Mar 25 2010

The new Analog’s here! The new Analog’s here!

Published by at 5:24 pm under Writing

June 2010 Analog cover.Okay, forgive the reference to the phone book scene in Steve Martin’s film The Jerk, but I’m just as excited. Martin’s character, Navin Johnson, was excited because his name was (for the first time) in the new phone book. I’m excited because my name — and story — are in the June 2010 issue of Analog. The story is “Light Conversation”, in the Probability Zero section (short, often humorous and definitely improbable pieces). It’s my first sale to Analog, a magazine I’ve been reading since my early teens.

As Martin/Navin puts it in The Jerk, “I’m somebody now! Millions of people look at this book everyday! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity – your name in print – that makes people. I’m in print! Things are going to start happening to me now.” I don’t expect that; I know there’s a long slog ahead to make it as a successful fiction writer. But it’s a milestone on the way.

The June issue probably won’t be available on the newsstands for another week or so, as a subscriber I get my copy early. For those who prefer electronic copies, Fictionwise carries Analog. I’ll post a link here when the June issue is available.
Update: According to the May issue, the June issue goes on sale April 6.

4 comments so far

4 Responses to “The new Analog’s here! The new Analog’s here!”

  1. Brad R. Torgersenon 02 Apr 2010 at 4:51 pm

    Beautiful, Al. Gorgeous. Love seeing it on your blog side bar. I will have to locate the B&N nearest Fort Jackson and see if I can’t grab me a copy? Again, well done, sir.

  2. Alastairon 03 Apr 2010 at 1:32 pm

    Thanks, Brad. The issue supposedly goes on the stands Tuesday; I’ll post when I see it. I guess my next big milestone is to get my name on the cover — and then the cover picture. (That latter’s getting harder with Analog, they don’t commission as many covers as they used to.)

    Your debut is the October issue, appearing some time in July, right?

  3. Brad R. Torgersenon 09 Apr 2010 at 9:36 pm

    Al, I just read your story in Analog. I must say, I am highly impressed. Mainly because you managed to do a bona fide, complete story in such a short space. I am positively lost at that length. Yet yours works, and it works at both a “Hmmm…” level, and a humor “ha ha” level. Anyway, a terrific little piece, and what a wonderful debut in the most venerable of the venerable digests.

  4. Alastairon 10 Apr 2010 at 6:44 pm

    Wow, thank you. I do like the shorter length when I’ve got an idea that will fit, because I can pretty much work it all out in my head before writing it.

    That one almost wrote itself on the plane back from Westercon last summer. Rick Boatright (tech editor for The 1632 Grantville Gazette) had talked about a way to display output from a fluidic computer using water. Later, on a linguistics panel, somebody said “you couldn’t talk with a slime mold, for example” and Stan Schmidt joked “I had a conversation with a slime mold just the other day.” Bingo. I made sure that story was on the way to Stan’s desk before the next weekend.