Storymorphosis

I booted another story out the door today, into the cold world of submissions. *sniff* They grow up so . . . slowly, actually.

Sure, some stories arrive like Athena, fully formed and holding a sword (at least in my imagination). These little blessings toddle precociously out of the nest, and sometimes even find new homes. But some live long spinster lives, waiting for a market matchup that seems never to come. Some live in their parents' basements well past middle age.

This latest one is one of the latter. It was born in my MFA program, under literary conditions. But it never quite fit in. It had a speculative element (or did it?) that turned out to be nothing, a big giant squid on the mantelpiece. So after a few sorties to literary markets I shelved "Day 40" (as it was then called).

Post-Clarion West, I dug the poor thing out and tried to reinvent it as a genre story. I gave it a dark new ending. I made the SF element real, but it still didn't start until halfway through the story, and my first readers said it felt like a literary story with an SF element grafted onto it. Which, of course, it was. Back on the shelf it went (now with the title "Hearts, Minds, and Plastic Bristles").

Then just this month, in a desperate attempt to avoid editing my novel, I tortured this story one more time. I cut it to the bone and gave it yet another new ending, one that feels right. In critique group, of course, all the struggle was laid bare--the uneasy history of this transmogrified work is still there, and it still rankles a bit. But not so much that it isn't time to let it fly again. Time will tell if this Frankenstein-esque revision will be a victory, or if villagers will hunt it down with pitchforks and flaming torches.

Oh, and my readers all hated the story's title. I'm not going to say what it's called now; I'm just keeping fingers crossed that it doesn't come home this time. Not chased by an angry mob, and not to do its laundry.

Warning: Summer Ahead

Summer is coming, and that means Clarion West Write-a-thon. I will, once again, be writing for dollars. Or maybe editing for dollars. Frankly, I'm not sure what I'll be doing, but I still want people to donate money to support Clarion West. Even though the write-a-thon doesn't officially begin until June 17th, you can already donate! If you end up being my highest donor, you can force me to write about your pet 'possum, hippogriff, or sentient tomato (or something you decide).

If, like me, you have more time than money, but you still want to support Clarion West, you can sign up to be a write-a-thoner. If we get 200 people participating, something awesome happens. I think it involves money.

So yeah, I'll probably be electronically panhandling a bit more as summer approaches and the write-a-thon gets underway. You've been warned. Boring status updates and exciting(?) excerpts will also probably follow.

<Announcer Voice> But wait, there's more!

This summer my Norwegian family is having a reunion, which means that for three weeks I'll be in Iceland and Norway. Whee! This introduces a measure of uncertainty to the summer. It means that: 1) you may have to read accounts of my travel and look at photos of fjords; 2) I may not be able to post at all, as Internet availability comes and goes; 3) the midnight sun might drive me over the edge; 4) my write-a-thon output might be lower than anticipated; and 5) my next story might be about Vikings.

This is where I'll be. (photo: Hurtigruten)

A day or so late and some amount short

Once again, the Internet's lamentation over a celebrity death has me feeling like I might really be an alien. Actually, it happened twice in the last week, but this post is not about that musician guy from that band. You know the one.

It's Maurice Sendak, beloved children's author and illustrator who I can't ever remember reading. Oh sure, I'm aware of Where the Wild Things Are; I was actually raised on this planet. But I don't remember reading it as a child. This isn't the first time this has happened. In fact, it's rare that I share any childhood literary experiences with the majority of Americans.

Sometimes, like now, this makes me feel out of place. But it also makes me wonder. I know that I was read to as a small child, and I developed early on into a voracious reader and re-reader, albeit primarily of garbage. But I have no idea what those first books were that must have hooked me. I can't remember reading Dr. Seuss (not as a kid, anyway). I remember Shel Silverstein's kids' poetry, but mostly from being a bit older, or from being scarred by certain poems about eating whales. I'm really glad that these folks had such an impact on everyone else's lives. But where was I?

I do remember reading the Bearenstain Bears, but all that remains of those memories is the vague sense that I was having moral lessens crammed into my young skull. The same goes, actually, for the one individual kids' book I can remember, "Could Be Worse!" by James Stevenson. I liked that one a lot, even though it was clearly just telling me not to whine and complain.

I must confess: the first books I clearly remember reading are The Baby Sitters Club novels. I read and re-read them for so long that my mother asked my second-grade teacher what she should do about it. My teacher wisely responded that there was no problem--I was, after all, reading thousands of pages of words, even if they were literary junk food. After that I moved on to Christopher Pike's YA horror novels, some of which I still consider good books. Those were a bridge to Anne Rice's vampires, which somehow led me to science fiction writers like Michael Crichton and David Brin.

Which, perhaps, is why I suspect myself of being an alien. In the context of my favorite fiction, it makes perfect sense. And you know what? It could be worse.

What books do you remember--or not remember--from childhood? Tell me about them in comments, and teach me to be human.

Adventures in Rejection

Subtitle: Don't make me get my flying monkeys

Rejection is a part of the life of a writer. A big part. I've heard that this gets better as one improves as a writer. This makes sense, right? The better the writing, the more likely it is to be accepted. Win.

But there's a horrible place in between the hell nos of beginning writing and the hell yeses of awesome writing, and I'm stuck in it. This is an especially frustrating place to inhabit, because what it means is that response times go way up--behind the scenes there is an editor who just can't make up his or her mind about my story. So it sits and sits. And I stew and stew, and notice that my story has been out longer than average for the market. And then the rejection comes. Blast!

Lazy damn monkeys

For example, I sent a story to a notoriously slow but awesome market who shall remain nameless sixteen months ago. Even for this molasses-like market this is a long time. Are my hopes up? You bet. Will I be disappointed? Probably.

For another example, last week I sent a story to an anthology with a close date at the end of June. I knew that that likely meant not hearing anything until August when all decisions would be sent. And then, to my surprise, the editor emailed me almost right away to say that he'd enjoyed the story, but no promises. That was sweet and all (who doesn't like to hear their work was enjoyed?) but hopes? up? Ugh.

I heard back on one of my overdue pieces last night. A crisp form letter. Not even the encouraging version hoping to read more of my work. Oh well, I tell myself. The person associated with the magazine (who shall of course remain nameless) recently wrote repugnant things about a political matter, allowing me to not be sad about not appearing in the magazine. Or so I tell myself.

Yet another market owing me a response is frightening me today, because its website seems to be malfunctioning. I hope it hasn't gone to the magazine rack in the sky, and that's why I haven't heard back.

All of which is to say that today it's hard for me to be a writer. But I combatted the long-wait blues by making six more submissions. Fly, my pretties!

There are no small presses

Only small readers.

Here are a couple of books I read recently (both from Night Shade Books):

The first is Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht. It's the story of Liam, a young Catholic who finds himself in the middle of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Only he's also half-fairy, and a shapeshifter. Oh, and that world is at war too, with demons. I picked this book up because the crankiest reader I know raved about it, and he was right. The novel is nothing like what I might have expected, eyes rolling, from a book about the fey. It's gritty and violent and pulls no punches. If Tinkerbell were to show up in this world, someone would be sure to beat her to death. Maybe a Catholic priest.

The second one is Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh. It's a story about a group of people trying to survive a slow, frighteningly plausible apocalypse. Jasper is one of the unfortunate people--like me--who followed their hearts in college. He finds himself among the 40% of people who are unemployed, homeless and wandering with a a"tribe" of similarly unlucky folk. We get to watch the world fall down around these people. Sometimes things get better--Jasper gets a job! And an apartment! And sometimes a girlfriend!--but overall things go steadily down the tubes. Throughout it all, Jasper looks for love. This focus in unusual in an apocalyptic work, but that's part of what makes this book different: the tribe doesn't know what we know--that the world they knew isn't coming back--and they struggle to remain themselves without knowing what the rules of their world are. The Soft Apocalypse has ways of changing a person, sometimes through violence, sometimes through viruses, and these characters care about keeping their humanity. This is one of the most real feeling books about the end of the world that I've read (and yeah, that's not a small sample). The characters could easily be us.

The outstanding thing about my reading Soft Apocalypse isn't that I loved it (although I did). The awesome thing is that I read the book on the recommendation insistence of Jeremy Lassen, publisher of Night Shade Books, having just met him, because he knew I'd love it. It's obvious that he knows and loves his books the way parents are supposed to love their children.

And in the conversation I stuck my foot in my mouth, saying, "That's why I love small presses."

Lassen set me straight right away. Night Shade Books isn't a small press; it's an independent publisher. But I think my comment still stands. I love publishing that cares. Regardless of size.

Do Not Feed the Inner Editor

The life of an "emerging" writer (imagine a sleepy bear coming out of a cave, skinny from hibernation and hungry and cranky--or a butterfly, whatever) is a cycle of 1) write something, 2) send it to a market, 3) get rejected, and 4) repeat steps 2-3 until either it gets accepted or you get so sick of it that you stop trying.

See? This bear is so desperate it's eating grass.

This is the pattern I'm used to, and though it has (many!) downsides, there is one upside: if you're like me and you don't know much about markets or editors' preferences in the first place, you're free to pretty much write whatever you're compelled to write, and worry about finding it a happy home later.

There's another pattern, which until lately was purely theoretical to me. In this version, 1) an editor approaches the writer and asks for a story, 2) the writer writes the story, and 3) if it's acceptable, the editor buys it. The thing I'm procrastinating on right now is writing one of these stories.

This is awesome for a number of reasons. For one, even though the editor is a friend and I can't totally shake the feeling that this gig is charity, it does make me feel less like something that's emerging, all covered in cocoon juice or dried leaves, and more like a "real" writer. Also, it's refreshing not to worry about placing a story. In theory, this should be freeing up my mind to write it.

But my mind is a frustrating thing, and apparently not well-suited to looking on the bright side. Now that I have a specific audience to write for--a specific editor, and one whose tastes I'm fairly familiar with--my mind gets to obsess about what that editor will think. Every writer has an inner editor who lives in our heads, right? And in order to get any real work done we have to get that jerk to shut up. Well, now my inner editor has a friend. And getting them both to shut up is a challenge.

Inner Editor does not approve this post.

Spring: Season of False Hopes

Subtitle: How a Seattle Spring is like Duotrope

This blue sky? It's a lie.

This morning when I looked outside it was gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky. Trees everywhere are making mad love everywhere, blooming extravagantly in white and pink. Green things are poking through the earth and looking at each other like expectant groundhogs. It's spring!

By noon dark grey clouds filled the sky. It rained a few drops. The thin coat I'd worn to the coffee shop was insufficient to keep the wintry wind from chilling me.

This is spring in Seattle. You know it's spring because the calendar and the Internet say so. In theory, it's just over two months to summer. But you know in your heart that the calendar lies. Summer isn't just around the corner; it won't show up until at least July. Hell, it might not come at all.

Okay, so here's my analogy. Warm weather is like publishing a story. And knowing it's supposed to be spring is like watching Duotrope.com. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's a wonderful resource for writers, a wonderfully up-to-date database of markets complete with submission guidelines, response times, and lists of recent responses. If you're a writer and you haven't been there yet, go now!

But as fantastic as Duotrope is, it's also horrible. You can go in there (as I did today) and obsess over late responses. You can look at recent responses and theorize that you'll get a rejection soon, or worse, you can theorize that since your response is taking longer than average, surely an acceptance is just around the corner.

I did this today, and literally as I was looking at a late market and mentally spending my semi-pro payment, the rejection arrived in my inbox. Like clouds and cold rain.