Two Sales in a Week for Debs

I'm just waiting for my third. Acceptances always come in threes, right? (Oh, the hubris).

The first is a science fiction flash to Nature's Futures. That marks my fifth sale there. There have been some editorial changes at Nature's Futures, with Colin Sullivan stepping up to be editor. Henry Gee is now the consulting editor. Guidelines are here. 

My other sale was a reprint, that actually was first published in Nature, to the Danish magazine, Proxima. This will be my first translated work.  If you're interested in submitting science fiction, fantasy or horror reprints to overseas markets you might like to check out Douglas Smith's Foreign Market List. 

edited: Hey, I got my third!

Scary Productivity Surge

Wow. Oh wow. These last two weeks, I've been so productive that I've scared myself.

I'm going to share the secret of my productivity with you all. Have a look at the bottom right hand side of this blog. See the tracking hours box. That's my secret. Actually writing down the time I spend writing (writing and direct research for a story i.e. Wikipedia articles). Anything else like big research (reading non-fiction books), or subbing, or reading craft books, or reading anthologies, or blogging, or thinking time, doesn't get counted.

This technique really works for me. Don't ask me why. You'll have a different amount of time than me for writing, but I'd definitely recommend tracking (either hours or word count) and writing it down somewhere.

Do any of you do this? It's super-great, isn't it? Although I feel a bit worn out. Time for a walk methinks.

Edited to add. I think the most valuable thing about this is that I'm tracking actual writing time. So today for instance, I've worked for about five hours and would usually have knocked off. But I've only been writing for three hours, the rest of the time I made a couple of submissions, read an online story, a few blogs etc. All valuable stuff, but not writing.

Who Said That? Writing With More Than One Voice

Oh my word. This book is just so great: On Writing Horror: A Handbook by the Horror Writers Association. editor Mort Castle.

It's a series of short essays from the 'masters' of horror. But I reckon many of the chapters are applicable to a short story writer in any genre. 

I had a writer's epiphany when reading Bruce Holland Roger's essay, 'The Dark Enchantment of Style'. I've been wondering about voice for a while, you know the stylistic elements that makes an accomplished author's promise recognisable.

I'm sure I have more than one voice, I'd think. After all I write horror, science fiction and fantasy. One voice doesn't suit them all.

And sure enough, that's exactly what BHR says in his essay. That voice or style should be flexible and suit the needs of the story. Exactly! I should have listened to my own voice on that one. Still it was great to have that niggle crossed off my list.

So seeing as he was so smart about that. I thought I'd given the second part of his advice a try: Slow Down. That's absolutely counter-intuitive to me, because I'm so slow anyway. He advises that you re-write your passages from your favourite stories, and try to imitate them, slowly on a word by word and sentence by sentence level.

'Read slowly. Take time to analyze. Imitate slowly with care. When you compose, slow down.'

I'm going to give it a go. Not in my usual writing time, but in the time I devote to improvement.

What about you, readers. Do you write with more than one voice. Have you ever tried deliberately analysing, and imitating?

I'm Good At ...

I always love hearing about the different ways writers go about their craft. I've come up with an idea for a series of blog posts, all in the 'I'm Good At ...' series. Outlining what you're good at, and how you do it. You know, the little tricks picked up along the way.

The twist in the tale, is that this series is written by my readers. Yes, I'm delegating my blog. Genius.

If you'd like to guest post in the series, drop me a comment. I don't really care about format or length. Whatever suits.

ideas might be: I'm Good At World Building, or Characterisation, or Plotting, or Flash, or Novelling, or Anything Else, just so long as it's related to writing.

Guest posts restricted to one per applicant-- only kidding. You're welcome to write as many as you like. It saves me a job. And don't think that you're not good enough to do it, everyone's got something they can share.

Anyhoo, this idea might fall on it's face, so don't be afraid to write one out of pity for me.

Horror Reprints--Best Market Ever

Well, it's a good day when you discover your favourite anthology series is open to unsolicited reprints. Enter, Stephen Jones' The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror.

I love this series. I've been reading it for years, and would highly recommend it.

I've included the 1985 cover in this post, because it's my favourite. You've got to admire those colours. This cover it makes me smile, because it's not (in my opinion) indicative of the contents. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror is thoughtful horror, meaningful and elegant. It's the type of horror I aspire to write. But what a cover! Outrageously pulpy. I mean you don't see many green vampire monsters do you?

Here are the guidelines:  (slightly edited).

I am now considering stories and novellas FIRST PUBLISHED between January 2012 and December 2012 for the twenty-fourth annual edition of the multiple award-winning THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW HORROR series. 

AUTHORS

Do not assume that I have seen the book, magazine or website that your work appears in. If you think you have had a story published of exceptional quality (and I am only interested in seeing your very best work, no matter where it originally appeared), then send a copy to the address below.

PUBLISHERS

I am also interested in seeing novels, collections, anthologies, magazines, art books, graphic adaptations, DVDs and anything else connected with the horror field that I can mention in the comprehensive overview of the year in horror. I will also list your contact information in the list of useful addresses.

Please send all material (sorry, no electronic submissions), with details of first publication and all contact details, to:

The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror #24

c/o 130 Park View

Wembley

Middx HA9 6JU

England

The deadline for receiving material is JANUARY 2013 --STEPHEN JONES

Editor, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror series

sj@stephenjoneseditor.com

Mentors for Horror Writers

I was interested to find out that the Horror Writers Association (HWA) run a mentoring programme. I found about it from a interview with JG Faherty on the Horror on the Installment Plan blog. (You might have to register to view the interview).


And, by the way, Horror on the Installment Plan is  still looking for horror short stories for their themed issues and paying professional rates.


Edmund R. Schubert interviews Steve Savile about the HWA programme. Basically an experienced writer teams up with a less experienced,  affiliate HWA member.


Affiliate membership requirements are sale in horror/dark fantasy of one of the following:

• Sell one short story of at least 500 words, for payment of at least $25.
• Sell one non-fiction article, role-playing supplement, comic book script, computer gaming script, or theatrical play for payment of at least $50.
• Sell one book-length manuscript (40,000 words or more) for payment of at least $200.
• Sell a screenplay or an option on your existing screenplay for payment of at least $200.
• Sell three poems for total payment of at least $15.

I'm very tempted. I reckon I qualify for membership. I wonder how much it is? I've always fancied having a mentor.


Has anyone had experience being mentored by another writer?


edited. Here's the membership page for HWA. If you join after July, for half a year, it's only $25.

Story Sale to Circus: Fantasy Under the Big Top

Look at this lovely cover. And I'm in it! With my reprint science fiction story, 'Welcome to the Greatest Show in the Universe." I've just found out, and I'm so excited.

Edited by Ekaterina Sedia, Table of contents buddies with Ken Scholes, Peter Straub, Howard Waldrop, Genivieve Valentine, Jeff Vandermeer  and Cate Gardner.

Pinch me I must be dreaming.

Are you Walking Down the Street Naked?

Neil Gaiman's speech to the graduates of the University of of the Arts in Philadelphia has been circulating around the internet. And rightly so. Do give it a listen, if you've got a moment. All good stuff.

What got me thinking, was when he spoke about finding your voice:

"write ... as only you can, the moment that you feel, that just possibly, you're walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind, and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself that's the moment when you might be starting to get it right."

Things that tend to snag my attention are things that I don't do. I don't feel at all that I'm showing too much of myself. I think of my stories as intellectual puzzles. I'm very interested in emotion and character but my characters are always very definitely not me. If anything I feel they are a conversation between me and ideas I've picked up along my way.

No doubt, every word, every character arc, every happy ending, is revealing a lot about me--eek. But I don't feel they are me. And of course, every writer is different and has their own process.

But food for thought. Do you feel this way about your stories? Do they expose the heart of you? How can I use  Gaiman's advice to write better stories?

Good Review for My Rocket Science Story

It's a good job that my last post dealt with rejections, becuase here's a little bragging to balance it out. A review from The Future Fire: 

".....
Each of these stories is set in a world of very convincing scientific advancement, and while that framework is extremely important and effective in painting each individual world, it is the people, the characters, that are the ultimate focus.


In ‘Sea of Maternity’ by Deborah Walker, for example, we have an intriguing glimpse of the rigours of living in a lunar colony. Innovative ways have been developed to protect the inhabitants from lethal washes of radiation sent out by the sun. The first generation have survived and the second are growing up through adolescence toward adulthood. Yet all is not well, the children of the moon are as restless and rebellious as their earthbound counterparts. This is a marvellous story, and in a few thousand words, ‘Sea of Maternity’ gives us the vast backdrop and convincing history of the colony, and at the same time focusses tight into a fraught mother-daughter relationship that encapsulates the whole issue of lunar colonisation.


.....


My recommendation? Even if you are put off by the term “Hard SF” and are nervous of negotiating zero-g, aphelion, radiation, weightlessness and the dynamics of re-entry, give this book a try. The hardware, the steel and plastic actually emphasise the sheer fragile-yet-iron tough humanity of its protagonists. The real winner here is the human spirit."


So, lessons learnt? Well, get more of that character stuff into my hard stories. People seem to like it. 

Marvel at my Mighty Rejection Collection

Well it's 893 rejections in three and a half years. That's just for short stories. And I'm not the only one to have this enormous pile of rejections, a couple of my writing friends have similar numbers.

I've posted for two reasons, firstly so that you can congratulate me. Wow, I'm a good little subber.

But secondly to stress what a tough old game this is. We're competing in an international field, against thousands of other writers.  Recently I read a blog from a writer who was quitting, saying that he thinks he will never be good enough to publish in the top magazines. Fair enough. But I wondered, just how many submissions had the writer made? And mileage will vary for this. Some writers will never get as many rejections as me and publish more. (Good for them).

Another story: recently after three years of subbing and three years of form rejections, I received a re-write request from a professional publication. Now its true it would have been a better story if it had been an acceptance. But a rewrite request is still very encouraging. And this is from a publication where I've often thought, am I wasting my time?

If you've had as many rejections as me, you don't worry about individual rejections much. You just can't, otherwise you'll go bonkers. Yesterday I got a rejection, oh, so close. (You can tell from duotrope stats, and what other writers say), and I just thought, meh, oh well. Onwards.

Do you know how many rejections you've had?

Reviewed in the National Press

Hooray. The Rocket Science anthology got reviewed in The Guardian by Eric Brown, and I got my name in the national paper:

Rocket Science, edited by Ian Sales (Mutation Press, £8.99)
Sales's motive in editing this anthology was to demonstrate that science fiction about space "didn't need implausible gosh-wow special effects and OTT space-operatics in order to be good science fiction, or indeed to entertain". All the tales are set in the near future, and all are in some way about space and humanity's relation to it. The strength of the collection is that the best of the stories – and the standard is very high – are about the human condition. Standouts include Craig Pay's "Incarnate", a harrowing account of a mother and father's response to their cloned daughter's desire for suicide on Titan; "A Biosphere Ends" by Stephen Palmer, a complex and moving examination of ecological breakdown on a Martian colony; and Deborah Walker's poignant "Sea of Maternity", about the conflict between motherhood and scientific ambition on the moon. Superb.

The Glorious 300

With eight sales last week, I noticed that I passed the 300 sales mark. I count everything, stories, poems, tweets, reprints even the odd bit of non fiction. If you're interested you can check them out on my side pages. They might not add up to 300, but it's true. This makes me happy. 

It also makes me wonder, where should I go from here? Shall I keep on trucking?  I've completed my first draft of my novel, 'Infected Heart of Tilda Skerritt." Well I call it a novel, it's 50K. I'm sure I could pad it out a bit.

I rather feel that I ought to have some kind of plan. In fact, I do have one: write a lot of short stories, get good and then have a novel waiting in the wings, just in case anyone asks.

A fine plan.
What's your plan?

Also for the poetry fans, I've got a couple of new-ish works, 'Epona Matins' at Eternal Haunted Summer and 'The Great Whore' at Mirror Dance. 

Rocket Science Anthology: Full Steam Ahead

The Rocket Science anthology is at the printers and will be launched at Eastercon in London a few weeks.

I'm going to be at the launch reading from my story, 'The Sea of Maternity.' And I'm going to be on a panel discussing the science behind the anthology. This is going to be my first conference, so I'm jumping straight in.

Thanks to Ian Sales the editor for pulling this together.

Anyone else going to Eastercon?