It’s a sad thing being right. Crossed Genres didn’t accept the short. As always, they were graceful in indicating they weren’t going to use it. And they took time to provide some feedback for the story, which was pretty valid feedback. Long story short, the protagonist was a little weak.
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It was awesome to see my short go up on Wily Writers this weekend. It’s a little weird having an audio version of my story up, but kinda neat.
No word yet from Crossed Genres. Based off of things said in their blog, I don’t think my story’s going to be accepted. Nothing definite. They haven’t actually said, “We picked stories and alerted authors,” and I just haven’t heard anything. But my confidence is waning.
Talked to the Powers That Be at work yesterday to find out what would be involved in taking a leave of absence this summer. The good news is that it’s doable. The bad news is that I cease accruing vacation/sick leave while I’m gone and, scarier still, after 30 calendar days of absence I lose insurance coverage. In theory, at 6 weeks, the workshop lasts about 42 days. Might be a day or two less if I get to subtract a weekend day off at the beginning because of the start time. But, yeah. Kinda scary. I’m still inclined to do it, but now I know there are other risks besides just not having a paycheck for six weeks.
Slowly chugging away on my short story. I had this realization that I had my plot arc well mapped out, but my protagonist did not have a whole lot of soul. Currently at 2,892 words. Think I might have another couple thousand before I’m done. It’s a bit different from my other stuff, so I’m feeling less confident. Plus there’s all that, “Agh, I’ve learned this stuff but I don’t know how to apply it well! Instead I’m just freaking out about it!”
Haven’t touched my excerpt/synopsis for A Sunless Garden. Need to do that soon. I keep telling myself, “I’ll do it when I’m done with the short I’m working on.” I think I’m within spitting distance of done with the short, though. I just find it fascinating how much more time it takes to write parts of a short story than it does an equivalent word count in NaNoWriMo. =P
Feeling kinda anxious about my last submission to Crossed Genres. They received a record high number of submissions. I’m feeling kinda anxious about whether or not it will get accepted. Heck, since they now have slush readers, I’m not sure if I even made it past the slush readers. Ah, the suspense.
I’ve made a Twitter account for myself. I also made a Page for myself on Facebook. And now this blog feeds into Facebook, which then feeds into Twitter. It’s like a massive circle. Massive.
In the interest of trying to get some stuff going, I’m hoping to get feedback from folks.
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I’ve made some progress on my goals. I now get to face the scarier things on my goal list. Also, some small miscellaneous news. And I will tell you about it in that order.
It’s been nearly a month since NaNo ended. I have been giving myself a break from the novel after the hectic pace of November. But now that rest period is over, and I’m trying to consider what step to take next. I’ve been working on a short story submission for Crossed Genres, but I want to get back to one of my bigger projects. I spent so much time last year working on short stories that my novel languished uncompleted. But some stuff has come to my attention that I’m considering trying to do. This has resulted in a timeline, which I will put behind the cut.
I’ve been meaning to write a post-NaNo reflection. This is not that post. Between the hectic schedule of NaNoWriMo and the hectic travel schedule we’ve had, I haven’t had much time to blog. But here’s a quick recap of where I’m at with my writing.
– With November 30th come and gone, I’m taking one-month a break from the novel. In a couple weeks I’ll get back on the horse, but I haven’t decided what I want to do. Finish the novel I was writing? Go back to one of my earlier unfinished novels? There’s also the possibility that I could write more shorts, though I’m a little leery of that. I spent last year churning out shorts for Crossed Genres, some good some not so good. In the end it killed my ability to work on the novel. Some of it was just “busy with other stuff.” Some of it was that I didn’t have as rigorous a writing regimen as I do now. We’ll see.
– I finished the first draft of a short story for their “Any Previous Genre” issue. I’d started out trying to write humor with a dash of folklore. It seems a bit more serious than intended, so it may be “folklore with a dash of humor.” More on this later.
– I’m also mulling around ideas for their “Eastern” issue. It’s dedicated to “Eastern cultures.” I have two ideas for stories, both with Buddhisty themes. One is a bit stronger in my head but is not as strictly Eastern as the other one. Not sure what I’ll do.
– Sometime next month, my short story “A Necessity of the Present” will be available at Wily Writers. It will be available in both text and audio format. Both are free, but there is a donation button.
– I sent off the revised contract to Seraphim Guard for the game I wrote for them several years ago. I think it will appear sometime next year, barring misfortune. (There’s a reason it hasn’t seen the light of day yet.)
Ummmm… I think that’s it.
My first short story Crossed Genres accepted from me, the sci-fi/fantasy mashup entitled “Golden Apples,” has reverted back to me. They have non-exclusive rights to it still for another year, but I’m otherwise free to shop it around.
The challenge is: I don’t know what to do with it. It’s short, 1632 words. It fit their criteria but is a little short for what I’ve seen other magazines request. It’s also not new and I can’t offer exclusive rights to anyone.
Is there a market for such things? Peanut gallery?
A friend of mine offered to have some of my writing read at at an open house for her artist-loft-community thing. I was gunshy about just doing a reading just yet since I’m, well, effectively nobody. And then it turned out I couldn’t make it there this weekend anyway.
But apparently there will be an interpretive reading of “A Tale of Two Bureaucracies” (which appeared in the April 2009 issue of Crossed Genres) on Sunday. I get nothing out of this aside from some free, if local, publicity. But if you want to check it out, I’m sure there will be other cool stuff there. Information about the open house can be found here:
A couple writer friends of mine did this, and I figured I’d follow suit. I dithered for a few weeks before deciding to post this. I generally hate tooting my own horn, so it was an effort to overcome my reluctance.
As originally posted by Angel Leigh McCoy:
“Members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) vote for the Nebulas.
Members of the Horror Writers Association (HWA) vote for the Bram Stokers.
These awards are among the most coveted by writers because they’re awarded by their peers.
If the org’s members don’t know that you have a piece that is eligible, they’re less than likely to read it, much less nominate it or vote for it.”
So, in the interest of disclosure, I have two fantasy shorts that I think are eligible to be nominated. In the off chance, you know, that a card-carrying member of the SFWA happens to read one of my shorts and swoon with delight over it. I don’t think either of my eligible pieces count as “horror,” and they lean pretty heavy overall towards “fantasy” rather than “sci fi.”
“A Crazy Kind of Love,” my tale of inter-species star-crossed “romance,” appeared in the February 2009 issue of Crossed Genres and has been picked up to represent the Romance genre in the first anthology collection.
“A Tale of Two Bureaucracies,” my tongue-in-cheek tale contrasted a mortal government agency responsible for the protection of a sealed portal into Hell and an infernal government agency responsible for regulating attempts to break out. It appeared in the April 2009 issue of Crossed Genres.
As best I can tell, my story from the December 2008 issue is not eligible for nomination.
