Asimov’s, the premiere science fiction magazine, is now accepting electronic submissions. One of the big three down, two to go (Analog, and F&SF). Oh boy, Asimov’s, I hope you know what you’re getting into. If you thought you got slush before… wait’ll they get a load of me. “Submit her? I am going to destrooooy her.”
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The Final Word on The Shine Journal
I sent my last blog entry to said editor of The Shine Journal. As you could read, it wasn’t an apology, it wasn’t a redaction. It was a re-evaluation. I don’t know what I was expecting for a response, if I was expecting one at all, but I would have liked it to be a bit more magnanimous than it was. Her tone was extremely defensive and proud. Maybe it’s all the Lamebook I’ve been reading, but it feels like adolescent behavior–can’t leave an issue alone, attacks all forms of disparagement, always has to have the last word, uses too many exclamation points The first thing she said was that…
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Aftermath With The Shine Journal
I may have made a mistake. A big one. Maybe. This refers to the last post I made where I compared “The Shine Journal” and “Sorcerous Signals”. First, I want to say why I said what I said. To me, the name of the name game is to get published. To get published you have to get noticed. You get noticed by getting into the big magazines. To get into the big magazines, you get into the small ones first. At least that’s my battle plan. The purpose of this blog is to track my progress and leave an account of what I did or how I did it. However,…
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Midwest Literary Magazine Is Helpful
While I was busy helping my wife poop out a tax deduction, I garnered a few rejections in the e-mail box, natch. One of those came from the Midwest Literary Magazine for Vampire Family Story. They gave me one of the most complete personal rejections I’ve ever received. He told me what he liked and didn’t like. AND he gave me a recommendation on where next to send it to. This is a good sign. The more personal the rejections get, the closer you are to being thought about by an editor for selected. Plus a recommendation is already a +5 to acceptance. The hard part is trimming the story.…
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Yearly Rant Against Scalzi
Seems like everyone’s talking about John Scalzi’s rant against Black Matrix press – a short story junket that pays $0.005 cents per word. In one corner, Scalzi calls this a pittance, an insult, and encourages his followers never to submit your work to such a magazine that values your words so poorly. In the other corner is everyone else in the world who is not John Scalzi. It seems like Scalzi says one stupid thing each year, like he’s handing out judgement to the commoners. Last year it was his justification for blog tyranny, and his idea that his blog was private property. This year, it’s like Van Halen declaring…
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Daikaijuzine Rejection
Daikaijuzine rejected Avatar yesterday. Normally, I wouldn’t write about this, but their rejection came in the form of a limerick. That’s right, a limerick. A story transcending the mass—we hoped that we’d found it at last,but page-turning plotis something it’s notwe’re sorry—we’ll just have to pass. Now, if I were a lesser man, I’d be angry about this. It seems insulting to me, in a childish way. This is not a response I’d expect from a professional magazine. Would you? I read it as saying “I had hoped to find a transcendant story, but your story did not have a page-turning plot, so I will pass”. That in itself sounds…
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More RFDRs for BHS (and other initials)
Two more requests for RFDRs this weekend (RFDR is Critter talk for I’m willing to suffer through your novel for a load of credits, as opposed to plinking away at the first 2,000-word story I see in the queue each week). This means about 5 or so people will have looked at my novel at varying scopes (that is, if they all complete it). This is a good thing, but it also means I have to suffer through a few of their novels myself. Meantime, got an idea for a short story. Might be writing it after I finish composing the Mermaid Story outline. After that, I’m not sure if…
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No Hub
Still working on refining the Mermaid Story outline. In the meantime, I’m checking up on my short story submissions. “Thicker Than Water” got rejected from Shiny, no big deal there, and now it’s off to its next destination. Fairy Kingdom is at Electric Spec, no word expected until July. Avatar is still rotting away at Hub, and it’s expired its allotted time according to both itself and Duotrope/Ralan’s. So I sent my first “what’s the status of my story” query. Initially, I wasn’t sure what to say, but my vast experience in cover letters asking for employment has taught me to be short and sweet. And especially in this business,…
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Doggonnit, People Like Me
I got another request to do a novel exchange, this time with an actually published author. Granted he’s from Spain, and English isn’t his first language (or second), but I’m quite happy that, if my wife ever finishes her Kathy Reichs’ books, I’ll have four pairs of eyes looking at it. This is good, because it means people are interested in reading it. And if people are interested, maybe publishers will see that too. Hopefully, I get thoughtful reviews and critiques. It’s not easy slogging through 140,000 words. Vampire Family Story was submitted to Hungur Magazine – an anthology of vampire stories. It’s 2,000 words over the submission limit, so…
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Where am I at? (For the 0 people who care)
Short stories: I’ve finished Fairy Kingdom and sent to to Flash Fiction Online. We just passed the min time for expecting a reply, so hopefully I should know something soon. Revising White Mage story was a pain in the ass, because of all the restructuring, and I’m wondering whether I improved the story or nerfed it. It feels like its less than it was now, but maybe that’s because there’s too much here for a short story. I’m working on Vampire Family story now, which is getting too mixed for me to figure out what to do. And Avatar continues to languish in Hub-land. While I’m on the subject I…