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A little background for this new story, not covered in the very nice introduction. On New Year’s Day of 2019, I started writing a story on my phone called “A Toast to the End of Time,” the first in a series of stories narrated by an omnipotent trans-physical being known as Xarlox. The stories in the series are inspired by the “Cosmicomics” by Italo Calvino. Though certainly not fan fiction.

“A Toast to the End of Time” was then published somewhat poetically as the very last story ever published by the Ginger Collect. Sadly the story is no longer available online and will not be available again until collected. It will be collected, of course, but getting a book deal is the hard part.

After that, I attempted to write a new Xarlox story, as the first story I write every year. In 2021 I started the year with “Strange Stars and Stranger Stars,” writing again on my phone, usually late at night while lying in bed. That story was published last year in Tree and Stone and became my second entry into the ISFDB. There are four stories listed there for me so far. However, two of them are from 1997, and presumably another author by the same name.

In 2020 I started the year writing this story. As you may know, when NASA sent New Horizons to Pluto, they included a small vial of Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes; Tombaugh was the man who discovered the planet (though the debate persists on the definition). In this story, our narrator Xarlox talks to a silent Clyde as part of his soul passes by his extra-terrestrial home.

I haven’t written a Xarlox story in two years now, “Strange Stars…” was the last one. However, I may pick up the series again this coming New Year’s Day and perhaps fill in the backlog of the missing two stories. Unfortunately, I don’t have many more ideas for the series at the moment. The only idea I have so far is based on some YouTube Videos that draw future maps of the world, but it seems too pedestrian and political for a Xarlox story, though maybe I can make it work; we will see.

Lastly, the title is (I assume fairly obviously) based on “Mr. Tambourine Man,” originally by Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan. While writing this story, I came across a very well-done punk cover of the song by Felipe Oliverei, which appears to have been removed from YouTube; that’s a shame because it was really good. Felipe even replied to my comment on his video.

I hope you enjoy it,

“Hey Mr. Tombaugh Won’t You Name a Star for Me” | New Pop Lit | Traveling in Space