I stop by the site, Book Life Now, about once a week because they always have great posts about writing. Posts here are published on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and usually keep to a weekly theme. This week's theme is Westerns. If you're interested in writing Westerns the first post is here http://booklifenow.com/2010/07/more-than-just-gunfights-writing-the-west-1/ Then drop on by during the week for advice from other Western writers like James Reasoner, Johnny Boggs, Max McCoy and many more.
One of the things you have to know as a writer is how to format your story for submission. And yes, the formats vary from publication to publication especially for online zines. Most writers are directed to William Shunn's excellent site for a detailed example. Today, I discovered that Mr. Shunn has a blog, or a flog as he calls it, where he answers questions from writers about formatting. http://www.shunn.net/format There's lots of excellent information on the site for both beginners and more experienced writers.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
A Whitman's Sampler of Links
I found an assortment of interesting links around the blog world today, at least they interested me, and hopefully, you too.
With a hat tip to the ever informative Charles Tan, I found this link to an essay by John Ottinger III about Christian Fantasy. While I'd never considered that fantasy might have a Christian bend, it doesn't surprise me. If you take a stroll through the Bible you'll find the Valley of Bones where the dead rise up from the ground, a man who walks into a fiery furnace and comes out unscathed, not to mention burning bushes, plagues and assorted masses of vermin unleashed on the enemy. http://www.resaliens.com/2010/07/guest-column-on-christian-fantasy/
That essay is published in the current issue of Resident Aliens, a zine that is looking for spiritually infused spec-fiction. They're looking for flash of 900 - 1500 words, shorts from 1500 to 6000, and serial novellas up to 20,000 words. The pay is $5 story. http://www.resaliens.com/
Pari Taichert has started a discussion about writing rules over at Murderati this morning that could prove interesting by day's end. http://www.murderati.com/blog/2010/7/12/rules.html
If you've got some Thanksgiving, Christmas or Halloween stories gathering dust in your files you might check out the guidelines over at Sniplits http://sniplits.com Through the end of August they're accepting holiday stories, new or reprints. And August is the opening month for mystery/crime submissions, so mark that date on your calendar all you mystery writers out there.
And over at the Clarity of Night, Jason Evans has announced his 13th flash fiction contest with the top prize for a 250 word flash of $100. Drop on over and check out the picture that will inspire your story. http://clarityofnight.blogspot.com/2010/07/uncovered-short-fiction-contest-is.html The contest opens to submissions on July 19th. With buried treasure as a theme there's apt to be all kinds of great stories to read in every genre under the sun.
With a hat tip to the ever informative Charles Tan, I found this link to an essay by John Ottinger III about Christian Fantasy. While I'd never considered that fantasy might have a Christian bend, it doesn't surprise me. If you take a stroll through the Bible you'll find the Valley of Bones where the dead rise up from the ground, a man who walks into a fiery furnace and comes out unscathed, not to mention burning bushes, plagues and assorted masses of vermin unleashed on the enemy. http://www.resaliens.com/2010/07/guest-column-on-christian-fantasy/
That essay is published in the current issue of Resident Aliens, a zine that is looking for spiritually infused spec-fiction. They're looking for flash of 900 - 1500 words, shorts from 1500 to 6000, and serial novellas up to 20,000 words. The pay is $5 story. http://www.resaliens.com/
Pari Taichert has started a discussion about writing rules over at Murderati this morning that could prove interesting by day's end. http://www.murderati.com/blog/2010/7/12/rules.html
If you've got some Thanksgiving, Christmas or Halloween stories gathering dust in your files you might check out the guidelines over at Sniplits http://sniplits.com Through the end of August they're accepting holiday stories, new or reprints. And August is the opening month for mystery/crime submissions, so mark that date on your calendar all you mystery writers out there.
And over at the Clarity of Night, Jason Evans has announced his 13th flash fiction contest with the top prize for a 250 word flash of $100. Drop on over and check out the picture that will inspire your story. http://clarityofnight.blogspot.com/2010/07/uncovered-short-fiction-contest-is.html The contest opens to submissions on July 19th. With buried treasure as a theme there's apt to be all kinds of great stories to read in every genre under the sun.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Don't Worry, Be Happy
Sometimes it's just nice to sit back and enjoy the good things that life tosses your way. The sun is shining after a bit of rain yesterday and the air has cooled back down to breathable. All week I just wanted to flop in the shade with the cats while the thermometer skyrocketed into the nineties. I know you guys down south deal with those temperatures most of the summer, but hey, I'm up north - in the mountains. We do fans, not air conditioners!
This morning I finished a short story for the Spinetingler contest. Checked the word count and found that I had coasted right on by the word limit of 1450. Tomorrow, I'll be polishing it up and looking for a market. It's a pretty cool revenge story, if I do say so myself. I'm tempted to send it off to AHMM but I don't think there's enough mystery in it to work for that market. And of course, there's always the double whammy of when I think it's a great story, it never finds a home syndrome. Yes, I'm chanting the mantra, write-submit, write-submit, write-submit. But hey, this is the second story I finished this week and the other one is already out there.
Oh yes, I made one of my fluffy pineapple cheesecake desserts yesterday - that always make me happy.
And now I feel like a silly little girl! I accidentally posted this to the SMFS blog! Hopefully nobody will have seen it before I realized what I did and deleted it. Shhh! Don't tell anyone. :)
This morning I finished a short story for the Spinetingler contest. Checked the word count and found that I had coasted right on by the word limit of 1450. Tomorrow, I'll be polishing it up and looking for a market. It's a pretty cool revenge story, if I do say so myself. I'm tempted to send it off to AHMM but I don't think there's enough mystery in it to work for that market. And of course, there's always the double whammy of when I think it's a great story, it never finds a home syndrome. Yes, I'm chanting the mantra, write-submit, write-submit, write-submit. But hey, this is the second story I finished this week and the other one is already out there.
Oh yes, I made one of my fluffy pineapple cheesecake desserts yesterday - that always make me happy.
And now I feel like a silly little girl! I accidentally posted this to the SMFS blog! Hopefully nobody will have seen it before I realized what I did and deleted it. Shhh! Don't tell anyone. :)
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Market Notes
Things have been a little hectic today, so this post is coming a bit later in the day than usual.
Over at Tor.com, Caridad Pineiro has an essay on why paranormals are becoming so successful in the market place. http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/07/the-success-of-paranormals-why-is-the-genre-taking-a-big-bite-of-publishing-sales/
Southern Grit is still looking for stories for their first issue. They're looking at primarily literary stories but will look at genre stories also. This is a non-paying market for 1500 to 6000 word stories. http://www.southerngrit.org/submissions
July 21 is fast approaching and it's the deadline for Spinetingler's revenge contest. You can find the details here www.spinetinglermag.com/2010/06/21/writing-contest-pay-the-bitch-back/
Found a newish market over at Duotrope called Darker. They're looking for dark speculative fiction up to 5000 words for their Sept/Oct issue. The pay is $5 per story with the top story receiving $25. The July/Aug issue is up now so you can get a better idea of the sort of story they're looking for. http://www.darkeronline.com/
There's also a pair of interviews up that might be of interest.
The first is with Anthology Builder editor, Nancy Fulda. http://www.duotrope.com/interview.aspx?id=2654 Anthology Builder accepts only reprints and pays royalties.
And 10Flash editor, KC Ball, is interviewed. http://www.duotrope.com/interview.aspx?id=4025
10Flash is a paying quarterly flash market with themes for each issue and be sure to note the new submission dates.
Over at Tor.com, Caridad Pineiro has an essay on why paranormals are becoming so successful in the market place. http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/07/the-success-of-paranormals-why-is-the-genre-taking-a-big-bite-of-publishing-sales/
Southern Grit is still looking for stories for their first issue. They're looking at primarily literary stories but will look at genre stories also. This is a non-paying market for 1500 to 6000 word stories. http://www.southerngrit.org/submissions
July 21 is fast approaching and it's the deadline for Spinetingler's revenge contest. You can find the details here www.spinetinglermag.com/2010/06/21/writing-contest-pay-the-bitch-back/
Found a newish market over at Duotrope called Darker. They're looking for dark speculative fiction up to 5000 words for their Sept/Oct issue. The pay is $5 per story with the top story receiving $25. The July/Aug issue is up now so you can get a better idea of the sort of story they're looking for. http://www.darkeronline.com/
There's also a pair of interviews up that might be of interest.
The first is with Anthology Builder editor, Nancy Fulda. http://www.duotrope.com/interview.aspx?id=2654 Anthology Builder accepts only reprints and pays royalties.
And 10Flash editor, KC Ball, is interviewed. http://www.duotrope.com/interview.aspx?id=4025
10Flash is a paying quarterly flash market with themes for each issue and be sure to note the new submission dates.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Tidbits and a Question
Jason Sanford is the most recent writer to post about the general uproar over small press publisher, Night Shade Books. http://www.jasonsanford.com/jason/2010/07/genre-gossip.html What I found interesting about his post is that it's not a slam against the publisher but an interesting look at the information we genre writers don't share for fear of loosing outlets for our work in both novel and short story markets. And let's face it, there's just as many short story markets taking advantage of writers as there are novel publishers. But we tend not to speak up for fear of being boycotted by other markets in the same genre.
Mr. Sanford, in another post, also pointed out Tin House Publishing's new submission policy. http://www.tinhouse.com/all_news.htm Yep, in order to submit to either the zine or their publishing house you have to include a receipt from a local book store showing that you've purchased a book. Sounds nice, but as Mr. Sanford pointed out, not everyone has a local bookstore and a great many people are purchasing and reading books with all those new devices.
Elizabeth Zelvin has a great post over at Poe's Deadly Daughters today about writing short stories. She's new to the form and gives her take on how to write a short story. http://poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/2010/07/writing-short.html
And here are some new zine issues out on the virtual streets
The July issue of The Gumshoe Review http://www.gumshoereview.com/
Pine Tree Mysteries is back with their new issue and explains that their disappearing act was due to a server problem. http://www.pinetreemysteries.com
And the July issue of Thieves Jargon http://www.thievesjargon.com
And a question - Is there some unwritten rule that all Apocalypse stories have to include either zombies, vampires or cannibalism? And does the dress code always have to include Mohawk hairstyles, tattoos and scantily dressed women? Just curious.
Mr. Sanford, in another post, also pointed out Tin House Publishing's new submission policy. http://www.tinhouse.com/all_news.htm Yep, in order to submit to either the zine or their publishing house you have to include a receipt from a local book store showing that you've purchased a book. Sounds nice, but as Mr. Sanford pointed out, not everyone has a local bookstore and a great many people are purchasing and reading books with all those new devices.
Elizabeth Zelvin has a great post over at Poe's Deadly Daughters today about writing short stories. She's new to the form and gives her take on how to write a short story. http://poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/2010/07/writing-short.html
And here are some new zine issues out on the virtual streets
The July issue of The Gumshoe Review http://www.gumshoereview.com/
Pine Tree Mysteries is back with their new issue and explains that their disappearing act was due to a server problem. http://www.pinetreemysteries.com
And the July issue of Thieves Jargon http://www.thievesjargon.com
And a question - Is there some unwritten rule that all Apocalypse stories have to include either zombies, vampires or cannibalism? And does the dress code always have to include Mohawk hairstyles, tattoos and scantily dressed women? Just curious.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
A Horror Contest
With a hat tip to Chuck Wendig we have the World Horror Convention/Black Static short story contest. There is no charge for the contest except to be a member. http://whc2011.org There's a link on the page to join, but it doesn't seem to be working at the moment. Anyhoo, the submission period for the contest is August 31 to October 31 for horror stories of 500 to 4000 words. The winner will be published in the convention's souvenir book and in Black Static Magazine which will pay the winner 5cents a word for their story. You can find all the details for the contest at http://whc2011.org/contest-2/ And if anyone knows the secrets of joining, please drop a note in the comments. For those who are already members - get writing!
Assorted Linkage
I've mentioned before that Duotrope publishes interviews with editors on their site and thought this interview with Thieves Jargon editor, Dan Sannell, might be of interest to those of you who stop by here. http://www.duotrope.com/interview.aspx?id=527 It's always nice to know where an editor's taste in stories lies.
For those of you who write Fantasy and Horror, editor Paula Guran has put out a call for submissions for the 2011 edition of The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror. The deadline is April 1, 2011. This is a call for reprints of stories published in 2010. From reading the call, it looks like she wants the stories submitted by editors and publishers, she'd also like to be made aware of online zines. You can find the entire call with all the details here http://oldcharliebrown.livejournal.com/328106.html
The writing world can be a cutthroat place to be and not just on the publishing end of the equation. Some writers have been known to take jabs at other writers and try to sabotage their careers and even beginning writers need to be careful of "helpful" advice from their writing groups. There are a great many wonderful writers who genuinely lend a helping hand to beginners and pros alike, but there are always a few who put the lie to that. This wonderful essay at the Book View Cafe puts this into perspective for writers. http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/2010/07/06/when-writing-friends-arent-sabotage-and-self-image/
For those of you who write Fantasy and Horror, editor Paula Guran has put out a call for submissions for the 2011 edition of The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror. The deadline is April 1, 2011. This is a call for reprints of stories published in 2010. From reading the call, it looks like she wants the stories submitted by editors and publishers, she'd also like to be made aware of online zines. You can find the entire call with all the details here http://oldcharliebrown.livejournal.com/328106.html
The writing world can be a cutthroat place to be and not just on the publishing end of the equation. Some writers have been known to take jabs at other writers and try to sabotage their careers and even beginning writers need to be careful of "helpful" advice from their writing groups. There are a great many wonderful writers who genuinely lend a helping hand to beginners and pros alike, but there are always a few who put the lie to that. This wonderful essay at the Book View Cafe puts this into perspective for writers. http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/2010/07/06/when-writing-friends-arent-sabotage-and-self-image/
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