Every so often, Martin H. Greenberg asks authors he knows to contribute ideas that he "pitches" to major New York publishing houses. (A "pitch" is when a writer comes up with an original idea and serves it up verbally to an editor.) Several of my author friends do this when Marty lets us know he's either making a personal appearance at New York publishing houses, or calling them. We sit at our computers and come up with outlandish, thoughtful, and intriguing concepts that, we hope, will be bought and published. This is not easy: Marty Greenberg is the world's most prolific anthologist, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, and coming up with an idea he hasn't dealt with before is difficult.
My friend/co-author/writing buddy from Kenosha Jean Rabe and I typically toss four to six ideas Green Bay-ward to Marty's office at least twice per year. It becomes a friendly competition. We trade encouragement, hoping that at least one of us catches an ear at DAW.
We were both certain we'd failed this time. John Helfers, our editor at Marty's office, hadn't contacted anyone when Jean and I commiserated by phone one morning recently. After our conversation, I checked my email, not expecting anything unusual.
There was a message from John saying "Congratulations, your idea Catopolis sold to DAW."
I never tire of seeing such good news. My adrenaline surged into the stratosphere. Catopolis deals with a current or near-future fantasy of a cat-populated city. Humans are only background as the builders of the civilization, and sometimes provide transportation or lend minimal support. Cats are thieves, detectives, penthouse-apartment dwellers, psychologists, gang members, all the furry denizens of a structured city. And I was lucky when I began contacting authors: Matthew Stover, Elizabeth A. Vaughan, Paul Genesse, Richard Lee Byers, neophyte Chris Welch, Jean Rabe, Edward Carmien, Bruce A. Heard, Ed Greenwood, Jana Paniccia, Marc Tassin, Brian Thomsen, and Esther Freisner have all enthusiastically agreed to contribute. Elizabeth Moon promised to "think about it". (Fingers crossed about her participation: she doesn't often write short stories.)
You notice that I call Chris Welch a neophyte. He's had a couple fiction stories published, other than his newspaper columns, but this is his first chance at a big publication. I always reserve one story for a talented writer new to the business. I met Chris last summer at both M.O.O.N. Con and JVL Con during my writing seminars. We went out to dinner, and we've kept in touch. He was blown away when I offered him the chance to write a story for the book. (See? You can never tell where chances will come from. Karma is everywhere.)
This promises to be a grand anthology. DAW's current publishing schedule has it coming out sometime in 2008. I hope it gets a good cover!
Last fall, Furry Fantastic, edited by Jean Rabe and Brian Thomsen, hit the bookstores on time. If you haven't seen it yet, it's got a fantastic cover: look for the shaded silver Persian, then gaze deep into her eyes. Classic.
The book is divided into "Dogs and Cats", and "Other Furries". My story "Heart and Soul" is at the end of the first section. Paul Genesse heads off the second group with a great tale about meerkats. Don't miss Marc Tassin's gerbils, and Elizabeth A. Vaughan's guardian mouse. Mike Stackpole's stories are always great reads.
For those of you who have never heard the story about my anthology Magic Tails, here goes. I sold the idea to DAW the day before 9/11. The concept was originally called Fairy Tails. Marty Greenberg and I worked hard on the editing, and all the stories were turned in on time. Then we began to hit snags.
DAW already had a book scheduled called Faerie Tales. In an effort not to get these two books confused, the editors took mine off the schedule to be re-titled. It got buried on someone's desk, and was lost. I finally got John Helfers of Tekno-Books to track it down. The manuscript finally surfaced, but still needed a title. I sent in a list of six suggestions. The DAW editors choose Magic Tails, and re-scheduled the book for publication.
It was bumped and re-scheduled twice more, which meant that by the time it came out, the anthology was three years later than originally expected. I don't care--I'm just happy that it's on the market, and listed as "highly recommended" by Amazon.com. By the way, it has Andre Norton's last published short story. The cat she writes about was her own beloved Cobweb.
Alan Dean Foster doesn't usually write short stories, but he contributed a charming tale to this anthology. Elizabeth Ann Scarborough is always a delight, and don't miss Jean Rabe's hilarious Puss n' Boots story.
Julie Czerneda and Jana Paniccia's Under Cover of Darkness came out on time in early February, and is getting rave reviews. It's also got a fabulous cover. My story "Shadow of the Scimitar" is highlighted on the back cover with the sentence "From an unexpected ally who aids Lawrence in Arabia..." I spent a month researching before I began writing, but it was worth it. I had a great time with the concept, and batting it back and forth with Bruce Heard during out Sunday walks made it even more fun.
I found out last fall that Denise Little had an anthology called Mystery Date open for stories. This is not usually something I'd write about, except that the premise of two people, at least one of who is not being truthful about his/her identity, was too intriguing to miss. I came up with the concept of Medusa being immortal and taking up the cause of battered women. You'll have to read the rest to know how it comes out. It's a fun story, set in the beautiful Plaza III Restaurant, Country Club Plaza, Kansas City, Missouri. I'm not sure when the book is coming off the presses, but I'll find out.
Those of you who attended the GenCon Writer's Seminars the last time I was there might have noticed that I was accompanied by Bruce Heard. Yes, Mystara fans, THE Bruce Heard, formerly of TSR. (So much for my insistence that I could never become involved seriously with a gamer. This just proves that he has to be a French-Texan gamer!)
Bruce and I take long walks on Sunday mornings when we can match schedules. I began telling him when I was stuck on plots, and he'd cogitate and come up with ideas. Most of them worked. The next step was getting him directly involved in a story, which is what happened during the writing of "Shadow of the Scimitar". Which Bruce gleefully then turned into a book trilogy concept.
Uh huh. Think I've got the right guy here. So I proposed the concept of my story called "You've Got Male", and we worked together on that. First time co-authors. And it's going to be printed in Denise Little's anthology Mystery Date from DAW. Then we wrote the historical fantasy "Mikey's Smile", which hasn't seen publication yet, and a sweeping pirate yarn called "The StormStone".
I think this partnership is a winner. Bruce and I have been together as a couple now for about 6 1/2 years. If we can survive writing four stories together, we can survive books, too. And anyway, his mother (who lives in Nice) likes me.
Page updated 27 March 2007