Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Scattered Stuff

I love taking a peek into the minds of writers and today it's Bill Crider. He's guest blogging here http://www.timothyhallinan.com/blog/?p=992#more-992 about writing without an outline.

I enjoy reading Bev Vincent's essays over at Storytellers Unplugged so I was thrilled when I clicked on a link that took me to Bev's own blog. http://www.bevvincent.com/ Yesterday's post had a bit of advice about anthologies. Make sure they have a publisher on board before you submit. I learned that one the hard way with some non-fiction years ago. Of course, even with a publisher things can go wrong. While being in an anthology is great, sometimes the road getting there isn't much fun.

Over at Duotrope I clicked on a random market that might be of interest to our pulp/noir writers. And if those insulting, curse-ridden guidelines bother you, this isn't your market. The market is called "Swill" and they're a print magazine that pays two copies for stories up to 5000 words. One of their favorite writers is Harlan Ellison, so that gives you a clue as to what they're looking for in a story plus they have excerpts published on the site. http://swillmagazine.com/ You can find the guidelines by clicking on the Reading Now for issue 5 (the link I had doesn't work), they opened these submissions back in September so you might want to drop them a line to make sure they're still open. They don't state on the site if they're quarterly, annual, or monthly.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm starting my own soft-boiled crime e-zine, called Dandy, featuring nothing but stories about polite gentlemanly cat-burglars, in the vein of Raffles.

Ok. I'm not.

sandra seamans said...

I wish you would, Anton! There's nothing wrong with a little bit of cozy instead of a full-on assault. Personally I enjoy writing the softer stuff, but there's not much of a market for it anymore.

Charles Gramlich said...

I'll definitely check out the Crider post.

Timothy Hallinan said...

Hi, Sandra, and thanks for the mention. Bill's piece is number two in a series of pieces by writers about whether they plot or pants, and why, and how they've personalized the approach. We started with Stephen Jay Schwartz, a dedicated plotter, and the responses to his piece are really fascinating. And now it's Bill's turn as a total pantser deluxe. Eventually, there will be a dozen or so writers, all of whom I admire.

I think anyone who writes will be interested in what the contributors have to say about how they plot, and how they get out of trouble.

sandra seamans said...

It's a fun post, Charles, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Welcome, Timothy! I'll be sure to drop and read the posts. I love seeing how other writers work. And I'll post reminders during the series for those who drop by.