If science fiction, fantasy, mystery/thriller and other genres can have sequels, why not humor pieces? While editing a piece called "The Gods Must Be Rebranded," about how the Greek gods need to update their image so as to capture the imagination of today's generation for whom electronic devices hold more interest than immortal Greek deities, I came up with some jokes about Greek gods needing HR.

The HR-related jokes didn't fit into the rebranding article so I sat on the article a bit, then after a meeting that touched on some HR-related issues, I was able to come up with some additional jokes to round out the piece. I'm not saying it really is a sequel, and I'm not saying it was based on real people I know...

​But you can find the first article here, and check out "Confidential HR Memo of the Gods."

Now I've got to figure out if and how to finish the trilogy. Which is to say, I actually do think there could be a good office sitcom featuring the Greek gods.

My first published short story will appear in the Nov./Dec. 2015 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I've always been a science fiction fan but after 11th grade, and one awful mission-to-mars short story, I resolved that it might be better to read and watch science fiction than for me to attempt to write science fiction.

But at some point -- so many years ago that I can't remember the circumstances -- I wrote a story called “It’s All Relative at the Space-Time Café” that told about a love story in which the characters were all actual famous physicists who, in the narrator's world, were writers, performance artists and cops. It was speculative fiction although I didn't know that term them.  I thought it was funny but that the jokes and science references might be too obscure, and I wasn't sure what to do with it, what magazine might be a good fit.  I remember thinking it was funny, and dug it out late last year. Then I tinkered with it a bit, and added a new section this year, and a scant 11 months later, the story will soon appear in print!

What I didn't realize is that there are two outlets -- Locus Online and Tanget -- that review science fiction short stories even before the issues hit. So there are two reviews of my story. Here's my fav: 

“'It’s All Relative at the Space-Time Café' by Norman Birnbach is essentially an excuse to create multiple puns. The story itself is nothing more than a medium to pack as many science jokes a possible into 2000 words. The effort is hit or miss with the reference to the Schwarzschild radius being particularly good. Other jokes fall flat and feel forced. Whether you enjoy it will depend on how strong your liking for jokes about string theory is."

He's right -- the goal was to pack as many jokey science references into 2000 words. Looks like I accomplished that. (The joke the reviewer did like was the one I thought few people would get. Also, for the record, I wrote only one string theory joke in the piece.)

The only problem with F&SF is that short stories stay behind a paywall. To read the story, you need to subscribe to or purchase the hardcopy. You can do that here:  https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/buy-sub.htm. I really liked the other stories I read in the issue.

Hopefully my next short story will take less time to germinate!