SOLVED. scifi: short story about tagger in LA [s]

[Justanotherbiblophile]

Narrator is a friend/acquaintance? The guy under discussion is an LA graffiti artist, young (under 21 - most likely under 18 - EDIT: He's turning 18, when he'll age out, because it'll no longer be juvie for his crimes). Constantly chased by the cops. He lives to tag. The bigger, the better. The more awesome the art, the more he's into it. Always looking to one-up himself, and in competition with every other tagger in the world. Until (view spoiler)[one day he meets aliens, and then he's *ALL* over the city - able to cover more ground in their UFO, able to hit skyscrapers, etc. etc. Perhaps the end of the story is that he goes and tags the moon, so you can see his stuff from anywhere on Earth. (hide spoiler)]

Looked some for this on google. No good results.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

When did you read it or when was it published? In an anthology, separate from an anthology, online, etc.? Author female or male?

[Justanotherbiblophile]

Physical, not online. 10-15 years ago? Not real sure. No idea on the author - I don't usually check an author's gender, I only care if they can write. It's plausibly from a scifi magazine like Analog or Asimov's, but that's not an "I think it is", just a possibility.

Did an edit on the original post, he's *turning* 18.

[Justanotherbiblophile]

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[Justanotherbiblophile]

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[Justanotherbiblophile]

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[Justanotherbiblophile]

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[Justanotherbiblophile]

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[Justanotherbiblophile]

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[Ayshe]

Tagging the Moon: Fairy Tales from L.A. maybe?
From Publishers Weekly: The title story deals with graffiti artists and centers on ill-fated, teenage street kid Bobby Donahue, whose fondest wish is to tag the moon. Thanks to a couple of possibly menacing, possibly imaginary aliens, he may have achieved his wish.

[Justanotherbiblophile]

That sounds completely likely, Ayshe

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Ok, it's now 5.5 years later - and this is still in Possibly Solved. Can we move this to Solved now?

[Justanotherbiblophile]

I hadn't ordered the book yet (time/money).

But Kirkus reviews says: "in the title piece, a tagger (a graffiti artist) yearns to leave his tag on the Moon, and, helped by like-minded aliens, succeeds"

So, yeah.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Oh good.