Category: Status Update

Walking on the Respectable Side

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

I’m off to ConCarolinas soon. (Hooray!) I actually leave Thursday for my parents’ place for a short visit and to hand off the kiddo, then on to Charlotte.

The con got me thinking about business cards.  I mocked up a design and may or may not distribute a few while I’m there.  Anyway, business cards got me thinking about my amateurish email address.  How juvenile is it to put an unpronounceable email on a business card?  So I set out to explore the options of receiving email through this site’s domain name.  Thanks to Google Apps, it turns out it’s easy.  So now I can be reached at writer@scottwbaker.net.  I have not abandoned my old addresses, osomuerte@gmail.com or osomuerte@hotmail.com, so there’s no need to alter any contact info you have for me.  I have simply added a small degree of legitimacy to my persona.

Is it that important to portray myself professionally?  Probably not.  But here;s a short list of things I have done over the past year or so to improve my apparent professionalism:

  • Purchase my domain name.  It’s cheap, like 15 bucks a year, if I recall.  I was too late to grab the .com name, but it’s tough to mistake me for a NYC photographer.
  • Abandoned my web handle.  I’m still “Oso” in a few circles, but mostly I use my name.  A handle from a character in a role playing game is not the way to present myself to the SF world.  Not that the SF world doesn’t get it (most do), just that the SF world knows that I should know better.
  • Cons.  I’ve been a guest at a con (thanks ChattaCon!) and am doing what I can to attend cons periodically.  Why?  Connections!  I made some great ones in Chattanooga in January and I hope to continue the trend this weekend.  The best way to do that?  So far my luck has been at the bar.  Just saying…

…and that’s about it.  I’ve done so little to seem like a pro.  The most important things to do are writing (which I need to do more of) and selling (which I need to do a LOT more of).  Until then I will present myself with dignity and competence, even though I’ll still do it in a Hawaiian shirt.

No room at the inn

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

It’s frightening how quickly the markets for novelette length science fiction exhaust themselves, particularly the pro-paying markets.  Starting in May: Analog, Asimov’s, IGMS, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, F&SF, and Strange Horizons have all declined the honor of publishing a particular story of mine.  Sure, that’s their right.  Two of them were kind enough to decline personally.  But now the list of potential markets has dwindled to a mere handful, most of which have other submissions of mine in their queues.  Even if I manage to trim it down to 7500 words, not many more options open up.  It;s a small world out there.  It’s enough to discourage a guy.

I keep reminding myself: I need to focus on novels.  N-O-V-E-L-S-!  Money, success, fame — novels are the path.  Yet I keep scratching out short stuff that I can’t sell.  Oh, how the Kindle beckons me!

I could stretch this novelette into a novel if I gave it some time.  Take the linear timelin, chop it in the middle, and braid separate events to happen simultaneously, drawing them out to engulf the reader in the setting and characters.  The more I type, the more I think it could work.  But (ain’t there always a but) that’s a lot of planning and a lot of writing away.  I need to finish my current novel-in-progress before I dare attack a another.  This project will sell in some capacity, I know it will.  Novelette?  Trimmed to a short?  Inflated to novel?  Screenplay?  Yep, I said the s-word.  I know this idea works, these characters work, just…[insert primal scream here].

It’s a matter of frustration at this point.  I need to just get this story back out into the world.  It’s good.  It pulled positive comments from major editors.  There’s just so few places left to turn, mostly places I’ve never tried before.  Not sure which is scarier: the unknown entities or realizing how few are there.

Production is up

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 4 Comments

Over the past six weeks I have written eight stories.  8.  Can you believe it?  Seven of those are flash, mind you, but that’s eight finished products.  Yeah, yeah, some still need polish, but eight.  I’ve gone full years without finishing eight.

The primary contributing factor was my writing group, Codex.  They had what they called the Weekend Warrior contest.  It’s a flash fiction contest with no tangible prize.  each Saturday morning, a series of prompts were posted on the group’s site.  The following Sunday (Monday morning, technically), stories were due in.  750-word limit.  Judging was done by group members, mostly contestants.  It was fun.  I was in the top bunch the first week, at one point taking the #2 spot, but drifted back.  I ended the contest in 7th out of 30 entrants (fewer writing the 3 story minimum to compete).  Nothing to sneeze at.  These are all professional caliber writers and I hung with them.  This was simply evidence that I too am a pro caliber writer, something I already had reasonable evidence to support, but a little reminder is nice from time to time.

Anyway, the contest technically only accounts for five stories.  The sixth was actually the first, a failed attempt at the first week’s prompt that grew into a 900-word story and now lingers on the scales of justice at DSF (second round, long wait, good stuff).  The seventh was also a failed attempt at a contest story, though it did come in under 750.  It was Thursday before the SuperBowl and I had it in my head that one prompt would relate to a sporting event, so I jumped the gun and drafted a sports story.  It turned out to be 750 words of dialog, no speaker attributions or anything.  Experimental and maybe a tad derivative but fun.  Alas, the sports prompt never surfaced, which I guess is good because it forced me to write another story, as well as alleviating the temptation to cheat (that story would not have been written over the weekend).

Number eight was a result of someone’s idea to follow up the Weekend Warrior with a full-fledged short story in a weekend.  This wasn’t part of the contest, just a friendly challenge.  I did that, too, pumping out a 3000-word zombie tale that has so far received warm reviews.  It’s really a reduction of a novel (maybe novella) milieu that I’ve never found devised a plot for.  I didn’t expect it to be so short, but the story did a reasonable job falling into place.  I’m glad it’s short; short sells.  More market options, less financial risk for the editor. I credit five weeks of flashing (that sounds more inappropriate than it is) for the concise story.

Anyway, I’m happy to have lots to send out.  I’m still waiting to hear on a few good candidates.  Like I mentioned, DSF has one (initials FS) in deep consideration; if they buy it, it will be my first one-time-submission sale since my very first sale, “Decisions, Decisions!”  Strange Horizons has been holding EE for quite a while; nowhere near their predicted response time, but they were only open to subs for four days before I sent it, and that was to limited volume.  Escape Pod has had TRM for a long time, but they seem a bit backlogged at the moment.  (Their payment for Leech Run arrived, though.  Yay!)  I should hear something from Sniplits about GB…eventually; they have long response times, but I’m reaching the end, finally.  I need to get these other seven buffed and out the door, too.  I think I may send some of the lower-scoring ones straight to lower-paying flash markets.  Or maybe I’ll hold them while Fred works them over.  At least two of them are ready for top-tier scrutiny.  Maybe I can get my race score up above ten for once.

ChattaCon Choo Choo

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Here I am at ChattaCon.  Got here just early enough, nothing going on yet.  I’m sleeping in the building with “all the party rooms”, so sleeping may prove a relative term.  I’ll likely feel like an old man by Sunday.  Or by….now.  I’ll be sure to post some sort of Con report.  It’s a small Con.  I’m hoping it’s the nice-cozy-intimate kind of small (not that intimate) as opposed to the dull-boring-yocal kind of small.  We shall see.

Markets

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

I’ve decided I need a post that illuminates my market list a little more.  I’ve started it, but daggum, it’s going to take a while to do it the way I want it.  So it’ll happen, but it may take a week or so, depending on how busy I am.

Ouch and Oucher.

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

Not a great day, Thursday.  Got home to find a rejection from Analog.  A single sentence, as formulaic as possible.  No feedback.  No compliments.  Just no.

Nearly but not quite an hour later, I discovered an email from Apex magazine.  Apparently the story I sent them had “some wonderful prose” but the editor “couldn’t get emotionally invested.” At least I had lovely prose.  Not sure I’ve been told that before.  That story is one of my older ones and had really only gotten a facelift, tummy tuck, and implants from the original scheme.  (That is, tightened the wording, trimmed down some scenes, and added something to make the character more likable…not that implants make someone more likable…I’m going to stop now before I say something I’ll regret.)  Anything particularly “lovely” must have been there all along, like an ugly duckling.

I’ll have those stories back out by Monday.  I jut need to make a fix to the Analog story (TOL) and make sure I’m sending the right draft of the other (SR).  These are, incidentally, the two stories that were held and released by ASIM.  I must find them a home.

 

Audio Fiction

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

I love listening to stories and novels performed.  It was quite a treat when we got to watch a performance reading of one of L. Ron Hubbard’s stories in LA with WotF.  But that’s not what this is about.  I loved the audio performances for the Harry Potter books.  But this isn’t about that, either.  This is about trying to get audio performances of MY stuff.

I’m told that there will be an audio version of Writers of the Future 26…eventually.  It would be badass if some of the same performers from the reading were involved, but I’d be surprised.  Besides, my story should properly be read by a woman, I would think.  It is told from a woman’s point of view despite the fact that I am not a woman.  (Trust me on that.)  This was how I experienced WotF 24 and I loved it.

I recently sent “Leech Run” to Escape Pod for consideration.  (Recently as in ten minutes ago.)  It is currently out in print in Zero Gravity and I think Escape Pod could help create some buzz for the book if they like the story.

I also sent the as-yet-unsold story GB to another audio market, Sniplits.  I think the story will lend itself well to an audio performance despite the trouble I’m having placing it.

I’ll be shocked if both stories get picked up; it would make my day if either one did.  The prospect of an audio version of my work is second only to the anticipation I felt waiting to see the artwork for my WotF story.  I’m not by definition holding my breath, but I’m breathing very shallowly.

Too long away from the bar

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The progress bar for my YA novel, that is. I haven’t updated the blue in months despite some significant work happening during part of that. I didn’t update because I’d created a mess with some parts written twice and some pieces skipped over. To clear it all up, I cut and pasted the less desirable portion (albeit longer portion) into a different file so I could feel free to delete. From that big chop I’ve typed a little more and now my word count is about 10,000. That puts me up to 20% of my 50,000-word blind target.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I jotted down some notes from what I had before but I haven’t gone back to make the changes in the file, since I may well want to change them again before the end.  Mostly I wanted to read my copy so far to get back on the page I needed to be on.  I feel like I’ve overlooked a subplot and spent too much time on a character quirk, but I can iron all that out later.

I’m currently in a slow part of the story where a lot of milieu building, character building, and foreshadowing take place.  I know, boring.  I need to toss a little sabotage or paranoia in the mix.  Again, later.  Once I power through the next 1000 words or so, I’m into raw plot.  It’ll take another few thousand, maybe even the halfway point of the book, before the big game-changing conflict strikes.  The pacing is a little off, I’m sure; short stories are not just little novels.  As I read Old Man’s War — John Scalzi’s premiere novel, not totally outside the length target of my project — I am paying careful attention to things like pacing.  Never stop learning.

So the bar is current and I’ll update it more soon.  Jason Fischer (the Aussie in the mix at WotF 26) has cast down the gauntlet (though I think it was actually a mitten) challenging the WotF crew to write a thousand words a day.  I had already written about 800 today before the mitten dropped; I intend to hunt-and-peck a good 7000 words over the next week, though maybe not evenly spaced over the days.  I guess I’m targeting 1200 tomorrow.  If I can produce that much consistently, I’ll have a novel by month’s end.  Nevermind I have to get my Codex Halloween story written sometime…I’ll just deal with that later.  I’m a novelist for the next few weeks.  And hopefully a lot longer.

Off to WotF

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

Tomorrow is travel day.  I have to leave for the airport around 6AM.  Blech.  Assuming I can sleep at all, that is.  Bags are packed, though I’m not sure what I’m forgetting.  I have clothes, shoes, laptop, notepad, pens, toiletries, Firefly videos (can’t find disc 3).  I think I’ll bring my iPod for the flight, maybe a book or two. Against my better judgment, I’ve left the StarCraft 2 disc in the computer for the trip.  I’ll only use it if tempted by someone with a similar lack of self control.

I’ve decided against bringing books to get signed by authors in attendance.  I don’t have many titles from those authors, honestly, and I don’t want to offend anyone by getting author A to sign a book while not having a book for author B to sign (despite maybe being a bigger author or more involved in WotF).  It was suggested (though by no means promised) that this year’s winners might get a copy of the 25th Anniversary coffee table book which would serve as the perfect autograph book.  If we don’t get one as a gift (no one owes it to me, but it would be a lovely gesture, wouldn’t it?), I may well purchase one for that purpose.

So what else could I need?  Snacks?  I’ll probably bring a few.  Reference books?  Honestly, I can’t imagine what I’d need to look up that I couldn’t Google.  Most advice I might need would take too long to find for it to be truly worth the effort.  What else?  I don’t see a massive Nerf war in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel going over well, so I’ll leave my arsenal at home.  Itinerary is in my computer bag.  I guess I could bring a bunch of beverages for the room (checked luggage, not carry-on), but I don’t want the charge for an extra-heavy bag.  Meh…I guess I’m ready enough.

I’ll post tomorrow, once I’m settled.  It may be bedtime by then.  I’ll try to keep a general commentary going about stuff.

If you want to watch the live stream of the awards ceremony, you can find a link to it at the WotF homepage.  It’s Saturday night, not sure what time.  I think I’m supposed to have some sort of Halle Berry style speech prepared.  Maybe I should work on that since I don’t ad lib well.  If you don’t want to watch it all, I’m sure it’ll hit WotF’s YouTube channel so you can skip around looking for me in my very large tux.

Time now for a little more family time before bedtime and bon voyage.  Got to get my fix while I can.

Another truckload

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 4 Comments

Rejections don’t seem to come one at a time.  Three arrived this week: Abyss & Apex, IGMS, and ASIM (rejecting GB, TWHDotGMP, and TOL respectively).  ASIM had TOL on hold for a while.  One editor’s comments seemed to suggest he (or she) was excited to put the story in the magazine.  Alas, this did not happen.

So I have three stories to send out.  TOL has been rejected by a bunch of zines now, though a lot of them were prior to a major rewrite that seemed to be the excited editor’s favorite part, that being the use of multiple P.O.V.s during the story.  For instance, Asimov’s rejected TOL back in ’03.  For those keeping score, that’s around the time my flash piece “In or Out” appeared in NFG magazine as a 69er entry for no money (and no prize, but two good reviews), so the rejection predates my second sale.  Maybe they’ll be interested in the rewrite.  I know you’re not supposed to do that, but the story has changed so much.  We’ll see.

Abyss & Apex sent a complementary form letter saying I was close but they just didn’t like it enough.  I guess that’s a step above the flat rejection the story got from WotF (late speculative element).

And then there’s TWHDotGMP.  The little story that could…er, can.  At least I hope it can.  Humor is so subjective, it’ll be a tough sell, but I believe in it.  F&SF is the obvious next step.  I should have sent it by now.  I still get the jitters when sending a story I love to a market I love.  I’ll get it in the mail Monday (too busy with a soccer coaching clinic this weekend).