.