And the Persistent Shall Inherit the Earth
January 15, 1998
 Okay, the title is maybe a little much. But, still ... The phone rang last night. Well, perhaps a better way to start this one would be to say that I received my formal ballot for the 1997 Nebula Awards two days ago. There she is, Lisa S. Silverthorne. "Sound of Angels". I still get chills. I hope no one minded the midi I embedded in the entry for her story. Just to let you know, I scanned it for viruses prior to uploading it. My thanks to the photographers for permitting me to use their work (note, I've got another button link to it on Lisa's page). I look down the short story Neb list . . . Resnick, What, Kelly, Manison, Robinson, Sawyer, Yolen, Lee, Soukup, Silverthorne. Gee, I wonder who to vote for? Let me say flat-out that I've not read every story on the ballot--but "The Sound of Angels" stacks up to about anything I've read this year. Lisa will definitely be on my preliminary ballot. Call it in-voting if you want. I don't hear you. [Grin] Despite having a head cold that would make an elephant drop over, and receiving another rejection, this hasn't been a terrible week all around. Along with the Nebula balllot, I received my certificate from L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future contest. I had seen one before when I was over at Charles Eckert's place. It's a beautiful blue starscreen fit for framing. Perhaps I will :). Perhaps I'll even put it someplace I can easily glance at while I'm sitting in my chair struggling over the next word. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself. Going off in a tangent, as it were. You see, for various reasons, Dave Wolverton and I have been having this e-mail discourse over the past week or so, and during that time, he let it be known that he was looking at "The Disappearance of Josie Andrew" to help round out the anthology. "No promises," he said. "Not sure there's space." So I waited. (What else could I do, eh?) The phone rang at about 9:30 last night. It was Dave Wolverton. And I'm in. :) Which means I can attend the WOTF workshop and be taught stuff by some of the finer science fiction writers in the country. And--perhaps just as good--I found out that one of the stories I had counted as professional publication doesn't count in their eyes. So for now, I'm still eligible until the anthology comes out (mid-summer) at the workshop. And the money ain't bad, either. So, maybe the title to this piece is a little overblown. But Lisa Silverthorne is on the prelininary ballot with a truly outstanding story. And "The Disappearance of Josie Andrew" will soon grace the pages of the Writers of the Future anthology. Right now, I've got to say it's looking pretty good for the persistent.  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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