And Another Sale!

Well, it’s good to know that all those bribes are finally paying off …

But, really, I think it has more to do with getting a better handle on the markets I’m sending to than anything else. Although actually becoming a better writer through, you know, writing, has certainly helped as I go along.

Still, I’ve spent a fair amount of time learning everything I can about the fiction markets in the top two payment tiers (pro and semi-pro) using a number of methods (submissions probing, second-hand data, studying submissions reports, conversing with people involved in said publications whenever possible, etc.), and knowing what a market actually wants really does seem to matter a great deal.

As you would expect.

But it goes a little deeper than the basics of being able to read a set of guidelines. It comes down to understanding not only what a market claims they want, but what they actually publish on a regular basis, how far they’re willing to diverge from that, and, ultimately, about learning to properly self-assess your own work. And, though things do seem to be working out rather well for me on that particular front, I’ve also been able to suggest likely target markets to friends – suggestions which are resulting in sales. So, clearly, I’ve got some idea of what I’m talking about at this point. I’m actually putting this information to further use not too far down the road, but I’ll talk more about that when things come together.

In any case, the actual point of this post – when I started, anyway – was to highlight the fact that Mike Davis has opted to pick up a story of mine called “Beneath the Burning Sands of the Taklamakan” for the Lovecraft eZine. I enjoy working with Mike immensely, not least of all because the Lovecraft eZine publishes some exceptionally good authors – last time Mike picked up one of my pieces I shared a ToC for the issue with Joe Pulver and Brett Talley, among others – and it always amazes me that I get to spend time in the company of such exceptional authors.

In any case, I don’t yet have a date for that story’s release, but you can bet I’ll be posting about it once I do.

Update to Pro Sale Post

Right, meant to mention this a few days ago:

Having now had further conversations with the nice people at One Buck Horror, the story I sold them apparently fits better with the work coming up in Volume 6, so “Per Una Selva Oscura” will be released in Volume 6 (August), not Volume 5 (June). Speaking to which, OBH has released their lineup for V5, which looks to be quite good.

I’m looking forward to seeing who I get to share ToC space with in Volume 6. Not to mention looking forward to seeing the cover for the upcoming volume as well

New Sale (Pro Rate!)

Well I’ve finally gone and cracked into a pro rate market. Took a fair bit of trying, and the right story, and all the other right factors to come together, as is true for every sale. And now, as a result of that sale, I am in fact going to have a story appearing in a pro-rate paying market.

Specifically, I’ve sold a piece of mine called “Per Una Selva Oscura” to One Buck Horror! which is an online anthology series specializing in the kind of short, sharp tales that linger with one long after the telling is done. And it’s run by some awfully nice people so I’m delighted that that story found a home with them.

“Per Una Selva Oscura” is tentatively scheduled for release in the June 2012 release of One Buck Horror! Volume 5. And I have listed the pending publication as such on the Biblio. (Fic) page.

Now let us all go dance, get drunk, and celebrate.

For tomorrow we begin again

More Happens Around Here Than You’d Think

I’m not generally much of one for marking anniversaries.

Well, my own, in any case. I’m quite happy to celebrate the special occasions of others.

But, I note that a year ago yesterday I sold my first short story. Though it hasn’t actually yet seen print – it’s “Rebirth”, coming out in the June issue of Aoife’s Kiss – it will soon, and it’s been quite a good year for me in terms of fiction, and writing, and writing related awesomeness overall. So, I thought it might be interesting to do a rundown of what’s happened in the last 12 months since I started selling fiction:

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Sold eight stories, six of which were sold at semi-pro rates.

Had many different versions of “send more” rejections from the publications to which I’ve submitted, but haven’t sold fiction yet. And some extremely generous rejection letters in a few places as well.

Participated in my first book launch, for Future Lovecraft, along with Helen Marshall and Ada Hoffmann (who are exceedingly fun people to sit and chat/banter/read with, by the way). Among the things I learned from that launch are that “Rubedo, an Alchemy of Madness” is not a piece that lends itself to being read aloud, that I very much enjoy signing books and talking to the people for whom I’m signing, and that I look forward to being able to participate in more of them (I am, despite appearances, an eternal optimist).

Sold a poem. Oddly enough, of the two I had pinging back and forth, I thought the other would sell first (if this one sold at all). Go figure.

Started working as a Submissions Editor with Apex.

Put out two issues of Sol Rising. And got nominated for the Aurora Award for my work as editor on same. Also instituted advertising in the newsmagazine (which is what the Aurora committee dubbed Sol Rising, so I’m going to run with that title), and introduced a colour version in the online edition.

Began reviewing books for Innsmouth Free Press, ChiZine, and the Globe and Mail, in that order.

Gave a lecture at the 2011 ACCSFF. And no one ran screaming from the room, nor collapsed, bleeding from the ears. Which, I think, definitely counts as a win. The loud and seemingly genuine applause at the close didn’t hurt either.

Started a fiction contest, which, if you don’t count the PayPal service charges, broke even in its first year (if you do count the PayPal service charges then we were eleven dollars and change in the hole).

Started a record of Canadian fiction published in the year 2011 (which still has some holes in it in a few sections). Which I will be updating further going forward, picking that up again (slowly) once the next issue of  Sol Rising is released. Also going to give that list its own website, and continue doing this for 2012 on once I get back to it.

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There are other things that have been happening, and other things still forthcoming that I could talk about, but the above represents the bulk of the things from the last 12 months. I suppose I could, technically, have mentioned all the technical editing, but that’s not something that I think really fits in with the above, not least of all because I’d much rather be doing freelance manuscript editing, and the technical editing eats up much of the time I would like to be using to get back into doing manuscript editing.

It’s a vicious circle. But one I hope to be able to amend in the near future.

In any case, other things will continue to burgeon, and I’ll be talking about them later on. Hell, I’d talk about them now, but I’m not always comfortable talking about things that are still in the works. Nor am I entirely certain that some conversations should be shared while things are unfinished.

However, this does not mean I will refrain from ranting about them at length somewhere down the line

If I’ve forgotten anything, forgive me. Or give me a heads up. You know, whatever …

They Review Reviews, Too …

A touch odd to say, but there’s a nice review of the review I did for Kaaron Warren’s Slights over on this week’s Angry Robot Round-Up. Specifically, Darren Turpin, who pulls together the AR Round-Up among his other work for AR (he is AR’s Marketing and Digital Manager after all … ), had this to say about the review:

One from the AR Archive: there’s a rather excellent review of Kaaron Warren‘s Slights – one of the very first books that Angry Robot ever published – by Michael Matheson, over at Chizine.com. Michael said: “I’ve yet to see a review do proper justice to what truly fuels the dark heart of Slights; what powers the midnight core of what is one of the most sickening, engrossing, brutally honest character and social studies published in the past several years.” and then proceeds to provide just that.

Had a nice note from Kaaron Warren, too, not long after the review went up, which was a delightful, and thoroughly unexpected, gift. In any case, if you haven’t read Slights yet you should absolutely do that.

And if you haven’t read my review of the book yet you should do that too. While I’m, admittedly, somewhat biased, I think it’s one of the better ones I’ve done.

A Little Housekeeping and the 2012 Aurora Awards

Been doing a little housekeeping for the site. Getting rid of sections I wanted to use, but don’t have time to update. Reorganized (and split) the Bibliography section. Also reorganized the Contact section in preparation for something coming up in the near future.

And, in other news, the list of nominees for the 2012 Aurora Awards is public, and there is now a voter’s package available for those who have paid their CSFFA dues ($10.00 for the right to nominate/vote). For those who don’t know, the Aurora Awards are the Canadian Speculative Fiction awards. It’s our equivalent of the Hugo, and it covers a fair number of categories – among them prose, poetry, art, and related work that expands, aids, or otherwise benefits the Canadian Speculative community and larger discourse of/for same.

Also worth mentioning that I’m a nominee this year for the work I do editing the Friends of the Merril newsmagazine (that’s what the Aurora Awards have labeled it, so I’m adopting the nomenclature) Sol Rising.

But, above and beyond that, if you’re Canadian and you like Speculative Fiction (and who doesn’t?) you should consider paying the cost to vote so you can get your hands on the voter’s package.

Why?

Because you get the following:

• five full nominated novels (and an excerpt from the sixth)
• all the nominated short stories
• all the nominated poems (including a full .pdf of Helen Marshall‘s Skeleton Leaves epic/collection/chapbook) and the audio file of Heather Dale‘s “Skeleton Woman”. I still say it’s incredibly unfair to pit Dale’s work against the poetry, incidentally – the song is gorgeous by the way – and I’ll go into this again below. Sort of.
• the full .pdf of book two of the “Imagination Manifesto” (and links to the webcomics that made this year’s cut as well)
• all of the material under the Best Related Work category (that’s 4 issues of On Spec, issue 20 of Neo-Opsis, the full text of Tesseracts 16, and a full text of The 10th Circle, V1 – also a link to more of Heather Dale’s work)
• links (and some relevant examples) of the work of the nominated artists – also, a full text of Outer Diverse seems to have been included with Costi Gurgu‘s material. Not entirely sure why, but, another free book? Okay …
• the full text of another 10th Circle project book, three editions of the BCSFAZine, two editions of Sol Rising, the full text of the In Places Between (memorial contest) anthology, and an issue of Space Cadet
• links to the works of two of the nominated fan FILKers

Not everything, unfortunately, is represented in the voter’s package. The link to the work of the third FILK nominee is missing, and there aren’t any links to the work of those nominated under the Best Fan Other category. The Best Fan Organizational category also doesn’t have a voter’s package, though I suppose the organizers themselves are, technically, covered in the various 2012 Nominees sections of the Prix Aurora website.

It’s a good package, despite the mild deficiencies. Especially since this is the first time the Aurora Committee have tried putting one together. Still, I don’t really feel comfortable with the fact that Heather Dale is being forced to compete in the Poetry category. I’ve had this argument, in different forms, with a couple of people, and I’ve heard reasonable argument for why Poetry and Song functions as a dual category, but I don’t agree with the premise. The list is unbalanced as it stands, and it’s hurting both sides.

Still, it’s unlikely to be addressed any time soon. I talked with Cliff Samuels (the 2012 Aurora Awards Administrator) about the categories earlier in the year, and I know there are two planned changes to the categories next year, and I’ve proposed another change that may end up under consideration for the year after next. But I gather the Aurora Committee doesn’t want to pull too many changes to the list at one time. Can’t really blame them; it’s either gradual shifts or a complete overhaul, and they’ve picked the method they think best.

In any case, it’s worth registering for a CSFFA membership if you haven’t already. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that, at $10.00, this is probably one of the best deals you’ll find on this amount of Canadian SF material.

The (Journalistic) School of Hard Knocks

So, my review of Christian Cameron’s latest novel, God of War, was published at the Globe and Mail today (well, it’s still sort of the right day as I write this … ).

Christian and I have talked today about the review as a result of its posting. And it’s the first time I’ve ever had to go and apologize to an author for a review of mine.

Why?

Because it turns out that putting a more negative slant on a review and adding a particularly nasty title is not unusual practice when a newspaper is trying to garner attention for a review, article, etc. Prior to today I did not think that this was common practice. I had, in fact, assumed that this was a variety of urban legend, actually. Not so much so.

Long story short: the review does not read the way I wrote it. And the title added (I submitted no title since I am given to understand the G&M prefers to create their own) is vicious and I would never have done that to Christian, who is a friend, and whose writing I respect immensely.

I’ve spent the day talking with other authors and editors, some of whom have worked in the newspaper business, and I have a clearer, if more depressed, appreciation of some of the realities of journalism following those conversations. I did, briefly, many years ago consider taking up journalism as a possible career choice. I am now very glad I did not. I do not think I would fare well in a business where this kind of character assault is commonplace.

So, what should you actually know about Christian’s book? It’s a damn fine book. Does it have some flaws? Sure. Most books do. But I think you should go read it, because Christian’s a damn fine writer, and you will enjoy the work.

And for the record, not all publications alter submitted reviews; I’ve never had anything but style guide and copyediting changes made to my reviews with either ChiZine or Innsmouth Free Press, with whom I work on a regular basis.

I think the difference stems from the nature of the people at the helm of these different organizations. ChiZine and IFP are helmed by writers. And as writers we’re less keen on altering another writer’s work, or spreading vitriol  just to get headlines, because we know exactly what it’s like to have someone else shit all over your work.

Peace.