Life has been pretty hectic lately, especially with roller derby partially swallowing my life. But I’m going to make a concerted effort to stay on top of this and update more regularly.
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And… we’re back.
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Tag Archives: in the cards
In the words of John Carter: I live!
It’s been pretty hectic for the last couple months. Slamming words onto virtual paper in order to meet deadlines and get ready for NaNoWriMo, three trips to the emergency room, two conventions, and a trip out of state for Thanksgiving didn’t help my schedule any. So I’m doing lots of catch up right now.
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Announcements! Progress! Cake!
Okay, I’ll admit up front that the cake is a lie. You had to have seen that coming.
First off, my long time friend Joanne Uppendahl has put out a collection of her poetry called She Sho Gathers Stones. I’ve ordered my copy and you may be inclined to order it as well.
In more local to me news, I got a mention in my neighborhood blog. Because, you know, neighborhood newsletters are so last century. The article is about the launch of the Cobalt City Timeslip anthology, which I have a story in. There is also a reading and signing event at Wayward Coffeehouse on Ocotber 9th from 7-10. The girlfriend and I won’t be able to make it due to a conflicting engagement, but all the rest of the authors should be. You can also Pre-order the book here.
I’ve submitted a story to a pro market finally and received a rejection. This was one of the most discouraging rejections to date. Not only did they get my name wrong, but when offering feedback on the story they confused it with another piece they had read. I’ve turned around and re-submitted elsewhere. So here’s to hoping.
And now, the honeydew.
Running with Chainsaws
Before I dig in with this, I’d like to give a hearty hurrah for Ann Charles, who has just won the Daphne du Maurier award in the unpublished division. Not only did Nearly Departed in Deadwood take first place in the “Mainstream Mystery/Suspense” category, but she was also the overall Daphne winner for that division. Rock on!
My big hurrah coming up is my first honest-to-gosh reading. This is the official blurb:
An Evening of Authors, Wayward Coffeehouse, August 21, 7-10pm.
Hosted by Jennifer Brozek and Nate Crowder. Come to an evening of authors and good coffee at Wayward Coffeehouse. We will be reading from recent and forthcoming releases, answering questions and generally having a good time. Come one, come all and enjoy an evening with your local authors. Find out what’s next. Authors include: Cat Rambo, Rosemary Jones, Keffy R. M. Kehrli, Alma Alexander, Nate Crowder, Jeremy Zimmerman, R. Schuyler Devin, Leah Cutter, Sunder Cameron Addams and Angela Korra’ti.
I don’t recognize all of those names, but the ones I do are people I sat on the other side of the table from during panels at Norwescon. I’m a little stunned to be amongst such luminaries. Holy mackerel.
Less auspicious is that I’ve received five rejections in a row. Two of them encouraged me to submit to them again. Two were people I’ve submitted to in the past and will probably submit to again in the future. One told me the anthology will not be coming out after all. D’oh. Two of my rejections came in today. After a night of fitful sleep because my bedroom is an oven right now, the rejections hit me a bit harder than they might normally. One of these five also qualifies as my fastest rejection ever. I’ve never been turned down the same day before.
And now, the honeydew.
Brief notes
First, pimping of others:
There’s a new story up at Wily Writers, “The Tunnel” by Matt Cowens.
A.M. Dellamonica, who taught my UCLA extension course, has been short-listed for the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. There’s also some other people on the list.
Crossed Genres has announced the winners of their flash fiction contest.
The location of the Seattle stop of Jennifer Brozek and Seanan McGuire’s “Murder and Mayhem” tour has changed. It is now as follows:
SEATTLE
July 10, 2010, 6pm+
Wayward Coffeehouse
8570 Greenwood Ave N
Seattle WA 98103
And, my own personal news is that I sent off two short stories off for consideration a couple days ago, for a total of three that are awaiting response. I have another one that is almost ready for prime time that is due in a couple weeks and I’m hoping to get another written and submitted by the end of the month. I’m pretty excited about this because I’m aggressively pursuing other markets beyond Crossed Genres and, even if they don’t get picked up, I’ll have a fleet of stories representing a lot of lessons learned over the last few years that I can shop around to other markets.
Standards
In getting ready to submit a short story, I reviewed the submission guidelines for the publication in question. They said they wanted it in Standard Manuscript Format, and at first I thought I knew what they meant when they said that. Especially since the link pointed to the SFWA Web site. In the short story writing class I took through UCLA Extension, we were asked to submit our story for the class in Standard Manuscript Format, and were directed to an article on the SFWA Web site by Vonda McIntyre on the subject. I’ve seen it linked to from other places and it’s one of the first things that comes up when you google “Standard Manuscript Format.”
Surely there would not be two articles on the SFWA site, or if there were they’d say the same thing right?
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