Living the Fictional Dream

Waiting is never fun, but right now it seems less fun than ever! A literary flash piece that I wrote a few months ago was accepted by a literary e-zine. It is supposed to be published in their September issue, but that issue still has not appeared on their website. I emailed the editors once to ask about the publication date and was told to expect it on September 15. That day has come and gone, but no new story for me to happily announce on my blog!

Anyway, I don’t mean to complain (at least not too much). I know that e-zines operate without much staff, basically depending on the efforts of the dedicated few who do all the work. I understand that there can be issues and delays.

But, dang it, I do want to see that story out in the world. I’m anxious to know what other people think of it! And, there is also the fear that the e-zine will fold without publishing my story. The last time I had a piece accepted by an e-zine that kept moving the publication date back, it folded and I had to start anew searching for a home for that story. This one took me longer to place the first time (sometimes I think mainstream/literary fiction is more subjective to editors than even genre fiction, but maybe that’s just because I specialize more in the genre fiction), and I would hate to have to start over.

Though, if the worst case scenario happened and I did have to start over, I did eventually re-place the story from the first time an e-zine went under on me. I’m sure I could do it again, if necessary.

Right now, though, I’m just going to cross my fingers and hope that the September issue of the literary e-zine publishing my story makes it out soon. I was impressed with some of the stories in their previous issue, so I would love to see what else they have to offer!

I recieved an interesting rejection today. The editor of a fairly prestigious e-zine said, “No to this, but please keep trying us?” Short, sweet, and to the point, but also a rejection with a grain of hope. And not a dreaded form rejection, either.

After I read the note, I stared at it for a while, trying to parse the appropriate meaning from that question mark at the end of the sentence. It seems a very deliberate punctuation choice. A period would be the norm, but a question mark means something else entirely.

This particular market has rejected quite a few of my stories. Perhaps the editor meant that question mark as an acknowledgement of that, and also hopes that I will continue to submit to them despite the number of rejections? If that’s it, if the editor actually remembers who I am and that I’ve sent stuff before, maybe that means that they really like my voice, and, as yet, I just haven’t sent them a story that quite fits with the e-zine? That I’m almost there…

That would definitely be a nice thing to believe! It’s a market I would particularly like to appear in, both because it pays better than a token payement and it is a fairly well-known market, at least in e-zine circles.

I probably shouldn’t overthink it. It’s just as possible that the question mark was a typo. That thought brings to mind Eats, Shoots and Leaves and the example of the difference between “the panda eats shoots and leaves” and “the panda eats, shoots, and leaves.” Gotta watch out for those gun-toting pandas, yeah?

Either way, the rejection leaves me inspired on two counts. First, I need to keep pressing on that particular story. There must be a home for it somewhere! And, second, I need to write more of the kind of story that this particular e-zine publishes so I can try them again.

Yesterday, I got the proofs for my story, “Bridge Club,” that will come out in the October issue of A Thousand Faces. I spent a few minutes reading the story all over again. It was actually more enjoyable reading it with a little distance between myself and it. A little like reading something new.

A lot of times, after a write a story, I grow to hate it. I guess it depends on how much time has passed since the writing, but after a while, I just can’t stand those old stories any more. Maybe it’s because of my growth as a writer, or maybe it’s just my hyper inner critic (I notice a lot of writers have one of those!), but it tends to happen. But “Bridge Club,” I still really like. (The same with “The Widow and the Stranger” — I don’t get tired of that one, as far as my own stories go.)

Anyway, back to my original topic, I love getting the proofs for a story that’s been accepted. It turns a nebulous acceptance into something real and concrete, like the story is actually going to happen. I’ve had around a dozen stories accepted now, and it never gets to be old hat. Maybe it’s not quite as earthshattering as it was the first couple of times, but I still get that “squee” feeling when the acceptance comes in the in-box. It’s not why I write, but it is why I send stuff out on submission — well, that and the “squee” that comes when I talk to other people who’ve actually read the stories.

I currently have three stories coming out this fall and a fourth slated to come out next March, so that should be a nice line-up of sqeeage for the upcoming months. As always, you can read about it here when they are available for public consumption!

Before I wind things up, I just want to shout out a quick congratulations to my writing group mate, Jens, who just had a story accepted by Every Day Fiction, too. It’s a quirky little piece staring his 19th century steampunk adventuring duo Blankenship and Dawes called “Chrono-Conundrum.” I’ll definitely link to that one here when it’s available.

Happy Friday, all! Here’s hoping we all get some good writing done over this holiday weekend!

This article is a list of publishing terms. Some of them I knew from my day job (we publish reference materials), but some of them were new on me.

I was cruising the EDF forums this morning, and I found a link to this website. I didn’t know there were markets overseas that would translate English short stories and publish them (some for a nice fee). Of course, I read all the time on agent and author blogs about selling the foreign rights to novels, but the short story idea is a new one on me. I wonder if it is worth trying, or if you’d have to have big name publishing credits like Asimov’s, etc., to get in the door… Hmmm…

June was a hotbed of writing goodness for me. Acceptances and published stories all over the place. Since then, things have been pretty slow. Molassas, even. Though, as always, the rejections trickle in.

I’m waiting to hear about another semi-related gig, as well. No details on that right now, but if it pans out, you’ll be sure to hear about it here!

I don’t know where the summer has gone! I can’t believe it’s August already. I swear I just blinked at it was June! Of course, my day job as a technical writer has been overwhelming lately, so that is the reason behind some of that. And it looks like things at work will stay hectic throughout the fall (as fall is our traditional “busy season”).

But, I shall perservere and find time to write. On Monday, I finally wrote that new superhero story that I’d been ruminating on for a while. It’s about a girl with the power to change her appearance (face and body type). It turned into a nice little flash piece, if I do say so myself. We’ll see how it does at the market to which I sent it.

I don’t know that I should call the girl a superhero, specifically — at least not with all the baggage that term implies (Alex wrote a really interesting post about that recently… read it!). It’s more that she happens to have this amazing power — the term superhero seems to suggest that she is all about using her power for the forces of good and justice, and I’m not sure this character has such pure motivations.

Of course, characters who fall into the shades of gray are inherently more interesting than those who are black and white, in my opinion.

All right, that is enough babble from me today. I hope you all have an awesome Thursday!

The more stories you get out there, the more chances you have of getting published. A real “duh” statement, huh? But… I don’t know… sometimes I need to be reminded of that.

It can take so long to hear back on a story, it feels like they fall into a void for a while, even as I am obsessively checking my email to see if I’ve gotten any responses. Sometimes I need to think about tossing more stories into the void to see if they hit solid ground instead of waiting around for the stories to come back.

I read a thread on the Every Day Fiction forums about some of the regular contributors. There are authors at EDF who get stories published with as much regularity as every month. It was nice to hear some of those regulars say on the forum that to get that many stories into EDF, they max out their submission opportunities.

EDF allows an author to have three stories in their slush pile at a time (which is pretty unusual), and some of these repeat authors have three stories in the slush constantly. Talk about a dedicated approach! And yet, those authors have the credits at EDF to prove that it works.

It seems a method that one could apply to one’s writing in general. It’s simple, right? Get those stories out there, and keep them going.

Of course… that means I need to actually write some new stories! Luckily, tomorrow is my writing group’s monthly write-in. Two hours of writing with friends. There is something great about a write-in for getting the creative energy flowing. I have a werewolf story that is almost finished — my goal for tomorrow is to complete the revisions on that sucker, and then maybe I’ll even see if I can find a likely market or two for it!

In other news, I found this article about unstoppable rules for writing short stories interesting.

The eternal question of a writer trying to get published, right?

The thing is, it’s so hard to tell. I doubt there’s any way to really answer that question. Perhaps if one knew an editor (publishing company, magazine, etc.)… Interviews, such as D.L. Snell’s, might give some clues, but even that is based on how the editor was feeling on that particular day.

I’ve been reading and listening to stories in more of the professional publications lately, and sometimes it’s hard to tell why those stories got accepted and mine didn’t. Now, some of the stories there are blow-away, and that’s obviously why they were picked. But others… not as much. And I’ve read stories that blew me away in smaller publications, too. “Junk Drawer” in the previous issue of Allegory (the issue before the one in which “The Widow and the Stranger” appeared) had me thinking about it for days. Some stories I’ve read at EDF have amazed me, too. So the professional publications don’t corner the market on the best fiction. Far from it!

In the end, I guess reading is just too subjective to quantify. And if my reading is that subjective, editors’ reading must be as well. My first writing prof (taught undergrad fiction writing) said that publishing was 10% the work of writing a finely crafted story and 90% the luck of getting that story on the right editor’s desk at the right time (i.e., when they were in the right mood for the story to appeal to them). I don’t remember the exact percentages, but it was something quite lopsided like that.

Of course, reading the stories or books published by a market will give you some insight into what the editors want. But the stories can vary so wildly in quality, style, subject, etc., that it really seems to become more of a crapshoot.

I suppose there is no secret to this (though if you’ve found it, please share in the comments!). The best thing to do is to focus on honing one’s craft and making each story the best it can possibly be, then sifting through the multitude of markets out there and submitting repeatedly until you find one that sticks.

Lately, I’ve been fighting the excuse monster — that insiduous little voice inside my head that whispers excuses for not writing. I’m too tired. I’m too busy. I have no ideas. The list goes on and on.

Now, there is a difference between a reason and an excuse. Sometimes, you really do have writer’s block or you just worked a ton of overtime and are brain-fried. But, other times, you’re just giving into the excuse monster.

I guess it’s the same for any aspect of your life. You have to put time into something to get something out of it or to get to the next level. If I don’t spend time writing stories and honing my craft, I’m won’t have stories to submit or ever improve in my craft. Both of those mean that this writing thing is never going to be any more than a hobby for me.

Writing as a hobby isn’t a bad thing. Tons of people do it. But I want something more. And if I want that something more, then I have to banish the excuse monster and his whispers about laundry, returning phone calls, and surfing the Internet, and get writing.

Of course, even still, the odds are against me. There are way more aspiring authors/novelists out there than those that get published every year. But, to quote one of my favorite movies, “Your odds go up when you file an application.”

What about you guys? Career or hobby? What do you think? And what do you think will help you achieve your goal?

In other news, I had a literary flash piece accepted today, so yay! Two acceptances in one week is a very good week.

Man, this week is flying by, and I feel like I haven’t gotten a chance to actually read anything good or work on any stories. Perhaps all the work I did over the holiday had to be counter-balanced? My actual work-work has been very demanding this week, and after I get home, I’ve had little to no brain power left. Plus, there’s been overtime. Not to mention car troubles. Ug!

On the plus side, last night was a submit-a-palooza. I went through all my pending stories and submitted any that had been rejected. I also submitted a few that had already been simultaneously submitted to some new markets, as well. Hopefully work that will pay off in a few weeks or months with some acceptances!

Sometimes, it’s hard to know what market will be the best fit for a story. There are so many out there to choose from — at least when you’re talking about basic literary markets or basic fantasy markets, which were what I was looking for last night. If you go for something a little more specialized, like Christian markets or markets that specifically want superhero fictions, there are fewer to choose from.

The easiest way to find a market that fits, is to read some of their stories, but that is also the most time consuming. I do like to make sure I read at least one story from a potential market before I send in my submission.

Well, that’s really it for me right now. I think the brain-dead-ness is spilling over into the days, as well. See y’all later!