Ahmed Writes

My story, "Infringement", has been accepted for publication at "Mindflights". It is a short-short of only about 80 words. I will provide the link to the story once it is published. At 80 words, it should be an easy read. :)

Different color text, based on Jetse's suggestion. Also, a quote from Shakespeare has been added at the top. Click on the image to enlarge it and read the quote. I would like to thank Matt Hughes for pointing out the appropriateness of this quote to the theme of the anthology.

Here is the rough draft of the cover for "SF Waxes Philosophical". The cover design and artwork is by Laura Givens.

Since its publication in Interzone 211, I have been hungrily searching for reviews of my story, particularly the positive ones. So far, my searches have been amply rewarded. I felt like collecting the reviews here so that any time in future I felt particularly low about any of my writing projects, I could just re-read this post and get a boost. Here goes: Ahmed A. Khan's one-page short-short "Elevator Episodes in Seven Genres" delivers what it can reasonably promise given its concept and length, a playful piece on the slipperiness of genre boundaries, flitting from one to another between one sentence or paragraph and the next. In relating the simple story of a science teacher's vacation on the moon (that, of course, would be the science-fiction part), it tends toward the cute rather than the revolutionary, but the wry humor in the last bit made for a very satisfying cap to the tale. Tangent Online ...a rather sardonic piece Elevator Episodes in Seven Genres by Ahmed ...

Just heard the sad news of the passing away of one of my favourite Urdu writer: Qurratulain Hyder. Here is a link to a nice OBIT . Her novel, Aag Ka Darya (River of Fire) , is one of the best novels (Urdu or otherwise) ever written.

...the last couple of weeks have been good. - Completed and submitted 2 new stories. - Complied with revision request for 1 story. - Recirculated 4 of my stories. And with that, I have all my unpublished stories (12, to be exact) in circulation.

I have just finished writing an SF story. It is titled "A Peace of Sorts" and runs to about 1500 words. I am quite happy with how this story turned out. I think I have done something right, and in just so many words too. Out it goes today, probably to F&SF. Let's see what GVG and JJA think about it.