"A Matter of Scale" in Renard's Menagerie #5
I just found the announcement that Renard's Menagerie #5 is now available for ordering, and with it my whimsical short story about the evolution of parrots, "A Matter of Scale".
This was an older story and one that was pure fun to write. I wrote it back in 2005 as an application story for Odyssey, and so also thanks go to the famously wise Jeanne Cavelos for her critique of the story. Many of her points were echoed by pantlessjohnny of its scribe_fu posting, so thanks there also.
I was particularly excited about the fantastic artwork that Amber Hill created for this story. I first contacted Jennifer Miller (nambroth) to see if she might be available, and she suggested Amber (vantid), whose work I also have greatly admired for years. Amber put a tremendous amount of work into this. After I connected her with Fox I didn't even realize they were actually going ahead with commissioning her for the magazine, so I just sent a couple of emails and several months later this is what she showed me! Not only is this a fantastic piece of art (I can't wait for the prints to become available), she also put in a couple of specific birds -- Smeagol is there in the bottom right, and nambroth's Khu is perched on the dragon's shoulder.
The story is very lighthearted and full of inside jokes for parrot owners. I don't generally talk about my actual writing process in blog-space -- I certainly understand the drive of writers who do, but for me it's a bit too under-the-hood. However, I will say that this one was, no pun intended, a "pet" story of mine and I'm both glad for it to have found the home it did and of course ecstatic about the artwork.
In other publication news, I heard a few days ago that my short poem "Theoria" has been accepted by John Benson for a future issue of Not One of Us. It is another outside-my-usual-milieu work dear to my heart for its peculiarities, so good stuff there. It must be that kind of week.
This was an older story and one that was pure fun to write. I wrote it back in 2005 as an application story for Odyssey, and so also thanks go to the famously wise Jeanne Cavelos for her critique of the story. Many of her points were echoed by pantlessjohnny of its scribe_fu posting, so thanks there also.
I was particularly excited about the fantastic artwork that Amber Hill created for this story. I first contacted Jennifer Miller (nambroth) to see if she might be available, and she suggested Amber (vantid), whose work I also have greatly admired for years. Amber put a tremendous amount of work into this. After I connected her with Fox I didn't even realize they were actually going ahead with commissioning her for the magazine, so I just sent a couple of emails and several months later this is what she showed me! Not only is this a fantastic piece of art (I can't wait for the prints to become available), she also put in a couple of specific birds -- Smeagol is there in the bottom right, and nambroth's Khu is perched on the dragon's shoulder.
The story is very lighthearted and full of inside jokes for parrot owners. I don't generally talk about my actual writing process in blog-space -- I certainly understand the drive of writers who do, but for me it's a bit too under-the-hood. However, I will say that this one was, no pun intended, a "pet" story of mine and I'm both glad for it to have found the home it did and of course ecstatic about the artwork.
In other publication news, I heard a few days ago that my short poem "Theoria" has been accepted by John Benson for a future issue of Not One of Us. It is another outside-my-usual-milieu work dear to my heart for its peculiarities, so good stuff there. It must be that kind of week.