I am pleased as punch to announce that I did make the deadline for submission to Jay Lake’s anthology. It took a late night with the wife asking when I plan to turn off the light, but I made it. Now that the submission window is closed, I don’t mind talking about the story.
The anthology is called Footprints. It is centered around the idea that we leave traces of our existence (namely, footprints on the moon) long after we are extinct. The story must be told from an alien point of view.
I took a slightly different tactic. My story is called “Radio Waves,” and in it, an alien species detects the radio frequency emissions of Earth. Ultimately, the aliens glom onto a televangelist and become the faithful. In the end, they make a pilgrimage to Earth to bring the televangelist back to their planet. The radio waves just stop half way to Earth. What do they find and how do they explain things to the faithful? You’ll have to read it to find out.
Also on the writing front, I am preparing the agent query packages for Neanderthal Swan Song. 13 months on the Baen slush pile was a long wait, and probably not the best place to send the manuscript. But, it’s back in my hands and I intend to shop it more conventionally now.