So, in-between remembering to promote our work, and taking care of the cats, and writing less than I would like but more than one colleague has assured me is possible, I’ve been putting Steve’s papers into boxes for eventual shipment to the archive at Texas A&M.
This means that I’ve been reading old letters, and poetry, and notes about what’s for supper; submission letters and rejections. And there’s this whole long … thread, let’s call it, around a story called “The One About Dancing,” which I remember in concept, but not in any detail. It seems that it started as a Notion that Steve had that stalled. I then had Notion and it got kickstarted, and we tried to sell the hell outta that story. We sent it to Amazing, we sent it to Owlflight, then at last to Spectrum SF.
Paul ____ at Spectrum . . . wasn’t particularly encouraging. He wanted extensive edits, which Steve was game to take on. My name was on the story for a while, as co-author, but I removed it after Steve starting working with Paul on revisions. He was doing the bulk of the work there, because I probably had a day-job, and I didn’t feel that I was contributing enough to the emerging work to be listed as a coauthor.
So, anyway, Paul finally declared the revised Tanj (the name of the main character was Jobber Tanj, and we referred to the story as “Tanj”), and I quote “Wow!” His last letter is about the concept art, and a request for a follow-up Tanj story.
Then . . . nothing.
I assume Spectrum went out of business. I don’t remember, honestly. Nineteen-eighty-two was a long time ago. I did a quick ‘n dirty websearch, and can’t find any info. It’s as if it never existed, except that I Have This File.
Aside the Mystery of the Disappearing Market, what struck me about the Tanj thread is how . . . friendly and helpful the editors — Elinor, Millea, Paul — were. Even the rejection letters for other stories were cordial and tried to pinpoint what didn’t work. Even given that sometimes what didn’t work was what we considered to be the Point of the story, that was . . . extraordinarily generous.
So, there’s that.
In other news, it looks as if Maine has entered True Spring, with the daytime highs regularly hitting the high 50s/low 60s (F) and the nighttime lows staying above freezing.
A couple of folks have asked if I’ll be at BaltiCon, and the answer, sadly, is no. I really don’t expect to be attending any cons for the foreseeable. I miss you all, but — no. Or at the very least — not yet.
And I think that more-or-less catches us all up.
Oh, wait. Here’s a picture of Firefly in her space capsule, which conveyed her to her annual wellness appointment with the vet yesterday. She was declared to be both gorgeous and healthy.
We’ll miss you at balticon but we understand. I am now very curious about Tanj. Was it a Liaden Universe story?
PS thanks for checking in. I appreciate it
Tanj was Lummee. BLU: Before Liaden Universe. We were at that point I think writing a Kinzel novel, that has been lost to the mists of time, and the travails of moving. And a good thing, I expect.
Is this relevant?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrum_SF
It says “Spectrum SF was a paperback format magazine that published short and serial length works of science fiction. It was edited by Paul Fraser and published nine issues between 2000 and 2002.”
The timeline obvs. doesn’t fit with your “1982” reference. The brief entry does include several references that might be helpful.
Nope — whole different Paul in a whole different country — Scotland, I think Autopope said, in another venue.
I have the final acceptance letter (that I was too lazy to pull for the blog post), dated 12 Aug 82, from Paul Becker, Spectrum SF, 4747 Fountain Ave., No 220 Hollywood CA 90029 213 469 0852.
Firefly–gorgeous indeed! Glad to hear that healthy is also applicable.