KFC

So, I’m at the KFC drive-in, and the guy who hands me my bucket of chicken congratulates me on winning an Aurealis Award.  I was in the local paper, and people in Geelong are nothing if not up to date on regional news. 

Sigh

So, I’ve taken the Zombie novel and put it on a shelf in my head that is (hopefully) out of reach from the gibbering fool that decides what I want to write from day to day.  I’ve another idea I want to explore, which means this one has to wait.

hang on a sec… PUT THAT DOWN!

Okay.  That’s better.

The beans, they are everywhere!

Looks like Lee’s let the cat out of the bag, for which I am glad.

http://battersblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/rounding-up.html

That’s right, my most recent story sale was to Midnight Echo #4…

edit: By way of clarification, this is the story sale I was talking about in the last post, on the 1st of Feb…

Story Sale

I haven’t signed the contract yet, so I won’t jinx it by saying what/where/when, but looks like I’ve got my first sale for the year!

I admit to a need for outside validation…

Alright, perhaps need is the wrong word.  Desire, let’s say.  So, it’s always interesting to read (or hear) what others think of something I’ve written.  The Judges’ Reports in relation to the Aurealis Awards are out, so I grabbed the ones that apply to my nominated stories.  As warm as the kind words of “good” reviews make me (indeed, make any of us), I would be remiss if I did not point out that, good or bad, the words of others do not make your story better or worse.  That’s your job, and by the time it’s getting reviewed your job (with that story) is done.

 ’A Hundredth Name’, Abyss & Apex Magazine, #31 - A strong piece that demonstrates how the old and the new can be brought together to produce a lovely story. Karim is fighting his space station colleagues and losing his faith in Allah following the death of his wife. The language is restrained and the author shows a few subtle but well-placed elements can produce a fully realized world and a story with an emotional punch.

‘Father’s Kill’, Beneath Ceaseless Skies #24 JOINT WINNER – Sparse, elegant, creepy… A deftly constructed dark fantasy story that did its job very well. Tight writing builds a great atmosphere while holding back the final twist with clever sleight of hand. We can’t reveal more.

‘Having Faith’, Nossa Morte - ‘Having Faith’ is one of the growing number of stories written from a female perspective. What at first seems to be a simple story, fast becomes a relentless journey into the unknown depths of religion, sex and possession. The idea that a tattoo will scar deeper than just skin is carefully crafted from the tattooist’s point of view. This is a powerful and surprising entry that stays in the mind long after the story is over.

Brisbane and the Aurealis Awards

 I have returned.

The “vacation” (holiday, as they say here) turned into 4 days of me being a writer geek. Thankfully, I have an understanding wife (and we are both aware I owe her a proper holiday).

I caught up with Chris and Peter and saw Jason when he’d returned to the land of the pseudo-conscious after an ungodly redeye flight. There were dinners and breakfasts and awards and, best of all, I met a bunch of new people, either authors I’ve already admired from afar or new ones I’ll keep an eye out for in future Tables of Contents.

I’m always amazed at how cool spec fic people are. Honestly, I can’t think of another vocation where people who the outside world might consider “rivals” (which is crap, all the good writers know there’s always room for more good writers) are so supportive and energetic.

I have a few Aurealis Awards of my own to give out, though, so here they go:

Best acceptance speech – Paul Haines upon finding that two of his stories had tied for the Best Short Horror award – “Well, that’s fucked my speech then.”

Strangest thing yelled on the night of the 23rd of January – Robert Hoge, after a quick review of his Tangled Bank bookmark revealed he was not of the piscine persuasion – “I want a fish, Goddammit Lynch. Where’s my fish!?”

Best writerly advice – Kate Eltham, for sneaking over to us and letting us know the bar tab was almost gone.

Best Aurealis Awards Night Ever – Fantastic Queensland

And yes, much to my relief and surprise, and greatly hampering my future efforts at humility, “Father’s Kill” jointly won Best Short Fantasy, sharing the honours of the category with “Once a Month, On a Sunday” by Ian McHugh.

Congratulations to all. Sharing shortlists with so many incredible writers is the highest point of my career.

I exist…

after mucho silencio and am flying to Brisbane tomorrow morning for the Aurealis Awards…

Resolutions

Yes, I know, everyone has them.  Deal with it.  This year I’m going to:

A.  Attempt (again) to get 100 rejections in a year.  The only change I’ll make (aside from giving myself 12 months instead of 10 to complete it) is that at least 15% of the rejections must be via snail mail.  (Some of the biggest and “best” magazines don’t accept electronic submissions, and lazy ol’ me has been pretty much ignoring them.  No longer.

B.  Find an idea that interests me for 80,000 words or more.

C.  Write it.

Stats for 2009 – the year that was

So, since duotrope lets me download a .csv file for Excel that tracks my subs, I thought I’d feed see how I fared in 2009.  The stats won’t be exact, since some rejections came from subs I made in 2008, and there were a couple of submissions I didn’t log with duotrope, for various reasons.  Anyway:

Overall I had 75 submissions (clearly not enough to get me my 100 rejections).  The shortest time a story spent out before I got a response was 1 day, the longest was 501, and the average was 52 days.  43% of the responses I got were form letter rejections, 39% were personal rejections (as in, the editor took the time to personally respond, not that the editor had something against me personally.  or so I tell myself).  I sold 9% of my submissions and have 9% of them still pending a response.  Of the stories I have sold, they went to an average of 3.7 markets before they sold.

So, what does this mean?  It means it’s a numbers game, of course, that you have to get a bunch of “No”s, and maybe even some “NO!”s along the way, that you should feel good about the “Sorry but it’s a no this time but here are a couple of reasons why” responses, because that’s just the deal.  It means that a “Yes!” is a lot of work, and worthy of pride and joy and maybe a little jig when you get one.  It means you should never stop sending your stuff out.

Happy New Year!

Oh yeah, there’s one of my stats I shouldn’t have looked at, both because I’m no good at bragging (or humility) and because of the psychological impact it’s had on me.  Of the stories that’ve actually been published so far (7), 4 have been nominated for an award.  Um, yeah.  57%.  The resulting performance anxiety hasn’t let me finish a story since the shortlist for the Aurealis Awards got announced…  Ug.  I’ll be writing when the New Year rings in, so we’ll see what happens. 

Writing Rules

I’ve collected this year’s Writing Rules, so that they’d exist all in one place.  Next year’s task will be adding tags to all my posts…  Here, in reverse order or random importance, are the 20 Writing Rules of 2009.

#20  Understand that no idea in your head ever sounds as good when you say it out loud, at least not in the soundbite version you’re going to tell your wife, brother, friend, or whomever.  That doesn’t make the story a bad one, though…

#19  Find a source (or several sources) of motivation.  I would advise that your list of motivational wellsprings not include money or fame.  Vindication is a good one, though.  Whatever you use to inspire yourself, hang on to it.

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

#18  Decide what do you want from writing, and once you have, take the time to ponder that decision every so often.

#17  Join a crit group.

#16 The earlier in a story a flashback appears, the more obvious it becomes to the reader that your story has begun in the wrong place (and, possibly, is being told by the wrong person).

#15 Write the story you want to read.

#14 There are two types of research.
Type A: Research which involves wandering through books, the net, etc., in a search for inspiration, plot, and virtue.
Tybe B: When you need to know what the damn thing was called, what it did, or how it worked.

Type A is fun, Type B is frustating.  When stuck with type B research, go here: 

http://www.nypl.org/questions/chat.html and ask them…  Don’t take up too much of their time, and thank them for the hours they’ve saved you…

#13  There is no rule #13

#12 Keep the momentum going. 

#11 Write the story you want to tell.  Write the story that’s bursting to get out of you.  Give that one wings and bright eyes and little hooks on the end of its legs.  Give it life.  Then loose it upon the world.

#10  Dialogue should give the reader the guilty pleasure of eavesdropping.  As an author, get the hell out of the way.  Use the word “said” and stop using the other ones.  You know the ones…

#9  Click on this link – www.duotrope.com and register.

#8  Writing requires sacrifice, on the part of yourself as well as those you love.  Remember this.

#7  Do not be afraid to hitchhike on an idea you like.  Don’t steal or copy, but allow the ideas of others to inspire you. 

#6  Be clear.  Jot down a couple things that you absolutely want every smart reader to KNOW after they’ve read your story.  Keep the list short; 2 or 3 things.  Now go back and make sure that you’ve given the reader enough of a push to get them to those destinations.

#5  Stretch.  Struggle.  Leave the low hanging fruit for those who refuse to stretch and struggle. The stories I’m proudest of are the ones that were HARD to write.  Perhaps you’ll experience that to be true for you, too.

#4 Maybe the first time someone used an apostrophe in a name to show how exotic and otherworldly the character was (Vr’kva’ne or whatever) it worked.  Maybe even the second time.  Not anymore.  Seriously.

#3  Don’t let rule #2 turn your narrative into a boring trip to Boresville.

#2.  Do not try and do too much in your short story.  Short stories are far too often cluttered with too much of this:  Boy who’s father was killed by the cheiftain that subsequently stole his mother, prompting the boy to find the soothsayer to learn how to weave the rope of command to catch the horse he’d heard about in a myth (insert gratituios flashback scene here) to return to the village and smite the usurper and retrieve his mother, thus bringing honor back to his family…

As always, though, if you make complex plots work, then they must not be too complex, right?

Rule # 1.  Do not, under any circumstances, listen to someone else’s writing rules.  It’s your life, and you are perfectly entitled to write your story any damn way you please.