My short story "Dreaming of a Gray Enemey"--sort of a darkly playful, "oh my god, what if they were right?" take on alien abduction--has been accepted for publication in Issue #2 of Afterburn SF. It should be on-line starting on May 1st.

(Special thanks to Steph and Patrick, who both provided critiques for this one.)

Again, this is such unbelievably cool news--at this point, three of the first five stories I wrote since starting writing again last year have been published (How to Light a Cigar being the first one, The Star Inside the Swastika being the fifth and "Dreaming of a Gray Enemy" being the fourth.) Three publications sounds so much more solid than two somehow, much more pattern and less fluke.

One of the bizzare things about living in this high-tech world is that, since Afterburn SF pays contributors via paypal, I've not only already been paid, I've already spent it--I bought a copy of Tim Powers' novel "The Anubis Gates" off of ebay, and there not being enough left for another book, I spent what was left on my paypal account on an on-line contribution to the Socialist Party. ("What was left" ain't much--we are talking about the small press here--but when you don't get money from mega-corporations and defense contractors like the Democrats and Republicans, every little bit counts. Don't worry, that's the whole sermon for today, I'll switch gears now.) "The Anubis Gates" looks cool. Right now, having finished "Rangergirl"--which was such a wonderful thing, I won't even talk about it for fear of degenerating into raving--I've started up "The Difference Engine," and "The Anubis Gates" sounded like a good follow-up.