first!
Just got an email tonight telling me that the small press SF magazine Aoife's Kiss was buying my story "Breaking Contact." My first sale!
I've actually been flogging this one off and on for years -- it's a hard sell since it's SF, but doesn't have many of the obvious tropes of the genre. It's also the first story I wrote of the "modern" period of my writing, after I'd gone back to it after years away.
And best of all, in writing it, I stole huge amounts of tjk_40's life...
I saw what Tim was doing and stopped. A series of hedges divided the parking lot and Tim had been at work on these with a small pair of clippers. He'd cut a lady bug, passably well done (obviously the earliest), a dog (better), a VW bug (better still, although I couldn't tell if it was an old bug or a new one), and a large cow. He was nearly finished carving up the nearest hedge into a large lizard. Definitely his best work yet.
"Nice topiary," I stopped to look at it. The lizard really was very good.
"Thanks. Nobody really to object now, since the manager got sick last week." He stopped long enough to wipe sweat from his forehead. "Only problem is that most of the hedges are too low to do anything really interesting." He pointed towards a much taller hedge, near the entrance to the complex. "There's only that one there but I'm not sure what to do with it. I was thinking of doing Elvis on that one, but it's a bit top heavy."
I shrugged. "So was Elvis."
"Yea," he said, "but did he have spindly legs?" He thought for a moment. "Maybe John Lennon. Did he have spindly legs?"
"Not that I know of. Try Yoko."
He stared at the taller hedge, then shrugged and turned back to the lizard.
I've actually been flogging this one off and on for years -- it's a hard sell since it's SF, but doesn't have many of the obvious tropes of the genre. It's also the first story I wrote of the "modern" period of my writing, after I'd gone back to it after years away.
And best of all, in writing it, I stole huge amounts of tjk_40's life...
I saw what Tim was doing and stopped. A series of hedges divided the parking lot and Tim had been at work on these with a small pair of clippers. He'd cut a lady bug, passably well done (obviously the earliest), a dog (better), a VW bug (better still, although I couldn't tell if it was an old bug or a new one), and a large cow. He was nearly finished carving up the nearest hedge into a large lizard. Definitely his best work yet.
"Nice topiary," I stopped to look at it. The lizard really was very good.
"Thanks. Nobody really to object now, since the manager got sick last week." He stopped long enough to wipe sweat from his forehead. "Only problem is that most of the hedges are too low to do anything really interesting." He pointed towards a much taller hedge, near the entrance to the complex. "There's only that one there but I'm not sure what to do with it. I was thinking of doing Elvis on that one, but it's a bit top heavy."
I shrugged. "So was Elvis."
"Yea," he said, "but did he have spindly legs?" He thought for a moment. "Maybe John Lennon. Did he have spindly legs?"
"Not that I know of. Try Yoko."
He stared at the taller hedge, then shrugged and turned back to the lizard.