Ah, The Ice. Which goes up on Book View Cafe today.
I don't have a lot of "favorite" stories. Each story pretty much is my favorite at the time of writing. Later, it has to take a back seat to the next favorite.
At the time I had discovered both ice hockey and Gordie Howe. My friend, David Smith, had taken me to a hockey game. At the time I was impressed by its speed and power but mostly because it was so beautiful. So, at age 41 I started to try to learn hockey. I never was very good but I enjoyed it.
Anybody who learns ice hockey eventually learns about Gordie Howe. Check the link. It says more than I could.
The Ice was published in 2003 and written in 2001. Dolly the Sheep was cloned in 1996. Human cloning was in the news all the time.
This was all churning in my mind so I ended up writing a Gordie Howe-Ice Hockey-Cloning story.
I sent the story to Gardner Dozois who was then editing Asimov's. He liked it and wanted to buy it but it was too long. I wrote a shorter version. Then, he wrote back he liked the earlier version and bought it-- bought it twice, for that matter, since he also picked it up for best of the year.
Go enjoy.
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Steven, I read this blog on google reader, so I don't get a chance to see comments. Just wanted to say I read your short story in FS&F, The Crocodiles.
ReplyDeleteA bit slow at the start, but by the time I finished the story, I had to shut the magazine and just sit in bed and let the waters settle in my mind. That delightfully horrific story was quite a gem. I found your blog and started following it a month or so ago, and all your posts are absolute quality.
Posting your stories is both gracious and very much appriciated. I wish you had an actual short story collection.
So I guess I'm writing this to say thank you for the blog and stories. It's always exciting to find a new writer that satisfies the hunger for darkness and science and good writing.
Thanks. Comments like this mean a lot.
ReplyDeleteRegrettably the links from http://www.stevenpopkes.com/stevenpopkes-onllinefiction to bookviewcafe, such as
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Winters-Are-Hard
cause an error:
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