13 posts tagged “a shade of yellow”

In the past ten days or thereabouts I have:

• Sent A SHADE OF YELLOW to Clarkesworld Magazine. 
  
• Sent EMPIRES AND GLASS to the Writers of the Future Contest.  I think it's a better story than STATUES, so hopefully it'll net a better result.  What's scary is that by the time I hear back from them, I will have finished university.  o.O
  
• For a little while now I've had the vague idea of writing a story about Samhain/Halloween, where the holiday is a character, but hadn't quite figured out how to tell it.  Naturally, it was when I went to Starbucks with the intention of getting some uni work done that the story finally slapped me in the face and demanded to be written.  That was about a week ago.  I've since polished it up and sent it away to Fantasy Magazine.  It's only a little story, just over 1,000 words, and is called CHICA, LET ME TELL YOU A STORY.  Yeah, that title could probably be better, but when you read it and then read the story it does make sense.  I think.  Also I couldn't think of anything better.
  What particularly interested me, when I was skimming through wikipedia for a history of the holiday, was the idea of Samhain/Halloween as a door for nasty dead/fey creatures to step through, and that became a core part of the story and the character.  Trying to write about a person who is also a door was... interesting, but I think it worked.  And I am definitely returning to this characters-as-doors thing in the future.
  
• I found out about 10 days ago that the deadline for Shimmer magazine's pirate-themed issue had been extended from January 31st to Februrary 28th.  As I hadn't had time by the end of January to write a story for it, I was rather happy at this news -- and last night finished the short story for it, ROSEILDA'S TALE.  I'm hoping to submit it by the end of the week, or thereabouts.  It fits into the same world as two of my other short stories, A SHADE OF YELLOW and A FAY OF STEAM.  I have a vague idea that I'll collect them all into a novella-length thing at some point. 
  
• The novella-without-a-proper-name, "beth", is coming along in the background.  I haven't written much for it in a few days; the next part needs a little more time to germinate in my head, I think.  At any rate, it's currently over 10,000 words, and there's potentially a lot more to go.  Once I've figured out the Bone Queen's tale, that is; the rest of the story will hinge on that.
  

While basking in the glow of my own writing-productivity makes me feel good, it doesn't really do much for those source-analyses that need to be done for Thursday's class.  Must stop procrastinating one of these days.  (as if)

Email back from the Touched by Wonder anthology, to which I subbed A SHADE OF YELLOW:

"After careful review of your work, I have decided to decline.  Though you are a talented writer with a gift for startling imagery, I feel the story is not a good fit for the anthology as it is shaping up to be."

Once again with the "this story has its merits, but it's not right for our anthology."  Most annoying. 

This is my sixth rejection for this story, and I wouldn't be overly surprised if it netted a few more before finally finding a home.  Why?  When the wonderful Katie of Buns read through it for me, she commented on the fact that there's no particular resolution to the story -- and this is something I'm aware of with no intention to change.  To me, the story is a window, both for the character Mari and for the reader; it's a window into a much larger world (of politics etc) that Mari is granted for a few days before it's taken away and her life reverts to normal.  That's all there is to the story.  The only kind of resolution is that Mari realises she's been used, and her perception of the city's current situation has been changed a little.

So it doesn't particularly surprise me when this story gets a rejection.  It's not a standard storytelling format, and I can understand it not working for plenty of editors (or editors feeling it won't work for their readers).  But I like it.  I really like it. And I have no intention to change it, to give it a resolution, because that would mean making it a completely different story and (a) I like it, and (b) I'm lazy.  But mostly it's (a). 

Just means I need to accept that it's going to be a particularly tough story to find a home for.  Oh well.  All a girl can do is keep trying! 

Got back the essay I turned in at the end of last term, and I got a B+!  Hooray!  Much better than I'd expected.  Hopefully the essay I turned in last week will yield the same positive surprise.

Subbed A TRIPTYCH off to the Iris Print "fairy tale and fantasy" anthology last night, and A SHADE OF YELLOW to the Touched by Wonder anthology on the 7th (which I think I forget to mention). 

I passed my Floor Manager's test with an average of 95% (the pass-mark was 80%).  Hooray!  It's particularly hooray because was I convinced I'd failed.  To pass I needed above 80% in two sections, and I thought I'd not managed 80% in one of them - the multiple choice paper.  There were a whole load of questions I didn't know the answer to, and had to make educated guesses.  Fortunately, seems enough of my educated guesses turned out correct.  And now I can forget all that useless info.  Hooray!

While I've finally recovered from my vicious cold, I think I'm still suffering residual fatigue.  I said I've have my essay done by the extended deadline of today but I've only written 1,000 words out of 2,500, and they're not particularly great words either.  I just can't seem to focus for more than ten seconds at a time.  I'm going to have to work my arse off this week to get both this essay done, and done well because it's assessed, and also attempt my other essay, which matters less because it doesn't count towards my final grade.  Yuck.

I've been submitting short stories in the past few days.  TANSU was rejected by Fantasy Magazine, so I sent it on to Shimmer.  I subbed A SHADE OF YELLOW to Ideomancer webzine and EMPIRES AND GLASS to the Sails and Sorcery anthology.  I rewrote my one non-genre short story, FLIGHT, and subbed it to Edifice Wrecked webzine.  Over the weekend, I finished rewriting an old fanfiction into a short story called LET ME FALL (with different characters and setting to the fanfic, of course), but I'm not entirely sure yet where I'll send it, considering it's a bit slashy and quite angsty and the specfic-ness is very much in the background.  And finally, I've been working on A FAY OF STEAM and hope to have it sent off to Cabinet des Fées in the next few days. 

Future short story projects are:

• Something for Shimmer's pirate issue.  I've decided to take a character from A FAY OF STEAM, Roseilda, and tell part of her story for this.  The deadline is 31st January, but I aim to get this done in the next fortnight or so. 
  
• Iris Print, a publisher of boys' love, is open for submissions to a fairytale/fantasy anthology of boys' love short stories, and I've written just over a page of a story for this.  Deadline is 15th January.
• I still intend to give the On the Premises thing a go.  I've written part of that story, and will finish it sometime.  Deadline is 31st January.

And, of course, I need to get back to PAINTED ANGELS in the near future.  Not to mention catching up on all the dissertation reading I've not done in the past three weeks because of my cold, and reading and writing for another essay over the holidays, and working under the Golden Arches so I can eat and buy books next term.  Oh, and I need to find a job for when I graduate.  BIG EWWW!!!!  I've decided on publishing now, and need to start sorting all that out.  After essays, though. 

But at least my birthday is coming up - I'll stop being a teenager in, oooh, 15 days, woooo!!!!  Sadly there are no Wiis left, but my brother is buying me the Legend of Zelda game anyway and I'm going to save my Christmas and birthday money to buy a Wii when more are made.  I'm also getting money from my parents to go to Venice with the uni history society.  I don't know anyone on the trip, but who the hell cares?  Venice!!! 

I didn't even have time to enter it on my spreadsheet or write a post about it.

I submitted A SHADE OF YELLOW to the RLD Anthology early this afternoon, then went out to see the new James Bond movie (which is a lot of awesome), and came back to find a rejection from the RLD Anthology.

Also, my cold has kicked in for some late-night frolicks.

Oh, and I'm going to have to write 4k tomorrow to catch up to my Nano target.  For some funny reason I don't feel like writing now. .... Actually it's more to do with the headache, but yeah.  Urrrgghhh.  Sidenote of greater urrgghh: saw the Eragon movie trailer.  Wanted to die.  Got a funny look from the lady sat next to me for saying "Oh god kill me now."

So I'm going to watch some House on the sofa, curled up under a duvet, and not think.  Then I will sleep. 

Once again I have been double-teamed by rejections: Interzone rejected A SHADE OF YELLOW and GrendelSong rejected THE BEAUTIFUL COLLECTION, both form rejections.  Poo on them both, and some other childish curses.  I think I'm going to finally send ASOY to the Red Light District anthology (the thing I wrote it for), but I don't know where I'll send TBC next. 

Partially counter-balancing the bad news, I finally got word back from one of my managers at work that I passed my mock floor manager test.  She'll be sending me some dates for the real thing soon.  Hopefully I'll be able to get it done before I go back at Christmas.  If, that is, I can even remember anything I learnt way back in August/September. 

Some moments I'm happy with it.  Quite a lot of the time I hate it. 

I love the beginning of my book, the first two-thirds in fact.  I think the world building and plot is strong, and the characters are interesting.  But now, working on the final chunk of chapters, I don't like what I'm writing.  I don't think it's as strong as the beginning.  I'm better at writing the early stages, hinting at various elements of the mystery through different characters.  When it's all in the air and has to be dealt with - in this case, with fighting - it just feels flat.  Dull.  But it's not like I can go "hey, mystery solved, why bother depicting the culmination of it all?"  I have to.  Otherwise the book wouldn't work.  And the ending is the ending, it's the only thing I can see happening as a result of all that's happened in the book thus far.  It would be a fairly unsatisfactory ending if the main characters weren't involved in the culmination of the war, I feel.  What's happened in all the good stuff demands it.  And hey, I do like it, and I think it could work quite well, but I only feel that some of the time. 

This is probably symptomatic of approaching the end of the book.  At least Nano is forcing me to write on it, even though it's mostly slow going.  Hopefully I'll even get all the final chapters hammered out, and can begin the joyous process of hacking it up and trying to make it work for me all the time, or at least almost all of the time. 

Fuck, some of the scenes I wrote today aren't that bad.  I think I'm being overly negative.  Hard bastard to shake, though, this negativity.  Must just press on.

......
In other news, I posted A SHADE OF YELLOW off to Interzone today.  Hopefully third time will prove the lucky one for this story. 

Got two rejections today.  The most important one was from Apex Digest, concerning A SHADE OF YELLOW.  Form rejection:

"I have reviewed the story but must decline publishing because it does not suit the current needs of our magazine."

While I have no particular issue with form rejections (I understand that some magazines/publishers receive so many submissions that they simply don't have time to write out personal rejections), it's nonetheless a little disheartening to receive no indication of what specifically didn't appeal to them.  My own thinking on the matter is that the submission guidelines do say they like dark scifi, and most stories they buy will be a mix of scifi and horror - and, well, there's not really any horror in A SHADE OF YELLOW.  It's definitely dark, but it's not really horror-y.  Also, I would really classify it as urban fantasy, and while a lot of people will equally happily interpret that a form of scifi as well, maybe this mag doesn't.  Maybe I didn't fit their boundaries quite snugly enough, and the story wasn't exceptional enough to be an exception.

So... whatever.  Or maybe the story's just not good.  But I refuse to be put off, so I'm going to send it away to another magazine, this time Interzone, a UK magazine of science fiction and fantasy.  Apparently they're quite big for a UK mag - I'd never heard of them, but I'd never heard of any of the scifi/fantasy mags so that doesn't really mean much.  Their logged response times of Black Hole and Duotrope's Digest are sometimes quite long, and I have only approx. 110 days until the RLD Anthology deadline closes, but I'll take the chance.  Their recent times are about a month, plus I'm in the UK so there won't be trans-Atlantic postage times, and I can always withdraw the story at the end of February if I have to. 

The second rejection was for SNOWDROPS, a 99-word flash piece I penned a month or so back.  I had an email conversation with one of the editors this afternoon, the ultimate conclusion of which was that the story isn't suited to being only 99 words, but needs to be longer instead - and, as the publication is for flash stories only, she can't take anything longer than 100 words.  So I shall write a longer version sometime, once I've played around with the idea more. 

It's very easy to say that the road to writerly success is paved with rejections.  It's somewhat harder to face that reality, especially when they pull double-team-attacks like today's.  But I'll never become a published author if I don't face that reality, so I shall keep trying.  Eventually I'll get my stories in print. 

This evening I am going to compile a happy-songs playlist (which will be quite short, considering my taste for moody music, but it will be happy!) and then I shall write more of Bunia's journal because it will be supremely more fun than trying to tackle a space battle.  There will probably be some purchasement of chocolate from the supermarket as well because as all girls know, chocolate makes *everything* better. 

Received an email from Sybil's Garage today, rejecting A Shade of Yellow.  The only reason they gave is that it

"felt more like the opening chapter of a novel than a complete short story."

I can understand why they would feel that way, as the story does leave some loose ends open (enough that I am considering writing more short stories in the setting sometime in the future), but I also think it ties up enough to be considered a standalone.  Likely it's borderline, and some magazines will have the same concern as SG while others won't.  As I don't feel I can tell the story in any other way, I'm going to leave the story as it is and hope that I find a magazine in the latter camp. 

SG also said

"Your writing shows a lot of promise and I would encourage you to consider us in the future"

which is almost enough to make me send Tansu their way before sending it elsewhere, but not quite.  If SG is still open for submissions once Fantasy Magazine and Shimmer have rejected Tansu, then I'll send it - but to be honest, they'll probably be closed by then.  Oh well, there's always next year and maybe then I'll have a suitable story. 

I've re-read the two stories and will re-read them once more tomorrow morning before sending them off to the magazines: Apex Digest for A Shade of Yellow and Fantasy Magazine for Tansu.  Hopefully one of them will net a sale. 

I'm stuck on PA again, though I'm not entirely sure why.  I'm getting to some good stuff now - finding out something very important, and then Trifmara's reaction to that.  And, soon, a big battle near Katina which will be followed by the final battle at Krak'vi. 

I think maybe I'm worried it's starting to drag a bit, that I should wrap it up faster, even though the sensible part of my mind says to just write the damn chapters and then go back and make changes.  Blegh.  It's probably just the same "getting towards the end" mental block I get when I approach the end of anything long - happened with my finished piece of mystery crap that will one day be totally reworked, and also with Statues. 

In the meantime, I've been working on short stories:

Statues - Still waiting for a response from Writers of the Future.  I reckon I'll hear from them January-ish, maybe later.  If they don't like it, I'll send it to Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine.

A Shade of Yellow - Still waiting to hear back from Sybil's Garage.  No news is, I hope, good news; a suggestion that they're having to think about what to do with my story.  If they reject it, I'll send to Apex Digest.

Tansu - This is finished and ready for submission, but I'm waiting for Sybil's Garage to respond because if they don't want aSoY then I'll send them this.  If not, I intend to send this to Shimmer.

Snowdrop - A flash fiction of 99 words, submitted to Flash Shot.  Still waiting for a response.

The Beautiful Collection - A fantasy short, just over 1,000 words, that I began in the summer and finished the other day.  I'm not completely happy with it yet, but when it's done I think I'll submit it to Midnight Street first. 

I'm also working on two pirate stories, one for Shimmer and one for Sails and Sorcery.  Both feature my latest muse, D'sil, a mercenary-pirate type.  He's certainly an interesting man to have around.  And my cross-dressing muse will have a short story of his own, but I can't figure out quite how to start it.  

My ambition is to have found a home for all of these stories by the time I submit PA to publishers. 

In the immediate future, November is nearly upon us, which means that Nanowrimo approaches...  I've pretty much decided to write a first draft of Our Green Fairies for this, simply because I feel that if I can get a first draft of it done, no matter how crappy it'll be, at least I'm one step closer to having another finished novel.

I am writing.  Just slowly at the moment.