This Monday just got a whole lot better -- I heard back from Andy Cox, the new editor of Interzone, which is one of the top British SF magazines, that he wants to buy my story, "Redemption, Drawing Near." Yeehaw!

This is especially exciting for me, for a bunch of reasons. For one, Andy and his assistant editor, Peter Tennant, had some excellent suggestions for fixing up the ending, which led me to do a bunch of revising not only to the end but two a couple earlier scenes. The story is much better, to my eyes.

Also, this poor story has been bounced by so many other SF magazines, including all the major magazines here in the US, so it's a nice vindication for my stubbornness. Just goes to show you should never retire a story until it's been every possible place. You can't second-guess editors.

And finally, I'm happy about this sale because it gives me hope for the novel version of The Wannoshay Cycle, of which "Redemption" makes up 3 chapters. Maybe I just need to seek out some publishers on the other side of "the pond," in the UK, for that one. Maybe editors in the US have balked at the fact that my protagonist is a Catholic priest. America has such weird issues with religion, I tell you...

So yeah, a nice sale to get my Monday going. I was really worried that they wouldn't like my revisions, and I've been obsessively checking my email every hour for the past 4-5 days, ever since sending the revisions back to 'em. Later!