A Third of a Decade Later, I Finally Learn...

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Nobody ever tells me anything.  The last time I was in Russia, I learned that a poet had dropped a reference to The Iron Dragon's Daughter in one of his poems.  It was a thrill to discover, but many years had gone by since the poem was written.  I remember thinking then, "Nobody thought I'd want to know?"

I just now got a note from Carl Slaughter to let me know that on Friday Daily Science Fiction republished a story by Jay Lake titled "'Hello,' Said the Gun."

First of all, a few words of background.  Umpety-ump years ago, I wrote a story called "'Hello,' Said the Stick."  It placed on the Hugo ballot for best short story -- and lost.  Which is okay because there is no shame to losing to a story by Geoff Ryman.  And anyway, "Slow Life" won for best novelette that year.

So, inspired by who knows what impulse, Jay wrote a story playing off of the opening of mine.  This is fair practice.  He gave it a near-identical title to acknowledge the origins.  Which is very polite.  And the story was published.  On February 22, 2010.

A third of a decade later, I have just become aware of its existence.  Nobody tells me anything!

The story itself is a lovely little thing, which after the first few paragraphs goes off in a direction completely different from where my own story went.  Like so much relating to Jay and his life, I wish it had been longer.

You can read the story here.


And let me add . . .

Thank you for telling me about the story's existence, Carl.  I was really happy to learn of it.


Above:  The illustration for Jay's story is by Tim Stewart.  Nice piece of work, innit?

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