Once again, I'm just touching down on the blog here to make honourable mention of The Independent Fantasy and Sci-Fi Magazine, a new Aussie mag that it's my pleasure to participate in (and yes, I know I ended that sentence with a preposition, but one otherwise sounds as pretentious as an octogenarian English teacher). From tiny acorns come mighty oaks, and I wish IFSF all the best for a great future in publishing.
It's also a great pleasure to report that -- again -- Mike Adamson and I are sharing a contents list. His story in this issue is a Tales of the Middle Stars piece entitled The Last Man Standing, and mine is one of the Martian stories, An Ill Wind. Which might have been the first Martian story I wrote, come to think of it.
Closer to home, the news is mixed --
Writing and editing are going well: Mike and I have delivered two of the five books that are on the 2026 schedule, and I expect to begin editing Mike's For the Good of the Regiment fairly soon. In fact, I should just have time to finish editing my own novel before I must begin Mike's, which is his third Sherlock Holmes novel. I'm in the last 5% of the massive novelisation of Pet Shop Dragons. You may recall that eight or ten years ago, I wrote a cute short story by the same name. It was published in Hoards of the Great Fire Wyrms and promptly forgotten ... whereupon I realised what I'd wasted. The idea was filled with potential, and during the last couple of years, eight thousand words have become 125,000 -- a full novel, done and extremely close to going out on the hunt for agency representation. Wish me luck.
On a personal note, things are not so rosy. If you follow me at all, here or on Facebook, you'll know that it's getting close to two years since my husband was diagnosed with the worst possible form of MND, and given a two-year prognosis. Well, we shall certainly beat that horrible prognosis, but I have to admit that life is starting to get ... interesting. Not in a good way. It may be that, for the next several years, I might not be able to find the time, inspiration, energy, or even the courage to write. I'll always edit, though: Mike and I work well together, and we're due to cowrite a couple of stories, which will be a pleasure.
When there's more to share, I'll post again. You'll notice that the posts are thin on the ground these days -- for which, blame MND. It's a horrific experience to watch someone you love go through this.
