Author: Henry Szabranski

I exist.

Resolution

Time to look back on 2011.

In many ways a good year, a seminal year: I finished the first draft of a novel, had my first story accepted and published, and garnered a couple of WotF certificates. Wrote probably about 5OK words in all, about 20K of which was seven new short stories. That’s two more than 2010, although overall wordcount is down a little.

Next year? Next year is The Year of the Novel. I hope to complete the redraft, get a submission package together…and see what fate may bring.

Happy New Year!

Some Angels I Have Met

After receiving my snazzy WotF Honorable Mention certificate last month, I decided to be cheeky and ask for a 2010 Q4 Semi-Finalist certificate retrospectively (I received a critique from K. D. Wentworth at the time, but no certificate). The contest co-ordinator Joni Labacqui happily obliged (thanks, Joni!) and I received it in the post today, which was just what I needed because I also received two rejections as well — the perfect antidote!

The other exciting news is that “Amy’s First” is due to be sent out to Daily Science Fiction subscribers as an e-mail story tomorrow morning. (It’s not too late to subscribe — it’s free, and you’ll receive bite-size speculative fiction stories in your inbox four days aweek, with longer stories sent on Friday, just right for the weekend.) A week from now, the story will go live on the DSF website.

In honour of the story’s appearance (which features an angel, of sorts) here are a couple of angels I’ve encountered during my travels. First up is the “Angel with the Superscription”, one of the angels which line Rome’s Pont Sant’Angelo. The original was by Bernini, but this copy is by Giulio Cartari. Under the noon Rome sun, with a crisp blue sky backdrop, these sculptures are truly sublime — and highly photogenic.

The second is a snapshot of a small sculpture I noticed whilst exploring the chapel on St. Michael’s Mount, in Cornwall. It features a quite different aspect of the angelic, “St. Michael’s Victory Over the Devil”, and is probably more indicative of the intended tone of “Amy’s First”…

(The original image which inspired the story can be seen here.)

Albino Angel Apes and the Unashamed Gloat

Received my WotF certificate today, and very handsome it looks, too. I’ll have to see if I can polish up and rescue the actual story in question — it features albino angel apes, so I can’t give up on it yet.

The other piece of good news is that Daily Science Fiction have revealed their October schedule, and my flash story “Amy’s First” is slotted for e-mail distribution on Wednesday 19th October (sign-up – it’s free!), and then featured on the front of their website a week later. This makes me both excited and…nervous! Flash is not my natural form — I’ve always struggled with burgeoning wordcounts and invasive infodumps (and too many damned adjectives) — but maybe the discipline it requires, in knowing what is vital and what to omit, is something I should extend to all my writing now…

"The Right Honorable Mention"

An honorable mention

No update yet on when “Amy’s First” is to be scheduled at DSF (it could be any time in the next 11 months), but I have received notification my second entry to the Writers of the Future contest has been given an “Honorable Mention”. A few steps down from the Semi-Finalist position for the last entry, but it does show that wasn’t just a fluke (he says).

The great feature about this contest is that entries are anonymous when judged, so reputation or past contest history count for nought. I hope this means my writing has achieved some level of consistency…something like beaten egg whites, I suspect.