Water off a duck’s back, really, these days.

I got “The Egan Thief” back from F&SF, and “Ogallala” back from Analog. I think “The Egan Thief” might be too weird for Analog, so I think I’ll shoot it out to Interzone, since they there’s an e-submissions period open now. I think I’ll send Ogallala to F&SF, just to see what happens, and failing that, try one of the Canadian mags. I need to find a market for “Iblis” and I’m considering doing a little reworking on “The Wager” before sending it out again.

I also have a short-short called “NOWORRIES” about a group of technovigilante environmentalists, except the story is really just the TTS (text-to-speech) file for one of their deadly inventions. I think I’d rather write a whole story about the group, and portray a collision between utopian vision and design error, or at least, the inherent limitations of design.

But that’s not a high-priority story. Tonight, I’m back to working on Jinni the Quae. We’ll see how far I get. Tomorrow, I’ll use some office time to print out “Ogallala” and post it, and maybe “Iblis,” too, though I am vaguely considering expanding it a little. (It’s only 500 words long and I might be able to do more with it in 1000 or 1500.)

Stories still pending:

• “Upgraded Phrase List for Mil-Spec iTrans Phrase Translation Unit” @ Adbusters (162 days)
• “Country of the Young” @ Asimov’ (162 days… gotta re-submit, I think. Or withdraw and submit elsewhere?)
• “Cai and her Ten Thousand Husbands” @ Clarkesworld (81 days)
• “Improperly Prepared Blowfish” @ Machine of Death (60 days)
• “The Day I Lost My ‘Thulu”@ Yog’s Notebook (52 days)
• “Dyscrasia” @ Postcards From Hell (41 days)
• “On Punctuation” @ Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet (29 days)