Gould submitted the first short story he wrote to "Analog"; it was rejected with a personal note from then-editor Ben Bova, who encouraged Gould to let him see his future work. The second story Gould wrote, "The Touch of Their Eyes," was read aloud by Theodore Sturgeon at a writing workshop at AggieCon in 1979. Sturgeon made one correction ("Calvary and Cavalry are two different things") and suggested that Gould submit it to Stan Schmidt, who had become editor at "Analog" in late 1978. Gould did, and the story was published by "Analog" in 1980.