Profile of William Preston

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This profile moderated by William Preston.

Bio

William Preston's first published work of fiction was "You Will Go to the Moon," which appeared in the July 2006 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction. To date, seven of his stories have appeared in Asimov's. Four of these stories are part of his "Old Man" sequence, an homage (in part) to Doc Savage and other pulp heroes. (The first three stories in the sequence may be downloaded as e-books via Amazon.) Previously, he was a finalist in the 2004 Very Short Fiction Contest hosted by Glimmertrain. He won the 2006 Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Award for "A Crisis for Mr. Lion." His poetry has appeared in various publications. He teaches high school English.

Bibliography

Short Story. "You Will Go to the Moon," Asimov's, July 2006.

Short Story. "Close," Asimov's, Feb. 2007.

Short Story. "A Crisis for Mr. Lion," Zoetrope: All-Story (online), 2007.

Novelette. "Helping Them Take the Old Man Down," Asimov's, March 2010.

Novelette. "Clockworks," Asimov's, April/May 2011.

Short Story. "My Story of Us Looking for My Comic Strip, by Franklin James Nemeth," Stone Canoe 6 (online), 2012.

Novella. "Unearthed," Asimov's, September 2012.

Short Story. "Vox ex Machina," Asimov's, December 2013.

Novella. "Each in His Prison, Thinking of the Key," Asimov's (forthcoming, 2014).

Reviews

Tangent Online
"You Will Go to the Moon"

by E. Sedia "You Will Go to the Moon" by William Preston is a quiet tale, told from the point of view of a man whose aging parents decided to go to a retirement colony on the moon. The story explores the relationship between the narrator and his parents, and it really isn't about the moon at all, but about the distances that separate us from those we loveemotionally as well as physically. The moon serves as a lovely metaphor for both the distancing that comes with growing up, and for all the unachievable things we long for. And of course when unachievable turns into available, it is always disappointing. Mr. Preston's story is an excellent opening to this issue. This short, melancholy tale captures the mood of unease and longing for all the things lost forever."