Modern Day Rogues

Fascinating bit of investigative blogging right here as Victoria Strauss uncovers what appears to be a web of linked sites designed to separate would-be writers and their money.  Self-publishing fiction is often an ill-advised move despite the few successes that are loudly trumpeted about (yes, I know about Wool. It's a very good short story that was stretched into a not-so-great novel.  Seriously, the middle section of the book is embarrassingly bad.  We're talking Twilight bad here).  So if you decide to go that route, please be careful.  Choose your warning - if it sounds too good, TANSTAAFL, whatever - and be smart.

This morning's writing: 699 words.  It's both fun and easy to write for the angry, bitter ex-boyfriend of the protagonist's wife. Toss in the 1.5 hours of heavy copyediting I did last night and I can almost feel like six years of higher education might not have been a complete waste.

Keeping the Dragon at Bay

When my alarm went off at 5am this morning I growled at it.  This is not a cute way of putting it - I flat-out growled at it and started to roll back over to catch another hour of sleep.  Screw the morning writing session.  My bed was comfy and warm.  The comforting shape of my wife slumbered next to me.  Hell, even the Gorram Cat was still asleep at my feet instead of tearing around the house like her tail was on fire, as she is wont to do at the crack of dawn.  All good.

I got up anyway, lurching and staggering tot he bathroom to handle ablutions and get to the writin'.  The temptation is huge to slack off, but this is something I need to finish.  So I'm going to try to use this dopey blog as a hammer to keep myself in line and force myself to report how many words I write each morning.  If I don't do anything then I have to suffer the shame of posting that here (although I gotta say if my wife rolls over and give me that look that says maybe it would be in my best interests not to head off and write at precisely that moment, I'm going to be okay with taking a zero that say.  Just saying.

I realize this won't make for the most scintillating reading but perhaps it will inspire me to update this with more interesting bits as well.  Who know.  Could happen.  Anyway, when all was said and done (specifically, when I stopped screwing around and actually wrote) I did 588 words in 30 minutes.  On to tomorrow.

But Seriously, What Should We Avoid?

This is an incredibly detailed list from Strange Horizons, a magazine of speculative fiction.  I'm not surprised to see that I have a few stories that would land within some of those perimeters but then again, how couldn't I (or anyone else?).  I can understand why they would feel moved to create something like this - the amount of submissions they receive must be staggering - but is this okay?

Certain genres are certainly tired and overdone, but does that mean nothing should ever be done with them again?  Can't a good story transcend whatever clothes it happens to wearing?  They do note that in certain cases they're willing to overlook the trope for superior writing, but what if they identify and dismiss it too soon?  Look at Jim Butcher's popular Dresden series.  He's not reinventing the wheel when it comes to either his style or his subject matter, but he provides a good, solid read.  Yet at the time when the first book came out Urban Fantasy had been all but declared oversaturated.  What would have happened if it never saw the light of day (To be fair, it almost didn't.  The story of how it made it is fairly fascinating and is on his website)?

I recently received a rejection on a story I wrote.  Fine, more than one.  FINE, many more than one.  Let's focus here, people.  It came with a personal note that told me with was extremely well-written but was the type of story that would spawn a slew of copycat-types to flood their slush pile.  For the record it would loosely fall under the heading of #2 on Strange Horizons' list but not specifically linked to any of the ones listed.  Now, was this just an editor being kind or is the concept of not printing a story because it'll inspire others to write along the same lines a real thing?  I have no idea.  Maybe it just wasn't good enough.

I want to tell myself I'm not going to sit down with this list and go through my pile of rejected stories, seeing which ones match, but I know I probably will at some point.  I suppose I could get pissy at Strange Horizons for limiting my options but it's probably a better move to use it to better understand the market.  Oh, and I wasn't guilty of #41.  I stuck my MoD stories in the "Dammit Someday When I'm Successful It'll Be Time to Put Out a Collection of My Stories" file.

Gonna Need a Bigger Grindstone (and not just because I have a big nose)

Aside from a few days while on vacation I have stuck to my six-day-a-week-get-up-at-5am-and-write-for-forty-five-minutes regimen.  Sometimes it's closer to an hour, other times closer to thirty minutes depending on how I stagger out of bed, but it's a rare day when I don't bang out at least five hundred words.  This allows me to not be a nervous mess about trying to write at 10pm or so when I'm tired and worn out from a full day's work, exercising, taking care of the kids, laundry, etc.  Am I tired?  Since I'm maybe getting five hours of sleep at night, a little (don't hit me Kevin!).  It's okay, though, because this needs to be done.

See, about sixteen years ago I wrote this book.  I was separated and my girlfriend at the time, who is now my wife lived around fifteen hundred miles away.  In addition I was taking every other Monday off, and on those days I was usually punching out between three to five thousand words.  When I finished it the draft rolled in at about 229,000 words - WAYYYYY too long for a complete unknown, unless your name is Rothfuss (not be fair, he'd already placed in the Writers of the Future contest.  I had published doodly).  Then the next worst thing happened - a publisher liked the sample chapters and asked for the manuscript.  With visions of book signings in my head I sent the cinderblock off.

It was rejected, of course.  The editor liked the writing but not enough to take a chance on such a long book with an unknown (this was a small Canadian press - I have no idea how I picked them out. This was so long ago I was using a book edition of the Writer's Market).  Bummed, I set it aside and didn't really write much for a while.  A few years ago I found a copy on a box and said, "Hmmm."  So I started editing before promptly forgetting about it and switching back to short stories.  I'm back on it now and pretty much rewriting it as opposed to editing.  As Roger DiBrees says in The Producers, 'That whole third act has got to go.'

As it stands I think this draft - yes, I've finally learned that this is just a first bite at the apple - will end up in the 110-120,000 word range, which is pretty good.  Optimal would be around 90k, but it's close enough and editing should trim it some.  Then come the big questions - do I try to find readers?  Do I send it out myself or try to find an agent?  DO I say 'screw it' and try to pull a 'Wool' by selling it myself on Amazon and hoping review copies on Goodreads engender interest (although I'll try to actually write a complete novel and not a really good short story with an extra 60,000 words tacked on)?  Will I actually ever look at the copy of Scrivner I bought on sale and try to learn how to use it?  Who knows.  I had a friend suggest I should take a whack at writing a game, but that's a major time investment.  Can we make the days a few hours longer?

In Which I Am Wistful

First things first - I'm here to shill for something I'm not even in.  The sequel to Machine of Death is out, and the editors of This is How You Die would LOVE to make it to the NY Times bestseller list.  So I am recommending that you go to your local bookstore or maybe here and grab a copy before Saturday.  This is a good book put out by good people and they're trying to make the bestseller list via normal means instead of the one-day blitz we did last time that made us the #1 damn book on all of Amazon (suck it, Glen Beck).

Am I bitter that I'm not in this volume?  No.  Disappointed and wistful absolutely, but not bitter or angry.  I write two stories and I thought they were pretty good, but as is my penchant I left them somewhat ambiguous in ending and was informed that they were trying to avoid that this time around.  Not the first time an editor has disagreed with me (nor the last, nor in anything less than great quantity).  it's probably even worse for my friend Dorian, an accomplished game writer who received a special note that he'd made it to the final round of judging before being eliminated.  That's both inspiring and crushing at the same time.

The original book has been a ridiculously amazing experience that keeps going on and on - last week there was our inclusion into the Humble Bundle and a Reddit AMA, for instance.  I would dearly, dearly love to have been in this one as well, but I am not.  And that's okay.  Not optimal, but okay.  And I wish nothing but success to North, Bennardo, and Malki! and I hope they make a million bucks each off this one.  If it does so well that a third edition is needed, well, I've got some ideas cooking  . . .

Seriously.  Go buy it.  Support indie publishers making a difference and changing the way the industry works.  All the info you could ever want is at machineofdeath.net

In Case You Wanted to Ask Me if My Fridge is Running

There will be a Reddit AMA for the authors of HumbleBundle today and they've asked me to be there, the fools.  12:30PM EST and the link will be on this page: http://www.reddit.com/r/iama 

I have no idea what anyone would ask me.  I'm just going for the free booze.

The Story That Wouldn't Die, Which is Ironic Because it's in a Book About Death

So, news.  You may have heard of the Humble Bundle, where a bunch of great books are grouped for a price that you pick, which a chunk going to charity.  As if Wil Wheaton, Peter Beagle and Cory Doctorow weren't enough of an enticement the original Machine of Death, which includes my story 'Fudge', has been added to the package.  It's like everyone doesn't know you can download it for free anyway It's great to be offered along with such great company, including the also added Neil Gaiman.  It's almost as if this little indie book is being taken seriously NO THAT'S CRAZY TALK. 

I am pleased.