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Well, my hopes weren't high... Finally got a decision on 'Medea's Children' from Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show . After 360 days since submitting (just five days short of the full year, drat it!), new editor Edmund R Schubert replied with a polite 'no'. Space in the zine is limited, he said, although he wanted to let me know that my story was in the top 5% of all stories submitted in the past year, and invited me to submit more work in the future. That's very encouraging. Unfortunately, what could have been my very first pro sale , has now turned into, well, nothing. Zilch. A year of waiting and worrying, wondering whether or not to query, wondering if my story was lost in the slush vortex - the usual writer's angst. And in the end, there really is no prize for coming second, not in the world of short story publishing. IGMS was pretty much the last suitable paying market for 'Medea's Children' - mainly due to its word ...

Last Wednesday I sat my exam for this year's Open University course ( The Nineteenth Century Novel ) and afterwards felt a huge wave of relief that it was all over for another year. It's been a tough year. A new job, a new baby, constant financial worries, etc, all added up to probably my least productive year for writing. Having said that, since last Wednesday I've been reinvigorated and now have all of my best stories out there doing the rounds: Medea's Children - Has been with Intergalactic Medicine Show for a year now. Final Decision pending. Juju - Hub Magazine Pleasure Units - Forgotten Worlds When I have Fears that I May Cease to be - Heliotrope The Glamour - Dark Recesses Press Symbiosis - Entry in Specficworld's Short Story Contest (Results Oct 30th) Defence Mechanism - Aoife's Kiss Hoping to get some good news in the not too distant future. I'm gearing up to tackle the second draft of Lazarus Island very soon, but I'm also contemplating h...