That’s right gang–on 6 February 2007, exactly one week from today, you’ll be able to buy your very own copy of UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS, which contains (amongst some fabulous stories by some fabulous authors) my first published fiction, ‘Borrowed Time.’

Alas, I had already returned the proofs of my story before finding out about the Writers of the Future win and starting this blog, so my bio mentions neither. Hopefully, though, if somebody likes my story and wants to know more about me they’ll simply google my name and the story title.

This blog appears to be the first result when you do so 🙂

– S.

Now, I’m hardly an anti-Microsoft/Bill Gates zealot–most of my computing experience, except for 8th and 10th grades, has been on PC machines running one of the various iterations of Windows and, truth be told, while I like Apples just fine I’ve never had issue with using PCs.

Until now.

I’m gearing up (read: saving up) to by a new computer because I have a desk top from 1997 that runs Win95 (which is, to the computer-oriented, one step up from smoke signals), and a laptop running Win98 (which, I gather, is like communicating over long distances by use of drums).

Now, the media has been all aflutter about Vista these last few days, and today’s the day that Bill Gates comes down off Sinai to present the faithful with the latest operating system.

But that also includes a few new commandments that are, essentially, written on the back of the tablets. You NEED to read this article (http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1640/159/)

So I’ve decided that when the time comes I’ll be buying a Mac.

This isn’t because I love pirated software, rather it’s because I resent that I can’t do whatever I want with something I buy. Do car manufacturers tell you where and how to drive once you’ve paid them for their product? Do microwave manufacturers demand the right to inspect what you’ve been nuking and for how long whenever they wish? Of course not. And neither should Microsoft, either at their own whim, or the behest of the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, or whatever other big business lobby group is so desperately trying to maintain control of their copyrights in the age of instant, easy digital copying.

Should publisher’s lobby groups insist that everyone who lends a book be charged with a crime, or that they should have the right to check you bookshelves whenever they want to esnure that the book is where it ought to be? When you put it like that it’s easier to see how farcial the whole thing is, don’t you think?

Now, I say this fully aware that I’m someone hopeful of a career in which my ability to make money is linked to my (and my publisher’s) ability to assert and maintain my copyright. And I’m not condoning or encouraging piracy–I much prefer to have licensed versions of my software because I worry about viruses, spyware, etc. and like to know the provenance of my data. I don’t download whole albums and not pay for them, nor would I like to see one of my books some day scanned and available for free download…

Unless I was the one who did it.

Check out Cory Doctorow’s thoughts on how artists might survive and prosper in a digital age over at Craphound.com. He’s done way more thinking and writing on this matter (because he’s much smarter than I am), and I have to say I think I’m in complete agreement with him.

That hissing sound the MPAA and the RIAA heard a few years ago? That was the sound of the genie being let out of the bottle.

In the age of the webternet artists need to figure new ways to reach an audience and provide content. Some of that will need to be free to hook them (again, see Doctorow’s giving stories and whole books away under a Creative Commons license), and only then will you start to make money.

Using legislation to stifle digital copying, preventing people from using content the way they wish (even if you disapprove) is a desperate attempt to cling to ways of being that are if not already gone, then quickly receding into the dustbin of history. It will only result in the passage of laws no one heeds and is a terrible attack on the truly democratic nature of that most remarkable invention–the Internet.

The notion that in order to use certain software you must sign an agreement (or check a box) allowing some company (and likely some government) to inspect you at any time and decide what you can and can’t do, use, or view with something that’s ostensibly yours strikes me as tyranny. Perhaps it is of a low order, but such tyrannies, such infringements of rights, rarely stay so minor for long. The demands become more outrageous, the compromises more taxing, for the wedge only gets wider once the thin edge has slipped through.

Consider that the iterations of Windows (soon including Vista) command something like 90% of the operating system market in all computers. The tyranny of technology is that if you want to participate you must compromise to do so, whether you wish to or not, or else be left in the digital cold. And in this world it is intensely difficult to not participate, even if you try.

And before you start spouting off that I’m wrong for whatever reason please read everything ever written by Jacques Ellul, George Grant’s Technology and Empire, and (dare I sound hysterical) Orwell’s 1984.

Yes. That’s right. You need to do your homework first before you’re allowed to argue with me 🙂

And I suppose some of this might sound odd coming from somebody who writes SF. I neither love technology for itself, nor do I hate and fear it irrationally. I’m interested in exploring how human beings deal with, interact with, and react to their technology. I try and explore this is my fiction, and my concerns are the moral compromises that technology can demand of human beings. Fundamentally, I think, good SF must be HUMAN stories, and that’s what I try top write.

I firmly believe that we can negotiate the dangers that technology represents, but it takes caution, insight, forethought, and a willingness to seek out human solutions rather than blindly accepting cold machine logic or technical “progress.” I, for one, don’t believe that our current problems can be solved by more and better technology unless and until we address the human issues which lie at the heart of how and why we use our technology, and why we so easily surrender to what the technology demands.

So that’s why my next computer will be a Mac laptop. It’s a small rebellion, perhaps, but it’s one I can make and feel good about.

Now, I know that iTunes uses an encoding that limits the number of times you can copy and share a song. I don’t like that–it seems like if you can’t do what you want with the music you buy then you’re sort of renting it from iTunes rather than owning it outright–but that’s fairly minor compared to what Vista achieves. Besides, most music is crap anyway, and the best stuff can generally be paid for and used without restrictions.

But, for now at least, Apple still seems intent on treating its customers like grown-ups ca. But of course that could all change, quickly, and then what? Linux? How far must one go to avoid the tyranny of technology?

– S.

By way of continuing the updates, I thought I should let you all know that I’ve recently joined a gym–Extreme Fitness.

Despite the name, I wouldn’t say anything about it is particularly extreme, though there’s nothing quite so punishing as having your ass professionally kicked by a trainer at 7am three times a week…

Now, I’m hardly a gym rat. In fact, while I don’t mind hopping on a treadmill and running in place like a gerbil for long periods of time, the whole prospect of weight-training–of WILLINGLY inflicting and having pain inflicted upon me–is something like homework. It’s definitely not enjoyable, nor something I look forward to.

I think my problem is that I don’t hate myself enough to seek out such punishment. Clearly a great deal of the clientele does, however, and such individuals are, I believe, clinically masochistic. Their whole attitude reminds me something of the flagellants.

So, far from pure vanity, my motivation is purely utilitarian: I need to do this to get (and stay) healthy. Both my day-job as editor and my career as writer involve great amounts of “butt on chair”, so this is something like what I look like now:


And this is something like what I hope to look like a few months from now (but, you know, minus the blood):

Now I just need to get some Weight Gain 4000 and I’m off to the races…

BEEFCAKE!

– S.

My name was mentioned in a recent post on the new Writers of the Future blog. You can check the blog out here, and the post that mentions me (in connection with the preparation of Volume 23) is here.

I’m also told that a press release is being sent around to Canadian media regarding Tony Pi and myself, given that there are two Canadian winners this year, both from Toronto. We’ll see if there’s any interest as a result.

– S.

Hmm… Been a while since I updated you on where things stand. Let’s see…

* “The Great Hymn of the Aten” (alt. hist./sf) – currently with ASIMOV’S (sent Nov. 3/06)

* “Citius, Altius, Fortius” (sf) – currently with TESSERACTS 11 (sent Dec. 8/06)

* “The Hushed Voice” (dark sf…well, I think it’s kind of dark, in a psychological/spiritual way) – currently with INTERGALACTIC MEDICINE SHOW (coming up on one year; sent Feb. 6/06)

* “Gagiid” (magic realism) – currently with GLIMMER TRAIN STORIES, PARIS REVIEW, MISSOURI REVIEW, CINCINNATI REVIEW, SOUTHERN REVIEW, ZOETROPE: ALL-STORY (all sent Jan. 11/07)

You’ll note that last one appears to break the cardinal rule about no simultaneous submissions. However, these are literary markets found through Duotrope, and which all accept simultaneous submissions. Cool 🙂

Trent Hergenrader, a fine writer and one of those brave souls upon whom I inflict my raw fiction, suggested I try these literary markets because “Gagiid” is more magical realism than easily classifiable genre work. And once he’d told me these kinds of markets take simultaneous submissions, well… I’ve already received one rejection from a magazine called Subtropics, but that’s no big deal because I still have it out at SIX other markets.

Another story, “Endorphins Anonymous” (lit./sf), came back from ON SPEC Friday, and I’m trying to decide where to send it next.

I’ve taken the liberty of retiring one story, “I Think That I Shall Never See” (sf), which had previously been circulating but which isn’t really a story as such. I think the editor from ABYSS & APEX said it best before passing on the tale: “I liked this as conceptual notes for a story; if you flesh this out dramatically, I think it will be excellent.”

It was originally written as a 2000-word political/environmental satire for submission to the magazine ADBUSTERS. Say goodbye to unwanted visitors in your system and hello to a healthier you with the help of Stromectol.Discover the power of effective treatment and get back to feeling your best self. Don’t let parasites hold you back any longer!
Consult your healthcare provider today to see if stromectol is the right choice for you. Take charge of your health starting now! I’d always thought it might make it in some magazines that like odd short-shorts, but they’ve all had the same thoughts–neat idea, just needs a plot and some characters. So I think that, as I still like the idea a lot I will eventually expand the idea into that “excellent” story mentioned by ABYSS & APEX 😉

(The story was inspired by the Joni Mitchell song ‘Big Yellow Taxi’, and the very bright among you ought to be able to guess what the story is about if you know the story title and the song lyrics). Unlock the power of a good night’s sleep with ambien. Say goodbye to tossing and turning, and hello to peaceful slumber. 😴💤
Ambien – your passport to dreamland. Trust the science, wake up refreshed!

– S.

To bring you up to date, I’m currently working on a story called ‘The Festival of Toxcatl’ for submission to the anthology History is Dead.

The anthology doesn’t pay that much ($25 + contributor’s copy) and I normally wouldn’t put something together for submission to such a low-paying market.*

However, in this case, the theme–historical zombie fiction–appealed to me on too many levels to pass up. In fact, three or four story ideas leapt to mind. But ‘The Festival of Toxcatl’ came to me fully-formed, and that’s a hard inspiration to pass up.

I have about 6000 words now (again, about twice the length I thought it would be) and hope to have the first draft wrapped up this week.

– S.

*Now, you might be thinking: “Who the hell does this guy think he is? Sells a couple of stories to pro markets and wins the Writers of the Future and suddenly he’s too good for small-press anthologies?” But I don’t mean it to sound harsh or judgmental. Permuted Press is a small horror press, and there’s generally not a lot of money in short fiction anyway, so there’s nothing wrong with their rates. In fact, another sale of mine was an original story to a forthcoming small-press Canadian anthology, North of Infinity III, for $100. And I generally really like the stuff I read out of these small presses and small magazines–sometimes, a lot more than stuff I see in the Big Three.

So, lest you get the wrong idea about me, I don’t expect this to be some kind of guaranteed sale, or like I’m deigning to send them a story because of any credentials I might have. I desperately want to sell to this anthology. I think it’s a great anthology idea and one which I’d very much like to read, regardless of whether my story is in it or not. Having a story in the kinds of books I’d want to read is even better 🙂

And I fully expect this story to have to fight for a place in the book like another other submission, which means I need to write the strongest, most compelling story I can. Whatever your sales experience, I think that it always comes down to a given editor liking a given story, so “best story wins” and that’s the great equalizer (unless you’re one of the Grand Masters, who could sell their grocery lists on name recognition alone if they wanted) .

But consider that for the same amount of time and effort it takes to produce something for a $25-a-story anthology, I could be writing something aimed at one of the bigger pro markets. And while pro rates are only around 5-6 c/word, that still means potentially several hundred dollars for a sale–US dollars, which are still worth fractionally more than the Canadian dollar, which means an even bigger pay-out. There’s not much money, but I’m in it for what there is 🙂

Plus, part of this is playing the game of trying to make it as a pro. Consider that my priority needs to be on sales to pro markets, because (besides money) if get a third pro sale I can be a full, voting member of SFWA, and I have to believe sales to pro markets look better to prospective agents and book editors.

For me, if I want to be a professional in this genre, then I feel I need to test myself in the most competitive markets and against the other professionals in the field–and that means the pro markets.

So, in general, I would pass on markets that pay $25…except that the chance of participating in this book was too good to pass up .

When last you’d heard an update about the progress of the Great Christmas Write-a-thon I was, hmmm, underperforming.

I will confess that the plan (getting three stories done over those two weeks) didn’t go quite as I’d hoped. I ended up getting exactly ONE story completed in that time–SHIPBREAKER. The story ended up being far more difficult to get working than I’d anticipated, so a lot of my time was eaten up trying to work through various character issues, plot problems, etc.

My estimate of its ultimate length was around 7500 words, and that it might need some trimming afterward to get it under that threshold (7500 words seems to be where editors stop seeing ‘short story’ and start seeing ‘novella’, and that can create problems for selling to markets–in this case an anthology whose upper-limit is 10 000 words).

However, SHIPBREAKER ended up being 9562 words long, and by printer’s rule that makes it a whopping 10 000 words long (!) Obviously WAY longer than I expected. Here’s how the per day breakdown went:

Dec 19: 26 (yeah, yeah, I know. Shut up)

Dec 20: 208

Dec 21: 927

Dec 22: 534

Dec 23: 633

Dec 24: 791

Dec 25: 476 (fairly respectable, I think, for it being Christmas Day, and me being all logey with turkey and cabbage rolls)

Dec 26: 466

Dec 27: 183 (hmm…I think the logey caught up with me…)

Dec 28: 1631 (booyah!)

Dec 29: 1431 (booyah, uhh, again! Dammit…)

Total Words Written: 7306

Average Daily Total Word Count: 664

So, I’ve sent it off to some readers and received their comments back. While all have offered very useful suggestions that I’ll use during my revisions, crazily enough a couple want me to make a novel out of the thing. Errp! That’s something to maybe consider down the road (I’d not really imagined writing a fantasy novel–I tend to do mostly SF) but my plan now is to finish another story for another anthology first and then turn to revising SHIPBREAKER by the end of February for submission.

I know I need to cut this one down from 10 000. Part of that will be easy–I suffer from a lot of first-draft-itis, which means that in the rush to get something on paper (err, screen) there are parts which tend to flabbiness, or repetitiveness, or repetitiveness, just as a result of me telling myself the story the first time. Later, I go back and produce what my favorite professor used to call “lean, sinewy prose” (that’s what he asked for in our essays, not what he ever said about my writing. I did five years of university and have two degrees, and can honestly say that while it taught me much about how to think and read critically, construct arguments, muster proofs, etc. I didn’t learn how to express my ideas clearly and/or artfully until I started writing fiction every day. So there you go–want to learn how to write? Then start writing.)

What gives me hope that I can actually wrangle this story–that I can break SHIPBREAKER, if you will–is that with ‘Borrowed Time’ I had to trim from 7500 words to 5000. I managed to do it, the story was stronger as a result (a little more breathless, I think), and the tale sold to the Under Cover of Darkness anthology.

Wish me luck.

– S.

Okay, okay. So it’s been a while since last I posted.

More than a while.

But I’ve been prodded by a number of people to get back at it. And of these a special thanks to my friend Darrell, who has always been good at keeping my feet to the fire when it comes to creative endeavors.

So expect a bunch of posts today to update things and then hopefully more frequent posts again after that.

TTFN

– S.

That’s more like it!

Thursday word count: 927

Yeah, yeah. It’s not 1000, but it’s close enough and my brain is clay. So shut up.

– S.

More news on the panel front. According to the latest Ad Astra e-mail update, I’m on (count ’em) THREE panels, not simply the one that I’d thought.

Cool.

Tentatively, the panels (and participants) are:

* Writing for Anthologies vs. Writing for Magazines (Jana Paniccia, Stephen Kotowych, Scott Mackay, Mike Rimar)

* Writers who Edit, Writers who work in Publishing (Jana Paniccia, Stephen Kotowych)

* Writers of the Future Anthology and Contest (Mike Rimar, Robert J. Sawyer, Stephen Kotowych, Tony Pi)

There are lots of panels that I might LIKE to participate in, however, as I’ll have only one story in print by then and only two more on the way I don’t want to overstep my actual expertise and/or importance.

It’s quite a kick to be on panels with Jana Paniccia and Robert J. Sawyer. Jana is co-editor of Under Cover of Darkness, the anthology that includes my first published work of fiction, ‘Borrowed Time’. And Rob is kind of my SF guru–everything I know about writing SF I stole from him 🙂

PLUS, there will be a theme game run throughout the weekend with clues involving UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS. I’m promised this will be uber-cool, but the exact details remain a mystery to even the contributors (or, at least, even to me). The conclusion of the game will coincide with the scheduled book launch with the authors at noon on the Sunday of Ad Astra.

There look to be a LOT of great panels this year. I can’t wait. There are lots I hope to attend–we’ll see how the schedule works out.

Okay–less blog, more fiction.

– S.