Hi all –

Some advance news today about the two Toronto launches for the anthology UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS (that’s the cover in the sidebar), which includes my story ‘Borrowed Time’.

Jana Paniccia, one of the wonderful co-editors of the volume, let me know today that the launches will be at:

* The Merril Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy (239 College Street, 3rd Floor) on Saturday, February 24, 2007 at noon. Books will be available for sale by the fine staff of Bakka Phoenix Books.

and

* Ad Astra (running from March 2-4, 2007). At the convention, there will be an Under Cover themed game/contest running throughout the weekend, which will culminate in a second launch, with prizes, on Sunday March 4th.

I’m very excited about this collection (it’s my first published fiction!) and I plan to be in attendance for both launches. More details and reminders closer to the dates.

Hope to see you all there!

– S.

Glad to see I’m doing my part.

Alas, not in Farsi, though…

– S.

Cool!

I’ve just received a shout-out about my Writers of the Future win in the November edition of Ralan’s Market Report (available by signing up at Ralan.com–the BEST market resource page I’ve found for SF, fantasy, and horror fiction).

If you’re a genre writer and haven’t heard of Ralan.com you really owe it to yourself to check it out. One of the women in my writer’s group pointed me in its direction a couple of years ago, and I visit at least bi-weekly to find out what new anthologies and paying markets are accepting submission.

The shout-out is associated with a new “year’s best” anthology I found–Best American Fantasy–and let Ralan know to post about.

Thanks a lot, Ralan. Keep up the good work!

– S.

Well, that didn’t take long.

I’ve heard back today from ABYSS & APEX, and they’re passing on “I Think That I Shall Never See.” That’s a four day rejection–the shortest I’ve had yet, by two days. But that’s the speed of the internet, I guess.

The editor who responded said the story was “well recieved” by the staff, and they hope that I will consider submitting more work to them in future.

Like I said before, I’ve been getting a lot of these “almost, not quite” rejections lately, along with invitations to submit other things in future. That’s a good thing as I see it–better than the “thanks, but no thanks” rejections I had been getting–but it’s still not good enough. I want to sell more stories! 🙂

Part of it is, of course, this or that particular story not being right for a given magazine for any one of a host of reasons. But I’m wondering more and more if there’s some element I’m not including consistantly–dramatic tension, character development, effective pacing, etc.–which is hurting my chances.

Having sold a couple of stories now, I can clearly hit those heights sometimes. But having random peaks to my ability isn’t what I’m after. Fundamentally, I want to get to a place where I’m writing at a consistently high level (hopefully on an upward trajectory). Part of that, I think, is figuring out what I’m doing wrong…

Hopefully, if there’s some flaw in what I’m doing the judges at the Writer’s of the Future will be able to help me figure out what it is, and what to do about it.

– S.

I intend to use this form to update on the status of my writing; where I’ve submitted, who I’ve heard back from, and hopefully on lots of future sales. As this blog thing is still in its infancy, I’ll do a complete run-down of what’s out, where, and since when to bring you up to speed:

* “I Think That I Shall Never See” (sf) – currently with ABYSS & APEX (sent Nov. 3/06)

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

* “Citius, Altius, Fortius” (sf) – currently with ANALOG (sent Nov. 3/06)

* “Endorphins Anonymous” (lit./sf) – currently with ON SPEC (sent Aug. 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 (sent Feb. 6/06)

I’ve had two very nice, personalized rejections for “The Great Hymn of the Aten” from STRANGE HORIZONS and PARADOX, both encouraging me to submit more work, and I’ve been getting a lot of these “almost, but not quite” rejections from magazines for a variety of stories. I’m hoping to pick the brains of the WotF judges on what exactly I’m doing/not doing/ought to be doing that gets these stories close, only to stumble with the finish line in sight.

I also got my first (sort of) personal rejection from Sheila Williams at ASIMOV’S in the last week or two. It was still probably a form letter, but it wasn’t the usual “thanks, but no thanks” form letter. This one encouraged me to submit more work “when you have it.” My first such invitation from any of the Big Three. And well, it just so happens I do have something…

And “The Hushed Voice” is in a weird, but hopeful situation. Submitted way back in February, before the new editor–Edmund R. Schubert–started, it got caught in IGMS’s massive backlog. However, I’ve since received two messages from the editor; the first in August to say that my story is in his ‘read again’ pile while he clears out the rest of the backlog, and the second in October letting me know that it’s still in consideration, but the backlog is taking longer to clear than he thought. Okay, fair enough. I can only imagine with horror what any new magazine has to deal with when it starts up–everybody pulling things out of the bottom drawer and submitting hoary old tales passed on by dozens of editors already (not that that’s my story, of course…) Having Orson Scott Card’s name associated with the magazine and actually paying pro-rates, too…might as well paint a bull’s eye on their backs.

Working as an editor (albeit in scholarly non-fiction) I know how varieties of responsibilities compete for time reading manuscripts. And authors who pester early and/or incessantly instantly have strikes against them. Always work to remain in your (potential) editor’s good graces.

So I’m fine with IGMS holding the story as long as they need to. The longer its under consideration the better the odds in its favour become, I figure, as other stories get whittled away around it.

To be fair, Mr. Schubert did say in his first e-mail that “the ‘read again’ pile is still three times as many stories as I can use in the next year,” so the odds (like manuscripts) are stacked against it, but I remain forever hopeful. You have to in this line of work! 🙂

– S.

Just wanted to say a big “Thank-you” to everyone who’s sent congratulations after hearing the announcement. Writing can be a lonely business and the well-wishes are most appreciated.

Special mention goes out to those who’ve actually posted comments on the blog (including fellow Torontonian Tony Pi, whom I don’t know but who I have a feeling I’ll be meeting soon enough…he won a second place prize in Writers of the Future earlier this year. A big congratulations to him. We should be at the same writer’s workshop together. Two writers from the Big Smoke. Small universe 🙂

– S.

I’m very pleased to make the “Big Announcement” that I’d promised about my writing. And the announcement is bigger than I’d even hoped! I’m please to be able to tell you that I’ve just won first place in the quarterly Writers of the Future contest.

The Writers of the Future contest is open to new and amateur short story writers in science fiction or fantasy. Submissions are blind judged by some of the top writers in the field, including Robert Silverberg, Frederik Pohl, Robert J. Sawyer, Jerry Pournelle, Anne McCaffrey, Orson Scott Card, and Larry Niven.

My first place finish means a cash prize, publication in the annual Writers of the Future Anthology (in this case, Volume 23), a trip to a week-long writer’s workshop run by some of the contest’s judges, and a gala awards dinner. One of the year’s four first place stories will be chosen the Grand Prize winner at the dinner and its author will receive an additional $5,000 US in prize money.

The contest organizer has asked that I not reveal the name of the story yet, so you’ll have to wait and find out!

And don’t worry; I won’t let this win go to my head. I’ve already been taken down a couple of pegs since I found out yesterday. First, this morning I got a rejection letter from the British magazine, Interzone, for another story I’d submitted there. And second, when I told my dad I’d won a contest for a piece of my writing he said: “Then why are you so bad at Scrabble?” 🙂

– S.

Hi all –

Well, given that this is my first foray into the “blogosphere” (so called) it’s safe to assume this blog will be a beta (the Beta Blog??) for the next few weeks while I decide what I’d like to have up here.

I’ll promise you one thing now, though: there will be a fairly BIG piece of news forthcoming about my writing in the next three weeks or so…Stay tuned here for more news!

TTFN

– S.

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