‘Here Ug, what do you think of those white people?’
‘I’m sick of ’em. Coming over here with their pale skin, their pointy tools and their agriculture. Send ’em back where they came from, that’s what I say.’
‘Yeah, you’re right.’
‘Be quiet. I’m going to have a nap, or an UgKip as I call it.’
Author: Eamonn Murphy - Writer
Eamonn Murphy has published over seventy stories in small press magazines and collected them into small, cheap volumes for posterity. They are available at all good eBook retailers and libraries. In his spare time, he writes reviews for sfcrowsnest. Retired now after years of hard labour (building sites and call centres), he lives near Bristol, England, with a nice lady, a nasty Jack Russell, an untrainable loony Labrador and some ducks. He has a BA (Hons) from the Open University but very little common sense. Find out more at eamonnmurphywriter.com.
John Wayne, Rejections and Attention Seeking.
I saw some John Wayne film once in which he did something heroic and was invalided out of the U.S. Navy then took up writing. A friend asked him how it was going.
‘Twenty-six stories, twenty-six rejections,’ drawled big John. I don’t know why but I always remembered that, probably from my childhood dreams of being a writer.
I just checked the rejection file in my email account and since 25th February 2009 I have collected at least 156 rejections. I say ‘at least’ because some have been on paper and are not preserved. I had another one today which is why the file came to mind.
I haven’t been blogging much lately and this article in The Guardian made me sort of glad. It’s titled ‘Look at me: Why attention-seeking is the defining need of our times.’ ‘Lohttps://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/feb/05/crimes-of-attention-stalkers-killers-jihadists-longingok at me: why attention-seeking is the defining need of our times’
I only scanned it so far. While blogging is indubitably attention seeking in a way, the article explains that this is a human need. Blogging is a better way than killing people to say ‘Here I am!’ And I’m only doing it to sell my books. And I’m failing. So there.
Phantaxis no more?
Woe! I received an email today from Phataxis saying that they are on hiatus and will be ceasing publication for a while. In the hard world of struggling SF magazines that might be quite a while. I hope not. It’s a great little magazine with real quality stories. (They didn’t buy any of mine, a sure sign of good taste). See my review of the August 2017 issue. Or the May 2017 issue. Phantaxis managed to be on a par with the esteemed Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction even with a smaller budget. I do hope they come back.
This 2015 article by Gregory Benford on the decline in sales for the SF magazines is even more relevant today. Even the big names are finding things difficult. Where will burgeoning new talent find a place to grow?
The good news is that Perihelion SF is back.
