Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

Well, Not Really

But I did find my first review of "Hail To The Victors". Lois Tilton reviewed the current issue of Abyss & Apex at LocusOnline. And she didn't hate it! (grin)

An exploration of the [human] military mind. Readers will automatically expect that this situation will not end up well, but there are a couple of surprises. The question is whether the situation they find at the end makes sense.

Also, noted that Abyss & Apex's blog entry for the Spring 2011 issue has a nice tagline for the story:

Hail to the Victors - is it really a victory if it's Pyrrhic?

As always, you can jump directly to my story here.

Dr. Phil

A Story Of A Story

Six years ago to the day I started a new story. And amazingly 27 April 2005 was also a Wednesday. (grin) It went to four markets, including earning a Semi-Finalist in the Q2 2006 Writers of the Future, it's first stop. Then I submitted to Abyss & Apex on 28 February 2009. I mention this because sometimes it takes times for stories to develop, find the right market, and find the right slot for publication. A military SF story from a market surprised that they were buying a military SF story.

It was just over a year ago that I announced the sale of "Hail to the Victors" to Abyss & Apex. And now Issue 38: 2nd Quarter 2011 snuck online earlier in April and my story is finally published. A long twisting road and you can now read it here:

"Hail to the Victors" at Abyss & Apex. "Interstellar Expeditionary Force 1 started out as a real army, trying to take back a planet from partial enemy occupation. The alien ships were smaller, but there were ten thousand plus of them scattered across three of six continents. A year and a half later and Team 84632 was down to five. Lt. Eddie wasn’t really a lieutenant, he’d last officially been a first sergeant, but they needed an officer, and with Lt. Allen and 2nd Lt. Brace dead, along with Master Sgt. Hayden, well… someone had to lead. They hadn’t heard from Battalion in a long time."

And We Began Here:

04/27/05 23:24 Wed

Hail to the Victors Version 1.0

okay, this is the opposite of a happy winning warrior story – the humans are too stupid to quit

Of course years of revisions has taken us a long way from that simple note. 2000 words. 4000 words. And finally, a bit over 9000 words. As pointed out in the comments last year, the story started out dark, but is better than that now. Rather pleased with it, I'd say. Thanks to all those who gave comments over the years and versions.

Enjoy!

Dr. Phil