Skillset

My story Skillset just came out in WyldBlood Science Fiction & Fantasy #13. Wyldblood is a UK-based SFF magazine. It is also available from Amazon.

Skillset is a story about a man who can permanently take skills from other people–although that is not always as useful as you’d think, especially if the person he stole the skill from just wasn’t that good at it, or if it is a skill that requires constant practice.

I wrote this story a while ago. It was one of the early stories I wrote when I first decided I wanted to seriously try writing again, and it has taken a while to sell. I just counted–I submitted it to 17 places before it sold, which should either tell you something about the value of perseverance or that I am just extremely bloody-minded.

I have at least one other story which I’ve submitted to even more places and that hasn’t yet sold. I keep tweaking it, so it is not really the same story, but I guess I have to wait for all the original publications to replace their editorial staffs so that I can resubmit it to them all.