Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Title block

Okay, so with the revisions to "The Whale Below" finally out of the way, I turned my attention to the other story that needed tweaking, that one I mentioned had sold to William Sanders at Helix SF. I'd already made several passes through it, addressing Sanders' concerns (which was great, since he grasped what I was trying to do immediately, and was able to point out a couple of missteps along the way) so there was only a little bit of tweaking left for me to do. Little instances of word choice, dialog tightening, that sort of thing. My biggest problem, actually, was coming up with a title for the thing. The working title's been "Y.V. 7650.1" for ages, but I'm sure you can see how that one lacks a certain enticing oomph. Trouble is, the story's a complex one, juggling several different themes, and a perfect, all-encompassing title refuses to attach itself to the story. So I sent Sanders the following selection. All of them might work, but none are perfect. Which one is the title of a story you'd want to read?

In His Image
The Man Who Walked Away from Rapture
A Future, Pure and Chaste
Love, Sane and Otherwise


I suppose I should mention that the story in question is a nasty piece of work, a near-future SF cautionary tale with a very black heart. This is very likely the closest I'll ever get to writing "The Screwfly Solution" or "The Women Men Don't See," so obviously Tiptree has weighed heavily on me as I wrote (and rewrote, and rewrote...)

Now Playing: Syd Barrett The Madcap Laughs

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