End of the Month Report: December 2013

Submissions:3
Rejections: 3
Acceptances: 1 (Sassanid Sands)
Published: 0
Stories out in the wild: 11
New stories completed: 0
Mood: I've got that usual end-of-the-old-year, I'm-definitely-going-to-pull-up-my-footy/writing-socks-and-kick-many-goals-in-the-new-year-no-matter-what-the-Fates-throw-at-me conviction, and am hoping I'll make good on it.

Now, time to brace myself for 2014.  Happy New Year everyone.

One Minute to Midnight Sale

It looks like my dark and sad little story Sassanid Sands has found a home, which is both a lovely end to my writing year as well as a welcome just-in-the-nick-of-time-to-count-as-a-2013 writing statistic to boost my less than spectacular sales tally.

With only a day of the year to go, I'd say that a few projects that were scheduled for 2013 but haven't happened yet will now be booted to 2014 (I hope so!) - such is the publishing industry - which will make my number of publications for this year take a sudden nosedive and give next year the appearance of being positively stuffed with stories (if more are sold, naturally).

It's been a slow year for me writingwise, but much crappy crap occurred, including another operation, treatments, and lots of energy leaking into the ether. Sometimes, to just keep moving is about the best you can hope for, and you have to make sure that you remember to be grateful for the fact that you are indeed capable of moving. I was mostly still able to do my Arvo Job duties, though with reduced hours, occasionally go horse riding, head off for a movie each week, get out and about to a few special events, visit friends, pat cats, read, and take care of day to day life. I only wrote four new stories from scratch this year, but have almost finished a few biggies that have been simmering a goodly while, and sold 5 stories.

For now, that's good enough.

Third Time Lucky

Roll up, roll up, for the greatest sale on Earth :) :) :)

I've been tightly crossing my fingers for weeks for this one, and all the joint pain has paid off. I'm so happy to announce that I've sold my story Winds of Change to Lakeside Circus,  editor, publisher and writer Carrie Cuin's new online, speculative fiction magazine which will be published quarterly by Dagan Books, LLC.

I just had a feeling I might have a chance with them. They like odd stories, you see. And weird stuff. Many don't. I submitted a story to their anthology Bibliotheca Fantastica, didn't get in, but received good feedback, so when I read about LC's call for submissions, I hastily sent off one of my harder-to-place darlings. LC held it for consideration, but ultimately rejected it. Send more, they wrote. Fortunately, I had a back-up ready to go straight away, so off went Winds of Change (a.k.a. my "Berlin Wall" story. It's not a light piece, this one, but a dark, political ghost story featuring many bodies and bones.) 

Again, held for consideration. Again I waited. But this time - triumph!

Aaah, I'm so excited, I think I'll go for a walk. I need to skip off some of my just-made-a-sale energy.

A Good Start to the Day

Forget fibre rich cereals - there's nothing like a sale to start the day. I just received word that Bards & Sages Quarterly will publish my story A Moveable Buffet in their April 2014 issue. This is the amusing, and yes, a bit weird, Hemingwayesque story that made it to the last round for a certain funny anthology, but didn't quite get there.

It's about 3 Interpol cops, an alien, a French restaurant called Le Cop de Proust, and an international crime wave...

Getting Into The Spirit Of Things

This is turning out to be quite a week. I've just sold another SF story, namely The Stars Their Hesitation, which stars Spirit, as in the plucky, little Martian rover that could, and other assorted space probes, to Bards and Sages Quarterly.

 I've always felt a bit sad about the probes hurtling through space all alone, and the rovers switched off and left on their lonesome on the windswept plains of the Red Planet after doing such a sterling job for us, and, well, this story is partly my way of thanking them all for their efforts and making things right, and partly about other things...

It'll be out in October.

I'm Baaaaaaack.

Okay, I probably could have posted this yesterday, but it still felt a bit tenuous then. However, after a bit of correspondence today, I now feel confident enough to announce that my SF pony story will appear in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine later this year.

So I finally did it! After countless (well, if you want the exact number...) hold requests for stories that then weren't picked up (as I've often lamented in posts), four and a bit years after my debut amongst its pages, I'll be making an encore appearance in ASIM.

Yay!

Ponies Rule!

Yay! It looks like my SF pony story has found a good, loving , wholesome home. I'm so glad. I like this story a lot, but suspected it might be a hard sell, what with there being ponies in it and its voice being a bit unusual, but it looks like the right editor has come along at the right time, and Bob's your uncle. So it goes in this game.

More details when it's all professionally acceptable to announce the buyer.

Yay!

A Prime Piece of Pre-Christmas News

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting around trying to come up with an idea that I could turn into a zombie story for an upcoming antho, because, well, it would be so cool to get into a Prime Books anthology, when in comes an email...

It was another one of those situations where I was pretty much expecting a rejection, so it took a few seconds to absorb the fact that this email was actually one of those happiness inducing 'yay' responses rather that one of the more common 'nays'. I'd sent off, as per the guidelines, the maximum of three alien encounter stories, and wouldn't you know it, the one I wasn't sure about, the one I almost second-guessed myself out of sending, made it!

So yes, here comes the news I've been dying to share - my science fiction story Nullipara, which was first published in 2010 in The Tangled Bank: Love, Wonder, and Evolution edited by Chris Lynch, will appear in the reprint anthology Aliens: Recent Encounters edited by Alex Dally MacFarlane. It's scheduled for publication in June 2013.

The final lineup will be announced later this week, I've been told, or the following week, but I've been given permission to make my own private announcement now.

Inclusion in a Prime Books anthology is certainly a fantastic early Xmas present, and knowing I'll soon have an SF story in a book with the word 'alien' in the title is as geekily festive as it gets.

End of the Month Report: November 2012

Submissions: 4
Rejections: 6
Acceptances: 1 - Celebrate!!!!
Published: 0
Stories out in the wild: 7
New stories completed: 0
Mood: See 'acceptances'. Am celebrating. Am happy. Very happy. But, of course, I could always be happier. Am always hungry for more happiness of the sales sort. Am hoping that a couple of 'holds' pan out. One in particular. Now that's just asking for trouble.

Aaaaah, I Sooooo Needed That

After a long day at the Arvo Job:

Good news, good news, good news, of the best kind, of the publishing kind, of the anthology kind, of the confidence boosting kind. Grinning, grinning, grinning. Unfortunately, I'm not sure whether or not I can share this news yet - after all, one must make an effort to exercise a modicum of professional decorum in these cases - but believe me, the moment I get the go ahead, I am soooooo posting it.

Good news, good news, good news....

Getting my Groove Back

Yesterday was Melbourne Cup Day, a holiday here in Australia, and today was my regular midweek day off for resting up, so I've just had two whole days off to invest in coaxing my writing mojo back into active duty. I'm not sure what kind of a day the punters had down at the races yesterday weatherwise, but up here, the grey skies, pouring rain, and thunder and lightning were perfect for staying indoors and getting work done.

It didn't go too badly either. I searched up a few more markets for 2013 and put them up on my work board, and wrote down long lists of the different themed issues that various publications have coming up next year and matched some up with already finished stories or partial stories I have on the boil. I also edited and subbed another three stories, so I now have 13 of my little lovelies being scrutinised out there in the wide world, tried to figure out what might be wrong with a few stories that I've parked to one side until I can decide whether or not I should stick to my guns or start fiddling with them, and spent some time sitting at my desk staring at the titles of upcoming anthologies and just letting my brain float on thought breezes to see if it could come up with any useable ideas (it presented me with two interesting historical scenarios, but without any characters or plot, and one tickle of a suggestion that feels like a good 'un but which I need to prod some more.)

Also, I wrote. Not for quite as many hours as I had hoped to accomplish, but a respectable number nonetheless, so I'm giving myself a pat on the head and a gold star for effort.

I also received good news about a story that I particularly adore but which is, as one editor said, and I have to agree, structurally challenging - it has cleared the first hurdle a.k.a the slushpile, and has been passed on the head honchos for consideration. The readers all wrote very nice things about it, which made me happy, but I've been here too many times to get excited yet. I started the year with a few pro sale possibilities that then fell through, so from now on, it ain't a sale until it's a sale. I think I'll adopt the catchphrase 'Show me the acceptance!' Still, nice words about one's work are always welcome.

 And tomorrow morning, I plan to load up Rover with stories and get back into the habit of writing on the train as I head to and from the Arvo Job. There are many hours of tinkering that I can scrape together there, and it does make the trip seem a lot shorter.

Vamp Victory

I now have the go-ahead to announce that The Snowy River Feral, my Henry Lawson-style, vampire droving yarn set in the late 1920s will appear in the Return of the Dead Men (and Women) Walking horror anthology to be published by Bards and Sages Publishing. It's not just about vampires, but all manner of undead creatures. BSP's goal is to release the book October 1st.

I'm really pleased that this particular lovechild of mine has found such a good home. First sent out 1/12-2010, it took 18 months of patiently submitting this very Aussie story over and over whilst whispering 'I believe in you, I believe in you', to sell it. Not so long compared with some stories, but eons compared with others.

So yay, much news of both a vampire story and a werewolf story will soon be coming to this blog. It's so cool :)

End of the Month Report x 2: May and June 2012

Submissions: 12
Rejections: 12
Acceptances: 2 (The Wolfgirl in the Cupboard / The Snowy River Feral)
Published: 0
Stories out in the wild: 7
New stories completed: 0
Mood: Since I can't seem to string words into coherent, fictional sentences these days (I've managed 3 original lines this week and a smidge of editing. Still, it's a start. And my brain does feel more up for it today.) I shall have to quote: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

We Interrupt this Break for...

I'm still recuperating from major surgery, but I've popped a few pain killers and crawled to the keyboard in order to to share the happy news that my sf werewolf story The Wolfgirl in the Cupboard has been selected for the upcoming anthology Mark of the Beast: New Legends of the Werewolf, edited by Scott David Aniolowski, which will be published by Chaosium in late 2012.

Normally I'd wait a bit longer before blogging such news, but I've just discovered that Scott has announced the TOC here, so the information is already out there, running free and howling on the Internet. So, with the sale of my vamp story 2 weeks ago, that makes two more anthologies coming up this year with me in them. Yay! There's nothing like a sale to enhance one's mood.

Now, please excuse me - I'm off to do medical things and possibly nap yet again. I'll get back to regular blogging next week.

I Can Hear God Laughing

In some parallel universe, there's a Gitte flat on her back in a hospital bed zonked out on drugs. She’s probably in much pain after the operating deed has been done, but at least she’s firmly set on the long, winding path to recovery.

This in not her story.

Plans just keep coming undone this year. The story of the Gitte who inhabits this reality goes as follows:
Everything was organised with military precision, and so many people went out of their way to wish me luck and help me. My brother picked up the cats, myself and all my baggage with this sign on his car to make the whole event a little cheerier.

The cats sooked all the way to my sister’s, where everything had been set up to take care of their, and my, needs over the next few weeks. They took their sweet time vacating their containers, and were full of self-pity for their "terrible" plight, but were soon checking out their luxury indoor/outdoor home away from home. My sister made a delicious last-meal-before-fasting dinner, we chatted and watched TV, and early next morning she drove me down to catch the train to Melbourne.

I was admitted to the hospital and got a single room with a great view. My brothers dropped in to visit, one bearing a fluffy, pink unicorn. My sister was constantly texting cat updates, and other folk sent mood-boosting messages. Thunderbirds were go!

I was in hospital for two days! One whole day of pre-op preparation– tests galore, pharmaceuticals pumped into my system, cannulae inserted, consults with surgeons (unfortunately, the surgery will involve an extra procedure or two) body readied for the ensuing slicing and dicing - and one whole day of being gowned up, drugged up and psyched up only to have the surgery cancelled late yesterday afternoon! I was scheduled as the fourth operation. The surgeons started at 7.30 in the morning, but there were complications with two of the three ops before mine, and they were still working on operation number three at 4pm, from what I understand, so they had to postpone my fiddly operation until next week. It was the professional thing to do, I do know that, because who wants tired surgeons squeezing you in at the end of a long and complicated day? And I do feel sorry for the two women who spent so many hours on the table – I got to know my fellow patients, and they won’t be feeling well today. But it was immensely frustrating conclusion to a long week of running around nonetheless, and it means I'll have to deal with the pain for another week. Also, it's cut down the amount of time I'd cleared for the recovery afterwards.

So I had a bit of a cry about what a mess it all was, called people (I feel so bad that this rescheduling is putting so many people out), made new plans (I know, I know), had something to eat, packed my hospital bags, flowers and fluffy pink unicorn (who’ll be returning with me next week), and my brother drove me all the way home to my catless house (best to leave them settled at my sister’s), where I ate pizza, drowned my sorrows in a pot of tea, and watched the final four episodes of season one of The Walking Dead. What can you do?

However, the universe did toss me a mood-lifting bone in the shape of an acceptance after I got home last night – my Aussie vampire story, on its eighth foray out into the world, has finally found a home in an upcoming print anthology! Yay. It's my first acceptance for 2012. Phew, I was beginning to think I'd lost my groove. The thing is, I probably wouldn't have checked my emails until next week if I'd had the op, and the editor did want a quick reply as the whether the story was still available so they can finalise the line-up, so if there's a sliver of a silver lining to this whole debacle, the fact that I could respond immediately would be it. Of course, as a writer, a sale is also about the best consolation prize I could get. Anyway, the editor has suggested a tweak that I agree would better the story, which will also give me something to work on over the next few, unexpectedly free days.

Then it’ll be off to hospital. Again.

The Many Ice Ages of Writing

Writing is not for rushy types. It can take eons for absolutely nothing to happen. Take, for example, a story I sent off four months ago to an overseas semipro magazine that it would be absolutely fantastic to get into. Yesterday I received the good news that the story has been passed on for consideration (yes, another maybe – that makes four potential booze-ups of joy, or not). However, because they received so many submissions for their last reading period (thousands, apparently, and I sent mine towards the end of the submissions period, hence the delay) I probably won’t hear about the outcome for months. So the competition is fierce. The odds are anyone’s guess. Possibly, the story might end up having existed in a never-never publishing superposition for up to 9 months and I’ll end up back where I started - no sale.

I’m not complaining – I’m used to this glacial process. It’s why it can take years for a story, if you’re lucky, to hit the right market at the right time. It's why you need to build up a stable of stories and keep them circulating while you work on the upcoming stories that will replace the ones that hopefully get published. I'm just saying that patience is a must in this game.

Mind you, I received a rejection today for the story I submitted on Saturday after the workshop ("even though we liked your story...") so sometimes judgement comes crashing down from on high with the speed of an avalanche.

Paradox revisited

With my emails once more observable, the countless quantum superpositions of writerly outcomes collapsed into a single, measurable state. Possibly other versions of this post from those of me presently blogging in alternative realities contain slightly different and possibly more uplifting information, but here, in this universe, my inbox revealed not one dead cat, nor a single living cat, but no cats of any description at all.

End of the Month Report: October

Submissions: 2 (not many rejections, my stories are being kept longer, and I have a lot of almost ready to go stuff but it's all in need of a final spit and polish)
Rejections: 3
Acceptances: 0
Published: 1 (Quick Fix in Bards and Sages October Issue)
Stories out in the wild: 7
New stories completed: 1 (the harpy story - but it needs to sit a while)
Mood: Optimistic about the way my backlog of stories are slowly finding homes. I keep a diary in which each story has its own section, and I diligently record its ups and downs in the world, and give it a gold star when it's accepted (childish, I know, but fun and immensely satisfying). Some stories are snapped up "quickly" i.e only rejected once or twice, which is about six months worth of waiting, while others take years to find the right editor at the right time, so one's sense of continuity easily becomes skewed. However, sticking in a star for the latest antho acceptance, I realised that I have a section where eight consecutive stories have all been published, small gaps on either side, and then more sporadic stars. Perhaps some of those earlier stories will never find homes, but it was a very visual and very encouraging reminder to me that writing and publishing work in time frames that are almost geological. I know I've been through a few Ice Ages.

So, once more, the key words writers need to cling to are our old friends PATIENCE and PERSISTENCE.

Mission Possible

My mission today, which I chose to accept, was to go over the edited proof of the story that has just been accepted for an anthology. The only real work was the editor's request to rejig the opening paragraph. The rest pretty much stays as submitted, which is always heartening.

Curious to know how long this particular tale has been in the works, I dug out my notebooks and discovered it was conceived 18/1-07 (from the other story ideas jotted down around that time, 3 of which have progressed to rough drafts, I can see I was smack in the middle of my 'I can write lighter/humorous stuff too' phase which came after producing a series of very dark and serious stories involving dystopias and environmental ruin). It didn't really amount to much until 13/3-09 when I discovered its present voice and structure. Then I had a ball rewriting the whole thing. Apart from the core idea, very little of the original story survives. After that, it was forged in the fire of nine, mostly nice, rejections, with each 'no' received after months and months and months of waiting. After each rejection, I polished it some more, until finally it found a home.

So, it only took 4 years and eight months to produce this particular 5400 word baby.

More win!

Eeeeeek. Super good anthologywise news has just arrived - more about it when it's finalised. All I can say is 'NEVER give up on a story you've worked hard on and believe in. NEVER!'. ***

I'll have a song on my lips at the Arvo Job today.

Yay!

*** For bonus happiness points, it's one of my longer stories - over 5000 words - which are harder to move.