My contributor's copy of Mercury arrived today, a welcome fillip in a year when there's been no other good news on the writing front. (In fact, I haven't sold anything other than reprints for 14 months.)

Mercury is an Israeli SF magazine, very nicely produced in A4 format with a full colour cover, black and white interior illos and clear text. It is printed in Hebrew, of course, so the pages are read right to left, which means the whole magazine seems back to front to me. It is a strange but enchanting effect, making the magazine appear other-worldly and, ahem, truly science fictional. This is one of most delightful aspects of being published in translation. This is only my second time; the first was in a Polish magazine called Nowa Fantastyka.

Hebrew script is unrecognisable to me, even to the extent that I can't read my name, but the publishers of Mercury have illustrated Moon Flu, so I worked out that it's this issue's final story. I hope Mercury's subscribers enjoy reading it.

I was paid $50, which I consider very respectable (roughly 2 cents a word) for a reprint. I'd certainly work with these friendly and generous folk again.

http://www.mercury.org.il/

(The cover shown on the web site is from the current issue. I think my story was published in issue 27.)