Post Musing Links

Thanks to everyone who listened to my musings about being a writer yesterday. Sometimes writing down your fears helps you work through them, at least for me, and your comments were an added bonus in the working through process. And just to say thank you, here's a bunch of links that might help you work through whatever's nagging at your writing keyboard.

From Frank Loose we have a link to Pulp Serenade where Cullen Gallagher has posted some writing wisdom from Charles Willeford. http://www.pulpserenade.com/2009/10/charles-willeford-on-words-and-writing.html

From Paul Brazill there's a link to a list of submission calls from "Full of Crow" the flag ship for a group of zines that are working towards print publication. http://www.fullofcrow.com/callsforsubmissions.html

At Storytellers Unplugged there's an essay by Alan Russell entitled "When I Wish I Wasn't a Writer" http://storytellersunplugged.com/alanrussell/2009/11/05/when-i-wish-i-wasnt-a-writer/ Good for your daily chuckle requirements.

Over on Michael Bracken's blog I asked him how to query a short story. His response, with examples, is more than generous and well worth a read for those who aren't sure how to query short stories to editors. http://crimefictionwriter.blogspot.com/ You'll find his response in the comments of the post entitled 27.

Brian Lindenmuth has a fun post entitled "Mat Johnson's Writing Advice by Way of Gordon Ramsay" http://www.mysterybookspot.com/brianlindenmuth/?p=1539

Fried Chicken and Coffee is a zine I visit periodically. Today's visit found a post about Larry Brown http://www.friedchickenandcoffee.com/2009/11/larry-brown-news.html The gold in that post is the links most especially to Darnell Arnoult's Dancing with the Gorilla blog where's he's in the process of posting an eight part series entitled "A Writer's Apprenticeship: Larry Brown". The first two parts are already up. http://darnellarnoult.com/wp/

And for a final look at rejection you might try this humorous flash piece by Angela Barton over at Apollo's Lyre entitled "The Five Stages of Facebook Rejection" http://apollos-lyre.tripod.com/id64.html

Just Musing

Do you ever feel like a fraud? Like you've tumbled into a life you never imagined for yourself? Sometimes when I sit down to write I wonder if this will be the best story I ever wrote or just a piece of crap. I read other writers and think, I'll never be that good so why do I bother. Some days writing churns my stomach with frustrations but...I keep going. And the truth is, I have no idea where this compulsion comes from. Why I keep tapping away at the keys and prowling through my character's lives like a Peeping Tom.

I mean, what made me believe that I could ever be a writer in the first place? I'm not a well educated person. I struggle every step of the way with punctuation and grammar, the whole tense thing ties me up in knots and POV? But I keep going, I keep reading and studying but I have this sinking feeling that no matter how long you write, no matter how hard you study, this writing gig doesn't get any easier. If possible, it's probably going to get harder and harder. So why do we do it? Why do we keep writing?

Is it merely ego? Thinking we have something to say that the world should sit up and listen to. Or is it a mental illness? Voices screaming in our heads to be let out into the world. Or is it frustration? Seeing a world that scares the bejesus out of us and trying to make sense of it. What is it about writing that keeps us going against all the odds?

Blame it on Buffy

Did you ever have an idea pop into your head that you thought was just really and truly brilliant? I had one of those yesterday after watching part of the movie, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

I wondered why nobody ever set a vampire story in Alaska or any country in the far north for that matter. Think about it. Six months of night. Your vampire could vacation in Alaska rampaging across the frozen north chewing on necks twenty four hours a day. Really cool idea, right?

Wrong. How's he going to get at all those necks hidden in hooded coats and wrapped in woolen scarves. Not to mention trying to talk a woman out of her clothes in forty below temperatures. That's never going to happen. And what if he gets caught in a snow storm? Maybe trapped in a glacier slowly moving south? He'd be there for all eternity. Alive in a block of ice. That would truly suck. He might even melt into the next apocalypse and there'd be no people. Thawed and no blood.

While this idea might make for a fun flash fiction piece, I doubt it could be worked into anything longer that would appeal to readers. Part of writing is putting together ideas in your head before you write them down on a piece of paper. So many of us dash every idea down before we even give it a thought and then get frustrated because it doesn't work.

The next time you get a really hot idea, take a couple of hours and work through the story in your head or jot some thoughts and ideas down on a piece of paper. Ask yourself if the idea has wings to make it fly or is it just a clever thought that isn't going to go anywhere? By taking the time to plot through in your head first, you could save yourself the frustration of a story that doesn't go anywhere and probably shouldn't have been started in the first place.

And from Pam Castro's Flash Fiction Flash Newsletter we have the zine, "Ruthless People" http://www.ruthlesspeoples.com/node/4 This is a cross genre monthly done in PDF format. They're looking for horror, sci-fi, and crime stories and they pay. $10 for flash of 500 - 1000 words. $35 for shorts and serials up to 3500 words. A penny a word for mini-flash up to 500 words and a flat fee of $5 for poetry.

Market News

I ran across this new market yesterday called "Short-Story Me Genre Fiction" http://www.short-story.me/ They're looking for stories of 200 to 5000 words of hard genre fiction in all the genres from crime to sci-fi. The pay is a penny a word with a max of $10 paid by PayPal. You'll find both classic and new fiction at this site for your reading pleasure.

From Paul Brazill comes the news that Shoots and Vines has a call for submissions for their fifth issue. There's no pay for this print/online zine. You can find all the details here http://shootsandvines.ning.com/

From Bill Crider via the SMFS board we have iPulpFiction http://www.ipulpfiction.com/ The stories on this site can be downloaded for fees similar to the SnipLits site. From what I could see though, the site seems more geared toward YA fiction than adult at this point, so if you've got kids you could download them a story or two for their listening pleasure. They do accept short stories from writers but please be advised that there is no pay only a percentage of the royalties and they also charge a $10 reading fee that is paid to their editors/readers with no guarantee that your story will be chosen for the site.

Just a quick addition here. It's not just YA. On iPulp you'll also find some classic stories from Ed Gorman and Bill Crider. If you've never read them - here's your chance!

And the fifth issue of Pine Tree Mysteries has hit the virtual streets with short stories from Virgina Winters, Sylvia Nickels and Jack Bates. http://www.pinetreemysteries.com/index.html This zine is a quarterly, so my apologies if I've already mentioned this issue. I tend to lose track with the quarterlies that aren't dated.

Rules and Things

Rules. Know them. Love them. Hate them. But they're still there staring you in the face every time you sit down to write. So in the spirit of knowing the rules here are a few links to some rules, old and new, just to remind you of what you should know before you set out to be a writer of short stories. A big tip of the hat to Michael Bracken for the first two.

http://scribblingseaserpent.blogspot.com/2009/04/what-makes-good-short-story.html

http://theelephantinthewritingroom.blogspot.com/2009/10/short-story-getting-started.html

http://wisb.blogspot.com/2009/10/ten-things-no-writer-should-ever-do.html

Now that we've gotten the rules out of the way, here are a few things that might tickle your fancy today.

The fourth issue of Sex and Murder has gone live. http://sexandmurder.com/

Crimespree Magazine has opened for submission through the end of this month. http://www.crimespreemag.com/

Fried Fiction is now a paying market. They publish serial stories and pay $25 for the first installment. http://www.friedfiction.com/

And Rafe McGregor has an interview up with Sean Chercover. http://rafemcgregor.blogspot.com/ Chercover is one hell of a short story writer, which made this interview a must read for me. His short "One Serving of Bad Luck" won the CWA Short Story Dagger award this year and "A Sleep Not Unlike Death" won an Anthony Award. And yeah, his novel, "Trigger City" just blew me away when I read it this year. If I could write like that, I'd die one happy old lady.

Happy Halloween!

I was a little shocked the other day when I asked my nine year old grandson what he was going to be for Halloween and he said he didn't want to dress up this year. The reason? The school had told the kids they couldn't dress up as anything scary.

Hello?!? Halloween is all about getting the crap scared out of you. If you make it through All Hallows Eve without poisoned candy and razor blades in your apples you can survive anything. Even that Vampire lurking in the corner to bite your neck.

Halloween is about fear, about the monsters that hide under your bed and stalk your dreams. Its about walking those evil streets and surviving. Facing your fears gets your heart pumping. It makes you feel alive. It also gives you the knowledge that you can fight evil and win, even if you're wearing a silly costume.

Now, you're probably wondering what this has to do with writing. Well, think about it. As writers we dress up in the guise of our characters and with pen in hand, stalk evil and kill it. Of course, we don't always win but one battle is not the war and so we write on, killing the demons in every guise. From pedophiles to the happy homemaker who kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb. We're the slayers of evil who make everything right in our little corners of the world.

And for your Halloween treat we have "52 Stitches" http://52stitches.blogspot.com/ They open for submissions today. And what are they looking for? Horror flash in the 750 word range. But hurry, once they have their 52 picks for the year, they close until next Halloween. The pay here is $3 per story and at the end of the year the stories are collected in an anthology. You can find their guidelines here http://52stitches.blogspot.com/2008/10/guidelines.html

May your day be full of treats but please, watch out for the tricks, and that evil zombie lurking in the corner ready to pounce on your pen. Write on, gentle storyteller, and slay the evil dragon today.

Submission Calls

Courtesy of the lovely Michael Bracken we have two anthology calls for submissions.

First up is Press 53. The anthology is "What Doesn't Kill You". They're looking for fiction or non-fiction stories in the 100 to 10,000 word range. There's no pay except for a complimentary copy of the anthology and your writing bio in the book. http://www.press53.com/whatdoesntkillyou.html

The second is "Music For Another World". This is a sci-fi/fantasy anthology with music being an integral part of the stories. They're looking for stories in the 2000 - 6000 word range with payment of 80pounds and one copy of the anthology. You can find the submission details here http://www.music-strange-fiction-submissions.info/

While they don't specify Canadian authors, print magazine, Descant, only accepts snail mail submissions for those who don't like dealing with postage across the boarder. (I know there's a word for that, but it escapes me for the moment) Anyway, this magazine has a theme that might be of interest to some of you, which is "Ghosts and the Uncanny" with a March 1, 2010 deadline. The pay here is $100 on publication but their response time is up to one year and possibly a year before publication. Not a market for those with no patience. Here's your link http://www.descant.ca/submit.html