"Ghost Ships" in F&SF

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Look what came in the mail! The Dragonstairs Press rug is delighted.

The putting-together of a magazine issue is a delicate art. For the 70th anniversary of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, obviously a lot of big names were required. But they also had to fit into a set number of pages. So it's possible for the editor and the publisher to like a story quite a lot but be unable to fit it in just because of its length.

Which is how I almost didn't make it into this particular issue. Long tale short, my story, "Ghost Ships" is the penultimate story in the issue. Gordon Van Gelder told me that he and C. C. Finlay both particularly wanted my story because it was about grief and mourning and they felt it belonged alongside Gardner Dozois' last story, "Homecoming," which is about the death of someone who isn't exactly a wizard but... well, I'm not going to spoil the story for you.

Given that between the time he sold the story to F&SF and the current issue, Gardner died, it's hard not to read this story as his farewell to us all. Placing it at the end of the issue was a graceful tribute to a man who always thought of F&SF as the single best SF magazine that wasn't edited by himself.

As for my story, here's what I wrote about it, as it was used in the introduction:

This work is in a long tradition of ghost stories where the author identifies himself as the protagonist and swears that every word is true. However, it breaks with the tradition in one way; every word of it is true. When my wife, Marianne Porter, read it for the first time, she said, "This is an essay." Which is factually correct, but I wrote it as if it were fiction. Only the names of the people involved were changed, for reasons which should be obvious.

The magazine arrived yesterday and so far I've only read two stories--Gardner's and mine. But it has a stellar lineup and I'm confident that I'll enjoy every word of it.


And for those who like a peek behind the curtain...

During the process of selling the story, signing the contract, writing things to be used in the intro, proofing the galleys, etc., etc., it was revealed to me that my story might or might not make it into the 70th anniversary issue. In retrospect, I got something close to a running commentary: "The kid is barreling toward first. The outfielder scoops up the ball and throws! It's going to be close.! The kid slides! The first baseman has the ball and is reaching down for the tag! Aaaaand...."

Gordon showed me a copy of the issue at the Dublin Worldcon and apologized for "jerking me around." But the apology was unnecessary. I already had a story placed in one of F&SF's anniversary issues. Which is like winning a Hugo: Devoutly to be desired, but after the first one, the pressure is off. It's nice to win another award and it's very happy-making to be in another anniversary issue. But if I hadn't made it in, my heart wouldn't have been broken.

So, really, given the situation, I was the ideal person to be jerked around.

I'll be writing more about "Ghost Ships" elsewhere, sometime in the near future and when I do, I'll let you know where you can find it. I'm particularly proud of this story because it took enormous amounts of craft to write it and to make it work. And it says something. That's always desirable in fiction.

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