Hanging Vines Becomes First 2021 Acceptance

Seems like BLACK INFINITY was in the news just a few days ago (see January 13) and here it is again already. Along with the contract Wednesday, Editor Tom English also mentioned what the theme would be for the issue to follow “Renegade Robots,” tentatively to be “Starships and Spacesuits,” and if I should like to send in an early submission. . . .

Well, why not, if I could find something suitable? So after a few days of sifting through memories I hit upon one I thought might do. At 2900 words, maybe a smidge on the short side, but a “puzzle” story: a spacesuited man, a recalcitrant starship — and very bad news if they can’t get it together. . . .

Originally published in CONADIAN SOUVENIR BOOK for the 52nd World Science Convention in September 1994, this was a story recalled with some fondness. An early one titled “Hanging Vines” (the spaceship has landed on an uninhabited planet, but one that does have plants), this time there’s no horror crossover, not really. No creepy miilieu, no noir, unlike some other tales BLACK INFINITY has had by me in previous issues, but still, why not? So off it went earlier this afternoon.

You probably know now how this will end. In possibly record time the acceptance came for a tale, as Editor English put it, “[still] quite suspenseful. Readers will definitely hang around to learn how your protagonist makes out.”

And that’s not a bad thing.