Well, I ended up submitting two stories to the Sword and Laser anthology. One was the bio-punk story I mentioned in my previous post, which unfortunately I did not quite get where I wanted in terms of quality rewrites. Still, I figured it was better to send in something and see how it works out. Maybe the story isn’t as bad as I think it is. And if it is I can always rewrite it for the next contest or anthology. The other story I submitted is a sort of magical realism story about a boy who buys a dream where he gets the happy ending he wanted with the girl he loves.
We’ll see how those two work out, but now that the submission cycle for S&L is over, it’s time to move on to other projects. There’s a good chance that I will be returning to work on my YA novel, but there is another anthology deadline right around the corner. This one is for the second edition of Unidentified Funny Objects. My friend Alex Shvartsman, who I know because he runs a gaming store in Brooklyn, is a terrific speculative fiction humorist. While many of you are probably familiar with Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, sci-fi and fantasy humor is a surprisingly difficult genre to work in. Not many people publish it frequently, and so Alex started this anthology to help solve that problem.
For those of you who have a story ready or are eager to write one, you can look check out the submission guidelines for the anthology, the deadline for which is May 31st. Those who have never tried their hands at humor but want to give it a go, don’t fret. Alex has written some helpful tips about how to handle humor.
I personally find humor very difficult to write, so the jury is still out on whether or not I will be submitting anything. Either way, I’m excited to move on to other stories.
