People who know me tend to think of me as a pretty "fast" writer. By that I mean that I advocate writing stories quickly--a draft in a day (if you have a full day), or in a week (if you just have a few hours a day).

But they don't always work that way.

"Out of the Blue" is one of those that took much longer. I wrote it over probably a four month period in 1998, pushing myself to learn more about the character each and every step of the way. At first it was an environmental piece, focusing completely on Europa and its unique nature. Then it became an engineering piece. Then it became an overblown character study. In other words, I fought with this one tooth and nail.

The most important draft in the whole thing was probably the character study.

You see, the Europan environment was really getting in my way the whole time. I loved pretending I was there, and it was more than tempting to make the story into a travelogue. Unfortunately, people tend to want to read stories rather than travelogues. So after months and trying, I finally dedicated one full draft to doing nothing but writing character.

Still, Europa invaded.

But my writers' group got in and helped me straighten a few things out--many thanks to Brian and Amy and Lisa, of course. The WotF deadline loomed. This was my last quarter of eligibility, and I really wanted to place in the contest. So, finally, I merged everything into a single story that I'm quite proud of. I packed it off and sent it to WotF.

I've always thought I do my best work best under a deadline.

A couple months later, the phone rang, and I found out I had nabbed third place in the contest.

So, yes, I would like to have written this one faster. But, in the end, sometimes you have to take them as they come.