The past couple of weeks have been eventful writing-wise. February 25, 2017 (a week or so ago) I received an acceptance of one of my stories that I sent off to an anthology about three months ago, (and not for the first time either!) A few days later (Monday, Feb. 28) I got an e-mail from SciFan Magazine saying that since I’d published with them they wanted to see if I’d subscribed with the magazine.

            I didn’t know I’d published anything in SciFan. I checked; there was a payment in my account. And there, in the February 2017 issue was my story “The Shifter,” the fourth of the Demeter’s Bar science fiction tall-tales to be published (counting two on this blog as “published”) and actually the first written. Influenced heavily by L. Sprague DeCamp and Fletcher Pratt’s stories about Gavagan’s Bar and Arthur C. Clarke’s White Hart stories, they are different in that they are set in a gay bar (or at least they start out there!) “The Shifter” looks good (thank you Kindle!) and is a credit on my expanding resume.

            Today, Monday March 6, I got an e-mail from the editor of the anthology series “Werewolves Vs…” about my story “Wolves in the Cloisters,” which he loved and wants to publish! Three in a week’s time, give or take a day! “Werewolves Vs. Fascism,” the e-anthology in question will donate all proceeds to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The story will appear under my nom-de-plume Mike Mayak, first time I’ve published under the name, which I started using in the hopes of getting into a magazine which seemed to be rejecting Jeff Baker’s stuff willy-nilly. I’ve since found out the magazine rejects everybody like that, but Mayak is launched.

            Three stories at the early part of the year. Such are the rewards of a writer. I’ll have to get back to the grindstone—I have at least three stories underway, with a deadline at the end of the month, to say nothing of a novel I’m working on. Progress, progress!

            And the rewards are there.

                                                                        —-Jeff Baker

                                                                        March 6, 2017