Projecting elsewhere

Okay, Scrybe Press' email was still bouncing back today, so I decided to shoot Ghost Kiss off to a small UK publisher known as Bloody Books. Frankly, I don't know how it's going to go there, but I'm fast running out of options that I'd care to pursue. Many others are e-book options, or the likes of Whiskey Creek Press, which charges you $90 to distribute your title as a POD paperback. Bite me!

Oh ... and yet ANOTHER Andromeda update and I'm still in round 1 (which seriously cannot be a good sign). Of the 100 stories sent around the same time as mine, 11 remain in round 1. Hmmm.

--ADDENDUM--

Just got word that Blade, Blood & Thruster has accepted 'From The Vampire Film Review'! Woo-hoo! That makes it zero to five acceptances in 11 months!

Gotta make this one quick...

...coz it's dinner time! So point form:

* Sent Loaded off last night as planned
* Tried to send Ghost Kiss to Scrybe but the editor's inbox was full (weird)
* Added 2000 words to Commune today (yeah, baby!)
* Queried BB&T but have not yet received a response

Sub-Scrybe

I've had a bit of a check around and decided that Scrybe Press might be a good market for Ghost Kiss. They seem quite flexible in terms of spelling (ie, they don't insist on American format) and have an international buyer base. I believe Ghost Kiss's Aussie trappings might have worked against it on my previous two subs.

Loaded will go in the mailbox today with my new Spinetingler credit added to the cover letter. Let me say now that I think it's an excellent novel and a rejection will be a major disappointment ... although I'd have to be a moron not to realise that a rejection is the likely outcome. I'm beginning to think that I need to network, try to make a friend somewhere in the publishing biz. It certainly couldn't hurt.

Back in the Commune saddle today with 1,200 words (possibly more depending on whether I get a train seat) added to it. I'm having tremendous fun and I just hope the elan lasts through until page 150 or whatever it works out at.

The good with the bad

Another unexpected submission reply this morning, this one not so positive. Chippewa Publishing rejected Ghost Kiss, adding insult to injury by addressing me as 'Ms Ashton'. Talk about a kick in the guts. Losers.

Mildly hungover this morning so I guess I'm not going to get anything written. Probably just as well, since the grass out the back is about eight feet tall.

Tingling all over!

An unexpected piece of good news this morning - Spinetingler Magazine has accepted my short story 'Blue Diamond Pool' for its spring (Australian autumn) issue in 2007. While it's an e-zine, its purpose seems to be to get emerging writers' names in front of bigger publishers as much as entertaining technology-savvy readers. So who knows? Spinetingler could provide that all-important contact.

No work on Commune today and probably none tomorrow either, as I have a birthday party to attend this afternoon. The social events never stop between now and Australia Day.

A goddamned industry

I just witnessed something very interesting while killing part of my lunch hour at the local Borders. Stephen King's latest book Lisey's Story has just been released (I'd have a copy now, except I'm pretty sure my girl will give it to me as a gift) and I saw a guy go and take one off the shelf as if it were nothing more than a loaf of bread. He didn't read the blurb, he didn't even look at the cover.

One of SK's critics once referred to him as a 'goddamned industry' and seeing what I saw today, I'd have to agree - in essence, if not in principle. I don't think the implied insult in the critic's description is fair (jealous, more like it), but it's hard to imagine anyone being so blase about a $15 purchase for anything else. Whether high art or an opiate of the masses, King's books are a production-line commodity, an inedible (unless you're speaking figuratively) grocery item. If I was him, I think I could live with that.

Speaking of me, me, me, the first 30 pages of Loaded are done, done, done. That's right, as good as I can get them, ready for Allen & Unwin's pleasure. I'm going to make a final check of all my materials tomorrow morning, then print it out and send it off - tomorrow afternoon if I have an Express Post envelope, Monday if I don't.

As a result of the above, only 1,000 words of Commune will get done today. Oh, and yet another Andromeda update and still 'Other Intelligent Life' languishes in round 1. Waaaaah!

Things to be happy about

While I don't have too many on the submission front, I realised I am doing well in other respects. For one, I have been composing Commune at nearly double the rate I did Truck Me. I've taken 22 days to write 46 pages of the former, the same amount took about 40 days in the latter.

The other thing is I think I succeeded in my aim (stated back in May or June) of having the best winter of my life - certainly it was the best in memory.

Time in short supply

A hectic time in my day job has stunted productivity on Commune, although you can't be too upset when a 'bad' day still gathers up 800 words (yesterday) and 1,200 words (today's estimate).

I've done the maths and I'm due to query Blade, Blood and Thruster about 'From The Vampire Film Review' next Monday - 10 weeks to the day. Considering it's a 700 word story, I don't think it's unreasonable to check its status on the exact date. Hard to say for certain whether that's a good sign or not - probably not is my guess, since all my acceptances have happened rapidly, within a day or two of submitting. Oh well, we shall see.

Round 1 - fight!

Finally an Andromeda update (the first in 11 days) and 'Other Intelligent Life' has not yet shifted from its miserable possie in round 1.

Not so much as a confirmation for the two submissions I sent on the weekend. And speaking of the weekend, I got 1,000 words done on both days, although Monday has been its usual hectic self, so I'll only manage 1,000 today as well. A shame; 12,000 words a week sounds so exciting!

Keeping the blood circulating

Another 1,100 words added to Commune this morning. Also sent off two recently rejected stories to new markets: 'Recipe For Nostalgia' is with the 5th Story Review and 'Lest We Forget' has now gone to Forgotten Worlds in the UK (since I've burned up two of the three viable Australian markets - the third is currently closed).

Might start my on-screen edit of Loaded and then call it a day.

Oh, and still nothing from Andromeda, which has not updated its slush wrangler page since October 12.

Bordering on useless

Borderlands rejected 'Lest We Forget' today (big surprise), providing typically 'helpful' criticism: "It started too slowly, and seemed to end too soon."

Three editors and that's all they can come up with. And how you can make this criticism of a 1,500 word story I'll never know. I'm seriously considering ditching all Australian markets (with the exception of Andromeda) and just focusing overseas. I'm tired of the close-minded parochial attitudes. All they do is publish their friends' stories and lobby for government grants.

Yes, I'm sore and bitter, but there's also a lot of truth in this diatribe. I'm well and truly over it.

In a sunnier development, I finished the changes to Loaded last night, cutting 900 words from the 30 pages. I estimate it will take another week or so to do the final on-screen draft, although if I'm feeling industrious on the weekend I might be able to kick a good deal of its arse then.

Commune? 1,900 words added to it yesterday. Oh yeah.

Destination in sight

Okay, I got up to page 29 of 30 in changes to Loaded last night. Tonight should finally see me reach my destination. Then it's an on-screen draft and onto the exciting submission bit. Of course, I still have 111 pages that I haven't even done a second draft on yet, but we won't talk about that right now.

Paid out another 2,200 words on Commune yesterday and will manage about 1,500 today. I'm loving my characters - they seem rich and interesting and have a lot to say. Little do they know the tragedy that lies afoot. Heh-heh.

Forgot to mention that I reread Dean Koontz's Watchers over the past two weeks - easily my favourite of his novels. He has a tendency to go off on long periods of telling (especially where character traits and personalities are concerned) but otherwise I don't mind his style. It has a confident, musclebound quality, what Stephen King has referred to in his own prose as 'good weight'. I don't care so much for Koontz's dialogue, which is sometimes tinny and corny, but he makes you want to keep reading without cutting the book down to a plot skeleton (ala Matthew Reilly et al). I don't care for a lot of Koontz's new stuff - False Memory bored me stiff. In that one he had obviously done lots of research into psychology, but instead of using pinches of facts here and there to give the book credibility, he layered the jargon on with a trowel. The first hundred pages read like one of my girlfriend's textbooks and I gave up soon after.

Warning! Intruder alert!

Real life has intruded on my writing efforts during the past week, but I'm glad to say it has not stopped me adding at least 1,000 words a day to Commune, which is already approaching the 30-page mark.

Loaded, on the other hand, is proving a tedious process indeed. Maybe I'm being overly fastidious, but each page of changes seems to take half an hour to complete. I sit there on Saturday and Sunday mornings and cogitate over which word to use, whether the sentence rewrite I've suggested is really the best one, and so on and so forth until it's midday and I have to clean the house or take the dog to the vet or something and I've only made changes to three or four pages.

Still nothing regarding short story responses ... however, I suspect I'll hear from Andromeda in the next day or two.

Alcohol strikes again

Not much of it, actually, but enough to make sleep patchy last night and subsequently make me muzzy of head today. What sort of friend has his 30th birthday on a Thursday? A shame; I kicked some serious writing arse yesterday, topping 2,000 words on Commune again.

It's Life, Jim - not that we know it

Dear me, another Andromeda slushpile update and still 'Other Intelligent Life' languishes in round 1. Perhaps its length is intimidating and the readers keep putting it at the bottom of the pile.

Rolled out 1,300 words on Commune this morning and I'm expecting at least another 500 on the way home today. Churned out a phenomenal 2,200 yesterday! Things are really cooking. Not so with Loaded, which keeps being shunted down the priority line. Perhaps this weekend...

Done good, played strong

Finally feel like I'm getting back into the 'novel zone' - 1,500 words completed today and 11 pages of Commune written so far. I don't feel any urgency with it as I did with Loaded. I think because the synopsis I have in my head points to something around the 150,000 word mark, my mind is easing itself into a Cliff Young shuffle rather than a sprint or even a jog.

'Other Intelligent Life' is still in the first round at Andromeda (which has gone on hiatus so its slushies can catch up). I say now that I will be exceptionally peeved if it doesn't at least get to the second round. It's a better story than a first-round rejection.

Off and racing

Had lots of fun this morning as I added a healthy 1,700 words to Commune (managed 900 yesterday). I'm hoping the 'head hopping' nature of its narrative means it will stay as fresh for the duration, although the main characters will congreate during the finale.

The folks at Borderlands tell me one editor out of three has read 'Lest We Forget' - no wonder their slush process takes so long. I suspect I'll get a response (in the negative is my sense of it) later next week or perhaps next weekend.

Time to make a dent in the second draft changes to Loaded, which has proved unexpectedly time consuming - only nine pages completed thus far. Aiming for about ten more before I shutdown tonight.

More leisurely post

Okay, I have a bit more time now so I'll elaborate a little on last night's post. My response from Futurismic was polite enough but also the sort of useless 'feedback' that I remember getting (and giving) in my university creative writing classes. "The narrative didn't really grab me," the helpful reader explained. No? Well your comment didn't really grab me. What of it?

I don't know, I understand slush readers are both volunteers and insanely busy, but if you're not going to offer a constructive suggestion, why bother with a personal rejection at all? Why not just paste a form rejection into the email and be done with it? It's equally useful and has about the same amount of substance.

Okay, whining aside, I added another 750 words to Commune this morning and once I get my laptop back of my girlfriend (she's appropriated it for a university assignment) I'll try and get back into the 1,500 words a day rhythm. This weekend seems like a good time to kick it off.

Time's short...

...so I'll keep it simple. 1,800 words done on Commune and going strong. Futurismic rejected 'Recipe For Nostalgia' (bugger, credit for fast response though, even if feedback was creative-writing-course useless). Work on Loaded continues.

Rejoining the Commune

Okay, I had a stab at a prologue for Commune this morning and I think it came out pretty well. So, with any luck, today is the first of 150 which will be devoted to the new novel.

I'm also making changes to the second draft of Truck Me ... which I think from here on out will be known as Loaded. I'm not usually sad to see working titles go but I had a fondness for this one. However, it's too gimmicky, a bit vulgar, and could well put a slush reader off before he or she begins. So out it goes.

Don't think I mentioned either that my adventure with Hunter S. and Jack Kerouac is over. Thompson was quite simply a unique writer - as someone once said (buggered if I can remember who), "No one writes like Hunter." Hell's Angels is effortless, entertaining and not bogged down in the cynicism of his later books.

Kerouac ... well, he certainly broke new ground and he could put a sentence together, but I found On The Road unnecessarily rambling in parts. Did we really need a five page description of someone playing a horn? I know it served a purpose, but two pages would have achieved the same effect with less boredom for the reader.