Hello, everyone! It's been about two months since the last newsletter, so let's get right to it.
The first piece of news is what this newsletter was made for in the first place: announcements of just published stories. The November 2000 issue of ANALOG, appearing on newsstands and bookstores now, has my short story "Kaddish for the Last Survivor." As you might guess from the title, the story is a fictional depiction of what might happen when the last Holocaust survivor dies.
I am very proud of this story. I'm also pleased that it's already gotten praise from people I highly respect. For example, Adam-Troy Castro, a fellow writer who has also been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Award, noted that "Kaddish for the Last Survivor" is "a powerful and passionate story, which may be a major contender come award-time." Other friends have told me that they found the story quite moving; I hope you too will appreciate reading it and will understand why I felt the need to write it.
With Labor Day weekend came the Hugo Awards at the World Science Fiction Convention. After the awards are given they announce the runners-up, and although none of my stories from 1999 were nominated, I noticed that "Reality Check" received 22 nominations for the Hugo Award in the Novella category, placing it ninth. Only the top five get nominated, usually, and if the story had received only six more nominations, it would have made it to the ballot.
Ah well. My earnest and sincere thanks to any and all who considered it worthy of nomination. (Just to remind everyone, this was the story that earned me my first Nebula and Sturgeon nomination.)
I've been hinting about getting another cover story this year, and I'm now ready to make the announcement.
The Winter 2000 issue of ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE, a science fiction adventure magazine published by DNA Publications, will have as its cover story my short story "The Cold Calculations" (a riff on "The Cold Equations" if anyone remembers that classic by Tom Godwin). Furthermore, the cover art is being done by none other than Bob Eggleton! Yes, that's right, I'm getting two Eggleton covers in the year 2000. The magazine should be available in late December, and as usual, I'll announce it here when it's out.
I'm not doing any public appearances until next year:
You can get more information on these conventions from my webpage.
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-- Michael A. Burstein