I'm not happy. There's no explanation on their website, just options for what to do with your remaining subscription.
Damn. I really enjoyed Realms of Fantasy.
Damn. I really enjoyed Realms of Fantasy.
January 2009 Archives
Boring openings. People waking up aren't interesting. People complaining about how boring their lives are aren't interesting. Opening with blocks of setting description or back story isn't interesting. I want characters and I want action in the hook.
Pretension. If someone has a nosebleed, call it a nosebleed, don't talk about the twin red flags running down their chin. Don't have characters using words that you wouldn't use. Don't over describe stuff, and if you're going to use words that stand out as not being common, make them count for something. I'm not saying to go crazy limiting your vocabulary, and good words can be powerful, but don't use a big word when a shorter one would be clearer.
No hint of a speculative element within the first page or two.
Anything that has something sexual in the first or second paragraph. It squicks me out. I'm okay with sex in stories, if it's appropriate, but not in the opening. I don't know these characters yet, I'm not ready to be that close to them. Sexual action is not the sort I was talking about.
Things that get boring and drag on in the middle. Cut things that don't move the story along. I'm serious. If it's not interesting, I'm not going to read it. I don't care if your opening is good and your ending is brilliant, if the middle is like wading through a swamp, I'm not going to keep going.
Things with lame endings. I really hate when I get all of the way through something and then the end makes me feel like I wasted my time.
Vampires. I don't like vampires. I'm not huge on zombies, either. I'd like to like both of them, but I haven't seen any that were really well done. Not even in things that have been published. Pseudopod sometimes picks up things with zombies or vampires that I just can't stand.
That leads me into twists that I see coming. And that I don't want to happen. If I'm reading something and saying "Please don't let this be a vampire (or zombie) story" and then it is, I'm not happy.
That's all for now. I might come up with more later.
Pretension. If someone has a nosebleed, call it a nosebleed, don't talk about the twin red flags running down their chin. Don't have characters using words that you wouldn't use. Don't over describe stuff, and if you're going to use words that stand out as not being common, make them count for something. I'm not saying to go crazy limiting your vocabulary, and good words can be powerful, but don't use a big word when a shorter one would be clearer.
No hint of a speculative element within the first page or two.
Anything that has something sexual in the first or second paragraph. It squicks me out. I'm okay with sex in stories, if it's appropriate, but not in the opening. I don't know these characters yet, I'm not ready to be that close to them. Sexual action is not the sort I was talking about.
Things that get boring and drag on in the middle. Cut things that don't move the story along. I'm serious. If it's not interesting, I'm not going to read it. I don't care if your opening is good and your ending is brilliant, if the middle is like wading through a swamp, I'm not going to keep going.
Things with lame endings. I really hate when I get all of the way through something and then the end makes me feel like I wasted my time.
Vampires. I don't like vampires. I'm not huge on zombies, either. I'd like to like both of them, but I haven't seen any that were really well done. Not even in things that have been published. Pseudopod sometimes picks up things with zombies or vampires that I just can't stand.
That leads me into twists that I see coming. And that I don't want to happen. If I'm reading something and saying "Please don't let this be a vampire (or zombie) story" and then it is, I'm not happy.
That's all for now. I might come up with more later.
I've got a lot of rejection slips since my last post. Most of them are nothing special. There is one I want to talk about, though.
I submitted a story to Warrior Wisewoman and got a reply that it had made it through the first reading, and to be patient. Then I waited for over 150 days without hearing a thing. So I finally sent a query, which Roby James responded to quickly and politely, and my story was still under consideration.
This made me very happy, since I bought their last issue and really enjoyed it. I really wanted to be a part of this year's. I really respect the market and their focus and the quality of their product.
That was not to be. I got a rejection slip saying that they'd like to see the story again next year if I hadn't placed it. Which is nice... but it's not at the same time. This one really got my hopes up, and when that happens I inevitably end up crying over my rejection slip. It seems to me that they had to essentially choose between my story and another one, and I lost. I want to know why I wasn't good enough, but the rejection wasn't personal.
These near-misses are getting to me. I feel like I'm just not good enough, and that I'll never be good enough, no matter how hard I work or how long I try. My friends and my husband assure me that I'm wrong.
But I don't believe them. And the universe seems to be backing me up on this. Maybe the problem is my attitude. Maybe I need to be more positive and repeat things like, "I will make a professional sale in 2009," over and over again. It worked for Ellen. She got George Cloony on her show today. (Yes, I watch daytime tv at work.) But I can't. Hope hurts me every time. I can't embrace it.
Maybe I shouldn't be airing my insecurities and the fact that I cry over rejection slips on a public forum. I should be ashamed of my weakness, I suppose. But I said that I was writing this blog for people in my position so that they don't feel alone. So, I'm letting the internet know that sometimes I cry over my rejection slips. I'm bitter and angry and disillusioned. The only reason that I don't give up is because I'm too fucking stubborn. I have no faith that I will ever make it anywhere with my writing. None. Zero. Sometimes I have a little hope, but that never ends well.
I was thinking that a workshop might help get my writing up to the next level, but that's not a possibility. Even if I did get in (which I doubt) I couldn't actually go. Even if miracles happened and I ended up getting scholarship money/aid stuff, I couldn't leave my job for six weeks. I wouldn't have a job to come back to. There are a ton of massage therapists in Pittsburgh. Most of them would love my job. It's an awesome job. And since I'm an independent contractor instead of an employee, there's no reason for them to not have a therapist around for six weeks. And even if they would, I couldn't afford to not work for six weeks. Maybe if Paul found a full time job. Maybe. But with the economy the way it is, we're lucky to both have jobs at all.
On a completely different note, Triangulation submissions have opened again, and I've spent the past few Saturdays reading submissions. You can read fun updates about that on Joseph's and Pete's blogs. As Pete mentions, he's started sharing the rejection slip duty. We did get another negative response to a rejection. Of course it was one I wrote so I feel like it's a personal attack, which is completely ridiculous. I know that. It doesn't stop it from stinging, though. This guy wasn't nearly as out of line as the guy we banned, which actually sort of makes it worse. I can't just fall back on the dude being a whacko.
Clarkesworld reopened too, so I'm back to reading slush there, and I'm also reading stories for Flashing Swords.
It's amazing that I'm working on three publications and I'm honored to be a part of each of them.
I think I'm going to end this post on that high note. Some things are good. It's just hard to see them through the tears and the pain. Maybe that should be my mantra for 2009. "Focus on the good things."
I submitted a story to Warrior Wisewoman and got a reply that it had made it through the first reading, and to be patient. Then I waited for over 150 days without hearing a thing. So I finally sent a query, which Roby James responded to quickly and politely, and my story was still under consideration.
This made me very happy, since I bought their last issue and really enjoyed it. I really wanted to be a part of this year's. I really respect the market and their focus and the quality of their product.
That was not to be. I got a rejection slip saying that they'd like to see the story again next year if I hadn't placed it. Which is nice... but it's not at the same time. This one really got my hopes up, and when that happens I inevitably end up crying over my rejection slip. It seems to me that they had to essentially choose between my story and another one, and I lost. I want to know why I wasn't good enough, but the rejection wasn't personal.
These near-misses are getting to me. I feel like I'm just not good enough, and that I'll never be good enough, no matter how hard I work or how long I try. My friends and my husband assure me that I'm wrong.
But I don't believe them. And the universe seems to be backing me up on this. Maybe the problem is my attitude. Maybe I need to be more positive and repeat things like, "I will make a professional sale in 2009," over and over again. It worked for Ellen. She got George Cloony on her show today. (Yes, I watch daytime tv at work.) But I can't. Hope hurts me every time. I can't embrace it.
Maybe I shouldn't be airing my insecurities and the fact that I cry over rejection slips on a public forum. I should be ashamed of my weakness, I suppose. But I said that I was writing this blog for people in my position so that they don't feel alone. So, I'm letting the internet know that sometimes I cry over my rejection slips. I'm bitter and angry and disillusioned. The only reason that I don't give up is because I'm too fucking stubborn. I have no faith that I will ever make it anywhere with my writing. None. Zero. Sometimes I have a little hope, but that never ends well.
I was thinking that a workshop might help get my writing up to the next level, but that's not a possibility. Even if I did get in (which I doubt) I couldn't actually go. Even if miracles happened and I ended up getting scholarship money/aid stuff, I couldn't leave my job for six weeks. I wouldn't have a job to come back to. There are a ton of massage therapists in Pittsburgh. Most of them would love my job. It's an awesome job. And since I'm an independent contractor instead of an employee, there's no reason for them to not have a therapist around for six weeks. And even if they would, I couldn't afford to not work for six weeks. Maybe if Paul found a full time job. Maybe. But with the economy the way it is, we're lucky to both have jobs at all.
On a completely different note, Triangulation submissions have opened again, and I've spent the past few Saturdays reading submissions. You can read fun updates about that on Joseph's and Pete's blogs. As Pete mentions, he's started sharing the rejection slip duty. We did get another negative response to a rejection. Of course it was one I wrote so I feel like it's a personal attack, which is completely ridiculous. I know that. It doesn't stop it from stinging, though. This guy wasn't nearly as out of line as the guy we banned, which actually sort of makes it worse. I can't just fall back on the dude being a whacko.
Clarkesworld reopened too, so I'm back to reading slush there, and I'm also reading stories for Flashing Swords.
It's amazing that I'm working on three publications and I'm honored to be a part of each of them.
I think I'm going to end this post on that high note. Some things are good. It's just hard to see them through the tears and the pain. Maybe that should be my mantra for 2009. "Focus on the good things."
