July somehow slipped by without me noticing. I didn’t even manage to post anything on the blog. Looking back, the last time that happened was July ’22, so maybe I should just accept that summer is not a time where I have the mental energy or spare time to be all that active online.
I still don’t have any short story recommendations. Life mostly revolves around taking care of the kids (as expected). I do still get a little writing done, though, and the baby is doing fine, so life is good.
Also, I finally have some publishing news to share.
Firstly, a member of my writer’s group sold her debut novel. I was lucky enough to read a few chapters before it sold, and I really, really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to see how it will turn out after having been through the editing mill of a traditional publisher, but I assume it will only become even better. I will be keeping an eye out for Lord of the Empty Isles at my local bookstore and if you enjoy science fiction and fantasy, you should too.
I also finally got an acceptance letter of my own. My story “Mere Menneske End Menneske” (More Human Than Human) sold to the Danish anthology Drømmen om Frihed – Lige Under Overfladen 18 (The Dream of Freedom – Just Beneath The Surface 18).
On one hand, the story is in Danish which means that most of you reading this probably won’t be able to read the story. Also, the odds of getting a story published in a Danish SF&F anthology are very different than those of the big English language magazines/anthologies, so this was the one of my stories out on submission I had the highest hopes for.
On the other hand, it’s nice that those hopes were not completely unfounded. And having a story out in a Danish anthology potentially means I will reach new readers. Also, this is both my first story to be published in Danish (the secon one I wrote and submitted, I think) and the first time one of my stories will appear in an actually printed book. So, yeah, I’m pretty happy about it.
That’s it for me. I will disappear into my writing cave and hopefully produce something that will, hopefully, blow the socks of editors and slush readers some time in the future .
Toby Backman 