A Dream Sale and a Career Goal

I am totally chuffed that I finally cracked The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, one of the very top pro markets for speculative fiction in the world and my dream market since I started writing.

The September / October 2023 issue is out now, featuring my new tale, "If I Should Fall Behind," as the closing story. Even cooler, though, is seeing my name on the cover. And, yes, this continues my recent string of stories with Springsteen songs for titles.

The seed for this story came from my multiverse musings in my current trilogy, The Dream Rider Saga, along with the opening line for the story:

After he died for the third time that night, Tumble began to worry.

F&SF's editor, Sheree Renée Thomas, was great to deal with throughout the process and very responsive. The turnaround time on this story sale was one of the shortest I've ever experienced: submitted in May, acceptance in June, edits in July, payment (ahead of publication, which is rare) in July, contract in early August, publication in September, along with the rapid delivery of my contributor copies this week.

F&SF is one of the few pro magazines that still produces a print, as well an ebook, edition. Magazines like F&SF rely heavily on subscriber revenue (and ad revenue, which is driven by healthy subscriber numbers). These mags took a major hit recently when Amazon suddenly announced they were cancelling all Kindle magazine subscriptions.

If you love excellent F&SF short fiction, please consider taking out a subscription to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. They've been publishing for 74 years(!), and it would be a huge loss for speculative fiction readers and writers if they folded.