3 posts tagged “empires and glass”
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)
Finally got my letter back from the Sails and Sorcery anthology, which I'd subbed EMPIRES AND GLASS to:
"An exciting, yet painful tale - it's just not quite a fit for this book."
They're not saying it's a bad story, in fact their reaction (the fact they had one, even, rather than just saying "it doesn't fit") suggests that it's a good story, only that it's not a story they want for the anthology. Which is bloody annoying, though it could be worse.
Not sure where to send it next. I'm thinking the Writers of the Future Contest again, to see if I can do even better this time with a story that, I think, is much tighter and stronger than STATUES, but I've not entirely made up my mind. I suppose my problem with the WotF Contest is that I wouldn't hear back about the story til June, and I'd hate to have it tied up for so long. But at the same time, the gain I could get from doing well in the contest would far outstrip the happy feeling I'd get from having the story appear in a much lesser place much sooner. And really, I do have to be a bit pragmatic about this.
In happier news, I get to read Gilgamesh for my dissertation. Dude. I've wanted to read it for a while, and now I have to read it. Okay, so I don't have to, but as part of my dissertation I'll be considering how Alexander's foray into India fits into a greater ancient tradition of conquest/adventure narratives, and my supervisor mentioned reading Gilgamesh as one of the things in the tradition to compare it to.
So today:
Writerly World = 1, Alex = 0
Rest of the World = 0, Alex = 1
Karma, people. She breathes...
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.
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!!!
