Bull Spec (Officially) Goes Pro

A really cheering bit of news from last week that got lost in the wash:

Anyone who's picked up an issue of Bull Spec, the multigenre, multiformat magazine just now entering its second year of life, or who's had dealings with its human dynamo of a creator, Samuel Montgomery-Blinn, will already know how downright professional both 'zine and editor have been right from day one.

Well now, it's official.  The SFWA, portal-keepers of pro, have given their thumbs-up; Bull Spec has been gifted it's shiny "SFWA qualifying market" hat and has one more thing to brag about when its trying to pick up lady magazines at the magazine night club.  Not that it needs the help, because frankly, it's already got brains and looks in abundance.  And probably even a good sense of humour too.

Obviously, this is (hard-earned) good news for Sam, and also for genre publishing in general, since it's not like we're exactly tripping over professional markets here.  But it's also particularly awesome news for me, because The Burning Room, as published in issue #4, is now a retrospective SFWA-qualifying sale.  As in, the one I've been waiting on to meet the membership terms for what seems about a million years.

Ironically - if only in an Alanis Morissette sense - I'd already met the criteria about a week earlier, on the back of the Angry Robot novel sales.  But hey, it's always good to have a backup plan, and there's an alternate universe somewhere where I'm still busily air-punching over this one.