TOM PURDOM

 Science Fiction Music Writing Essays
Bio FAQS Writers
Friends and Relations Bibliography  Quotes

Click here if you'd like to read the opening of my latest short story.  It's a historical fantasy called "Madame Pompadour's Blade" and it's scheduled for the June issue of Jim Baen's Universe, an online magazine published by Baen Books.  Click here if you'd like to read a bio that summarizes my writing career and my totally unscandalous personal life. You'll find more biographical information under Where are you from?, Recent Science Fiction,  Friends and Relations, my complete bibliography,  and the first nine installments of my attempts at a literary memoir.

The rest of this site is a grab bag containing stuff culled from my activities as a science fiction writer, music critic, arts writer, and general freelance writer. The science fiction section contains a bibliography of my recent SF, excerpts from stories, and the complete text of my first story.  FAQs includes answers to some of the questions people tend to ask writers, such as How much do you make?, Where do you get your ideas?, and How do you submit manuscripts to editors? The music writing section includes excerpts from reviews, an article on female percussionists, a guide to Philadelphia early music organizations, and other items collected from twenty years of writing about music and the arts. The essays include a memoir on model airplanes, some advice for parents, and my contribution to a debate on current efforts to market the arts.

ELECTRONIC REPRINTS

My 1966 sword-and-planet Ace Double THE TREE LORD OF IMETEN can be purchased from Fictionwise-- a thriving electronic publisher whose list of name writers includes Robert Silverberg, Damon Knight, Nancy Kress, Larry Niven, and Harlan Ellison.  Eleven of my Asimov's stories, including Fossil Games and Dragon Drill, are also available from Fictionwise.  Five of my Asimov's stories and three of my older stories can be purchased from Alexandria Digital Literature.

ANTHOLOGY REPRINTS

My Asimov's  time travel novelette The Mists of Time will be reprinted in the twenty-fifth edition of Gardner Dozois' annual anthology THE YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION, due out in July.  You can read the opening section here.  The story appeared in the August, 2007 Asimov's, exactly fifty years after my first short story, Grieve for a Man, appeared in the August, 1957 issue of Hans Santesson's Fantastic Universe.  My Hugo nominee Fossil Games can be found in Gardner Dozois' landmark anthology SUPERMEN: TALES OF THE POSTHUMAN FUTURE and David G. Hartwell's YEAR'S BEST SF 5. I also have stories in five  other currently available anthologies: SPACE SOLDIERS, YEAR'S BEST SF 3, ISAAC ASIMOV'S VALENTINES, ISAAC ASIMOV'S UTOPIAS, and the 2006 Edition of Rich Horton's SCIENCE FICTION, THE BEST OF THE YEAR.

LITERARY MEMOIR, FIRST INSTALLMENTS

I'm writing a literary memoir which I'm publishing here as I finish each segment.  Each section tells how I wrote particular stories-- how I got the idea, the literary problems I dealt with, and so on.  The first installment covers my first story and the beginning of my writing career.  The second installment discusses three stories I wrote when I was hanging around Philadelphia coffeehouses in the late 50's.  The third installment discusses my only psi story and the factors, such as my relationship with my wife, that influenced it.  The fourth installment discusses my Casanova series and tells how I started writing short fiction again after a long break, and how I became a music critic. The fifth installment concludes the discussion of the Casanova series.   Installment six discusses my first "military brat" story.  Installment seven discusses my second and third military brat stories.  Installment eight  tells how I wrote and sold my first Ace Double.  Installment nine does the same for my second Ace Double, THE TREE LORD OF IMETEN.  I'm also posting my first story, "Grieve for a Man".

MEANDERINGS

I usually attend the monthly meetings of the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, which normally meets on the second Friday of each month.  I also attend most of the monthly, fourth Friday Philadelphia Fantastic readings at Robin's Book Store, 108 S. 13th Street in center city.  In June, I'll be reading "Madame Pompadour's Blade".  In July, Gardner Dozois, Michael Swanwick and I will participate in discussions and readings related to the latest edition of Gardner's Year's Best anthology.  I'll be a guest at Readercon in July and the Philadelphia Science Fiction Conference in November.

Asimov's Science Fiction cover Copyright © 2007 by Dell Magazines, a division of Crosstown Publications. Reprinted with permission. 

E-mail address: tompurdom@verizon.net