Alastair Mayer’s T-Space Blog

I got the happy news the other day that Analog bought another story, “The Sock Problem”, for Probability Zero. That’s my third PZ sale, and my fourth overall to Analog. It’s in the same vein as my first sale to them, “Light Conversation”, this time with a dryer not a refrigerator, and no slime mold. You can probably guess the theme, but Stan Schmidt, Analog‘s editor, said of it: “a neat variation on the theme that I haven’t seen before, so I’m buying it.” Music to my ears 😉

Hugo Nomination Updates
A reminder that there are only a few days left to register for a supporting or attending membership for this years World SF Convention in Reno (Renovation) in time to be allowed to nominate for the Hugo and Campbell awards (see below). Deadline is January 31.
I’m nominating Howard Taylor’s Shlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel for “Best Graphic Story”. Schlock Mercenary is a fun SF daily webcomic, it is literally the first thing I browse to in the morning. I’m also nominating the podcast Writing Excuses (Season 4) in the “Best Related Work” category. Howard, along with Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells, is co-host of Excuses. I’ve mentioned WE before, it’s an excellent resource for writers or even just hard-core fans of the science fiction and fantasy genres. (At fifteen minutes long, I like to listen to the podcasts when I’m getting my daily walk in — alas, they don’t do a daily ‘cast, only weekly.)

More to come, and I’ll post my complete list of nomination when I have it. Fortunately we can nominate up to five candidates in each category, because deciding between some of the excellent choices this year is going to be a bear.

Update: While I’m thinking about it, I want to add Vylar Kaftan’s “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” as one of my faves for Best Short Story. It’s a rare combination of an emotionally powerful story with hard science and some great physics metaphors.