Arr, I've been obsessing over this submission. Checking my email over the web a few times each day (and I really hate web email).
And I just got back the rejection. And in case they're reading this, the Capts. VanderMeer and VanderMeer gave me the nicest rejection letter to date. You guys are class. I'm glad Ann is at Weird Tales, 'cause they see a lot of my stuff and I was worried about not getting the great reject letters from George Scithers and Darrell Schweitzer (of course, I'd rather have the acceptance over a nice reject letter any day).
"... it's definitely really good military space opera/pirate stuff. But it pretty much exists at the level of action."
Yeah, that's what I thought too. Bang, bang, not a lot of internal character debate, not a lot of world development. At least my seagulls didn't wheel around and there wasn't a dead captain (okay, well, at the end there is, but he doesn't come back), you know.
So, it's quick, over to Shimmer before I have to shimmy in the door. It's not that Shimmer is sloppy seconds, I wrote the story for the anthology reading, and I saw the Shimmer thing second. So, off to the Slush God with ya.
5 comments:
Steve,
Sorry about the rejection, but you're right; those guys sound uber-classy.
If it's a good space opera, why not try a market that actively begs for that stuff? Like Ray Gun Revival?
http://www.raygunrevival.com/guidelines.html
If you like stories with the 'splosions n stuff, roll with it, brother. You are what you are (hence, the stories that come out of you are what they are, too). It's a matter of finding the right fit.
Keep on truckin'.
I wrote us this great thing, and blogger puked it out. Argh.
Anyway, yeah, I like Jeff. I've never met Ann (that I remember, I wasn't really paying attention at that WorldCon).
All the way home I was racking my brains thinking of what market I could send this to. So thanks for the help. Right now it's at Shimmer (although they haven't asked to see the whole thing, yet). I may want to workshop it before sending it out again if Shimmer doesn't bite.
I'm really uncomfortable writing mil stuff. I've been going back and forth with this. Last finished story was mil, this was really a mil story. It mentally hurts to write them. I just don't know. But, you're right LBB, if it sells, I'd be a monkey to NOT write them. I just wish my fairy tales would get published. Sigh.
Steve,
I'm assuming mil stuff is military?
I hadn't heard that before.
I'm amazed to hear there's no market for fairy tales! I didn't know there was a market for military stuff (you will remember, I'm sure, my previous eye-rolling at this little Buchheit gem:
Blowing shit up is always a good plot point
NO! Blowing shit up is not plot. It is shit...blowing up. Not plot. Blowing up.
It might be interesting, thrilling, cool, horrible, etc. But I wouldn't call it plot. Someone trying to blow something up, someone surviving (or not) an explosion--YES those might be construed as plot. But the actual blowing up of the actual shit...hmph.
Please write fairy tales!!!
I didn't know you wrote that way;
I think that's hot!
And I'm confused--why write 'mil' if it's painful for you? Unless it's cathartic somehow?
Explain.
Hey LBB, hopefully I'll be able to say more about why it's painful later. Yep, Mil is military. Sometimes I don't get to choose the story or where it goes (sometimes I'm Coyote, sometimes he's me). And most of my novel ideas are good sword and small sorcery romps (not the latest, which I really want to get out of my head, which is a more Faust meets Rapture, and What is Redemption? tale).
And the blowing shit up, well, the plot is how we get there, why we get there, and how it's done. The actual explosion, well, yeah, that's scenery. I guess I was using it more in the vein of "When the story gets bogged down, have someone walk in with a gun in their hand" (I forget who said that).
For the fairy tales, Running of the Deer is about the Wild Hunt and the Huntmaster told from the view of somebody who gets caught up in it and ends up the prey (although he makes it back out of Fairy). Changelings (although I need a new title) is about a family of fairies (something like pumpkin headed boggans, but not necessarily "evil" or non-selie (sp?)) and the coming of age and initiation (shamanic) of the child (told from his view). Love of a Good Woman (still in progress) is Donkey Skin told a different way (skin walkers, she's a coyote, he's a drug addict). And there's much more.
oooo, Steve,
That stuff sounds great. Can't wait to see some of it in print some day soon.
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