ann_leckie | I could get used to this.

So, back...oh, it has to be more than a year ago,

velourmane made me a bunch of cool userpics. One of them was tied to a particular story, my week five story for Clarion West, actually.

Back when I was first trying to seriously write short fiction, I read an interview with John Joseph Adams. The interviewer asked him what sorts of stories he wished he'd see more of in F&SF's slush, and he said dinosaur fic, mars exploration stories, and post-apocalyptic stories. "Ha ha!" I said. "Now the race is on. Who will be the first to send in a post-apocalyptic dinosaurs on Mars story?" As, you know, a joke.

About two days later it dawned on me. Dinosaurs had an apocalypse. All I needed to do was get them to Mars somehow.*

S. Hutson Blount gave me the title, and I've been subbing "The Endangered Camp" ever since, hoping some editor will love my dinos as much as I do. And now I'm pleased to say that Helix is buying it. I'm not sure when it will run, watch this space, etc.

That makes one sale a month since the beginning of the year. I can't imagine that streak will continue, but I'm enjoying it immensely!

*In a later interview, he added skyhooks to the list, and if I'd read that in time I'd have tried to cram a skyhook in there somewhere. And probably failed spectacularly.