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 (just the) "Writing" Entries "Shooting Dogs for Fun and Profit" free at ChiZine October 9, 2007 My story "Shooting Dogs for Fun and Profit" is up at ChiZine/Chiaroscuro. As a comedy piece, it should be a bit more amusing than the story behind it, below: I don't give a lot of thought to genre when I'm writing. Or if I do, it's more comedy vs drama rather than science fiction vs mystery vs non-genre or anything. There've been times I've written an entire story specifically for a market only to discover that, in the process of turning an idea into what I think is a workable story, I'd taken out the very element that would have made it appropriate for that particular market (no speculative element for an SF publication, no pirates for a pirate anthology). Even after years of writing and reading genre fiction, I spent the first half of Clarion failing to figure out the expectations of genre, and the second half failing to figure out my expectations of genre. I've never made it any further than the addage: good stories are good stories. So I've come to haphazardly put works into categories only after the fact, which probably contributes to my difficulty in placing my favorite work, and is probably why regular readers of non-genre fiction enjoyed "Outgoing" so much more than regular readers of science fiction or fantasy did (and why it's no great gamble to recommend "Shotting Dogs" to people who don't typically like horror; it's the horror fans who'll be wondering what the hell they're reading...). "Shooting Dogs for Fun and Profit" was a ten-minute play I submitted in 2005 to the Actor's Theatre of Louisville's National Ten Minute Play competition, which I try to enter every year. It didn't place, but this summer I dug it up because a filmmaker friend was looking for pieces we could shoot in a weekend. I realized there were still things I liked about it. So I'd meant to send it to another short play competition, but misread a deadline as "postmarked by" instead of "received by" because I'm silly like that. At the same time, I was trying to come up with a story for James Van Pelt's Hardboiled Horror, a crime-horror crossgenre anthology. It occurred to me (two years after I wrote it, of course) that "Shooting Dogs" had elements of both crime and horror, but I'd never thought of it as anything other than a comedy. So I kept most of the dialogue, and filled in some gaps, completely Hemingwaying it at times with... "DIALOGUE, DIALOGUE." He stood. His eyeballs itched. "DIALOGUE, DIALOGUE." ...an example which thankfully didn't make it into the submitted draft. So I felt like a hack. But prose can take many forms, and some stories are all about the dialogue. Why try to make "Shooting Dogs" something that it's not? I finished the prose version of the story at the end of June, plenty of time before the anthology deadline, which meant plenty of time to sit on it, work on other things, and come back to it with fresh eyes (which might mean a completely different thing in horror than it does in writing in general; I'll have to be careful). But the ChiZine/Chiaroscuro short fiction contest closed in a few days, so I figured why not let it sit in their slush pile instead of on my hard drive? And I forgot about it, except to wince when the Michael Vick/dogfighting allegations were dominating the news in the months between the ChiZine deadline closing and the announcement of the winners. I thought: okay, there goes the chance in hell I had of placing in the contest, and I'll need to change the title (which is figurative--no dogs even appear in the story) before I send it out to Hardboiled. But I never got the chance. It won third place in the contest and became my second SFWA-qualifying sale. And, for what it's worth, I offered it up to Mr. Van Pelt as a reprint, but it wasn't a good fit for the anthology in the first place, alas. Ah well. I've got nothing to complain about, and clearly I've demonstrated that I'm not the best judge for where mys tuff belongs. Now of course, I'm wondering whether we can really film it on a weekend...
 Sale! "Squatter's Rites" to Weird Tales September 25, 2007 Via email (from poetry editor/creative director Stephen Segal), 52 days. "Squatter's Rites" is a poem that tells a quick ghost story in 12 lines. Weird Tales is a magazine that, in its previous incarnations, launched the careers of Ray Bradbury, Robert E. Howard, and H.P. Lovecraft. In its current, quite-strong form, fellow Clarion '06er Will Ludwigsen has a poem (and a few other writers I admire have stories) in the current issue. I'm in excellent company. Flattered and honored. I still remember getting my first rejection from Weird Tales (Guidevines wiki link) in my Ashland University mailbox almost nine years ago. This was my second sub--and first poetry sub--to the magazine under its recently-changed creative masthead. Phew, I needed that.
My Interview at the Comicon Pulse September 21, 2007 A few months ago, writer Chris Beckett interviewed me for his Pulse indie-spotlight column "For Your Consideration." Went up last night. Strange and wonderful to see one's name in the top headline on the front page of the Pulse (until the next story's posted anyway, heh). Thanks, Chris!
2007 Submission Log: Weeks 33-34 September 2, 2007 Any bets on who'll send me my 300th rejection? Guess correctly in the LJ comments and get a free set of Inconsequential Art #1 & #2, autographed if you want. One guess per person, and up to five people (the first five to guess correctly) can win. Editors currently in charge of these pending rejections are not eligible. Ends one week from today or when I receive the rejection, whichever is later. My outstanding submissions list is the first comment. Cool? Submissions 416-419 The Sun (my 4th) MF&SF (my 20th) Strange Horizons (my 12th) Clarkesworld (my 4th) Rejections 295-299: Glimmer Train (4 months, 3rd rejection) Tin House (96 days, 5th rejection) Realms of Fantasy (4 months, 8th rejection)* Asimov's (24 days, 16th rejection) Analog (37 days, 11th rejection) Of Interest: Very busy August, but also quite productive in writing and other areas. Hopefully that'll bear some fruit soon. Learned recently that The Sun is based in Chapel Hill. I received my first rejection letters from there in my Ashland University mailbox, and now I could probably walk to the office (don't know if proximity helps or hurts me, heh). Obviously that means I haven't sent them anything in at least five years. Time to fix that. *Those submitting to Realms of Fantasy (via slush anyway) would do well to keep an eye on "Slushmaster" Douglas Cohen's blog, especially when he mentions meeting with editor Shawna McCarthy to pick up new slush stories and to pass promising ones along. Doug has reported response times going down since he started there, though with my last two stories the response time has increased immensely--and it's actually a good sign. Here are the timelines of my last two submissions, my only two stories Doug (or any previous slush editor) has passed to Shawna. 09.16.06 - Sent to Realms of Fantasy 10.22.06 - Doug picks up slush pile to read 11.11.06 - Email from Doug; he's passing it to Shawna 01.03.07 - Actual pass to Shawna 02.09.07 - Rejection from Shawna 05.03.07 - Sent to Realms of Fantasy 06.03.07 - Doug picks up slush pile to read 06.17.07 - Email from Doug; he's passing it to Shawna 07.19.07 - Actual Pass to Shawna 08.31.07 - Latest Acquisitions announced; implied rejection The above makes a lot more sense now that I've been reading his blog. And this weekend he posted recent acquisitions among the latest "batch," so even before receiving a formal rejection, I've been able to determine that I'm free to send that story elsewhere. So: not a magic bullet that'll turn a rejection into an acceptance, but a tweak to the submission process which gives my story a few days it didn't have before.
SALE/3rd Place Win in the 13th ChiZine Story Contest July 27, 2007 My story "Shooting Dogs for Fun and Profit"* will be published in ChiZine #34 later this year, having won 3rd place in the latest Chiaroscuro/Leisure Short Story Contest. Which means my second SFWA-qualifying sale arrives almost 14 months and over 150 submissions after my first one. Phew. It felt like even longer. (*For what it's worth, the title is quite abstract. No animals appear--much less are shot for any reason--in this piece.)
2007 Submission Log: Week 27-28 July 16, 2007 Submissions 400-410: Stories to Strange Horizons (11th), Shimmer (3rd), LCRW (5th), and Analog (11th). Comics to 2000 AD (6th script), The New Yorker (7th sub overall, 1st gag cartoon), and MF&SF (1st gag cartoon, 19th sub overall, 400th sub anywhere overall). Poetry to Weird Tales (5th sub overall, 1st poem) and the Journal of Impossible Things (1st-3rd subs). Rejections 280-288 From Mythic Delirium (34 days), Interzone (43 days), Analog (28 days), Asimov's (40 Days), a manga proposal for the Feminist Press at CUNY, Strange Horizons (14 days), and MF&SF (11 days from GVG, probably because gag cartoons don't go through JJA). Of Interest:
400th Submission today July 3, 2007 Took 8 years, 8 months, and 2 days from my first submission. It was a gag cartoon sent to F&SF (1st gag sub, 19th sub overall). Phew. Glad that's out of the way.
The SFWA Walk of Shame July 2, 2007 I debated joining the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America so early. With only one SFWA-eligible novelette sale, I could only join as a non-voting, non-nominating Associate member at this point. But I've been incorrectly confident for over a year now that my next two eligible sales were imminent, and those would allow me to become a full-fledge Active Member. So I figured I'd join in January and by the end of 2007 I'd renew as an Active after a hard-fought battle with the slushpile. But it wasn't to be! Yes, I joined. But my pro-rated membership was for only six months. All SFWA memberships are renewed mid-year. But that did not deter me; no, it did not. I signed up anyway! Because surely I could make two little SFWA-eligible sales in six whole months! I may not dedicate _all_ my writing time to genre stories, nor do I submit exclusively to SFWA-eligible markets, but what does that matter? I'm on the cusp of a career! But here we are, time to renew, and in order to do so I still have to check that Associate box. I feel like such a poseur. And I'm still wearing last night's clothes. But that's just how I roll.
2007 Submission Log: Week 26 - Halfway Point June 30, 2007 Submissions 397-399: Stories to Strange Horizons (my 10th), Weird Tales (my 4th, but first under current editor Ann VanderMeer), and the 13th Chiaroscuro Short Story Contest (my first, but I've submitted to Chizine before). Rejections 275-279 Strange Horizons (20 days on a story; no comments this time), Shimmer (10 days on a story; "just wish there'd been more spec"--meaning "speculative element") and Tin House (12 days on a batch of poems sent for the Winter issue; form letter) Of Interest: I forgot about this last week: Doug Cohen (slush editor for Realms of Fantasy) emailed me to let me know that my current story submission will be passed to Shawna, which makes two in a row for me (my only two times getting past Doug since he joined the fray). And I woulda hit 400 subs today, but I misremembered a playwriting deadline as "postmarked by" instead of "received by." Now I've gotta get all angsty and superstitious about what that milestone sub should be.
2007 Submission Log: Weeks 22-24 June 16, 2007 Submissions 391-394: Stories to M&FSF (my 18th), Strange Horizons (9th sub overall, but 6th fiction sub), Asimov's (15th overall, 9th fiction), and Analog (10th). Rejections 266-272: Two from MF&SF (28 days from GVG, 9 days from JJA), Futurismic (32 days), Flytrap (37 days), and the last of the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest non-placers which I'll be counting here (see below). Of Interest: Of my last six subs to MF&SF, it looks like every other one got to GVG, and often not the ones I'd expect, based on my judgment of the stories and my reading of the magazine. Decided to stop counting Cartoon Caption Contest entries as submissions, because I don't want it to get to the point where I've "subbed" there more often than I have anywhere else. Might still throw jokes their way, so long as I have stuff in the New Yorker's "real" slush pile. But it's a throwaway thing, on the off chance that my name will flash across an editor's eyeline, but it was never an important part of my submission strategy. Writers of the Future has posted its 2007Q2 Finalists to its blog at just 60 days from the entry deadline. Nice because this has freed up my entry-story to send it to another market, even before I got my rejection.
2007 Submission Log: Weeks 20-21 May 29, 2007 Submissions 386-390: Stories to Interzone (my 2nd), ParaSpheres (my 1st) and Tin House (my 5th). And two more entries into the New Yorker Gag Cartoon Caption Contest. Rejection 265: 62-day rejection from Strange Horizons, with a note about humor being subjective. Of Interest/Queries Corner: After ten unanswered queries to Marvel, I've received my first ever response! It was a form letter saying that I don't quite have what it takes to be an illustrator for Marvel yet. Which I agree with. Which is why I queried them as a writer looking to pitch some stories. But if that wasn't clear, then my writing chops really need work. (Or maybe it was just payback for this submission faux pas). So I have finally gotten Marvel to open one of my envelopes. I know this because the form letter came in one of my SASEs. Now how do I get an editor to read what I send them? It just might take ten more queries before I figure it out...
2007 Submission Log: Week 19 Part Deux: The Revenge May 16, 2007 As discussed earlier, I have begun sending out queries, so I'm thinking I should put some sort of tracking system in place, as I have with my slush submissions, "before I get overwhelmed." And why, pray tell, would someone who has almost 400 submissions under his belt need to bother about organization? What rookie mistakes could I possibly be capable of making after 8.5 years of this? I'll give you a hint: Who has two thumbs and just sent three queries to Vertigo editors at Marvel's mailing address?
2007 Submission Log: Week 19 May 14, 2007 Submissions 381-385 Poetry to Mythic Delirium (my first three; I believe this is the first time they've been open to subs since I picked up my first copy) and New Yorker (6th submission there), and--since I have something in the slush pile--why not resume throwing my name into the Caption Contest pile again (for the 14th time)? Still at 264 rejections, but I've got some miscellany to cover here: First: I noticed that I skipped rejection 259 in my last two Submission Log entries, which is a shame because it was a fun one. I wrote a humor story for the John Joseph Adams-helmed issue of Shimmer near the beginning of the year. I had some time before the deadline so I sent it to JJA in his role as slush editor at F&SF first. He passed it up to editor Gordon Van Gelder, which I believe is the only time he's liked one of my humor pieces enough to do so. It didn't grab GVG, so I queried JJA to see whether he'd want to consider it for Shimmer. "Yes, please," he said, and off it went. It made it to the final cut before getting the axe, but JJA said he liked it enough that if he had more room in the issue, it would have found a home there. Second: Though I received a quarterfinalist notification for Writers of the Future's 2007Q1 period in my SASE back in March, I recently received a semifinalist notice for the same story, along with a critique by first judge KD Wentworth, in a second envelope. If the critique, which specifically discussed my story, hadn't been included, I'd be inclined to think the semifinalist notice was the mistake of the two, but it looks like I can upgrade my current tally to... Non-placers: 6 Quarterfinalists: 5 Semifinalists: 2 Finalists: 0 Placers: 0 ...with my 14th entry awaiting a verdict for 2007Q2. Small victory there, I guess. Third: I began sending out queries last month. Not sure whether/how to tally them here. I figure queries are going to be a big part of my writing life over the next few years, so I better come up with a system before I get overwhelmed.
2007 Submission Log: Week 18 May 9, 2007 Including my 100th submission since I graduated from Clarion nine months ago! Submissions 374-380 Stories to MF&SF (my 17th), Futurismic (2nd), and Realms of Fantasy (8th). Poetry to Sport Spec (1st) and Tin House (2nd-4th). Rejections 260-264 Asimov's (sent 1/17). Gizmodo. Sporty Spec (3 days). ASIM (Sent 2/13, Hold request on 2/17.) Powers Letter Column Writing Contest. Some nice comments in the Asimov's rejection. Of interest: Don't want to jinx anything, but I might be over that "post-Clarion writing depression." Only took nine months and 101 submissions to do it, but here we are. I've been shocked at how many writers I've met at Clarion and beyond who say that, more often than not, they actually dislike the act of writing. It shocks me because they're pursuing this as a career just as I am (and in many cases are far ahead of me in their careers), and I guess I don't differentiate my enjoyment from my compulsion when it comes to storytelling. But for me, Pre-Clarion, I would enjoy the act of writing and be pretty pleased with my final results about 60% of the time. There'd be challenging, awful days, but plowing through the tough times and finding solutions to the worst problems generally left me with a feeling that it was worth my time and effort. Some of the bliss would wear off after a few days, of course. But that, too, was a plus because it would give me enough perspective to revise. Now, post-Clarion, particularly with prose, I can probably count on one hand the number of days I've felt good about my work in either enjoyment or satisfaction, much less both. And I write almost every day. But the last three prose stories I've written have been positive experiences overall. This isn't to say they came easy. They just didn't hurt so much, most of the time. And I don't hate what I've written yet. Some Clarion graduates (including successful authors I admire greatly) have said they waited a year after Clarion before they started writing again. I totally get that. I've been at this since 1998 and the only worse writing-year I can remember is after my father died in 2000. So my strategy has been to plow through, and write my way though it. If it's paid off, maybe my reward will be three months of that 60% bliss I was hitting before the workshop. I'll take that. Now let's see if I can't translate that into a sale or two. How's everyone else doing? (I mean besides my classmate Sarah Kelly who just made her first pro sale: a novelette to Analog, no less!!)
2007 Submission Log: Weeks 16-17 May 1, 2007 A third of the way through the year. Submissions 369-373: Stories to Glimmer Train (3rd), Flytrap (my 3rd), and Sword and Sorceress (my 3rd). Filmish things to Gizmodo (don't ask; it didn't end well), and Wholphin (as writer, not director, which is exactly as it should be). Rejections 255-258: From Sword and Sorceress (about a day) and all the comics awards (when they announced their winners/finalists). Not at all surprising, but it's an honor just to be seen by the judges. Of Interest: Glad to see Sword & Sorceress starting up again. MZB's anthologies and magazine were among the first places I've ever sent my fiction starting in 1998. I never got any of Bradley's legendary berating rejections (just form letters and a few "is this supposed to be humorous?" rhetoricals), but then I probably wasn't worth her time. I actually enjoyed the writing of two new prose stories in a row this month. That can't be right.
Modern Conveniences January 28, 1999 (Selected republication of old entries from the pre-Movable Type journal...) The most interesting thing happened to me last night. I was on this email discussion list called Writers Unite, which actually has little in the way of stimulating discussion (I was considering unsubscribing but never got around to it), and, last weekend, the list owner decided in her divine authority to sign all her list members up for some other list she ran, called Horror Writers. As a former fanatic reader of horror writers like Stephen King, Dean R. Koontz, Clive Barker, and Brian Lumley, I tolerated this, even though it bothered me a bit that someone would sign me up for a list without my permission. The discussion on the new list is very mediocre, containing at best a few insightful comments and at worse (and as usual) a whole bunch of inside jokes and gags. There is also much bragging, as many of the writers and editors on the list sound well-published. Still, I find myself glancing at the messages at least briefly before deleting them and last night was no exception.
Continue reading "Modern Conveniences" Filed Under: Acting, Eggplant Literary Productions, Jackhammer, Journal, Poetry, Prose and Poetry, Submissions, Theatre, Writing, Writing Life First Post November 13, 1998 (Selected republication of old entries from the pre-Movable Type journal...) I've got good news and bad news for the first entry of this writing journal. The bad news is that I received my first rejection letter. I sent a creative nonfiction piece to a print magazine, and got turned down this Monday. I must admit, it gave me a small amount of satisfaction when I noticed a misspelling in the publisher's letter.
Filed Under: Eggplant Literary Productions, Jackhammer, Journal, Prose and Poetry, Rejection, Submissions, Writing, Writing Life |
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Alex Wilson writes fiction and comics in Carrboro, NC. His work has appeared/will appear in Asimov's Science Fiction, The Rambler, Weird Tales, The Florida Review, Futurismic, Shimmer, ChiZine, FutureQuake, Pif, and Dragon. Locus Magazine has called him a "promising new writer," and Publishers Weekly also has nice things to say. Alex runs the audiobook project/podcast Telltale Weekly and the writer wiki Guidevines. He publishes the minicomic/zine Inconsequential Art. He is a 2006 Clarion graduate. Blog Archives 2008 - Clever Label TBA 2007 - BadYearNoCookie 2006 - Clarion! 1st Pro Sale! 2005 - Peers and Peerless 2004 - Telltale Launch 2003 - Dog bites, acting out 2002 - In my mind, I'm going... 2001 - Marriage, Macs, 1st Cons 2000 - Setback, Milestones 1999 - Engaged, Graduated 1998 - Creative Independence    Powered by MT 3.35 MySpace Profile Technorati Profile |
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