Has it really been more than a month since I had a blog entry? I'll try to be more faithful from now on. (Although as I typed "try", in my mind I could hear Yoda telling Luke Skywalker, "Do. Or do not. There is no 'try'.")
The first piece of fiction I wrote that was published professionally - actually, the only piece of fiction I wrote that was published professionally - was a short story about a young girl attending a Bible camp. I no longer remember the name of the story nor the name of the magazine that published it.
Once the first draft of the novel I'm working on is finished (the working title is A Horse for Anna), I'm going to rewrite part of it to submit as a short story to a children's magazine. My preliminary research has led me to fourteen potential magazines to try. Before submitting any work, I'll read sample copies of the magazines. To save money, I'll likely read them at the library rather than buying them.
Since my only professionally published work of fiction was a short story for a magazine, why not try it again before submitting a novel-length story?
I'd be in good company. Some of my favorite books are those in the Dragonriders of Pern series by the late Anne McCaffrey. Part of what would become the first novel in the series (Dragonflight) was first published as a novella in Analog, a science fiction magazine. That story, Weyr Search, won the Hugo Award (voted on by those attending the World Science Fiction Convention) in 1968. Another part, Dragonrider, won the Nebula Award (voted on by members of the Science Fiction Writers of America) in 1969.
I took a short break from my work on the novel to work on a science fiction short story I've had in my mind for many years. Once that story has made it to the final draft stage and I've read several sample copies of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, that story will be on its way to whichever magazine seems to be the best fit. I do have some other science fiction stories in mind that have the potential to become a series.
The ventures into science fiction short stories and turning part of the first novel into a short story do not replace my plan for children's novels about horses. It's merely any additional form of creative writing, meant to augment my main writing focus.
