Floating around in cyberspace is a 2006 blog post that refers to Aurealis as ‘The Grand Old Harlot’ and ‘The Lumbering Old Dinosaur’, two undergraduate plays on the magazine’s nickname, The Grand Old Dame of Science Fiction. In other posts, ‘The Fearless Writer’ moans about the editors publishing each other’s work, the general incest of Australian publishing, and how hard it is for new authors to get noticed.
Well, The Fearless Writer, who now blogs under the less wanky name of Kris Ashton, is about to have a story published in Aurealis. It’s called ‘Howling Mad’.
I’ve been sending stories to Aurealis almost as long as I’ve been sending stories anywhere – in fact, I believe one of my university lecturers suggested it as a market for my work back in 1997. If my recollection is accurate, that means I’ve been submitting stories there, off and on, for nearly 20 years. From time to time one would get shortlisted, but nothing ever made the cut. Last weekend, that changed.
The tremendous irony is that I sent ‘Howling Mad’ to Aurealis mainly for shits and giggles. It had been shortlisted and ultimately turned down at Andromeda Spaceways (where I’d thought it would be a shoo-in), and because it’s a very Australian story in some ways, my mind turned next to Aurealis rather than an overseas market. The story is quite pulpy, however, so I didn’t like its chances; Aurealis had historically responded best to my harder sci-fi stuff.
So I was more than a mite surprised when it had unanimously good slush-reader feedback. And when the shortlist rejection didn’t come and didn’t come, I began to get excited. ‘Howling Mad’ is now tentatively scheduled for the November edition.
If you told The Fearless Writer, I don’t think he’d believe it.