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Beware Serious Post!
I haven't really posted for several weeks; only memes that amused me. It's taken awhile to bounce back from the cold I caught from some sneezing, hacking individual on the Midland Line train. I feel all right now but my creative brain is still rather dozy. The gulag (beloved workplace!) rattles along as usual and is a much more harmonious place to work now that we seem to have management that care about us (providing fresh fruit, no aggro, some semblance of planning ahead). [EDIT: What can their evil plan possibly be?]
My last trauma at work was purely self-caused. A warning to the wise: When you know that the security system of your building's stairwell activates at 5pm, check the time when you leave so that you do not toddle in and cause it to start screaming around you and turning everything black. We are talking cave darkness here. Fortunately I am (a) not scared of dark and (b) could remember where nearest door was. Fortunately also, system is aged and does not take pictures of offender.
What else? The rat boys have been to the vet for antibiotic and are doing well. My veges are growing despite best efforts of snails/caterpillars. Rat-keeping friends have taken in an orphaned one-week old litter and at present time they are 19 days old and starting to take solid food. This is a triumph beyond anything I've done. They have saved ten little lives and gone without much sleep.
Writing wise: I have sold a story to Aurealis and have recently completed a rough draft of the New Ceres story I promised to Alisa, currently titled Dynamics of New Ceres. I'm a little worried about it because it features characters from another story, Mary Bennet Gets a Life and I'm not sure it will stand alone. Since, if accepted, this will be an online publication, I'm wondering whether it'll work to include a link to the first story and perhaps a notation that it first appeared in Borderlands? Must talk to editors but it seems like a possible solution to me.
About stories, I'm feeling rather disgruntled on the subject. Not about my own rather slow production rate, that is purely my own problem. About the general market, pay scales, editorial response times (one particular person and publication here) and the feeling of being a frog in a small pond.
I would like to become a novelist, something I have not achieved to date, though I've had some practice. So the only thing to do is to step out of my comfort zone, i.e. the Australian small fiction market plus one mag in the US and devote more time to do that. I feel there isn't anywhere to go in the small fiction market. I'm not trying to say I think I've achieved everything. I've never had a book of short fiction published, never been a con GOH but truly, those things are still within the pond. For the first, I'd probably need to produce more stories worthy of inclusion and for the second, be better at public gatherings and talking to people.
There's one editor who's held a story of mine for more than a year and promised back in March things would start moving. I emailed again in May and have had no response. This is not professional and is not fair. Then the pay? It hasn't changed since I started writing short fiction 20-odd years ago when $25 could actually buy a useful amount of groceries. [EDIT: Clarification: $25 is a ground level payment. Some publications do pay more than that!] I've heard the discussions about the tribulations and lack of profit involved in short press and I do understand. It's still not a satisfying situation.
Right now I'm planning to go away to the US on holiday. I feel I need the break, not because I'm overworked; I don't feel that I am but just for a change, a spark, a boot to the behind. When I come back, I hope to be revitalised and to pursue this ambition with more energy.
Salutations
Sue
My last trauma at work was purely self-caused. A warning to the wise: When you know that the security system of your building's stairwell activates at 5pm, check the time when you leave so that you do not toddle in and cause it to start screaming around you and turning everything black. We are talking cave darkness here. Fortunately I am (a) not scared of dark and (b) could remember where nearest door was. Fortunately also, system is aged and does not take pictures of offender.
What else? The rat boys have been to the vet for antibiotic and are doing well. My veges are growing despite best efforts of snails/caterpillars. Rat-keeping friends have taken in an orphaned one-week old litter and at present time they are 19 days old and starting to take solid food. This is a triumph beyond anything I've done. They have saved ten little lives and gone without much sleep.
Writing wise: I have sold a story to Aurealis and have recently completed a rough draft of the New Ceres story I promised to Alisa, currently titled Dynamics of New Ceres. I'm a little worried about it because it features characters from another story, Mary Bennet Gets a Life and I'm not sure it will stand alone. Since, if accepted, this will be an online publication, I'm wondering whether it'll work to include a link to the first story and perhaps a notation that it first appeared in Borderlands? Must talk to editors but it seems like a possible solution to me.
About stories, I'm feeling rather disgruntled on the subject. Not about my own rather slow production rate, that is purely my own problem. About the general market, pay scales, editorial response times (one particular person and publication here) and the feeling of being a frog in a small pond.
I would like to become a novelist, something I have not achieved to date, though I've had some practice. So the only thing to do is to step out of my comfort zone, i.e. the Australian small fiction market plus one mag in the US and devote more time to do that. I feel there isn't anywhere to go in the small fiction market. I'm not trying to say I think I've achieved everything. I've never had a book of short fiction published, never been a con GOH but truly, those things are still within the pond. For the first, I'd probably need to produce more stories worthy of inclusion and for the second, be better at public gatherings and talking to people.
There's one editor who's held a story of mine for more than a year and promised back in March things would start moving. I emailed again in May and have had no response. This is not professional and is not fair. Then the pay? It hasn't changed since I started writing short fiction 20-odd years ago when $25 could actually buy a useful amount of groceries. [EDIT: Clarification: $25 is a ground level payment. Some publications do pay more than that!] I've heard the discussions about the tribulations and lack of profit involved in short press and I do understand. It's still not a satisfying situation.
Right now I'm planning to go away to the US on holiday. I feel I need the break, not because I'm overworked; I don't feel that I am but just for a change, a spark, a boot to the behind. When I come back, I hope to be revitalised and to pursue this ambition with more energy.
Salutations
Sue
no subject
no subject
Wouldn't it be cool if writers and editors got the sort of attention afforded to sportspeople and rich peroxided morons? [Sigh. Back to reality now. Right now.]