My First Novella, “Legacy of the Fallen Stars,” Accepted by Bewildering Stories!

I am delighted that the very first piece I wrote when I started focusing on speculative fiction, “Legacy of the Fallen Stars,” has found a home at Bewildering Stories. It is also the longest story I’ve written to date, about 16,000 words.  And it’s an odd duck of a story, as it mixes a number of genres.

The prose is in the style of high fantasy, though the central organizing principle, the building of Stonehenge, is based in historical fact.  Because the builders of Stonehenge left no written records, not much is known about how they lived.  I invented the characters, their society, and the challenges they faced, and I relied on certain conventions, such as choosing old Welsh names for one group of people and old English names for another.  On the other hand, a fair amount is known about how Stonehenge was built, and I tried to be true to what has been documented about the engineering of the monument, as well as to the types of events (the introduction of copper, the introduction of beer, the rarity of the wheel in this part of Europe at this time) that these people might have expected to encounter.  And if that’s not enough, there’s also a science fiction element.

In any case, I’m grateful that the folks at Bewildering Stories found it bewildering enough for their magazine.  I will post the expected publication date as soon as I have it.

It has been a while since I had news of any sort to report, but such is the writing life.  As I have begun to focus on aiming for markets that will permit me to join SFWA, the cycle time from finished product to acceptance has grown longer.

I’m still waiting with bated breath for news of when Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine Issue 59 will hit the street with my story “Across the Fourth Sea,” and for further information about the fate of Aoife’s Kiss in which my story, “The Righteous in this Generation,” was scheduled to appear last summer.  The last I heard, the magazine is on hiatus until at least April 2014.

I hope I’ll have good news to announce on these (and other) fronts in the coming months.