Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

Actually I'm Sure They're Reading Lots Of Things

But Thursday I had an alert on Facebook that I had a Message. Actually, I've gotten a lot of Messages lately, all on two topics from friends and family. So I was surprised to see a new name. And further surprised to find that this came via Afghanistan.

A Staff Sergeant in the US Army Reserves had found a copy of Writers of the Future Volume XXIV and had enjoyed my story "A Man in the Moon". That's nice. And he wanted to know if I would be willing to sign his copy for him. Sure -- always happy to sign a copy, especially to someone serving in uniform, and honored that he'd go to all the trouble from so far away. And finally next month he'll be back home in Allendale MI.

Huh. In one short message we are shown how large -- and how small -- our world really is.

And yes. Damn straight I'll meet the staff sergeant and his 13-year-old son. And sign his book. And probably print out some other stuff.

You can't write this stuff. Not even in Science Fiction.

Dr. Phil

Look At What I Found

Thursday afternoon, about 3:30pm EST, Barnes & Noble in Holland MI. I could see they had copies of Analog -- the title stuck out of the second tier shelf -- but I didn't know what the May 2009 cover looked like. Apparently it looks a lot like these:


And look -- one of the copies happens to have opened to reveal "The Brother On The Shelf" by Philip Edward Kaldon.

As You Can See... It Starts On Page 77

But with the May 2009 Analog on bookstore shelves, you can buy your own. Just don't try the Barnes & Noble in Holland MI -- they're out right now.

My First Real Fan Letter

Lots of people have wished me well with this or that publication. And I've gotten a number of congratulations with the publication of the May 2009 Analog and my story. But today when I checked the email over at my website http://dr-phil-physics.com I discovered my first real fan mail:

Dear Dr. Kaldon,

I enjoyed your story in the latest Analog. Enough so that I bought Tangle Girls, where I enjoyed Under Suspicion rather more. I also quite liked Le Grand Bazar and will happily order ASIM 38/39 as they are available.

Wow. Someone read my story in Analog, found my website, ordered another anthology, Tangle Girls with my story "Under Suspicion". I've generated a sale!

And no, I'm not being sarcastic here. This is both amusing and exciting to me. Because it happens to writers -- and I'm getting established as a SF writer, plain and simple. But it gets better, because my fan also had a question about my 29th century universe which I happily answered.

Yeah, people are beginning to read Dr. Phil. Okay, now I'm chuffed.

Dr. Phil