“The Time of His Life,” a short story I sold to Realms of Fantasy a while back, isn’t scheduled to be published for an issue or two, but the editor recently sent me a link to Tomislav Tikulin’s wonderful illustration. It fits the story perfectly, which is about a man who finds a hidden room in his attic where time doesn’t pass.
I’ll mention the story again when it’s published, but I wanted to share this one now. Seeing my work brought to life in visual form is always a treat.
Merry Christmas, everybody. Hope you’re spending it with family and friends, as I am. Here’s a little treat, a personal favorite: “White Wine in the Sun” by Tim Minchin. And if you haven’t listened to Minchin before, check out the rest of his songs on YouTube. Great stuff.
I mentioned when I sold Wooden Bones that I’d try to give a little more of an inside view of the process as things chug along. Selling a book to a major New York publisher like Simon and Schuster is a long process. Going from selling a book to seeing it in a bookstore in anything less than a year is lightning fast, and a year and a half is more typical. Right now we’re looking at a summer 2012 release date for the book.
After a book is accepted for publication, at some point along the way a writer usually receives an editorial letter from his editor detailing any changes the editor is hoping the writer makes, which I received for Wooden Bones a couple months ago. These letters can vary wildly depending on the editor, the publishing house, and the book. The requested revisions on Water Balloon Boys were extremely minor. The ones on Wooden Bones were slightly more substantial, which caused me to sweat a bit, but after really working with the text, it turned out to be a lot of little things that I think made the book even better. Of course, now that I’ve turned the book in, we’ll see what my editor thinks. Most likely they’ll be a little more back and forth before the book is approved and sent into production, which means it will get assigned cover art, receive a copy edit (which is different than editorial revisions), etc.
Do I take all of an editor’s suggestions? Heavens no. Sometimes my vision is slightly different. Do I consider them all, and then take any suggestions I think will make the book better? Absolutely. I’d be a fool not to, especially when I’m dealing with the caliber of editor I’ve got on this book. My goal is the same as his: To publish the best book possible.
But as for what happens next, well . . . nothing. At least for a little while. For me, I’m working on another project, but nothing happens with this book until I hear from my editor again. I think what a lot of readers may not realize is how little contact most writers have with their editors (well, at least writers who don’t bother editors unless they really have a good reason, a category I certainly put myself in). In the whole process, as long as things go smoothly I doubt I’ll talk on the phone more than once or twice and exchange maybe a dozen emails. And that’s perfectly normal, especially for a very busy publisher.
One of my goals the next few months is to make sure all of my published stories are available for purchase for all the major e-readers, as well as in PDF format if you want to read them on your computer. I’d been slowly been doing it at a rate of one or two a month, but I’ve decided to buckle down and accelerate the process a little. I’ll be mentioning them here from time to time.
If you’re in the mood for a fun romp with an interstellar private investigator, check out “The Bear Who Sang Opera,” which originally appeared in Analog. It’s the first of two published stories featuring Dexter Duff, and there are more in the works. Here’s a little more info:
The Bear Who Sang Opera
When a grizzly bear walks into your office, it’s enough to get your attention. When that grizzly turns out to be an opera-singing, biological-robot hybrid claiming someone stole his singing voice, it begins one of the strangest cases of Dexter Duff’s career. Originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction.
“The old gumshoe detective story goes into the future…Instead of a beautiful dame, the client is a biological-robot hybrid in the form of a bear who hires a PI to find his lost voice. Like the old tales, the characters are well-developed and interesting, each a possible suspect. However, in this futuristic tale the settings are stunning planets in various solar systems, not some filthy back alley or office. As in both, the fight scenes are realistic. Carter weaves a successful tribute to old-school detective stories with the modern twist of exposing man’s foibles.” – Tangent Online
*For those of you who haven’t yet jumped on the e-reader bandwagon, you can download a PDF version of the story at Smashwords. Eventually most of these stories will appear in a print collection, but it may be down the road a bit.
Note to Self: Accidentally sleeping with your contacts on may result in scratchy eyes and a bit of a headache, but it doesn’t help you remember your dreams more clearly as you might have hoped.
If you’re in the mood for a little holiday reading, check out these two short stories, both available for only 99 cents. ”A Christmas in Amber” originally appeared in the December 2005 issue of Analog magazine. ”The Red Scarf” was published in Cicada Magazine in February 2005. They’re available electronically at Amazon, B&N, and most other online retailers. If you don’t have a dedicated e-reader, you can also buy them at Smashwords. ”A Christmas in Amber” also appears in my collection, The Dinosaur Diaries and Other Tales Across Space and Time.
A Christmas in Amber
With a meteor on a collision course with Earth, a mass evacuation is underway for a privileged few . . . but not for an elderly man who must say goodbye to those he loves. A powerful Christmas tale that originally appeared in the December 2005 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. ”A Christmas in Amber” by Scott William Carter is a touching story.” — SFRevu.com. A short story of 4700 words. Placed fifth in the Analog AnLab Reader’s Poll of the best short stories of the year. Honorable mention in The Year’s Best Science Fiction edited by Gardner Dozois.
In this touching Christmas tale, a Minnesota widower has a magical encounter with an enchanted snow man — and gets a last glimpse of the love of his life. Originally appeared in Cicada Magazine, February 2005.
The scene: I’m sitting at the kitchen table surfing the Web with my new smart phone. My seven-year-old daughter is doing her spelling homework next to me.
K: Daddy?
Me: Yes?
K: Do you love your new phone?
Me: What?
K (suppressing a smile): Do you want to marry it? You spend all your time with it. I thought maybe you loved it. Maybe you should marry it.
Me: Very funny. (Thinking: Nothing like getting shamed by a seven-year-old.)
My story "The Man Who Made No Mistakes," has appeared in the October 2011 issue of Realms of Fantasy.
My story "A Witness to All That Was," has appeared in the July/August 2011 issue of Analog.
My story "The Time of His Life," has appeared in the February 2011 issue of Realms of Fantasy.
My second story featuring interstellar private investigator Dexter Duff, "The Android Who Became a Human Who Became an Android," has appeared in the July/August issue of Analog.
