Impersonal Clarion News

March 8, 2010March 8, 2010 ~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

My regular Icerocket search for the word “Clarion” actually came up with some news today (instead of just quotes from the Clarion-Ledger or references to clarion calls or the Clarion computer language).

The news came from Jeff VanderMeer’s blog, a reliable source since he and his wife are part of the selection committee. He says final decisions will be made this week, including the 18 invites and waiting list spots. If one looks carefully, he doesn’t say the invitations will be sent this week, just decided, but I bet they mean the same. So maybe I’ll have an idea of my C-SD status by the weekend. Sweet!

I did get a little nervous when I saw how impressive the candidate pool was this year. I guess they say that every year, but suggesting 30 people could have made it really places that bar high. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t rattle my confidence a little. But someone gets in — 18 someones. So maybe (assuming I’m one of the 30, which I must do for my ego’s sake) that makes my chances 18 out of 30 (or 3 out of 5). That’s better than the 3 out of 8 I had with WotF.

So news comes soon. Does that make me more or less patient?

Story by Erosion

March 6, 2010March 6, 2010 ~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

I have been working to clean up my Space Operatic comedy piece for weeks, just barely able to get anything done in any single sitting. I feel like a sculptor trying to work marble with nothing but a garden hose. But today I really attacked the piece and have it about where I want it. It’s a thousand words shorter than it was on OWW. Shorter is alms always better. I cut Kira out completely and I shaved the futuristic slang because there just wasn’t enough room to make it work. Some of these may go back in if I ever build t back up to novel scale.

I’m not sure his is a story I would have been comfortable sending as part of my Clarion application. It’s too much of a gamble. But if I can find the right market, this gamble could pay off. Humor is hard. Sci-fi humor is really hard. I see a lot more fantasy humor than sci-fi. I may be able to carve myself out a niche on the same shelf with Douglas Adams. The only way to get there is to practice writing humor. Even if this story fails, I’ll have the experience under my belt for the next funny story.

Speaking of things that move at the speed of erosion, no news yet from any Clarions. My phone rang today and I had a bit of a breathless moment before my caller ID registered that it was my mom. (Sorry, Mom.) No evidence anyone else has been called or emailed or faxed or anything. I’m still confident I’ll get into at least one, but confidence doesn’t bank well. I’ll feel a lot better when I get an official invitation. I will be very bummed if I don’t en up going to a workshop, but that won’t stop me. I have some good momentum coming off this WotF sale. I can ride that favorable current a long way, but Clarion wind at my back would combine to make some strong sailing conditions.

It’s still very early in March, too early for my doomsaying. I think I just feel the need to talk about it because wallowing in silence is too miserable. There’s too much silence about it online this year. My urge to bond with other writers is making me feel very alone right now.

ADDED: I just saw that Clarkesworld has rejected the story I sent them. On to the next market.

Nice Surprise

March 4, 2010March 5, 2010 ~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

I had a nice surprise waiting for me in the mailbox when I got home: WotF prize money! Nevermind it’s already spent five times over. It just makes things feel a little more real.

ADDED: I finally got around to subbing what was my WotF Q1 piece to another market (disqualified from the contest as I am). I sent it to Clarkesworld. We’ll see.

I could actually see this one breaking into Analog or something. Wouldn’t that be sweet? I don’t send much to Analog because I’m familiar with their tastes enough to know I typically fall outside them. But I have a system; Clarkesworld and Lightspeed first (what could that take, a week?), then Strange Horizons, then on to others. I will be banging on all the big doors with this one, not that it’s “so good” — I didn’t really expect much from WotF on this one — but because I now have enough pedigree that someone may give the story a shot. Plus it’s a little experimental and could pull a wild card spot. You never know.

Slowly but Surely

March 4, 2010 ~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine is an Australian semi-pro market with a very good reputation. I’ve been trying to break into that one for a while. Usually their turnaround on stories is very fast, their Duotrope reported median response time is 9 days. They’ve had one of my stories for something like 33.

Their slush process is fairly transparent with a listing of ms numbers in each of their rounds. My story finally came out of the first round, the first-read level. It’s probably a fluke of luck that left my story in round one limbo so long. I am, happily, on now to round two. I’ve never made it past round two. Maybe this time.

Round two is the editor scoring round. Round three is full of stories they would like to publish, a pool of “good enough” stories from which they fill their magazines. Still, not all those stories are purchased. Finding my way into that pool would be a good next step for me. I wait to find out. Hopefully that won’t take another month. Even if it does, a two-month period isn’t so long in this business. I’ve been waiting on Weird Tales longer than that.

Hello, fellow Clarion aspirant

March 3, 2010March 3, 2010 ~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

I seem to be very nostalgic about the chats that went on last year with Jordan, Randy, Jamie and so many others. Some of those chatters went to the workshop, others did not. There was a whole thread about sharing the biographical essays we sent to CW. My essay from last year is here. My current essay is below.

This was a neat insight into some of last year’s applicants, so I thought maybe we’d do it again. (See new thread at CW 2010 forum.) Participation is strictly voluntary, but it helped get to know people and appreciate how different our styles were, just from an essay. Besides, I can’t post my application story since it’s sold awaiting publication. Even if it hadn’t sold, I couldn’t share it and still hope to sell it. But no one’s likely to buy my bio, so here it is.

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Scott W. Baker’s Clarion West Essay

One day I decided to write a novel. I had just read the first three Harry Potter books (as a grown man) and decided if J.K. Rowling could do it, so could Scott Baker. (That’s me.) As it turns out, I was wrong. While I haven’t totally abandoned that novel project, I’ve learned enough to realize how weak that first attempt really was.

It was eleven years ago that I started that novel. A third of my life. Since then, I graduated college, got married, accumulated two cats and two dogs, became a math teacher, and had a daughter (well, my wife did most of the having) that I just watched turn three. Life is pretty good.

The stories keep coming as I live my good life. Sometimes they come fast and easy, leaping from fingers to keyboard at the speed of hunt-and-peck. Other times are slow, painful, empty. Those times pass and the writing resumes. I feel incomplete when the words won’t flow. My life has three big pieces: family, teaching, and writing. Take away one and I’m incomplete.

That will be the hard part of going to Clarion West, separation from my family. My daughter is my world, my wife is my stars. Luckily they love me, too. Besides, how do I tell little Abigail that she can grow up to be anything she wants to be if I won’t pursue my own dream? For eleven years I’ve had the same dream and I’ve never been closer to it. Sure, I’ve been selling stories through those years, mostly to tiny markets for tiny money and the big thrill of seeing my name in print. But who dreams of tiny?

Last year I was on the Clarion West waiting list. A short list, to be sure, but no one dropped out and I missed out. It was still the biggest validation my writing career had received. A few days ago I received a second big validation when one of my stories became a finalist in L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest (incidentally, my application story). I will send this application before I know whether I place. Place or not, this suggests I’m capable of writing a story at a professional level. That’s just one story; I want all my work to be like that. The time to make that transition has arrived.

I can do it alone, but it will take a long time. Form rejections aren’t going to cut it. I need high-value feedback now more than ever. The more I can get, the more time I can focus on my writing, the faster I’m going to evolve. I don’t want to wait another eleven years to achieve my dream.

The teacher in me wants to share all I have learned in my decade of writing. No formal training outside of high school, but I’ve read umpteen writing books, participated in three different online workshops, and earned enough rejections to papier-mâché a large piñata full of chowder. I want to lend my voice to others’ craft almost as much as I still need their voices to help shape mine.

What I may need most from the workshop is to escape the loneliness of being a writer. I may well be the only speculative fiction writer for a fifty-mile radius. I’ve never been to a convention (plans always fall through) and never been to a workshop. I have writing friends online, but text and images aren’t quite people. No man is an island; if I keep trying to be, I’ll drown.

I already know how I will celebrate my acceptance, should it happen. I intend to go to Wal-Mart and purchase several Nerf dart guns. I envision a dorm-wide dart war with assassinations and full-scale assaults…it will be glorious. Hey, you can’t write all the time. Of course I’ll have to buy replacement darts before June because my daughter and I will lose them all before then. Losing things is one of my specialties. Even as a child, my mother called me “The Absent Minded Professor”. I’m still pursuing my personal flubber.

I’m a nice guy (unless I’m assassinating you with a piece of foam capped with a suction cup). More importantly, I’m fun. Not life-of-the-party fun, more math-teacher-imitating-an-applauding-tyrannosaurus fun, Hawaiian-shirt-to-work fun, laugh-at-my-own-flaws fun. I get along with people and they tolerate the heck out of me. Plus I’m housebroken. Mostly.

So, howdy. I’m pleased to make your acquaintance and I hope to see you this summer. I hope Clarion West can be part of my writing journey. I hope I can be a part of the legacy that is Clarion West.

Little Things

February 28, 2010 ~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

This is still the same blog it was last week. My dashboard hasn’t changed, the domain name, title, and theme. Old links still come to this site. So why did I lose my existing OpenID information? Grrr.

On the upside, I cleaned up the workshop page and I think it’s a lot cleaner looking than before, thanks in large part to the easy image saving my new PowerPoint provides. Heck, the old PowerPoint might have done the same without me knowing. But it made altering images a lot easier than what I was doing. Of course my wife can do about anything I need done to a picture with all her photography software, but I like to do things myself. You can see the difference between me doing things and her doing things by checking out her site. She’s so professional.

What else? My bio is ready to be sent to WotF. Maybe I’ll do that when I finish this post. I also cleaned up the links, removing some blogs I no longer frequent from the blogroll and combining some categories. I’d like to expand some sections, too, particularly Pros and Friends, but I haven’t gotten to it yet.

I regret that I removed the link to Jordan Lapp’s blog because he hasn’t updated it since November. He still has a great page dedicated to WotF links. But with the subtractions come additions, one anyway. Welcome to the blogroll, Clint. I’d tell everyone about Clint, but you could just read his blog instead.

As I was setting up my new domain, I realized it was last February when I started this blog. Just a year, twelve and a half months ago I recorded my first blog post. (Okay, I had done a couple at MySpace, but no one read them.) It’s interesting to see how little has changed. The two stories in the post are still making the rounds and I’m still waiting to hear about Clarion.

Soeaking of Clarion, the deadline for both Clarion-SD and Clarion West is tomorrow! (March 1st, that is.) Just a friendly heads up. If you get started applying electronically before say 10PM tomorrow, you’ll probably still get the app in on time. (Don’t miss the invitation code for Clarion-SD on the screen after you pay the application fee. I did.)

So the true waiting begins. You can tell the time is getting close because the CW forum has gotten busy again. It’s my goal to get all three of my pending stories finished and mailed out before I get my Clarion news. I won’t be heartbroken if I don’t, but it’s my little goal. One to Triangulation, two others yet to be determined. I also need to get my Q1 story mailed out elsewhere…haven’t done that yet. So lots to do. I think I’ll get started.

New Look, New Domain, New Problems

February 28, 2010 ~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

If you’ve been here before, you’ll notice I’ve redecorated. I also renamed the blog. Oso Muerte, as I said in my last post, is an old persona. I’m not a high school kid playing RPGs anymore; I’m a grown man who wishes he still had time to play RPGs.

I thought long and hard about the new title. There were many rejects before this one struck me. Similarly, the new domain name was a bit of a wrestle since I really wanted the .com, but who types in web addresses if they can avoid it? It’s all part of my WotF win makeover. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the old decor just fine, but it formatted poorly with my new artwork.

The new theme does cause one problem: the table in my workshop page is now the wrong size and it runs into my sidebar (where all the links are). But that page was pretty clunky anyway and this gives me an excuse to straighten things up a bit.

I think everything else is in working order. I’m going t reorganize my sidebar, especially the blogroll which is poorly sorted.

And don’t worry folks, I’m still the same old Oso; I’m just not broadcasting it like I used to.

Packing things up

February 26, 2010 ~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

It’s time to move. I’ve enjoyed being at osomuerte.wordpress.com, but I’ve outgrown it.

First of all, I have decided to use my own name instead of any form of Oso as a byline. I’m just good old Scott W. Baker. I hope to one day be widely referred to as SWB the way George R. R. Martin is often GRRM. I’ll probably keep the Oso persona online in some form, but I want to be more approachable to my fans (who I am attempting to amass…I think I have three or so). I imagine I will be able to redirect visitors to my new blog once it exists.

I did a little domain name shopping today. I regret that scottwbaker.com is currently occupied by a photographer. Ironic considering my wife is the professional photographer in the family, not me. So too is swbaker.com taken (though not in use). A few other options were available: some with hyphens, resorting to a .net address, squeezing the word “blog” or “writer” in… I even checked out osomuerte.com and the more creative dontcallmeoso.com (both were unsurprisingly available). I’m sure I could keep the wordpress in the address, but I was really hoping to break free a little. It’s only like $15 a year for the domain, so it’s no biggie. (Did I just say “no biggie”?) Joining sff.net was also considered, but that was more than I wanted to spend with a name no easier to find than this one.

Perhaps I’ll think up a clever title to the blog and stick the .com on it. It’s kind of where dontcallmeoso came from. I’m still working on it. Updates to come.

Email explosion

February 23, 2010 ~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

Lots going on and it all seems to be happening through email. I’ve gotten about fifteen legitimate emails today. A couple from WotF (which I perpetuated more of by being an incompetent replier), one from Clarion West (just clearing up an application issue, no real news or anything), several asking advice, and some family emails regarding funeral arrangements for my great uncle. I’m not used to that kind of attention. Sometimes I wait weeks for an email from anyone other than Amazon or PayPal.

Yesterday I finally got my copies of Beyond Centauri with my story “Brother Goo” in it. It’s a nice small press magazine with fiction aimed at kids 8-18. That’s a wide range and it’s tough to hit. I’m very happy with the magazine and “Brother Goo” fits right in. It’s basically K-Pax for kids. I can’t wait to read the rest of the issue.

Still waiting on verdicts for several submissions. Weird Tales is over their advertised response time but still under their Duotrope average reported time. Of course Anne VanderMeer is their editor and she’s part of the Clarion selection committee as part of the anchor leg duo (with husband Jeff), so I won’t complain much. Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine has never taken this long to look at my slush story, either. Things get slow sometimes and I of all people understand. I have a couple other pieces out and waiting. Waiting is the toughest part of writing.

Unexpected proposal

February 22, 2010 ~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

Finally back to school today. Wow, it’s hard to get back into the swing after so many snow days. There’s no indication we’ll be missing any more soon. But never say never.

I managed to do a little boasting about my big WotF win, even to my principal. She’s a former English teacher and was interested in my progress. Remember, I’m a math teacher with no formal writing or literature training outside basic high school and college curricula. So I was more than slightly surprised when she suggested I take the two English teacher certification exams to get certified to teach a creative writing class.

Yeah, a math teacher just up and taking an English teacher’s test –nay, two English teacher tests. And then given a writing class? Who was she kidding?

Let’s go through my reactions by the numbers: (1) English test? Are you insane? (2) Man, it would be awesome to teach a creative writing class. (3) Ooh, isn’t that a slap in the face to full-time English teachers that might want to teach creative writing? (4) Could I pass a test for high school English teachers? (5) How much literature would be on it? (6) I bet I could kick grammar’s booty. (7) Is she serious?

I cycled through these feelings over the course of about four seconds. I immediately set out to clear up some of the questions. First came #7: The principal insisted I do it this spring so she could get it into next year’s schedule. So I think she is serious. Next #5: A quick trip to the test maker’s website suggests lit is half the pedagogy (how-to-teach test) and combines with “understanding language” to constitute half the knowledge test. *gulp* Finally #4: I answered 24 sample questions on the same website; I got 23 correct. Sweet! Sure, one was a lucky guess and one at least one other was a reasonably educated but still lucky guess, but I still rocked it. The real test will be 120 questions, not 24, but it suggests I can do it, especially considering I could have gotten the one I missed with somewhat more careful reading. So yeah, with some studying, it could happen.

Still unresolved is question 3. I doubt anyone at my school is more qualified than I am to instruct students in writing, but they may be more qualified to teach it. What’s the difference? Grading. I’ve had to learn every lesson on my own, the hard way. What kind of position does that put me in to grade students? I learned in a pass/fail environment. I’m not sure how to give a B. I can figure it out, but I’m not so sure now. And what about the people that dedicated their lives to teaching language arts? A (presumably) senior level writing course could be the crown jewel of English classes. How would I feel if an English teacher swooped in and started teaching a brand new discrete math class? But could I complain if they had placed in an international discrete math competition (whatever that is)? If I can pass their test, I guess it’s enough to get me in their club.

There’s risk here. For instance, I could catch a tenth grade English class instead of (or as well as) the creative writing class. Or I could waste my time prepping for this test only to have the class cut for budget purposes. And what if I hate teaching writing to high schoolers? Or, worst case, what if the class becomes a dumping ground for aimless students? But if the class if filled with kids that truly want to write and write better than they do now, I can help them. I can teach them to critique each others’ work, how to accept and apply criticism, how to analyze their favorite stories for techniques that work, how to build characters and make a story. Am I great? I think I’m pretty good, but I’m not “there” yet. If I go to Clarion, that’s that much more I can bring home with me. I wonder if it would have helped me if this kind of class was available when I was in school?

So I’ve decided to pursue it. It may pan out, it may not. It’s an interesting twist to my world. It might even qualify me to get reimbursed for part of Clarion’s cost! Cool.

We’ll see.