So I’ve finally been able to turn back to consideration of ‘Shipbreaker’ (the story that kicked my ass during the First Annual Great Christmas Write-a-thon) after completing the first draft of ‘The Festival of Toxcatl‘ last week–that one’s now off to a few trusted readers for their thoughts before I polish it up for submission.

And speaking of polishing, it’s always fun for me to go back over a first draft (especially one that gave me the kind of trouble ‘Shipbreaker’ did), rip it apart, and put it back together better than it was before. Better…stronger…faster. The comments of my readers were especially helpful in seeing where I’d gone astray, bored the reader, written like crap, etc.

Yes, loyal blog reader, it’s sad but true: not every word that spews from my fingers is golden genius the first time around. Sometimes it requires a bit of alchemy first…

I heard Rob Sawyer say once that the first draft is hard work and the rewrites are the fun part. Farley Mowat once said that he hated writing, but loved having written. I think I can see what they both meant and I agree.

I also like Julie Czerneda‘s poem:

Ah, revision!
How sweet the pain
that bringeth out
what I meant to say in the first place…

‘Shipbreaker’ is intended as a submission to the pirate anthology Fast Ships, Black Sails. So that means I’d better hurry–submissions are due by 28 February, which is fast approaching…

– S.

Hi all –

So I’ve found a couple of reviews of UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS which appear to have been picked up by various booksellers and which are well distributed across the web:

From Harriet Klausner (and be sure to read this article about her, too. Oh, how I envy this woman’s gift…):

The premise of this enjoyable anthology is that covert groups working behind the scenes influence and even cause major events to happen. The fourteen tales run the gamut from suspense thriller to science fiction and even fantasy as the contributors develop secret societies that also range from total controlling to stand-by chronicler/watcher. The entries are interesting though the short story format does not allow for major background development especially of the clandestine societies (this reviewer would not mind several expanded into novellas). Still these are exciting tales whether they have the Freemasons pulling strings, the Scoria changing their existence, the Dancer in Toronto or elves warring in London. Suspense readers especially conspiracy fans especially will appreciate this fine compilation of new stores of covert factions working behind the scenes.

And from Monsters and Critics:

Editors Czerneda and Paniccia do a commendable job of bringing together 14 fresh, often inventive stories with a “guardian at the gate” flavor penned by the likes of Tanya Huff, Larry Niven and Douglas Smith. From Doranna Durgin comes a tales of outcasts, banded together for mutual protection and a young woman’s ultimate sacrifice, given to assure the survival of “The Scoria”. Weaving the Freemasons, the Lone Ranger, and Knights Templar to name a few, Nick Pollotta’s “Falling like Gentle Rain” is a rollicking, light-hearted showdown between a Guardian and the Big Evil that manages to recreate the world. Sworn to secrecy, Jessian better known to her coworkers as Susan undertakes a mission which will forever change her life and give her a new appreciation for a ‘backward”, aboriginal people in Janny Wurts “The Sundering Star”. Enjoy this bright collection of short stories and the tantalizing peeks into they offer into an all too frequently tired genre.

– S.

Well, my buddy Darrell (future Prime Minister of Canada, and someone who I know reads this blog frequently) not only managed to get in to law school last week, but also won the hand of fair Colleen, whom he’s been dating for the last several years (I’m pleased to say I was there when they met on New Year’s Eve, 2003).

He popped the question and she said yes! Congrats to both of them.

For those keeping track, that means that of my group of friends I’m going to be the one who dies alone. Which is really unexpected because, out of all of us, I’m CLEARLY the catch 😉

So, D-Mast, when’s the Big Day? Gotta clear my calendar…

– S.

…at Ad Astra. And because I’m a panelist I get access. Oh, this is totally going to go to my head.

I plan to make outrageous demands, like ordering one of the con staffers to remove all the brown M&Ms from the bowl, and throw ridiculous diva-ish tantrums when my imported Bolivan mineral water is sparkling not still, and how dare they serve it to me at room temperature.

This is going to be awesome. (I mean, it’s probably just a hotel room with snacks and drinks, but right now, in my mind, it’s a mixture the decadence I imagine of an Oscars after-party, a Roman bacchanalia, and the planet Risa from ST:TNG–don’t rain on my parade!)

Oh, and this delusion of grandeur was brought about by an e-mail from Alana Otis, one of the con organizers, letting the panelists know that a preliminary schedule of panels and events will be ready later tonight. Once I have my times, I’ll be sure to let you all know.

There’s also a pre-con party taking place on the Thursday night before, but I have a basketball game and, well, getting my fat ass in shape is a priority. Besides, I’ll have three days and nights of all the take-out, Cheetos, and homebrew from the con suite that I can handle that weekend 🙂

– S.

So another record for reply to a submission:

371 days – that’s a year and six days – that OSC’s Intergalactic Medicine Show took before passing on ‘The Hushed Voice’, besting my previous longest by 137 days (the previous record holder was 234 days for North of Infinity III, but Mark Leslie bought that story…)

Now, in fairness, the delay was mainly due to the flood of submissions after the magazine opened and the hiring of a new editor, who then had to go through the backlog, so I’m not upset about the delay. I suppose I am kinda bummed that it didn’t make it in, but them’s the breaks.

Edmund Schubert, the IGMS editor, did have some nice things to say in his rejection e-mail, including the fact that the story was among the last 30 or so he held for consideration out of the thousands he had in backlog when he arrived in the job. I don’t know what that is in terms of percentiles (for you LSAT-types out there) but that’s not too shabby. He also said “the reason I kept it as long as I did is because it is as well written as it is; the voice is spot on.” That’s very nice to hear, especially since that is one of the earliest pieces I started sending out to magazines.

Luckily, however, I got the rejection back before the end of February. That means the anthology Holy Horrors is still accepting submissions, and I think this might work for them (‘The Hushed Voice’, for the record, is a dark SF tale in which religion features quite prominently). My submission is going out today.

Likewise, now that IGMS no longer has one of my stories, it’s time to send them a new one! So I’ll be submitting ‘The Great Hymn of the Aten’ to Edmund today, as well. From what I see on the Blackhole, his response rate to new subs seems to be pretty good now that he’s cleared the backlog.

– S.

So I was out to lunch (har har) with a couple of friends this afternoon and as Patrick and I were headed in the same direction on our way back to work we stopped at the Bay-Bloor Indigo and made a bee-line for the SF section.

After several frantic moments of searching (me KNOWING that they had eight copies in stock) we located UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS faced out in the fantasy section (not the sci-fi section where I thought it might be*) and Patrick bought a copy–with no prompting from me, I might add.

Then he asked me to sign it for him.

Me. Sign a story of mine. In a book you can buy in the store. It was an amazing moment.

Now I’ve mentioned Patrick before–he’s one of the world’s future foremost Anglo-Saxonists. We know each other from our undergrads in Kingston, and when we both moved to Toronto to pursue Masters degrees we shared an apartment for three years, give or take. He’s a dear friend, afflicted with much the same oddity as myself, and we get along great.

So I was very pleased that my first-ever book signing was for him, at his request. I hope there will be many more stories to sign in the years to come.

– S.

*NB: I’m actually really glad its in the fantasy section and not sci-fi. While I tend to write mostly SF, it’s well known that fantasy sells better–primarily because more women buy books than do men, and more women read fantasy than read SF. Weird, perhaps, but just how it breaks out. So hopefully by being in the fantasy section it will help sales. And truth be told, I think most of the stories in the collection can be described as fantasy rather than SF–of the ones I’ve read so far only my story ‘Borrowed Time’ and Larry Niven’s ‘The Gatherers Guild’ can be termed SF…and even then, mine’s ‘soft’ SF, not ‘hard’…but LARRY NIVEN!!!

Over the last few days, the Writers of the Future blog has been posting art from the winning Illustrators of the Future–the graphical twins of we writer winners, and the artists who will provide illustrations for our stories in the forthcoming anthology.

So far they’ve posted art by Bryan Beus, Bogdan Stetensko, Lars Edwards, Artem Mirolevich, Corey Loving and it’s all pretty amazing–follow the links if you don’t believe me.

It’s crazy to think that one of these (or perhaps someone not yet posted) will be doing original artwork based on the story I wrote. It’s an entirely unexpected level of coolness to this contest win that I’d not expected.

And yes, I have my favorite of these posted but I won’t tell you which one(s). Never want to upset someone you might be working with soon! 🙂

I know Rob Sawyer has occasionally purchased the original artwork produced for his book covers (having been to his place a few times I can testify that the art for the covers of Far-Seer, the British edition of The Terminal Experiment, and the Science Fiction Book Club and Tor trade paper reprint of Golden Fleece occupy places of prominence around his penthouse). I’m thinking that if I like the art that illustrates my story enough, and if the artist is willing to part with it, I might just see if we can come to some agreement that will allow it to hang framed on my wall…

Really I’m just dying to know what they’ll choose to illustrate from the story. I tend to be very visual when I write–I see scenes in my head almost like I’m watching TV, no doubt a product of a late 20th Century upbringing–and tend to include a lot of visual cues in my stories (sometimes too many, as people in my writer’s group have occasionally told me…) So there are certain key scenes which you could illustrate, I suppose. Or a montage of the characters. Or something else entirely that only a visual artist’s mind would clue in to.

Whatever it ends up being, I’m dying to see it.

Oh, and the otheWotF blog was nice enough to post my notice about UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS coming out. You’ll find it at the bottom of the post here.

– S.

Well, I’ve managed to set a new personal, err, best (?) for rejection time.

I sent ‘The Great Hymn of the Aten’ to Heliotrope yesterday…and got a rejection within twelve hours (!)

My previous fastest rejection was four days. I don’t know if twelve hours will ever be surpassed.

The funniest part is how the rejection letter opened:

“Thank you for your submission to the second issue of Heliotrope Magazine with all apologies to any tardiness this reply may accompany…”

Now, I heard on Ralan.com that the edior has been swamped lately with submissions, so I wasn’t expecting to hear back for some time. But if twelve hours is tardy I’d hate to see how fast he normally gets through submissions!

– S.

I got a rejection letter from Asimov’s yesterday, passing on ‘The Great Hymn of the Aten’–an alternate history story of ancient Egypt. Okay. Fair enough.

But what was nice was that I think Sheila Williams might be starting to remember who I am, as she’s now writing what appear to be (short) personal rejection letters to me, with the last few encouraging me to submit new work soon. Now, these have mostly been two- to three-line rejections, but I might as well have been trying to read tea leaves or augur the future for all I poured over this last one.

It says she’s “looking forward” to seeing my next story…Hmm…What does that mean? Does that mean maybe she likes my stuff but nothing is working for Asimov’s yet but she’s hoping to buy something from me someday soon? Does it mean maybe she hasn’t liked anything but thinks perhaps I have some talent somewhere and that eventually I might come up with something decent that she’ll want to publish?

All this from two lines. If it had been four, I’d likely have spun such circles in my own head that I’d be catatonic right now.

Witness the kind of insanity it takes to be a writer…

– S.

Hi all –

Well, UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS is now available in better bookstores and online shops everywhere and Jana (my editor) just let me know that Barnes & Noble (the US bookstore chain equivalent of Chapters-Indigo) has posted a review of the book and it has some nice things to say about me:

“The Barnes & Noble Review: Science fiction and fantasy fans who enjoy their stories laden with secrecy and intrigue (underground societies, double agents, covert organizations, etc.) will undoubtedly enjoy the new DAW anthology Under Cover of Darkness, which features 14 original short stories from illustrious genre veterans like Larry Niven, Tanya Huff, and Janny Wurts, as well as numerous talented newcomers like Amanda Bloss Maloney and Stephen Kotowych.”

Hey–that’s ME!

You can find the complete B&N review here.

Can’t wait to see more reviews (well, good ones, anyway… :P)

– S.