Back from the beyond

Just got back from vacation today. It was rather tumultuous, but I won't bore you with the details.

Instead, I have to talk about something I learned as I was perusing the Baen's Universe site a few days ago. Baen's Universe gave me my first (and to this day my only) pro sale. I owe a lot to them, and especially the unique writer's group that formed around the Baen's Universe slush submission site. I cannot overstate how much my writing has benefited from them over the past several years. So you can imagine my surprise when I read Eric Flint's editorial stating that Baen's Universe is closing down.

I literally gasped when I read that. To put it simply, their business model based on different subscription levels just was not working. Their last issue will be some time next year. A lot of eyes were on Baen's Universe to see if a SciFi fiction based web magazine that paid pro rates and attracted big time names could last. After 4 years of stellar publishing, the answer in this case is, sadly, no.

The silver lining here is that the slush submission writer's group will be continuing on, just without the possibility of a sale to Baen's Universe. I have to say this is just as important to me. The story I'm working on now I fully intend to post on the Baen web board when it's done. And I expect the same critical, constructive feedback that has helped me in the past. At least in that sense what they started will live on.