Back in April I submitted a short story titled “Code Amaranth” to the Future Embodied Anthology. There were around 250 submissions total and the story made it to the final round of selection before being dropped.
While disappointing, it is heartening to know that the story did so well given the quantity of tales it was up against. Here’s hoping it finds a home elsewhere!
It had been my intent to write a “June 2013 Goals” post, but some issues came up that prevented much writing (Read: no writing) during June. It was completely my fault, as there was certainly time to write.
Novel Writing
Well, July 2013 begins with an added note of urgency. I’ve had a novel idea I’ve been mentally tossing around for quite some time, and some of it has already been put to paper. I wanted to start writing the rough draft in July with the idea of being done with it in September. The end date in September is still there, but there is now less time between now and then to get the draft done. Pressure can be a good thing, so here’s my goal for the month:
Week 1: Go back over my old notes and writings, including a short story set in the same universe. Come up with a solid structure for the story, and a basic (if not detailed) outline.
Weeks 2-4: Begin writing the rough draft. 1,000 words per day is the goal, so over 21 days we should have approximately 20-25% of the story written.
I would push for a more ambitious writing goal, but I need to save room for short story writing, which will allow my brain to roam in random directions as it is wont to do. It will also allow for more chances at publication, either in magazines or in anthologies.
Short Story Writing
My writing goal for short stories is the same as the novel writing: 1,000 words per day, so by the end of this month there should be around 31,000 words of short stories under my belt. Will it be as exact as that? Probably not. But, I’ll do my best to make that happen. At an average of 3,000 words per story that could be as many as 10.
There are some upcoming theme and anthology deadlines that look interesting, including (In no certain order):
Tell Me a Fable – A Grimm Retelling
NeaDNathal – Another Fringeworks anthology, this one about Neaderthals having to be resurrected for some reason.
Wily Writers – They have three themes with a July 31 deadline, and they all look interesting: Military, Psychological Horror, and Speculative Fiction (A catch-all?).
Penumbra – Each month they have an interesting theme. Last month was the Fae (Elves, faerie-folk, pixies, etc), next month is Gaslight Fantasy, and this month is Alfred Hitchcock. Not sure what I could do for a Hitchcock-style story, but maybe I can come up with something.
There are also a few flash fiction ideas I’m tinkering with, so hopefully I can get those out in-between these deadline tales.
The Fringeworks has some interesting anthologies coming out in the future, from high seas piratical tales to nazi zombies to, you guessed it, potatoes. I wrote a Star Trek-inspired tale for this anthology called “A Tuberous Anomaly”, which features a human starship taking a shortcut through a star system with three suns. Things are all rosy until somebody forgets to completely seal the ship from the suns’ light rays, and then the potatoes go trinary. Think “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”, but on a less violent scale.
It was deemed acceptable earlier this evening, and is supposed to be published later this year. I’m looking forward to what other stories are included in the anthology!
After four submissions, my science fiction flash piece “Unfathomable Humanity” has finally found herself a home in the March 2013 issue of Voluted Tales.
My thanks to Mark the editor for finding the tale acceptable!
The first story I submitted to the Chaosium Once Upon an Apocalypse zombie-themed anthology was not accepted, but the rejection notice was delivered in time for me to craft another tale. This second story, a sequel to “The Little Red Hen” fairy tale most of us are familiar with, was just deemed “acceptable” to the editors. It will be included in the zombie anthology when it is published next year.
My thanks to Scott Goudsward and Rachel Kenly, the editors of the Once Upon an Apocalypse dual anthology!
Thank you to Kaleidotrope for accepting my fantasy short story “A Capricious Disposition”. It is going to be published in the April 2010 issue.