The Tale of One Author’s First Short Story Sale

Many of you might have seen the posts here announcing my latest book, and many of you might wonder how the hell I ever got to have so much stuff published. Well… it wasn’t always like that, and I was once an unpublished writer sending stories into the void in hopes of making a sale. And here is the story of that very first one.

It had been the week from hell.

It was a cold Thursday in the middle of May (May is mid-autumn in Argentina), and I sincerely felt that my professional career had reached the lowest point I could remember.  Like most aspiring writers, I have a day job, one that was quickly driving me insane.  The problem was that I had recently left my job at Johnson & Johnson to take a much higher-profile job offered by a local company.  From both an economic and career standpoint, this was a step forward.  But there was a problem.

I couldn’t stand my boss.

I had had difficult bosses before, and, in general, had been able to deal with the situation in a professional way and thereby smooth out the possible differences. But this guy was different.  Obsessive and detail oriented, he was the person that they (whoever “they” are) were thinking of when they coined the word “micromanagement”.  And to make things worse, it wasn’t enough to do things right.  You also had to do things his way.

But that wasn’t even the worst of it.  The worst of it was that he was so convinced that his way was the right way of doing things that he would be sarcastic and scathing to the point of aggression whenever things weren’t exactly to his liking.  Which they never were.

And on this particular week, the rest of his direct reports had been away on business in Brazil, which left me alone to face the full force of his personality.  This invariably caused me to stay late at work and get up early to work some more.  By Thursday, I was ready to resign, but couldn’t because I needed the job.

It was nearly nine when I left work that evening, and tried to use the commute to calm down.  The only good thing about the situation is that the rush hour had been over for an hour, and my commute was therefore much quicker.  I was exhausted and feeling very, very down.

I arrived at my apartment and was handed a small manila envelope addressed to me, handwritten in blue ink.  I opened it and inside was a copy of Jupiter SF, a small press British magazine devoted to Science Fiction printed in black and white.

At first, I was unsure what to make of this.  I knew that I had sent them a story, and I thought that this was a market strategy to try to get me to subscribe.  But then it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, they had decided to print my story.  I leafed through it quickly, and there it was.  It wasn’t a Marketing ploy, it was a contributor’s copy.

Honesty forces me to stop here and admit that while in the process of changing jobs and failing to adapt to my new boss, I had let my writing slide.  I hadn’t written anything at all since January, and hadn’t even bothered to send my rejected stories out again to different markets.  I can see now that I was quickly becoming a failed former writer, as opposed to an aspiring one.

Nevertheless, at the moment I realized that I was now a published author; all my other worries went out the window.  The satisfaction that I got from it was not monetary, since it was a small magazine and I wasn’t paid for the story (although, having submitted by email and received a magazine worth four dollars, I had, unusually, come out ahead), but at the thought that someone out there had thought that my story was good enough that people would have to hand over their hard-earned cash in order to read it.  And, that, somewhere out there, people were doing precisely that.

I assume that this is a feeling that all published writers have had during their careers, but the effect on me was rather strong.  It instantly rekindled my desire to write and publish. 

And, much more importantly, it gave me something to be proud of. And that was something I had really needed.

Gustavo Bondoni has recently completed the Emily Plair Trilogy with the final novel, Amalgam. Find out what happens to each of the characters in the satisfying conclusion, which you can purchase here.

The Anachronism Comes Into Its Own

The glorious and eternal Porsche 911 was, in the early eighties, considered to be ripe for replacement. Porsche itself was thinking along the same lines, looking to replace it with more logical front-engined cars in the 924, 944 and 928 mold. The company was ready for when 911 sales began to flag.

That, of course, never happened and the 911 spent the 80s–in whale-tail spoiler form–plastered on the walls of every pre-pubescent and teenage boy in the world. And the car is still around today.

Which means that this road test of a version that was supposed to be a stopgap to keep the patient alive just… a… little… bit… longer became merely another in the textbook case of how to keep a car relevant for more than sixty years. Hell, it’s gotten to the point where even the business school case studies about the 911s longevity are twenty years old and need revision!

Fun things this month include the fact that the Salon was about a Saloon, an Austin Seven Saloon, in fact, which was a fun departure from the kind of exotica normally found in the Salon articles.

Some competition was included. Especially notable was the article about Nelson Piquet nabbing the World Championship (the first for a turbo). And there was a Side Glances. Side Glances is always awesome, and Egan’s prose never gets old.

Other than that, a pedestrian issue.

Gustavo Bondoni has recently completed the Emily Plair Trilogy with the final novel, Amalgam. Find out what happens to each of the characters in the satisfying conclusion, which you can purchase here.

The Wonder Years

Though supercars didn’t originate in the 1970s (you can look back at some of the cars of the 1930s and even the 20s to realize that there were automobiles back then that just blew everything else out of the water far enough to be considered supercars of their era), I don’t liek to quibble with Classic & Sports Car.

The reason for my conformity is that I feel so good, so completely at home when I’m reading the magazine that it feels utterly churlish to be a pedant.

This issue was not an exception. Even if Italian exotica from the supercar era isn’t why you read the mag (it certainly isn’t my preferred type of car), you still enjoy those articles, and then you keep reading to find that they have a comparison test that includes the Renault 16, a feature on a prototype Range Rover that was also a rally car, and even an article about a coachbuilder.

It is a magazine that makes one want to move to England just to be in the places where the articles were written (also where the gorgeous photographs were taken) and to participate in the society that led to such a good-looking publication being released. Also, the kind of car-made place that could feed it.

The actual content might not have been my favorite, but the feeling of happiness this one imbues me with is unchanging. My favorite car magazine, bar none.

Gustavo Bondoni has recently completed the Emily Plair Trilogy with the final novel, Amalgam. Find out what happens to each of the characters in the satisfying conclusion, which you can purchase here.

Ferrari at Daytona

I don’t have a ton of time to draw, but when I do, I love doing quirky and unusual cars most of all. A Ferrari might not seem to fit the bill on the face of it, but the 308 that ran at Daytona in 1981 represents one of very, very few appearances for the model at any top-flight event.

Due to Fine Art America imposing a limit of 25 pictures to any artist profile before it starts to charge (it also charges a commission on all sales, so this seems a little greedy on their part), I’ve moved my main gallery to DeviantArt. Here’s the link to all my drawings.

Grace Kelly’s Last Movie

While watching the first half of 1956’s High Society, I wondered why this film was on the list. It appeared to be the opposite of all those unpleasant films that are great but not good, such as The Phenix City Story. This one seemed, to quote an oft-used phrase from Gardner Dozois, pleasant but minor.

The cast was nothing to sneeze at, with Kelly joined by Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong, but it’s not quite up there with the great musicals in my opinion.

Now, the second half certainly picked up, becoming funnier and worthy of its source material (the Screwball-perfect Philadelphia Story), but though even more pleasant, seemed minor.

That’s until you factor in that the film was Grace Kelly’s last as a professional actress. Now there’s a compelling reason to list it among the greats, because she was one of the greats, and sorely missed.

As a change of pace and a comedy in the midst of the melodramas we’d been subjected to lately, it was a very welcome film. But I’m not sure it makes it in on its own merits, but on that of a star who faded out of Hollywood when this one was launched.

Gustavo Bondoni’s latest novel is a dark historical fantasy entitled The Swords of Rasna, in which the Etruscan armies attempt to hold the Roman legions at bay… by any means necessary. You can check it out here.

The First Side Glances!

Back when I used to buy Road & Track every month, a period which went from 1989 to 2014 or thereabouts, I gradually came to find that my favorite part of the magazine was a short column at the beginning called Side Glances. This was by no means an instantaneous conversion. As a car-mad 13-year-old, the first few issues I got, I didn’t even look at this little article with no photos, I skipped straight to the beautifully illustrated Aston Martin, Ferrari and Porsche articles. Originally, my favorite section of the magazine was the Ampersand articles which spoke of future cars.

One day, however, I must have exhausted my usual perusals and, out of boredom or desperation, I read the Side Glances column.

Wow.

Even pimply teenaged me managed to recognize the deep wisdom and writing genius of the great Peter Egan. From then on, I read the column every month. Slowly, insidiously, like an invasion of termites (or body snatchers), I found myself looking forward more and more to that particular column. By the 2010s, when R&T was in a bit of a decline, it was far and away the only part consistently worth reading. And I bought the collections of columns, too.

The first of these columns appeared in the November 1983 issue which, even if nothing else happened, makes that a critical month in the history of automotive journalism.

As for the rest of the issue, I was never really a fan of the 300ZX, although it was better than a minivan, so the cover might not have stopped me in my tracks in period.

What certainly would have caught my eye was the fact that there was a report on the Le Mans 24 hours included. That was always one of my favorite articles every year. Better still, this one held part 5 of Rob Walker’s report on all the cars he’d owned followed immediately by a crazy story by Innes Ireland detailing a trip through Europe with Stirling Moss (this latter tale was made even better because it generated mail saying that they were antisocial hooligans from the type of people who writes to car magazines to say that people who drive fast are antisocial hooligans).

A couple of F1 races were covered, and the turbo era was certainly in full swing here.

A memorable issue on all fronts except for the test of the Ford Tempo, possibly the most boring car of the 1980s.

Gustavo Bondoni’s latest novel is a dark historical fantasy entitled The Swords of Rasna, in which the Etruscan armies attempt to hold the Roman legions at bay… by any means necessary. You can check it out here.

The Weird, Dark West

The American West, as immortalized in countless movies from the 1950s lends itself beautifully to the darkest imaginings. The empty landscape that serves as a reflection of men’s souls can bring up some pretty evil stuff lurking below the surface.

So when I picked up Dark Owl Press’ anthology Something Wicked This Way Rides, in which I have a story entitled “Borrowed Gods”, I was expecting to see some really cool, really strange, and really awful things, especially since I’ve enjoyed the books from this editor and publisher before.

I wasn’t disappointed. This one is packed with stories that not only explore every aspect of the American West–from reality to legend–but also every aspect of the horror and dark fantasy genres. You’ve got the undead, Native American spirits, ghosts and every permutation possible of bad stuff that can happen to a cowboy. Hell, my own story has a visit, on a train, by the Voodoo pantheon. It’s that kind of book.

Whenever I read anthos – whether they be contributor copies or not – there are always some stories I like less than the rest. In this one, there was precisely one tale I didn’t really enjoy, and that had to do with the way it was written (I tend to prefer stories that are straightforward in form to those in more experimental prose). The rest were very good or better. Perhaps it was because the subject matter was interesting, perhaps I have similar tastes to the editor, Andrea Thomas. But for whatever reason, I found myself transported by this one and had a great time.

Picking a favorite is tough, but I’ll go with “Nightshade Ladies” by Marilyn “Mattie” Brahen. The situation in this one makes predicting the outcome rather easy (horror stories tend to end one of two possible ways, right?), but the tale stands out because of the innovative nature of the horror element.

I’m pretty sure every reader will have their own favorite. The lineup is just that strong.

Gustavo Bondoni’s latest novel is a dark historical fantasy entitled The Swords of Rasna, in which the Etruscan armies attempt to hold the Roman legions at bay… by any means necessary. You can check it out here.

Fortunately, Engineers are Smarter than Bureaucrats

Nowadays, we think it natural that every car has a little more power and performance than last year’s model. We watch reality shows about tuners who think nothing of dropping an 800 HP crate motor–street-legal and reliable.

Such abundance makes it easy to forget that, in the 1970s there was a concentrated effort to strangle the automobile via safety, emissions and even speed regulations. Of course, the ostensible motive was never to kill the automobile, but one can’t help feeling that some bureaucrats wouldn’t have minded if the car–and the idea of personal freedom it represented and enabled–had disappeared forever so that the populace could go to approved places in large groups on the approved modes of mass transit. It’s easy to imagine Ralph Nader, for example, being much happier if that were the case. And Nader was quite popular in the 70s.

It makes you wonder if George Lucas didn’t get a little inspiration from that famed crusader against everything fun…

Cars in the late 1970s were rolling pieces of garbage that barely managed to splutter out of their own way.

But, despite the criticism and the unfortunate influence of bean-counters over the ages, Detroit’s automotive companies have always been one of the highest concentrations of hyper-talented engineers on the planet. And despite the hammer-blows applied by fad-following, knee-jerking and shortsighted regulators, the engineers, by the early eighties, were clawing back. Of course, in a market as competitive as the car industry, either you make the products better fast, or you disappear.

Consumers, as usual in competitive markets, were the winner. By the early eighties, cars were getting better again. A new Camaro and Corvette were launched, and a new horsepower war was underway.

And that’s why the Mustang we’re looking at was worthy of a cover. Its 205 HP engine, though not impressive compared to the motors of the fifties, sent a message to any bureaucrat seduced by clipping enthusiasts’ wings, and that message was: engineers will always beat bureaucrats, because engineers are simply smarter. And if you’re the kind of bureaucrat that likes to prohibit and regulate things, then engineers will enjoy finding ways around your intentions.

So, apart from that feel-good cover, what else was notable about this issue?

Well, there was a first-hand account by René Dreyfus (an excerpt from his book) about his days at Scuderia Ferrari, a couple of Grand Prix reports and Peter Egan‘s article about building a Westfield Eleven. Good stuff.

I think one of the reasons I like cars so much is their potential use as a tool to thumb one’s nose at the timid, boring and paternalistic (or maternalistic) side of society which frowns on anything fun and tries to impose ridiculous and ever more strangulatory speed limits. All you need to do is press that right-hand pedal and watch the speed limit be left behind to tell society it needs to lighten up a bit… even if the only person who knows about it is you.

Fun and freedom… the most important things about life on this mudball, and cars deliver both. That’s a good reason to enjoy them, right?

Gustavo Bondoni’s latest novel is a dark historical fantasy entitled The Swords of Rasna, in which the Etruscan armies attempt to hold the Roman legions at bay… by any means necessary. You can check it out here.

Exotic… but not THAT Exotic

When I was a kid, Exotic Cars was my favorite of all the Road & Track specials, and I used to love those rare occasions when I could actually get my hands on them (not easy here in Argentina, and they were expensive, too, which made them even more desirable).

The reasons are simple. Not only did these issues contain only the most desirable of automotive erotica, but they also had more color than the regular issues and a much larger proportion of photography to text. After all, if you were showcasing the most beautiful sheet metal out there, it makes sense to do so in a way that allows the cars to shine.

Exotic Cars: 5 has all the elements on the editorial side that makes the series wonderful, except for one thing: the cars themselves. You can’t tell by the cover, but this one is full of vehicles that are only marginally exotic. And while the Mercedes 190E 2.6, the Jaguar XJ6, the Cadillac Allanté and the BMW 735i are all fine automobiles – and extremely desirable in their day, I can’t really think of them as exotic. Even the Porsche 928 and the BMW M3 with the spoiler are borderline cases, especially the Porsche. There’s a reason the cover features a sinister black Countach and a Cobra with a Ferrari engine… and not some luxury saloon you could order at your local dealer.

This issue made me suspect that the editors had run out of hardcore exotica and, in the need to fill a large magazine, went for the next best thing. In my opinion, it misses the mark.

However… there’s also some really good stuff in here. The Lamborghini factory visit is wonderful and culinary, too. The article on tuning cars is interesting, as one tends to forget how the movement started in the 1980s. And I’m always amused to see an AMG Hammer anywhere. To me, that is the quintessential 1980s car.

So I enjoyed it… but I do prefer the really obscure and quirky as opposed to the mass-produced.

Gustavo Bondoni’s latest novel is a dark historical fantasy entitled The Swords of Rasna, in which the Etruscan armies attempt to hold the Roman legions at bay… by any means necessary. You can check it out here.

Prosperity hits Road & Track

The doom and gloom of Carter-era America was over. The swinging, brash, overconfident 80s were now officially underway and once again you could judge an era by something as apparently unpolitical as a car magazine. I mentioned at some point that you could have predicted the result of the first Reagan election just by seeing the gloom and despondency in the pages of R&T. Now, in 1983, you could tell that things were going well, and that the current political direction was going to last a looong time.

Sure, there was an inexpensive Japanese car on the cover of this issue… and an Isuzu to boot, but at least it was a Japanese car with Sheet metal by Giugaro which looked modern and exotic.

But look beyond the cover and you’ll soon sense that this issue feels heavier than most. That impression will immediately be confirmed by the page count: 232 pages, and well-sponsored ones. This isn’t a recession-era magazine. And when a magazine does a long-term owner’s survey of a Ferrari, you know that Magnum PI and Miami Vice can’t be far behind.

The issue itself had a bit of everything (can’t be easy to fill that many pages even during times of bonanza), so you’ve got an eclectic mix of commuter cars, Manila Jeepneys, race car driving schools, tuner and modified vehicles (in the eighties, these shops were just getting started, and were mainly a European thing), a restoration article and an Aston Martin Ulster Salon.

Competition had some good stuff. Apart from a couple of Grand Prix reports in an interesting season with technical variation (can a 2023 reader imagine a top category with actual technical interest? I doubt it unless you’re as old as I am), plus the report of the rain-drenched inaugural IMSA Miami race. Plus an article about the 1957 German GP, probably still the greatest F1 race ever run.

So it was a bumper issue which probably said more about its times than it did about the cars within.

Gustavo Bondoni’s latest novel is a dark historical fantasy entitled The Swords of Rasna, in which the Etruscan armies attempt to hold the Roman legions at bay… by any means necessary. You can check it out here.