It’s official, I am a certified, highly qualified English teacher.
Got the pedagogy score back. I didn’t blow it away like I did the content knowledge, but I did pass.
Long Lists and Short Progress
Found out this morning that my story T.O.L. has been added to ASIM’s shortlist. That’s two stories in their holding pattern. However the email says that only one in twenty stories has been making the transition from short list to print. If that’s the case, they need to rename their short list or start being pickier, even with my stories. A timely rejection with some positive comments (theirs always have comments) is a lot more useful to me than a three month hold followed by a rejection. I could have the story in and out of one to four markets in three months. I think I will stop sending them stories for a while, at least until the two stories are printed or released. Their response times have slowed significantly and with this one-in-twenty thing, their backlog must be overwhelming.
In less encouraging news, I missed my two chapter goal for the weekend. It turned into a half-chapter weekend. Boo to me. Lots of excuses, little production. I need those chapters done by the end of the week.
There is a new possible distraction on the horizon, an opportunity that I was very excited about four years ago when it fell through and now I am on the fence about. Like I need another distraction. But it’s part of the goals I set for myself long ago. I may still back out before it becomes an issue and it might not happen, but right now it’s a distinct possibility, better than 1 in 4 chance. No more details than that for now, lest I jinx anything.
Like I needed another lesson in humility
I do my best thinking at night. Even when I’m tired, the brain works better with the sun below the horizon. It’s like the opposite of Superman, the yellow sun disrupts my superpowers. Thus it was tonight that I realized I did something particularly stupid. On par with sending-five-pages-too-many-to-Clarion-West stupid.
I had a copy of E.E. all printed and ready to mail, addressed envelopes and everything, on Monday when my mother asked why I hadn’t consulted my father more on this story. Backing up, the scientific theory in E.E. was my father’s and I just provided the characters, plot, setting, and style. I had asked if he wanted to co-author the story with me and he declined. We discussed his scientific speculation in depth and I created the character that created the machine that exploited my dad’s theory. I played with things a bit and created what I thought was a workable fictionalization of his idea. I sent him a copy of a late draft of this novelette.
So I consulted dear old Dad before mailing and apparently my version of the invention was too 60’s sci-fi pulp in form for his taste. I listened to his argument, accepted his take, and set about upping the scientific plausibility of the model. I was pretty happy with my result but sat on it a few days before mailing it today.
No, that wasn’t right. I mailed the old version today. To Analog no less. For those who don’t know, Analog is reputed for its harder SF (though by no means tied to it exclusively).
I need to hire an assistant to do things for me, things that normal human beings should be able to handle themselves, like realizing that typing new words does not change the pre-printed copy.
On the upside, I should be inventing Flubber any day now.
I am not profoundly successful (yet). I am just a guy trying to achieve a dream and is somewhere in the middle of the yellow brick road that he’s been traveling for a decade. But if it gives you any comfort at all, I still d really stupid things that jeopardize my success. Little things, but significant things. I have lost copies of stories, lost track of which version is the most recent, replaced decent prose with drek that sounded good with a few beers and no sleep, mailed wrong manuscripts, forgotten stamps on SASEs, sent IA1a outlines instead of summary outlines to agents (early career flub), trunked good stories while sending out bad melodrama, dismissed good advice, taken bad advice, and more other poor career moves than you can shake a lightsaber at. Maybe that’s why it’s taken me ten ears to get here. But I am a Writers of the Future winner with 11 published stories and a novel in the works. Even I was able to do this. Stubbornness and drive are as important as talent and organization. You can do this if you don’t get in your own way.
This public service announcement comes from a guy trying to make something good come from his chaotic stupidity, the letters D, U, and H, and the number 8.
Last Weekend of School – Hoorah!
One more week. I may make it. I may not.
Anyway, I have big plans for the weekend. My novel has been stagnant for a while, waiting for a chunk of writing time. I’ve done a little planning so I can hit the keyboard running. My plan is to get the next two chapters down before Purgatory school resumes on Monday. Things should roll quickly from there since the plot will really stat rolling. Character introduction can be tough.
I finally put E.E. in the mail today for Analog. I was supposed to do it Monday. I am a procrastination junkie. That puts my quota of stories under consideration up to seven — two on hold and five in slush. And a really and truly (this time) empty trunk. I enter summer with only one project on the burner (see aforementioned novel). I hope to have the status bar up to 25% before I check out for the semester. We will see.
Distracted by this week’s Community on the DVR. More later.
1 in 160
I was looking at response times at Duotrope and decided to refresh myself on WotF’s response time. I was looking there and realized that their average response time for accepted stories was very close to my winning story’s response time. I looked further down the page and realized that the “Users accepted here also had work accepted by…” section listed only three magazines: Every Day Fiction, Beyond Centauri, and The Rejected Quarterly. Yes, all those were markets that accepted stories from me. A little quick division and I verified that I am the only WotF acceptance reported to Duotrope in the last 12 months. That’s 160 reported submissions.
I wish other winners would report their response times to Duotrope, but I don’t want the acceptance ratio to be skewed. Right now it’s at 0.63%. I think it’s really closer to 0.3% or even 0.1%. So maybe it’s good that my report is the only yes this year.
One of two Praxis scores
I told my principal that if I didn’t pass the Praxis content knowledge test, I wouldn’t take it again. I felt like I did as well as I would ever do. In order to pass, I needed to score 157 out of a possible score range from 100-200. (Yeah, weird system.) Well, my score report was available online today.
I was right, I did as well as I would ever do. I scored 200. *blink-blink* Yep, the math teacher scored 200 on the English content knowledge test.
I didn’t get everything right, as the score suggests. I missed 9 out of 120 questions. Not shabby. Most were “Literature and Understanding” questions, a very wide category with over half the questions. I did ace all the “Language and Linguistics” questions. I missed two “Composition and Rhetoric” questions.
Am I happy? Enough, I guess. I sill have to wait a week or so for my pedagogy test score, the one I was worried about. I’m a little less worried now, but only a little. We’ll see how it goes. But so far, so good.
Cover Letters
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
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
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
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.
Scott W. Baker .net 