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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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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Vampire Family Story Done
I’m done revising Vampire Family Story, and I’m pleased with how it turned out. Unfortunately, it also ballooned up to 6,000 words, which limits some of my publishing options. It’s no Hugo Winner, but it’s a good story, and I think I improved it to the point where many people will be pleased. I wondered, as I was revising, whether I was trying to please everyone. I tried to only fix problems that multiple people complained about. But even multiple people can be wrong (and make me pump the story to too many words. That’s the double-edged sword with getting a lot of critiques. Too many cooks can spoil the…
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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…
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Vampire Family Story: Polls Are Closed!
I have the final results of the Vampire Family story from Critters. It seems that reaction was overall positive. Several people said they liked the concept. A few said it seemed pulpy and they didn’t like it. When there’s contradictions like that, especially regarding the central idea, I don’t listen. It’s one of those cases where I’ve got to write what I’ve got to write, and if I try to please everybody, I end up pleasing nobody. I was especially pleased to find out one of my writing instincts was right, and I should have gone along with it. I made the beginning bulkier in order to show the relationship…
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Current Update
I’ve finished with Vampire Family Story for now and submitted it to Critters. It really didn’t need a whole lot of restructuring, except for the first scene which still bothers me. There’s just no way to communicate all that information without telling. And I’m wondering how much of the gun I need to reveal in the first act for it to show up in the third, and not need to extend the story so much. It’s already at capacity, about 5,000 words. I need an objective opinion on it at this point. Now I’m working on White Mage Story, and its just a hoot. Again, needs condensing. I don’t know…