Tag: Jim Baen’s Universe

Nice things

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I had a nice comment or two from a Baen’s Bar user named Rad.  Some minor hunting revealed him as a Clarion 2007 graduate (yes, the one whose two year old blog post freaked me out the other day).  It’s nice getting compliments (even vague, keep-at-it compliments) from writers who have already passed the stage of their careers that I am in.  Did he say I was brilliant?  No, of course not.  I did once have an editor say I was brilliant (or did something brilliant) only to not print the story.  That sucked.  But he said I “…have more going than most.”  Not glowing, but nice.

It was especially nice after the painful critique he just gave “Leech Run” in the slush.  Ouch.  It was good stuff, a very in-depth critique not terribly dissimilar from what I strive for through Critters.  But any time someone uses the words “Please no!” repetitively in relation to your story, it stings.  He had a point, that I had overdone the headcounting.  His advice helped my rewrite, but I have written myself into a corner (or a middle, if that’s possible) where I need to gut a small section and rework it, probably building in more action.

Anyway, it was nice of Rad.  (You can look up his real name yourself the same way I did, but you have to be a Baen’s Bar member.)

-Oso

My to-do list

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

My first order of business is to keep myself busy so I don’t go mad waiting to hear from the Clarions.  Sure the application deadline is past (or will be in a few hours), but they still need to review last minute applications, compare scores on all the applications, select their top 18-20 as well as an alternate list, then decide when to start contacting people.  I will be shocked if I hear something this week.  That doesn’t mean I’m not holding my breath each time I check my caller ID.

So how do I keep busy?  Writing, of course.  I’m still trying to finish up my second version of “Leech Run” for Baen’s Universe, not that I’m terribly optimistic about it getting picked up.  If it doesn’t (I’m not giving up all hope), I’ll set it aside until the workshop (I am still overly optimistic about that, in spite of myself) since it should be the first of my stories to be analyzed by the masses there.  (It could be “Glow Baby” if I end up in San Diego, but I digress).  Regardless, I don’t expect the rewrite to take more than another day or two.

I decided my next project will be to run with my woman-warrior story, as yet untitled but the file is saved under Kree.doc since Kree is the name of the alien race.  Before I go too far, I need to read The Science of Aliens, which is sitting on my bookshelf.  It will give some hard science credibility to my aliens and my story in general.

This project will probably take a few weeks at least.  I won’t be surprised if I get distracted by another project before I finish, but I’m trying not to do that.  If I get stuck, I’ll try to brush out another story for young readers, something under 2k words, so I can get back to the serious story.  I have a lot of emotion, intrigue, and social commentary planned for this one.  It may be tough, but I bet it comes out good…for me.

Anyway, that’s my to-do list for the next few weeks.  I’ll likely know about a Clarion before the Kree story is done unless I hit an unprecidented rhythm.  *sigh*  Time to get to work.

-Oso

A couple quick odds and ends

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

The neat thing about having a story in the BU slush at Baen’s Bar is the chance to rewrite a story based on the feedback it receives, then just toss it back out there.  I’ve been rewriting “Leech Run” based on some fairly harsh criticism, much more to the point than Critters has ever been.  I am fairly happy with the rewrite except for the one transition paragraph I need to rework to get rid of the lies.  (I didn’t mean to lie, but the story flowed better that way.)  I hope to have the rewrite posted there Monday.

While exploring other writer’s blogs, I discovered a post from someone exclaiming his delight at being selected for the Clarion workshop.  I was a bit dejected seeing as I haven’t heard anything yet and the submission deadline has not quite arrived.  It got me very nervous, twitchy.  Then I reread the post and discovered it was from two years ago.  😐  It felt sheepish.  I hadn’t realized how much I was counting on being accepted.  I may not be and I know it.  I just need to receive my official verdict so I can move on with planning my life…or at least my summer.

That’s all for now.  More soon.

-Oso

The Tough Part

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I always find it difficult to move on once I finish a story.  I get a big “now what” hanging over me.  Do I go back to an old, incomplete project or press on to a new story.  I refuse to start any new novels until I get one or more finished.  But short stories can be started on a whim.

So what to do?  I have a story, “Thinking Out Loud”, that never sold despite being a very good story.  Looking back, I find that I didn’t really build a protagonist the reader would care about.  It occurred to me to rewrite the story from a different point of view.  It’s a completely different story that way.  I may try toggling back and forth between the old POV and the new one, which turns out to be jumping between an army general and an inmate/test subject.  I think it will be a massive rewrite and am a little overwhelmed by the thought of it.  I keep putting it off.  It might be a good project for Clarion (cross fingers).

As for new projects, I have a few things I’ve brainstormed.  One story about a future society where the females are the warriors.  Lots of ideas as to why the women must fight, who they fight against, and what internal struggles the protag goes through.  I need to develop the characters a bit more, but it’s got steam behind it.  I have another that is basically a superhero-working-for-the-government story that lost all momentum.  I’m not sure I’m ready to pick that one back up.  And of course there’s my young adult SF novel (set on a sub-light colony ship), my military clone novel (probably my strongest idea), my SF comedy novel (hung up on the first major event), my YA fantasy novel (first thing I ever wrote; complete but needs a major rewrite), and my Fultus stories that need to be expanded to novella or novel length.  Whew.  

I may look through my unfinished works and see what grabs me, be it something here or something else.  We’ll see.  I think I agonize more over what to work on than over what to type.  I’ve been in a short story mood with my focus on Clarion, but who knows.  I’ll be sure to post when I make up my mind.  

I think part of my problem with moving on is the pain of waiting to hear the fate of stories in market slush piles.  “Brother Goo” is still in the mail to Cricket.  “Glow Baby” is working its way through editors at Strange Horizons.  “Leech Run” is in the slush at Baen’s Bar, fighting for an opportunity to slip into the Jim Baen’s Universe that way (past critical eyes of readers and editors alike).  I can’t remember ever having three stories in the wind at once.  Chilling.  But I have to keep working.  That’s what a real writer would do.

-Oso

Sent out two

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I went ahead and sent “Brother Goo” to Cricket today.  Duotrope suggests it will be 3-6 months before I hear back.  I’ll miss that story while it’s gone.  If it gets rejected, I’ll have to strongly consider a rewrite.  I haven’t posted my full version (submitted slimmed down version) to Critters for review, but I will.  There seems to be no rush.

I also posted “Leech Run” to the slush mesage board at Jim Baen’s Universe.  It’s a neat idea, posting stories to a password protected page (so there is no technical publication…same as Critters does) to get comments from readers.  Editors also peek at the stories, requesting rtf files from stories they find particularly promising.  I’m running it through the “Introducing” bracket, basically contending with other writers that haven’t breached pro level markets.  If you are a Baen’s Bar member, you can give it a read and post some comments, especially if they are helpful comments.

At any rate, I’m keeping my top-end stuff out there.  Even a blind fisherman gets a nibble or two, right?

-Oso