Just in case my endorsements of Iceland aren’t enough, you can check out Iceland’s Ring Road: The Ultimate Road Trip in New York Times.

I got a big batch of mail from the U.S. today. I got my copies of Apex Digest, which was a lot of fun. The folks in the green room are reading it and making various horrified faces. It’s fun.

At the opposite end of the writing spectrum, I also got my official acceptance letter from Cicada.

Some excerpts which particuarly made me smile.

Thank you for sending ‘This Little Pig’ for our consideration. It’s a refreshing departure from the usual dark, futuristic fiction we see and we are delighted to accept your story for CICADA. A Danish pig farm may not smell great, but in terms of setting, it’s a breath of fresh air!

She went into some technical stuff and then closed with:

I’ll look forward to hearing from you! And when you reply, would you answer a burning question: have you personally worked on a Danish pig farm? We are so curious.”

Nope. My grandfather was a hog farmer, but the rest was all research.

Anyway, the combination of the two pieces of mail had me grinning like an idiot. I guess it’s the actor in me that needs some form of external validation to believe that I’m really any good at a thing. Although I’ve sold stories before, I somehow forget that until the next acceptance letter comes or I get to see the story in print. Know what I mean?

Cheesy, I suspect, but there it is.

Now, I’m off to read the rest of the stories in Apex.