It's been an eventful couple of weeks here on the writing front. I'll get the bad news out of the way first.
My agent Shawna queried the excellent small press Four Walls Eight Windows about whether or not they'd be interested in seeing Missionary Man. Their response was "No." It seems they already have a critical study of Mormonism coming out in January. Of course, I'm not sure they understood that my book is primarily an adventure story, and only secondarily a historical and critical study of Mormonism. Oh, well. We soldier on.
But in better news, I got a check Friday for my story "The Veil Beyond the Veil," which will appear in Realms of Fantasy sometime in the next couple of months. That's always good for helping a fellow feel like a professional—not to mention that it's going to pay for a whole mess of Christmas presents. Yeah!
And even better, I just sold my most recent short story, a far-future, post-human, drawing-room tale called "The Diagnostic Feast," to the anthology Beyond the Last Star. That won't be out for at least a year, which is good, because I always get agitated when I don't have at least one story in the pipeline to publication, and right now I have two. Double yeah!
And finally, I've spent a little time sprucing up the Missionary Man site itself. I added a glossary of missionary slang, an account of the circuitous history behind the writing of the book, a facility for E-mailing excerpts from the book, and (best of all in my opinion) a collection of missionary-themed postcards you can send to your friends. There are plenty more features I'd like to add, but for now I think the site is finally ready for prime time. I'm calling it officially launched.
Oh, by the way, I put a little postcard together for you. If you want to take a look, just click here:
http://www.missionaryman.net/view?q578299K68t3
And if you like what you see, please send a postcard or two on to your friends! Help spread the word!
