Hello to everyone! The end of the school year found Nomi and me having to move, unfortunately. We're staying in the same area, but having to pack and unpack eats up into the time I have to do other things -- like write. Despite that, thought, things have been busy on that front since the last newsletter, and will stay busy throughout the summer. And this is in addition to helping run the Nebula Awards Banquet this year and being re- elected Secretary of SFWA and Vice-President of NESFA.
As you've all probably heard by now, "Cosmic Corkscrew" has made it to the Hugo ballot in the category of Short Story. I don't have any illusions about my chances, as I'm up against three stories by Michael Swanwick, one by Bruce Sterling, and one by Robert Reed. However, if anyone wants to participate in the voting, all you have to do is join this year's World Science Fiction Convention, Aussiecon Three, as a Supporting Member. The cost is $35, and if you're in the United States, you can join by writing to Aussiecon Three, P.O. Box 266, Prospect Heights, IL 60070-0266. I'm not sure when the deadline is to join in time for voting in the Hugo Awards, but I'm pretty sure it's coming up soon.
Sometimes it's hard for me to keep track of what stories have just sold, given the time between acceptance, contract, and (of course) payment. However, I can identify two story sales which I have not yet noted in this newsletter.
The first one, "The Turing Testers," is a collaboration I wrote with Joseph J. Lazzaro, who is a freelance writer with publications in Byte, Time Life, the New York Times, IEEE Spectrum, and other technical periodicals. Joe is also a fellow ANALOG writer; he was co-author of "Ben Franklin's Spaceship," which made it to the Honorable Mention list for the Hugo Awards a few years ago.
The second sale, "Whose Millennium?" is a short-short which is scheduled for the January 2000 issue of ANALOG. The title will probably give you an idea why it's scheduled for that particular issue.
I'll give more information on these stories as we get closer to their publication.
Well, um, nothing really.
The next story of mine likely to see print is "Vanishing Tears," which will appear in the SFF-NET anthology THE AGE OF REASON edited by Kurt Roth, to be published in late August. This book is being released by a small press, so although it is available, it's probably not going to show up in your local bookstore unless you're very lucky. However, it can easily be ordered from places like Amazon.com, and when it is published, I'll try to send out ordering information.
After that story is published, I am pleased to note that the next story will be my very first novella, "Reality Check." This is the third story set in the "Broken Symmetry" universe, and it will appear in the November 1999 ANALOG.
Finally, although it's not fiction, I have an article on the best and worst episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, scheduled for the October 1999 SCI-FI ENTERTAINMENT magazine.
Also on the horizon: "The Cold Calculations," which will appear in an upcoming issue of ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE.
Nomi and I will be attending Readercon the weekend of July 9-11, 1999, in Waltham, Masachusetts. For more information on this convention, check out www.readercon.org.
That will probably be my last convention appearance for a while, at least until 2000. But in August, I'll be involved with another Internet chat, and I'll try to give more information on that closer to the event.
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-- Michael A. Burstein