Category: Writing

Another day, another sale. Sweet

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

My good friends at Sam’s Dot Publishing were kind enough to accept my K-Pax inspired story, “Brother Goo” for publication in their January 2010 issue of Beyond Centauri.  This is a magazine targeting readers from 9 to 18 (an ambitiously wide range).

As I’ve mentioned before (somewhere), my very first short story appeared in one of Sam’s Dot’s (then ProMart’s) e-zines.  I think it was The Fifth Di… but it could have been The Martian Wave.  For the life of me I can’t remember.  I know it fits TFD‘s guidelines better..but I digress.

You can check my bibliography page for a complete list of my sales.  Four (now five) of those were to Sam’s Dot zines.  They are a big reason I’m still writing.

Tyree Campbell, the big cheese at Sam’s Dot, has also been very supportive of me in other ways, agreeing to let me run copies of one of his stories for my Science Fiction Club when I was teaching at UHS and agreeing to a chatroom Q&A session with my club members.  Sadly, no such session ever took place due in part to the attention span of my students (Squirrel!) and another part to the distractions of more mundane aspects of my teaching job.

I won’t break the bank with this sale, either, bringing down a massive six bucks, bringing my earnings for my recent sales to a tax-bracket-shattering twenty-four bucks.  Why do I keep a day job?  Oh yeah, writing isn’t about the money.  (Maybe someday, but not today.)  It’s about sharing a part of myself with others.

Now I can’t wait until I get my contributor’s copy in January.

-Oso

Back to life

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

I just spent a nice few days in Gatlinburg and the Smoky Mountains with my family and inlaws (not as bad as it sounds).  I got no writing done.  I don’t think I got any ideas (though I got a great one off National Geographic before I left).  It wasa real vacation.

It was rough being away from the internet, only dropping by the chalet check-in office once for a fix.  I need to catch up this week.

I still haven’t heard from WotF, but my wife stopped the mail until tomorrow.  I am anticipating a rejection due to the late speculative element (page 4, not 1), but I refuse to abandon hope.

Speaking of abandoning hope, Clarion West begins on Sunday.  I gave up a long time ago on my attending, but the event’s arrival is a reminder that I’m missing out.  Humbug.  I left a nice “good luck” message on the old CW forum,though it seems largely inactive so it may go unread.  But I wish the best for Jordan, Rochita, Randy-the-Robot-Overlord, everyone else I met on the forum and everyone I did not.  I’ll be watching for CW diaries online, so don’t keep us in the dark (but don’t sacrifice your writing, either).

I still have eyes on next year.  Until then, back to the keyboard.

-Oso

Grammar: more important now then it was than

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

I have critiqued a great many stories in my time.  I started out in a small critique circle through OSC’s Hatrack River website: just a group of guys that wanted to write taking turns commenting on each others’ stories.  Then came my extended stint with Critters.  Now I find myself with OWW.  Over the nine years or so that I’ve been doing this, I have found a few basic grammatical errors that keep popping back up, things that should have been mastered in high school.

Then/Than: It is one of the most frequent mistakes I see.  It usually strikes the less common definition(s) of “then”.

First I’ll take a shower, then I’ll eat breakfast.

If monkeys could talk, then they could tell us what it feels like to have a tail.

It was then that I saw she wasn’t wearing her wedding ring.

Form a brute squad, then.

All of these were correct uses of T-H-E-N.  It is used when referring to a time, usually in the past or future.  It also is used (as in the fourth example) when it is time for a new option.  Its use often has a “that being the case” connotation, as in the if-then construction in the second example above.  Any or all of these have been accidentally replaced with T-H-A-N in supposedly polished manuscripts.

She was shorter than her sister.

Rather than risk soiling his new shoes, he wore the old ones everywhere he went.

Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

These are appropriate cases for T-H-A-N.  I see these missed less often (likely because they are themselves less common constructions in fiction), though it was an error in one of these constructions that inspired this post.

Basically, folks, THEN refers to time or condition while THAN is used in comparisons.

To/Too: These little words have so many uses, it’s tough to keep up.  I get it.  Sentence constructions using the latter can be complex.  It can be tough.  Still, writers work with words.  Would you want to buy from a chef that didn’t know when to use butter and when to use shortening?  Same thing, right?

This porridge is too hot.

Michael will have to testify, too.

Oh, you are just too kind.

The T-O-O form has two major uses.  It may mean an excess in amount or quality (first and third) or it might mean “as well” or “also” (second case).  I have been told that the comma is necessary for the “as well” usage but find that, in practice, it isn’t that big a deal…at least in fiction.

As for T-O, well, it has such a diverse set of uses that I won’t attempt to list them. For the most part, it is used when you don’t want “as well” or an expression of quantity or quality (or the number 2 which is T-W-O, but I don’t see that missed much).

Mostly I see TO where TOO belongs.  This is probably the second most common misstep I see.  Maybe it’s typos rather than ignorance (errors spellcheck won’t catch).  I hope it is.  I am a teacher, after all.

Their There are other mistakes that can effect affect my enjoyment of a story, accept except they tend to be rarer.  But don’t loose lose faith; just watch you’re your homonyms, folks.  🙂

-Oso

Between a rock-paper-scissors and a hard place

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

It wasn’t that long ago that I wrote a story based on the timeless game of Rock-Paper-Scissors.  It was a cute little story, a commentary on organized religion.  It never became what I wanted it to be, so I shelved it.  (I do that a lot.)

Anyway, while watching a rerun of The Mentalist, Simon Baker’s display of R-P-S inspired me to pull the story back out.  It was an entertaining read but it still had that lacking.  What’s more, I’m not sure where the problem lies.  I suspect it’s too long for what it is (2400 words), but I see few places to cut.

That’s not true.  I know where the cuts would come.  But like Dan Brown, I don’t want to cut all my research out of my story just because it could survive without it.  I think the researched part (the possible origins of R-P-S) strengthen the story and make the two main characters sound intelligent and knowledgeable.  But, also like Dan Brown, maybe I should let the cuts strengthen the story.

I have decided to post it to OWW (once “Poison Inside the Walls” gets a couple reviews…it has one!) to see how others react to it.  While they peck at it, I’ll try to shave it down on my own to see if (a) my revision fixes their complaints, and (b) my revision maintains whatever strengths they perceive.    I should be able to whittle it down to 1500 words if I cut some content.  It’s an experiment I’ll conduct while I’m in Gatlinburg next week.  (Unless, of course, something else demands my attention.  Smoky Mountains have that effect on me sometimes.)

-Oso

No OSC for me

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 5 Comments

I was rejected from Orson Scott Card’s Literary Boot Camp.  Ouch.

It’s not so bad, I guess.  It was only based on a single page writing sample.  Still, I’d have liked the experience.  *sigh*

On the upside, I won’t be spending the money.  That helps.  Maybe I’ll try to get my wife to go to a three day photography workshop in the Smoky Mountains (it was in her photography magazine).

Oh well, back to writing.

-Oso

Confused about OWW

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

I just sent “Poison Inside the Walls” to the SFF Online Writing Workshop (OWW) for review.  I was shocked to find that my 6900-word story registered as 8575 words!  This technically puts it over the 7500-word limit.  A quick search found another story scoring over 9000 words.  I’m sure there are more.

I’m new so I don’t want to rock the boat.  I’m not sure how they calculate their wordcount.  I suspect it’s based on pages or lines.

If anyone has advice about the OWW word count, let me know.  Otherwise, I am asking members to give advice.  (If any nonmembers want to chime in, let me know and I’ll email you a copy).

-Oso

A huge sigh of relief

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

After competing the square on my Kree story about a dozen times (math teacher humor that sadly even my students wouldn’t get), I have finally completed the first draft.  Yay me.

I rode a nice wave of inspiration for about 5500 words, good strong words I was very happy with.  Then I started to get into the sticky scientific parts and I ground to a halt.  After much forehead slapping, I finally backed up and changed the events of the climax.  Another dead end.  And another.  And another.

Originally the protagonist was supposed to make some grand discovery about theKree, the aliens they shared their moon with (not peacably).  That was going to end up being another 4000 words that diverged completely from the original plot.  Not a good thing.  So I tried a more warlike approach, squaring the protagonist off head-to-head with one of the Kree.  That technique didn’t work either.

I eventually discovered that the story really wasn’t about the Kree at all; that was why my climaxes kept falling flat.  (What would Freud say about that one?)  I needed the story to end the way it began, about people.

There is still a nice little Kree battle.  I need to set the story aside before making my editorial run at it.  There’s probably a lot to cut out, foreshadowing from the original ending and the like.  I know of at least one thing I need to add.  I’m saving it for editing.  This will end up my first submission to OWW, so I’ll have some crit-for-crit work to do to get people reading it.

I finally came up with a title: “Poison Inside the Walls”.  I like that it’s got multiple meanings in the story, but it just doesn’t seem as catchy as my normal titles (“Leech Run”, “Glow Baby”, “Thinking Out Loud”, “Decisions, Decisions!”).  Maybe I’m evolving past the catchy?  We’ll see.

-Oso

PS- I put Oso Baker in the byline.  It may come back out in editing.

Evidence of a slow career

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I just added a bibliography page to this blog. In doing so, it occurred to me that I have never before had two stories published in the same calendar year. Sold in the same year, yes, but not printed.

I find this tough to believe, honestly.  I know I am not the most prolific writer or the most published, but I though I had a few streaks.  Apparently not.

But 2009 is changing this.  I have sold two stories this year, both in the past week.  Amazingly they were both sent out on the same day (April 9th if you’re looking for a good day to mail stuff).  Surely they’ll both see print before the end of the year.  And I have every intention of finishing the year strong (four still out and more where they came from).

There is a chance that I missed something in my bibliography.  My pre-2004 records are spotty at best.  If I discover any omissions, I’ll be sure to fix it.

Uncle Orson’s boot

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 5 Comments

After my anticlimactic fumble at the goal line of Clarion West, I spent some time wondering what to do this summer to improve my writing.  Write; that was the first thing.  Read, critique, join OWW, fraternize, and submit were also on the list.  But, golly, did I want that workshop.  Face time with pros, some gut-wrenching time for Scott-the -Writer.

Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card

So I thought about other options.  It was too late for most; others were too expensive.  I spent a lot of time thinking about Orson Scott Card’s Literary Boot Camp.  Card is one of my favorite authors and has a very good reputation as a teacher.  His characters ae painted on the page the way they might be emblazoned on the ceiling of a chapel.  Not cheap, mind you, but some of his time and attention could be really inspiring.

I did some procrastinating that masqueraded as thinking and very nearly missed the deadline.  I mailed my application and writing sample on Tuesday; the deadline is Friday (tomorrow).  I should hear one way or the other by next Friday.

I’m not sure what my chances are.  The website suggests applying early.  Ha!  Strike one.  The only writing sample they ask for is the first page of a finished short story.  Yep, the first page.  It makes sense.  How many editors, or even slush readers, get past that point before stuffing a rejection in the SASE and shipping it back.  But gosh, it sure put some pressure on my page one.

I cheated a bit, something I hope doesn’t come back to bite me for being “unprofessional”.  You know that big space you’re supposed to leave in the top half of your manuscript, the one for editor’s comments or instructions to the typesetter or whatever?  Yeah, mine was a little smaller than it should have been, squeezing a bit more writing onto that first page.  *gulp*

The story I sent was “Glow Baby”, the story I sent to Clarion SD that did not go to CW.  (I wasn’t even waitlisted at CSD, so maybe that was a mistake, but the first page was less pulpy than “Leech Run”‘s opening.)  I stretched to get the end of a paragraph onto the page, really only two or three lines more than normal.  We’ll see how that plays for me.  I looked at several stories before settling on that one; the descriptions just rang truer for me than the others.  “Glow Baby” is the first story I wrote where the setting was based on a real place, a place I was intimately familiar with in memory and emotionally tied to.  If the story has a weakness, it’s probably the ending.  The pace is slow, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.  I don’t think either of those potential concerns will be evident in the first page.

“Glow Baby” is my second quarter submission to WotF, too.  I have not yet heard back from them (a good sign, yes?), but it was a bit of a late entry.  The speculative aspect of the story really doesn’t show up until page 4, so it may be a hard sell to the contest.  I did write in some foreshadowing (eerie pink light emanating from the window) toward the end of the first page or beginning of the second.  Maybe that was enough to pull me through.  We’ll see.

A big month for “Glow Baby” any way you look at it.  Keep your nubs crossed.

-Oso

Little sale, big relief

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

The first short story I ever wrote sold to the first market I sent it to (The Fifth Di… I think).  I attribute that luck to good market research and a charitable editorial staff.  Since that inaugural publication, no story has sold to its first market.  Until today.

Big thanks to Jordan Lapp and his staff at Every Day Fiction.  They picked up “How Quickly We Forget” without it being rejected by anyone else first.  The story was inspired by a prompt from Jordan.

Being a friend, Jordan didn’t want to look at it without knowing his editors’ opinions first.  Fortunately they liked it, too.  No word yet on whn the massive three-dollar chec will arrive.  They still have “A Game of Telephone” in their queue, the story I wrote for the CoolStuff4Writers.com all-dialogue contest in May.  Maybe they’ll like that, too.

It’s always good to make a sale, no matter the size of the check.  It’s even better when it’s the firsttime selling to a market.  It’s an added bonus it’s Jordan’s zine.

-Oso