Tuesday, October 18, 2005

It's all Greek to me

Back in 2003, my short story "Crowd Control" appeared in the anthology Strange Pleasures 2, edited by John Grant and Dave Hutchinson. It was a tale of virtual reality written pre-Matrix which used Alice in Wonderland metaphors in a narrative about freedom vs. control. It even had a kind of "bullet time" in it. As one of the vary rare short stories I've ever written, I'm somewhat proud of it.

Now, I'm happy to report that it has found new life in the pages of the Greek science fiction and comic book magazine, 9. The Greek language version of "Crowd Control" appears in issue 263 (8/03/05). "Crowd Control" has found a home in a number of foreign language markets, as well as an English language German magazine, but 9 is the first to appear. This is particularly gratifying to me, as I grew up amid the Greek community in my home town in Alabama - my first night of intoxication was on Ouzo - and I can now ask some old friends to translate it back for me! Also, 9's Editorial Secretary Anna Boviatsi extends an invitation to all my "fellow authors" to contribute. They appear to be weekly and are looking for science fiction stories (no fantasy or horror) between 2,000 and 4,5000 words - 9,000 if they can split it into two or three installments. I should say that my short dealings with them have been most professional. My three contributor's copies arrived promptly and in good condition, and the check, though it hasn't materialized yet, promises to be most adequate. 9's contact information and submission guidelines appear here on this wonderful foreign market list.

8 comments:

Brian W. Dow said...

Hi Lou,
Many congratulations on Crowd Control appearing again. As you know, I just finished it and loved it. What other publications will it appear in and can I get them in the states?
Best,
-B

Lou Anders said...

Hi Brian,
the only stateside publication is Strange Pleasures 2. I also have a tiny vignette in Strange Pleasures 3, which I'm told came out some time ago, but which I've yet to see.

Meanwhile, "Crowd Control" will appear in Spanish in the magazine Sable, in portuguese in Dragao Quantico, in Danish in Science Fiction: The Danish Science Fiction Newsmagazine, in Italian in Robot, and in English in the English-language German magazine, InterNova. It has also quite possibly been accepted by the Romanian magazine Lumi Virtuale but I'm not 100% sure I read their email correctly!

However, Russian magazine Esli passed on it with what is my favorite rejection letter to date: "We don't think Russia will be threatened with the overpopulation in the near future, and the social constituent of the story will not be of great interest to our readers."

So, despite lack of Russian fears of overcrowding, I am feeling very international!

Anonymous said...

Hi Lou,

Congrats on the sale to "9" (and all the other foreign sales of "Crowd Control").

Actually, I was tipped to "9", and several other foreign language markets, by Frank Roger, a Belgian SF writer who is widely published across Europe.

Typical thing -- that is, typical for my writers' luck -- is that I submitted a story to "9" back in April 2004. I changed over to broadband, with a new provider and a new email in the meantime, and since "9" had the story under consideration for over 6 months, and their guidelines state to consider a story rejected if there's no response in 3 months, I didn't send them my new email address.

Still, I've kept my old email for a while -- actually hadn't bothered to terminate it yet -- and when I checked it last Thursday, for the first time in a month or so, there was an acceptance notice from Anna Boviatsi, dated October 6 (over 18 months after the submission).
So I replied October 20, explaining that I changed provider and email address.

No answer since. Keeping my fingers crossed now...

Jetse

Lou Anders said...

Hi Jetse,
I'm amazed by the 18 month response time. Of all the magazines listed above 9 has moved the fastest. And my check arrived within 3 days of the contributor's copies.

After all this, I hope you get in!

Anonymous said...

Me too!

I'll keep you updated.

;-)

Jetse

Anonymous said...

Good news: I just received confirmation that the story has been published in issue #274 (10-19-05), and now I have to send them an invoice -- for 'journalistic work' -- and then they pay me the 3 Eurocents per word, plus three contributor's copies.

So all's well that ends well!

Also, the city where my brother works has a (relatively) large Greek community, so he can have the issue read by one of his co-workers.

Anonymous said...

Oh well: the above is me:

Jetse

(Oh yeah: and the same invitation to spread the word around to other authors.)

Lou Anders said...

Congratulations, Jetse!
Very glad to hear that finally went through, as I've been impressed with my dealings with them.