Saturn as seen from Titan, painting by Chesley Bonestell

Saturn as seen from Titan, painting by Chesley Bonestell
Favorite astronomical painting

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Query sent to Nelson Literary Agency

I have queried the Nelson Literary Agency about my new science fiction novel, The Silver Dart.  There are two agents and I sent Sara Megibow my query because her interest in science fiction is that it be sciency-y and action packed.  The Silver Dart fills the bill on both of those accounts.  I'll see if I can paste that query letter in here from my file.  Well, it looks like I can't paste my file.  It is worthy of typing it in for its entirety.
Jade Cromwell's genius wife, Darla, built a high tech space ship, Silver Dart.  She designed every inch of it.  An important feature was the security system: a high voltage, low current shock delivered to everybody who tried to enter, except Jade, Darla, Missy, their daughter, Spike, their Australian sheep dog and Charlie Danton, a close friend.
Darla's accomplishments were numerous and known to men from a distant galaxy who came and persuaded her to go with them two years earlier.  They came for Missy, who was nearly as smart as Darla.  It took seven men to overpower Jade, Missy who was expert in martial arts and Spike.  After that Jade viewed a two-year old message from Darla who willingly went with the men because they needed help with a serious problem in their own solar system.  She knew Jade and Spike would come searching for them.  Darla didn't know where the men were taking her, but she had perfected a ship trail detector for the Silver Dart so that Jade could follow it.  Due to delays along the way, the ship's trail disappeared and he had to rely on clues left by Missy on a planet and numerous encounters with aliens along the way.  Jade and Spike meet militant aliens at several stops and most of them wanted
SilverDart.  The longer the journey was, the more Jade learned about Darla's ship.  He realized Darla's ingrams ( okay, I borrowed that term from an old Star Trek TV episode during the second season called the Ultimate Computer) were imprinted on Silver Dart's circuitry.  This allowed the ship to make judgments on whom to allow onboard for the healing chamber or who was worthy to enter due to their helping Jade and Spike.
Arriving at the abductor's home solar sysetem of Nartium, Jade discovers they indeed have a serious problem.  What could be more serious than Dala's cure of Martian Canyon Fever and Jovian Madness?  What about mining equipment needing an upgrade or elimination of communications time delay within the solar system or revamping of the star drive engine, not to mention a continuing list of urgent needs?  Darla solved all those problems, but could she deal with the giant, traveling black hole that was gobbling everything that dropped beyond the event horizon?  Taking a solution to the problem from an ancient text by Stephen Hawking, Jade, Missy and Darla stop the black hole but at what cost?  The ensuing explosion sends Jade into another universe.  How can he overcome his lost condition?
My publishing credits include one contemporary romance novel, one science fiction novel and a number of short romance stories. All publications include romance of the sweet variety.

There you have it.  I noticed I misspelled a word in my original query and of course the letter omitted didn't leave a misspelled word.  I left out the "y" in canyon.  Well, if the query was shining otherwise hopefully that won't make a difference.  The next step is either a rejection or a request for some sample pages of the novel.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Yet another rejection

My short science fiction story, Chances are Slim, was rejected in short order.  At least Clarkesworld responds very quickly as other online science fiction publishers may take a number of weeks to give a decision on a submitted work.  They say to wait seven days before submitting another story.  I'll have to see what I have in my backlog of short SF stories to submit next.  In the meantime I'm reading a Civil War novel of a friend and am over half way through that.  As soon as I finish that and maybe write a review I can get back to the finishing touches on my new SF novel, The Silver Dart.  I only have to insert a phrase or two to straighten it out.  I need to read through it again one last time before sending it to some publisher or agent.
Since the story that was rejected takes place on Mars I've included an image of Mars.  If I had a close up of the features of one of the polar caps I'd show that since the main character goes to the ice cap in the story.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Short SF story submissions

I still need to browse through my new science fiction novel The Silver Dart to clear up a few things early on in the novel.  I've been submitting short science fiction stories to Clarkes World.  The first one, Making Ends Meet was rejected.  I just now submitted Chances Are Slim.  They respond within three days and will pay ten cents a word if accepted.  It is very difficult to break into science fiction for publication as I've been trying for 39 years.  If I get an acceptance such as this I'll shout the news long and loud.