January, 2010

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Plugging away

Friday, January 29th, 2010

I have resubmitted all my stories, except ‘Detention’. I’ve considered rewriting it, but I may just stick with it as is. I think the website/podcast will be interesting to do. I’m researching the best way to get quality submissions. I’m hoping the higher payrate will help, but you have to get teh word out there somehow. I have the general course of my next story and the basic protagonist. I need to work out the specific conflicts.

I have been exercising regularly and strenuously after school. I’ve also made sure to eat better and take my vitamins. I’m getting better about sleep. the problem is setting aside the time to write. I think the time to write has got to be carved out between 7pm and 9pm. After the dog walk & supper and before I run out of steam. I have to work it around time I spend with my wife watching TV and time I spend on the internet. Systematizing my daily activities & chores around the morning & evening dog walks has gone quite well. I just need to extend that a little farther to include writing time.

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A Magazine of My Own?

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

I’ve finally decided to take a swing at my own online science fiction magazine, now that I’ve got a little experience with the conventions of the field.

I’ve made a list of things that I need to do:
1) Choose an appealing name
2) Make sure I can get the domain name (I can’t believe that sciencefiction.com and fantasy.com are ‘parked’ on by squatters and no one has bought them.)
3) Determine what needs to be done for taxes and business license.
4) Set up a high-quality professional website, probably with WordPress, even if I have a to buy a good theme.
5) Set up a couple of website specific gmail addresses for communication and business.
6) Find a standard contract to use.
7) Pay a high rate for stories, above the minimum for Science Fiction Writers of America, probably 10 cents a word to try to get better submissions and quicker recognition.
8) Make provisions to create a podcast of the stories.
9) Determine the best way to eventually incorporate ads.
10) Start with a very slow publication schedule – like one story every other month.
11) Possibly add other content, reviews, flash fiction, etc.
12) Set-up and keep up with facebook & twitter pages.
13) Expect to start by mid-year, not right away.
14) Do not expect it to be profitable or even pay for itself.

Follow up 1/16/10:
1) Redstone Science Fiction
2) got it – http://redstonesciencefiction.com
5) mail accounts are set up
6) found the template I want
12) facebook page still private; http://twitter.com/redstonesf

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Ancient Bridge accepted

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

The first story of my modern era, “The Ancient Bridge”, was accepted by Sams Dot Publishing and will be published October 2010 in Beyond Centauri, a YA Science Fiction & Fantasy quarterly. It’s a coming of age story with swords, lost causes, and bandits.

Hypersonic Tales, the e-zine that has accepted “Service”, is running a little behind. I’m getting antsy to see it out there.

“Alchemy” is out. “DIY” is past the average response time for the market, which could be good, or it could just be the holidays. Got an almost on “An Advance on Junior”.

I’m tinkering with the ending of “Advance” and trying to decide where to send it. I guess I should send it to the other top markets that move relatively quickly, just to make sure, and then work towards a more likely market. My skin is getting increasingly thick and the rejections are less daunting, but it’s the lost time that is frustrating now.

I think the convention of no simultaneous submissions shows just how much the field has enormous supply and minimal demand. It’s a pain as a writer. Of course, if simultaneous submissions were the norm in this modern age of electronic submission, then we’d all just e-mail/post all our stories to all the top markets at the same time and they’d be swamped all the time. And it would be up to the writers to tell markets to withdraw an accepted work. Oh yes, we’d all do that. As much as I enjoy a little chaos, it really does make sense. Oh well.

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Moving Forward

Monday, January 4th, 2010

I tell myself that I have been generally useless for about a month. I haven’t written anything new and am determined to begin anew, but I have been active.
- I spruced up the middle of Alchemy. The freshly edited version of it went to and was passed on by Fantasy and Science Fiction, but they pass on almost everything they get in slush.
- It’s disturbing how many small problems I found when I closely edited it on paper before sending it. I don’t want to linger on stories I think of as “done”, but this did give me pause.
- I submitted it to the new, well-heeled site, Lightspeed. They have a very fast online submission and turnaround (and rejection) rate.
- I’m concerned that I sound like a broken record on the rejections and that I seem unhappy and that I expect only to be rejected. This is not the case. I’m a ‘new’ and unknown writer and I have written stories that are not terrible. I’ve been submitting them to the top magazines and websites in the genre. The stories are not over-the-top or earth-shattering and are more a result of me learning how to take innate story-telling and game-plotting/running and converting it to short fiction. It’s to be expected that the places that publish well-known authors are unlikely to to accept my stories. That’s okay. I understand how things work and I’ve learned the conventions of writing and submitting. I won’t always be rejected, but I know that I handle difficulty better when I do not ‘have my hopes up’.
- I’m very excited that one piece of flash fiction, Service, has been accepted at Hypersonic Tales, and I am anxious to see it online (hurry up guys!). Many writers never even get this far. And that was only three weeks ago.
- I’m keeping everything submitted, and this is one of the slowest parts of the year for magazines/websites – even slushpile readers need a holiday.
- I start back to work tomorrow. We are finally all healthy, for now, and I’ve got several things to work on: exercise, cooking, preparing new AP Economics lessons and renewing my US History stuff, working on the house, reading fiction and books on writing, assisting my wife as she goes back to school for another MA – this one in History/Education, easing out of both being my Educators Association President & coaching and, of course, writing. It’s so easy to let it get away from you.
- We’ll see if I can pick it up with a new year and new systems in place.

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