buckets

As I've mentioned, Gray's Sporting Journal has published a piece of my fiction in its current issue, available on newsstands now. Here's something of interest--at least to me. The story is set in an unnamed town in Southeast Alaska, more or less modeled on Sitka, where I lived for a few years. To illustrate the story, the magazine ran a photo by Eberhard Brunner.It's a great photo, and it captures Alaska well. The curious thing, though, is that Brunner shot this photo in Homer, the town I moved to when I left Sitka--a happy coincidence. How can I be sure? For one thing, that's Mt. Iliamna on the horizon. For another, a friend of mine in Homer, the science fiction novelist Michael Armstrong, sent me his own photo after seeing my story in GSJ.


Look familiar? They were taken from the same location--one popular with local photographers. Just goes to show you, Alaska's a big state, sure, but it exists in a small world.

strongarm amazon

The NY Times is reporting that Amazon has pulled books from Macmillan, one of the largest publishers in the United States, in a dispute over the pricing on e-books on the site.

If you're inclined to buy books this weekend, please do--buy Macmillan, or one of its imprints, including Farrar, Straus & Giroux, St. Martins Press and Henry Holt, from any store other than Amazon.

(While you're there, buy the February/March issue of Gray's Sporting Journal. I'm just saying.)

story

I'm pleased to announce that Gray's Sporting Journal has published my short story, "Buckets," in the February/March issue, available on newsstands now. Described by Writers Market as "The New Yorker meets Field and Stream," GSJ is one of the remaining markets to treat short fiction with respect. It's a beautifully photographed and illustrated magazine that's not afraid of white space. I appreciate that.

(Not the current issue)

Over the years GSJ has published a number of my favorite writers. I'm honored to be included in their company.

In an interview with the Paris Review, Annie Proulx talks about how GSJ published her first stories:

So when Gray’s came along everybody who was even faintly literate and involved in outdoor stuff was thrilled. It was beautifully produced, the illustrations were top-notch, and there was good writing in it. After the magazine first appeared I bought an issue or two and finally subscribed to it. One of the writers that I knew suggested that this was something I could do. I wrote something, sent it to them, and they published it.

For the late eighties they paid magnificent sums of money. They paid a thousand dollars for a short story, which was big bucks then. But there was a group of us who wrote for them and hardly ever got paid because they kept running out of money. I swapped a story for a canoe at one point. It was a three-way deal where Gray’s ran an ad for Mad River Canoes, I got a canoe, and they erased the cost of one story. It worked out pretty well—I think the canoe was eleven hundred dollars. I named it Stone City after one of the stories Gray’s published.

Please pick up the February/March issue to show your support for fiction, and let me know what you think of "Buckets."