Reading: old New Yorker issues
Music: Fear
TV/Movie: Family Guy Season One
Link o' the Day: Gothic Snowtire

Back in May of last year I approached the topic of recursive science fiction. Today, I revisit that same topic.

I've decided that the second hardest sort of story* to sell is The Recursive Science Fiction Story. These are science fiction stories _about_ science fiction. Very few authors have managed to pull it off with any sort of success. Barry Malzberg is the one name that comes most readily to mind--but he'll be the first to admit that his career isn't as stellar as others. It's been years since we've seen anything akin to "Gather in the Hall of Giants" or "Herovit's World" and it's not likely we'll see many in the future. I suppose one reason for this is that the theme of recursive science fiction relies too heavily on the reader being not only familiar with the genre, but with the people and traditions that make up the genre.

Why bring this up? Because I have two stories that fall under the category of "recursive" and I've been having a hell of a time trying to place them. Nearly every editor has responded the same way: "I loved your story and wish I could take it, but I'm afraid that it relies too much on inside knowledge."

Okay. No argument. I understood that when I wrote them. But it's not like these stories have never sold before. _F&SF_ had several during the Ferman years. Jerry Pournelle has one sitting over at the Baen website. Mike Resnick has a short recursive piece in the form of a limerick history. So I have a couple of stories... one of which is about how hard it is to sell Pact-With-The-Devil stories, and another about bringing old pulp editors back to life via cloning and what the result is for air conditioner sales in Hades.

Fun stories--and among my favorites... but dang... they're hard to sell

(* The single hardest story type to sell is Pact-With-The-Devil... no contest)
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I got an interesting e-mail this morning from my friend Chris Reilly referring to a webpage that contained a short history of a garage/punk band we were once in called Gothic Snowtire. I'm not listed in the band's history as I left the band after a couple of years to pursue my academic goals and was replaced by Tim McGrath on drums. I'm just amazed that anybody would bother researching even enough material for three short paragraphs to post on the internet about our old band.

It just goes to show how the net is the ultimate playground for the terminally bored.

And on that note...

Cheers!