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Christopher McKitterickShort Work |
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LIKE MANY, my publishing career started in the magazines. Modern American science fiction traces its roots to the early adventure and SF mags like the originals, Astounding and Amazing. (Read James Gunn's Road to Science Fiction anthologies for an excellent history of SF.) Over time, the SF field has been influenced more and more by novels, and now by the media. But without Hugo Gernsback and John W. Campbell - along with all the editors who've shaped the field since - we might never have seen our genre blossom into what it's become. I love short SF - especially when holding down a demanding day job - because one can sit down and not come up for air until most of a rough draft is complete. To manage this, I don't start drafting until reaching what I call "critical mass" - the plot is outlined, I've gotten to know the characters well, and I have a good feel of the setting and action. I usually start with an idea, say, "what if our relationship with aliens were like our relationship with dogs?" Then I start to flesh out that idea, find out who's most affected by its implications or applications, where they live (to reinforce the theme - oh, yeah, and come up with a theme in here somewhere), and so on. Only when it's more work to hold all the material in my head than to write the thing do I turn on the computer and start typing. But I've learned to never hit the keyboard until I'm confident with as much as I can possibly know about the ideas, technologies, second- and third-level effects, characters, civilizations, etc. Here's a list of short work for which I managed to pull all these elements together enough that editors bought them. Selected Short-Fiction BibliographyThe Recursive ManAftermaths, April 13, 2012, Hadley Rille Books Surveyor of MarsWestward Weird, February 7, 2012, DAW Books The EnlightenmentSentinels In Honor of Arthur C. Clarke, August 2010, Hadley Rille Books The Empty UtopiaRuins: Extraterrestrial, October 2007, Hadley Rille Books Honorable mention in The Years Best Science Fiction 2007. Nice review from David C. Kopaska-Merkel here. Another lovely review of the anthology by Fantasy Book Critic here. Jupiter WhispersVisual Journeys: A Tribute to Space Art, July 2007, Hadley Rille Books Honorable mention in The Years Best Science Fiction 2007. Also got a nice review from Richard Horton, TCM Reviews, and Some Fantastic. The EnlightenmentSynergy: New Science Fiction, September 2004, Five Star Books Nominated for the Sturgeon Award. Lost DogsOutlanders eBook, Scorpius Digital Nice review in Tangent. Lost DogsAnalog Science Fiction & Fact, September 2001 The WebArtemis Magazine, the magazine of the Artemis Project, Summer 2000 City of TomorrowCaptain Proton, Pocket Books, November 1999 This (and my other Captain Proton pieces) got a nice mention in this Amazing Stories interview. Under ObservationCaptain Proton, Pocket Books, November 1999 Worlds of TomorrowCaptain Proton, Pocket Books, November 1999 What Lurks in a Man's MindAnalog Science Fiction & Fact, October 1999 BiologAnalog Science Fiction & Fact, October 1999 Circles of Light and ShadowAnalog Science Fiction & Fact, February 1999 This one got a lot of nice reviews: from SF Site, tpi, Cerberus, and Tangent, and it was also a nominee for the 2000 Locus Poll Award. I got a kick out of how it was quoted in a medical journal: "Anecdotal evidence is legitimate if it appears in sufficient quantity." Nominated for the Nebula, the AnLab, and the Locus Poll awards. A Scientist's WarE-Scape, December 1998 A Plague of MannequinsE-Scape, October 1996 The Recursive ManTomorrow Speculative Fiction, #20 (April 1996) Nominated for the Sturgeon and Nebula awards. A Call to ArmsAnalog Science Fiction & Fact, January 1996 Paving the Road to ArmageddonAnalog Science Fiction & Fact, May 1995 Nominated for the Sturgeon, Nebula, and Hugo awards; appeared on Tangents Recommended Reading List. James Gunn and The DreamersExtrapolation, Winter 1995 The Myth of SephonNOTA, Spring 1991 Martians and OthersNOTA, Winter 1990 Forty MinutesOHS Blackboard, May 1985 (my first publication, and the only story my high-school paper published!) |
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