40th Annivesary Month but David is Gone

  

This month is the 40th anniversary of my first published story: "The Twist" in Not One of Us #1 (9/86), my first zine project (Sycophant #1, Sep 1986) and first published illustrations in that zine.  This would soon be followed by my first published poem ("Drowning" in Dreams & Nightmares #9, 10/86).

I was originally planning some kind of a party or gathering ... or even ... anything?  We're so disconnected.  The party Anne put together for my 60th birthday went so well, I felt like I could do things again.  But we are so far apart and ...

On the sad side, David C. Kopaska-Merkel died, ending 40 years of correspondence and showing up together in zines of all shapes & sizes.  So, our one and only collaboration in print will turn out to be "interweave", accepted by Scifaikuest (May 27 online).  That hit me hard, as we had just spoken a month before on Terrie's Thursday writing zoom.

The SFPA has a fine memorial for him.

Yes, he was the man who published my first few poems.

Meanwhile ... Terrie is very ill, and it doesn't look like our second collaborative book project is going to happen.  I should try harder to stay in touch, but calling to see if she's still there is odd, and the weeks just fly by, all my energy drained by work and life, a heat wave, and what sounds like the crumbling of society.  But those are very private things, in and around a big death in the family on Anne's side.

So, I got started in print 40 years ago.  Although the small press credits have piled up, and I have had a few pro sales, it doesn't feel like it amounted to anything.  I won't stop creating my odd little things when I get the urge, but what felt like a big upcoming milestone turned out to be ... three little dots at the end of a sentence.