Finally, We're All Published.

Two hours before NaNoWriMo begins and I'm told Andromeda Spaceways #48 is out containing "Ash" my first published short story. How's that for writing motivation? Last of the INK group to become a published author, but better late than never, right? Thanks INKers for helping me grow as a writer. Today, I'm an author!

Accountability Cam is up and running at http://www.cscole.com/. I'll probably write for a couple of hours after midnight (less than an hour away now) and return around noon tomorrow after the daily workout. Finally preparations in order now. Go INK NaNo-ers!

First Sale.

Okay, yes, it's true. I've made my first sale. I've been in touch with my editor and you can look for my story 'Ash' in a fall 2010 issue of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.

Thank you INK for being my first readers, critiquers, and pushers to keep sending it out, especially Kami whom I thought I heard once, over the phone, sharpening bamboo shoots in preparation for shoving under my nails if I didn't keep trying. Thank you, thank you.

Ah, the First Sale juice...it is sweet, like nectar of the gods.

First batch of first quarter Honorable Mentions for Writers of the Future are up:

http://wotfblog.galaxypress.com/

Projects update + vague stress stuff

Worked on Masks today.  I'm delving into the section that needs the most manipulation, so it's going to be scary going.  But fun.  I think there's something compelling about fresh writing.  That raw energy (if carefully harnessed) makes the situations more vibrant, especially if the changes being made aren't a noun here and a verb there, but more in the direction of plumping up the action or depth of emotion.  

It's particularly rewarding to start working on the islands section 'fresh.'  On previous edits I worked from beginning to end fairly non-stop.  So by the time I got to the island, I was already fatigued from the long editing sessions.  I'm not fatigued this time.  

I also sent off a short story to be critiqued by INK.  Depending on what they say, I'll make some changes, polish it up, and probably bounce it off of the Lucky Labs before shipping it out.  It may be one of those stories that either works or doesn't, though.  There are certainly going to be rough spots in the prose and I probably didn't go far enough with the environmental descriptions, and that's fine.  What won't be fine is if the story isn't effective.  It's short and a buttony kind of subject and if I didn't do a good job of addressing it, it may just have to be tossed.  There's no aspect of the story I can 'save' if the heart of it doesn't work.

That's a different kind of story for me.  I'm not sure if it's because I picked a controversial subject or the fact that it's very bare bones--two scenes, short on the word count, and a simple conflict.  I won't go into what I think is its main weak point.  I'll let my readers get back to me on it.  But I'm curious to see if we see the story the same way.

Radcon is coming up.  Are we ready?  I'm not sure I am.  Physically, yeah I am.  I'll have clothes, supplies, and sometime in the next three days I'm going to take the kids to shopping with me for party supplies and groceries to sustain them through the weekend.  Emotionally?  I'm a bit of a mess, and that's not going to go away.  I'm sure I can maintain, but actually enjoy the con?  That'll be a stretch.  I anticipate lots of phone calls home, and reaching out on Skype to my DH so that my family can reassure me that everything is going to be okay.

This is a good time for me to be writing on stuff that has nothing to do with my concerns for the immediate future.  If I could do something about my circumstances besides applying bandaids, I would totally focus on that, but all I can do besides first aid is to worry, and that does absolutely no good.  A little escapism into my writing may be just what I need right now.  Speaking of which, I should get back to that now.  Don't worry!  This too shall pass.  If anything I hope it passes slowly, so I can adapt and adjust and do whatever I can.  When things zip by, well, all you can do is hang on tight.  

Year's Firsts.

WooHoo! First rejection of the year! But it was a nice, personalized one from F&SF. So wrong to call this 'rejection." Off to send that story elsewhere.

Are your stories out looking for a home? If so, congrats to you! If not, why not??

Dancing the Dance of Draft Completion

After several days of hard work I finally finished the rough draft of a new story.  I don't know if I'll polish it in time to submit it to the market I have in mind, but there's another market I think it could fit well.  It came in at 6700 words and I'm hoping to edit out about 2000-3000 of them.  Although I'm eager to work on it, I'll make myself go outside and water my poor, parched garden before everything withers to a pile of dry leaves and let it stew.  I might even leave it alone for the next few days if I discipline myself.  There are definitely other things to work on--Signet, Mayhem, Sin--not to mention I've got some pleasure reading to do (market research, I'm calling it market research so hush) and I've got a novel to finish and critique.

But the new story is so shiny and attractive!

Back away from the sparkly, Kami.  See the Do Not Touch sign?  Besides, it'll be even more shiny and attractive tomorrow.  Trust me.

Throttled by the Wire

I didn't quite make the INK deadline Friday. I worked a solid five hours on my story and got up to the last few pages, but then the story took a needed sidestep which included adding a new scene. And by ten minutes to midnight, I knew I was in no shape to write a new scene, so I tossed in the towel, emailed INK with mea culpas and a request to submit late, and went to bed.

I am, however, pleased with the story. It is shaping up nicely, and depending on what INK does to it at our next critique session, it might be my best short story to date.

Which isn't hard when I only have three completed.

But still, three!

Today I'll be finishing off the story and doing one last read through before sending it off to INK. And then I'll let myself relax for all of five minutes and pick up tomorrow, hopefully with my novel. It's been over a month since I worked on it last and it is calling my name.

I Did It

I actually did it. I submitted a short story to a market.

Wow. I feel, suddenly, real. A real writer, submitting to paying markets.

This feels good.

I need more stories to submit.

Oh, right, I have a script to write. Well, I could squeeze in a few minutes on a story, too, right?

Call for unpublished writers!

CALLING WRITERS AS YET UNPUBLISHED
In the Footsteps of Gilgamesh
(Edited by Mark S. Deniz)


1st April 2009 Gilgamesh Press will publish their first anthology, In the Footsteps of Gilgamesh. They want to help promote new writers – one of their company goals – by reserving a slot in the anthology for a story from a writer who is, as yet, unpublished in any fiction medium.

The anthology will concern itself with tales from Assyrian mythology, such as the creation story and the Epic of Gilgamesh. However, the stories in In the Footsteps of Gilgamesh will be interpretations or re-writes of these tales, and will come under the genre umbrella of speculative fiction.

This means that before you write, you are to familiarise yourself with stories from Assyrian mythology before coming up with a story that has one of the tales from old Mesopotamia as its base.

You may write, for example, a futuristic science-fiction tale, a fantasy short story which takes place on another world or a straight horror story, as long as there is clearly some reference to the story you are basing it upon within.

Your story should be between 3,000 – 5,000 words and must contain speculative fiction elements (such as those mentioned above).

Any questions for those unsure of the theme are welcome and can be directed to: mark.deniz@gilgameshpress.com

Submissions must be sent in Rich Text Format (.rtf), Double Spaced in Courier New font and the subject line should state ‘Submission: (your story title)’. Send your submissions to: competition@gilgameshpress.com

Your stories will be read by a panel of six judges and the winning entry will be chosen to be published in the anthology. The winner will also receive two copies of the book.

The deadline is 1st December 2008 and all writers will be notified as to the status of their story as soon after this date as possible.

Stop Kami, Stop!

I keep getting directed to good articles on writing and I can't seem to stop linking to them.  Here's one on the craft of short story (with thanks to James D. Macdonald to pointing it out.)  Also thanks to Uncle Jim's pointy finger, a short list directed at beginning writers that even advanced and/or published writers can benefit from.  The comments are just as fun as the list itself, although I nodded so hard at the list contents I think I sprained my neck, whereas the comments tended to meander as comments do.

Here's a new SF market, with emphasis on near-future.  So, would the moon be considered off-world?  I find it interesting that with the emphasis being so often on short and tight stories, stories under 2000 words are a hard sell to this market.  I don't think the implication is to necessarily meander, but some readers do like to linger in an environment. 

With resources like this on the web, why in the world would someone like me offer up writing advice?  Oh yeah, because I can't seem to shut up.  I think that may be a common flaw, or maybe it's an advantage, or both, of people who are writers.

Late but Done

I finally sent out a new query to an agent.  Here she is in all her glory.  Wish me luck!  Also, I've been fiddling around with (it's a secret until WotF is done with it.)  I'm hoping to get a few more comments, but if everyone is commented out I'll ship that baby off to Writers of the Future within the next couple of days.  I said it here, so now I must do it.

Can I go back to writing now?  This whole marketing thing is eating my writing time!

Dreams, Dreams, Dreams

I haven't been writing much lately (more about that in my blog), and so I seem to have caught Kami's condition of Much Dreaming When Not Writing. I have some very interesting ones in the past two weeks. Like the one where I went to Melissa Etheridge on advice about toddler beds. Or when Dad came to see me and give me a rather cryptic warning about watching out for my little brother (and yeah, Dad, you do look good). Or when I found my former manager from the university bookstore marching with my old high school band during a parade as assistant band director (I have no explanation for that one).

They have been fun (if odd) dreams. But my favorites have been the two that have given my story ideas. Two short stories, one less complex than the other and more fully formed, but still. I'm dreaming in short stories now. I guess some of Carole is rubbing off on my too. I never saw myself as a short story writer, but I'm glad I've given myself room to become one.

Short?

I wrote a short story yesterday, the first one in a year.  It's not a good length for me, and I think the lack of dynamic plot is telling.  This could easily be the first chapter of a book, it's so quiet.  (Nooooooooooooooooooooo!)

But I'll submit it to INK the next time around and see what happens.  

The things I'll do to avoid working on taxes.  Now I have a list of avoidance.  Things that are higher on the list will get done before things on the bottom of the list in an effort to avoid doing the things on the bottom of the list.

Vacuum, do dishes

Work on a troublesome novel opening

Wash windows, scrub out tubs and toilets

Trim cat claws

Write a short story

Work on taxes

Yippee!

I hit my 70 pages today. That feels good. I'm going to keep going, though, since I revised the short story I started last week to be the prequel to Inkwell Cult rather than the sequel. It's working better, too, and I hope Inkwell will work better because of it. And I just adore Travis, so any excuse to bring him into a story faster works for me.

I have another car 'character' to add to the story as well. I figured out that Travis drives a 1929 Ford Model A truck. I'm sure Carole will correct me if I'm not defining it right. Travis strikes me a truck kinda guy. I've not given a car before now because I didn't see him as flush enough to afford one (and with public transportation not a problem in 1930s Chicago, I didn't worry about it). But now he's had to get himself into the mountains of West Virginia, so it seemed wiser to give him a car.

He got it cheap at an estate auction after the owner's suicide after the Crash. It was close to new then, but he's driven it all over and so it isn't running so great now. And Travis, for all his manliness, isn't much for mechanics. I'm thinking that Maud, with one of the help's assistance, does tinker on cars, having had her dad's old Model T to play with. So she might offer to have a look at the truck, which would be a nice introduction for the two.

Which means I need to research some basics about engines in Model T's and Model A's. Um, Carole . . . ?

Deading the Line

Thanks to a snow warning tomorrow, I have a slight reprieve on my encroaching deadline.

My brother and all four of his girls were going to visit tomorrow, meaning I'd have very little time free to finish editing [Sorry, can't tell you] for the WotF contest. But he's not going to want to drive the hour or so through snow to reach us and chance getting stuck here, so instead of refereeing the girls I'll have more time to finish [Still can't tell you!]. Kate will miss playing with her cousins, but I'll make up for it by spending time out in the snow.

If it really does snow. One can never be too certain, afterall.

I have spent time on [Shh, it's a secret] today working on the transition from new opening to pre-existing story. I have one more transition to write, based on exposition I had already written so that part of the scene is fleshed out, and then I'll just be tweaking and correcting the rest of the piece. I'm glad to be near the end of bluescreen writing. While I struggle with rough draft writing in general, bluescreen writing scenes to inject into a pre-existing story is like facing undergoing a root canal. I just dread it. It isn't as relaxing as tweaking what's there and it isn't as creative as cutting loose in a rough draft. I'm bound to a text that I have to try to match in tone and structure and plot. I find it tedious to contemplate, though once I'm into the actual writing, the tedium usually falls away as I get back into the story and the characters. Thankfully, or I'd never get it finished.

So I'm looking forward to being finished with the last bit of bluescreen so I can go back to editing. Much looking forward to the plain old editing.

Purgatory is, I think, ready to send out to INK. I'm at the stage where when I read through it I don't find errors but find that the whole piece stinks and should be trashed. That's usually a sign that I need a reader, stat! I don't think it's short enough, but I can't find the obvious places that I know exist that can be deleted. Definitely time for readers. I'll do a line edit tomorrow and spend it off.

With all this gnashing of teeth about bluescreen writing for edits and doubting the veracity of a story, I'm ready to sit down to some nice, non-judgmental rough draft writing. And luckily I have my new short story primed for more words.

Researching the Market

I picked up the current issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. I've been wanting to read short stories in my preferred genre and I know this magazine leans toward noir. Not that I've been writing noir, but I'd like to. Hence the research.

I'm enjoying the magazine immensely. I'm foreseeing a subscription in my future. Having a Hammett short in it was just icing. I haven't read a story I didn't like.

I've also realized that maybe I'm not a noir writer. But that isn't going to stop me from giving it a try. I'm picking up some of the nuances of the genre and as soon as I can figure up a good plot, I'll see what I can come up with.

Next on my researching list: a fantasy magazine (might go with Realms on that one) and a romance magazine (Romantic Times might help me find one). And I'll pick up a copy of Glimmer Train to check out the literary market.

Anyone have other suggestions?

Which One

I have a lot of stories to choose from.  They all have flaws.  I'm having a hard time committing.  I thought I'd go with Comes in Colors, aka Colorized, but now I'm having doubts.  So I've decided to throw this list online, basically thinking aloud, to see what happens.  (In other words, I'm inflicting my thoughts on the universe, not asking that everyone vote, although if you have suggestions I am so, so willing to hear them!)  

It's really hard to judge my own stuff.  I have the same trouble painting.  The ones people gravitate to are not my faves, generally speaking.  I'm only looking at fairly recent stories.  I don't want to dredge up really old ones for WotF.

[Secret WotF sub]:  People remember it.  It's pretty clean (though Ris is right, it could use trimming.)  It has some good visuals.  Overall, though, I'm afraid the idea is not very creative, and it certainly doesn't have much punch.  Even after editing I don't think it'll be a vivid story.

Calling In:  I think it's funny, and it recently got funnier thanks to some tightening and a plot adjustment.  I like that it's very short, the shortest thing I've written.  But, it's humor.  Humor is hard, and humor pieces deserve recognition, but I don't know if this humor piece does.  

Flight:  This is the oldest of the stories I'm considering.  It's also a shorter story.  The tale of the engineered child whose first flight is recorded in JonBenet Ramsey style has some moments that I still think about, but I think I missed the mark with it.  I dunno.

Invaders:  Although this idea of robots being engineered to imitate alien invaders is nothing new, I think having the pov from the robot is unique.  The critique I got from Strange Horizons when I offered it for publication was that it was a near miss but it felt 'slight.'  I guess I didn't go deep enough, or the situation was too cliche'.  I don't know if I'll be able to get out from under that response to submit it to a contest.

Walking the Earth:  This rambling story about an alien born on Earth after his ancestors crash landed here has some fun moments, but plot-wise it verges on a mini-novel.  It's a classic Kami short story in the sense that I had a novel plot and tidied it up enough to fit into a short story.  I've had cleaner ideas but I really like the characters in this one.

[Secret Future WotF entry]:  A story about a general who switches to the losing side of a war.  I like that she dies at the end, and how that happens, but the opening starts on one of Diedre's nits--with a bloody fight.  I suppose I could change the opening.  It wouldn't even be that hard.  Despite being last on my list, this is the one I'm closest to considering submitting to WotF instead of [The Current Actual Entry.]

I just realized that I could submit Comes in Colors one quarter, and Causes another.

And I really need to start writing more short stories if I'm going to be submitting to contests.  Sheesh, you guys, I'm a novelist!  I'm not even supposed to be here!

Absolution

The wonderful Kelly McCullough over at Wyrdsmiths has given a blanket absolution to anyone gnawing the fingernails of guilt over unfinished projects. I really needed to read that today, since I have been struggling with my decision to shelve the newer projects that weren't working for me.

Now that the guilt is behind me, I can channel all that energy into completing my newest short story. "The Wrong Side" is going very well. I have 11 pages on it now and I know where it's going to end up, which is a good feeling. I'm leaving the ending open in my head, so if any more surprises come up, I can let the story follow them without wrecking the mystery of it. It's rather fun not knowing myself who exactly 'did it.'

It's a murder mystery, btw. Guess I should have mentioned that.

I also spent some time this morning editing "Purgatory," an older short story in desperate need of a new title. I have several title ideas.

It's an odd story because I feel like it works just like I want it to, but I have the feeling that my fellow INKers will pick it apart. I'm curious to see how it will hold up under a critique and if my opinion about the story will change, but right now, I rather feel like I'm almost ready to send it out. I just need to know if the ending works like I want it too. Might be too vague. It will most likely be my first submission of the new year for INK to critique.

And I might just start research a market for it. I have no idea exactly where I might send it, because it isn't a genre piece. That will involve more research, but also a couple trips to the bookstores to check out some of the literary journals. Might be right for one of those. I honestly can't say at this point, but I'm curious to find out.

It would be a riot if this was the first short story I managed to publish in a professional market. My one non-genre piece. Not that I'd be disappointed. Oh goodness me no!

Virus Non Grata

I think I caught Carole's cold through the internet. Anyway, thanks! I was missing that sore throat. But the cold ease is helping. As are my vitamins and pain meds. And lots of cold water.

Funny thing, hot drinks never have helped sore throats for me so much. But cold, as cold as I can manage, does wonders! Bring on those shakes and smoothies!

Not much has happened in writing this week, what with the cold and putting together Kate's birthday party. Except I do know the next couple of scenes for my short story and I think I know how I want to end it. I got a little stuck trying not to let it turn into a novel, then remembered the trick I've been using in my Nano novel--that emotional 180 in the scenes. I decided to apply that to the whole short story and that got me out of my stuckness. I have a bit of a theme going now, I think. I'm hoping to get a few pages written on it tomorrow and then more on Sunday. Maybe not enough to make my quota for the week, but better than nothing.

I am looking forward to Kate's party. She is too.

In other news, INK business cards arrived today. I guess that means we can be all official!

Shorts

There is a great discussion on Wyrdmiths about writing and publishing short stories. I found it timely considering how we'd discussion writing short stories at our last get together.

Rather than be swayed to stay away from writing shorts, I'm rather more inclined to try my hand at them. I like the discussion on how short story writing can give a writer more chances to take risks in writing and explore different techniques. It makes sense to me to do that in a short rather than in a novel; the time commitment is so vastly different between the two that I could see the benefit of playing with the craft in a short more than in a novel.

I also think I'm going to subscribe to a couple of genre magazines to read more in the market. The more I read shorts, perhaps the more I'll start thinking short stories. It's a working theory, anyway.

I am going to finish editing A Fool's Errand, too. I like the idea of trying to submit it. And maybe brushing off my other two finished shorts with edits. And maybe trying to think up so more ideas.

After Nano, of course.