Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 11:08:16 -0400
Reply-to: Science Fiction and Fantasy Listserv <[log in to unmask]>
From: Ed McDonald <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Review -- THE ALIEN YEARS
To: Multiple recipients of list SF-LIT <[log in to unmask]>
Silverberg published some stories in a few SF magazines last year and
early this year that, I assume, were the basis of this novel. One
appeared in in Science Fiction Age. They were a good examination on how
humans would react to being dominated by a an alien race that was completely
overpowering.
My question is how many SF novels start out as short stories and are then
upgraded to the novel form? I know the Mcafferey (sp?) dragon books
started out as a short story back in the 60's. Orson Card's "Ender's
Game" was a novelette. How often do you working SF people submit short
stories to magazines hoping they will spark a book offer?
ed
I don't know if they hope it will spark a book offer, but I think it
comes from them just wanting to expand on an idea they had in a short
story. It also seems that SF has had a long tradition of such
occurances, possible because the low rates per word spurred writers
to write novellas or serialized novels.
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James Palmer
email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/2302 (check out my bookstore!)
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"Somebody gets into trouble, gets out of it again. People love that story. They never get tired of it."
-Kurt Vonnegut
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