Written by M.E. Ray on July 9th, 2010
Redstone Science Fiction swallowed June. And it was fun. One issue could have been an accident, two suggests a pattern. I got everything done and got it online. Scored an interview with Fantasy Magazine editor Cat Rambo, which was picked up by io9, which gave us the traffic push we needed. The stories we published are quite good. I love the weirdness of Michelangelo’s Chisel and the clever metafiction of Elevator Episodes in Seven Genres. Quality essays and our science interview was with a leading surgeon. The first two have gone well.
I’ve probably spent too much time monitoring things and keeping up with the site and communicating about it, but it has been fun. We’ve picked up some excellent stories this summer. We will have the minimum we need for next spring by the end of summer.
I still haven’t written anything, but I know I have a better feel for how things should go. I discovered that my dead netbook only needed a power chord, so I’m hoping to parlay that into a mobile writing platform.
As for Real Life, I’ve finally gotten ahead of the grass in the pasture and have done some work on the roof. This whole house could be replaced piece by piece. That it’s paid for is its cardinal virtue.
I’ve been working out and just the other day reached a goal – benching 135 lbs. (bar and big plate on each end) two sets of 25 repetitions. I have not been good about going into town to do my elliptical and will start back Sunday. (I did spend a couple of hours on a ladder & the roof in 105 heat index yesterday, so I guess that can count).
It’s time to start making my plans for teaching my classes next year, so I expect I will begin going in to school Monday and get work done and then workout in the mornings. We’ll see.
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Written by M.E. Ray on June 13th, 2010
The first issue of Redstone Science Fiction went online June 1st.
The site worked well and the posting of everything went as planned. The stories are good and we hoped the essays and interviews would reinforce the fiction. Instead, io9 and several other sites picked up the kick-ass interview with Lou Anders done by our friend David Alastair Hayden and traffic went through the roof. As that excitement began to calm down, the writing contest that we are sponsoring that draws on Sarah Einstein’s essay, The Future Imperfect, about the portrayal of disability in science fiction was also picked up by io9 and drew attention all over the internet, going beyond usual SF circles, including a BBC Blog and the Utne Reader. It’s been much bigger than we had hoped.
We also started taking submissions on the 1st and have worked through about 20% of them. We are trying an unusual plan of opening between the 1st & 15th of each month this summer. It will keep us in the market for stories, but keep us from being overwhelmed by submissions while we put the next issue together. If it works we may make it our thing. We’ve gotten some submissions from a few well-known writers and the general level of submissions seems better. I’ve also arranged to reprint one of my favorite stories from recent years.
Some where in there I was interviewed twice, which is fun.
I have been reading stories from Charlie Stross’ short story collection, Wireless
He has that skill of keeping you interested that can’t be quantified.
I have been submitting my completed stories, but I haven’t written anything new. I’ve spent every evening keeping up with developments with Redstone SF. I think I have a much better understanding of what a successful story should do, but I have to make time to make it happen. We’ll see.
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Written by M.E. Ray on May 18th, 2010
My school year is coming to an end. I led successful reviews for the AP US History Exam and did what I could for my AP Macroeconomics students (I’m still not an expert on the material yet). I’m finishing up my history classes with the Civil War and Reconstruction. I’m also finishing up my last football commitment by doing spring football for the upcoming freshmen. It is a very good group, but it reminds me that coaching is not worth the time commitment for me anymore. I got to take part in my school’s spring band concert, reading a narration and (ironically) the National Hymn. The band is an outstanding organization, and I was very excited to take part, and things went quite well.
Paul’s (my friend and RSF publisher) house in Nashville was flooded and he’s been handling it well, but it is a huge task to set things right. I spent a couple of days there, but he’s been nonstop for two weeks. We were nearly finished with Redstone submissions when the disaster struck, and were able to finish up.
I read over 200 story submissions for Redstone Science Fiction. We accepted ten and a reprint. It seems that I have managed things pretty well. We have a twitter presence, a facebook presence, and have regular traffic to the site.
We’ve done a couple of interviews, and one I did ended up being referenced by John Scalzi on Whatever, which was infinitely cool.
The website layout has received several compliments and I’ve got most of the pages for the June issue done. We’ve got the non-fiction to finish up, but that will happen in the next few days. We very excited because our good friend Sarah Einstein, who is writing an essay for us, won a Pushcart Prize for 2011 for her creative non-fiction.
We may have peaked a little early, but I think we will get a lot of traffic, come the first. I still need to complete the writeup of a couple of interviews and my own essay on ‘writing’ books.
I’ve submitted and been rejected up and down the line since my acceptances this spring. I’m putting everything back out, two submitted today. I think I can write better after my first Redstone experience. I’ll have plenty of time when school is done in a week and a half. We’ll see.
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Tags: Distractions, RedstoneSF, Rejections, Submitting, Writing
Written by M.E. Ray on April 23rd, 2010
We have been working constantly on Redstone Science Fiction. We’ve read over 100 stories and sent out nearly 90 rejections. (We’ve chosen a couple of stories we want). There are about a hundred more to go in the slushpile. I’ve been recruiting writers for our features & columns and setting up interviews. I’ve also given a couple of online interviews. Need to finish the pile and write my own column. I’m going to establish an editor’s blog on the site to go along with the facebook and twitter pages We have had a lot of traffic and looking forward to our first issue being online in 39 days.
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Written by M.E. Ray on April 9th, 2010
We opened for submissions at Redstone Science Fiction at 3/15. It has been amazing. We got just over 200 submissions in three weeks, when we closed for submissions on 4/4, so we wouldn’t be overwhelmed. I learned a great deal in submitting stories and have incorporated that into the magazine plan.
The magazine experience has been enlightening when it comes to considering my own writing. If I can write up to the level to which we are trying find in the stories we want to publish, I’ll be much more successful. It’s odd being on the other side. I have more empathy for the editors and I can so easily see the weaknesses in these stories, can I avoid them in my own, or will it freeze me up?
The time consumption has been even more than we expected, but we will be able to stay under our ‘query’ deadline. We’ve got some good stories and at least one great one, so far.
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Tags: Distractions, RedstoneSF
