Political Science

[caliban]

Athena had encouraged me to announce this when the time came... I'm having a SF story come out in the July/August issue of Analog. I don't know when it will hit the bookshelves, but I just got the author's copy a couple of days ago. When I know for sure it is available, I will post that information.
My contract understandably won't let me post the full story for six months after it officially appears, but I suppose it's okay to post a teaser--after all, it might encourage people to buy the issue! (Otherwise you can wait until next year when I can post it on my website.) So here is the opening:


"Political Science"

“Professor Park? Um, I’m here to help you escape?”
Howard Park raises his head, an act that exhausts him. He’s tired, so tired of arguing. The voice, which rises uncertain and clumsy like a baby bird’s first flight, comes from a junior DHS agent standing in the doorway to the holding cell. She looks like a schoolgirl, so very young, with freckles and Nordic ghost-blonde hair, and a dark suit too large for her petite frame. Park squints, and remembers she sat in on some of the sessions, saying nothing, elbows tight against her sides, her efforts to be inconspicuous a distraction.
“You’re going to help me escape,” he says in a beaten-down tone, although they haven’t touched him. Yet.
“Um, yeah?”
Park squints at her. “May I ask why?”
“Um,” the junior Homeland Security agent says, and shifts back and forth on her feet. Nothing else comes out.
It’s some kind of trap or trick, Park thinks. He sighs, stands unsteadily. “Fine, let’s go.”
A panicked look flashes on her face. “Um, what you were saying, it really made me think, see, my mom, she needs this medicine—no, wait, it’s my sister, she needs this medicine, from Canada? but she can’t get it because of the Buchanan Act...”
Park rubs at his temples. A headache has begun to bang on the inside of his skull. We’re running out of time, he thinks, and I get handed a game of charades. “Excuse me. Are we going or not?”
She nods. “Okay, um, this way, sir?”


** PS -- sometime later this year, or early next year, I will have a very different story also coming out in Analog

[Windwalker]

Dear Calvin, congratulations! Analog is widely read and with the second story acceptance I'm sure that this is just the beginning. The voice of the young agent in the excerpt is very funny, a "valley girl" of the near-future.

Here's to your continued success!

[intrigued_scribe]

The passage makes for an excellent and captivating beginning, especially where the seamless blending of uncertainty, heavy foreboding and fear (not to mention the subtle counterbalancing effect the young girl's presence has on an otherwise dark atmosphere). Congratulations!

Heather

[rocketscientist]

Congrats on the story Caliban! The opening certainly has my interest quipped. Please let us know which issue it will be in when it comes out.

her efforts to be inconspicuous a distraction.

This line made me chuckle and wonder about how this character will turn out. And of course, just why is the professor being held against his will?

Thanks for posting this!

[caliban]

I think it's already out, in the July/August issue of Analog. I haven't confirmed it because the local mystery/sf bookstore doesn't carry Analog!

[Windwalker]

Political Science is a bleakly witty story that rings a particularly strong bell with scientists... who are rapidly becoming an endangered species.

[caliban]

Hi folks, I just got the November issue of Analog and it appears my next story, "Icarus Beach," will be the cover issue for the December issue! (They never tell me anything.) I'll post again a teaser for the story in a little bit...

[Windwalker]

The November issue? But it's only August!

Back to the important issue -- have you seen the cover? Do you get any say in it, or is it totally up to Herr Doktor Schmidt and his fellow editors?

I enjoyed that story. The two very distinct cultures in it were deftly and economically depicted.

I bet you are excited - as you should be. A cover story, that's the proverbial icing on the cake. Congratulations!!

[intrigued_scribe]

I agree; from now to November is indeed a considerable wait! Congratulations on the cover story, that's terrific news.

Heather

[caliban]

The November issue? But it's only August!

I'm a science fiction writer. I live in the future. *Tsk*. Currently for me it's August 30, 4311, and I got the issue from an archaeological dig.

Back to the important issue -- have you seen the cover? Do you get any say in it, or is it totally up to Herr Doktor Schmidt and his fellow editors?

No, haven't seen it. You never get a say. Donna is betting they make the main character a blonde bimbo. (In the text, she has dark hair).