An Appreciation to SciFiction -- and Robert A. Heinlein

My piece just got posted on The ED SF Project, the appreciations for the 320+ stories that SciFiction has published during its five or so years.

I chose an old piece, Robert Heinlein's "And He Built A Crooked House", first published in 1941.

I wrote back to Dave Schwartz who is running the project, with the following observation:

You might be amused to note that the 2004 Clarion Class is well represented amongst the "appreciative". John Schoffstall, Trent Hergenrader and myself have already posted. Andy Wolverton and Grace Dugan have selected, but not yet posted. I'm about to bug my colleagues online about signing up for appreciations. 2004 Clarion Instructor Jeffrey Ford has posted, and Instructors Ford, Kelly Link (and Gavin Grant), Suzy McKee Charnas, Nancy Kress, Andy Duncan all have stories (indeed, multiple stories, I believe) in the SciFiction canon. And I've recognized Clarion instructors from other years, such as 2005 Clarion's Leslie What and Walter Jon Williams, and 2003 Clarion's Howard Waldrop, as having SciFiction stories, too.

Perhaps this is not so surprising, given that Clarion works with the short story form. Alas, it's a market lost to the Clarionites now... damn, the number of pro paying markets keeps dwindling for short fiction...

Your Name In Lights (Or At Least Dark Sepia)

There are plenty of stories left to be picked. Dave would love if it could be one to a customer, so you can pick over the list and take your fancy.

There is a rough deadline of December 20th suggested to get appreciations posted.

So this is my earnest push to get my beloved 2004 Clarion classmates (and any other SF/F fans out there) to give a little recognition to the short story, both classics of the past and some of those newfangled newer stories.

You have been nudged.

Dr. Phil