I have several stories that are nearly finished. In some cases I've been writing them for years. I may have had a great idea but not figured out how to tie up the ending or how to resolve the conflict. Sometimes it was a setting or premise. Sometimes I just get bogged down.
I'm now very close with about three stories. I finally finished the web one which I retitled "Ensnared" though I'm not so happy with that title. I struggled with that ending for a while. Whereas "Shoes" was easy to write and finish. I now have one on the Germanic goddess Berchta, one on barge people and one I'm trying to write for Sword & Sorceress. That one will be completed first. The other two I might have started as long ago as ten years ago. I'm a lot closer to the endings. Berchta will come next but I don't want to ruin it. The problem with taking so long is the voice can change through the story so I have to be diligent.
After that--actually during--I have to make sure my chapters and outline are as good as they're going to get and send them off for the Kansas workshop (flight is booked!). Then I must write two erotic tales by the end of June as they are nearly for-sure sales if I get them done. I'm not writing fast but I am writing.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Tooth Troubles
Our lovely health system doesn't cover teeth. My job has no medical/dental plan. I've been trying to put aside $900 since January for a tooth I broke over the holidays and requires a crown. In the meantime, a tooth that was refilled last year decided to move on to the next stage. It started aching with eating hot food and then causing other teeth to ache.
It's one of my front teeth. My dentist tried to go in but she couldn't get it to freeze and I can't take regular freezing with epinephrine. And it turns out it's a mutant tooth having two roots. Front teeth should only have one. So I have to go to the specialist. I'm quoted $800-$1200 for the root canal only. That's not looking at another crown.
I have just enough money to cover the root canal and then that's it. I thought I could pay down my charge card but alas that's not in the cards. So it goes. Perhaps some day the government might see that dental health is essential to overall health. The thing is, I won't even have pretty teeth after this. They're fairly crooked and I've been told it would be $10,000 plus. Right, I'll just dip into the piggy bank.
It's one of my front teeth. My dentist tried to go in but she couldn't get it to freeze and I can't take regular freezing with epinephrine. And it turns out it's a mutant tooth having two roots. Front teeth should only have one. So I have to go to the specialist. I'm quoted $800-$1200 for the root canal only. That's not looking at another crown.
I have just enough money to cover the root canal and then that's it. I thought I could pay down my charge card but alas that's not in the cards. So it goes. Perhaps some day the government might see that dental health is essential to overall health. The thing is, I won't even have pretty teeth after this. They're fairly crooked and I've been told it would be $10,000 plus. Right, I'll just dip into the piggy bank.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Publishing News
I've recently received word that my story will be out in Nemonymous 8: Cone Zero. I'm not allowed to name the story until the published anthology has been out for eight months. Nemonymous is a British publication by DF Lewis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemonymous
The stories are published but the author names (I believe) are listed at the back of the book/magazine with no credit given to a particular story. In the subsequent issue, the story and author are matched up. The pay is much like any other anthology in the speculative genre; a little more since it's in British pounds. This story should be out in June this year.
As well, as of mid-March I've become the senior fantasy editor at Aberrant Dreams. This is to help with the flow and hopefully bring the magazine up to more consistent output as its been sporadic. http://www.hd-image.com/main.htm Joe Dickerson is one of the two originators of the online magazine (Lonny Harper is the other) and he has recently been publishing some books as well. His time was being consumed, with too many decisions getting log-jammed. I'm not sure who is the head horror editor and Joe may be the main SF editor still. Marcie Tentchoff is the poetry editor.
Good news is that new material went up this week and as far as fantasy goes, we're review material sent within our 5-month timeframe. This does not include some stories waiting for final approval that Joe has or that I still have. I'm hoping to get through this in the next week. The sad thing is that there are many very good stories but I'll be limited to sending one on a month to Joe. That means some works will be rejected so that they're just not held forever. It's a tough market out there with more good stories than funds or room to publish in many magazines.
Which just tells me that writers should have faith. Rejection may not even be because the story is bad at all.
The stories are published but the author names (I believe) are listed at the back of the book/magazine with no credit given to a particular story. In the subsequent issue, the story and author are matched up. The pay is much like any other anthology in the speculative genre; a little more since it's in British pounds. This story should be out in June this year.
As well, as of mid-March I've become the senior fantasy editor at Aberrant Dreams. This is to help with the flow and hopefully bring the magazine up to more consistent output as its been sporadic. http://www.hd-image.com/main.htm Joe Dickerson is one of the two originators of the online magazine (Lonny Harper is the other) and he has recently been publishing some books as well. His time was being consumed, with too many decisions getting log-jammed. I'm not sure who is the head horror editor and Joe may be the main SF editor still. Marcie Tentchoff is the poetry editor.
Good news is that new material went up this week and as far as fantasy goes, we're review material sent within our 5-month timeframe. This does not include some stories waiting for final approval that Joe has or that I still have. I'm hoping to get through this in the next week. The sad thing is that there are many very good stories but I'll be limited to sending one on a month to Joe. That means some works will be rejected so that they're just not held forever. It's a tough market out there with more good stories than funds or room to publish in many magazines.
Which just tells me that writers should have faith. Rejection may not even be because the story is bad at all.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Arts Council Grants
Recently I decided that it would be beneficial to take a novel writing workshop in Kansas this summer, sponsored by the Center for the Study of Science Fiction. http://www2.ku.edu/~sfcenter/novel-workshop.htm It's a two-week concentrated effort on brainstorming, smoothing out and progressing to a saleable outline and/or chapters. The setting is with a small group of people so it allows for uninterrupted time on the masterpiece in bud.
The workshop itself is not that expensive but by the time you add lodging, food and transportation it isn't necessarily cheap. I decided to apply for a Canada Council grant and a BC Arts Council grant. The last time I even entertained applying for any sort of travel grant I didn't have enough credentials to make it into the process.
I started with the BC Arts Council grant as it had a tighter deadline. This one required a related CV, letter of acceptance, two reference letters, description of the project, letter outlining what I would be doing and how it would benefit me and my career, sample of written work, and a list of published credits, which means title, publisher, date, number of pages and that it must be in a legitimate publication for which there is a review process and payment. The council asked for 120 pages of published fiction, or 40 pages of published poetry. I have many many poems published but since I'm applying in a fiction field I thought it best to include as many fiction credits as possible.
This meant I had to go through all the copies of my published works that I have at home. Luckily I have always kept a list which had title, publication and publisher, editor and date. So what I really needed was to confirm the volume or publication numbers and the number of pages. It took a couple of nights to go through this and some searching on the internet but I completed it all. The very helpful Walter Quan at BC Arts also answered all my questions, including that I could combine poetry and fiction to get the full amount and even use my erotic fiction if it went through the proper review process, which it did.
Next was getting the letters of recommendation which also assess the study project and its worth. Sure I've been published but I'm still fairly unknown so who would know my work enough to comment on it and the workshop? Friend and famously bad communicator Ed Bryant could have done it but trying to get him to send me something on time would have been nigh impossible. Luckily Kij Johnson, who leads the workshop is an astoundingly good writer and a friend. So that was one letter but I needed the second. I finally thought back to my story that received the most recognition, "Hold Back the Night" in the Open Space anthology. Claude Lalumiere had been an amazing editor, working with me and getting me through two rewrites to bring out the best potential of the story. He's since rejected a story of mine but I felt he might be willing and he was. They both gave encouraging support in their letters.
By far the hardest part was writing up how the workshop would benefit my career and what it would give me. I took the longest on that and submitted everything before the March 15 deadline. BC Arts will only pay half of the total budget of the project so I then focused on Canada Council. It was interesting, and I noted to the BC Arts contact, that more writing was required by BC Arts than Canada Council (CC requires about 40 pages of published writing). He said this was because BC Arts has less money to go around and therefore must raise the bar.
For Canada Council I didn't apply for a study assistance as for BC Arts, but for a travel grant. They say travel grants can't be used for a host of things including workshops where their primary purpose is training. It becomes a gray area as this workshop is more brainstorming and concentrating on revision (darn, wish I'd said that in the application) so I had to word my letter carefully. Although no letters of recommendation were required I added the two I had received. I had to also add a budget and place of publication for all of my credits, so it was back to the bookcase again to get that information. I found one poem not even listed on my CV and now I have all my information in a consistent form for any further needs.
The Canada Council application went off at the end of March. Now I wait to see if I received one or both of the applications. It's an interesting process especially in comparison of the two application processes. There are larger grants, which if I'm successful I might apply for to finish the novel. The requirements become more stringent at that level. For now, I work on the novel outline for the workshop.
The workshop itself is not that expensive but by the time you add lodging, food and transportation it isn't necessarily cheap. I decided to apply for a Canada Council grant and a BC Arts Council grant. The last time I even entertained applying for any sort of travel grant I didn't have enough credentials to make it into the process.
I started with the BC Arts Council grant as it had a tighter deadline. This one required a related CV, letter of acceptance, two reference letters, description of the project, letter outlining what I would be doing and how it would benefit me and my career, sample of written work, and a list of published credits, which means title, publisher, date, number of pages and that it must be in a legitimate publication for which there is a review process and payment. The council asked for 120 pages of published fiction, or 40 pages of published poetry. I have many many poems published but since I'm applying in a fiction field I thought it best to include as many fiction credits as possible.
This meant I had to go through all the copies of my published works that I have at home. Luckily I have always kept a list which had title, publication and publisher, editor and date. So what I really needed was to confirm the volume or publication numbers and the number of pages. It took a couple of nights to go through this and some searching on the internet but I completed it all. The very helpful Walter Quan at BC Arts also answered all my questions, including that I could combine poetry and fiction to get the full amount and even use my erotic fiction if it went through the proper review process, which it did.
Next was getting the letters of recommendation which also assess the study project and its worth. Sure I've been published but I'm still fairly unknown so who would know my work enough to comment on it and the workshop? Friend and famously bad communicator Ed Bryant could have done it but trying to get him to send me something on time would have been nigh impossible. Luckily Kij Johnson, who leads the workshop is an astoundingly good writer and a friend. So that was one letter but I needed the second. I finally thought back to my story that received the most recognition, "Hold Back the Night" in the Open Space anthology. Claude Lalumiere had been an amazing editor, working with me and getting me through two rewrites to bring out the best potential of the story. He's since rejected a story of mine but I felt he might be willing and he was. They both gave encouraging support in their letters.
By far the hardest part was writing up how the workshop would benefit my career and what it would give me. I took the longest on that and submitted everything before the March 15 deadline. BC Arts will only pay half of the total budget of the project so I then focused on Canada Council. It was interesting, and I noted to the BC Arts contact, that more writing was required by BC Arts than Canada Council (CC requires about 40 pages of published writing). He said this was because BC Arts has less money to go around and therefore must raise the bar.
For Canada Council I didn't apply for a study assistance as for BC Arts, but for a travel grant. They say travel grants can't be used for a host of things including workshops where their primary purpose is training. It becomes a gray area as this workshop is more brainstorming and concentrating on revision (darn, wish I'd said that in the application) so I had to word my letter carefully. Although no letters of recommendation were required I added the two I had received. I had to also add a budget and place of publication for all of my credits, so it was back to the bookcase again to get that information. I found one poem not even listed on my CV and now I have all my information in a consistent form for any further needs.
The Canada Council application went off at the end of March. Now I wait to see if I received one or both of the applications. It's an interesting process especially in comparison of the two application processes. There are larger grants, which if I'm successful I might apply for to finish the novel. The requirements become more stringent at that level. For now, I work on the novel outline for the workshop.
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