Making progress...

~ Received check and contract back from Shimmer for "The Dealer's Hands".

~ Received signed and personalized copy of Rebel Ice. Pretty darn cool, ya know. I'm excited to read it.

Well...

Not much of an update, but thought to share regardless.

~ 14-day rejection on "Helen Goes Shopping" from Abyss & Apex after resubmitting it. Oh well. After a few more tries with this one, I'm probably going to trunk it and work on other ideas.

Parlais vous?

Total of 18 critiques for "When It Burns, It Burns Like a Star" from Critters.

By far, my favorite one says this:

I'm assuming that English is not your first language, and that is the main problem here.

Huh? I'm pretty sure I've been speaking English all my life. Does this mean I suck at writing words in English? Probably, yes. Should I translate all my stories into French? Who knows. Others thought the story was excellent and my writing well-done.

I'm really surprised by the split of the critiques. They really are either for the story or against it. For my writing or against it. For my long title or against it.

I'm turning "When It Burns, It Burns Like a Star" into a novella. Hopefully, that should solve some problems. And no, I'm not taking English lessons.

I have a BA in Journalism for heaven's sake.
Sheesh.

Thinning review!

Check out my review for Stephen King's Thinner!



NOTE: The cover of the version I have is the old, 1984 original one. I got it for 25 cents from the public library. It's simple and not much to it. I thought this cover had a better design and represented more of what the book was about.

Phooey...

Writing news
~ 78-day form rejection for "The Dead Forest" from Orson Scott
Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show.

In other news, half of the critiques for "When It Burns, It Burns Like a Star" say my story has no point and they hated it, while the other half liked it and said it really made them think.

Humph. Well, I'm just going to completely rewrite it as a novella. And that's my decision.

We're all winners!

Thanks to PaperbackWriter for declaring that all that entered her free book giveaway are winners. Yay, I'm going to get a signed copy of Rebel Ice.



Writing news
~ 1-day rejection from The Town Drunk.

~ 22-day rejection from The Sword Review.

I did manage to send out two stories yesterday though which is good because I made my goal for the week. My story "When It Burns, It Burns Like a Star" is up at Critters, but I've only gotten two crits in so far. Must be a slow week as of yet. From what I've gathered on the story, there is too much exposition in it and not enough conflict. I'm toying with the idea of turning it into a novella, but then it really wouldn't be sellable. We'll see...

Work with me!

Why won't my ficticious character work with me?

I've given him everything he needs. A heatstick that can burn the face off anyone it touches, the path that can lead him to safety, a hot woman to rescue from alien insects. He's got the weapon, the motive, the reasoning. So what is he doing?

Sitting in his tiny room, shaking and crying like a little girl, as everyone around him is being attacked by alien insects.

GET TO IT, GEORGE! I'M TIRED OF WAITING AROUND!

---

In other news, Eugie from Tangent has sent me my next assignment. It's an anthology of stories by Lisa Silverthorne entitled The Sound of Angels. You can find more out about it here. Seems interesting enough and I can't wait to read it. Hopefully some free time will pop up this weekend!

Woot woot still...

Still on a first sale high. Mailed out my contracts yesterday for Shimmer. I have to work on writing a short bio for them. I wonder what I'll come up with.

1-day personal rejection from The Town Drunk. I don't think I have anything else to submit to them yet. Maybe I can whip up a story before their reading period ends. How in the heck does Terry Pratchett write humor so well?

280+ day personal rejection from Black Gate. The editor, Mr. O'Neill, had some nice things to say about my piece, but confessed that it wasn't as original as the others he was currently looking at. Considering this was the very first story I ever wrote, I'm quite pleased with this rejection.

Anyone have any advice for keeping things organized? I have a folder where I keep all my rough drafts and earlier versions. I figure I'll make a folder for all my contracts and maybe another for the final printed copy. Any ideas?

Crystalline review!

Check out my review of Tobias S. Buckell's debut Crystal Rain over here.

First sale ever!

Yesterday, January 15, 2006, will forever be a a day I hold deep in my heart.

I sold my first story ever, "The Dealer's Hands", to Shimmer for their Spring issue.

I could barely sleep last night. I'm so excited. This story went through three different versions and a thousand of edits. All the work paid off though.

I've only been submitting stories since June 2005. I know of other people who have gone a lot longer without selling a story. I was never expecting anything like this so soon.

I can say it now.

I'm a published writer.

Hmmm...

Just found out that Abyss & Apex had some server issues back in November and lost some of their submissions. I checked my spreadsheet and yup, I submitted them a story on 11/08/05. I queried and they lost it, but were nice enough to have me resubmit it even though their reading period is over.

Oh well. A resubmittal is better than a "sorry we lost it, but please submit again in the future."

Looking at my spreadsheet it also seems I don't have that many stories out in the market. I need to work on that ASAP. Like, by the end of this week I'd like to finish up three short stories and send them out. That's a goal I'd love to achieve.

In case anyone cares...

Here's my "To read" list in the order that they will hopefully be read:

- Brett Renwick's Wired For Chaos
- R.A. Salvatore's The Two Swords
- Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers
- George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones
- Cat Collins' Sleeping Dragons
- Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness
- Terry Prachett's Going Postal
- China Mieville's Perdido Street Station
- L.E. Modisett, Jr.'s The Infinity Artifact

You'd be surprised at how many of the "classics" I haven't read. I'm coming in quite late to Martin's series, and although I've been spoiled a few times already on it, I'm excited to see what all the talk has been about. I have no real excuse for not reading Le Guin's Hugo-winning novel. And China, well, I'm just beginning to enjoy his work.

I've told myself no more books until these are all done. I doubt that will happen. Plus, I'm reviewing miscellaneous items for Tangent Online.

Amazing Journeys...

Check out my review of Amazing Journeys, Volume 2, Issue 10 over at Tangent Online.

Write right rewrite...

A third request for rewrite on "The Dealer's Hands" for Shimmer. I think I'm going to take a few days and really think this one out. There is no guarantees if Beth (Shimmer Editor) likes it that the rest of the board will, but it coming this far is still a great feeling.

I also got a confirmation from The Town Drunk that they wouldn't mind seeing a complete rewrite on "Dragon's Speech." This is very good as I hope to add more humor and conflict to the tale.

I queried both Black Gate and Leading Edge about my stories so hopefully I'll hear back from them. Does anyone know their response times to queries?

And on the side I'm working on a story entitled "Above" that I feel will have a good home at a couple of sci-fi zines.

That is all for now, bloggers.

I know it's spelled Le Guin...

Top of the Monday mornin' to y'all!

First up, check out my review of Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea over here!



Unfortunately, Le Guin's name was entered spelled wrong into the FBS database and I'm sure it's too late to change it. Oh well...I'm sure she's used to it. It tis a tricky name, yes.

Writing News (dum dum duuuuummmmmm)
- A one-day rejection from Shimmer on "The Dealer's Hands". Suggestions were made and they offered to look at it again after a rewrite.

- A four-day rejection from The Town Drunk on "Dragon Speech". They seemed to like it at least and did offer some suggestions. My only problem is I can't tell if they want me to rewrite it and send back or not. Taken from rejection letter:

We encourage you to expand this story and have more fun with the dragon -- and we would like to see what you come up with.

That line there makes me think that it'd be OK to resubmit later after a rewrite. I don't know though. Anyone want to help me out?

- Still waiting to hear back from The Sword Review, among lots of other magazines. We'll see how this all goes...

An update from moi

Let's see, let's see...

Once my Internet is up and in full force I plan on sending out at least five queries (that I know of) to a couple of places. I fear that Black Gate will never respond and The Leading Edge has had my piece for longer than their response times expect.

I've been doing some tweaking and dampering with some short stories, but nothing too final yet. I'd really love to finish my fairy tale "Bereavement" as it has a special place in my writing heart.

My review of Amazing Journeys, Issue 10 is coming along slowly if surely. Probably by the end of the weekend I'll have it done and up on Tangent Online. Then after that, Eugie is sending me something else to review (my memory drifts away from me at this moment, off playing with toys or something). Yeah, so I have that to do as well.

And starting in March, I will now get F&SF at my doorstep. Well, my tiny mailbox down the hall. But you get the picture. I wasn't going to subscribe at first. My plan was to pick and choose my issues based off reviews, but when I searched for the magazine in my local Barnes & Noble, I could not find it. So, to save time but not money, I gave in to GVG's mind tricks and subscribed for a full year. Blast! I'll never get any writing done now...

Frosty review!

Check out my review of Kim Wilkin's amazing new novel Giants of the Frost here!



Much thanks goes to Damon from FBS for sending it to me. Without him, I'd probably never learn of some many unknown yet talented authors. Thanks!

First review of 2006

Happy New Year's everybody!

Eugie has just informed me that my review of Shimmer, August 2005 is now up on Tangent Online. Check it out and then let me know what you think!