Hammer's Slammers 16 - Other Times Than Peace by Drake David

Author:Drake, David [Drake, David]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781416520764
Google: WtbnrtPCNswC
Amazon: B00APAERDG
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 2006-07-15T04:00:00+00:00

End note to Safe to Sea

From too much love of living,

From hope and fear set free,

We thank with brief thanksgiving

Whatever gods there be:

That no life lives forever;

That dead men rise up never;

That even the weariest river

Winds somewhere safe to sea.

The Garden of Proserpine, A. C. Swinburne

I wrote this story in 1973, starting it shortly after I'd sold "Contact!" (my sixth sale) through my new agent, Kirby McCauley. Kirby liked the story a lot—Kirby's enthusiasm for whatever was in front of him is a major reason for his success as an agent—but he couldn't sell it.

"Safe to Sea" had been an experiment; well, everything I wrote at the time was an experiment. I'd been trying to address larger themes than I had in the past. I did that, but to do properly it required a broader canvas than I was capable of using at the time. I basically forgot about the story and went on to other things (which also didn't sell for some while, but that's another matter).

In 1987 Marty Greenberg asked me if I had a story for Space-Fighters, an anthology Joe Haldeman would be headlining. I regretted that I didn't, as much because I like Marty as because I needed another hundred bucks. (I'm always happy to find money in the street, but it wasn't going to pay the mortgage.) Kirby then told me that he'd sold "Safe to Sea" to Marty.

My initial reaction wasn't entirely positive. I didn't need the money, and I wasn't sure after fifteen years that the story was really of publishable quality. I allowed the sale after I'd reread the piece, though. If I were writing the story today, I'd use at least twice the wordage—but the ellipses work surprisingly well, and there's a lot of good stuff in the parts which I didn't leave out. Enough good stuff that I'm reprinting the piece here.

I once did a short-short about the abduction of the boy who becomes St Patrick. I wrote it in the desperate hope that perhaps I could sell something to a Roman Catholic magazine when I couldn't sell to anybody else. I failed, and I forgot about the story.

Maybe I should've sent it to Kirby.

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