Month: May 2010

Cover Letters

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

It’s been a while since I freaked out over a cover letter.  It’s just a quick, “Hi, read my story, I’ve sold stuff before, thanks,” and that’s all it’s really supposed to be.  But yesterday I found myself slightly frantic on the subject the way I was when I started out ten years ago.

What caused the stress spike?  I guess the recent addition of legitimate credentials, that being my WotF win/sale.  I feel like those words have jumped off the page at some semi-pro editors (never had gotten the time of day from ASIM before).  Not that the cover letter sells the story, but it can predispose an editor or slusher to expect to like the story instead of expecting to reject it.  In other words, the story still has to sell itself, but a good cover letter might move the story from the bottom shelf to the endcap display.  (Too much retail metaphor?)

I’m thinking about it too much.  I know the big magazines seldom buy out of slush, but it does happen.  And it only has to happen once to lend more credibility to my future cover letters.  I’m pretty sure I’ve already written my second pro-sale story.  Is it the emotionally drenched E.E. which is on its way to Analog tomorrow?  Or the satirical T.W.H.D.o.t.G.M.P. I recently sent to Strange Horizons?  T.R.M. is in the Bull Spec editor’s inbox, but that seems a long shot (the story, not the market).

My cover letter for Analog seems a little wordy.  I may change it (he obsessed further).  I seldom include my master’s degree anymore, but a math degree lends a little credibility to my calculus allusions in E.E., so it’s in there.  The WotF win is mentioned, too, (first).  I’ll likely cut the sampled list of semi-pro zines since none are of particularly high notoriety that I am aware (though several are very fine markets).  An ASIM publication (not just a hold) would be noteworthy, or GUD (a very well-spoken-of market I am yet to explore).  If the market name doesn’t make the editor nod knowingly, it isn’t worth mentioning.  The one exception might be the Triangulation anthology since Asimov’s has reviewed it favorably the last few years, but maybe that reference should be saved for submissions to Asimov’s.  Like I said, I’m overthinking.  I need to just take the envelope to the post office and send it.

It’ll be in the mail tomorrow.

Short List

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 4 Comments

At long last, some good news for L.R.  I sent the story to the Zero Gravity anthology.  I heard today that it made the short list for publication.  It will be July before publication can be confirmed, but if it went to press tomorrow, I’d be in it.  Works for me.

That puts two of my stories on short lists: L.R. and S.R. (on hold at ASIM).  I don’t expect both will necessarily come through, but either one would be nice.  It puts me in a happy place going into the weekend.

I hate being wrong

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

My last post suggested (really said outright) that all my viable stories were under submission somewhere. Not true. E.E. is still awaiting some tuning regarding a character’s tantrum. I have managed to forget this story existed. Not cool. It’s one of my top end stories and I need to get it out there.

So I do still have a short story waiting in the wings.  I intend to remedy that this weekend.

Two More Out

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

Took a “mental health” day off school today (hence my Iron Man viewing).   I also managed to get a couple more stories submitted.  I got my rainbow-themed story (title fluctuates) into the queue at Clarkesworld.  That rejection will be back by Friday.  I also got L.R. out to a Pill Hill Press anthology called Zero Gravity: Adventures in Deep Space.  They say they are looking for “intergalactic warfare, space pirates, alien races, space opera, space colonization, super humans, space horror, parallel worlds, etc.”  I added the underlines for the stuff L.R. has in spades.  This may be the one.  Small pay to be sure, but Pill Hill Press had an endorsement from another Codexian.  I am hopeful.

So, six stories out.  Not bad.  It makes up for the slight stall I’ve hit with the novel.  Honestly, I know where I’m going, I just don’t want to nickel and dime my way into the next chapter.  I need to record a big chunk of words at once, preferably the whole chapter.  It’s a transition and will intro several characters.  I need two solid hours to work.  That’s hard to come by around here,

I still have a dormant story or two, but everything reasonably close to being submission ready is out there (or sold).  I still have a religion piece that really needs to be harvested for parts and made into part of a bigger story.  Oh, and a story about exploding soldiers that needs a similar treatment.  Both ideas I plucked too green.  Dangerous habit. I also have some really old pieces I retired: a genetic engineering piece, a dialog-only story…I don’t remember what else.

It’s an odd sensation, knowing everything that has a reasonable chance of selling is on the market.  I don’t think I have ever experienced that.  Some of my earliest short stories are still out there in new forms, one even on hold at ASIM.  I try never to give up on a piece, but a few are just beyond hope…for now.  But now my future as a writer is all inside my head or will be one day.  There is no back burner story to be edited and released into the wild.  They’re all out there.  My breath is held for the little ducklings, but I need to lay more eggs.  This makes the novel seem like an extra-huge gamble, one big story to get out there in the time I could be writing several.  But it’s time to be a big boy.  Odds are, if the novel is good, it’ll sell before the last duckling does.  For now, I wait.

Not the Marvel the first was

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 5 Comments

Saw Iron Man 2 today.  Not bad.  Not great, but not bad.

Robert Downey, Jr. and Mickey Rourke both put in excellent performances.  Don Cheadle was fine, but he wasn’t given a whole lot to work with.  It felt like his best lines were cut either out of the script or the film.  Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Pots was whiney and annoying.  Scarlett Johansson’s character was unnecessary and gratuitous, and I say this from the perspective of someone who had a fair amount of gratitude.  Sexy as hell, but a bit pointless.  And her booty was enhanced…again, not that I’m complaining.

Other actors’ performances registered even lower on the Richter scale.  Samuel L. Jackson felt like a cameo the whole way despite having at least twenty lines.  Sam Rockwell (played Tony Stark’s competitor) was annoying and poorly written, being either competent or incompetent as the script required.  Even minor roles (Happy Hogan and Agent Coulson) were cardboard and silly.

The acting simply lacked depth, no thanks to writing that offered depth only to a character or two.  I wonder if there’s a director’s cut with a more complete story.  Effects, at least, were as good as expected; not Avatar but good.

When the first Iron Man came out, I expected an explosion-packed roller coaster ride with some snarky comments and lots of cheese.  What the film delivered was a complex if narcissistic hero in a well-developed story with poor acting y the villain (sorry, Jeff Bridges).  So for the sequel, I expected a more complex story with more personalized character depth and some new toys that go boom.

More toys, check, though not much was made out of them.  Complex story?   Hah!  Not even.  On top of that, every opportunity to explore a character other than Tony Stark was promptly brushed aside in favor of more drunken antics from the protagonist.  Somehow Rourke transcended this and delivered his darkly sinister Russian physicist with some complexity, mostly achieved through facial expression and silence.

So, was it worth it?  I went to a matinee, so sure.  It was better than Transformers 2, nowhere near Avatar or either recent Batman film, beat the pants off both Hulk films, dropped square in the middle of the Spiderman franchise (with better effects than the webslinger), and fell short of my appreciation for the GI Joe film (which I actually liked).  Most importantly, it fell short of the first Iron Man.  It was a typical summer-blockbuster-sequel-type film with a couple standout performances and a little eye candy (don’t forget the sexy US Marshal…who is Kate Mara?).  Little more than that.  But don’t expect too much and you’ll have a fun night at the movies.

It’s out there…in more ways than one

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

It’s long overdue, but I just sent my space opera comedy out on its first flight to an editor.  In the tradition I’ve been using, we’ll refer to the story by its initials: TWHDotGMP.  Yes, I am particularly fond of that title.

The story is absurdly satirical without being derivative.  Think the anti-Han Solo walking into Mos Eisley on steroids (the latter is on steroids, not the former).  Wacky hi-jinks ensue.  It was largely inspired by my old role playing group despite none of the characters quite fitting their original molds (except perhaps Hugo).

Comedic space opera is a tough fit and I had trouble deciding where to send it.  I elected to start with Strange Horizons.  The only other pro markets to register on Duotrope’s search for sci-fi humor were Asimov’s (where I currently have a story under scrutiny) and F&SF (who does not accept electronic submissions).  They will be markets 2 and 3 on my list for this story while I keep my eyes open for other candidates.  ASIM is probably high on my semi-pro list, largely due to recent success there (but no sale yet).  No reason to speculate further just now.  Maybe we’ll never get that far.

I feel sheepish

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

No literal sheep here, just embarrassment.  

In my most recent sale to Every Day Fiction I changed the character’s name in mid story.  I didn’t catch it, the editor didn’t catch it.  Thank goodness it wasn’t print media.  The offending name change has been corrected but the evidence remains in the comments, as well it probably should.

“The Drake’s Eye” isn’t the shortest story I ever sold, but it is probably the one I spent the least time on…even less than I spent on “In or Out”, a 69-word story that received the best reviews of my career despite never earning me a dime.  I spent maybe three hours on TDE.  That’s a dollar an hour.  I can retire on that, right?  Apparently I should have spent another ten minutes.  

For the record, the names “Lucas” and “Jacob” read very similarly with that hard C in the middle.  I don’t remember if I changed the name from Jacob to Lucas and didn’t finish the search-and-replace or if I just mentally flipped names for no reason.  Regardless, it’s a silly mistake that should have been caught but wasn’t, an embarrassing reminder that the world is not perfect and neither am I.  Like I need that reminder.

The best reason to query overdue responses

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 6 Comments

I was sitting at my computer, procrastinating my bedtime, and decided to query Every Day Fiction about a story I’d had out to them for 77 days.  In my experience, queries usually grease the wheels of rejection and free up stories for other markets.  I originally thought EDF would likely buy this story (especially since I’ve never taken the steps to collect payment from them on the first story they bought), but I’ve given up on overconfidence.  So I queried.

Apparently the story had already been accepted and my response was lost in cyberspace (probably blocked by a spam filter that couldn’t prevent a boatload of canned meat from docking in my inbox).  Moreover, the story hits the web tomorrow!  (That’s probably today by this point!)

Yes, friends, “Drake’s Eye” will be EDF’s story of the day on May 6th.  (If you missed it, it’ll be up for a while.)

That is what I call a well timed query.  I could have missed my own publication.  Whew.

So now I need to share this info with the world before said world wakes tomorrow and misses my mini-glory.  Consider yourself informed.

Asimov’s enters the 21st century

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

I’m not the first to crow about it, but Asimov’s is accepting electronic submissions.  Hoorah!  It’s the same system Clarkesworld and Lightspeed use, though it’s hard to imagine they’ll rival those markets’ rejection times.

So I did what everyone else is doing and sent in a story.  G.B., actually.  Long shot, but it’s really a wild card story that could snag interest anywhere…or nowhere.  We shall see.

I still need to toss L.R. back out there.  Not sure where.  Maybe I’ll zoom in sometime this week and get it back out.  Apparently Clarion West liked it better than they liked “Poison Inside the Walls”, so it must have something.  *sigh*  Why did I pick such a frustrating dream.  It could be worse; I could have aimed at becoming a screen writer.  Or an actor.  A rock star.  Ballet dancer…

Very late so short post

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

Queried Ann VanderMeer at Weird Tales, an act that sped up the rejection of G.B.  I guess that frees it up for other markets now.  It’s an odd fit anywhere.  I almost wonder if it’s more mainstream than it is SF, little glowing automaton and all.  It’ll fit somewhere…maybe.

In other news, the blue bar has inched a little more.  I’m still miles behind on grading and have some other significant distractions to deal with (particularly from church) and it will stay stagnant for a few more days, but I got the ball rolling.  I think it starts too slow, taking way too long to get my protagonist into space. Chapter 3 ends with a shuttle launch, so he’s headed up now.  I went ahead and split my first chapter into two, so the progress isn’t as miraculous as it sounds.  I really want to get to work on the next chapter, but duty calls.  At least I’ll be driven to get back to work.

But right now I’m driven to get back to sleep.  Night.