I’m going to head out to Seattle tonight, hopefully in time to grab dinner with some old editors, but definitely in time to write with them at a little sci-fi themed coffee shop in North Seattle. It feels so strange to return to Seattle and not really be a resident anymore. When I wrote Dr. Derosa’s Resurrection, it was a story about my stomping ground and my city, the backyard metropolis that I had as a suburban kid on the east side.

That novella sprung into being mostly because I knew the editor of Mad Scientist Journal was looking for (or at least open to) running a serial. I’d done some work with Jeremy before, sending little flash fiction “Mad Scientist Ads” to his literary magazine. He was listed in duotrope, and I guess I was just lucky to stumble onto him as a teenage sci-fi writer.

I outlined a very rough draft of something that sounded mad-sciencey one summer day, waiting for a bus or a friend (I can’t remember which) in Kirkland, but then I put it away for a long time. I really didn’t go back and revisit it until the following spirng when I was doing my first and most liberating backpacking tour of the American West. In the Chinatown branch of the LA public library, I clandestinely ate a poptart and hammered out the first chapter of a projected novella about a young woman who discovers that her imprisoned father cryogenically froze his mother before being apprehended for stealing military technology. It’s instalments are still up for anyone interested: Dr. Derosa’s Resurrection.

Anyways, it was the first time that anyone had ever given me an advance on my fiction, which was exciting beyond belief. I really haven’t done anything since then, but am gearing up to go back to querying, or maybe self-publishing a serial on the blog (it’s drafted, but I’m not sure what to do with it…) However, the rights to Dr. Derosa reverted back to me a few months ago, and I realize now that it’s in my power to do a printing of the story myself. I’m looking forward to seeing Jeremy tonight, discussing Mad Science with him, catching up on my writing projects, and seeing what he thinks of the idea of a print run for Dr. Derosa and his whole crazy gang.