Tehani Wessely has announced the table of contents for the forthcoming 12th Planet Press kids’ sf/f/h anthology, Worlds Next Door.

http://editormum.livejournal.com/218142.html

I’m fortunate enough to be sharing the table of contents with two of my Clarion South classmates, Angela Slatter and Angie Rega.

2009 was a good year for my writing.

• I attended Clarion South in Brisbane.
• I had my first SFWA-level sale and publication!  I sold two stories to Fantasy Magazine.
• I was interviewed by Fantasy Magazine.
• One of my stories was adapted into an audio version.
• I sold a story to the Worlds Next Door anthology.
• I had a Twitter-length micro story published.
• I had a flash fiction story accepted by Antipodean SF (which published it a few days ago).
• I wrote 9 new short stories (which is the same as the total amount I had written in the previous 9 years!)
• I had four articles published.
• I completed a proposal for a non-fiction book about Japan and sent that off.  No luck yet.
• I started work on a young adult novel set in an alternate world Japan.  Progress has been much slower than I would have liked, but I think by taking more time I’m making the story a lot stronger than it would have otherwise been.

Fiction I had published in 2009:
Reading By Numbers
Fantasy Magazine

Working Holiday (audio version)
Dunesteef

Love’s Apprentice (flash fiction)
Thaumatrope

Articles published in 2009:
I had a couple of articles published by Kansai Scene, an English-language magazine in Japan.

Australian Tea Bowl Master

Awashima Doll Festival

Fantasy Magazine interviewed me about my story.
Writing By Numbers

The Internet Review of Science Fiction published my article about my Clarion South experience.
Six Weeks at Clarion South

The International Business Times reprinted my travel article about
New Zealand’s Bay of Islands

Of course, not everybody loves my stories.  I received 45 rejection letters in 2009.  But the more rejection letters I get, the more acceptances I get as well.  All a matter of improving by doing more writing and getting more writing out there.

I have a new short story at this month’s Antipodean SF.

http://www.antisf.com/the-stories/upgrade

Reading By Numbers, my first SFWA-level published story has garnered some nice feedback.

Fantasy Magazine interviewed me about the story.  After reading the interview, quite a few people (including computer programmer friends) realised they’d missed the hidden codes in the story.

Sean Wallace, Fantasy Magazine’s publisher wrote: “Here at FM we like to occasionally run something really strange and wonderful,
and you don’t get stranger than with Aidan Doyle’s “Reading By Numbers”:
http://oldcharliebrown.livejournal.com/287013.html

Molly Tanzer, the magazine’s assistant editor describes it as “weird, creepy and beautiful.”
http://paperfruit.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/newsfeed/#more-557

Readers left some very nice remarks in the story’s comments section.  The most common reaction seemed to be that the story was “creepy.” One reader even went as far as saying “This is the most enjoyable story I’ve read all year.”
http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/2009/11/reading-by-numbers/#comments

Language Computeer writes: “any number of you mathematico-linguistic slipstream fiction fans might enjoy this story: Reading by Numbers, by Aidan Doyle.  If you like math or horrorish SF — and especially if you like both — you’ll probably enjoy it.”
http://trochee.livejournal.com/2009/11/24/

My fellow Clarionite and Queen of Wrongtown, Angela Slatter graciously plugged the story, writing: “This story has a higher IQ than I do.”
http://angelaslatter.com/2009/11/23/reading-by-numbers/

The most awesome Tessa Kum, a Clarion Souther from 2005 describes the story as “naaaaasty”
http://silence-without.blogspot.com/2009/12/see-these-other-horns-lo-i-blow-them.html

Lois Tilton at The Internet Review of Science Fiction gave it a recommendation, saying: “the narrative is original, fresh and engaging.”
http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10609

Rich Horton describing Fantasy Magazine’s fiction for 2009 says: “Other good work came from Catherine J. Gardner, Ari Goelman, Paul Jessup, Megan Arkenberg, and Aidan Doyle.”
http://ecbatan.livejournal.com/87459.html

Fantasy Magazine interviewed me about my story.
http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/2009/12/writing-by-numbers-aidan-doyle/